The Best Black Bean Chicken Chili Recipie

I am going to share one of my favorite fall recipies for black bean chicken chili.  It is sooooo delicious and very good for you too.  It is chock full of veggies and very, very easy to prepare.

Ingredients:
1 small rotissery chicken - remove meat from bones
1 can of tomato paste
1 32oz. box of fat free low sodium chicken stock
1 can of whole kernel corn
2 cans of black beans
2 cans of rotelle (diced tomatoes w/green chilis)
1 tbsp of cumin
1 tbsp of chili powder
1 large onion - diced
4 cloves of minced garlic
olive oil

Directions:
Sautee onion and garlic in olive oil.  Pull chicken meat from the bones and remove skin as well. 
Add all other ingredients, stir and simmer for about 20 minutes until heated through. 

Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween!  

The kids and I had a really fun day and night of trick-or-treating.  The kids were out in record numbers in our neighborhood.  Some of our neighbors go "all out" on Halloween with their decorations and parties.  

My kids love it, of course, but I'm just along for the ride.  I did put on my witch hat and fake eyelashes and walk around the neighborhood with them but that's as far as I go with the costumes.  

Anyway... Happy Halloween!!!

Top 2 Tuesday

Happy November!

Today, being the day after Halloween, I have candy on the brain.  What are you two favorite "treats" from your kids trick-or-treat bags?

Here are mine:

1.  Almond Joy

2.  Wonka Nerds

This is how I usually feel around dinner time too.

Brownie Investiture Ceremony

Sidney Grace was involved in her first "Investiture Ceremony" last week.  This ceremony welcomed the new members into the Girl Scout family and they receive their Brownie pin at this time. 

There was a color guard who walked out and the pledge of allegiance was recited.  Then each girl was given a candle and each had to read a line from the Girl Scout promise.  It was very sweet.  Sidney Grace did a great job and is very proud to wear her official Girl Scout pin on her vest now.  She is having a great time making new friends and earning lots and lots of badges.

Make new friends, but keep the old.

One is silver and the other gold.

Top 2 Tuesday

It has been a while since I have done a "Top 2 Tuesday" so I thought it was time to get it going again.

This week I am gonna go with my Top 2 favorite items of fall/winter clothing.

1.  Scarf -  I love scarves.  They are so versatile.  There are so many ways to wear a scarf that you could go just about all season and never wear it the same way twice.

2.  Boots - There is nothing like a great pair of boots to make you feel good.  Love, love, love them!!

What are your Top 2 favorite items of fall/winter clothing? 

Copy and paste my Top 2 Tuesday button at the top of this post and add it to your own blog post.  And don't forget to leave a comment below and let me know where you posted your top 2.

Pumpkin Dip

I love fall!  The cooler weather, the turning leaves, football and of course all of the yummy fall flavors.  I want to share a favorite recipie of mine with you all.  It is D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S.!!!  I crave this stuff and so do all my friends when they get a taste of it.

Pumpkin Dip
1 - 16oz. package of powdered sugar
2 - 8oz. packages of cream cheese
1 - 15oz. can of pumpkin
2 - tsp. of cinnamon
1/2 - tsp. of nutmeg

Directions:  Mix the cream cheese with an electric mixer and gradually add the powdered sugar.  Then add the pumpkin, cinnamon and nutmeg and continue to mix until well blended and fairly smooth.

That's it!  So easy! 

Now enjoy it with ginger snaps and/or apple slices and refrigerate the leftovers (if you have any).

The First Band Concert

The first 6th grade band concert of the year was this week.  They played 3 songs: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Row, Row, Row Your Boat and Hard Rock Blues.  Yes, I know, I agree the first two songs for sixth graders?  Really?  Well, they only know 5 notes so far so their repertoire is VERY limited (obviously).  Despite a few (lots) of "sour" notes, they did a great job.  I love my little baritone player.  Way to go Alex!  Great job!!

Family Tree Site

If you like genealogy and have been looking for an interactive way for family members across the country (or even the world) to be involved than you must check out this great family tree site. It is called MyHeritage.com. I love this site! It is so easy to navigate and to update your family tree. I uploaded over 30 family members in about 20 minutes. It's fun and addicting.

I didn't realize it at the time but the site automatically e-mails all of the family members you add and tells them about the site. The e-mail invites them to add more information. I thought this was a great feature because I certainly don't know everyone's details. This way they can fill in any blanks I had and/or make any corrections to my information.
Myheritage.com allows you to upload pictures and tag them. It also provides a way for family members to keep in touch by sending messages to one another. Another great feature is the "events" tab. It shows you all of the family's upcoming events such as birthdays, anniversaries, reunions, parties and much, much more. Now you won't have any excuses for not remembering anyone's birthday.

Anyway! Check it out. I think you will love this family tree site as much as I do. It really is a lot of fun.

Top 2 Tuesday

Top 2 Favorite Things About Summer

1. No getting up early for school!!!!! Getting up early for a day of fun at the pool just doesn't seem to be quite so painful!

2. Traveling with the kids to fun destinations like the beach, grandma's house, the zoo, amusement parks or anywhere just to get out of town for a few days.

Tuesday Toot

Top 2 Tuesday

Top 2 Tuesday is back.
This week the topic is top 2 favorite items under $15.

1. A good t-shirt. I am such a big t-shirt and blue jeans girl! I practically live in t-shirts every day. My favorite type is probably a white, v-neck t-shirt from Old Navy. They sell for about $8.00.

2. A cute pair of sunglasses. They are essential and get used daily. These sell for just under $6.00.

Happy Birthday Sidney Grace!

Today is my baby girls birthday. Sidney Grace turns 6 today. Happy Birthday sweet girl, I Love You!

Top 2 Tuesday

Top 2 Tuesday is back again. Today's topic is top 2 favorite magazines.

My first favorite magazine would have to be DIY Magazine. I'm a long time subscriber and just love the project ideas that it contains.
Another magazine I like to read is People. I read it at the hair salon. I don't subscribe because I don't have time to read it every week. So, I get caught up while waiting to get my hair done.
What are your favorite magazines?

Top 2 Tuesday

I guess it's better late than never to join in! So... here are my top 2 things I wouldn't want to live without.

The first thing would have to be my chocolate. This girls gotta have her chocolate fix (if ya know what I mean). Cadbury milk chocolate is by far my favorite. Yum!!!The second thing would be my jewelry. Not that I'm a flashy person by any means but I just feel naked without my jewelry (especially my earrings). I luv me some bling.

Rainbow Brite Adventure Pack

Wow! My daughter loves this fun filled CD ROM! And... I have 8 copies that I can give away. Yea!!! Leave a comment on this post and a way to get in contact with you if you are a winner.

The Rainbow Brite Adventure Pack has enough activities to keep any child entertained for hours. It contains games, puzzles, animated stories a theme song and much, much more!

My daughter loved the puzzles and the coloring pages. On the coloring pages she was able to create her own page by clicking and dragging images onto her page and arranging it the way she liked it. She loved this! Then when she got it the way she liked it she could print it out and color it in. Here are her works of art.Fabulous! I love her art! These will definitely be going on the fridge.

Thank you to MomSelect and Hallmark for sharing the CD's. You can also visit Rainbow Brite online at www.rainbowbrite.com to view four new Rainbow Brite animated mini episodes. Join Rainbow Brite, her two loyal friends Moonglow and Tickled Pink, and their companion horse friends: Starlite, Shimmer and Sunriser on the adventures through Rainbow Land.

A little more exciting news, the newest Rainbow Brite fashion doll collection in now available at Target (my favorite store) and will be coming to Toys R' Us in February 2010.

Puppy Luv!

Millie and Hershey don't get a lot of camera time because they don't sit still long enough for me to get a decent picture of them. If I squat down to try and get their picture they run over and jump all over me. So, when I saw them snuggled together in this basket on my back porch I had to tip toe over and get their picture before they realized what was going on.
They are miniature dachshunds and have a ton of energy. I love them! They really are sweet dogs.
It's funny to watch them follow the sun around the living room during the day. They like to lay in it to keep warm. So cute!

Icicles Galore

Wow! A pipe burst underground and sent water spraying about 30 feet into the air last night. It sprayed for about an hour and a half before the county was able to come out and shut off the water.

This is what we found the next morning. The ground looked like ice cubes has been dumped all over.Sidney Grace tried to "sled" on her little kick board.
My weeping cherry tree lost one limb due to the weight of the ice. Bummer.

Another Snow Day

As predicted, school was canceled today. We only got less than an inch of snow but the roads are really icy. My front porch steps are very icy as well. Last night I slipped down and got a pretty nasty bruise on my shin and knee. :(Even though it wasn't very much snow the kids still had fun playing outside in it. They wanted to sled but had to improvise with a boogie board. Needless to say it didn't work all that well.
They did manage to make some pretty big snow balls.

It's Snowing in Georgia!!

It is officially snowing here. The kids are having fun playing in the snow. I have a feeling school will be cancelled tomorrow. I was amazed to see the detail in some of the snowflakes. I took a few pictures and tried to capture the detail of a few flakes. (Not a very easy task)
We don't get much snow here in the south so the kids get very excited with even the smallest amount.
Here are some of my close up attempts.
SG caught a bunch of snow flakes on her tongue. So cute!
This is a chunk of ice that the kids found in the back yard. A bucket had some water in it and it had frozen solid since the temp. hasn't gotten above freezing in about 4 or 5 days.Here is the front yard just as the snow started falling. I'll post some more pictures tomorrow after it snows all night tonight.