Crockpot Turkey White Bean Pumpkin Chili

This is ridiculously good!  Three out of five of us love it, the other two (otherwise known as my picky 5 year olds, cough cough) wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole, but that's how things roll at my house 9 times out of 10, ha.  Hands down favorite chili recipe I've had in a while.  The crazy thing is, you can't even taste the pumpkin, but it adds this cozy warm flavor to chili that is so unexpectedly perfect.  I tweaked the original recipe some and here's what I'm left with...

Dawn's Fall Favorites

Favorite song stuck on replay:  This Is Amazing Grace, by Phil Wickham.  We've been singing this a lot recently at church and I love, love, love it.  We are in a series called #thisisworship.  Yes, that's a "hashtag".  I confess, I'm old and have not much interest in any additional social media/technology besides Facebook (which I often need a hiatus from as it is!).  I just learned about the "hashtag" a few months ago.  Our church placed the # (=hashtag) in front of the sermon series title because they wanted to encourage a social media campaign about worship, what worship is, where we can worship (anywhere!), etc.  Take a listen if you like...

Halloween Party & Slow Cooker Chili Recipe

We hosted a Halloween Party last month and my friend Katie brought chili.  I asked her to double the batch (she decided to triple it) and it all was eaten in about 15 minutes!  Clearly it was GOOD!  It was the perfect fall night for a party (and chili).  We roasted hot dogs (hormone free/organic and some soy ones too :))) over the fire!  (They don't explode or turn to mush and you can feel better about eating your dog!  Of course we also had s'mores!  A fun time with some great people!  

lovin' fall-

leanne

Holiday Trail Mix

Christmas - truly my most favorite time of the year!  I just got back from a weekend all about Christmas and "Preparing Our Hearts for Him" this season!  Many months of planning and praying landed me in a seat smiling and shaking my head at how God wove every detail together to bring Him glory and honor!  I walked away from this weekend with a renewed sense of how I am going to open my heart and life to Him this season.  We have much to celebrate in remembering when Jesus came.  It was God wrapped in human flesh and He came for YOU, for me! AND He's coming again! Hallelujah!

My sweet friend Ashley made this festive trail mix for the ladies. God has truly blessed her with the gift of artistic detail & making things come together beautifully! This would be great to take to a party, give for teacher gifts, or pack in your kid's lunches :).

Holiday Trail Mix

Makes 8 cups
1 1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 1/2 cup cinnamon cereal squares (such as Puffins)
1 1/4 cup green pumpkin seeds
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
1 cup date pieces
1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes

http://m.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipe/holiday-trail-mix#sthash.KbwnWQRD.dpuf

joy to the world, the Lord has come -
leanne

Sugar Overload

So now that your kids have gone Trick-or-Treating and your house is overrun with sugar, food dye, and lots of artificial everything else, what do you do with it all?  This is what our family started doing several years ago. We let the kids go through their candy and pick a set amount.  The current magic number in our house is 10 candies.  They then trade the rest in (which was a ridiculous amount and I cannot for the life of me fathom them eating all of that!) for cash.  This year they each got $10 for their banks.  They are super happy with that and as long as no one is complaining around here, that is what we will stick with.  I know other families who allow their kids to trade in all or a large portion of their candy for a special toy or book of their choice.

Halloween Candy Buy Back is another great idea.  It is a website where you can enter your zipcode and find local dentists who will actually pay your child to buy their halloween candy.  How cool is that!  I know we have at least several participating dentists in our area.

So long October...hello November!
Dawn