In this wild and wooly Sydney weather of late, there is nothing more comforting in the way of a meal than a cup or bowl of home made soup. Any satisfyingly warm and flavoursome soup will do but Chicken and Vegetable Noodle Soup is certainly the most popular in my household.

Veggies can be finely shredded in a food processor prior to sautéing or to bulk up the soup, cut them into chunkier pieces. I include flavoursome varieties like turnips, parsnip, zucchini, baby carrots, mushrooms, kumera, sweet corn and the like – whatever veggies I have in the fridge. Teamed with my vitamin packed multi-layered Spinach and Feta Pie, my children sipped, slurped and munched away happily before asking – surprise, surprise – whether they could have the leftovers for school lunch the next day.

Although I am usually a stickler about about eating at the family feasting table or kitchen bench, occasionally (as a treat) I suggest pulling out the beanbags and cushions, settling in with their soup and watching a favourite movie of the moment. For Luka (who keeps counting down the sleeps until he turns five) his top pick is a collection of classic animated Peter Rabbit tales.

Long after the film has finished he is still chatting about this resourceful and cheeky creature especially how Peter always escapes from ending up on Mr McGregor’s dinner table. Well, as long as Luka is a fan of Beatrix Potter’s furry character, I guess rabbit will be off our menu.