As a new mom I, like every other new mom, was obsessed with all things infant. However neither booties nor onsies made up for the fact that I was deprived of pureed squash in my pantry. Much to my dismay my kids would not eat baby food. How I longed for the counter top mosaic other moms had, some jars containing strained prunes, some stuffed with paper clips, all screaming “baby on board!” But although I willingly stirred chocolate sauce, hollandaise, and ketchup into those precious little pots, I faced fiercely pursed lips at every meal. My choo-choo train full of food was repeatedly denied entrance to the tunnel.

I mention this battle with my budding food critics because after reading a Yahoo Shine blog post by the very witty and at the time very pregnant Ladies Who Launch Chief Product Officer Amy Swift I want to share with all busy women entrepreneurs how I successfully fed something other than Cool Whip to Mistress and Master High Maintenance in a High Chair.

My grandmother started it. About forty years ago Good Housekeeping published a recipe for Chilled Florentine Soup that my trendy blender-owning grandmother tried, brewing for the first time what would become our favorite “spinach soup.” Every time we went to her house, even before picking the chocolate-covered raisins out of her bridge mix, we had a bowl.

Her visits to our house were no less tasty. I remember her striding up our driveway, impossibly sure-footed in three-inch heels, bearing buckets of shockingly verdant soup in sherbet containers. Some grandmothers bring paper dolls, others Pez. Mine filled me with folic acid.

This soup tastes great hot or cold. It’s terrific served as an appetizer in cups, as a first course in bowls, or as a meal with crusty bread on the side.  But more importantly, despite the less than kid-friendly color, my lot love it.

Spinach Soup

1/2 cup chopped shallots
3 tablespoons butter
2 packages (10 ounces each) fresh or frozen spinach
3 cans (14 ounces each) chicken broth
Dash of ground nutmeg
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese

Sauté shallots in butter in a large, deep skillet. Add spinach; cover. Cook over medium heat until spinach wilts. Add chicken broth and nutmeg; simmer 5 minutes. Cool slightly. Puree in batches in your own trendy blender, adding pieces of cream cheese as you go. Serve hot or cold.