Potato Leek Soup

I made this soup for the first time this week and really liked it. I took several recipes I found online and modified them to one that was both easy and somewhat healthy.

2 medium-large leeks, leafy tops cut off, and chopped finely
2 lbs white potatoes, peeled and chopped to approx. 1/2 inch cubes
3 cups chicken broth, or 3cups water and 3 chicken bouillon cubes
1 peeled and chopped (as finely as you want in soup) carrot
1 cup whole milk (I am sure skim or lowfat would work well too, I just went for the creamy factor)
2 T. margarine or butter
2 T. Dried parsley
2 tsp Rosemary
1 tsp Thyme
Salt and pepper to taste

In medium-large soup pot sprayed with non-stick spray, heat margarine/butter and leeks on medium heat, stirring until just bubbly. Then reduce heat to low and cover, simmering for 10 minutes. Stir every 2 minutes or so, do not allow leeks to burn. If leeks are getting stuck to pot, spray in more non-stick spray.

After 10 minutes, add the broth/bouillon and water, potatoes, carrots, and seasoning. Heat covered pot on medium-low for 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender, stirring frequently. Once potatoes are tender, remove from heat and use a potato masher to mash potatoes directly in pot. More mashing for finer soup, less for chunkier soup. Finally, add milk and salt and pepper to taste. Can add more milk for thinner soup. Serve immediately.

Entire batch using whole milk is 20 WW points.
Makes 4 meal-sized portions, or 6-8 smaller portions

Boun Appetito!

November Good Times

Eleanor has learned what to do when you say "Smile!"

The fall season is finally in high swing around our house! We are gearing up to visit Ben's side of the family next week for Thanksgiving. I am optimistically planning to bring all the Christmas presents for that side of the family in effort to avoid shipping them, but still have a few more things to pick up before next Wednesday. Our combined extended family has grown by 4 people in the last two years, with Ellie, two new brothers-in-law, and a new little niece, so perhaps it's better to break up the shopping into two groups, one before Thanksgiving and one after. I also am feeling good that I've picked up a few gifts several months ago due to some awesome 75% off sales I ran across in the summer months. We were also blessed to rediscover some "Reward Points" on an extra credit card we rarely use anymore, so that brought us a nice check to get gifts with.

My rehearsals for the musical NINE have been going pretty well, also. I have learned from all the publicity for the new movie version of NINE that the original musical and the new movie are different in many ways-- characters have different backgrounds, there are several new songs in the movie, and there have been many other original songs taken out as well. So, if you do get to see the movie, I believe the basic premise remains the same, but our version is not nearly as hip and flashy as the movie-- no Kate Hudson go-go dancing ;) Our serious dance rehearsals begin the week after Thanksgiving. If the audition was any preview, we will be working hard and sweating a lot in the coming weeks! I am excited to hopefully get in better shape!

I am playing my flute in church on Dec 13th with a flute trio- we are playing "Carol of the Bells," a fun song for flutes. It will be our last Sunday at our church before Christmas, since we'll be leaving the following weekend for New Hampshire.

Ellie is full of energy and spirit these days. Ben is convinced she can actually run now, although I haven't seen it for myself yet. I am happy that she gets to see all her family over the next month, she has grown a lot and is more and more like a little kid each day (and less and less a little baby :( ). She is very cuddly and sweet, friendly, interactive, and would like nothing more than to sit on your lap with her Bah-Bah (blanket) and have you read her a story.

I'm looking forward to seeing many of you soon!

Stuffed Bell Pepper Soup

Hi there- a good low-fat soup I tried tonight and really liked!

Stuffed Bell Pepper Soup

(actually a Weight Watcher recipe,
says makes 12 1-cup servings at 1.5 points a piece,
but I think it makes closer to 7 or 8 cups total...)

1 lb extra lean ground beef or ground turkey (I used turkey)
1 cup chopped white onion
2 cups chopped green pepper
15-oz can tomato sauce
15-oz can diced tomatoes (I used one with basil and garlic included)
3 cups water
1 Tblsp (3 cubes) beef bouillon
1 cup cooked brown rice (or more-- I used 1.5 cups)
2 tsp Basil
2 tsp Oregano
Salt and pepper to taste

Brown beef/turkey with onion, drain. Then you can either use a crock pot or cook on the stove:
For crock pot/slow cooker: Place all ingredients in and cook on low 6-8 hours.
OR for stove: Place in large soup pot and simmer on low for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

It is definitely a hearty soup, similar to a chili but with an Italian feel. It went great with some warm bread, and baked apples for dessert-- a good November dinner.

A nice, quiet weekend

Not much to blog about, but we have had a nice quiet weekend so far. We went to a fundraising auction for a co-op preschool at a Methodist church in town on Friday night. We have several friends whose children have attended the school (it is actually affordable compared to other preschools!), so we went with our friends Nate and Sonja and their daughter Miriam to check it out and try our luck at the auction. There were over one hundred great items up for auction, everything from gift certificates to restaurants and salons to handmade quilts, a doll house, tons of gift baskets, and even an exotic trip for 7 days to Africa (I think? I don't remember where actually). Anyway, we thought maybe we could get something for a decent price, considering how many things were up for auction... but we were wrong. There were 5 ladies sitting 2 rows in front of us, and in the first 50 items, they collectively won probably fifteen items. They were going crazy! Lots of items were going for pretty high prices, which I guess is good considering the auction was a fundraiser, but we were just hoping for some bargains. We left shortly after intermission, as it was after Ellie's bedtime. But it was not a total loss: during the auction, Eleanor and Miriam played in one of the classrooms with childcare and had fun, and we had some tasty cake and chocolate fondue on fruit kabobs. So it was a free evening out for us!

Today (Saturday), we headed over to the original Cottage Inn restaurant downtown and had a lunch out with Nate, Sonja, and Miriam. The Bairs are often out of town on the weekends visiting family and friends, so it was a treat to get to see them twice this weekend. We then wandered around campus, soaking in the sunshine and warm weather while most of the students and Ann Arbor population was at the big Purdue/UofM game a few streets away-- we could hear the announcer calling the plays. Saturdays are very busy here in Ann Arbor when there is a game at the stadium, and the only time to really get around downtown and avoid massive traffic back-ups is to go during the game.

We came home and managed to get the rest of our leaves raked into the street for the city leaf-pickup that happens this week. Ben is currently working on bottling some homebrew that may be making an appearance at a holiday near you! Cleaning, sanitizing, drying, filling, and capping probably over 100 bottles makes for a very long afternoon and evening. Hence my opportunity to blog.

Hope you are all doing well!

Fun Halloween Times

November is finally here! Which means Halloween festivities are finally over. We had a busy weekend in the Wing household with our church's Harvest Party on Friday night and trick-or-treating for the first time on Saturday night.

I was one of the party planners for the Harvest Party, so it was a lot of prep work, but it ended up being really well-attended and a lot of fun! I invited 3 families from my "Babes with Babes" play group, and they all came which was very cool. There were 7 toddlers from our play group alone, plus lots of other kids from the church and friends that were invited.

Ellie was a very adorable pink "Buttahbah" (butterfly, in Ellie) and I am pretty sure she enjoyed wearing the c

ostume. We tried it on one or two times earlier this week, and she

really liked seeing herself in the mirror. For the party, she also got two pink lipstick circles on her cheeks, which she was really excited about. She always sees me putting on makeup and I (obviously) never put any on her until this weekend, so that was

very special. I think she could have just looked in the mirror and t

ouched her cheeks all evening, but we had places to go! The party was very busy for me, as I was the emcee for the evening and announced various contests, games, and kept the evening rolling. Ben did a great job taking Ellie around to the games, and she even was smart enough to figure out how to find candy during the Candy Hunt. It was a fun but tiring evening for the lil' babe, and for the big parents.

A partial-group shot

Trick-or-treating went really well, also. Dad Dustin got to see Ellie get dressed up via G Chat, and to see her get excited a second time for her pink lipstick cheeks. We went up and down 2 of the little streets in our nei

ghborhood from 6 to 7 pm. She walked most of the way by herself, with only a few legs of the journey on dad's shoulders. Although she couldn't say "trick or treat" or "thank you," she did say "Bah-bah" (bye bye) at every house and wave to the person. She got some good loot, which she wanted to stop and open after every house. We would tell her, "Not yet, Ellie, we have to get more candy!" and she'd look at us and say "Moh?" (more? a concept she understands well, thanks in part to baby sign language). Then we could persuade her to continue to the next place. She did get to sample a few treats once we got home, and she definitely liked everything she tried except a Sour Patch Kid gummi. She would try it, make a sour face and take it out, look at it, and then try again... and again... and finally gave up. It was funny to watch. It was also neat to see a kid dressed up at Cookie Monster come to our house-- Ellie was pretty amazed that Cookie Monster was there! And that he had a little boy's face coming out of his mouth! Another cute moment.

Over all, a great weekend. We are trying to adjust Ellie's internal clock back so we don't get 7 am mornings. You may laugh, but we're more of an 8 am household, and thankfully so is our daughter. She is thankfully taking a late nap today, so hopefully we'll be able to stay up until our 8 pm bedtime.

My first rehearsal for the musical Nine is tonight! I am excited to meet my new cast mates. Hope you are all doing well!