Winter Soups

Winter weather makes me feel like eating soup for dinner. Unfortunately, there is no winter weather where I live in Florida, so I’m going to pretend it is snowing outside while I enjoy my favorite soup recipes.

Crock Pot Potato Soup
6 potatoes
2 leeks
2 onions
1 carrot
1 stalk celery
4 c. water
1 1/2 tsp. salt
4 chicken bouillon cubes
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1 Tbsp. parsley flakes
2 Tbsp. butter
13 oz. can evaporated milk

Cut all to bite size. Put all ingredients except milk and chives, in the crockpot. Cover and cook on low for 10 to 12 hours or high for 3-4 hours. Stir in evaporated milk during the last hour.

This was a big hit with 3 members of our family. The Ant Bug asked for seconds, ate more for a bedtime snack, then happily ate it for dinner again the next night. The Sweet Bee took one bite and spit it out again, so she filled up on homemade rolls (you can’t please everyone, right?!).

Minestrone Soup
Cook for five minutes:
2 Tb. olive oil or other oil
2 cups chopped onions (1 large onion)
5 medium garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 or 2 tsp. salt

Add and cook for 10 minutes, stir occasionally:
2 stalks celery, sliced
2 medium carrots sliced or dices
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. basil
Black pepper to taste

Add, cover and simmer for 15 minutes:
1 medium bell pepper, sliced or diced
1 medium zucchini, sliceed
1 cup diced eggplant, optional
5-6 cups water
1 (14 oz.) can tomato sauce

Add and simmer five minutes more:
1 can kidney beans, drained
1 can garbanzo beans, drained

Add and cook until tender:
1 cup pasta (uncooked shells, bows, or macaroni)

Add:
1 or 2 diced tomatoes (or 1 can chopped tomatoes)

Sprinkle chopped parsley and Parmesan cheese on each bowl or soup before serving.

White Chicken Chili
1 small onion, peeled and chopped fine
2-3 medium garlic cloves, peeled/chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
1- 4oz can chopped green chilies
30 ounces (2 cans) white bean undrained (great northern, cannellini, or garbonzo)
1 can chicken broth
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 tsp. salt and a couple shakes of pepper
2-3 chicken breasts cooked and shredded or cubed
1 1/4 cups sour cream
1/2 cup monterey jack cheese, shredded
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
juice from 1 lime

Saute onions and garlic in 1 Tb. olive oil until cooked. Then add the tomatoes, chilies, white beans, chicken broth, cumin, chili powder, and cayenne pepper. Salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Then slowly stir in the cheese and sour cream until well-blended. Add chopped cilantro and the lime juice. Stir after each addition. Simmer slowly so flavors can work their magic (1-2 hours), stirring frequently.

Crock pot variation: Combine all ingredients in pot except for sour cream and cheese. Let simmer for 4-6 hours. Add the sour cream and cheese for the last hour. May use frozen chicken breasts.

I always cook this in the crock pot. The cilantro is the key to greatness in this recipe!

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Note: There will be no Friday Nature Walk this week. We’ll be enjoying the day off from school and putting up our Christmas tree.

Wear a flower in your hair

Think this just looks like a nice assortment of flowers?
Look again. They are really flower clips!

Flower clips for little girls have been popular for quite some time now, and I finally found a great tutorial on how to make my own. I was thrilled at how amazingly simple they are: just a hot glue gun-no sewing!

I picked up my flowers on sale at Michael’s last week, then spent a fun girls night with my best friend putting them together.

The Ant Bug was thrilled to see them and has worn one every day this week.
The Sweet Bee doesn’t keep hers in for long, but that’s to be expected from a nearly two-year old.
Would you like to make your own? Visit Being Frugal is Fabulous for her tutorial on Flower Clips For Little (And Big) Girls Hair.

While you’re there you might also check out her recipe for homemade refried beans. I’ve been using her recipe for a few months now with good success. Pretty easy, pretty cheap, and much healthier than a can!

Nurture Mama’s Recipes

I’ve been working on a project to organize my recipes. I had an assortment of recipes stored in a few different places, but I wanted to find a way to get everything organized and simplify my menu planning. I was inspired by the 30 Meal Plan posted on nannygoat, but I haven’t completely followed it to the letter.

In a nutshell this is what I did:
1. Sort through my recipes and re-type only the recipes that I really like and use on a regular basis.
2. Make the recipes look cute by copying and pasting to this free recipe card template.
3. Print the recipes, cut them out, laminate.
4. Punch a hole in the corner of each recipe and store them on a binder ring clip.

I keep the recipe ring in a binder where I also store my menu record, coupons, and nutrition information. When it comes time for me to plan my weekly menu I just flip through the cards and pull out the recipes I need for the week. The recipes I select for the week are stored in a magnetic clip on my fridge where they are quick and easy to grab when it’s time prepare dinner.

Listed below are the 30 recipes I compiled. These are the recipes I really love and use most frequently, so I thought I would share some of them with you. I have included links to some of the recipes where possible. If you would like a text copy of my recipes, leave me your email address and I will be happy to share them with you.

Nurture Mama’s Main Dish Recipes

Barbecue Chicken
BBQ Cupcakes
Café Rio Sweet Pork
Colorful Baked Ziti
Cheeseburger Pasta
Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo
Chicken Stuffing in a Pot
Chicken Enchiladas
Chicken Fajitas

Chicken Tetrazzini
8 oz. spaghetti noodles
2 cooked and chopped chicken breasts
1/2 cup shredded zucchini 1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup shredded carrots 1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup chopped onion 1/2 cup milk or heavy cream
3 Tb. butter 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 Tb. minced garlic salt and pepper to taste

While the noodles are boiling, melt butter on a low heat in a frying pan. Add garlic, onion, zucchini and carrots. Sauté for about 3 minutes. Add soup, sour cream, milk, cheese and chicken. Stir over low heat, until noodles are done boiling. Drain noodles and add to the mixture. Toss well and serve immediately.

Classic Noodles and Sauce

Corn Dog Casserole (My kids love this one)
28 oz. can baked beans
1 pkg (or whatever you have) hot dogs
1 pkg corn bread mix (8 oz.) or corn bread from scratch

Pour can of beans into 9 x 13 casserole dish sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Mix in sliced hotdogs (thinner means more slices and more disbursement throughout). Make corn bread according to directions and pour over the top of beans and hotdogs mixture. Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes.

Corkscrew Chicken Caesar Salad
Cranberry Chicken
Hawaiian Haystacks

Hula Stir-Fry
1lb chicken, cooked
1-16oz package frozen stir-fry vegetables
1-20oz. can pineapple chunks
2-3oz. packages dried ramen noodles
2/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
½ cup water

Sauté vegetables in covered skillet for 5-7 minutes or until the vegetables are tender but still slightly crunchy. While veggies are cooking, open the noodles and break each block into small pieces in a bowl. Discard the seasoning packets. Add the pineapple, noodles, sauce, and water to the vegetables and chicken in the skillet. Stir and bring to a boil. Turn heat to medium-low. Cover and cook about three minutes or until noodles are tender.

Italian Chicken and Potatoes
Italian Chicken Bowties
Lazy Lasagna in a Crockpot
Macaroni and Cheese (from scratch)
Marinated Baked Pork Chops
Oven Fritatta
Pizza Dough
Pigs in a Blanket
Pizza Sauce(s)

Poppyseed Chicken Pasta Salad
1-2 chicken breasts (depending how much chicken you like)
1 Ranch dressing seasoning packet
1 cup uncooked pasta (preferably tri-color rotini, but macaroni works also)
1 can mandarin oranges OR fresh sliced strawberries, in season
Lettuce Shredded parmesan cheese
Creamy Poppyseed Dressing

Cook chicken. Add Ranch seasoning packet and enough water so the seasoning coats the chicken (usually about 1-2 TB of water). Set aside to cool.
Cook pasta and rinse with cool water.
Mix remaining ingredients. Amounts vary, depending how you like it.
Serves 2-3 people as a main dish.

Pork Chow Mein
Sloppy Joe’s
Spanish Rice and Beans
Tacos

All Things Frozen Day 3: Frozen Snacks on a Stick

Want to hear my secret weapon for dealing with summer heat? Add ICE!

Today’s Activity: Frozen Snacks on a Stick, or in other words–Popsicles

My girls really like to eat frozen things. The Sweet Bee is really hit and miss when it comes to eating (or even trying) most foods, but if it’s frozen I can almost guarantee that she will eat it. So we’ve been experimenting with a few different snacks on a stick.

Our standard favorite is Orange Yogurt Creamsicles.

Here is what you’ll need:
Plain vanilla yogurt
Orange juice
Popsicle mold

That’s it. I don’t use exact measurements. I just start mixing yogurt and juice (I use a glass Pyrex 1 cup measuring cup) until I get the flavor I like. Use a whisk to mix it up. Pour into molds, freeze and enjoy.
We regularly eat this for a bedtime snack (hence the wet hair and lack of clothes–the Sweet Bee just had a bath).
I wrote about last year’s Popsicle concoctions here.

Make and Takes recently had this great post: Treats to Keep the Kids Cool for Summer. We made our own watermelon popsicles and they were a winner at our house!

As you can tell, we had fun with a few different shapes.

Next we loaded grapes on a skewer. Amazing! My kids have been picky about grapes lately, but they’ll eat them frozen! I think the skewer adds to the excitement.
All this talk of popsicles makes me want to start singing that Popsicle song from the 60’s (no, I’m not that old–my parents just made sure I was thoroughly exposed to the music of that decade).

Popsicle ba-ma-ma-ma-ma ba-ma-ma-ma-ma
Popsicle ba-ma-ma-ma-ma
If you want to keep cool it does the trick
And it comes on a stick
Uh-huh-huh uh-huh-huh
Jan and Dean, Popsicle, 1966

All Things Frozen Day 1: Ice Cream (in a bag or not)

Want to hear my secret weapon for dealing with summer heat? Add ICE!

Today’s Activity: Ice Cream in a Bag

I originally saw this idea in a Parents magazine. We love ice cream so we had to try it out.


Here’s what you’ll need:

Ice cubes
Ziploc bags-quart and gallon size
6 Tb. rock salt (more or less)
1 cup milk
2 Tb. sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
handful of chocolate chips

Fill a gallon-size plastic baggie halfway with ice. Add the rock salt. In a separate quart-size plastic bag combine the remaining ingredients. Seal the smaller baggie and put it inside the larger bag (seal that one too). Shake the bag for 10 minutes. Your hands will get cold and you might not last 10 minutes. But it is yummy even if it is a little slushy!

We combined this activity with a Family Home Evening lesson on Perseverance.

Just a few days after we did the activity I discovered this post on Make and Takes doing this same activity. Her recipe is slightly different, and she suggested wearing oven mitts while you’re doing the shaking–helpful tip!

We also like to make homemade ice cream, not in a bag.Here is our favorite recipe, from the family cookbook.

Lemon Ice Cream
3/4 cup lemon juice
4 cups sugar
2 cups cream (1 pt.)
Milk to fill
1/2 tsp. lemon extract
Freeze. This takes a lot of salt to freeze. Makes 4 quarts.

We’ll be making this on Friday to celebrate Pioneer Day (24th of July). I think this should become an annual tradition!

Red Ripe Strawberries=Homemade Freezer Jam

It’s springtime (and nearly summertime) where I live, and that means red ripe strawberries!

My girls and I headed off to a local pick your own farm and had a grand time picking berries. We picked 18lbs in about 30 minutes. Then we went back a week later and picked another 18lbs!

With 36lbs of strawberries, we are stocking our freezer with delicious homemade freezer jam.

This is what you’ll need to make your own.

-Strawberries
-Sugar
-Pectin
-Containers to store your jam

If you’re new to home preserving, this is what you’re looking for when you shop for pectin. Depending on your local store, you might have a few options. No cook pectin is the way to go. To my delight, this year I discovered the no cook packets on the left which use 4 cups of berries and only 1 1/2 cups sugar. The liquid pectin on the left calls for 2 cups of berries and 4 cups of sugar. Hmmmmm. You decide.

Once you have your pectin, it’s pretty simple. Just follow the directions included on the package.

Wash the berries well, then cut off the stems. I cut the berries in half or quarters to save myself a little mashing effort. Crush them one layer at a time using a potato masher.

You’ll need to provide your own cute assistant.

Mash the berries to your desired consistency. I like my jam still a little chunky.

Follow your directions for adding the pectin. Some recipes also call for lemon juice. Mix it really well.
Ladle into jars, leaving space for expansion during freezing. I like the Ball freezer jars shown above (they come in 8 or 16oz size), but you can also use regular tupperware containers. Don’t they look beautiful?

The jam will keep for 3 weeks in the refrigerator, or up to 1 year in the freezer. Peanut Butter and jam sandwiches are a staple in our home, so a jar never lasts long!

If you still have strawberries leftover they also freeze well.

Wash them well, then you can cut them up depending on their size. Load them into bags (quart or gallon size) and load them into the freezer. Simple, and you have tasty berries all year round to top your waffles.

Since we’ve got strawberries on the brain, we decided to make this cute lumpy bumpy strawberry from an idea I saw on No Time for Flashcards.

Can’t get enough strawberries? These two books are our favorite “berry books”.

The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear
by Don and Audrey Wood

Jamberry by Bruce Degen

Happy strawberry days to you!

My Crock Pot Saves the Day

I love my Crock Pot. I really do.

I am a woman who loves routine and order. I like to eat dinner with my family at the same time everyday (5:45 pm in case you’re curious). Using my Crock Pot is the only way I can make that happen consistently. I use it once or twice a week (and then we usually eat leftovers once or twice a week).
The biggest benefit to me is being able to prepare dinner at a much more convenient time earlier in the day. In other words: when my children are not hungry or tired. I’ve learned that 5pm is not a good time to try to cook a meal and only partially pay attention to my children.

So my Crock Pot has saved the day on countless days.

I make quite a few different chicken recipes. This is one of our favorites that I modified from the family cookbook.

Chicken Stuffing in a Pot
2 chicken breasts, frozen
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
2 Tb. orange juice
1 cup dressing mix (like Stove Top-I stock up during the holidays when it’s on sale)
1/4 cup butter
Mix cream of chicken soup with sour cream. Add orange juice. Pour over frozen chicken in Crock Pot. Sprinkle dressing mix on top. Melt and drizzle butter on top. Cook on high for 3 hours. Serve with rice.

Here’s another good one.

Cranberry Chicken
8 oz. bottle of French salad dressing
1 can of cranberry sauce
1 packet onion soup mix
Mix the above, then pour over 2-4 chicken breasts, frozen. Cook on high for 3 hours or low for longer. Serve with rice.

This is a great recipe from my friend Janene.

Italian Chicken Bowties
1 pkg. Italian dressing seasoning
1 pkg. cream cheese
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup milk
1 large chicken breast, frozen
Mix dressing, cream cheese, soup, and milk in mixer until well blended. Pour over chicken in Crock Pot. Cook on low for 4-6 hours. Serve over one box of bow tie noodles.

The simplest recipe ever. We had it last night.

Barbecue Chicken
1-2 chicken breasts
1 (18 ounce) jar barbecue sauce
hamburger buns
Put the the chicken in the pot and pour the sauce over top. Cook until the chicken is tender, shred, then serve on hamburger buns.

I love being able to put frozen chicken straight into the Crock Pot!

Another favorite at our house is Crock Pot lasagna. It’s not your typical lasagna so don’t expect that, but it’s a nice noodles and cheese and sauce combo.

And did you know you can cook baked potatoes in the Crock Pot? I didn’t until a few months ago, but I tried it and they turned out great!

Looking for more CrockPot recipes? This lady used her Crock Pot every day for one year, so she has plenty of recipes to share.

What do you make in your Crock Pot?

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Off the subject, but I had to share a nice Mama Moment.

Yesterday at lunch the Ant Bug turned to me and said “When I grow up I will try to be a good mom like you”. My heart melted–all my efforts are not in vain!

The easiest cookies you will ever make: Pumpkin Spice Cookies

These cookies are delicious and require only two ingredients: a can of pumpkin and a box of spice cake mix. Seriously, that’s it. Pretty simple, eh?

I did add chocolate chips to my batch. 🙂

Thanks to my friend Rachel for the great suggestion! You can check out Recipe Zaar if you are interested in the details of the recipe.

‘Tis the Season

Our tree is up and our home is looking festive for the Christmas season. Today I thought I would share with you a few of the items on our “Activities for the Month of December” list:

1) Focus on Christ

The December 2008 issue of The Friend magazine includes this great activity. Each night we’re reading the suggested scriptures about Jesus Christ and posting the related picture from the Gospel Art Kit. It’s a great way for us to remember the reason behind the season.

2) Open a pocket everyday

The first year that we were married, my mother-in-law presented my husband and I with this wonderful advent calendar. Each day we open one pocket and find an ornament with which to decorate the tree. It looks a little sparse right now, but we’re only on day 3.

3) Make paper snowflakes
Since we live in Florida, this will be the only snow we will see this year.

4) Take a family photo

I know we should have had this done by now, but we always seem to end up a little late. Here is our photo from last year. What do you think we will look like this year??

5) Read Christmas Books
Since I’m always looking for great books and ways to promote literacy, I thought this was a great idea. Find 25 Christmas books (or as many as you can), wrap them up and put them under your tree. Then everyday until Christmas your children can choose one to unwrap and read together.

My book shelf is a little sparse when it comes to Christmas books, so I consulted this book list and this one too and found some great titles, many of which are available at my local library. I’m headed there tomorrow to pick them up and start wrapping and reading!

6) Watch “It’s a Wonderful Life”
This is my favorite holiday movie, with such a great message. It gives me warm fuzzies!

7) Take a walk at the duck pond and enjoy the holiday lights.

8) Make Christmas crafts with my family
Don’t these look so cute and fun?

From Skip to My Lou

From Make and Takes

9) Prepare for a Piano Performance

This fall I added “Piano Teacher” to my list of responsibilities. I have six wonderful students, and we’re having our first recital this month. I decided to share in the fun with my students and prepare Silent Night/ Still, Still, Still to perform, arrangement courtesy of Sally DeFord Music.

10) Make Sugar Cookies

We love to make and decorate sugar cookies for the holidays. Here is the best recipe I’ve ever tried (courtesy of the Family Cookbook):

1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
4-5 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt

Cream sugar, butter and eggs. Add sour cream and vanilla. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Roll out in flour to 1/4 inch thick and cut. Cook in 350 degree oven for 7-8 minutes. Bottoms should be brown but tops should not be brown at all. These make a soft, cake-like cookies.

Mmmmm. They are delicious!

12) Sing lots of Christmas Carols

Silent Night, Joy to the World, Away in a Manger, Jingle Bells, The First Noel, O Holy Night, Silver Bells, We Three Kings, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Rudolph, Christmas is Coming, Do you hear what I Hear?, O Little Town of Bethlehem, Far Far Away on Judea’s Plains, White Christmas…

Wow! I’m going to be busy, aren’t I? What are you doing to celebrate the season in December?

Yummy Popsicles

The hot days of summer are at their peak, and we’re staying cool with tasty homemade popsicles.

The first recipe we tried came from here. It was super easy, super yummy, and I felt healthier just eating one.

We then modified the recipe and tried mixing straight grape juice with plain yogurt and had a good result.

Our third trial used a recipe from here. We went with the Rocky Road Pops, with less than stellar results. I thought they were okay, but the Ant Bug had enough after two bites.


Today we hit the jackpot with the best concoction yet.

Here’s what you’ll need:
Raspberries, in small chunks
Plain yogurt
Berry flavored Juicy Juice

Mix the yogurt with a little juice (I don’t have exact amounts, so just use your best judgment). Toss in the berries, and fill your molds half full. Let freeze for 30 minutes or so, then come back and fill your molds with juice and add the handle or sticks or whatever you use. Come back a few hours later and voila–a tasty healthy treat, perfect for the hot days of summer.


Really, the possibilities here are endless. Strawberries, blueberries, peaches, raspberries. Mix in some yogurt, add some juice, and there you go. The yogurt adds a creamy touch so it’s more like a creamsicle, but it’s all delicious.

So what summer treats are you eating?