Carrot Soup

Carrot soup is a decadent way to eat more veggies and warm yourself up on a cold winter day! Made with simple ingredients this recipe comes together in moments for a filling dinner the whole family will love. Pair with crusty bread or a salad for a meatless meal that hits the spot!

This soup couldn't be easier to make. It is perfect for cooking a yummy soup for lunch or dinner on a budget and is a great way to get the family to eat more veggies. I love that this recipe freezes well for enjoying the leftovers on a later day.
This post contains affiliate links.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 6 cups of chopped carrots
• 2 cups of water
• 4 cups of chicken or vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup of half and half
• Pinch of salt and pepper
• Fresh parsley or thyme

optional: 1 chopped stalk of celery

Directions:

• Combine butter and oil in a large pot.
• Over medium heat, melt the butter then add the onions and celery if you are using any. Add your parsley or thyme and cook until veggies are soft.
• Add carrots, water and broth. Bring to a simmer and cook for 25 minutes, stirring frequently.
• When the carrots are tender, transfer the soup to a blender, this might take 3 blender batches to complete. Blend until the soup is smooth.
• When the soup has all been blended stir in salt and pepper and half and half.
• Garnish with fresh thyme or parsley.
• Serve and enjoy.

This soup keeps for about 3 days in the fridge or 3 months in the freezer.
This recipe will serve 8-10.
I like to eat this with croutons for a delicious change!

Have you ever made carrot soup? I would love to hear about your favorite soup recipe!

You might also like this Calcutta Aubergine Recipe.

Save Your Way To Family Fun

Image

Family time is precious and irreplaceable – you can’t put a price on it. Or can you? Priceless as the
memories may be, the cost of a family day out rises and rises each year. With travel, entry tickets,
overpriced food and drink and the unavoidable stop at the gift shop on the way out, take a few days
out in a year and you can find the cost slowly mounting. And for those families who are struggling to
meet savings goals or working through debt consolidation programs, every penny counts.
But there are ways to both cut the cost of your outing and find something fun for the family to
do together.

It’s All About Timing

Many theme parks and family attractions like zoos and the theatre practice ‘dynamic pricing’.
This means that the cost of entry will vary across a year and even a week, rising when there’s peak
demand and dropping right down when they need to fill seats. So do a little detective work
and use this to your advantage. Monitor the prices over a set period of time to see how they alter,
and make sure you’re signed up to the newsletter of the attraction, as many will email out discount
codes and special deals. It may mean waiting a little longer to get there, but you can make major
savings.

Round Up The Gang

A lot of attractions will also offer a discount for group bookings, so make sure you call up and speak
to them about what can be done. Who could you invite to go with you? Children will love for their
friends or neighbors to come along, and if you pool money, hiring a small minibus may be a more
cost-effective way to travel there as well. So time your trip with another family or two and see how
much you can save.

Claim Your Cashback

Using cashback sites and loyalty cards are a great idea if you know you’re planning to go somewhere.
Lots of them offer access to family attraction or ticketing sites. If you’ve saved up loyalty card points
all year, see what you can swap them in for, and use supermarket cards to purchase discounted
snacks and food for the road trip.

Keep The Snacks DIY

Overpriced food and drink at family attractions are one of the main budget-busters on a day out,
especially if you have several little ones. So save big by packing a cool bag with treats and drinks
before you go. Make the food prep a part of the excitement of the day out. Kids love a picnic, and
if you think outside the box and make some exciting picnic food rather than the standard sandwiches,
they’ll be super excited.

Days out are all about making memories – and you don’t have to spend a fortune to do that.
There are also lots of fun things to do at home from going on a bug safari to building a pillow fort,
having kids produce their own movie or play or even doing a campout in the backyard underneath
the stars. The only limit is your imagination.

6 Snowman Themed Painting Projects for Kids

We didn't get enough snow to make snowmen last year. We waited with crossed fingers until April rolled around, then we gave up, defeated and longing for a day spent rolling big balls of snow around.

This year, if we don't have ample snow in our own backyard for winter fun, we are at least prepared to craft up some snowman fun! I found 6 Snowman Themed Painting Projects for Kids to keep in my reserve of winter fun and I think you are going to like these ideas too!

Handprint Snowman Preschool Craft
Bubble Wrap Snowman Painting
Snowman Winter Art Project
Snowman Sensory Art with Puffy Paint
Footprint Snowman Craft
Easy Puffy Paint Snowman Project

These ideas are simple enough for small children and creative enough to offer your older kids a chance to create and explore new materials.  Which is a win/win! My favorite art supply to introduce to children is Kwik Stix, tempura paint sticks. You can get these through my affiliate link.

Hopefully, we will get the best of both worlds this winter; a chance to whoop it up in the snow and make a ton of snowmen, then come in and warm up with a painting project or two!

If you have a favorite snowman painting project for kids, please leave a comment to share it with us!

You might also like this Paper Cookie Preschool Craft.

Paper Fortune Cookies for New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve is just a few days away! To make the evening extra fun for the kids, I have been making these cute paper fortune cookies so they can open one on the hour and have fun reading their fortunes to each other!

This is such an easy craft idea!! It can be used for parties, holidays or even as place markers at a dinner party!




All you need is scrapbooking paper
Glue
Scissors
Paper and a Pen

To begin, cut several uniform circles from paper.

Gently fold the paper together, but only make a small crease in the center.

Unfold the circle, placing it so the crease runs from 9 o’clock to 3 o’clock.  Place a small dot of glue at 3 o’clock.

Fold the circle and press the paper onto the glue dot, making a taco shape.

Gently press the crease you made in step 2.  Place a glue dot along the folded side of the taco — alongside the crease.

Gently bring the two ends of the 'taco' together.  Pinch it together so that the glue dot holds the two halves together.

Add a strip of paper with your fortune inside.

You might also like these yummy pizza ideas for New Year's Eve.

Awesome and Delicious Stocking Stuffers

The gifts have all been wrapped and we are now down to the final days before Christmas. We are ready to hang the stockings and stuff them with goodies, but this year I want to skip the tiny toys and the too sweet treats in favor of better for you options. I am going to share a few of my favorite healthier stocking stuffer ideas with you today to help you make this a memorable Christmas morning filled with good stuff in your stockings!

This is a sponsored post.

1) Juicy Juice

Opening all of those gifts can be a lot of work. This year I am going to keep the kids hydrated and happy with the goodness of Juicy Juice in their stockings. They can sip a kid sized drink to fuel their unwrapping frenzy on Christmas morning.

2) Welch's Fruit Rolls

Featuring fruit as the first ingredient, these snacks are rolling in fun and flavor. I love that they have vitamins and are gluten free. My kids love the experience of unrolling a snack as they go. Available in 3 flavors; Berry, Tropical Punch, and White Grape Strawberry, these are a great alternative to stuffing the stocking with candy!

3) Go Organically Fruit Snacks

Loaded with vitamin c, these organic snacks are always a hit with the kids! Packed with natural flavors and all of the fun of a gummy, these are a fruit snack you can give in the stockings without the guilt of sugar loaded candy.

4) Aquaball Flavored Water

Playing with all of the toys on Christmas is hard work. Adding a fun and fruity aquaball to the stockings gives the kids a fun drink to fuel their day. Made with natural flavors and featuring fun characters, this is a drink the kids will love. Drinking their water has never been as fun or tasty!

5) Munk Pack Protein Cookies

It wouldn't be Christmas without cookies! But these are guilt free cookies! Each one is loaded with protein and nutrients for a decadent snacking experience. These are so tasty that even the kids who don't care about health benefits will want to gobble them up. 

6) Carrington Farms Protein Powder

Christmas isn't just about the kids. Adults want a stocking too! This protein powder makes a great stocking stuffer because it is so good for you!Packed with protein and made with only 3 ingredients, this is perfect for anyone health minded!

7) Hurom Juice Jars

Available in both 10.1 oz. and 13.5 oz. sizes these glass Juice Jars are great for gifting that one person you know who's always eating on the run. These jars feature an air-tight stainless steel lid, perfect for keeping your smoothies, workout juices, oatmeal and other snacks fresh while on-the-go.

8) Brooklyn Crafted Ginger Beer

Cased in 7 fluid ounce bottles, Brooklyn Crafted's small but mighty ginger beers are the perfect size for Christmas stockings and great for enjoying on their own or incorporating into cocktails this holiday season. Made with 100% fresh ginger pieces you can actually SEE in each bottle, the craft ginger beers are available in four trendy flavors. I love this drink as a stocking stuffer because ginger is so soothing to an overindulged tummy, and we all know that has been known to happen around the holidays!

9) Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio

With a delicate straw color and a golden apple flavor this is the ultimate stocking stuffer for a wine enthusiast. Fun to drink and perfectly aromatic, this would make anyone smile on Christmas morning as they open their stocking! Maybe if you are lucky, they will share it with you later in the day!

10) Lumi Shots
These are one of my favorite stocking stuffer ideas for fitness enthusiasts. These are loaded with good things for boost of energy when needed! Among my favorites are the 6 pack of fully loaded cold processed nutrition shots from Lumi. Made with broccoli leaf, lemon, and ginger this shot is aptly named. It is fully loaded with calcium & vitamins A & C to keep you on your toes for whatever life throws at you.

Lumi also offers cold pressed juice with an impressive 50 day shelf life. These are perfect for stuffing a stocking with nutrition. I am a big fan of the 10 oz Wahoo Orange  and 10 oz Harvest Apple  varieties for keeping my family healthy and hydrated. These are perfect for stockings and gift basket offerings at the holidays to help combat the blahs from excess celebrating, or to fuel the body with good things during cold and flu season!

If you have a favorite stocking stuffer idea for kids or adults please leave a comment to inspire others to avoid tiny toys and too much candy this year!