Tag Archives: pea and ham soup

Slow-cooked split pea and ham soup

My husband’s favorite soup I make is split pea and ham soup. A funny thing happened  last week – my hairdresser and a close friend all started to rave about how they love split pea and ham soup. Next thing I know, I am making a batch of split pea and ham soup, and decided to try it in a slow-cooker. I got rave reviews and the other great thing it cost me $4 and it serves at least 8 people!!

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Ingredients

  • 1 bag of split peas (dried green peas ~450 g)
  • 2 Ham hocks (bacon hocks)
  • 1 onion (diced)
  • ~1-2 litres of water

Place all ingredients in the slow-cooker. Cook on low for 6 hours. The meat should be falling of the bone, take out the meat and bones. Pull the meat off the bones, shred and put back in the soup and stir. Throw the bones away. Place into containers and either store in the fridge and or the freezer.

When you reheat the soup, you may need to add water, also season with salt and pepper to your taste preference.

Week Recap and Meal Plan {31.03.2013}

This week, for me, was mostly about work. I had a day trip on Tuesday to Washington DC….there is nothing like leaving at 5:30 am and getting home at 8:00pm ;-). I was very thankful there is a Starbucks, right as you get past security at the airport, for a much needed morning coffee. The other thing is, my team is growing at work, to be ~10 people, so I spent most of the end of the week trying to put a plan together to help our group be successful.

While embarking on this exercise, I realized I needed a little more structure and realistic expectations in my life, as a whole. I need to gain more balance. How else can I (as a working mum) remain engaged with family, work, look after myself, an etsy store and have some fun ;-).

To start, I came up with a rough schedule for my blog. I say rough, as I might not have anything to share or I might be running a little behind:

DAY Blog Activity
Saturday Weekly Recap + Meal Plan
Monday Weekend of Small Finishes + Fabric Stash
linking up with Plum and June for “Lets get Acquainted”
Tuesday Recipe of the week
Wednesday WiP (Work in Progress) Wednesday
linking up with Lee @ “Freshly Pieced” 
Friday Finish it up Friday
linking up with Amanda Jean @ “Crazy Mom Quilts

Now, on to the other planning piece the family uses,  our meal plan. We have decided that the important thing here is to make it sustainable. We are going with 4 vegetarian appropriate meals a week to see if we can stick with the plain a little better. This is our plan for week 12:

DAY BREAKFAST DINNER EXERCISE
Sunday Egg + Fruit + Soy Latte Creamy Vegetable Shepherds Pie (Hopefully 4th time the charm) 20 mins. HIT
Monday Granola + Fruit + Soy Yoghurt Split Pea and Ham Soup
Tuesday Berry + Banana + Spirulina Smoothie Gluten Free Pasta Bake 3-4 Mile Walk
Wednesday Oatmeal + Banana and Almond butter Zpizza (Pizza with whole wheat crust and organic ingredients) 20 mins. HIT
Thursday Granola + Fruit + Soy Yoghurt Meatloaf + Potatoes + Steamed Vegetables
(Meatloaf is made with zucchini and carrots)
Friday Berry + Banana + Spirulina Smoothie Vegetable Biryani (adding broccoli and left over vegetables from Sunday) 20 mins. HIT

As mentioned last week, I thought I could share how we are spending $70 a week only, for our meals, by providing a shopping list. So, here was this weeks grocery list:

Grocery list (New Stock) In the cupboard/fridge
  • Pineapple (TT)
  • Watermelon (LF)*
  • Strawberries (TT)
  • Bananas (TT)
  • Broccoli (TJ)
  • Cauliflower (TJ)
  • Green Beans (TJ)
  • Mushrooms (TJ)
  • Carrots (TJ)
  • Zucchini (TJ)
  • Soy Milk (TJ)
  • Soy Yoghurt (WF)
  • Ground Beef 96/4 (TJ)
  • Ham hocks (TT)
  • Juice (TJ, TT)
  • Split Peas (TT)
  • Brown Rice (TJ)
  • Gluten Free Pasta (TT)
  • Vegetable Stock (TT)
  • Onions (TJ)
  • Potatoes (TJ)
  • Butter (TJ)
  • Flour/ WW and GF (TT)
  • Granola (TT or BJ)
  • Oats (BJ)
  • Marinara Sauce (BJ or TT)
  • Eggs (TJ)
  • Frozen Peas + Corn (TJ)

NOTE: We shop majority at Trader Joe’s (TJ), Target (TT) with an occasional visit to Whole foods (WF), BJ’s , Harris Teeters (HT), Lowes Food (LF) and Fresh Market (FM).
NOTE: We do not typically use coupons mainly due to time.
NOTE: Items indicated by * are specials for the week we took advantage of.

Well – that is it for this long post today. Thanks for going through my thoughts with me. Hope everyone has a good week. I would love to see what you are doing for meal planning or trying to balance your life – leave a link to your post in the comments below 🙂

Week recap and Meal Plan (week 11)

We are repeating the meal plan from last week, as we ate mostly soup this past week. Why you might ask instead of the wonderful plan we posted…..well, Monday at breakfast, hubby’s middle back tooth broke and on Thursday had it extracted, ready for an implant in 6 months time. He is doing fine, thankfully.

So, here are the meals (once again) we are trying this week:

DAY BREAKFAST DINNER EXERCISE
Saturday Egg + Fruit ^Split Pea and Ham Soup (slow-cooker)
Sunday Oatmeal + Banana + Almond Butter + Soy Milk Creamy Vegetable Shepherds Pie 3-4 Mile Walk
Monday Granola + Fruit + Soy Yoghurt Eggplant, herb and feta patties + Salad
Tuesday Berry + Banana + Spirulina Smoothie Stir Fried Curry Brown Rice + Cashews *
Wednesday Oatmeal + Banana and Almond butter Tomato, Onion + Goat Cheese Tart (Gluten free crust) + Salad (replacing zPizza this week)  3-4 Mile Walk
Thursday Granola + Fruit + Soy Yoghurt Gluten-free Spaghetti + Broccoli, herbs + hazelnuts crumbs
Friday Berry + Banana + Spirulina Smoothie Vegetable Biryani *  3-4 Mile Walk

* Some ingredients will be pre-made/pre-cooked, for example a batch of brown rice

Now, hopefully my car is ok…..the engine light came on so, I am taking it to the mechanic this week. I am thinking I just need a new petrol (gas) cap as it keeps loosening. But who knows 😉

Stay tuned…Next week, I plan to start including a grocery list, we are keeping on track to spending ~$70-$80 a week on groceries.