Thursday, December 30, 2010

Garden Bounty Tortilla Soup

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This soup is very good for you and is a great way to get your kids, spouse or anyone for that matter to eat their veggies.  I am a picky eater and really don't like a lot of veggies, but this soup is delicious!  The only downside to this soup is that it requires a lot of chopping, but it makes a lot.  I even freeze it which makes up for all that time spent chopping.  You MUST try this soup.

Ingredients
8 cups chicken broth (you can use chicken bouillon cubes - 1 cube to 2 cups of water)
1 red onion, diced
2-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 carrots, pealed and diced
2-4 potatoes, peeled and diced
1/4 cup tomato paste (more if desired, to taste)
1 bay leaf
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 whole pepper of the canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce (I use the La Costena brand)
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
1 tsp oregano
1/8 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp white pepper
1 small to medium zucchini, diced
1 yellow summer squash, diced
1 Red bell pepper, chopped
1 Green bell pepper, chopped
1 Tbs chopped fresh cilantro
2 Tbs freshly squeezed lime juice
2 Tbs freshly squeezed orange juice
Fresh, frozen or canned corn - optional

In large stockpot over high heat, combine chicken broth, chicken, onion, carrots, potatoes, tomato paste, bay leaf, garlic, chipotle pepper, jalapeno, oregano and cumin.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes.  When the chicken is cooked, remove from pot and shred it.  Add salt and white pepper.  Add zucchini, summer squash, bell peppers and corn if desired.  Bring to a boil again.  Reduce heat to low and simmer 15 minutes.  Add cilantro, lime and orange juice.  Stir well and remove from heat.

Garnish: Tortilla chips, shredded cheese, chopped fresh cilantro, sliced avocados, jalepeno rings, lime wedges.  (I usually just do chips, cheese, cilantro and a bit of lime juice).

Makes approx. 3 quarts

Monday, December 27, 2010

Cheese ball

Pin It We always have a cheese ball during the holidays.  I have yet to find one that I like better than this one.  It is delicious!

2 - 8 oz packages of cream cheese (room temperature)
1 can - crushed pineapple, drained
1 Tbs - seasoning salt (I actually put less so it's not so salty)
2 Tbs -green onions - finely chopped
1/4 cup - green pepper - minced

Mix together in a large bowl until well blended. Cover the bowl and put it in the fridge for a couple of hours to set back up. Take mixture out of the bowl and using your hands - mold it into a ball or log. Once it is the desired shaped roll it in chopped pecans. Serve with a variety of crackers.

Friday, December 24, 2010

White Chocolate Snowflakes

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To make You first need a pattern of a snowflake.  My printer is out of ink, so I had to draw one.

 Next place the snowflake design under wax paper.
 Melt some white chocolate bark - 30 seconds at a time in the microwave.  I used one square to make a bunch of snowflakes.

 Put the melted chocolate in a ziplock bag and cut a small hole on the corner.
 Trace the snowflake design with the white chocolate.

 Carefully pull the snowflakes off the wax paper after they have hardened.

If you flip the snowflake over, it will be smooth and flat.
 If you don't flip it over, you'll have a little more rustic looking snowflake.
 I went with the rustic look :)  I had baked some cookies so I decided to add the snowflakes to the tops of the cookies.  You could add them to cupcakes or any other treat you want to add a little something special to.
 

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Cute Hair Clip Holder

Pin It I've been trying to think of a cute way to store all of my daughter's hair clips.  I eventually came up with this:


I started with a piece of wood I found at Walmart for 97 cents.


I drew a little face of the wood.


Then using my acrylic paints, I painted the face - don't worry she looks better with hair.


For the hair, I used brown yarn: $2.50 at Walmart.  I used a hot glue gun and attached each strand of yarn individually so I would get a nice part.  Before I started to braid the hair, I used some green ribbon I had on hand to tie the yarn together.


I braided the yarn and tied the ends with the green ribbon.


Then she was ready for the clips!


All the supplies I purchased only cost me about $3.50 since I had most of the other supplies on hand.  I'm pretty pleased with her and am happy that I won't have all these clips just sitting in a bag getting mushed.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Christmas Tree Ornament Mobile

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How cool is this???  There is a tutorial on Not Martha.  Check it out! It's a bit late for me to make it this year, but maybe I'll make one next year :)

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Amazon Mom

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I know I already did a post on diapers a while back, but I have found another awesome deal!  It's called Amazon Mom.  It's free as long as your are a mom, or a dad or a guardian pretty much.  You get 30% OFF diapers and wipes.  I was able to get a pack of 204 Pampers diapers fro $28 delivered right to my door!  How awesome is that???  You get to decide on how many packages you want and how often they get shipped to you.  It's gotta be the best deal around - at least that I've heard.  You can become an Amazon Mom HERE.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Flowered Beanies

Pin It With the weather outside getting cold, I decided I needed to get some beanies for my daughter.  There are plenty of cute beanies out there, but all of the really cute ones are about $10 sometimes more - SO I took matters into my own hands and decided to make simple $1 beanies from the dollar store cute.  I followed a tutorial from Delia Creates where she added a brim to a beanie for her son.  It was really super easy!  So the beanie didn't look too boyish, I added a flower.

Before
 After
 My cute little model
 Another beanie I got from the dollar store.  I didn't do a brim on this one, but I did add the flower.
 Love her!