Requested Recipe and Sick Day Projects

Monday was a no school day.  End of trimester, teacher grading day, something or other.  So two of the kiddos and I headed into town.  We stopped at the Goodwill to browse around and I discovered a whole bin of baggies full of old jewelry for $2 each.  So I rummaged through and picked out a few bags.  Tuesday Z. ended up being home from school sick.  Bummer.  Sick days at home with kiddos is not so great for my hours but great for catching up on projects swimming in your head.  I got busy with those bags of jewelry.  Necklaces quickly got taken apart and I finally got to use this pretty awesome pin I found months and months ago and beads from another vintage necklace I bought and took apart.

I also put to use these red components that I found on clearance at Joann's for 49 cents a package.  Gonna give these a test drive in Chicago this weekend.

And, as requested by a super cute new mommy, following is the recipe for the Spicy Vegetable Beef Soup I posted pictures of awhile back.  It is pretty yummy.  If you want Rachel to come over for dinner just tell her this is being served and she will be there in a heart beat.

1/2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 Cup finely diced carrots
1/2 Cup finely diced celery
1/2 Cup finely diced red onion
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 large jalapeño, finely diced
1 32 oz box fat free, reduced sodium chicken broth
1 32 oz box fat free, reduced sodium beef broth
1/2 cup diced green chilies (canned or fresh)
1 can diced tomatoes with green chilies
1 cup cooked rice (white or brown)
1 pound lean ground beef

Saute onions, carrots, and celery in olive oil until softened.  Add broth, garlic, green chilies, and jalapeños.  Let cook for 10 minutes.

While that is cooking brown the ground beef and cook the rice.  Add cooked rice and drained ground beef into pot.  Add can of tomatoes.  Let all simmmer for at least 20 minutes.

Very easy to adjust to your desired heat level.  I added serano peppers the other day for extra heat.  Very yummy.  Oh, and if you happen to be grilling, grill up an extra steak or two and substitute that in for the ground beef.  YUMMMMY!!  Sometimes I also throw a handful of cilantro in at the end just before serving.  Make a double batch for leftovers!  And for those of you that really want to know.  This delicious and hearty soup is 3 PointsPlus per cup.  YUM!!!!

And I know I am behind on our Monday dessert posts, but I keep forgetting to take pictures.  Last Monday at Tamara's we had mini chocolate chip cookies.  Yum!  And this Monday A. baked for us and made red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  Yum!  Our Monday dessert night was cancelled due to a tornado watch (yikes) so picture taking was forgotten about.  No tornadoes near our house though thank goodness.  A friend of ours spotted and got video of one near Mt. Pleasant and the news reported on one that touched down 30 or 40 minutes from here.  Scary stuff!

Anyway, I think that is enough Yum!'s for one day.  I think I will go out and enjoy the sunshine since it is March and almost 70 outside!  No, that is not a typo, we are having marvelous weather right now.