Making a House a Home

Let me go ahead and tell y'all up front that Mr. U does NOT like black beans. At all. I, on the other hand, think they are divine. Every once in a while I'll try a new recipe in hopes that Mr. U will find them somewhat palatable.

After 9 1/2 years of marriage, I FINALLY found a recipe with black beans that he says is "pretty okay". Not exactly the statement I was looking for ("Oh, Honey!!! These black beans are AMAZING!! What have I been thinking all these years- I suddenly LOVE black beans!! Let's have more and SOON!!"... that's what I was hoping for!!!), but I'll take it!!!

Me? I LOOOOOVED this recipe!! Give me anything with garlic, lime and cilantro and I'm happy a happy girl!!!

Happy Monday, y'all!!



Ham and Black Bean Soup

1 cup red onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 T olive oil
2 (15 ounce) cans black beans, undrained
1 cup water
1 pound ham, diced into bite size cubes
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 T ground cumin
sour cream
cilantro
fresh limes

In a dutch oven, saute onion, garlic and green pepper in olive oil over medium heat until tender and onions are slightly translucent. Add undrained beans and water and season with salt, pepper and cumin. Stir well and simmer for 20 minutes.

Using a potato masher, mash some of the beans in the pot. Mash it until you get the consistency your family likes. Or, you may leave the beans completely whole, if you prefer.

Add ham and simmer for 10 more minutes.

To serve, place soup in bowl and top with your choice of sour cream, cilantro, and/or a fresh squeeze of lime.

Well, I almost forgot to share this!!! Here's how Elizabeth's little flowers progressed after only 1 week!!!! As you can imagine, she is SO excited and keeps referring to them as "babies". HAHA! I guess they are young plants.



Now we'll just get outside and plant these sweet cosmos and hope little flowers will soon appear!!

Oh yum. I made this Easy Cajun Jambalaya just the other day and it is good!! I found it at Allrecipes and changed only one little bitty thing- I did not put any hot pepper sauce in the food when cooking it. I was worried it would be too spicy for Elizabeth, so I left it out and everyone else added dashes of hot sauce to their food after it was served.

This is a keeper!!



Easy Cajun Jambalaya

Yields: 6 servings

INGREDIENTS:
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
8 ounces kielbasa, diced
1 onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup diced celery
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
salt and ground black pepper to taste
2 cups uncooked white rice
4 cups chicken stock
3 bay leaves
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce

DIRECTIONS:
Heat oil in a large pot over medium high heat. Saute chicken and kielbasa until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Stir in onion, bell pepper, celery and garlic. Season with cayenne, onion powder, salt and pepper. Cook 5 minutes, or until onion is tender and translucent. Add rice, then stir in chicken stock and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer 20 minutes, or until rice is tender. Stir in the Worcestershire sauce and hot pepper sauce.

(To all you Weight Watcher friends, Allrecipes almost always has the nutritional information posted on the website with each recipe. So, you can use that to figure out how many points there is per serving!!!)

It's no secret that I love a good cup of tea. My favorite way to take my tea is with a drizzle of sage honey and a splash of milk. Mmmmm. And this is all fine and dandy.

Usually.

I always buy my honey from the co-op that I order my wheat from. When I placed my order last week, I was informed that there is NO SAGE HONEY!!!! Apparently there were some brush fires that ruined the sage bushes and the sage honey supply is low and this means no sage honey for me!!!

(a sage plant)

So, I am trying to find a decent alternative to sage honey until the supply is built back up (probably not available until September! OH NO!!!). Stevia is bitter. Clover honey is too strong. Sugar is just not right. I am not a happy camper, folks. Sigh.

My tea won't be the same until my wonderful sage honey is back in our home. There are sad, sad days ahead for me and my tea cup.

Won Without Words

“Sweetheart, wake up!”

“Hmmm?”

“Don’t you remember? The pastor said that the man of the house should wake up early to read the Bible!”

(Snore)

“Harry, wake up! This is gonna be a Christian house whether you like it or not!”

Nancy Leigh DeMoss: Have you ever tried to change your mate into a more spiritual person? When a wife tries to take on this kind of “fix it” project, her focus is on something she can’t do anything about—her husband’s heart. It takes her mind off something she can do something about—cooperating with the Holy Spirit in changing her own heart.

The apostle Peter advises wives to be submissive, even to unbelieving husbands. Then he explains why in 1 Peter 3: “so that, if any of them do not believe the Word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives.”

Have you been approaching your husband with nagging words or with godly behavior?

With Seeking Him, I’m Nancy Leigh DeMoss.

This was my email today from Nancy Leigh DeMoss. Boy, how many times have I heard about this exact situation!!!

Ladies, if you find yourselves in a similar position, wishing, hoping, that your husband was truly a godly man, do NOT try to force him into a mold that only God can fit!!! Your job? Your job is to pray and live a holy life in front of him, that he may see your First Love through your example and desire to follow after the Lord Jesus Christ, as well.

Cheesy Southwestern Skillet

1 cup uncooked elbow macaroni
1 T extra virgin olive oil
1 pound of very lean ground beef
1 onion, minced
1 green bell pepper, minced
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 T chili powder
1 t ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (14 oz) can diced tomatoes (do NOT drain them)
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (4 oz) can chopped mild green chiles
1 T garlic powder
1/2 cup water
1 cup shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese

Cook macaroni according to package directions and then drain.

In a saute pan on medium-high heat, heat olive oil and then cook ground beef until no longer pink. Stir in onion and bell pepper. Pour in chicken broth and scrape up any bits of beef in the bottom of the pan. Stir in chili powder, cumin and salt. Cook until the onions are softened. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, chiles, garlic powder and water. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the flavors are well blended. Add the macaroni and stir to combine. Sprinkle cheese all over top and let it melt before serving.

4- 6 servings.

So we started the garden a little late this year (mid May)... hopefully something will grow, though!!


Here's the garden after two weeks. We have tomatoes, green beans, watermelon, zucchini, basil, lemon basil, sage, and a few other things that I can't remember!!



I cannot wait for the first tomato of the summer!!

While shopping at Target one day, we found these super cute tins of Cosmos flowers. They were in the dollar bins up near the front. FLOWERS!! I just LOVE planting flowers!! And I figured that Elizabeth would enjoy doing this, too, so that she could closely watch them as they grow.



Yesterday afternoon, we soaked the soil that came in the tins (you know, the kind that is super compacted together and you soak it in water so it'll become soft), placed it back in the little tins and tucked the tiny seeds inside. Now we begin the long wait for the sprouts to appear.



Elizabeth had quite a time playing in the dirt. She carefully placed each little seed in the soil and covered it with a little more dirt. It was incredibly sweet watching her be so gentle.



After they are 3 inches tall (according to the directions), we can take them outside and plant them!! Even more fun!!!

Hmmmm... I wonder who is more excited here- me or Elizabeth? HA!!!

...sigh....

I've been dreading writing this post for a while. I know that once it is here on my blog, it makes it more real, more permanent. I knew that once I had written this, people could email me out of the blue and ask about it. So... here goes... (and yes, most of y'all will think I'm being over dramatic, I know... but it IS dramatic to me.)

I am overweight and I have decided to seriously do something about it.

I joined Weight Watchers in January of 2006 and by July of that year, I had lost 50 pounds and I felt SOOOOO good!! I was still far from my goal, but it seemed so attainable at that point!!!

Then we went away to a pastor's school that we attend every summer. We stay on a college campus, live in dorms for the week and eat at the cafeteria 3 times a day. An all-you-can-eat cafeteria, let me add. So, I messed up that week. Big time. But I figured when I got back home, I would start watching my portions and exercising again.

When we got back home, I did start. Kind of. I half-heartedly counted my points and exercised when I felt like it. But, I was fortunate to do just enough to maintain that 50 pound loss. I even survived Christmas that year without gaining!!!

Then came January 4, 2007. One of THE happiest days of my life. This day, we got our referral for Elizabeth. I was ECSTATIC!!! And, the last thing I wanted to do was worry about weight. MY BABY WAS WAITING FOR ME IN CHINA!! I had to pack!! I had to prepare for a new little life! Who had time to exercise and count points???

Then we got to China. This is where it gets bad. Really bad and ugly. We stayed at a wonderful hotel called the White Swan. Every morning for breakfast they serve a huge American style buffet breakfast. And every morning while we were there, I ate lots and lots of bacon and slices and slices of French toast with extra syrup. It tasted like home. We also found a place there called Danny's Bagels that would deliver to your room. They served food that also tasted like home- pizza, spaghetti, chicken Parmesan, mac and cheese. You know, low-cal stuff. (HA!!). And by day 5 or 6, I had discovered that the 7-11 across the street from the hotel had OREOS!!!! So I happily munched on a pack of 8 every night before bed. No, it was NOT pretty at all.

We got home and things went downhill from there. Since that time, I gained 25 of those pounds back and I feel icky. Blah, fat, flabby and icky (can anyone relate to that description??). I hate clothes shopping. I hate to see myself in the mirror and I HATE to be overweight.

So, I've had enough. I'm tired of it. I'm taking action. I've decided that *I* am now in control of my food- not the other way around. From now on, I will count my points because that is how I will control my food. I will exercise at least 5 days a week. I will drink at least 96 ounces of water a day. I will succeed and this time it will last.

I do plan on sharing weekly updates- mainly to keep myself accountable. (I even posted a "Tracking My Weight Loss" section over on the right side of the blog, about halfway down). This is going to be hard, I know. But, as I read on a weight loss blog the other day "It's hard. Being fat is hard too. Choose your hard."

Oh, and I would love to know if anyone else is in a similar boat right now and would like to share their struggles and successes. Surely I am not alone.

I absolutely love visiting with Lady Lydia through her blog Home Living. With every article she writes, I come away feeling more feminine and lady-like, refreshed and ready to serve my family. The article entitled "A Matter of Good Housekeeping" is a post I read recently and was greatly encouraged by.

"There is more to a home than housekeeping. A wife needs to be able to manage her jobs. She has to adjust to the weather, the time of day, the time of the month, the time of the year. She has to be flexible with family needs and unexpected problems. While few people can ever really do it to perfection, at least the housewife knows what is necessary and can aim for that perfection." - Lady Lydia

To read the entire article, please go here.

Thank you, Lady Lydia, for such an uplifiting blog!!

Ever since I decided to stop drinking Diet Coke, Mr. U has been gracious to buy some REALLY nice tea for me to enjoy. Now, I've always enjoyed a good cup of tea, but Adagio has some INCREDIBLE teas, let me tell ya!!

This lovely order just arrived today. Aaaahhhh... TEA!!!! Looks like I'm set for a while!


In case anyone is curious, this order included:
-5 3 8 Wedding Blend
-black tea sampler
-Bolero Blend
-Citron Green (sample)
-Irish Breakfast
-Oolong #18 (sample)
-Birthday Tea Blend (sample)- this actually has little sprinkles in it! Just like on a cupcake!! Too cute!!!

(No, I do not work for Adagio nor do I earn referral money from them- sad, yes, I know.)

There are so many things that I love doing as I go about my day trying to bless my home and family. By far, one of the most simplest of all those pleasures is baking fresh bread for my family. Joy for me is not attained in the shopping mall, but instead inside my cozy little kitchen. As I happily knead the dough I love to think of my family and how I want to provide them with wholesome, nourishing food. Expensive perfume could never replace the heavenly aroma that comes from my oven as the bread is baking. And the taste? Warm homemade bread and butter is tastier than any meal I could ever get from a five star restaurant. I am so blessed. I don't have to seek joy in other places, it is found right inside the four walls of my home! -Susan P.

I LOVE this!! This is from Susan at A Place Called Home. Susan, I don't think I could agree with you more!!!

Oh dear. I was making syrup today to go with our pancakes and, sigh, the syrup boiled over a bit. I was able to clean most of it up, but there are still a few places that I CAN NOT get clean. I have one of those glass top stoves, too. PLEASE tell me there is something I can do to clean this off!!! Do you have any ideas?

Please pray for Steven Curtis and Mary Beth Chapman and their family. Their daughter Maria, born in China, died yesterday. You can read more here...

Mr. U and I always change Elizabeth's diaper right before we head to bed. So Saturday night we went in to change her just like we've done a bazillion times before.

Mr. U reached down to pick her up out of the bed and she started screaming!!! She was grabbing her right arm, so we could tell she was hurt. We changed her diaper and I tried to comfort her for a while, but every time she fell back to sleep, she would inevitably move her arm and then it would hurt all over again. Poor girl!!!!

By 1:00 am, Mr. U said it was time to head to the Emergency Room. Yes, this mommy was in tears. MY BABY'S GOING TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM!!!

When we got there, they were SO nice to us and immediately took us to the pediatric side of the ER. After weighing her, listening to her heart and taking her temp, she was MAD. She does NOT like doctors or nurses and definitely didn't want them prodding her when she was in pain. Apparently, though, something happened while they were doing this and she was getting mad, because by the time we actually sat down in our ER room #6, she was signing "thank you" and asking (in sign language) for her cup. SHE WAS MOVING HER ARM!!!

The ER doctor came in, kind of laughed when we told him that she was now fine and told us it was a nursemaids elbow. I had never heard of it, but apparently it is very common in toddlers. He said there was nothing to worry about, double checked her arm to make sure everything was in place and sent us on our way home!!! We got there are 1:27 am and got in the car at 1:58 am!! PRAISE THE LORD for fixing my baby's elbow!!!!


Here's a pic of Elizabeth in the ER. She looks so tired, bless her heart!!!



Have any of y'all had this happen with your children? Boy, it sure can give the parents a minor heart attack!!! :)

The first time I saw Rachael Ray make this dish on her show 30 Minute Meals, I just HAD to try it. I mean, who puts grapes in their savory dishes? And how in the world does the grainy mustard figure into the taste? I finally gave it a try, and I was pleasantly surprised- it was quite tasty!! Mr. U liked it a lot and he was so sure that grapes in the dish would be horrible!!!

Here's the recipe as it is from Rachael Ray. Below are any changes that I made.


Vicki's Favorite Chicken with Grapes and Couscous

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
1/4 cup all-purpose flour, eyeball it
2 pounds chicken tenders
1/2 cup white wine, eyeball it
2 1/2 cups chicken stock (available on soup aisle in paper boxes), divided
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup grainy, stone-ground mustard
1 1/2 cups, about 1/2 pound, seedless red grapes, halved
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
2 cups couscous

Heat a large skillet over medium to medium high heat; add 2 tablespoons
extra-virgin olive oil, 2 turns of the pan, and 2 tablespoons butter to the pan.
Place flour in a shallow dish. Season chicken with salt and pepper then dredge the
tenders in flour and add it to the pan. Cook chicken 7 to 8 minutes until browned.
Add wine and scrape up browned bits as wine cooks down and bubbles, 30 seconds.
Add 1/2 cup stock to skillet. Combine cream and mustard and add to stock. Add
grapes to the pan and turn chicken and grapes to coat and combine with the sauce.
Simmer 5 minutes over low heat.

Bring remaining 2 cups chicken stock and fresh thyme to a boil in a small pot. Add couscous. Put a tight fitting lid on pot and remove from heat. Let stand 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork.

Serve tenders and grapes on couscous.



My changes...
- I do not cook with or drink any alcohol. I substituted chicken broth for the white wine. (You can find more alcohol substitutions here.)
- My grocery store did not have fresh thyme this week, so I used about 3/4 teaspoon of dried thyme instead.
- I did not use heavy cream. I substituted with half and half.


UPDATE: We had some of this leftover and Mr. U ate it the next day. He said he did not care for it as a leftover meal because the grapes got kind of mushy. Just in case anyone wondered... :)

I am so blessed. I do not get bug bites. I have no idea why (anyone have any ideas??), but insects just don't like me (which is fine because I don't like them, either!!). For the rest of my family, though, that isn't the case.

Elizabeth seems to get mosquito bites more than anyone else here in the house. I guess because her skin is so soft and, well, because she's the sweetest one here. Last summer, I would try my best to get her to stop scratching, but I lost almost every battle.

On Monday, she got her first mosquito bite of the summer and it was a doozy. It was on her ankle. Bless her heart, I am sure it was itching her to death. So, what did I do? I Googled "stop mosquito bite from itching". HAHA!! Doesn't every good mother Google for help these days? :)

Anyway, the first thing I read was to put a piece of tape over the bite. Strange. But guess what? IT WORKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Elizabeth did not touch the area of the bite all night long!! And Tuesday there was only a tiny red area there, but still, she did NOT scratch it!!!

So Scotch tape DEFINITELY works for me and mosquito bites!!!!

I've been absent from blogging for a week now!! Poor Elizabeth had a horrible fever last week for 3 days. No matter what we did, the fever would not go away. We finally took her to the doctor on Friday (after she had thrown up- sorry to be so blunt) and he was unsure what she had. He first thought it was roseola, but a rash never appeared. Then he thought maybe she had a urinary tract infection and wanted us to go back to see him yesterday (Monday).

Well, on Saturday, she woke up and the fever was gone!! She wasn't 100% herself, though, and didn't eat much but had a fairly normal attitude. She slept rough Saturday night, but woke up Sunday morning with no fever again AND acted just like her normal self all day!! She even ate like normal (she may be tiny, but she can EAT!!!!) so we knew that all was well.

We called the doctor yesterday and he said not to come in unless we thought she wasn't completely over the strange illness. So, we've been watching her carefully and she is still feeling wonderful!!! Praise the Lord!!!

Every time Elizabeth has been sick, I am shocked at how quickly my mind will assume the "worse case scenario". I often will forget that the Lord has clearly told me to "Trust the Lord with all my heart and lean NOT on my own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." (Proverbs 3:5-6)

So... I prayed last week. A lot. And here I sit, typing my blog post and watching Elizabeth run around the house smiling and giggling. I love my girl and I am so thankful that He has made her well.

Yes, that is a REAL picture! That pile of icky dryer lint was recently pulled out of our dryer BY ME!!! OH MY STARS!!! And I clean the lint filter off EVERY TIME I use the dryer!!!

Take a few minutes, please, and clean out the lint from your dryer. You certainly don't want this to catch on fire!! Keep your family safe and your dryer vent clean!

Guess who's 2 today??