Chicken Tortilla Soup

Hello all!!!

Here's the deal. I've had several requests for my Chicken Tortilla Soup recipe. So, here it is!! I'd like to mention, that it is NOT spicy at all. I make it to be kid-friendly in the spicy area, so if you like some kick - add some cayenne pepper or hot sauce to your own bowl :-) Enjoy!

Ingredients:
3 frozen chicken breasts, or 7 frozen chicken breast tenders
1 can chopped, peeled tomatoes (juice and all)
1 (10 oz) can mild enchilada sauce
1 small onion, chopped
1 (4 oz) can chopped mild green chile peppers
2 cloves minced garlic
2 cups water
1 (14.5 oz) can chicken broth, or your favorite homemade chicken broth
1 can rinsed black beans
1 can olives, chopped
Use the olive can to fill with frozen corn to equal one can
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
some crushed bay leaf
1 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp black pepper
chopped FRESH cilantro. As much as you like!! I like a lot, so it's about 2 tablespoons or so that goes in while it cooks.

Mix all ingredients in the crock pot. Then add frozen chicken and push to the bottom. Cook for 6-8 hours on low, or 3-4 hours on high.

To serve:
Serve soup in bowl. Top with shredded cheese, a dollop of sour cream, more fresh chopped cilantro, and crushed yellow corn tortilla chips. ENJOY!!!

-Lindsay

Here's one for the little lads!

Hey all you Moms of Little Lads!! Here's something new I came up with today at the request of a friend:

Dont'cha just LOVE it?!?!?! I can't WAIT til Baby Boy comes to play with it someday :-) I have many fabrics available, such as: Thomas, Lightening McQueen, & Cars. Easily customizable to any fabric I can get my hands on! I'm actually going to make a couple for my little ladies - they saw it and wanted those cars too! SO... they will get one in Tinkerbell and Angelina Ballerina fabric. I also made some crayon roll-ups and those are available in any fabric.

Please visit my page and "like" it on Facebook: www.facebook.com/lipglossandlittleladies

-Lindsay (Mommy of 3 Little Ladies)

New Ideas and Adventures

I've been really racking my brain lately to come up with some new stuff for this bazaar that I'm hosting a table at. Here's one of them!!! This is what I'd like to call a, "Coloring Traveler." I saw something sort of like this in the past, but I can't remember where or I'd give them credit. There is one thing I'm finding out though, and that's the fact that pretty much anything you think of doing, SOMEone has done something like it before :-) SO... I will just have to put my creative spin on things and see where it takes me!!

Here's what I came up with:

Pretty Schnazzy, huh??? 

Here's a few more angles of it:

I still have a couple kinks to work out, but overall I love it!!! 

Next up: 

1. One for boys that holds Cars, Crayons, AND Coloring Book

2. Smaller version :-) 

3. Whatever I come up with next!!

Lindsay

View my other items at:

www.facebook.com/lipglossandlittleladies

Just another Tuesday evening...

Hello All!!! I know, I know. It's been awhile, right?? Well, I don't have a TON of extra time to blog lately.... BUT I do want to share one of the MANY new projects I have been working on!!

The other day on a treasure hunt, I came across this beauty at Goodwill:

Now, it's not the fantabulous gold mirror in the front (that project is coming soon)... but it's the painting hiding behind the mirror that I didn't think was important enough to get a superb photo of. It's got this, um, shall we say - interesting painting in it of a couple on the beach, and they're shirtless... Not sure what made someone think of painting it... Anyway - I was all set to paint over the painting with some chalkboard paint fabulousness, (The Hubster couldn't understand why, since somebody took so much time to paint it... To which I explained to him that it was at Goodwill for crying out loud!)

Instead... I took apart the frame, ripped out the sexy painting, got out the 'ol can of primer, and got to spraying!! Once I started, my spray can was on its last leg and the paint was sputtering out all over the place - barely covering Mr. Gold frame... BUT - this made my project ALL the better!! Once the paint dried, I searched the garage for a single piece of sandpaper (which the Hubster usually has lying all over the place), and Vintage-a-fied Mr. Gold-no-more frame. Now, he was turning into a beauty!! 

This is about the point where I should've started taking pictures, but I just got SO into my project that I forgot to take a SINGLE picture until the end. 

Next, I took the sexy-ish painting board, and covered it with some quilt batting I had laying around. Then I added some spare fabric and got out my Fabri-Tac glue, and handy-dandy utility stapler (which I LOVE!) This is about the point where I should've taken another picture. Imagine picture here: 

Next, came the ribbon. Of course, with my indecisive thinker brain, I took longer to decide which ribbon to use than the whole project ;-) I stretched it across the board and secured with fabric glue and my trusty stapler. Then I covered the back with another piece of fabric so that it didn't look so yucky.

OK... This was the HARD part. Normally, I would've thought far enough ahead to realize that the board was going to be thicker, and may not fit into Mr. Gold-no-more frame after... Well, I guess this wasn't a normal evening! I tried SO hard to get that stinkin' board back into Mr. Gold-no-more frame without using unnecessary force, but he was being difficult. I had to get out the HAMMER (and a few other tools). You can use your imagination from there :-) 

This is about the point (now that Mr. Fabulous frame is finished), that I realized I should be taking pictures... So I did!! BUT... After the first so-so picture, my schnazzy camera's battery died. Oh well!! Here's the ONE picture I got: 

Trust me. This picture doesn't do it justice! It's fabulous :-) This is a new Bow-Board to display all the fabulous bows I will be selling at a Craft Fair coming up!! AND of course, the bow-board will be for sale (probably... maybe I want to keep it??)

-Lindsay

www.facebook.com/lipglossandlittleladies

Lindsay's Lipsmackin' Soup

Hey y'all!! I've been asked for this recipe SO many times... At least 25... And I always say, "I'll give it to you as soon as I write it down..." Well, the long awaited moment has come!! Here is the recipe for my Soup:

Ingredients:
4 cups chopped, cooked chicken meat (Tastes best from the breast meat of a Rotisserie Chicken from Costco)
14 cups of water in a big stock pot
About a tablespoon of butter or margarine (not needed, but makes it taste scrumptious)
10 1/2 - 11 chicken bouillon cubes
1/2 tsp dried marjoram (heaping)
1/2 tsp ground black pepper (heaping)
1 Tblsp dried parsley (heaping)
Some crushed bay leaf (about an index finger print worth in your palm)
6 cups (ish) dried egg noodles (more or less, depending on how much broth you like in your soup)
2 cups (ish) frozen mixed vegetables

In large stock pot, add water and bouillon cubes (and butter if you wish). Simmer over med-high heat while tearing apart the chicken meat into bite sized pieces (best done by tearing it). Add chicken, spices, and
frozen vegetables to stock pot and simmer over medium heat for about 30 minutes.

Add egg noodles to stock pot and simmer for another 10 minutes.

***Do not add egg noodles until 10 minutes before you serve the soup otherwise the noodles will cook too long and get mushy. If you decide to freeze it, freeze without the noodles.

Serve and enjoy!! Makes about 8-10 servings that go great with biscuits :-)

-Lindsay

What Was I Thinking???

So... for my first real post - I'm going to show you what I've been doing today... Why the title, you ask? Well, I'm kicking myself in the head (not really - my foot won't reach that far) for procrastinating on starting our business federal taxes until April... When we have to pay, it seemed logical in my head to wait until the last minute because I didn't want to do it. Well, now I'm paying for it!!

This is what my living room looks like right now...

Seems like a lot, right??? Well, that wasn't the end of it... 

My "darling" husband couldn't be prouder that this is how he stores his receipts... 

Now, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the most organized person in the world... But really??? I guess I should be happy that he at least saved them, right? Every year that I do the taxes at the last minute, I tell myself, "Next year I'm going to do them in January and be more organized." Mmm Hmm... Keep telling yourself that, right??? With three kids and balancing Ministry and running the Business and keeping up our home - I seriously doubt that next year will be any different... I think I seem to work better under pressure and at the last minute anyway... right?

The first year we started our business, we had a "professional" do our taxes... $850.00 and three weeks later, they were done without even giving us all the deductions that I had researched... Hmmm... Since then, I've insisted on doing them myself instead of paying someone to do what I can do for free :-) BUT - It took a lot of patience and trial by error to be able to do them properly (If I do, lol)... I have a serious phobia of being audited so I keep everything!

Well, I won't attach any other pictures of what the rest of the house looks like right now... Wouldn't want you to think that we were animals :-) 

-Lindsay

I finally did it!

Hey friends!! I finally started a blog! Woot!! Now, I just need to remember to post to it and share all my projects and life stories with the world! Ha ha... The design is still in progress, but please become a follower and I'll promise to post something amazingly spectacular in the near future ;-) Talk to you soon!

~Lindsay