Thursday, February 13, 2014

Homemade Creamy Tomato Soup


Since we had a snow day today, I made us some Homemade Creamy Tomato Soup with Snowman whole wheat grilled cheese sammies!! The soup was a big hit with everyone {even me & I HATE tomatoes!!}.

These are the ingredients you'll need {I forgot to add the flour in the picture}.
 
Dice your celery & onions, really fine!!
 
Sautee your veggies in 3 TBSP butter until they're tender.
 
When your veggies are tender, add 3TBSP of flour and combine VERY well.
 
 
Once you've gotten the flour combined with the veggies, slowly add in the milk.
 
Next, add in your salt, sugar & pepper. Combine very well!
Let your milk/veggie mix boil and thicken.
 
While your milk mixture boils and thicken, puree your canned tomatoes.
 
Once you've gotten your tomatoes pureed, add them into the milk mixture.

Mix very well and let all ingredients combine and heat through.
 
 
 
Easy Creamy Tomato Soup (via Southernfood)
 
 
INGREDIENTS:
  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 1/4 c. chopped onion (I used 1/4 of an onion)
  • 1/4 c. chopped celery (I used 1 stalk of celery)
  • 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
  • 3 cups milk (I used 2 1/2)
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1/4 tsp. black pepper
  • 2 (14.5oz) cans diced tomatoes, undrained (I used 1 large can)
 
DIRECTIONS:
 
Heat butter in a Dutch oven. Add chopped onion and celery; cook, stirring, until tender. Stir flour into veggie mix, stirring until well incorporated. Slowly stir in milk and add the sugar, salt, and pepper. Continue to heat, stirring, until the mixture thickens and begins to boil.
 
Puree tomatoes in a blender. Heat tomatoes in a separate sauce pan (I add directly to my milk mix) and gradually add them to the first mixture, stirring constantly. If desired, garnish with freshly grated parmesan cheese or fresh chopped basil leaves!!
 
 
 
 



Snow Day!!

 
Here in Concord, NC, we {HARDLY EVER} get any snow. If we do manage to get snow, it's just enough to be considered a teaser.
 
Toward the end of January, we got some snow and it closed school for a day or so and then everyone was back to normal. Well, this week we got a "dumper" as my mom calls it. For northerner's it isn't that bad, but when you're in the south....Lord Help!
We started seeing snow Tuesday afternoon and the schools closed early and cancelled for Wednesday.
And of course, school is closed again today. In all fairness, we've gotten 6-8" of snow, sleet, and plain out ice so far.
 
With all that said, the kids are home from school, the hubs is home from work, and I'm off today {hopefully tomorrow, too}. So, we've played outside until we were almost human popsicles.....



 
We played our hearts out, came in had some hot chocolate and then had lunch! I made snowman grilled cheese (ya know, we had to have snowmen since it's snowing! LOL!) and homemade creamy tomato soup!!

Saturday, February 1, 2014

{Wal-Mart}: Garnier Fructis Shampoo--$.96!

Who doesn't love a good shampoo!?! I know I do. BUT, I don't like paying the expensive price for it. So I was happy when I found this at Wal-Mart this morning.
 
Here's how the deal goes:
Garnier Fructis Shampoo = $2.96
Use $2/1 any GF shampoo or conditioner coupon
Pay $.96!!!

{Wal-Mart}: Quaker Instant Oatmeal cups--$.60!

There was a coupon in the paper for $.75 off of 2 quaker instant oatmeal. The coupon doesn't specify if it has to be the cups or boxed oatmeal. Well, I found these beauties at Wal-Mart today for $.98 each.
 
The deal goes like this:
Buy 2 Quaker Instant Oatmeal Cups @ $.98/ea = 1.96
Use your $.75/2 coupon
Pay $1.21 or $.60 per cup!!
 

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Crazy Carolina Weather....

Here lately, NC has had some silly weather. One day we're in the 60's and the next we're in the 30's! How much sense does that make?!?! I think mother nature is just confused and can't make up her mind! LOL! Monday it was sunny and pretty, 63 degree weather.
 
We enjoyed milkshakes.
 
And we went to visit pawpaw at work..............
 


 
THEN.....................

Yesterday, Concord (where we live) had it's first {SNOW} of the year!! Along with a high of about 26!  I don't about you but I, along with the kiddos, was quite excited!!

The kids went out about 7:30 last night and had a snowball fight!! The pictures are kind of dark, but hey...cell phone quality isn't always the best......







 

 
We finished up our night off with some H*O*T C*H*O*C*O*L*A*T*E!!

***I DON'T KNOW WHY MY PICTURES CAME THROUGH SIDEWAYS! LOL!***

Here's a little (dark) video of my babies livin' it up during their snowball fight with daddy...........

 

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Day 10: Snow Angel!

I think Candy Cane may be starting to get home sick............

She got into the sugar and made a "snow" angel! I think she misses all that north pole snow!

Monday, December 9, 2013

DIY: Candy Cane Wreath

I found this idea on Facebook and thought I'd give it a try.
 
According to the facebook post, you need:
  • 20 candy canes {Arranged as above}
  • Tie them two by two facing each other,...
  • You can hot glue a decoration to the center to keep the ends together
  • Glue small round ornaments to each set you tied.
  • Hang with ribbon.
I decided to give it a try and this is my version:
 
This cost breakdown for my wreath is:
$1.63 for the candy canes
$3.33 for the small ornaments
$.33 for the center snowflake
 
Grand Total: $5.29