When my shoulder pain was at its worst a few weeks ago, local friends from our church and community stepped in to encourage and support us by giving me rides to my appointments and bringing a few meals.  You have no idea (or maybe you do) how amazing it was to have jars of soups and a “hot dish” (aka Minnesota for casserole) in the fridge just ready to go.  I couldn’t cut food, maneuver pots & pans, or even eat with my right hand, so knowing that we were stocked with easy-to-heat-up and easy-to-eat meals was such a tremendous gift. All of the food was great, but one of my favorites was a Carrot & White Bean Soup my friend Cheri brought over to me.  I must admit that when I saw what looked like large jars of carrot baby food, I was thankful, but a little skeptical.  But, I’ve

Today was another snow day for the boys and they’ve already canceled school through Wednesday due to the cold.   (The high on Wednesday will be -20 degrees F!)  So, it’ll be a bit of a tough work week for me!  I need an empty house to really focus and reach my maximum level of productivity. But, while we’re socked in with the snow and cold, I decided to make chicken & dumplings.  I made them last week to use up a rotisserie chicken that was on its last day and many people asked for the recipe, so I thought I would share.  I also wanted to show how easy it is.  I think chicken and dumplings has the reputation for being complicated to make, but it’s pretty easy!  At least, this version is. When I made it last week, I started with a rotisserie chicken, so that sped things up

Today was another snow day for the boys and they’ve already canceled school through Wednesday due to the cold.   (The high on Wednesday will be -20 degrees F!)  So, it’ll be a bit of a tough work week for me!  I need an empty house to really focus and reach my maximum level of productivity. But, while we’re socked in with the snow and cold, I decided to make chicken & dumplings.  I made them last week to use up a rotisserie chicken that was on its last day and many people asked for the recipe, so I thought I would share.  I also wanted to show how easy it is.  I think chicken & dumpings has the reputation for being complicated to make, but it’s pretty easy!  At least, this version is. When I made it last week, I started with a rotisserie chicken, so that sped things up

Both Jeff and I are big soup fans. I discovered my love of soups when our family went on winter retreats to Beatenberg, Switzerland and they would serve the most delicious pureed soups with dinner every night. (This sounds fancy, but I grew up in Germany when my dad was stationed there in the military.) Now that we’re in the thick of winter and I’m working on eating healthier, soup makes a great dinner as well as leftovers for lunches and busy evenings. We’ve been pairing it with a salad, skipping the crackers and bread. Here’s how I make grab & go salad jars for easy weeknights. One of our favorites (and Marshall loves it, too) is this creamy potato soup.  I found the basic recipe in the Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook (the red checkered one), but we all found it to be a bit bland, so I added