This week's lunch round-up with illness in the family

Italian turkey-noodle soup

One of my kids has been see-sawing with illness for several days. One day doing better, the next, sick as a dog. Yesterday was one of the "bad" days. You know how those go, right?

Anyway, my first thought, when one of us is sick, is a big pot of chicken soup. But what I had was turkey, so turkey soup it was/is.

On Friday, I had roasted a turkey. So I had the remains of that in the fridge. Yesterday morning I pulled the legs and wings off and simmered in water for a couple of hours. We're not huge turkey soup fans, so ours probably doesn't look like your standard turkey soup. I make mine Italian-style. I add lots of garlic, onions, herbs, tomato paste, leafy greens and pasta to the broth and meat. The leftovers were packaged up in screw-top containers for grab-and-go lunches today and tomorrow.

I also had 5 leftover baked potatoes in the fridge to work with this week. I halved them, scooped out the insides, mashed with butter, cream cheese and a some leafy greens, refilled the potato shells, then baked the halves once more. Quick, easy and yummy!

Here's what's on our lunch menu this week:

• Italian turkey-noodle soup
• twice-baked potatoes
• mixed fruit sauce, using frozen rhubarb, blackberries and leftover cranberry sauce
• pumpkin-chocolate chip muffins (I was craving chocolate, so the family gets these this week!)
• peanut butter sandwiches
• fresh oranges
• ham sandwiches

With Monday a holiday, its a short work and school week, so I didn't put a lot of effort into making these lunch items. Our oranges are beginning to run out, now, so I'm adding in some fruit sauces, made with frozen fruit from last summer. And I am very grateful to have the supply of ham lunchmeat, picked up on sale earlier this month -- makes for easy lunch prep.

(The "sick" one is on the mend, though still in bed today. We're trying to keep the rest of us healthy. I set the hand sanitizer out on the kitchen counter, and have been wiping down door knobs, light switches, cabinet pulls and fridge handles, obsessively. Hopefully, we can stop this illness in it's tracks.)

So, how about your household? Have viruses gotten the better of anyone in your family? Do you cook anything "special" when someone is sick? 

Wishing you a fabulous week!

___________________________________________________________________

White Chocolate-Dipped Oatmeal, Cranberry, Pecan Cookies

These are the best oatmeal cookies I have ever had -- I could gobble them up every day. 

The original recipe came from Southern Living magazine. I changed a few things and added something of my own (orange zest -- I think orange and cranberry taste divine together). Here's my version of their recipe.

1 cup butter, softened
7/8 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
2  1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon white vinegar

2 cups all-purpose flour
1  1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups sweetened, dried cranberries
2 to 3 teaspoons grated orange zest
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1  1/4 cups uncooked oats

about 6 oz white baking chocolate chips
1  1/2 tablespoons shortening (Crisco)

Cream butter and sugars. Beat in egg, vanilla and vinegar.

Stir together flour, soda and salt. Add to creamed mixture. This makes a very stiff dough. Just keep mixing. Stir in cranberries, orange zest, pecans and oats, until well-combined.

Lightly butter a large baking sheet. Drop walnut-sized balls of dough onto prepared baking sheet. Flatten slightly to about half the original thickness of the walnut-sized ball.

Bake in a preheated oven at 365 degrees F, for 9 to 11 minutes, until they look lightly golden. Allow to sit on baking sheet for about 2 minutes to firm up, then remove to cooling rack.

Once the cookies are cool, dip them in the following white chocolate mixture:

In a microwave-safe bowl, partially melt the white chocolate chips and shortening. White chocolate has a high sugar content and scorches easily in the microwave. Heat in 20 second increments, stirring the melted bits together, then heating again for 20 seconds. When the white chocolate is dip-ably thin, dip half of each cookie into it, then place on a sheet of waxed paper to harden.

The recipe yields about 4 dozen cookies. Store in an airtight tin.