Yay for 4 Day Weekends!!!

Oh, 4 day weekends how I love you! It feels like a mini vacation with my husband, even if we don't go anywhere! We can do whatever we want for 4 glorious days!! Plus on top of that, it's pay day!!! Of course we don't have a lot of money to waste, but the weekend always seems to be better when it's payday!

So what are our plans for this weekend, you may ask?

~ Finish up my craft project of refinishing a wine rack, more to come on this.
~ Search Home Depot and Lowe's for the supplies I need for one of my home made Christmas Gifts
~ Picnic at Lake Belton
~ Central Texas State Fair - Yay for horrible for you Fair Food!!
~ Possible BBQ
~ Giving this puppy a very long over due bath:

~ Spending some much needed quality time with my wonderful hubby!!

For those of you who are in a deployment cycle, I will make sure to hug my love extra tight for you! Those who have their husbands home, I ask you to do the same! Enjoy your time with them, that next deployment is always just around the corner!






This song by Keith Urban, strengthens my appreciation for our military men and women every time I hear it. I've always had a strong sense of appreciation growing up with a father in the Navy and deployed for, what seems like, over half of my childhood. This is how I always understood the mentality to be. If I could have done it, I would have, but something kept telling me that my job was to be a military wife like my mom! Love you Mom!!  So enjoy Keith Urban's "For You"

Cabbage Chili? or Cabbage soup? You Decide

      So hubby has to weigh in this week, which means extremely healthy eating in this house. The purpose of anything we eat coming up to a weigh in is nutritious, filling, and easy on the waist line. So this time I decided to look into making Cabbage Soup. After looking at some recipes online, I made my own version, and it is amazing! After eating it for dinner tonight, I realized there are many versions of this to be made, from extremely healthy and vegetarian to full on chili. So I have decided to share with you, how to make my version. I apologize for not having more pictures or better quality, but I didn't decide on sharing this until it was well into the cooking phase!


When I make this it fills my stock pot, I think it has a 6qt capacity. The cabbage and chicken stock can be reduced to fit into your stock pot. Of course this will be easy to freeze and has plenty of left overs.

Katie's Basic Cabbage Chili/Soup

* 1 Medium Yellow Onion - Diced

* 3 Large Cloves Garlic - Diced/Chopped

* 1 Bunch Fresh Spinach - Chopped

* 4 Celery Stalks - Diced/Chopped

* 4 Medium Carrots - Shredded/Grated

* 1 Medium Head of Green Cabbage - Chopped

* 2 Cans Petite Diced Tomatoes

* 1 Can Navy Beans - Drained

* 1 Can Garbanzo Beans - Drained

* 1 Can Kidney Beans - Drained

* 6 Cups Low Sodium Chicken Stock

* Olive oil

* Salt and Pepper (I prefer Kosher or Sea Salt for this)

* Garlic Powder

* Onion Powder

* Chili Powder

* Ground Cumin

Step One:  Sauté onion, garlic, and spinach in olive oil. Season with a little salt and pepper
Step Two: Add about one cup of Chicken Stock and deglaze the pan
Step Three: Add Cabbage, Carrots, Celery, and approximately 3 cups of chicken stock.
Step Four: Season to taste with Salt, Pepper, Onion powder, Garlic Powder, Chili Powder, and Ground
Cumin.
Step Five: Add Tomatoes, Beans, and remaining chicken stock to cover all ingredients.
Step Six: Simmer on low for at least two hours stirring occasionally.

This is ready to eat when the cabbage is soft and cooked through. 

Top with your favorite soup/chili toppings!

Full Stock Pot of Cabbage Chili

Variations of Katie's Cabbage Soup/Chili

* Add 8oz package of Diced Ham for a little more substance

or

* Brown one pound hamburger and drain before Sautéeing onions, garlic, and spinach for a truly hearty chili

I made this version of Cabbage Chili with Diced Ham

My Bowl of Cabbage Chili with some Shredded Cheese on Top

The best thing about this soup/chili is that it takes exactly like regular chili to me. It has great flavor and is extremely hearty with or without meat. For those that don't like cabbage, this wasn't very strong on the cabbage flavor. I think the tomato really subsides the strong flavor of the cabbage.

So what do you think, is this a soup or chili?

 

 

Link Up: Friday's Letters

Ok, so I have never done a link-up with another blog before, but I figured I would give it a try. So I'm linking up with Ashley for Friday's Letters.

Dear Husband, Thank you for being you and supporting me in everything I do. Thank you for supporting me in the decision to quit a job I didn't like!

Dear Housing Maintenance, I hope that you are right and that we only have stress fractures in our walls and that the house won't fall down around our ears. If it does, I'm coming after you!

Dear FRG, you drive me batty with how little support we can drum up from over 200 members. If my wonderful husband gets pulled up to brigade, I don't know how much I'll miss the headache. I'm sure I will miss it, but I would like to have my sanity back.

Dear Denice, I couldn't handle the FRG on my own, without you I would have quit a long time ago! If he does get pulled to brigade, I will miss working with you, but I will still help with the things we planned if I'm still allowed!

Dear Lexy, I love you pup, but you need to stop clawing me out of jealousy. It hurts and you can't do that when another little one is on the way.

Dear Texas, please start cooling off, it was wonderful earlier this week! I would love to feel the fall weather again!

Dear husband, I love you more than you know! I'm excited for our future!

Joy

    So this morning while I was doing my normal morning social media catch up, I read this post by fellow blogger Fran at FreeBorboleta. This was something that I needed to read today. She talks about the difference between Fun and Joy in life. (Make sure to take a look, it's a great read.)

    I have been feeling kind of down over the life I had in Florida versus what I have here in Texas. I have been thinking about all the things I would do and all the fun I had while living there. I think about the friends I am no longer able to see all the time, and the lack of friends that I have here. Fran's post got me thinking a little deeper on my past and present. I started to examine if I was just having fun or if I had joy in Florida, and also what I have here.

    I had both fun and joy while living in Florida! In Texas, I still have joy with some moments of fun. I have always tried to do what will make me happy, which I equate to joy in most circumstances. I am filled with joy in my every day life. No my life may not be exciting and always filled with fun, but I am happy. I wouldn't trade my life here with my husband for anything,  not even to be back in Florida where I had a lot of fun.

    I know the fun will come back, it always does. I will make new friends and I will have fun with them, it just takes time. Until then I will continue to be happy with my life and enjoy the fun, no matter how unconventional it may seem now, with my husband and few friends I have here. To my friends from back home, you know you are always welcome in my home!

Enjoy some of my favorite memories from the past year and half in Florida. By the way, if anyone can tell me how to put multiple pictures on a line, feel free to let me know!

Thinking of the Future with Baby Fever

This is my first official post on anything worth writing, lol. I have decided that I will start writing about more than just what happens in my day to day life, because frankly, at this time, it's not that interesting! So instead I am going to write about something in particular from my very ordinary life that might be of some interest. Of course, I'm sure I will still write about the mundane, but my goal is to write something with more substance! Now on to the substance!!

After everything that happened earlier this year with the pregnancy, and with our impending move next year, hubby and I have had some serious decisions to make regarding future children. We decided that with the high probability of him deploying shortly after getting to our new post, we want to have a baby before he leaves. With the length of recovery, we knew that I would deliver to close to the move and one way or another he would end up leaving to our new home before I could. We definitely do not want that, if we can help it. So based on all of that fun stuff we decided that we can stop preventing this fall. We decided on this a few months ago, but now that the date is about a month a way, baby fever has officially hit!

Living with baby fever and ample time on my hands, I have had time to begin planning! My husband of course, thinks I am crazy! Here's my logic, we will be losing roughly 2 months, if not more, of planning time because of our move, then we will basically have one month left before baby comes! I am way to indecisive and change my mind to often to wait until we are officially pregnant to make some of the big choices! Ok, maybe I am a little extra anxious, but I still have a valid point!

Have any of you had baby fever like this??

Back to normal

So things have been a little crazy in my household. As you may know, I am now the FRG Leader for my husband's battery. That has kept me very busy, and I'm almost to the point of pulling my hair out with it. We also had block leave last month, which was nice. I got some much needed one on one time with my hubby, as well as have a few days back in my home town! I have also started working again, but that's another can of worms that is better saved for a time I'm more calm after working. With everything that has been happening and changing over the last couple of months, it has seemed beyond hectic. Things finally seem to be settling down here again, or at least we are finding a new routine with all that has been added to our plates.

The best thing over the past couple of months was definitely block leave. We drove to FL for a week. What a long drive that is! We don't enjoy the drive in any sense, but it tends to be cheaper. We decided to take our pup with us because of length of time we were going to be gone, but had our friends come by and feed the cat. It was the first road trip the pup had been on, and we were slightly nervous because she wasn't overly fond of car rides. What dog doesn't like car rides?? She doesn't get sick in the car, just seemed to get really nervous. Thankfully she got over it, but was over being in the car for long periods of time. We made a horrible decision to drive straight through to FL on the way there, I do not suggest it! On the way back we left earlier than planned but broke up the drive and took some of the scenic routes. That was nice, I got to see some coastal places I hadn't before. I think we found some awesome future vacation spots though!

I'm making a goal with myself to blog at least once a week and talk about some important things rather than just ranting all of the time. In the mean time, I hope my few followers will bare with me!

Outside of our Hotel on the way back from FL

This is one of the many uncomfortable looking positions pup slept in during the road trip

Family photo at the rest stop in AL on the way back to TX

These are individual glasses of wine! Found this in a Gas Station in a little town here in TX

My hubby and I at the 4th of July Concert on post. He of course hates this one, but for some odd reason I love it!