a night out and yummie soup

I made this yellow split pea soup today, it turned out lovely, fresh and lemony, and the ginger gives it a nice kick! We had it for lunch, and Emm had some cold basmati rice mixed into hers. She absolutely loved it. I also made the broccoli and dipping sauce, but I had to substitute sherry for mirin, and lemon juice for lime, and my soy sauce was dark, it turned out quite dark and bitter. Might try it again some time, if I can ever get a hold of Mirin or Sake! 

The soup is really healthy, lots of garlic and ginger and lemon juice, and pulses. It was quite filling, too! I like to cook vegetarian and dairy free some days. I like meat and fish, but don't need it every day by any means! I worry about getting enough protein, iron and calcium though, especially for Emm. Going meat free some days means I can buy better quality meat, and free range on the other days. When I buy free range chicken I make the most of it and get 3 meals out of one, plus chicken stock. 

On Friday Night I spent my first night away from Emm! She was 15 months yesterday, if you count the pregnancy as well I have spent every night with her for the last two years! I was a bit apprehensive, but we had a good night with the girls, out in town, and three of us stayed in a hotel, they had a special offer on that made it as cheap to stay in the hotel as to get a taxi home, so we decided to enjoy our hangovers in peace! we got back to the hotel around 3, and spent another hour taking silly photographs and falling over laughing and drinking tea (there was no mini bar :-( ). It took me another hour to get to sleep while the other two slept as soon as they hit the pillow. I'm surprised I turned out to be the kind of mother that finds it hard to be seperated from her child, I always thought I'd happily leave them for a long weekend! Although the other girls told me it gets a lot easier when you have two!

Knowing she was safe with P helped, of course, I still can't imagine leaving her with anybody but my mother, if P and I wanted a weekend away together... 

Did I mention I finished breastfeeding a month ago? She doesn't seem to miss it at all! We were down to just the morning feed, I think it helped that it wasn't the evening feed, it was easy to distract her in the morning, she must have been ready to give up i suppose. The main reason I gave up is to get a chance to maybe have another baby soon! I feel passionate about breastfeeding, so few babies in Ireland get to nurse, the statistics are quite sad! I'm sad to be finished, but I'm glad we got to 14 months after such a difficult start!