Pinterest Party & Link-up (Vol 18): Moroccan Style Chickpea Chili

By bobbi
February 11, 2014
No Comments

Welcome to the RoL Pinterest Party. Join me every 2nd and 4th Tuesday as we link up and share how we made, cooked, baked, crafted, planned, organized, followed or created one of the pins on our Pinterest boards OR share something original that others can pin onto their boards.

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Now that we are trying to cut out the processed food and eat “real” food, I am cooking from scratch more. I have been trying new recipes, particularly ones with anti-cancer foods and spices, like turmeric. One of those new recipes I tried was this Moroccan style chickpea chili.

(Not pictured – Butternut squash. I was out so I used winter squash.

I originally got the recipe from my cookbook – Cooking Light: Slow Cooker Tonight.

I also found the recipe online here. I added it to my board – What’s Cooking in the Slow Cooker.

Ingredients

1 cup dried chickpeas
2 quarts boiling water
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 1/2 cups fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth (Use veggie broth to make this a Meatless Meal.)
1/2 cup water
2/3 cup sliced pimiento-stuffed olives
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes, undrained and crushed
4 cups chopped peeled butternut squash
1 cup frozen green peas, thawed
6 cups hot cooked couscous
8 lime wedges
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

(NOTE: The second time I made this I added 1/2 teaspoon of ginger. I also added a bit more red pepper since is was on the sweeter side.)

Preparation

1. Place chickpeas in a saucepan; add 2 quarts boiling water. Cover and let stand 1 hour; drain. Place beans in a 6-quart slow cooker.
2. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add onion; sauté 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic; sauté 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in tomato paste and next 5 ingredients (through turmeric); sauté 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add onion mixture to slow cooker. Add broth and next 4 ingredients (through tomatoes) to slow cooker; cover and cook on HIGH 8 hours.
3. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil; swirl to coat. Add squash; saute 5 minutes. Add squash to slow cooker. Cover and cook on HIGH 1 hour; stir in peas. Sprinkle with cilantro. Serve over couscous with lime wedges.

As I mentioned, I subbed the butternut for winter squash. I also used brown rice instead of couscous. We loved the flavor and it wasn’t spicy so the kids enjoyed it too. The next time I may try adding a little ginger too. 🙂

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Now it’s your turn.

1. Choose your creation, share about it and snap a photo if you can.

2. In your post, link back the original blogger/idea, rather than your Pinterest pin. That way credit goes to the proper person. 🙂 (But feel free to add your Pinterest profile link so we can follow you!)

3. Add a link back here so others can play along.

4. If you want to use it, here is the html code for the logo:

5. Link up below. Make sure you’re sending us to your actual post, and not to your general blog address.

The link up will be active for 10 days. Have fun!

Lastly, you can follow me on Pinterest here: http://pinterest.com/rol_bobbi/. 🙂

PS – You can follow RoL on Bloglovin, Feedly or another news feed. If you are a social media fan like me, we can stay in touch through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, GoodReads or Instagram. 😉

An InLinkz Link-up

Pinterest Party & Link-up (Vol 17): Catholic Valentine’s Day Cards

By bobbi
January 28, 2014
No Comments

Good morning! I didn’t get Monday’s Downton post up until midnight and this morning I am off to visit Brian so I don’t have time for a new Pinterest Party project. Instead I will repost a craft I did last year. Enjoy! 🙂

Pinterest Pin – Catholic Valentine’s Day Cards

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For the last few days I’ve been looking at Pinterest for Valentine’s Day ideas. Some of the local Catholic moms are getting their kids together for a St. Valentine’s Day party so I was looking for some Catholic valentine inspiration. I didn’t want to give the usual candy with our cards so instead we bought bubbles, Play-Doh and fishy cracker packets. Here are the results.

John-Paul is giving small containers of Play-Doh to his friends so I paired it with Jennifer’s adorable St. Valentine download from CatholicInspired.com.

Instead of gluing St. Valentine to the heart, I taped him to the container of Play Dough. I can either use the blank part of the heart to write each child’s name or just shrink down the heart. (It could also be used as a name tag/table setting for each child.)

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Matthew is giving small bottles of bubbles so I went online and found a photo of Snoopy (a favorite of the kids) and added the words “God’s love blows me away. Happy St. Valentine’s Day!”

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Lastly, Andrew is giving small packs of fishy crackers so I downloaded an image of a little boy fishing and made this valentine. (Note: I purchased the image for $1.25.)

We were pleased with the way they came out. 🙂

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Now it’s your turn.

1. Choose your creation, share about it and snap a photo if you can.

3. Add a link back here so others can play along.

4. If you want to use it, here is the html code for the logo:

5. Link up below. Make sure you’re sending us to your actual post, and not to your general blog address.

The link up will be active for 10 days. Have fun!

Lastly, you can follow me on Pinterest here: http://pinterest.com/rol_bobbi/. 🙂

An InLinkz Link-up

Pinterest Party & Link-up (Vol 16): Slow Cooker Lentil Soup with Kale

By bobbi
January 14, 2014
4 Comments

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In dealing with Brian’s cancer, we have been trying to eat more natural food and stay away from canned and processed food. I was looking for a recipe to make lentil soup in my slow cooker and I came across this recipe from Mary Sperling of OR and pinned it to my boards. I made the soup last night, although I changed the recipe slightly to add more veggies and garlic.

Ingredients:

3 carrots, chopped (I used 5 med carrots.)
3 ribs of celery, chopped (I used 5.)
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, pressed (I used 4 garlic.)
8 cups water or vegetable broth (I used chicken broth this time but I use veggie broth during Lent.)
2 cups lentils, rinsed (I used a 2 lb bag.)
1 tsp. dried thyme

Directions: Put all of these ingredients in the slow cooker. Set it on low if you are leaving it all day, high if you are starting it around lunchtime.

About 10 minutes before you are ready to serve the soup, add:
1 ½ tsp. balsamic vinegar
2 tsp. salt (I used about 1 tsp.)
1 tsp. ground pepper
1 bunch of kale, washed and chopped

Variations:

You can add potatoes if you want more bulk. Add cubed potatoes at the beginning of cooking if you do.

Tomatoes are also good in this dish. Add one 14 ½ ounce can of diced tomatoes at the beginning of cooking if you like. (I haven’t tried any of the variations yet.)

I made the soup without the balsamic and kale since I don’t like the smell of vinegar and prefer my leafy greens raw rather than cooked. It tasted really good and the house smelled great as it was cooking. The next day I rewarmed the soup and added the kale and balsamic. It was still really good and much thicker after sitting in the fridge overnight. Everyone loved the soup and it has been added to our regular family meal list. 🙂

UPDATE: I have since grown accustomed to the taste of kale and love it in the soup. I still haven’t tried tomatoes or potatoes yet. That’s next on the list. 😉

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Now it’s your turn.

1. Choose your creation, share about it and snap a photo if you can.

3. Add a link back here so others can play along.

4. If you want to use it, here is the html code for the logo:

5. Link up below. Make sure you’re sending us to your actual post, and not to your general blog address.

The link up will be active for 10 days. Have fun!

Lastly, you can follow me on Pinterest here: http://pinterest.com/rol_bobbi/. 🙂

An InLinkz Link-up

Pinterest Party & Link-up (Vol 15): Advent & Christmas Edition

By bobbi
December 12, 2013
1 Comment

Welcome to the RoL Pinterest Party. Join me every 2nd Tuesday (yeah, I’m a little late 😉 ) as we link up and share how we made, cooked, baked, crafted, did, or created one of the pins on our Pinterest boards OR share something original that others can pin onto their boards.

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Happy feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe! Happy middle of the second week of Advent!

As usual, I am late in posting my yearly Advent round-up but thankfully, no matter how much you have been slacking in the Advent department, there is still plenty of time to make the most of the next couple of weeks. If you are feeling overwhelmed, just pick one simple thing to do that will help you and your family.

For the rest of you that are on the ball, please link up your Advent and Christmas posts for this month’s Pinterest Party! (For the time being I am going to make the party once a month. If my schedule clears in the future I’ll go back to twice a month.) I love to read your ideas and see your crafts and learn about your recipes. It can be for Advent OR the Christmas season and does not have to be “religious”. So please share!

Okay, for my contribution, this is my pin – “Keeping Christ in Christmas” Advent Ideas. 🙂

The Advent Wreath

Last year we finally needed to make a new Advent wreath since ours was falling apart. After Christmas, I went to Target and picked up a door wreath on clearance. I also replaced our pathetic candle holder that never kept our candles straight no matter what tricks I tried. I finally managed to find three thick purple candles and one pink. Toppling candle problem solved. (It also lessened the boys’ desire to pick them up and use them like swords.)

For daily prayers, we use Sarah Reinhard’s book Welcome Baby Jesus: Advent and Christmas Reflections for Families. It only cost $1.99 at Amazon (and $0.99 on Kindle) but it has wonderful daily reflections that are simple enough for the kids to understand.

In a perfect world, each night we gather around the Advent wreath, light the candle(s), read the day’s reflection out of the book, and say our night prayers. However, it was hit and miss since evenings are hectic with homework, bathing, getting the boys to bed early, prep for the next morning, etc. Family evening prayer was just not happening. So Brian suggested we switch our prayer to before we say our dinner grace. It is the one time in the day when we are always all together at the same time. It has worked out a lot better! Some days we use the reflection book. Other days Brian says a short spontaneous prayer. The main thing is that we are praying something together.

The Advent Calendar

Last year I found this country house Advent calendar at Target and I loved it! I printed out the Children’s Advent Calendar from Loyola Press (they also have one for adults) then I simply cut up the calendar and put the little paper square into the corresponding day. So each day we had one sacrifice or act of kindness that everyone in the family would do.

Each night after our evening/dinner prayers we open the following day’s box and read what we’ll do that day. After we read the activity we then place the slip of paper in Jesus’ stocking. (See below.) At the end of Advent, Jesus has 25 little gifts that we offered for him.

During dinner, when everyone has to share one thing about their day, they can also share how their activity went. (For example, yesterday we had to be a peacemaker so instead of losing my temper and yelling at the kids, I first went into my room and screamed into my pillow, then came out of my bedroom and corrected the boys calmly. They got a kick out of that one.)

If you are looking for a nativity box, Amazon has a pretty Wooden Nativity Advent Calendar with 24 Magnetic Figures. Or if you prefer a wall calendar there is the cute Little People Nativity Advent Calendar. But you certainly don’t need to spend money on these activities! You can make a simple Advent chain out of construction paper, such as the Advent Chain from CatholicMom.com.

The Jesus’ Stocking/ Gift Box

Years back we bought a pretty gold stocking that would be for Jesus. During Advent we all have been making small sacrifices for the Child Jesus and placing those little sacrifices in his stocking. The day before Christmas the kids make and decorate birthday cards for Jesus and the adults use card stock in which they write down an act of love or sacrifice for Jesus. It can be anything from making an extra Holy hour to sharing a toy with a sibling. Some years we make a special wrapped gift with a slot cut out on top so we can slip our cards inside. Other years we simply placed our card in Jesus’ gold stocking. Anything will do as long as offering acts of love for Christ is the focus. (After Christmas I date and save the kids’ cards. The ones the adults made on card stock can be used as a book markers in our prayer books so we’ll remember what we promised Jesus. 😉

A Birthday Party for Jesus

It is a family tradition that on each child’s birthday the dining room table is decorated with a birthday sign and stuffed animals to “greet” them when they wake up. Being Jesus’ birthday, it is only natural that it is celebrated in a similar fashion. Since Christ is the guest of honor, not Santa, our St. Nick plush holds Jesus’ birthday sign. I also place on the table the birthday cake we made for Jesus’ party.

On Christmas morning we all gather around the table that holds the empty manger. We place a large white candle in the center of the advent wreathe and light it. Then Mom or Dad (or an honored sibling) places the child Jesus in his manger and we sing Happy Birthday. Then the festivities begin.

A Nativity Set for the Littles

Anyone with children knows that they are very hands on. They also know how their blood pressure rises every time their little one grabs the ceramic Mary of St. Joseph from the nativity set and starts running down the hallway with it. One of the best investments I ever made was purchasing the Fisher Price Little People Nativity Set. They can be a bit pricey but it was worth it! A nativity scene that the kids can touch and move around makes life sooo much easier. Amazon has the Fisher Price deluxe models and the simple “To Go” Set.

The Spirit of Giving

The boys are packing stockings for soldiers in Afghanistan.

Nothing invokes greediness quite as quickly as a materialistic holiday season. To help conquer this, it is helpful to keep kids (and adults) focused on the spirit of giving, especially those less fortunate. If you have older kids this can be done through working at a soup kitchen, food pantry, or visiting the elderly. Most parishes have programs where you pick a name or number and by a gift for a specific child. Kids, including little ones, can do extra jobs and chores around the house to earn some extra money (or use their tithing money if they get an allowance) in order to buy small gifts for these needy children. Or they can help you buy canned good for the local food bank.

I also try to personalize the children to my kids. Instead of getting a gift for “Girl #96” or “Boy, age 5” I’ll give them a name. So when we go to shop we find the perfect gift for little Juan who just turned 5. Or we pick the kind of soup “Maria” and her Mama would like to have on a cold afternoon. It helps to put a face to the person in need. Remembering someone who is less fortunate through a simple gift or act of kindness, helps to instill generosity and thankfulness for our own blessing. Christmas is a good time to start this process but it can be carried on throughout the year, making giving of oneself not just a holiday thing, but a way of life.

Plan Ahead for Charitable Gifts

This year we had four pet projects.

Adopting military troops and sending care packages to them through AnySoldier.com (although we send packages year round).
Joining the kids’ school with making care packages for Operation Christmas Child.
Joining our parish’s Angel Tree to give gifts to local migrant workers.
Joining Brian’s work and Salvation Army with adopting a local family in need.

I’ll admit that the extra gift giving can add up to a lot of extra money! Luckily, I have been looking for bargains throughout the year. Once a month during one of my many Target visits, I’ll check out the dollar section for various care package items. You can pick up small toiletries, snacks and hand warmers to give to military troops or the homeless or you can find coloring books, games, craft projects, socks etc to fit into a child’s care package. During off-season sales or Pre-Thanksgiving sales or Black Friday sales I find generic gifts like baby dolls or skateboards for the Angel Tree children. To help the kids understand sacrificing for others, we’ll give away some of their older toys to St. Vincent de Paul and as a family we’ll give up one of our “Pizza Nights” and eat sandwiches or leftovers instead. The money we saved goes towards buying gifts and food for others.

With a little creativity, planning and sacrifice, you can make your charitable gift giving more affordable for your family. (NOTE – If you are anything like me, you may also want to download the free printable from the post Keeping Track of Your Hidden Gifts from Orgjunkie.com. I wish I had that last year because I have two Christmas presents that I know I bought but I can’t figure out where I stinkin hid them! LOL)

There are numerous other ways to keep Christ in Christmas but these are just a few suggestions that we practice. With a little imagination (and the prompting of the Holy Spirit) you can start your own family traditions of truly living Christmas!

The Advent Christmas Planner

Source

If you need more ideas and feast day projects, I recommend you check out Catholic Icing’s e-book The Advent Christmas Planner.

(You can also read these suggestions from Catholic families that I posted last year.)

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Now it’s your turn.

1. Choose your creation, share about it and snap a photo if you can.

3. Add a link back here so others can play along. Here is the html code:

4. Link up below. Make sure you’re sending us to your actual post, and not to your general blog address.

The link up will be active until January 5, 2014. Have fun!

Lastly, you can follow me on Pinterest here: http://pinterest.com/rol_bobbi/. 🙂

An InLinkz Link-up

Pinterest Party & Link-up (Vol 14): Slow Cooker Beef Stew

By bobbi
November 11, 2013
No Comments

Welcome to the RoL Pinterest Party. Join me every 2nd and 4th Tuesday as we link up and share how we made, cooked, baked, crafted, did, or created one of the pins on our Pinterest boards.

Not on Pinterest? No problem. Link-up your own creation to inspire us so we can pin it to our own boards. It can be a recipe, sewing project, Catholic craft, homeschool project, organizing/ homemaking tip, themed birthday party, whatever you’d like. Don’t have a post ready? The link-up will be open for 10 days so there’s still time. Plus, feel free to link up a new post or an older post that hasn’t had much traffic lately. Don’t have a blog? No problem. Tell us about it in the comment box. Or post your photo and a description on the RoL Facebook page. 🙂

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For our wedding Brian and I received a slow cooker and the first recipe I made was from the little recipe booklet that came with the cooker. It was for an easy Beef Stew. That was nearly 14 years ago. The cooker has since died and the recipe was lost when we moved from our apartment into our current home. I bought a new slow cooker and tried other fancier beef stews since. They were good but nothing seemed to mach that first simple stew. Finally, the other day I searched online and found the original recipe here.

Ingredients

2 pounds beef stew meat, cut into 1 inch cubes
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon paprika
1 bay leaf
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups beef broth
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 onion, chopped
3 potatoes, diced
4 carrots, sliced
1 stalk celery, chopped

Directions

1. Place meat in slow cooker. In a small bowl mix together the flour, salt, and pepper; pour over meat, and stir to coat meat with flour mixture.
2. Stir in the garlic, bay leaf, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, onion, beef broth, potatoes, carrots, and celery.
3. Cover, and cook on Low setting for 10 to 12 hours, or on High setting for 4 to 6 hours.

It’s really easy to put together and once it is done, you have a delicious hot meal to warm you up on these cold days. Add a slice of fresh sourdough bread and you are good to go, baby! 🙂

* * * * *

Now it’s your turn.

1. Choose your creation, share about it and snap a photo if you can.

3. Add a link back here so others can play along. Here is the html code:

4. Link up below. Make sure you’re sending us to your actual post, and not to your general blog address.

You have 10 days to post your link, so if you can’t get things done by Tuesday, no worries, put it up when you can. We’ll be here. Have fun!

Lastly, you can follow me on Pinterest here: http://pinterest.com/rol_bobbi/. 🙂

An InLinkz Link-up

Revolution of Love

Do small things with great love.

Tag Archives: pinterest party

Pinterest Party & Link-up (Vol 18): Moroccan Style Chickpea Chili

Pinterest Party & Link-up (Vol 17): Catholic Valentine’s Day Cards

Pinterest Party & Link-up (Vol 16): Slow Cooker Lentil Soup with Kale

Pinterest Party & Link-up (Vol 15): Advent & Christmas Edition

The Advent Wreath

The Advent Calendar

The Jesus’ Stocking/ Gift Box

A Birthday Party for Jesus

A Nativity Set for the Littles

The Spirit of Giving

Plan Ahead for Charitable Gifts

The Advent Christmas Planner

Pinterest Party & Link-up (Vol 14): Slow Cooker Beef Stew