Winter Soup

Winter Soup-Makes 14 servings
2 lbs ground beef
3 onions chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
3 cans beef broth(10.5oz ea)
1 can diced tom.
3 c water
1 c. diced carrots
1 c. diced celery
1 c green beans(I used frozen)
1 c. peeled and cubed potatoes
2 tsp parsley
2 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp thyme
(you can again add salt and pepper if you like, but I prefer not to)

Cook the beef and onions in a skillet until meat is brown and onions are soft.  Add garlic and cook for a bit longer like a min or two. Drain.  Add all ingred to slow cooker (5qt), stir in meat mixture.  Cook on high for 8hrs or until heated all the way through.
*Note: I also cooked this one on the stove since I was making several at a time for 3 hrs.  Once it was done, I transferred to freezer bags.  Label and date the bags so you always know which ones to use first! Also cool at room temp for a bit and then put in fridge, this will help it avoid freezer shock as it will still be hot and you don't want to add piping hot to a freezer!!
Yummy!

Beef Barley Soup

Beef Barley Soup- Makes 8 Servings (in our case 4meals)

1.5 lbs of beef stew meat
1 TBSP olive oil
1 can diced tom
1 chopped onion
1 c. diced celery
1/2 c. chopped green pepper
4 c beef broth
2 c water
1 c Spag. sauce
2/3 c barely
1 TBSP Parsley
1/5 tsp basil
(you can put salt and pepper in but I don't add salt to any of my food)

Brown meat in a skillet with olive oil. Drain. In a 5-qt slow cooker combine the rest of the ingred.  Stir in beef.  Cover and cook on low for 9-10 hrs or until meat is tender.
*Note: I made several soups at a time, so I just made this in a big pot on my stove and it took about 3 hrs with the burner set on 7.
I then separated it into Ziploc bags, labeled and dated them for future use, as I said I made several at a time so I could not obviously eat them all at once. Very excited to eat later though.  Comes out smelling a lot like stew but definitely a lot soupier(if that is a word, well it is now!)
Enjoy:)

Freezer Meals

So I have been going absolutely crazy with Freezer meals lately since we got our big deep freeze(it's 17.5 cu ft).  I am so excited about finally having one, that I can't wait to fill it.  I have been cooking different things a couple of days, but still have several days left of cooking.  I will be posting all my recipes on here so look for them, as they are all delicious. I must for worn though, I love good southern style cookin' so lots of cheese, garlic, and onion!!  I will probably post a bunch today and then hopefully be slowly adding more as I create some more in my wonderful kitchen.  I absolutely love to cook, but with an almost 8mo old baby, I never know how my morning is going to go.  I work in the evenings so our big meal of the day is at lunch and then we have a smaller meal for dinner. (which may be healthier not quite sure, but I know that is how all the old farmers used to eat, at least so I have been told by all my good friends at work)  I'm a bit slow with computer technology so I will figure out how to eventually link them all to one page so they are easier to find, but it may take me some time. Did I mention I am fairly busy at the moment???  I also watch two other little cuties two days a week, and go to a Bible study an hr away on Wed, so that take pretty much my whole day up.  Any way I will stop rambling and get some of these recipes posted for your convenience I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
Happy Cookin'

Swagbucks

Swagbucks....Need I say more!  I have just figured this search engine out and let me tell you I wish I would have found it a long time ago.  You get rewards for searching for items.  You get rewards if you use coupons from the site, once you redeem them, but still who doesn't love some coupons that can do double duty.  So any way if you haven't checked out this site yet you need to! It is absolutely amazing.

Busy

It has been a busy and exhausting week so far and it is only Tuesday.  Yesterday I had a ton of energy and was able to get some much needed errands done.  I then crashed hard for the afternoon though and spent it mainly doing nothing, which bugs me but I had absolutely no energy.

 Sunday was a great day, I got to spend it with my husband, and he let me take a nap and listened for the baby so I could get some much needed uninterupted sleep.  He also sanded a bit in our basement which is slowly coming along.  Then we went to youth group and had a great time. 

Today on the other hand has not been productive at all. The lil man was extremely needy this morning and wouldn't let me leave his sight (I was lucky to get to the bathroom without him screaming).  Don't know why just must be an off morning because he has always been such a wonderfully happy baby!  He woke up from his nap much better though and is now all kinds of happy and has let me get the dishes done and some light cleaning.  Now if only my energy level would reboot.  I am draging now and considering taking a nap with him as I can hardly keep my eyes open.  I will post more later, hopefully this weekend I will start posting my freezer meals as I have made quite a bit but just haven't uploaded the pictures to put on here yet.

Well off for a small nap!

Wonderful Day

So today was absolutely wonderful.  It only got up to 80, it has been over 100 for way to many days, and was definitely a welcomed event!  So the walk to church was wonderful as it was only like 70 this morning.  We also were able to have a fire outside!  One of my favorite things, I love out door fires and my wonderful mom bought us a fire pit for Christmas when we first moved into our house. So it was great to all be able to sit around the fire in the wonderful fall air. What a wonderful Sunday.  Oh and the little monkey also let us take a nice long nap this afternoon.  I'm telling you, it doesn't get much better than this!

Knit Elf Hat-Baby

I have a friend that loves photography and does an amazing job at it who wanted an elf hat for her newborn son, so she asked me if I could make one.  And I of course, said sure thing!  So here is the pattern that I used.

Note: This was a very quick knit because I was knitting 3 yarns together making it extra thick and fun.

3 balls of yarn(whatever suits you, we used the kind with the balls in it, so it woud have a fun texture)
size 10 needles(again this is big but it's because of how thick the yarn was going to be)

Note: I also always knit my baby hats on straight needls and sew up the side, it is easier for me then trying to do it on the round or double pointed.

Cast on 20 stitches (prob could have done 25)
Knit until hat is 4in in length
Knit 1, Knit 2tog, knit remaining stitches
Continue the decrease pattern until you have half your stitches left.
Knit 6 rows
Knit 1, Knit 2tog, knit remaning stiches
Continue decrease pattern until you have 5 stitches left
Knit until hat is a long as you want it
*I like my elf hat to come down past the base of the hat about 2 in
Cut yarn leave a long tail (don't cast off or remove stitches from needle yet)
Then out of the yarn cut a whole bunch of 18in pieces-I had a total of 15
I then threaded three pieces of yarn into each of the remaining stitches and made them fold in half(so the half way point was by the stitch-therefore making it 6 strands instead of 3
Next braid all the yarns together and tie at the end.  Leaving a nice full tail.
Note:I also added some more yarn pieces to the bottom just to give it some more fun frilly stuff.

This is one of my beautiful friends babies, with the hat on! Isn't it cute????