Mummified Apples and More Soup

Mummifying
The joys of homeschooling and cyberschooling;
Mira is taking an Egypt class at the local homeschool group called PALS(people always learning something). I am the helper in the class and Joan the teacher, who has taught for years at the museums, is wonderful. She brought in a chicken (thank you to Giant Eagle for an already dead and defeathered chicken) that she and her students mummified 3 years ago. Very cool.
She had our students mummify half an apple, the other (control) half just sits in a bag in my pantry molding. Mira has decided to create a realistic Egyptian burial for the mummified apple. She is creating gold coins and other artifacts to bury with it. She is creating 2 sarcophagus' to bury it in and a pyramid. Should be interesting as there will be pictures taken of the procedure for her teacher to see.
So just to let you sense my house, salty baking soda cinnamon rotting apples. Tin foil, markers and boxes scattered in pieces around the house.
My daughter is creative, energetic, enthusiastic, artistic, interested and fun but she is not in any means of the words, tidy, clean or worried about what anyone thinks about her knots in her hair, holes in her pants, mixed colors in her clothes with stains. Yes, she is a great girl and at the end of the day I am exhausted but feel rewarded and honored just to get to be around her!

SOUP
Making soup for dinner tonight and enough to go around for Mira's sick teacher who we will see tomorrow. I bought some organic mixed colored carrots at Giant Eagle I think they have a subtler flavor, but you can use the regular if you can't find them. You also can omit the chicken and add a vegetarian option such as cannelloni beans.

Veggie (Chicken) Star

1/2 lb chicken tenders rubbed in a anise, cinnamon, coriander, ancho chili mix (0r something like. Can you tell I like rubs.This gives the soup more flavor, however you may skip it)
2 TBSP olive oil
2 medium sized onions chopped
2 purple carrots, washed and chopped
1 yellow carrot, washed and chopped
1 small butternut squash, peeled and chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 32oz can chopped tomatoes unstrained
2 32oz containers of vegetable stock (if you like a more chicken flavor use chicken broth)
1/3 cup noodle stars (these are cute little stars that make a showing in your bowl)
1 tsp blackening herbs (organic in the serve your own section at Giant Eagle)
2 tsp tarragon leaves
Salt to taste

Brown the chicken tenders in 1tbsp olive oil and set aside to cool. Don't overcook and don't worry if they are not cooked through as they will in the soup.
In a deep pot saute the onions and carrots in 1tbsp olive oil until onions are translucent (this is about the time my family always says, "MMM, something smells good, I'm hungry")
add the vegetable stock, butternut squash and tomatoes and bring to a boil.
When boiling add the noodle stars, turn down heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until noodles are done. Chop the chicken into 1 inch pieces and add in with the blackening herbs and tarragon in the last 5 minutes of cooking.

My whole family loved this meal, with garlic bread and the plates came back to the kitchen clean! How often can you say that with kids!
Enjoy.