Chili time!

I know, I am officially the worst blogger evvvvver! I had full intentions of really just diving into blogging. I had visions of pinterest projects, sharing wisdom and really getting into this blogging thing. But things have been crazy hectic in the Voorhies household in the last few weeks. First off, School. 

 I go to an online school and the format is a little different than an on campus college. Instead of 4 or 5 courses a “semester” I take 2 classes every 8 weeks which adds up to 4 classes a “semester” plus a summer session. My classes just ended and I start my new set of classes today. But I’ve had so much research to do for my end of course papers, plus everything going on in every day life that I really just haven’t had time to dig into any sort of project or write a blog post.

On top of school, I had housewife duties and just dealing with life. This month “dealing with life” meant saying goodbye to my sister as they moved to a new duty station. I know, I know…this is all apart of military life. But I’ve been extremely spoiled. For the last three years, my sister has been less than an hour drive away. When we lived in Georgia, they were literally around the corner from us. Then, when we got stationed at Camp Lejeune they joined us a few weeks later and lived just across town. They got orders to Paris Island in South Carolina and moved a few weeks ago. I was heartbroken. Not only did my best friend move, but this means I’ll be missing out events in Parkers life too. I’ll be fine; afterall this is why the good Lord sent us Skype. But at the time, it was rough!

On top of all of that, we’re preparing for the big move!....more details on that in the next post. There are a million things that need done between now and the big day, so I’ll be posting organization tips that worked for me, and how a military TMO moved worked out for me. But for now, so I don’t feel like I’ve totally bailed on my blog…a recipe!!

My dad gave me a recipe for chili when Matthew and I first got married and it’s honestly one of the best things I can make now! It’s so easy and so delicious. I’ve tweaked it to fit my needs, but you can make the original recipe and it turns out great!
Here is the list of ingredients of the original recipe.

1lb ground hamburger

1can diced tomatoes

1can tomato sauce

1 medium onion (chopped)

1 clove garlic (chopped)

1can kidney beans

1 tbs. chili powder

¾ tsp ground cumin

Here is my version though..

 

 I use ground turkey instead of ground beef, and it taste just the same! But throw a pound of ground beef/turkey into a hot skillet drizzled with a little oil. When its good and browned, drain it and throw it in a crock put.

 Put your chopped onion in the skillet next, I also add my garlic in at this point as well. I just brown it a bit.

 Throw the onion & garlic in the crock pot as well.

 Now, add just a normal sized can of diced tomatoes. I like to use the basil, garlic & oregano blend.

 Next add a normal can of tomato sauce.

 I add a small can of tomato paste in mine, but it is completely optional.

 My seasoning mix I use is just ground cumin and chili powder according the the recipe above. Then I also throw in a few shakes of Slap Ya Mama seasoning and a few dashes of soy sauce.  I cook this a few different ways. I cook it on low for 6-8 hours or high for 3-5 hours. This is one of those dishes that tastes better the longer you cook it. You can also make this on the stove. Bring the above ingredients to a boil, and then bring it down to a simmer for at least an hour. Again, the longer you cook it, the better it tastes.

 For the last 30 minutes to an hour before serving, add the kidney beans without draining. If you're cooking this on the stove top, add the kidney beans the last ten minutes of cooking. 

When you're ready to dig in, just bust out some cheese, sour cream, onion and crackers! This is one of my absolute favorite things to make because it's so simple. I try to make sure I always have the items I need in my pantry so that if I'm stuck on what to make for dinner, I can just throw this recipe together!

 I hope this recipe is a easy for everyone else to make, and just as delicious! I promise to try harder on this blogging thing :)

Family Portraits 2013

I absolutely love when we get our pictures taken. I know that fifteen and twenty years from now, we will be grateful to have pictures that we had taken in our early years. We haven't had professional pictures taken since our wedding portraits two years ago. Before we left North Carolina, we really wanted to get our photos taken by a photographer that took my good friend Becky's. You can see her session here. You can find information about Ashley Perry Blevins Photography here. She is just fantastic! She has great fun ideas and really takes into account what you want. I sent her a link to a board on pinterest full of poses that I liked, and she really tired her best to recreate them. You can see our session on here blog here. But I am about to post a annoying amount of pictures!

Our session took place in White Lake, North Carolina. We left our location up to Ashley, and we are so glad that we did. They turned out beautifully.Here are just my top favorites!

There you have it! Our family pictures!

Super Bowl!

...and by super bowl I mean that I did not watch it. Confession:...football? not for me. I don't really do the whole football thing. I'm not saying I hate it or anything, I just prefer to spend my Sundays doing something else. I love the food involved in football games, just not so much the game themselves. It's no surprise that I found something to occupy myself last Sunday instead of watching the game. This came in the form of my almost three year old nephew Parker Chunk. It was honestly so much fun. We're trying to get as many days we can in with sister, brother-in-law and Chunk before they get re-stationed in less than a month. Parker loves coming to our house, and the feeling is mutual. It's so nice to have these little moments that make all of us so happy.

 I swear sometimes I can't tell who has more fun, Parker or his Uncle Matt. Parker has gotten really into Nerf guns so it's been extra fun. Well, for everyone but Buddy. Poor guy tends to be the moving target on more than on occasion.

He loves playing on the keyboard. Only when he can sit on Matthew' s lap though. I must say, he was doing a pretty good job!

Yes, Parker is without pants. No judgement on a 2 year old. He discovered Matthew's hat, sperrys, and golf clubs. And yes, he was allowed to play with them all in the house, minus the golf balls. All I could imagine was one going into the television. 

 

 

Then he decided to help me with dinner. I was making a chicken stuffing bake. One day I'll get around to posting the recipe. But for right now, he was just helping mix to ingredients. He took his job very seriously and ended up loving it. 

He loved it so much, that he told me that he wanted to "cook" some more. I was out of tasks that he could help with, so I brought out; a mixing bowl, spoon, measuring cup and plain flour. He seriously played with all of that for a half our straight. All went well until he tried to eat what he was "cooking".

After dinner, everyone was tired so it was time to relax. Matt and Parker "played" a video game. Parker had a remove without batteries and still had a lot of fun watching the game they were playing. But there you have it, my Super Bowl Sunday. It was the best Super Bowl Sunday I've had in years!