lasagna soup

soup is one of my absolute favorite dinners in the fall and winter.  everything about it makes me happy.  however, I seem to just do the same recipes again and again.  so when my fabulous mother in law sent me a new soup recipe I was more than excited to try it out!  this is a great, hearty meal of a soup.  it held up great for reheating too.  I am thrilled to have it in my stash for the winter months to come

Ingredients

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 lb. Italian turkey sausage, casings removed
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 (32 oz) container chicken broth
1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
1 (14 ½ oz) can petite diced tomatoes
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
4 oz. broken whole-wheat lasagna noodles (about 4 noodles)
½ cup chopped fresh basil
½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Top with: Parmesan cheese
Serve with: Bread sticks or garlic bread

Directions

In a large nonstick sauce pot or Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium- high heat. Add the sausage, onion, bell pepper, and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the sausage is crumbled and browned, 8 – 10
minutes. Drain.

Add the broth, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, salt, and crushed red pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the flavors are blended, about 20 minutes.
 

Add the noodles; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the soup thickens slightly and the noodles are tender, about 15 minutes for the whole-wheat noodles. 

*I thickened the broth with 2 Tbsp of cornstarch mix with 2 Tbsp cold water. (I did not need to do this as it was already thick when cooking)* 

Stir in the fresh basil and mozzarella cheese. Serve with parmesan cheese and bread.

Yields 6 to 8 servings

faves on friday

here we go again.  I've had a pretty busy week, but it's been good.  here are some of my favorite parts...

scones and coffee with my hubs before work

waking up to fresh snow in the mountains

a quick mid-week road trip to SLC including In-N-Out and amazing parking!

the Design*Sponge at Home book signing  so.much.fun!

champagne and cupcakes, who could complain?

my beautiful new book, that I'm reading like I do cookbooks (like a novel) and pouring over for days

my two cuddlies that I've missed while being away over the weekend and during my quick trip

the week has been great, I am so ready for the weekend though!  have a blessed friday!!

faves on friday

 in deciding where I wanted to go with this little blog and what I want to post I decided I want to be sure that a few regular posts begin each week.  one of these posts is little things in my week that make me happy.  life has had some hard moments in the past few months and my mind has been on some heavy topics.  I never want to forget that through everything joy can be found.  my joy and peace is found in One who is greater than me or my life's circumstances... because of that I am thankful.  I am filled with joy and can rest in how great the little things can be.

here are some moments that make me smile from the lens of my camera phone

a pumpkin pie shake from my favorite, fanci freez, is a great fall treat

sewing a twirly skirt for a 5 year old on her birthday week... with an adorable zipper flower

I made a "no knit" scarf

new riding boots from anthro that are a perfect taupe-y gray and were hugely on sale!

kindergarten field trip to the pumpkin patch.  have I ever told you I LOVE my job??

when requesting a pennant from my alma mater I was pleasantly surprised with an entire 

goody package... it was amazing, to say the least!

and my week has ended on the couch, sick.  sipping tea, cuddling puppies, and surrounded by tissues.

that was my week, how has yours been??  I am focusing on remembering the blessings in my life this week.  what about you, what is your focus this week?

a fresh start

 source: traceysthoughts.tumblr.com via cortney on Pinterest

my blog has been down for a little while now.  I guess for about a week.  I think that technology is my friend most days, but then some days I really mess it all up.  I upgraded my phone and in the process of changing the phone over it synced up with my google account... I saw this little folder in the photo gallery that had all of the photos from my blog in it.  I didn't think that it was necessary that I have those photos on a gallery on my phone... so delete them I did!

I didn't realize what happened until a few days later.  I saw the big black boxes with exclamation points in them where my photos used to be, but I just blamed it on blogger and thought she was having a hard day.  I mean, my header was even gone too... so it's only obvious, right??

a couple days passed and I received a comment... I realized that it was only me that was having this problem, not all blogger users, and it was a big problem.  

I have spent some time trying to decide what I was going to do.  at one point I wanted to be done with blogging all together.  I've thought about that before.  then I wanted to start a new blog and delete this one. then I wanted to just get everything going again. --- I settled on a compromise.  I went through all of my posts and kept the ones I really like.  I have been working on uploading photos to those posts again.  I may have to delete a few more though because I can't find the original photos.  

I have a fresh perspective on this blog, what I want to do with it, what I want to share, and what type of posts I want to have.  please stick with me on the journey... hopefully it will only get better!

an office update

the school year is off to a great start!  I cannot believe the first quarter is going to be done in just a few short weeks.  I had fun putting together my office last year, but I really wanted to do more this year.  the husband and I spent a weekend painting the walls a neutral beige... I wanted anything other than the white it was!  We moved around the furniture and brought in the projects I had worked on over the summer (lamp, owl), as well as some new pillows, painted bird cages, colored baskets, and more fabric.  I like how it turned out a lot.  I am happy to be there every day.