Beautiful Browns

My husband’s friend recently gave us a dozen eggs from his backyard chicken coop.  (What a great way to make us regret giving away our Easter chicks!
)

brown eggs

I couldn’t help but pause and appreciate the subtle differences in their color.

brown eggs 2

The words “I’m not a brown girl” have come out of my mouth many times, meaning that I don’t love it enough to want it on all of my walls, or on the exterior of my house.  I just love other colors far more.  However, when I see all these shades of brown together, they are beautiful to me.   It’s almost like looking at a paint swatch, but much prettier because it’s a naturally occurring variety.

brown eggs 3

This morning I am thankful for an unexpected visual treat.  It’s uplifting to appreciate the color in ordinary things.

What color have you noticed lately?

Hopeful Homemaker

Ribbon Clothespins

After introducing my new reminder tree to our family earlier this week, my children have enjoyed clipping their information in a fun new place where it’s easy to see.  Tonight when my daughter brought home a one inch wide note about her gymnastics meet (which I had forgotten) we knew right where to put it!  To make it even more fun, I decided to embellish our clothespins with ribbon.  My ribbon organizer is inspiring me to use my ribbon more often.


All you need is ribbon, clothespins, scissors and a hot glue gun.


First I measured and cut my ribbon.  With a hot glue gun, I simply went around the clothespin and carefully adhered the ribbon to it.








Repeat the process with as many clothespins as you want!


I think they add a fun bit of personality to my topiary-turned-reminder station project.


This quick project made me happier than I anticipated.  Suddenly I’m thinking of all the places I can use these cute clothespins!  They will definitely be making appearances in more areas of my house.

ribbon clothespins

Happy, cheerful, useful.  This was also a no cost project, since I used ribbon scraps and clothespins I had on hand.  If you need to buy clothespins, I found a package of 18 for $1.50 at my local grocery store.  Not bad!  (In this economy, it’s kind of fun to discover things that cost less than $2.00).

What would you use them for?

Jennifer shared at The Inspired Room

Rice and Bean Wraps

This recipe is one of the all-time easiest I’ve made.  It’s also inexpensive, fast, meatless and people really like it.  Oh, and it only requires one pan (easy cleanup!).  It’s one of those recipes that prompt people to tell me, years after sharing it, how often their family eats it.

rice and bean wraps

Ingredients:
1 box spanish rice mix 2 tsp. butter or margarine 2 cups water 1 cup salsa 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes 1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained 1 can corn, drained flour tortillas cheese and sour cream for garnish Here we go.  Begin by browning the rice in butter.


Add the diced tomatoes, undrained, as well as the salsa.


Pour in two cups water.


Stir together.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat.  Cover and simmer for 12-15 minutes or until rice is tender.  Then add the kidney beans, corn and the seasoning packet from the rice mix.


Stir together and cook another 2 minutes or so, just to heat the beans and corn.


Remove from heat.  Spoon onto warm flour tortillas and top with cheese, sour cream, or whatever you’d like!


Serve and enjoy.

rice and bean wraps

My experience has been that children eat this meal well.  I’m  a big fan of using beans in recipes simply because they’re so good for us (did you know that red beans have more antioxidants than blueberries?) and because they’re inexpensive and easy to store.  I try to make at least one meatless meal each week (more often in the summer) and those meals almost always use beans as a source of protein, fiber and vitamins.

I’m also a believer in food storage.  We store a lot of things.  This meal is one of them.  I freeze tortillas and cheese, and everything else can sit on the shelf for a long time.  In other words, this recipe is a winner in many categories.   I hope you try it sometime!

Jennifer

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