Brrrrr! Broccoli Cheddar Soup

We are hunkered down.  Everyone is home and we are NOT going out until this blizzard stops blowing.  The wind is blowing like crazy but inside it is nice & warm.  I know my family & tonight they are going to be looking for some warm yummy food. 

So I am baking bread & making soup for supper.  Well I have that planned & they girls will be making it.   Ha!

This Happy Honey Wheat Bread recipe is delicious! 

Don’t feel guilty if you have to have a piece right out of the oven with lots of butter & cinnamon/sugar sprinkled on it.

Tonight’s soup will be . . .

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

4 cups diced broccoli

1/2 tsp basil

1/4 tsp thyme

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup chopped onion

4 cups chicken broth

1/3 cup cornstarch

2 cups instant dry milk

2-3 cups grated cheddar cheese

(Optional:  2 cups diced chicken and 1 cup dry brown rice)

Chop up broccoli & cook until tender in 2 cups of water.  Add spices & onion as the broccoli is cooking.  Mix4 cups of broth, cornstarch and milk powder in a separate bowl—you can do this in your blender if you want.  Combine with broccoli and cook until sauce is thickened.  Add 2 cups of cheese & stir until melted.  Additional cheese can be added to the top of the soup or in individual bowls.

If you want a higher protein meal you can add about 2 cups of cooked diced chicken.  I also have a large portion of my family that claims this soup needs brown rice in it.  I cook the rice(1 cup) in 2 cups water while I am preparing the rest of the soup.  I add both chicken and rice to this recipe & it is perfect for a cold wintery day. 

What warm comfort food are you reaching for tonight?

Gratituesday: Getting Caught Up

There are battles we face every day. 

This week it has been the battle of doing things I DON’T want to do. 

Like grade papers.

Homeschooling has many joys.  I love reading aloud to the kids.  Teaching them to cook & work around the house reaps all kinds of benefits.  Drawing, logic problems, even writing thank you notes are no problem.  However when I look at the evil basket full of math, grammar, science, literature & history papers to grade.  I sort of just wilt and groan.  My kids are just too self motivated.  Is there such a thing?  The girls just keep working even if I am not keeping up with them.

I’ve tried many things to keep caught up. 

--Grade everything that comes in on the same day.  Works until we have to leave the house in the afternoon(grading time).

--Grade at night.  My motivation to do this just flies out the window when hubby comes home.  I have to have some time where I am a wife not a school teacher.

--Get up early.  This actually works pretty well but since surgery I haven’t convinced my body to rise before 7.  Working on that one.

So I spent the whole afternoon yesterday grading.

Then Steve rescued me.

They closed work early today, due to the blizzard like conditions, so he was back home by 10 am.  Yipee!  We were working hard on school.  Here is how the conversation went

Steve: “Well I should be doing “something” since everyone is work here.”

Me: (Light bulb moment)  “Well you could grade Physical Science for me, but only if you want to”  Hopeful expression on my face.

He actually did it!  I was SO far behind.  I hadn’t graded since Thanksgiving due to the holiday, doctor appointments & then surgery.  Wow he graded for 2 full hours & got me caught up all the way!  I only have to enter the points into my computer program!  I would do a happy dance if the crutches allowed it!

Confession time.  I procrastinate about Science when it gets in the high school years.  I am not as confident in those areas so it is AWESOME when Steve grades because his expertise is in that area.  He is taking a well deserved break as it snows & blows.  And I am going to work on history and literature—smiling all the way with gratitude to my wonderful hubby.

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

Menu Planning—for a month

Some days I really don’t like the weather man.  Nothing personal but in the winter he hardly ever has good news.

Ice?  Snow?  Frigid temperatures?

See what I mean? 

The forecast is keeping me seriously homebound.

One REALLY amazing thing is that I don’t need to make a run to the grocery store!  Yesterday hubby & I hit Hy-vee to pick up some on sale items but we didn’t NEED any of them.  About a month ago, Elizabeth & I sat down & planned a month’s worth of meals.  She was going to be cooking the majority of the meals so I wanted her input & for her to see the process that I use to do this.

How to plan for a month

1.  Check the pantry & freezer—first I had her go through & make a list of what we had.  Those items need to be used first, if possible.

2.  Print a calendar or if you like Excel there are some great templates at Vertex42.  I use the 2 week menu planner because I plan all 3 meals each day.  You have to when you are home all day with hungry children!

3.  Decide on a plan.  Are you going to use up all the old meals first?  Do you want the same kind of meal on a specific day of the week?(ie Mexican Monday, Crockpot Tuesday etc) I knew we were going to have meals brought to us for about a week this month so I didn’t plan those days.  Then I looked at what kinds of meat we had on hand.  Lots of chicken, some pork & hamburger.  I try not to over load any one week with too much a single kind of meat.

4.  Fill in the blanks.  Don’t feel like you need 30 different breakfast, lunches or suppers.  I repeat lots!  In fact this month I made a two week menu plan and just repeated it.  Easy peasy.

5.  Make a grocery list.  Look at what you have & what you still need to put on your list.  Don’t forget stuff like chips, sour cream, etc.  The sides are important too so add what might be good with your meals.

6.  Clean out the frig & do a quick organize of your pantry.   It makes life easier when you bring home all those groceries!

7.  Go to the store(s).  Take a snack, drink & a list.  This can be a big job—go prepared.

8.  Relax a bit.  Isn’t a great feeling that you won’t have to make a grocery store trip for much?  Steve is so good about picking things up for me.  We’ve had to pick up fresh fruit, milk, eggs & things like that but NO major parts of the meals. 

This is seriously saving us some $.  We normally spend around $600 for our family of 6.  So far for the month I am $150 under budget and we have a TON of food in the freezer/pantry still.  One of my goals is to shrink our grocery bill.  I have been using coupons but not lately for various reasons.  I may need to go back to planning/shopping for a month at a time for a while & see if it helps me reach my goal more than coupons did.

We did have meals brought in for a week so that affects things.  I would say about $75-80 worth of the amount I spent was in stocking up.  I bought $60 worth of chicken for batch cooking that will last us for several months.  I also was cooking college food for my oldest that will last for a couple of months.  He loves being able to pull a meal out of the freezer rather than going over to the dorm for a meal.  Overall I am super pleased with this months outcome on the grocery budget!

A stripe scarf

The plan was to crochet a scarf while I recuperated. 

That and finish my rag rug.

As usual the best laid plans have gone awry.

Crutches make your arms hurt & making the rug does take some arm strength so the rug is on hold until the arms feel better.

I started to crochet the scarf but I didn’t like the way it looks.

My daughter Megan makes wonderful scarfs & hats with her Knifty Knitter round looms. 

So she took pity on me & I am making a scarf with her loom.  I love how it looks & it is about half way done! 

Thanks Megan!

Finer Things Friday: Initiative

I am SO blessed to have GREAT friends. 

Once a month we get together to scrapbook at church.  Since this month I am kinda homebound they agreed to come here for the evening.  I am so looking forward to some girl time!!!  Yes!

(As I look around my house) Ahhh what was I thinking? 

It is Friday—which means things have gotten really bad.  We pick up each day but things are slipping.  Sigh.

Well I guess if they are my friends they won’t mind right?

Or maybe they will help me pick it up?

On the other hand I was able to work on the kitchen counter a bit as the piles in there had gotten pretty high.  My little guy was my legs.  I hand him things & he runs them where they belong.  Hmmm good lesson for him!  We even lit a candle! 

Mmmm smells good. 

Next I will tackle the other counter & my desk area.  One tiny baby step at a time.

I was so pleased with that but then I hopped(grin) to my bedroom & discovered a little elf had made my bed. 

I still cannot do that alone.  I am pretty sure I know who did it but WOW to find it done with out asking. 

Initiative is truly a finer thing.  So are Relationships—I posted about that earlier this week & I had a hard time choosing which was my Friday Finer Thing.

For more Friday Finer Things head over to