You know that scene in "A Christmas Story" where Ralphie imagines the punishment of soap in his mouth turns him blind and he returns home to his guilt ridden parents? I believe a similar scene was running through Jackson's head at the dinner table tonight. There were coughs after every bite, claims of tummy aches and clutches of the throat....

"Jackson!", his mother said with fear, "What is wrong with your eyes?"

"They say it was the tomato soup that took my sight!" Jackson replied.

"Ohhhhhhhhhhh! Nooooooooooo! Not the soup!" His mother cried.

This soup was DELISH, I tell you! D-E-L-I-S-H. Jackson even, at one point, admitted to me that he liked the taste. So, why the dramatic scene with every bite? Your guess is as good as mine. I attempted to get into his psyche tonight and asked him why, if he liked the soup, did he resist eating? What is the difference in eating mac and cheese and this bowl of soup? TELL ME!!!! I really did yell. That wasn't written for emphasis of my point. It really happened. I admit I flipped a little. There goes my other resolution this year to reduce the amount I yell at the kids. Seriously, I can imitate Sam Kinison really well around here.

He did eat half of the serving I gave him. Exactly half. I know this because I re-measured the amount in his bowl when he was finished. So, the tally for tonight was a cheese sandwich and half a cup of tomato soup. Not bad. It is still exhausting and, sometimes, traumatic to get him to eat. Will it ever get easier? I have been told that my generation gives up too easy. Not this time! I refuse to stop my efforts. Tonight is "make your own pizza" night. The kids are making pepperoni (turkey pepperoni to be exact) and the husband and I will enjoy Greek Pizza. By the way, each of us has dropped 2 lbs so far! The healthy eating is paying off:) At least one resolution is going well this year.

Here is the recipe to the OH-SO-Fabulous Tomato soup. The base of the recipe came from this recipe blog: http://ourrecipeclub.blogspot.com/2009/09/kristins-tuscan-tomato-soup.html and then I changed it up a bit. I am not a fan of pesto and omitted it from the original recipe. That is really the only change:) I also made a smaller batch....

Ingredients:

1 medium yellow onion

2 cans (14-15oz) diced italian tomatoes drained

1 to 1 1/2 cup chicken stock

1 tsp dried sweet basil

1 cup whipping cream

Olive Oil (enough to coat pan)

Place saute pan on medium heat and coat bottom with olive oil. Saute onions until clear and add in cans of diced tomatoes. Simmer on medium/low heat. Add in chicken stock and simmer 15 mins. Stir in whipping cream and basil. Add mixture to blender (only fill half of blender). Since mixture will be hot, it is a good idea to place a kitchen towel over the top of the lid of the blender. Blend and then add the rest of soup and blend until creamy.

Enjoy!

Shea