Menu Plan Monday: Nov 8th

Fall menus are so much more fun to make than summer ones! I much prefer making those hearty, stick-to-your-ribs kind of meals that are so good in the cooler weather. This past week we had a couple of really good soups that I'm sharing with you today.

Chicken Enchilada Soup
1 can (15 oz.) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (14.5 oz.) diced tomatoes
1 pkg (10 oz.) frozen corn
1/2 cups onion, chopped
1/2 cups red pepper, diced
1 can (10 oz.) enchilada sauce
1 can (10.75 oz.) cream of chicken soup
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1-1/2 cups milk
2 whole chicken breasts
1 cup pepper jack cheese, shredded
sour cream
crushed tortilla chips
*****
In a 3-1/2 -5 qt. slow cooker, combine beans, tomatoes, corn, onion and bell pepper. Place chicken breasts on top of mixture. In a large bowl, whisk together enchilada sauce, soup , cumin and chili powder. Gradually whisk in milk until smooth. Pour sauce mixture over ingredients in cooker. Cover and cook on low heat for 6-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours.
Remove chicken and cut or shred into bite-sized pieces. Add chicken back into the soup. Serve with a dollop of sour cream, a sprinkling of pepper jack cheese and crushed tortilla chips on top.

Bean Soup
(Susan Branch)
1-1/2 lbs. smoked ham hocks*
1 lb. dried small white beans**
3 sliced carrots, sliced
3 stalks celery, chopped
2 medium onions, chopped
2 bay leaves
Salt & Pepper, to taste
Water to cover
*****
Put all ingredients in a soup pot. Bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer partially covered for 3-4 hours. It will get very thick, so add water when you think it needs it. Somewhere down the line remove the ham hocks from the soup and cool them. Cut the meat off the bones, discard the fat and return the meat and bones to the pot. When you're ready to serve, remove the bones and bay leaves and bring out some crusty bread and serve!
*I used a ham steak instead, chopped up.
**I used Great Northern beans, but Navy beans would be great, too.

Here's what's on the plan for this week:

Monday: Beef Veggie Soup
Tuesday: Feisty Fajitas with Rice
Wednesday: Tostadas
Thursday: {dinner out for my dad's birthday}
Friday: French Dip Sandwiches

Saturday: Leftovers/Snacks

Happy Cooking to you this week!

This post is linked to Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

The Making of an Egyptian Death Mask

We are learning all about the ancient world this year with Story of the World I and loving it! We've been learning a lot about Egypt, of course, which is completely fascinating. Most recently we have studied the New Kingdom of Egypt, which includes the story of King Tut. So we decided making an Egyptian death mask in the style of King Tut's would be a fun project. First since it was too cold at the time to paper mache in the garage (it probably would have frozen instead of dried-ha) and it was too messy to do it in the house, we decided to pick up a couple of cheap craft masks at Hobby Lobby. Next we cut out cardboard shapes to complete the shape of the death mask, attaching them with hot glue. Vince even put a little detail on the *beard* with the hot glue per The Princess' request. Then the kiddos started to paint them with this metallic gold tempera paint. It worked okay for the cardboard, but would not coat the plastic of the mask. We thought maybe a second coat ...

Door Hanger Chore Charts

My kids have had a chore chart for a while. It's one of those magnetic boards and they share it. However, it's not by their rooms and often they (and I) forget to update it. Plus it's a little bulky. When I saw the concept of a door hanger chore chart on Pinterest, I loved it! It was compact, right there were the kiddos could see it coming out and going into their rooms, and it costs almost nothing to make. I headed over to one of my favorite stores: Hobby Lobby, of course. They have these little wooden door hangers for .79. I also grabbed a couple of packets of decorative buttons for $1.99 each. I already had the clothes pins and the paint so those cost me nothing. I began by painting the door hangers (I used tempera paints because that's what I had). Then I grabbed a fine point Sharpie and the clothes pins and started writing chores on them, making sure to write them correctly so they will ...

Making Notebooks

Recently I tried out a new craft idea~and it was SO much fun!! And extremely frugal, too. That's always a bonus, right? So here we go: 1. Take your basic composition notebook (purchased at the back-to-school sales for .99 each). 2. Go to your craft supplies and get your Mod Podge ready, along with a good paintbrush. 3. Look through all those scrapbook papers you've been randomly collecting and choose some. 3. After choosing your paper for the cover of your book and trimming it to fit, start *painting* the cover with the glue. Next, give the back of your paper a good coat of glue, too. (I left the binding uncovered so that I could use a contrasting paper there later on). 4. Glue it on! Remember to smooth out any air bubbles under the paper. 5. Flip the cover open and make a few cuts on the corners so that they will fold over nice and neat, then add a little more glue to the edges of the inside cover and a little more to the paper edges. 6. Fold them over and press...

my blessed life

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