Healthy Chicken Noodle Soup

Growing up, I thought chicken noodle soup had medical and healing results. If we were sick, cold, hurt or just having a bad day, Chicken noodle soup was the cure. I bet Chicken noodle soup would cure covid if they would just listen to those grandmothers out there.

I love soup of all kinds but I am limited with can soups as the all have a lot of sodium. Being on a low sodium diet means I try to eat foods with less than 5% sodium. Soups are over 21% and some are as high as 47%.

If you know me, then you know I lost 50lbs on Nutrisystem ( you can read my journey HERE). I used Nutrisystem for 4 years until I figured out that some of my health issues were because of too much sodium, so I had to give it up. Now I follow the eating habits I learned while being on the program. I have been able to keep the weight off for 5 years now. Well, I have put on an extra 15 lbs but I’m working on getting that off by Easter. They flew me to Florida twice for photo and commercial shoots but If they call me now,  I would probably have to turn it down. I still do live calls for them on QVC and HSN but I feel my time is ending. 

I mentioned Nutrisystem because they had a wonderful soup recipe on facebook the other day. They will often share recipes that follow along with their plan. The soup was Chicken Noodle Soup but made by using low sodium chicken broth and spaghetti squash instead of pasta noodles. I just had to give it a try.

Oh my goodness. It was delicious. I think the spaghetti squash was a perfect pasta substitute. It also called for Thyme. I didn't know you could even eat Thyme. I always thought it was just a natural fragrance. I guess we do learn something new every day. 

This soup was very tasty and I had enough to eat for two meals. I just kept the left overs in a mason jar and heated it back up for a quick healthy meal. Below are the ingredients. 

I added everything together except the squash and cooked it until the carrots were soft and then I added the spaghetti squash. 

My favorite soup is french Onion.

What is your favorite soup?

As an Amazon Affiliate, this post includes a Marketing Link, which means I make a small percentage on the sales but it in no way affects the price a buyer may pay. Opinions are my own honest reviews.

Tuesday 4- Moving

Welcome to Tuesday 4. 

A fun four question post continued in the memory of Toni Taddeo, It’s original author. 

Let’s have some fun. 

Todays Subject: Moving

1. How far away are you from where you grew up?
I live about 10 miles from where I grew up. My parents still live in the home place. I also live in the same district I lived in until I was seven. 

2. Families sometimes move all over the country.Do you feel that a family should try to stay close together?
I think people should live where they can be happy. Some people prefer living close to family but some enjoy living afar so they can have a place to come home too and visit. For me, I do not mind moving away if I get the chance but still want to be within a comfortable drive from my daughter and momma and daddy.

3. How many times have you moved in your life and would you like to share when and where you moved?
I have been married twice so I have moved a few times. But the total moves I have made in my life is seven times. Three before I was married and four after. If I don't count the temporary places I’ve lived, It would only be 4.

4. What brought you to where you are living now and are you happy there?

When we got married we bought and lived in my husbands late grandparents home. The property was sold to a video store and we moved to our current home which is bigger and better. We used to be happy here but now not so much. A lot has changed in our neighborhood in the past 18 years. We also would like to downsize one day and maybe even move to the beach. 

Thanks to Anne for organizing the Tuesday 4 questions.

Captcha- Is it just me?

This is a blogger to blogger post.

I read through my favorite blogs each day and then branch out and read more blogs. I like to comment on the ones I read but I have been slack at doing that lately because every time I comment I have to prove I am not a robot before it will accept it. I hate doing this. I aggravates me.

This used to happen only a few times, and that was ok, but now it’s every single time. I have to click on all the bicycle pictures or frirehydrates, busses or bridges. I spend more time doing this than actually posting a comment. It is annoying. 

So my question is, does everyone have this problem or is it just me? Does anyone know how I can avoid this?

Personally on my blog, I do have the “Captcha” turned on but only for comments on post that are over 90 days old. Thats usually the ones that the spammers seem to hit. 

Do you have to prove your not a robot when you comment on my page? 

Maybe it a new Google or blogger thing. Maybe its just my settings. 

I’d love your input on this. 

Pirate Cat

My sister owns several cats. She is what you call a “Cat lady”. Not me. I love cats but I do not have any. If I did, I would only own one. I just don’t like the idea of cat hair on my bed and furniture. Cats like to jump on counter tops and tables too and that would drive me crazy. 

One of her cats had an eye infection when it was younger and caused it to lose an eye. She often takes photos of her kitties because she just loves them and likes to show them off. After I seen this poor one eyed cat in several photos, I sent her a text and said “that cat needs an eye patch”. It’s blind eye just looked weird and I hated seeing it. 

So I had her send me the measurements of its head and I got to work. I took some black yarn from my stash and began crocheting it a little eye patch. After a couple attempts, I figured out the shape and size that would work. 

I mailed her the patch and once it was delivered, she tried it on her one eyed cat. A little while later, I received this photo on my phone.

I think it looks better now and I called it the “Pirate Cat”. 

I did not use a pattern for this eye patch. I just guessed at it. 

 

Our Valentines Day

We had a nice little Valentines Day. It was Sunday and neither one of us had to work. We decided to stay in bed longer than usual soaking up every little moment together with no alarm clock telling us to get up and get going.

Once we decided to get up, we grabbed a cup of coffee and a little breakfast. We each had sneaked a Valentine Card in each others seat at the table. 

After breakfast we sat around and discused what we were going to do today. “Well its too late now to get ready for church”. So neither one of us went. 

We decided to call up our daughter and ask her if she would like to meet us in Belmont for a Valentine lunch. She was exited and of course said yes.

We let her chose the place as we are always indecisive. She said she always wanted to try this little place called Jekyll & Hyde Taphouse and Grill. 

I felt funny going to a taphouse on Sunday. Daddy might would shame me. But thats where we ended up and it was delicious. 

We ordered off the “Brunch” menu. We placed our order and looked around while we waited. Nick said “This place used to be an old Ford Dealership”. They used a lot of the remains as decorations. He admired the surroundings and said “I could live in a place like this”. It was really cool how they remodeled the inside while keeping a lot of the character. 

Our food arrived. Me and my daughter ordered the Chicken biscuit with pimento cheese and pepper jelly. I had a side of fruit and she had tater tots. Nick ordered a chicken and bacon biscuit with a side of pancake. There was so many good looking foods on the menu it was hard to choose. 

For Valentines dinner, we had waited too late to get any reservations at any fancy place and all the steak houses had over an hour wait. We ended up at Sammy’s in the little town of Dallas. While we were there, I was able to show Nick where I now work. He didn’t know exactly where it was. Now he does. It was just a block away from where we ate. You could see it from the window. 

It was a nice day and I didn’t want it to end. I love spending all the time I can with my man. But work came early the next day. 

Cupid and Valentines

Eros: The Greek God of love. Romans refer to him as Cupid (meaning desire).
He was born to Aprodite Goddess of Love and Ares the God of war. Imagine that. If you think about it, put all that together and you got todays world. Erotic, desire, God, love, war..etc.

Ok, that was my little Greek Mythology lesson for today. Sorry Dad.
I remember my Dad used to hate it when we would study Greek Mythology at school. Little did he know, I loved this subject. I found it interesting but only Myths (like fairy tales) and knew it had no biblical reference. 

 

Back to cupid....
Cupid, as we call him, is a well known imaginary half naked angel that comes around on Valentines Day and shoots people with his arrow and makes them fall in love. Silly isnt it? Even though Valentines is not a religious day, its a day to show kindness and love with chocolate, candy, flowers, cards, doughnuts.......opps. Ok I got carried away. 
Anyway, Since we really don't have a little Cupid around now days, I try to spread the love myself. I do all kinds of little things in the days leading up to Valentines Day. 

I used to make my daughter heart shaped pancakes every Valentines morning. This stopped a couple years ago when it got too hard to get them to her after she moved away. If she is home on Valentines day, I will make her a plate of them. I have already given her a basket of goodies when she came over the other day. She was also a sweetie and brought us some heart shape cocoa bombs.

They are filled with cocoa, sprinkles, marshmallow and other goodies. You pour hot milk over top of them and they will burst open and release their insides making a nice cup of cocoa. 

Friday, I made some chocolate covered strawberries to share with the office. I made over a dozen so I may take some to my daughter or keep them here for myself. I may make some heart shaped brownies later. 

Today, depending on the weather, we may meet our daughter for Valentine Lunch. Later on, me and Nick plan to do a nice quiet dinner somewhere special. Not sure where that will be yet. So far we can’t seem to get any reservations anywhere. We have been trying since last week! I don’t care where we end up as long as we are together. I love that man so much. 

What are your Valentines Day plans?

Pot Holders

I have several pot holders but my absolute favorite are the ones that my daughter made me when she was little. They are made with a little weaving loom and cotton loops. It was an easy craft and kept her busy for hours. They seem to never wear out despite how bad they look. My mom still has a few that I made when I was a little girl. Thats 50 years ago!

I made some pot holders the other day but they are not nearly as cute as the weaved ones my daughter made. 

Using the thermal stitch, I crocheted two.

This stitch works up fast and creates a double layer thickness as you go. Instead of the regular single crochet stitch, you work through the back loop and the back loop of the previous row. Below, I highlighted the stitches you work through. I love how thick they are and fit nice in my hands for a good grip.

This was a great project to use up some of my scrap pieces of yarn. 

The pattern to these can be found at Sewrella.com.

As  an Amazon affiliate, this post includes a Marketing Link, which means I make a small percentage on the sales 

but it in no way affects the price a buyer may pay.

Opinions are my own honest reviews.