Beer Broccoli Cheese Soup

I discovered greatness! I was going to make broccoli cheese soup for some friends and my husband, half jokingly, suggested I make it with beer. I've seen Cheddar beer soup recipes before so I thought, Okay, I'll give it a shot!

It turned out so delicious! Here's what I did:

4 big heads of broccoli
1 Guinness beer (some recipes I've seen say not to use stout beer when cooking but I use beer because I want to taste it. So I go with dark.)
1 block Velveta (next time I'll use cream cheese to eliminate the fake food)
1 big handful of shredded Cheddar cheese
1 cup half and half or cream or milk
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
Salt
Paprika
Tumeric

Steam broccoli. In a separate pot melt cheese in the beer over medium heat to create a yummy cheese sauce. When the broccoli has steamed and the sauce has sauced, drain broccoli. By mixing half broccoli half cheese sauce in your blender, blend everything until creamy. At this point I put everything back into the pot to season. Just season to taste. I used salt, paprika and turmeric (because I heard The Doctors say its super good for you and should be added to everything!) I wasn't sure if I was going to add the cream and the yogurt but I ended up incorporating it after seasoning the soup. I guess you could add it to the sauce making process. Enjoy!

The Twins Looking Like Twins

Latest Goings On

 Eve LOVES putting things on the babies' heads. Today she thought Noomi needed a spring hat.

It's almost time to break out the play yard. These guys are getting around fast!

I think it's hysterical when they crash in random places like this. Justin always has the touch. 

Justin and Eve decorated a cake for Justin's birthday. Eve picked the color/flavor of course.

Organization: Take 2

So I posted on some of the organization I did in Eve's closet. Here is some of the stuff I got done in the babies' closet and drawers. 

What next? Hum ... perhaps momma & daddy's room?

 I got these baskets from the Dollar Store. They had them in 5 different colors. I wanted something to shove all the random stuff in the babies' closet in that I want easy access to but don't necessarily use on a daily basis.

These are the drawer organizers in action! LOVE LOVE!! 

Diapers, formula and blankets. My dad built these shelves before we moved in. At first they really annoyed me but I like them now.

More Secrets

There was a time when I was a one-kid mom running my own home. I have since evolved to a three-kid mom sharing the homemaking responsibilities. I think things are about equal ... more kids, less homemaking responsibilities. I thought I'd share some of what I do that has made keeping house MUCH easier for me.
Before we moved in with my folks and the only kid I had nipping at my heels was Eve, I used the Card File System. The what??, you ask. I got this idea from the book Sidetracked Home Executives, a book my mom read when she was a young housewife and passed on to me. It's a great system to organize your chores and appointments and everything else you want to accomplish in a day, week, month and year. I'm hoping to go back to this system once things stabilize around here.
Now I use a calendar. I made a blank one that I framed and write in the days, month and chores with a dry erase marker. My goal these days is to do ONE chore a day. For example, this week looked like this:
- Monday: Our room
- Tuesday: Bathrooms (mine and the girls')
- Wednesday: Girls' rooms
- Thursday: Laundry
- Friday: Closets
Sometimes I end up doing laundry more than once a week and "closets" isn't on there every week. It usually rotates with something like "floors" or "organize" or something like that. I'm a big list maker. I feel SUPER accomplished if I can finish my one chore a day (which I usually can) and check it off. I feel like an ober achiever if i can manage to throw another chore in too.
BUT IS THERE TIME FOR ALL OF THAT?? A very valid question, I frequently ask myself. The answer is: But of course!
Part of the hole Card File system I mentioned above is timing how long it takes you to do one chore. Not how long it takes to clean the entire bathroom but how long it takes to do each individual thing: clean the toilet, wipe down the sink, clean the shower, etc. It's AMAZING how long it really takes you to clean something! I can clean my entire bathroom in about 3 minutes ... THREE MINUTES! That includes straightening, wiping down and scrubbing the toilet, spraying down and rinsing the shower, wiping out the sink, wiping the mirror and cleaning off the floor. So if time is your issue, I encourage you to set a timer and let yourself see how it really doesn't take that long to get stuff done. I was amazed! I'm sure will be too!
What secrets do you use to gets daily chores accomplished?