Most of us are busy most of the time.  Cooking and eating at home has to be intentional.  You must plan ahead and prepare ahead if you want to have a home cooked meal. Because we had planned to begin packing up my MIL’s condo, I knew Saturday was going to be a busy day.  I wanted to have supper ready when we returned home in the early evening, so I decided to make a soup on Friday night that I could just warm up for supper.

While looking on Pinterest, I found a delicious-looking soup with turkey sausage, beans, tomatoes and pasta.  Mmm, it sounded yummy, so I decided to try it.  Saturday also turned out to be a very cold day here in Tennessee, so it was a perfect day for a comforting soup!

I served it with a green salad and multi-grain French Bread.  It was so wonderful to come home to this meal after an exhausting day of packing!

If you want a soup that is filling and comforting, this is your recipe!  I think I would add a couple more cups of chicken broth next time as suggested; it got a little thick upon cooking, but it was still very good.

Ingredients
1 pound ground sausage, turkey (or pork)
1/2 medium onion, diced
1/2 medium carrot, diced
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes
6 to 8 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper
1 can White Beans (I used a northern bean)
1 cup ditalini pasta, or any small pasta

In a large pot, brown the sausage.  Remove from pot.  If there is a lot of fat left in the pot, pour this out but do not wipe out pot.  Add onion, carrot and olive oil and saute for 5 minutes until soft.  Add garlic and saute about a minute more.  Add the tomatoes, 6 cups of the chicken broth, thyme, bay leaf, some salt and pepper, the drained beans and the sausage and cover the pot. Cook for an hour over low heat, at a gentle simmer. Add the pasta and cook, uncovered, until the pasta is tender.  Check the seasoning and add more salt and pepper to taste.  If the soup is too thick for your liking, you can add more chicken broth.

Serve with grated cheese on top and an extra drizzle of olive oil.

What recipe do you turn to when you want to prepare a meal ahead of time?

I just love the book of Proverbs.  It gives me a daily nudge to do the right thing.  Yesterday I read, “In all labour there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury.” Proverbs 14:23  My girls heard that verse many times when they would ask,

“Why do I have to learn algebra (or whatever subject that seemed useless)?  When will I ever use this in my life?”

I would follow with, “I don’t know when you’ll use it, but Proverbs tells us that all labor is profitable, but if you just sit and talk about doing your homework, it will lead to poverty!”

Do you ever find yourself only talking about a task that needs to be done, but never getting around to it?  That room or furniture you were going to paint “some day,” or the family you were going to invite over for dinner just never seems to get into the agenda.  How about freshening up your Friday by making plans to get that undone task planned and completed?  You’ll profit from the labor – it will be so rewarding!  You’ll profit in the fellowship – no man is richer who has dear friends!

What is it that you’ve been putting off?  Stop and consider what you need to do, then ask the Lord to help you get a plan of action and get after it today!

See you in church Sunday!

Be refreshed,

Just in case you still need a chocolate treat for your Valentine today, here are a couple of super simple and fast ideas I pinned onto my Pinterest board.

Recently when I was at my parents house, my dad toasted us marshmallows over the fire in the fireplace.  Yum!  I had forgotten how much I love a golden brown toasted marshmallow.  The outside is slightly crispy while the inside is mushy and warm and gooey delicious.  Before you go strike a match and skewer a marshmallow, read on to find another simple way to enjoy toasted marshmallows and chocolate.  Consider it a S’more Dessert.  Feast your eyes on this…
                                                       
                                 
I think it would be great to do these in individual ramekins so you could double dip your graham cracker!

1 cup chocolate chips
2 Tbl milk

Melt chocolate and milk over low heat on the stove.  Pour into oven safe dishes and top with mini marshmallows.  Place under broiler just until the marshmallows begin to brown.  Serve with graham crackers or shortbread cookies.

Then for a simple way to enjoy Chocolate Covered Strawberries… use an ice cube tray
 First, place a little chocolate in the ice cube tray.  Place a halved strawberry on the chocolate, then spoon enough chocolate to cover the strawberry. Place in fridge to harden.  Voila!  **To melt chocolate – Place 1 bag chocolate chips in dish in microwave, stirring at 30 second intervals, until melted, then add 2 Tbl oil.

Another simple dessert idea that someone served my husband and me recently was this:

• Brownie Square
• Scoop of ice cream on brownie
• Spoonful of Cherry Pie Filling on ice cream
• Whipped topping

When my husband and I were dating, we were three hours apart.  Since that was the dark ages, there were no text messages, Skype calls, cell phone calls or emails.  The only phone calls were only long-distance ones in which one single call could cost more than a monthly cell phone bill would set you back today.  As a result, we called only on occasion, but depended instead on the postal system to deliver our daily letters to one another.

One day when I opened my letter from my love, I found a recipe clipped from a magazine enclosed inside the envelope.  I still have that page…

Handwritten at the bottom of that recipe he had written,

I took the obvious clue and made him the pie.  It is so rich and chocolaty – not like a cream pie, but like fudge…in a flaky crust…topped with whipped cream.  Yes, this is for a special occasion – like Valentine’s Day!  I haven’t made this recently, so the only picture is this pathetic one from my much-used copy of the recipe.  But I thought of this treat this week and knew you would love it!  Here is the recipe:

Sweetheart Fudge Pie
1/4 Cup butter or margarine
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
3 eggs
2 cups semi-sweet real chocolate pieces
2 tsp instant coffee
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
9 inch unbaked pastry shell
1 cup whipping cream
2 Tbl chopped maraschino cherries

Cream butter with brown sugar; add eggs, one at a time, beating well.  Melt chocolate over hot, not boiling, water; add to creamed mixture with coffee and vanilla.  Stir in flour and walnuts.  Pour into pie shell.  Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes.  Cool.  Whip cream stiff (I like to add about 1/4 cup powdered sugar).  Fold in cherries.  Spread on top of pie; decorate with chocolate or candy hearts.

Since it’s just the two of us, I’m planning on a new Valentine dessert recipe this year – Chocolate Decadence from Cooking Light.

It makes 4 individual servings – that means dessert for two nights!

Any Valentine’s Day baking plans  for you?

From the parsonage windows,

Years ago I heard this illustration:  When I as a wife, put certain expectations on my husband, I am putting  prison bars around him.  Imagine that I have 50 expectations of what he should be and gestures he ought to perform.  That would mean that there are 50 bars around him, enclosing him in.  He feels trapped and in bondage.  Is that love?  Sounds more like cruel and unusual punishment, yet most of us pull out our list every time a special event comes around.  We read off our list to ourselves (and maybe our fella) and roll our eyes in disgust and comparison.

May I challenge you today, friend?  The challenge is not to have the best Valentine, but to be the best one! Don’t worry about having the best husband, but Being the best wife.  See the difference in the focus?  Instead of taking the magnifying glass to hubby, I use the 10 X mirror when looking at myself! The pressure is off of him.  Now I see my own faults, my irritants, my habits, my selfishness, my sin, and take those things to the Lord in prayer that I might  be that godly Valentine God would have me be for my groom that I love more than I could ever imagine.   I Corinthians 13:4 – Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up

When our focus changes, we really won’t need someone to give us a list of gifts to give our husband – we’ll know what would please him.  Oh, and an interesting thing happens when a wife loves her husband like this – a change takes place! It may or may not be in him, but it sure happens in her.  She will probably be so intent on that expression of her own love that she won’t be wounded by his neglect.

So, the way to be his Valentine all year long is to focus on your own responsibilities as a wife.Perhaps we should picture it like this:

“Bee” the best Valentine this Thursday that any husband ever had!

With love,

P.S. Tomorrow I’m going to share a luscious Valentine Pie recipe that I made for my Valentine before we were married.  I’m sure this is why he proposed!