Want-not soup

"waste not, want not". I grew up hearing this from my mother as she created dinners from scratch in our kitchen. She would take things out of the fridge or the pantry, and make them into something that was delicious, delectable, nutritious, and for a child, something I never wanted to eat. Now here I am, I have my own children. And I, like my mother, don't have the financial ability to waste things. So, the old adage of "waste not want not" has come full circle.
I have had many times in my past when I had the best of intentions on Saturday afternoon, grocery shopping in the produce section, or the farmers market, filling my buggy with lots of vegetables, fruit, and tasty, healthy food. Somehow though, throughout the week my desire for processed, quick foods bread, cookies, cakes, and things that were just not good for me, would overwhelm me, and the produce would sit in my refrigerator and rot. At the end of the week, my compost bin was full, my belly is a little bit bigger, and I would regret it. So there I would go again, Saturday afternoon, best of intentions, and the cycle continues.
Now that I'm a little older, and a little wiser, my mother's words ring true in my ears, and here I go with my own children, trying to make them eat the food that I refused to eat as a child. The vegetables, the soups, the things that adults like, but the children think look like something that you find the bottom of a blender... or a toilet.
The adage I grew up with now, as I look in the refrigerator, and not wanting to waste the delicious healthy foods that I purchased, is ringing in my ears. So I remove every of vegetable in my refrigerator, and take out a jar of chicken stock (that I made myself) all get put in a pot. Chopped up, beautiful, ready to be delicious,nutritious soup. My, waste not want not soup. It's everything that would have gone in my compost bin, had it been given a few more days.
My kids won't touch it. My husband, although braver than my children, asked if I put the turnip in it I nod, and he makes a funny face.  he will eat it though, and I know this.
I don't want to have to make the soup again, but, I know it will happen. My eyes, you would say, are bigger than my refrigerator.

The best of intentions... create soup.