MMMmmm meal pics...

Temps have been dropping down into the 50s at night. So although,  it's still August, I went ahead and made some chili last night for Miss Anna.  Anna has been feeling pretty nervous and anxious about her new school, so if a little chili for dinner puts a smile on her face...well then.

 

Here is 1 pound of ground turkey with 3 tbsps of our Wahoo! Chili Mix. Yes that is my Pampered Chef mixer thingy; it's great for mashing up stuff.  Oh! I also added 1 tbsp of Garlic Garlic.

Next I added tomatoes and beans.  Anna loves beans especially butter beans, so I always add a can of butter beans to our chili.  I went with a small can of diced tomatoes but later on I found that it needed more tomato-ness, so I chopped up 2 fresh tomatoes and added them.  Why fresh tomatoes?  Because they were getting ready to go bad, so I was glad to get them used up. In a perfect world I think I would have just used the 28oz can of diced tomatoes that is sitting in my cabinet.

In addition to the tomatoes and the beans I like to add some fresh vegetables. What vegetables?  That is determined by what I have in the refrigerator.  Last night,  I went with one diced green pepper and 3 stalks of celery chopped.

Celery, my old cutting board, and the very dated kitchen cabinets in our kitchen.

Look at those pretty colors! Then I added about 1/2 cup chicken broth and let it all simmer for 20ish minutes.

And here we have Anna's Chili.  With Wahoo! Chili, it's an amazingly easy dish to make.  I should have just had Anna make dinner.  Chili is also pretty forgiving, you don't need to worry too much about the ingredient measurements.

Fireworks, Food, the Fouth

I was over on youtube, why was I on youtube?  I don't really remember. I think my brain has been fried by the heat. Earlier today we were out doing errands, and the walk from the air-conditioned car to the air-conditioned store, sapped my will to live.

Now what was the point of this blog post?  Oh yes.  The end of the Fiscal Year for Tastefully Simple has arrived and while it wasn't one of my better sales years, I am still extremely grateful for the flexibility my business  has given me in this crazy year of job loss, house loss and moving.

So July dawns and with it a clean slate and fresh goals for the new Tastefully Simple year. My goal this coming year is to introduce Tastefully Simple to hundreds of people in my new hometown and continue to be the fastest growing team in Western North Carolina!

Back to youtube, below you can see a video from Tastefully Simple with some great easy tips for your July 4th (or any summer) party!

I don't know about you, but I love Professor Snape.

So how was your weekend?  I had a busy one! Saturday was a Relay For Life Tastefully Simple Fundraiser Party. Sunday Anna and I sold Girl Scout cookies at a local grocery store.  We sold 71 boxes, I am not sure if that is great or not, but I'm going to say we did a great job. Last night I was on the phones for my work at home call center job. I made that a link in case anyone is looking for a work from home job that is legit! 

Friday night Patrick and I watched Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part 2. Of couse we really enjoyed it, and it was so compelling Patrick didn't talk the whole time.  Ever full of questions is how one can describe Patrick at any time of day, but more so during a movie.

As all the kids at my house know, my favorite character in the land of Harry Potter is Severus Snape. 
I had to make a very concerted effort not to cry during Professor Snape's last scene and the flashback.  Good Stuff. Give me an anti-hero in my fiction any day of the week.

Overall it was a prety good week in reaching goals.  I am especially proud that I was able not to be annoyed at The Man for breathing.

This week what are you working on?  I am working on:

Family/Mothering Goals
1. Get kids to sleep on time for it is ISATS (state testing) time.
2. Ensure The Man and Bryce are up to speed on Cub Scout stuff they need to work on this month.
3. Review Bills

Personal Goals.
1. Run 8 miles 4x this week.
2. Read Clash of Kings --Only 18 days til Season 2 of Game of Thrones Premiers on HBO!
3. Track food and exercise on Sparkpeople.com

Home Management
1. Cancel thing The Man set up.
2. Take pics of bedroom furniture set to sell for $300. (King bed, nightstand and tall dresser w/mirror all mission style)
3. Make the Tastefully Simple Tonight Meals --using the freezer meals option. Then I won't have to have people ask me what is for dinner. Well, they will still ask but I"ll just point to the freezer and tell them to have a look.
Business Goals.
1. Team Email
2. Client Email
3. Check in with Upcoming parties

Goals from last week.
Family/Mothering Goals
1. Try not to be annoyed at The Man for breathing.
2. Sell Girl Scout Cookies with Anna on Sunday.
3. Work on better system for Bryce "Oh I forgot I have a project due tomorrow that I've know about for a month."

Personal Goals
1. Run 7miles 4x this week.2. watch all the David Tennant Dr. Who episodes on Netflix :-D
3. Look into going to the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest. *Interesting note, Joyce Kilmer not a woman, actually a man.
Home Management
1. Take pics and post bedroom set furniture.
2. decide if tiling the top of a cocktail table is a good idea or not.
3. TCO Utilities.--don't 4get to sch. ATT4. Make the Tastefully Simple Tonight Meals --using the freezer meals option. Then I won't have to have people ask me what is for dinner. Well, they will still ask but I"ll just point to the freezer and tell them to have a look.

Business Goals:
1. Host coaching for my upcoming parties.
2. Send out Team Feb Incentive awards to winners.
3. Put together ppwk for March parties and print recipes for Stagg Craft Fair.

Weekly Goals! 90% more likely to actually be reached

because I am going to put them here and that way I'll have them where I can see them and not in my little head. Do you make goals on a regular basis?  How does it work for you? Im using the format from Money Saving Mom

Family/Mothering Goals
1. Make Patrick an end of the school year countdown.
2. Try not to be annoyed by The Man because he makes an annoying IMO sound when he eats.
3. Work on Breakfast Offerings for the kids that they can quickly eat b/4 running off to school.

Personal Goals
1. Run 5 miles 3x this week and add on 1 -2 miles of walking at the end of the run.
2. Blog 3x
3. Research Beekeeping, or raising chickens for eggs. * I know, I know, really?  Hey, I have a dream of living off the land. :-D
4. Do something with the mop on my head!  It's awful!

Home Managment
1. TCO misc. bills
2. Clean out the playroom
3. Try Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup recipe.

Business Goals
1. Get everything set to start working on Thurs as Independent Call Center Rep.
2. Client Newsletter
3. Team Newsletter
4. 15-30 calls.

Okay there it is, a very do=able list if I do say so myself.  And big bonus is that I already have my next 2 blog topics ready to go.  If I am feeling crazy I may just go ahead and write them tonight and post them later in the week!

Yesterday I spent over an hour getting knots out of the back of Anna's hair.  And I still couldn't get it all out.  The stress of it all was enough to get Anna on board with short hair.  Yes I know I am the Mom and I have final hair say since she is 7; nevertheless, it is good to have the buy-in from her.

SLOW COOKER RECIPE!
Originally from this month's Family Circle.  It is called Soupe Au Pistou  (Provencal Vegetable Soup with Pesto)  I made some changes of course.
4 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
3 medium boiling potatoes, peeled and chopped
2 medium onions, chopped  I used 1 large onion and 1 medium shallot
2 medium zucchinis, chopped
8 cups of water
Tastefully Simple Seasoned Salt
2 cups cooked or drained and canned cannellini beans  In the future I would use Butter Beans.
1 cup small pasta.  I used Barilla Piccolini Mini Farfalle and I didn't mix it in with the soup--that way it stays al dente.  I put a small scoop on the bottom of the bowl and then ladle the soup over it.
I also added about 1/2 a tbsp of chopped rosemary because I had fresh rosemary in the fridge.
I also added a tablespoon of Garlic Garlic as well.

You just take everything listed above except the noodles and the beans and put that in the slow cooker for a good 8 hours on low.  Add the beans for 30 min and then it's ready to serve.  You have to top it with prepared pesto.  I, of course, made some Tastefully Simple Dried Tomato and Garlic Pesto with our Roasted Garlic infused oil. The soup would be terribly bland w/o the pesto on top.  I think if I make it again, I'm going to use broth instead of the water.