Salsa Chicken and Black Bean Soup

I am posting this on my blog because several people have asked about it and this is a nice central location that I can point everyone to.

I'm trying to broaden my horizons when it comes to healthy cooking.  I love healthy food and find that my two biggest obstacles to healthy cooking are 1)  I have very little time to cook in my day  2)  I get tired of the same old thing over and over again.  So I posted a recipe request on Facebook and I'm on a mission to try some new things.  I may have many more posts like this one in the near future.  We'll just see how ambitious I am!  : )

So anyways . . . I got this one from "A Year of Slow Cooking"  You can click here to see the full recipe.

What I changed:

I used pinto beans instead of black beans (they were what I had on hand - black beans would probably be better, but pinto beans definitely worked well.)

I pressure cooked my beans.  She recommends 2 solutions for dealing with dry beans.  1)  Soak them overnight the night before - nice idea, but I wasn't that prepared.  2)  Do a 2 hour "quick soak" and then cook the soup on high for 9 hours - yes 9 HOURS!  That would have left us eating dinner at 7:00pm, so I researched a 3rd option.  I pressure cooked them for 15 minutes!  (Put the beans in the pressure cooker and filled it half way with hot water)  That sure beats that stupid soaking.  Then I cooked the soup on high for about 7 hours.

I left off the garnishes.  I had sour cream on the table, planning to use it, but I completely forgot about it.  It really didn't need it.

All in all it was a really fabulous recipe!  It was very filling . . . one bowl of soup was plenty for each of us.  I served it with corn tortillas because I had them on hand - not a great addition, but it was something.  I also doubled the recipe.  We'll probably eat of of this for 3 more meals.  Now THAT is what I call smart cooking!  : )

A New Sister-in-Law!

Well, before too long anyway!

Congrats to Joel & Laura who just got engaged yesterday!  We're excited for you both!

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice . . .

I was totally a tom-boy.  No tea parties.  My years playing with dolls and playing dress-up were very short lived.  But I must say, I love watching my girls being girly . . .

They have tons of pretend tea parties, and they love them.  Today I decided to treat them to the real thing.  Yes, real tea with real milk and real sugar.  They were in 7th heaven!  Of course, I didn't have a whole lot of "tea party foods" on hand, so they had to settle for celery and popcorn : )

Pouring your milk into your tea takes immense concentration when you're 5!

Yum!

I guess you could call them imaginitive . . .

I knew that they were playing in my bathroom.  I didn't really know what they were doing.  (In fact I'm still not sure!)  They informed me that they had cleaned my bathroom for me.  But this is what I found . . .

Yes, the poor cats were being held hostage.

And yes, Ali has an entire bed made up in my bathtub.

Notice the bowls of cat food on the counter? They were very concerned about the cats having food (b/c they were locked in the bathroom with them). Strange that it never dawned on them that a litter box might be a necessity also . . .

And of course, it wouldn't be a Patton-girl adventure without plenty of reading material!

What little nut-jobs I've raised.  At least they had fun, and no harm was done!  : )

Happy V-Day!

Today was our school Valentine's Day party.  This is a Patton-Alligood joint venture, and one that the kids have been looking foward to for a LONG time!  Ali & Emma began making their valentines weeks ago.  The mailboxes were all ready . . . and finally the big day arrived . . .

We began the festivities with a "Heart Hunt."  264 little paper hearts were cut out and hidden around the house.  The big kids hunted in the basement, while the littles hunted upstairs.  They loved this!

Meg found one inside her computer!  : )

The little ones needed lots of prompting. "Hey Julie, why don't you check in the school basket?" You can see much of her stash spilled out on the floor! : )

Emma hunting on the bookshelves.

Ali thought it was pretty awesome that one was hidden in the cat food!

And the winner is . . .

Megan for the littles . . . .

and Ali for the big kids.  Big heart suckers were the prize.  They were a huge hit!

Time for food!  The table is all ready!  (Yes, that IS a Barbie flat sheet for a table cloth!)

On the menu today:

*  Pink rice krispy treats

*  Strawberries

*  Pink milk

While they were eating they each took turns delivering their valentines.  What fun!  Later they enjoyed Valentine's themed tic-tac-toe, maze, word search and coloring pages.  And last but not least, some free play time!

What a great bunch of kids!