Sweet Potato Chili

 So many things on my plate lately.  Decided was going to make gifts for all family members so as to save the money to buy my kids their presents they want.  I crochet alot lately and have alot of yarn from other projects in the past that I have vowed to myself to use every drop making these gifts.  My kids want a few things made too so I am working on getting their gifts done and scouring pinterest for cool new ideas for things to make all other family members.  I will be driving to MI over the holidays so making the gifts also helps me to save for the gas to do this.
 So I was given a big bag of sweet potatoes and went onto pinterest to find a recipe using them to make for dinner and found a recipe for Sweet Potato Lentil Chili.  I changed the recipe to fit what I had in the house so didn't have to go to the store.  I had leftover black beans from black bean burgers made the day before so I threw them in.  I had 4 tomatoes on the cupboard so chopped and threw them in.  I had 3/4 of a jar of marinara in the fridge so dumped it in also.  As the sweet potatoes cooked I smashed some of them so I could thicken the chili up some.  Threw in burger (fried), chopped onion, chili powder, water, chicken bouillon, cumin, seasoned salt, pepper, garlic powder, frozen corn, lots of sweet potatoes peeled and cubed, sugar, and butter to make it rich in flavor. Turned out very good.
 I had a can of pumpkin so I went on pinterest and found a recipe for pumpkin bars so I decided to make them for the tribe.  I like usual did some substitutions (always do). One thing I did that I liked was sprinkle pumpkin pie spice over the frosting.
 Things I would like to accomplish this week are:  Christmas cards wrote out,  List of everyone's names with what I have for them or what I am going to make them wrote down,  Write down a budget for Christmas presents for the kids and expenses for our trip over the holiday's.  Now lets see what I actually get done.  Lol.

Off to work on the list.

Make Do!

Thinking About Christmas in August...and more!

 Every year I have all these ideas of things I want to make everyone for Christmas and by the time I get started I am rushing.  Every single year I tell myself at Christmas "next" year I will start making these things in the summer.  Well I am actually going to do it this year.  I am surfing the web for pictures of crafts to jump start my imagination.  I rarely ever find anything I actually make exact.  I always change it up and make it my own.  Makes it more fun!   I like to try to make all handmade gifts for parents, siblings, aunts uncles and save the cash I would have spent to put towards those Christmas lists that will be tacked on my fridge like a week before Christmas.  They change their minds a million times before then.  lol.   I don't like to buy to early for the kids because I just know what they wanted in Sept. is not what they will want in December.

Looking around at my living room wondering what happened.  I got up at 7 and started cleaning and you know how you feel like you have accomplished something when you get a certain amount of stuff done then you do a little more and you start to feel like your gaining.  Well I was at that point and then The Country Music Awards came on and I decided to watch and that was all it took.  I stopped moving for awhile and everyone else kept moving.  Now I am looking at what I woke up at 7 and seen and I wonder why did I work all day to be in the same place at night.  lol    A day in the life!!

Thinking about what will be for dinner tomorrow so I know whether I need to sit something out tonight.  Often times I will decide I am in the mood for chili and I didn't soak the beans so I try to make a point to think about it the night before.   Chili does sound good so I probably should soak me some kidney beans.  I will wake up feeling prepared which isn't always the case but it will be tomorrow.  I will probably pair with a loaf of homemade bread from the breadmaker of which I have 3.  I pick them up occasionally at garage sales so I can run all three on the dough cycle and freeze the dough for pizza or fried bread (delish) on days I have no time.  You can find them at garage sales for 5 bucks alot of the time.  Good investment!!  Only takes a minute to through the ingredients in and turn it on and walk away for a couple three hours.  I taped the recipe on the inside of my cupboard door so I never have to look for it.  I just open the cupboard.  I have a homemade egg noodle one there and a pizza dough also.

Well off to bed so I can be alert and ready to start some homemade gifts tomorrow!  Nite all!!