A “Toast" Post

This is not a normal posting where you will find a delicious recipe or a fun craft to make.  You won’t  find any helpful tips or tricks today or any samplings from my latest 
“treasure hunts”.  

This is actually a “thank you note” to say how grateful I am for all of you who have either been following me awhile or just visit my blog from time to time.

I was feeling a bit “slack" lately for not doing a better job of posting more regularly. I’m not going to give you a long list of excuses, but between preparing for the holidays and helping my daughter plan her wedding, my blogging has had to 
“take a backseat”.  

I have however;
 been very faithful about putting my 
Thought for the Day
on my blog.  Spending time with the Lord in the morning is VERY important to me and sharing the words that He gives me after my quiet time, is something that I will do regardless of what is going on in my life. 

My less than frequent blog posting has not seemed to have affected my “viewers”.  As a matter of fact, the past few days I have had a record number of people “checking me out”.  Actually, the numbers have been awe-inspiring to say the least. If you are a blogger, then you know that you can “check your stats”, which will not only tell you how many folks have visited your blog each day, it will tell you where they are from.  For example, today I have had people from the US, Russia, Germany, Serbia and Poland take a look at what HeArtlife is all about.  
I just love it!  

If you have read any of my past posts (please excuse any typos or grammatical errors-I was not an English major), then you know a little bit about me.  I’d like to know a little bit about you!
I am curious to know...

*What brought you to my blog?

*What brings you back (is it my Thought for the Day, my crafting, recipes etc.)?

*What would you like to see more of?

If you wouldn’t mind, I would LOVE it if you would take a  moment and leave a comment. 

I am so encouraged to know that there are "blogging buddies” literally all over the world!

1

Zesty Vegetable-Vegetable Soup

This truly is the BEST vegetable soup that I have ever made! 

        It all began with me being cooped up at home with workman who have been putting in new attic stairs.  I’m here to tell you that this has not been a quick job.  We are into day two and, probably the 8th hour of this project, and the end still does not look it’s coming very soon. Such is life. The men have been very pleasant, so it’s been okay being “stranded”.  I actually enjoy days where I am “forced” to stay home.   I LOVE my home and I LOVE being here, but being a part-time employee, wife and domestic engineer, requires frequent errand running and such, so I have to be away from my sweet abode more than I’d like.

Anyway...

Today has been an overcast, cold and gloomy Friday winter's day.  All the more reason to stay put.
The conditions were just PERFECT for soup making!  So, armed with a head of cabbage and a large variety of vegetables, I sat down and consulted Pinterest.  The soup recipe that sounded the best and came closest to matching the ingredient supply that I had on hand, was a vegetable cabbage soup.  

~BUT~

I have this bad habit of jumping into making a recipe before checking to make sure that I have everything that is needed.  This usually requires a bit of “tweaking”.  Sometimes I have had to "pull a rabbit out of a hat” and use my most creative culinary skills.  A few of these, which my husband calls “experiments”, have turned out to be delicious!

This recipe was one of those times, but I will spare you the details of where my “shortages” were and just give you my newest and most favorite vegetable soup recipe, which I call...

Zesty Vegetable-Vegetable Soup

3 onions, chopped

5 or 6 cloves of garlic, chopped 

1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes,with juice

1 cup green beans 
4 cups chicken broth
1 medium  head cabbage, chopped
1 can tomato paste
7 cups water
1/2 red, yellow and orange bell pepper,chopped  
2 tablespoons dried basil
1 stalk of kale, chopped
1 teaspoon red chili pepper flakes
6 1/2 tablespoons Streit’s soup base
(onion flavored)        
2 tablespoons Italian seasoning


Put all the ingredients in a very large pot. Heat to boil, then reduce to medium heat and cook until vegetables are tender. Simmer for 45 minutes and keep on low for another 30 minutes or so.


I can’t stop eating this stuff!  It is very low in calories and pretty healthy too.  Yum.

~It’s a keeper~

A great afternoon "pick-me-up"

I have seen several coffee-protein smoothies on Pinterest lately, but none of them sounded that great to me. I decided to create my own. It turned out to be quite tasty, so I thought I would share it.



Coffee-Protein Smoothie:

8 oz. cold brewed coffee

1/4 tsp. vanilla

1 Tbsp. pumpkin puree 

1 scoop vanilla-flavored protein powder

1 tsp. golden flax seed, ground

1/2 cup almond milk (unsweetened-original

)stevia to taste (I used 2 packets)

2 cubes of ice (may wish to use more, if you want it colder)

Add all ingredients to smoothie machine or blender. Process.

Enjoy!