Depression lessons learned

Ah, a holiday week-end MUSt mean household chores. AND I have leftovers from Mama's visit on Sunday. I have become the vegetable man for family gatherings. Broccoli salad was requested for Mom's visit, among other things. I don't usually do broccoli salad for myself as it contains bacon, but for the family, I bend my own dietary guidelines. The problem with broccoli salad is that you cut off the florets from the top of the broccoli stalks and then you have to fry bacon which gives you leftover fat. I cannot throw these things away because I know they can be re-used, broccoli stalks for broccoli soup and bacon fat has many uses. But today, for the first time I used them both to make the same soup. I made a roux with the bacon fat to support cream of broccoli soup. I cut the broccoli stalks for the same purpose. Ever had cream of broccoli with a bacon taste? It's quite acceptable. AND it does not bother the diabetic diet because the fat gets diluted and I use fat free soy and rice milk to enhance the creaminess. The soup is chunkier and thinner than the typical favorite, but it tates good and it fits the diet, which makes it fit a holiday week-end. The only thing is I have to beef up my iron over the week-end because my intermittent anemia showed up for my pre-op exam. I got cherries and blackberries to help that along. I'll throw in some apricots too that I'll pick off my trees. They are ripening just in time! However, I couldn't help but remember the grandparents as I used up foot items I could not let myself throw away!