Eating everything in the kitchen

It is official. We are moving in 4 weeks and it seems like a small army will be required to move the huge amount of Toddler toys and clothes. Also, the cat will require her full collection of scratching posts and chewed fake mice at the new digs. All of this means that I have resolved to pack as few food items as possible. It seems absurd to carefully transfer 100 grams of flour or 1 jar of anchovies but, equally, I can't bring myself to throw any food away.

This has led to an unprecedented amount of kitchen creativity as I struggle to use all of those purchases that seemed like such a good idea at the time (like Liquorice Tea and at least 5 different jars of red curry paste). As a result the Toddler has been feasting on the following in the past week:
* Claudia Roden's Tagine of Lamb with caramelized baby onions and pears (to use up spices and rice),
* Buckwheat and potato spaetzle (noodles) with a tomato sauce (to use up some of my 8 types of flour), and
* An adaptation of Moosewood Restaurant's Egyptian Lentil soup in Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special (to use up lentils and spices).

I've reproduced the recipe for the soup as it is the easiest of the above dishes and I have also been asked by a number of people for a basic lentil dish that kids will actually eat.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped white part of leek
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrot
4 garlic cloves chopped
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon turmeric
5 cups water
1 cup dried red lentils
1 cup chopped potato

Step 1: Heat the oil in a soup pot and gently sweat the cumin, turmeric, leeks, garlic, onion and carrot for several minutes. Then add the remaining ingredients and bring the soup to a boil.

Step 2: After the soup has boiled bring the heat down a little so that it gently simmers and let it do this for about 15 minutes or until all of the vegetables are cooked.

Notes:
* Makes about 6 adult serves and is very cheap to make.
* Freezes well.
* Some lemon juice stirred through to taste at the end also makes this nice for an adult.
* The Toddler loves this soup with a bit of natural yogurt stirred through at the end (obviously don't use yogurt if you are avoiding lactose).
* The soup could be pureed completely for a baby who is not eating lumpy food yet.
* If you wanted to make it a bulkier soup you could add 1/4 cup of rice at the same time as you add the water.