How to make Stone Soup - An Activity & Read Aloud Story

In this episode, I share a book I grew up with, Stone Soup, by Ann McGovern and illustrated by Winslow Pinney Pels.
It's the story of a young hungry traveler who stops at a little house to see if he might get something to eat. But the old woman inside tells him there is nothing in the house and nothing in the garden. So he asks her for a stone. The befuddled woman is amazed to see what this young man has in mind with a stone since rocks are not edible. This leads to one thing after another being added to the pot till a delicious meal is prepared and the table is set for both parties to dine like royalty. This caused me to wonder if I could make stone soup on my own and if it might be a fun cooking activity that could bring your family closer together.

Rather than recommend the use of stones, since leached chemicals, strange minerals, and bacteria could be a problem, I thought instead I would show how to make an equally wonderful treat, SPOON SOUP! The good thing about Spoon Soup is that you get to eat the soup with the spoon you used to start the pot boiling.
The ingredients from the book are simply,
one pot of boiling water
some onions
a few carrots
some beef bones
salt and a bit of pepper
and last of all, some barley and butter to help thicken the soup.

Now you don't have to keep to these ingredients. I added some hot sauce and garlic powder to mine and some whipping cream, but you might add some celery, potatoes, mushrooms, thyme, sage, or different types of meat to your soup. You could also add noodles or rice or beans or tomato paste to it for different flavors.

Now I also made a Tabouli salad that was just wonderful garnished on top of the soup. I learned how to make it from a low-carbohydrate specialized Doctor named Dr. Sten Eckberg here on YouTube.
This is the link to his video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hquhxbWHeak

The ingredients are simply
50 grams of parsley or about half a bunch,
half of an onion or maybe less than that even if you don't want it too strong,
half or more of a diced lemon, not squeezed.
I think it could do with a whole lemon,
salt to taste,
and 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil.
Oh and most importantly, 50 grams of chopped pecans.

It's a delicious garnish for steak or soup or anything savory like that. I hope you enjoy this video and that it sparks some creativity in your kitchen, but more importantly, sparks some attitude adjustment in your children to see that sometimes we glance around ourselves like the old woman in the story and think there's nothing good around us. There's nothing to eat or nothing to do and nothing to be excited about.

Not true!

All we need to do is learn to be creative and make something more out of our day with the things we have at our fingertips. I think that's the moral with this one. The young man's superpower is helping motivate other people to try things and to build their enthusiasm. You'll notice he doesn't force the old woman to help him. She helps make the soup out of curiosity.

Anyway, I had a great time making this soup today and it really did turn out fantastically. If you're wondering about the fat content, it was very high. I've gone off sugar the last year. The barley in the soup today was one of the higher carbohydrate things I've eaten all year. I've lost about 60 pounds. If you're still eating a lot of carbohydrates, I'd avoid putting so much butter and cream in the soup since insulin will cause you to store the fat. If you want to look into what I've done, look for any videos with Dr. Jason Fung, Dr. Ben Bikman, Dr. Sten Eckberg, Dr. Shawn Baker, or Dr. Ken Berry. The journalistic work of Nina Teicholz is also very helpful. That's the advice I began following a year ago and I've seen a miracle in my life since adopting an extremely low-carbohydrate diet. It's not necessary if your body is metabolically flexible, but if you have trouble losing weight, or are diabetic, insulin resistance is worth learning about so you can figure out a way to improve your health. Thank you so much for watching!

Music in this episode was Cooper Cannell - Muffin Man (Free music), and [Electro Swing] Odd Chap - Vintage Jukebox EP Mix