Turkey Chili

This is one my favorite fall foods! I am going to give you the recipe that makes lots of servings. We usually have people over to watch Sooner Football when I make this. It's also yummy reheated and on hot dogs.

Ingredients:
4-5 lbs Lean Ground Turkey
16 oz Tomato Sauce or Tomato Paste
2 c water (may use more)
Williams Original Chili Season (for 4 lbs Meat)*
     *this is my FAVORITE!
Lawry's Seasoning Salt
Garlic Powder
Ketchup
Yellow Mustard

Directions:
1. Brown ground turkey in a LARGE skillet. I season the turkey with Lawry's and Garlic Powder.
2. Add tomato sauce/paste and water.
3. Blend in chili seasoning.
4. Simmer for at least 15 min.
5. Stir in more water if desired. The secret to making super yummy chili is adding ketchup. I just take the bottle and squirt it in. I don't really know how much, but I use quite a bit. I also put in a little mustard....just a little bit.
6. Let simmer and stir occasionally. Add more water, Lawry's, garlic powder and/or ketchup to taste.
7. Enjoy with shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, Fritos or on hot dogs!

This Week's Menu: Oct. 17th-23rd

Sunday:
B: Donuts at Church
L: At The Yates'
D: Homemade Pizza Night


We have been on the go so much in the past couple of weeks (that's why I haven't posted menus.) I decided that I needed to detox and get back to making healthier choices for my family. I found a plan by Dr. Oz  to help get me back on track. I've modified parts of it for the girls. My favorite part of this plan: I can have as much water, coffee and tea as I like! 


Monday:
B: Oatmeal & Banana/(G) Wheat Toast w/Honey, Banana
L: Tuna Salad 
      (tuna, romaine, baby carrots, tomatoes, sea salt, pepper, Mrs. Dash, lemon)
      (G) Leftover pizza, tomatoes, carrots, Ranch, applesauce
Snack: Whole Grain Toast, Natural PB, 1/2 Banana
             (G) Pretzels & Apple Juice
D: Rotisserie Chicken, Broccoli, Couscous


Tuesday:
B: Oatmeal, Almonds, Strawberries
     (G) Muffins (super healthy ones made by my neighbor that does SIMMER)
L: Chicken Salad w/ Baby Spin, Veggies, Mozzarella, Olives
     (G) Turkey & Cheese Wraps, Tomatoes, Cucumber, Carrots, Ranch
Snack: Mozzarella Stick, Raw Veggies/(G) Teddy Grahams
D: Chicken, Broccoli, Couscous/Dessert: Baked Apples, Honey & Nuts


Wednesday:
B: Greek Yogurt, Berries, Almonds & Honey/(G) Muffins
L: Grilled Veggie Pita
Snack: Boiled Egg & Raw Veggies/(G) Mini Nilla Wafers
D: Shrimp, Wheat Pasta w/ Baby Spinach, Mozzarella & Olives
     (G) Wheat Spaghetti, Green Beans


Thursday: 
B: Boiled Egg, WheatToast w/PB, Banana/(G) Scrambled Eggs
L: Tuna Salad 
      (tuna, romaine, baby carrots, tomatoes, sea salt, pepper, Mrs. Dash, lemon)
Snack: Tortilla w/Cream Cheese & Raw Veggies
D: Chicken, Baked Potato, Broccoli w/Parmesan Cheese


Friday:
B: Greek Yogurt, Berries, Almonds & Honey
    (G) Wheat Toast w/Honey
L: Grilled Veggie Pita
Snack: Almonds, Raw Veggies
D: Turkey Chili*/Turkey Dogs
*Actual meal from Dr. Oz is ground turkey w/onions & tomatoes, bell pepper strips. seasoning & cheese, greek yogurt, served with/in whole wheat pitas. Turkey chili is my modified version of this. 


Saturday:
B: Boiled Egg, Wheat Toast w/PB, Banana
    (G) Scrambled Eggs or Muffins
L/D: Birthday Parties - OUT

Blue Sticky Vision Wall

"Chazown. It’s the Hebrew word for vision, and it’s what God had in mind for you when you were created. Each of us is a masterpiece, placed on earth for a unique purpose that’s solely ours to fulfill. Come uncover God’s dream for your life—your Chazown." -Craig Groeschel

In this week's message, CHAZOWN,  our Senior Pastor, Craig Groeschel mentioned a Vision Wall that his friends, the Yates encourage families to do. The Lord has blessed our family with the friendship of the Yates family. We recently had them over for dinner and we ended up doing  our very own "Blue Sticky Vision Wall."  I wanted to share about this to encourage you and your family to do the same. It has been so amazing for our family.

Tracy & Sheri simply asked us, "what are the dreams God has put on your heart?" I was speechless at first. Sure I have dreams, Scott and I have dreams, but we have never really shared them with anyone. We started sharing, they stared writing and posting those blue sticky notes to our wall. We talked more and then they encouraged us to take yellow sticky notes and post our "Next Steps." Scott and I went to bed with such excitement. We had talked about all of these things before, but it ended there. Just weeks earlier, Scott and I attended LifeChurch.tv Edmond Campus Vision Night (I posted a bit about it here.) God started giving us a new vision that night. Now these dreams-God's vision for our lives are out there, posted for all who comes into our house to see. They are no longer things we just talk about, we are now praying and asking God to show us what's next. 

Since that night, Scott and I have continued to pray and pray boldly for God to give us His vision and we've continued to post new blue stickies. The CHAZOWN message was further encouragement for us. Since creating our Blue Sticky Vision Wall, we have absolutely experienced all four phases that Craig spoke about. We've been certain that God has called us to write this down and post specific dreams/vision. There was a BIG vision God clearly gave to both of us. After discussing this particular vision, we looked at each other and said "how in the world are we going to do that?" We knew that this was a vision that was not going to be easy and we did not know how we were going to make this happen, but we knew that He called us to it, He could and would make it happen. Literally a day after He gave us this vision, a phone call came...this call was the "how." He is faithful! The days following we were met with unbelievable resistance. We were hit with attacks that tried to make us question. Again, He is faithful. He gave us an unbelievable peace and clarity. We are in the "next step" process of this particular vision. We are so excited about the lives that this will impact and are so thankful that God is allowing our family to serve Him in this way. 

We have also been able to talk to Abigail about her dreams. She LOVES this wall! Here are a some of her dreams:

     

This child just turned 5 years old! Scott and I are praying with her and we will figure out what our next steps need to be in order to make her dreams come true. We will also continue to teach to seek God and to dream big dreams. She will get to teach her little sister, Ashby to do the same. We are so thankful that God put the Yates' Family in our lives and that they shared this with us. Generations will be different all because of one very amazing pizza night at our home. 

I encourage you to first, watch the CHAZOWN message if you haven't already. (LifeChurch.tv campuses are offering Chazown Experiences to help you learn more about your purpose and the steps you can take to pursue that purpose.) Second, pray and start your own Vision Wall. Seek God and ask Him to give you and your family vision. Pray bold prayers and watch that vision come to life. You'll be thankful you did!

Recipes

Ground Turkey Sloppy Joes
I went off of the Pioneer Woman's sloppy joes recipe but used ground turkey instead of ground beef and added a couple of my own ingredients.

• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• 2-½ pounds Ground Turkey
• ½ whole Large Onion, Diced
• 1 whole Large Green Bell Pepper, Diced
• 5 cloves Garlic, Minced
• 1-½ cup Ketchup
• 1 cup Water
• 2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
• 2 teaspoons Chili Powder (more To Taste)
• 1 teaspoon Dry Mustard
• 1 tablespoon Mustard
• Worcestershire Sauce To Taste
• 2 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
• Salt To Taste
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper, To Taste
• Kaiser Rolls

1. Add butter to a large skillet over medium high heat. Add ground turkey and cook until brown. Drain most of the fat and discard.Add onions, green pepper, and garlic. Cook for a few minutes, or until vegetables begin to get soft. 
2. Add ketchup, brown sugar, chili pepper, dry mustard, and water. Stir to combine and simmer for 15 minutes, adding salt and pepper to taste. Also add tomato paste, Worcestershire, and mustard. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.
3. Place rolls in oven to brown. Spoon meat mixture over the rolls. These are yummy with kettle chips or sweet potato fries!

Pumpkin Bread

• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup water
• 3 cups white sugar
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 2 loaf pans.

2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.

3. Bake for about 50 minutes. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Ashby Lauren's 2nd Birthday

We celebrated our "baby's" 2nd birthday on Sunday, September 12th. I thought I'd take a second to share the story of her birth before I tell you all about her fun birthday party.


Scott, Abigail & I welcomed Ashby Lauren on Friday, September 12th at 12:04pm.  She weighed 5 lbs 13 oz and was 18 1/2 inches.  She came almost 4 weeks early...we weren't expecting her until Oct. 5th!  God is so good!  Scott had been in San Francisco all week and wasn't scheduled to be home until late Friday night.  Hurricane Ike was making its way to the Texas coast.  Scott didn't want to get stuck in San Francisco or in an airport all weekend, so he decided to try to get a flight out a day early.  He was able to get out and made it home around 7:30pm Thursday night (the 11th.)  I started having contractions around 9:30pm.  I had not had any signs of labor or contractions prior to this!  Though they were pretty strong, I thought it was still too early and that they would pass.  I was able to go to sleep, but woke up a couple of times with contractions.  Again, they were very sporadic and I still had 3 weeks to go.  I rolled over at 3:15am on Friday the 12th and told Scott that I thought my water broke.  Sure enough.  We gathered our things, called my mom, woke Abigail and headed to Mercy Health Center.  We got into triage just around 5:30am.  At 6:15am they confirmed that I was "ruptured,"  dilated to a 3 and that we would be having a baby today.  I was moved up to the Labor & Delivery floor at around 7 am at a 4.  Pitocin was started and I got my epidural around 10:30am.  I was already at a 7-8.  This little girl was ready to come into the world!  My OB happened to be out of town, but his partner Dr. Wilkes came into to "catch" Asbhy (Dr. Wilkes was great! We really liked her!)  I pushed 4 times...literally...and she was here just after noon.  What a God thing that Scott was able to get on a plane and home just hours before all of the excitement.  If he had stayed, the earliest he would have been able to get to OKC was 3pm Friday afternoon and that was with no problems getting through Houston.  We are so blessed and are so thankful.  Though she was a "premie," Ashby came into this world very healthy.  She was taken into the transition unit of the nursury for monitoring for about an hour after birth, but her breathing and vitals remained strong.  We were able to bring her home just 26 hours after she was born.  As always, God's timing was so perfect!

Born at 12:04pm Weighing 5 lbs 13 oz, 18 1/2 inches long

The Stemmons' 4

Ashby LOVES The Wiggles, so our family joined us for her Wiggly Birthday Party. We had lots of yummy food-Wags the Dog Sandwiches, Hot Potatoes, Fruit Salad Rosy Tea and of course an amazing birthday cake. 

2 Years Old Today

The kiddos enjoyed a Wiggly Dance Party, a game of Hot Potato, Pin the Tail on Wags and watching Ashby open presents. 

She had such a wonderful day celebrating with our family. 

Happy Birthday dear Ashby...

She is so loved!