Around here, the Mama needs to get out on a regular basis. You know the saying, “If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy”, and usually what makes Mama happy is great conversation and great food. My outings typically amount to dinner or cocktails out with friends every couple of weeks. There are my “super foodie” friends who point me to new and delicious restaurants, then there are the “quasi-foodie” friends who usually ask me where we should go, and then there are the “wouldn’t know good food if it fell on your head” friends, and with them it’s just best to opt for cocktails.

There are two total Mom’s Night Out joy killers. The first is coming home to kids who are still awake. Seriously, Hubs? Going through the “I need another kiss, and I have to tell you one more thing, and did you forget to change my band-aid, and I need another drink of water, and I can’t fall asleep without my glow in the dark, sparkly Littlest Petshop unicorn that has been MIA for 7 days now” routine just sucks the pleasure out of any evening out. When I come home, I want to be greeted by silence. Let me spell that out even more clearly. I want the house to be absent of all noise, especially small voices uttering the words “Mom” and “I want”. The second major joy killer is trying to get any kind of complicated meal on the table before rushing out the door.

Over the years, I have had to adapt my definition of “complicated”. Basically, anything involving more than two steps is complicated for the Hubs to pull off. So as my craving for Me Nights Out has increased, so too has my love of the crock pot. 1) Scoop out 2) Plop on plate These are 2 steps that my family can cope with. I don’t get hung up in the doorway giving little last minute reminders and being asked about what to do with such and such. I can just point to the pot and remind them to scoop and plop. Easy.

Last week, I enjoyed a great dinner out at Tender Greens with a friend. That restaurant is really growing on me. As I headed out the door, I pointed my brood to the crock pot. On this occasion, it was filled with Carrot Ginger Soup. I can always gauge whether the dinner left behind was a hit or not by how much of it is left when I get back home (to a completely SILENT house, on a good night). Well, let me just say there wasn’t a lick of anything left for me to even taste.

So here are the down and dirty simple steps to Crock Pot Carrot Ginger Soup.

Toss about a pound of chopped carrots, a large chopped sweet potato, one diced onion, a couple cloves of minced garlic, a bit of fresh grated ginger, a dash of garlic salt, and a bit of black pepper into your crock pot.

Pour some veggie broth over it all and cook on low for about 8 hours. Then pour all of the crock pot contents into the blender and blend until soup is smooth.

Whisk in some light coconut milk and serve.

This is where you would have seen a picture of this beautiful soup in a nice white bowl garnished with fresh basil and accompanied by homemade garlic bread sticks and fresh cherry tomatoes with a balsamic glaze. BUT . . . I don’t know what, if anything they ate it with, and the last thing I shouted as I hurried out the door was, “Take a pretty picture of the soup for my blog” which obviously didn’t happen. The good news is, I had a wonderful evening out with a friend and discussed everything we needed to catch up on. AND I returned home to a house with all small people fast asleep.

For the full Carrot Ginger Soup Recipe, click here.