Oct 24, 20183 min read

Food For Thought: Living at Home and Turkey Taco Soup

Food for Thought is a weekly collaboration between Thick Fit Mom and Flexible Fork encouraging thoughtful eating and easy, balanced meals for you and your family.

So, I know that some of you that have been with the blog since it was Stylefam might remember that I am a homeowner and anyone that has read a few posts or follows me on Instagram knows that I’m a single mom. With that information, you might wonder who I’m referring to when I say my family loves a recipe.

When I say my family, I’m specifically referring to my daughter and my parents. They are my immediate family because…..wait for it….Em and I live with them.

This is where I rush to explain before you start hurling around terms like “millennial” and “freeloader”. I do own a home, it’s a big giant pain in my behind and it is located across the driveway from my parents’ house. Yep, they’re my neighbors, too. Since that pain in the behind has turned in to a bad episode of an HGTV rehab show, I live with my parents while we try to find the time to squeeze in the (mostly DIY) renovations.

I’m very fortunate to have family that is able to have the space for us while we’re working on the house.

The thing is, more and more I have begun to wonder why I feel this urge to explain myself when I say I live with them. We live in a society that measures our success by the distance that we place between ourselves and the people that raised us, but more and more studies are showing that it’s better for our families and children if we’re closer. Not to mention, financially it’s much better to share expenses and work together before jumping head long in to debt. I mean, wealthy people have been doing this for years with whole families living on one large estate and having their own space in it. Don’t get me wrong, I can’t wait to move in to my part of our “estate” full time, but being with my family has been a huge blessing and I wouldn’t change it for the world. I also refuse to feel ashamed by it. There’s just a few things I would change...like setting something down and then returning to pick it up and it’s been “relocated” by another family member. Or, having my munchkin try to get her grandparents to overrule my decisions that she doesn’t like. Or having the food you planned to eat get eaten before you get home :-|. That’s sort of what happened with this last recipe that is now a family favorite. I decided to make this one yesterday morning so we could have it for Taco Tuesday since it’s Turkey Taco Soup. I figured I’d be able to get it made in the time between dropping Em at school and having to get ready to go to work and I was right! It’s so simple. I got it made, grabbed a bowl to take to work and let my mom know she and dad (they both work from home) could try it out and give me their feedback. Around 11:45 I got a message from my mom saying that there might not be any soup left when I got home because my dad was on his second bowl already and she had thoroughly enjoyed hers as well, lol.

Then she called me and “suggested” I stop by the store and pick up some more ingredients to make another batch...and maybe make it a double batch.

I did indeed make a second batch of soup (a single though) and we had a little left over, but I doubt it will make it to the end of the day. Em and I are both having it for lunch today (She ate 3 bowls last night and she’s a pretty picky kid!) and I imagine my parents are too. It’s safe to say that this soup is definitely going to be added to our fall rotation!