Menu Plan Monday & Recipe for Spaetzle Swabian Egg Noodle Soup

Posted on July 31, 2011 by Charla

It is crazy hot here in Texas! The Weather Channel forecasts 105 degrees or more for the next 10 days…10 days!! Tuesday is forecast to be 109 degrees (plus the heat index)! Oh, how I wish we could go to the Rockie Mountains in Colorado this week. Specifically, Summit County and the Silverthorne area (forecast high this week is 77 degrees and low is 47 degrees), but since we can’t be there then here’s a little slide show of absolutely gorgeous scenery. Note the picture of the outlet mall. Our daughter, Christi (Frugal Novice), and I have shopped there several summers at the Silverthorne Outlet Mall on vacations throughout the years.

As far as menu planning, this week I’m trying something new on Monday. Notice all cooking is done on the stove top. NO OVEN USE IN MY KITCHEN THIS WEEK DUE TO EXCESSIVE HEAT!
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Monday: Spatzle Swabian Egg Noodle Soup (new recipe) & Salad

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Spatzle Swabian Egg Noodle Soup

.INGREDIENTS:

Aldi’s Homemade Spatzle Swabian Egg Noodles imported from Germany, cook before adding to soup
1 can of chicken broth
2 chicken breasts cooked in olive oil and cut into small pieces before adding to soup
1/2 cup chopped onion, cook with chicken until browned a little
Our favorite frozen veggies – 2 cups
Spices (taste as I go, add a little of this & a little of that).

Simmer just until veggies are tender. Top with a little shredded Swiss Cheese.

Note: What is “Spatzle” and “Swabian” Egg Noodles? According to Wikipedia, Spaetzle is a Swabian type egg noodle (made of wheat and eggs) of soft texture found in the cuisine of Germany and of Austria, Switzerland, and Hungary. Swabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in Germany, so these particular type of egg noodles originally come from there. Once thought a poor man’s food, these noodles are now a delicacy.

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Tuesday: Salmon patties, broccoli and corn
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Wednesday: Leftover salmon patties, fresh squash medley (yellow squash, zucchini, & onion), salad
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Thursday: Scrambled eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, orange juice & pancakes for dessert
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Friday: Pizza (Carryout pizza – not sure what kind yet)

Friendly Friday 7-29-11

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Charla

Welcome to Friendly Friday!

Please note – as of this week we’ve started having Friendly Friday begin at 8pm Central Thursday nights. This will give you early-to-bed people time to enter too!

Remember, YOU can host the link list on your blog, too! Just get the InLinkz code and copy it directly into your post. The code is different every week, so be sure to get the new code when hosting Friendly Friday on your blog. Hosting the list is a great way to get even more traffic to your blog and make Friendly Friday more beneficial for everyone.

Thanks for joining the Friendly Friday celebration hosted by Christi at Frugal Novice, Xenia at Thanks, Mail Carrier and Charla at Healthy Home Blog! We invite you to join us every Friday to make more friends in blogville, get more blog followers and follow other great blogs out there.

To join in the Friendly Friday celebration, include your family-friendly link in our list, follow the hostesses in the first 3 spots and then start blog hopping! Visit other blogs on the list and comment to give them some blog love. Then take a minute to follow them through Google Friend Connect – this is a good way to keep up with other blogs, but also lets us show support to each other! Please DO NOT list your giveaways here, links must be to either your homepage or your Friday posting with your blog title. All others will be deleted.

When people comment on your blog and let you know they’re a part of Friendly Friday, return the favor and follow them back. This way everyone gets traffic and followers out of participating, and it’s a win-win situation. We would love for you to also grab our Friendly Friday button and post it on your blog and/or in a post – the more bloggers that find out about Friendly Friday and participate, the better!
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Spotlight on Friendly Friday Followers! We love your participation and want to show it! In addition to gaining followers, each week we’ll select a blog at random and will feature a link and a write-up for that blog in the content of next week’s Friendly Friday post. There are so many seriously wonderful blogs out there, and this will be a great way to highlight one of those each week. Say hello to the lucky one for this week (and feel free to stop by and give them a little extra love):
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Ang, the blogger at Sparkles & Bugs, jumps out at you right away as an energetic and fun person. She is a wife and mom to four kiddos, and she likes to blog about a variety of things she loves, including:

Exercise & Fitness

Food

Crafts, DIY & Cute Stuff

Great Finds, Great Ideas & Great Deals

Organization

Homemaking

Mommyhood

Every Friday she does an event called Fitness Friday, where readers can follow along with her fitness journey and get motivated to continue on theirs! And trust us, this mom of four does not look like a mom of four – she has been working diligently to get back to her pre-baby weight. On other days you’ll find crafts that you can try yourself, like her friendship bracelets using – get this – girls’ tights! What a great way to reuse something and turn it into something fun. She posts recipes as well, so her blog is really a mix of resources for readers!
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Now that you know about this wonderful blog, it’s time for you to join in! Add your family-friendly link below and we’ll see you back here every Friday! And don’t forget, you can get the InLinkz code to share Friendly Friday on your blog!

All three hostesses appreciate followers through GFC and Twitter, and we’ll follow you back – be sure to leave a comment with your URL and/or Twitter username. Hope everyone has a great weekend! Don’t forget – Friendly Friday now begins at 8pm Central on Thursday nights!
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Hard Water & Water Softeners

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Charla

Depending on which part of the country you’re in, the water may be hard. I remember growing up and visiting some relatives who had water so hard that I almost couldn’t get the soap to rinse off my skin. People in these types of areas have to use a water softener to get the water to the point where they can rinse soap off the skin in a normal way. Also, clothes washed in hard water turn out dingy, don’t look clean, and aren’t soft. Dishes washed in the dishwasher may have spots all over them. Again, people use water softeners so their laundry turns out clean looking and so their dishes look clean as well.

Note: One advantage (and maybe the only one) to having hard water is that people get a good amount of calcium and magnesium in their drinking water.

Water Marks on Furniture

Posted on July 27, 2011 by Charla

Have you ever had a get-together, maybe a Christmas party, at your house and guests left their sodas sitting on a wooden coffee table or end table? Probably nearly everyone has had that happen at some time or another and wished they had holiday drink coaster décor to protect their wooden furniture from getting those ugly water marks.

I happen to have a couple of those water marks on two different pieces of furniture, and they are hard to get rid of once they’re on the wood. I’ve tried several different solutions, but the water mark rings eventually come back. I wish I knew of a way to be rid of them once and for all. The best thing I’ve found is prevention!

Wordless Wednesday: 417 Pizza

Posted on July 27, 2011 by Charla

Great pizza place in Springfield, Missouri, called 417 Pizza. We spent the night in Springfield on a vacation one time. We arrived in Springfield after dark and ended up eating dinner late. Pizza sounded good to all of us, and we read good reviews about this place so decided to give it a try. There was one thing, though, after we got there and saw their closing time on the door, we realized they closed in five minutes. That didn’t matter to them. They saw us at the door and invited us in. We ordered our pizza, and they baked it for us. It was delicious! They were so friendly and were making sure we had everything we needed. After we left, we wished they had a 417 Pizza in Texas!

Safety!

Posted on July 26, 2011 by Charla

Safety is just as important an issue during extremely hot weather as it is for water safety during the summer. Here in Texas, we have had over twenty consecutive days over 100 degrees, and the forecast for the next ten days predicts all ten days will be over 100 degrees. Just a few minutes in that type of heat is like being in a sauna and having safe fat burners to sweat off the pounds. Seriously, though, people need to take safety precautions in this type of weather and watch for signs of overheating in themselves and others around them!

Summer Weight Loss

Posted on July 26, 2011 by Charla

One thing I love about summer is the abundance of fresh fruits and veggies. Another thing I love is that without the bitter cold of winter, summer is a great time to exercise outdoors and get plenty of sunshine. With these two factors in mind, it seems that this time of year makes it easier to lose weight although some people still use diet pills to aid them.

Of course, summer is a time when people eat a lot more ice cream, so that popular dessert or treat needs to be eaten in moderation which is easier said than done for some people. Even with ice cream taken into consideration, summer is usually a time when it’s easier for people to lose weight.

Menu Plan Monday 7/25/11

Posted on July 25, 2011 by Charla

Summer is passing by so fast…too fast! School will be starting before we know it, I’ll be going back to teaching, and our son will be leaving to go back to college. Now, for this week, I have a taste for fish so salmon is on the menu:

Monday: Easy Herbed Grilled Salmon, corn, baby French green beans

Tuesday: Leftover salmon, squash medley with onions

Wednesday: Italian Chicken Pasta with HEB Marinara Sauce (recommended by daughter, Christi), salad

Thursday: Homemade chicken noodle soup loaded with lots of fresh veggies

Friday: Pizza, salad

Weddings in Springfield, MO, @ The Mansion

Posted on July 24, 2011 by Charla

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Springfield, Missouri, is in such a pretty area of the country, and the Chapel at The Mansion at Elfindale in Missouri is a very romantic setting for a Springfield wedding. The Chapel sits next to the European style B&B on lovely wooded property.
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The center aisle is a favorite for many brides. The aisle can be beautifully decorated to provide an elegant path for the bridal party.
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The magnificent flooring at the altar is imported marble which adds to the beauty of the occasion.
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The special events coordinators at The Mansion take care of the fine details to ensure a memorable wedding that is personalized and beautiful! Here are some of the things they offer:

Minister
Wedding music
Brass candelabra
Marble columns
Video recording of the wedding
Reception room
Cake and punch
Buffet dinner
Sit-down dinner
Special tree-lined archway drive as seen below. The lights on the archway are lit in the evenings from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

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The Mansion offers 13 suites for night lodgings for the honeymooners or their guests. A favorite suite is the tower suite which has a romantic ambiance to it. Rooms are available for bridal showers as well. For more photos, go to Weddings @ The Mansion at Elfindale in Springfield, Missouri.
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For more information, call 1-800-443-0237 to speak with one of their special events coordinators.

Using Olive Oil in Cooking & Beauty Products

Posted on July 23, 2011 by Charla

We are avid users of olive oil, extra virgin olive oil to be exact. We cook with it, drizzle it on popcorn, and enjoy all the health benefits associated with using it. I use butter if a main dish or vegetable recipe calls for it, but I usually try to add in some olive oil to counteract the saturated fat in the butter.

Some recipes need the butter taste to make them taste good, but I’ve found adding in olive oil doesn’t detract from the flavor in most cases. Depending on the recipe, I have completely omitted the butter at times and replaced it with EVOO which turned out great. I haven’t tried this very much in baking desserts and am still experimenting in this area.

Olive oil is used for more than just cooking and has been for thousands of years. It is used in skin care products such as olivella which supposedly makes the products have anti aging effects. It is claimed that Cleopatra used olive oil on her skin as well as many women throughout ancient history. There are moisturizers, soaps, shampoos and all types of products available which use this age old secret of olive oil benefits.

Friendly Friday 7-22-11

Posted on July 21, 2011 by Charla

Welcome to Friendly Friday!

Please note – as of this week we’ve started having Friendly Friday begin at 8pm Central Thursday nights. This will give you early-to-bed people time to enter too!
.Remember, YOU can host the link list on your blog, too! Just get the InLinkz code and copy it directly into your post. The code is different every week, so be sure to get the new code when hosting Friendly Friday on your blog. Hosting the list is a great way to get even more traffic to your blog and make Friendly Friday more beneficial for everyone.

Brandi at Frugal Farmhouse lives in a small town in Idaho and, in the past three years, has changed her goals in life. Instead of wanting a fast-paced life, she is on a journey to live a simple, quiet, eco-friendly, frugal life. From her delicious recipes (complete with yummy pictures) to her frugal tips that help readers save money to craft projects that may or may not work to her efforts to waste less food, you’ll find yourself inspired to want to join in on her admirable quest to live the good life for less.
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Now that you know about this wonderful blog, it’s time for you to join in! Add your family-friendly link below and we’ll see you back here every Friday! And don’t forget, you can get the InLinkz code to share Friendly Friday on your blog!

Tungsten Wedding Rings

Posted on July 18, 2011 by Charla

When I heard about black tungsten rings, I wasn’t exactly sure what they were. After doing some research, I found that tungsten carbide is three times stiffer than steel, and it’s denser than steel or titanium. The dark silver color can be buffed to a shiny, mirror-like image and makes handsome jewelry. It is popular for rings, particularly a man’s tungsten carbide wedding band.

One thing to make sure is that the tungsten is cobalt free. Apparently, if tungsten is used with a cobalt binder, it can mix with the oils in human skin and cause an unpleasant reaction. The oils cause the cobalt to leach from the jewelry. That doesn’t sound very appealing to me! So, it’s very important to make sure tungsten rings are cobalt free.

One special thing is that engravable tungsten rings can be laser etched for a personalized design. This etching should last the life of a ring, so it’s important to make sure a lifetime guarantee comes with the ring.

Anyone buying tungsten jewelry should make sure of three things, that it is cobalt free, that there is a lifetime guarantee, and that it’s not generic tungsten which might not fit comfortably!. Something as special as a wedding ring should definitely be comfortable and last a lifetime!

*Note: I was compensated monetarily for this article. However, the views and opinions are my own.

Healthy Home Blog

Blooming with ideas for home, health, and happiness & ideas for teaching

Monthly Archives: July 2011