Sloppy Joes with Chicken Gumbo Soup

A quiet week after Thanksgiving. Sean pushed himself to be present for the holiday and the effort cost him. He slept fifteen hours Thursday night, twelve hours Friday, ten hours Saturday. By Sunday he was approximately his usual post-radiation self — tired but functional, eating small meals, reading. He is on the two-week break between radiation and his first post-radiation chemo cycle. He has oral temozolomide to take again starting December 12. The doses are higher during the maintenance cycles than during radiation. The side effect profile is the same but more concentrated.

I made turkey broth Friday. The carcass from Maureen's turkey went into my biggest pot with onion and carrot and celery and parsley and bay leaf. Twelve hours at a low simmer. I strained it into quart containers. Eight quarts. The freezer is full. The fridge has two. The fridge broth became Saturday's turkey soup — shredded turkey, the good broth, noodles for the kids (plain broth with rice for Sean), a little lemon, a little dill.

I ran into a colleague Thursday at the grocery — the Shaw's near the house — and she asked how Sean was. She had heard from someone who had heard from someone. I told her the clean version. I do not tell the long version in a grocery store. I told her the plan. She listened. She said "Kate. You let me know if you need anything. Anything." I said thank you. I moved on. The groceries still had to go in the car. Cancer does not stop the groceries.

Liam has taken to coming into our room at 6 AM and getting into bed with me for twenty minutes before the day begins. He is quiet about it. He does not talk. He curls up next to me. He goes back to sleep for a little while. Then the alarm goes off and he gets up and I get up and we start the day. I have not told him to stop. I am not going to tell him to stop. He has found his own way of needing what he needs. I am going to let him need it.

Nora said a full sentence Friday. "Nora want cracker, please." Full sentence. Subject, verb, object, manners. I was sitting at the kitchen table. I stopped. I said "Nora. That was a beautiful sentence." She said "cracker, please." I gave her a cracker. She smiled. She is two and nine months. She is making sentences.

I studied four nights this week. The pharmacology is going. The renal physiology is dense. The CNS module is next and will be brutal. I am doing it. I am keeping up. I have a 91 average after two exams. I will keep it above 90 for the whole semester. That is my goal.

Sean reads to Liam at night still. He cannot do it every night now, but he does it three nights a week. Wednesday he read Where the Wild Things Are. He has had that one memorized since Liam was two. He does all the voices. He did them Wednesday. Liam laughed at Max's gnashing of his terrible teeth, as he always does. Sean's voice was quieter than it used to be. Liam did not seem to notice. Sean did the book. They finished it. He kissed Liam. He came out. He sat on the edge of our bed. He said "I got through it." I said "I saw." He did not cry. Neither did I. We did not have to.

The broth was for Sean, and the turkey soup was for all of us, and those things took what they took — twelve hours of simmering, the straining, the portioning. By the time Sunday came I needed dinner to cost me almost nothing. The kids were fed and loud and needed feeding again, as kids are, and I needed something I could put on the table in thirty minutes without thinking too hard. These Sloppy Joes are exactly that. The chicken gumbo soup does the work for you. I’ve made them on hard weeks for years. This was a hard week.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 30 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs ground beef (85% lean)
1 can (10.5 oz) condensed chicken gumbo soup, undiluted
1/3 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Salt and black pepper, to taste
6 hamburger buns, toasted if desired

Instructions

Brown the beef. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, cook the ground beef, breaking it apart with a spoon, until no pink remains, about 8–10 minutes. Drain excess fat.
Build the sauce. Reduce heat to medium. Stir in the condensed chicken gumbo soup, ketchup, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, onion powder, and garlic powder until fully combined.
Simmer. Let the mixture simmer uncovered for 8–10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens and coats the meat. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve. Spoon generously onto hamburger buns. Serve immediately with a simple side — chips, a salad, whatever is easiest.

Nutrition (per serving)

Sloppy Joes with Chicken Gumbo Soup — The Week After, When the Kids Need Something Simple and Warm