Back to work ...

I had a nice long weekend, not too eventfull but it was nice. I don't think we did anything Friday night ? I can't remember, I think my 'baby brain' is starting to kick in cause I've had a lot of 'moments' lately!? ;) Saturday hubby started on the basement ~~ YEAH !! And I went shopping, to Costco for a few 'staples' (TP, Kleenex, Pop..etc). By the time I got home my FIL was over helping hubby disconnect all the electrical stuff, thankfully he is an electrician so we don't have to pay for someone to come out and do that! ;) I made some soup on Saturday "Wild Rice Soup" (I will post the recipe at the end of this), it was really good! Then on Sunday we decided to go visiting cause we haven't done that since before I was in the hospital, and later that night we went for dinner with my Dad and brother for Dad's birthday. We had to pick up my nephew who was with his Mom close to where we live so we figured we were going by there anyway we may as well pick him up instead of having my brother drive all that way. I was nice to spend a little quality time with my nephew something I don't get to do too often. Monday was a holiday, which was nice ~ we went shopping first thing in the morning for supplies for the basement. Then after lunch I baked some low fat oatmeal raisin cookies. I didn't copy this recipe down so I won't be able to post it today but I'll make sure to post it tomorrow. That's about all for our weekend, I'm so excited that the basement has been started on although I'm sure it will still take a good 2 months to finish, if it's not done by the end of April I told hubby that we should start on the baby room anyway! We can always work on the basement later!?

Wild Rice Soup

1/4C Butter

4 Med. celery sticks ~ sliced

2 Med. carrot sticks ~ sliced

1 lg. onion ~ chopped

1 Med. green pepper ~ chopped

1/4C plus 2 Tbsp flour

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

3C cooked wild rice

2C water

2 Cans chicken broth

3C half n' half

2/3C slivered toasted almonds (optional)

1/2C parsley

1. In 4qt saucepan or dutch oven melt butter. Cook celery, carrots, onion and green pepper about 10 min until crisp-tender, stirring frequently.

2. Stir in flour, salt and pepper. Stir in wild rice, water and broth. Heat to boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 min. Stir occasionally.

3. Stir in half n' half, almonds and parsley. Heat just until hot (do not boil or soup may curdle).

1 serving = Calories 345, Fat 20g, Chol 55mg, Carbs 31g, Protein 11g.

***Lighter version*** For only 3g of Fat and 215 calories use cooking spray instead of butter and 3C of Fat free half n' half.

Of course I made this using the lighter version, although I couldn't find Fat free 1/2 n 1/2 so I just used low fat but I skipped out on the almonds (a. because nuts are fattening and b. because I forgot to buy some). I also found that in step 2 it says to stir in the flour before the water and broth which I found made it hard to stir and it almost burned to the bottom of the pan, I would add your liquids first then the dry ingredients! ? O - also I didn't have "wild rice" so I just used regular instant white rice, which probably isn't as healthy but tasted good? Other then that it was a pretty simple recipe and tastes pretty darn good! ;)