Remember last week when I did that sort of half-hearted post about things being back to normal and me getting back to cooking healthy, regular meals again? This one. With the broccoli soup that while incredibly virtuous, lacked... oomph? I liked the soup well enough. But my kids... did not. They were bored with it almost immediately, and the rather large batch the recipe made up sat languishing in my fridge, almost certain to be tossed into the compost bin the next garbage day. Until last night, when it occurred to me that I could improve the soup, even long after I had finished cooking it, and make it more palatable to my boys.

Aidan and Jack both have a taste for alfredo sauce. Specifically, homemade alfredo sauce, with grilled broccoli and/or asparagus. What if I made the failure soup into a really glorious, garlicky, green alfredo?? I happened to have some asparagus sitting in my windowsill, waiting to be grilled and gobbled up, and I decided the menu would be green alfredo with asparagus.

If any of you out there were debating trying that soup recipe, but hesitant in case it was as underwhelming as I depicted it, now is your chance. Make the soup! If you enjoy it as a healthy fresh soup, good for you, and if not, you can bastardize it the way I did, remove all of its redeeming lightness and layer it heavily on some twirls of pasta.

Start with a roux. If you're picking up on my tastes at all here (I'm sorry), start with a garlic roux. I used ½ a cup of butter, melted over low heat, with about 6 cloves of garlic minced into it. Measure out ½ a cup of all-purpose flour, and once the butter is melted, slowly add the flour, stirring constantly. If the mixture becomes pasty and too thick to stir easily, stop adding flour, and stir in a small amount of milk until it is thick and creamy. Once you've reached this point, break out your soup leftovers. I added 1 cup of leftover soup, followed by 1 cup of table cream. I told you I took all the virtue out of it. Keeping the heat on low, stir constantly until the mixture is well combined, and if it seems to thick, thin with milk. Or more cream, if you're into that. As soon as the texture looks appealing to you, you're done! Serve generously over fresh pasta and under grilled asparagus spears. Adding the asparagus cancels out all that cream you just poured in.

You might be asking, what about eating healthier? What about fitting into your favourite jeans for your trip? Silly. That's what the asparagus was for - weren't you paying attention???