Black bean Chicken soup

Trying to NOT shop for groceries this week and use up what we have in the fridge. We will be heading out soon for VACATION and I like to leave with a empty fridge. I am one of those freak people that have to have the entire house cleaned, truck cleaned, files in order, and yard cleaned before I can leave for vacation. Its a problem, I know. Lucky for me my Family seems to get that I have this problem and seem to just stay away from me while I'm preparing for our trips!
Also lucky for me that the kids are all old enough to pack alone! I just make a list of must haves and they do the rest. Now we sometimes end up with car bags that are bigger that our clothes bags because they hold the contents of ones entire room, but we just smile and say "I'm not going to be responsible for getting all of that back home". Or I also like to smile and say "We are returning to this house you know. You dont have to bring your entire room". Most times it results in ONE stuffed animal being removed from the bag or a bouncy ball. Hey, better than nothing! I have my issues, so do they! Ha!ha!

Since we are trying to use what we have this week I was a little lost as to what to make for dinenr. My husband LOVES the fiesta chicken that I make but I asked what he wanted for dinner the other night too late to make that so I can up with this and It turned out AWESOME!! I LOVE me some black bean soup but my husband LOVES him some chicken. This dish is pretty much like the fiesta chicken just made into a soup. A simple soup. Because I already had my chicken prepped this really only took about 15 minutes to put together and then I let it simmer for about 25 minutes.

I was searching recipes online a while back and found that a lot of people use vegetable broth in black bean soup so I gave that a try since I happen to have a box and it was really good!
Check out the fiesta chicken farther down and you'll see that its almost the same. So if you like that, you'll love this!

Your will need :
1 whole organic cooked chicken, shredded or chopped to your liking
3 cans low sodium black beans, drained and rinsed (two of the cans smashed and set aside)
2 cups frozen corn
1 tub of all natural salsa (NO SUGAR ADDED)
1 large onion chopped and sauteed
1 box (4c) of no salt added veg stock
**spices to taste (used when cooking the onions and again when all mixed):
cayenne
garlic
cumin
onion powder

**optional toppings:
low fat sour cream
2% shreded motz cheese
fresh cilantro
hot sauce
avacodo

After chopping the chicken, cooking the onion with the spices, and smashing two of the cans of beans, mix everything into a pan. Spice it up some more to your liking and simmer for about 20-25 minutes. We topped ours with motz cheese and cilantro because that all we had in the fridge. It was awesome!! Everyone loved it and asked If I could write it down and put it on the rotation!
I hope your family enjoys it as well!

**This made enough for my Family of 5 with 2 servings left over.

kale soup, perfect fall dish

It seems as though this fall has come in so quickly. Kids were busy with sports until last week, school, jobs, animals, girl scouts...
I've been making it a point to spend time outside each day and just enjoy the fall time weather. The colors and smells. The cool breeze and short afternoons. I also have been making it a point to get out of my pj's. Its so hard sometimes to get up and get motivated when its so comfy and cozy sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee and the fire going!

We did recently take a weekend trip to NC and visit my brother and his girlfriend. We went into the mountains and did the whole farmers market thing and enjoyed just driving through the beautiful colors. We really do miss North Carolina very much. We would spend most weekend in the mountains when there. Hiking in the fall because the summer was so darn hot! It was a beautiful weekend and we had the best time!

Halloween has come and gone. Another thing that always seems to come and go so quickly. We took the kids on a trip (trip #2 actually) to the pupmkin patch to grab some pumpkins and quickly decided that we would be making a trip to our local Publix instead. $14.99 for a pumpkin? $50.00 for our family to walk through the corn maze? REALLY?
The kids suggested going to publix and the pumpkins were only $4.99 each and just as beautiful as the ones at the patch. We learned that day (again), that its not the amount of money you spend but rather who your spending your time with!

In the fall we love to stay in for dinner, go to the fire pit at night on the weekends and enjoy being at home with eachother. Game nights, movie nights and good food!
We all love soup but differ on what we like in our soup. Husband has to have meat in his soup. This particular soup can be made with our without meat and is delicious either way. This time I decided to add the meat since I was making it for the whole Family. I've made this before but this time decided to add a bit more and make it more of a hearty soup. We served ours with whole grain bread and unsalted butter. It was a perfect meal for a cold rainy night.

I made a big pot as to have some left overs, but you can just use less of things to make how much you need.
*8c low sodium organic chicken broth
*1 sweet onion chopped and sauted in olive oil
*1 can low sodium organic fire roasted tomatoes
*1 large bunch of kale, removed from stems, clenaed and chopped
*2 cans of low sodium chick peas, drained and rinsed
*1 whole cooked chicken, I used a crockpot chicken that I had prepped on prepping day, cut and skin removed
*red pepper flakes, cumin,black pepper, garlic and onion powder,cayenne pepper
I sauted the onions with the spices (spice to taste) and then added all the other things to the pot. added some more of each seasoning and simmered for about 30-45 minutes.

Clean Fritters

Ive been feeling a bit borning when it comes to my food choices lately. I just cant seem to really get into the groove of "making" things. I could honeslty eat a bowl of oats for every meal. That wont fly though with the kids and hubby so Im trying really hard to get it together.
The other day I came accross a great looking recipe for fritters on Facebook. I didnt really have everything to make them as the recipe stated, but put together what I had and came up with what I think were some darn right amaazing fritters!!

*1 handfull of baby carrots (processed)
*1 zucchini (processed and squuezed of juice)
*1 sweet onion (processed)
*1/2 cup oat flour (processed rolled oats)
*1 egg
*pepper, cayennne, garlic and onion powder and one crank of sea salt
*cooked on medium heat in a skillet with a drizzle of olive oil until brown and crispy on both sides.

~AMAZING

Lettuce head lunches. Chicken bites

The kids made a plan this school year that they would mark down the days on the calendar that they wanted to eat school lunch and the other days, I would pack for them.
This to me was pretty fair. The only like a few things that school provides, such as stuffed crust pizza and buffalo chicken bites.
I think the kids have settled into this whole "eating healthier" lifestyle and have learned to just embrace the changes. I found this awesome recipe on a blog called "Part time housewife" (I cant figure out how to link it up, but go check it out)and thought it would be perfect for the kids lunches. So on my food prep day I put together what I had and came up with this.

The whole Family LOVED them! They are not at all spicy, just a great buffalo flavor. I just dipped mine in the egg/buffalo sauce and then into the bread crumbs. so simple! Perfect for school lunches! Maybe even a "chicken tender sandwhich"!! M's favorite!!