Tag: fall

Life, Vacation

Happy October

Jessica Smith

It’s the most wonderful time of the year — fall time! After spending a hot week in Florida, I am so excited for cool weather.

My mom, sisters and I just went to Disney World last week, hence me being M.I.A. from the blog world.

We hit up all four parks and then did the Universal Parks, too. My favorite by far was the Harry Potter portions of the parks. And then Animal Kingdom. That was an awesome park.

My poor mom got the shaft in my pictures. I swear she was there and that we have a ton of photos with her! In fact, we got the memory maker package so the Disney professionals took a ton of photos of all four of us. I will share those later.

I’ll also have to share some old school pictures of the family and the new versions that we recreated. We spent a ton of time at the parks finding old places that we’d take pictures more than a decade ago. I can’t wait to see the side-by-side comparisons!

Anyway, the vacation was awesome. The weather… too hot for my liking. It is time to break out the fall decor, like my fabric pumpkins from a few years back, and the fall clothing. Finallyyyyy!

Hope you all are enjoying the fall weather where you are.

Recipes

Spicy Taco Soup

Jessica Smith

What I’m about to share with you is possibly one of the yummiest recipes of all time. That’s right, folks… it’s Spicy Taco Soup time.

I discovered this recipe years ago online and have since altered it to perfection. It is a staple in our house during the colder months and a staple at my mom’s house at Christmas time. It’s also way easy to make and not terribly bad for you. #Winning!

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1.5 lbs Ground beef/chicken/turkey: Use whichever meat you’d like and however much meat you like. I usually use 1.5 lbs because I like my soup to have a lot of meat in it.
  • 32 oz. Beef stock/chicken stock: Depending on whether you choose to make your soup with ground beef or ground bird, grab the corresponding broth to go with it. Also, I liked to get low sodium broth. It doesn’t affect the taste and it is way better for you.
  • 2 cans of petite diced tomatoes: Feel free to use petite diced tomatoes with green chillies or onions in it. Tomatoes must be petite!
  • 1 can of pinto/black beans: I use black beans in my soup and only one can. The original recipe I found online called for two cans of pinto and two cans of black beans. That was way too much for us. Grab low sodium beans if you can.
  • 1 can of sweet yellow corn
  • 1 cup chopped onion: Frozen or fresh works. You can add more if you’d like.
  • 1 cup chopped green/red/yellow peppers: Frozen or fresh works, and any color works! You can add more if you’d like.
  • 2 tbsp Red Pepper flakes
  • Salt and Pepper to taste
  • HOT SAUCE!!!: Add as much as you can handle 🙂

Directions:

In a frying pan, cook up the meat of your choice with the onions. Drain the grease.

In a large soup pot on medium to high heat, combine tomatoes (do not drain), corn (drain & rinse), beans (drain & rinse), peppers, red pepper flakes, and meat. Add in your broth (Note: I add a whole “box” of broth, but you can add however much you’d like. It will change the consistency of the soup. So, if you like chunky soup, don’t add too much. If you like a soupier soup, add all of it.)

Add hot sauce to taste.

Heat until hot! Serve with shredded cheese and sour cream on top — maybe even a few crushed up tortilla chips! Enjoy!

The best part about this soup is it is easily customizable without totally altering the taste. If you want more meat, add more. If you want less broth, add less. If you love green peppers but hate corn, the recipe will still turn out. I made it last night with three cans of petite tomatoes (total rebel, right?) and no green pepper (I forgot to buy them… oops!), and it was still delicious.

What are your favorite soup recipes? I also make a mean rustic tomato soup. Yummo. No soup beats my parents’ homemade chicken noodle, but Spicy Taco Soup is definitely my next favorite.

Graphic Design

Love love love

Jessica Smith

I have a friend who always says, “I love love.” This made me think of her. I made one square of love (each letter is inside the previous one), then grouped it together and rotated it to make this piece. It’s pretty stinking cute.

Sorry that all you get today is a printable… work has been crazy (We are almost finished writing copy for our alumni magazine! Whew!) and I’ve stayed late several days this week. And now that it is dark so early I have such a hard time wanting to do anything but cuddle up with my hubby and dog and watch TV. Oh well. Tomorrow is a craft fair, then Sunday is my man’s birthday. It will be pretty low key, but hopefully a good one nonetheless.

TGIF.