Meal Idea Monday- Easy Potato Soup

Wow, it's Monday again- how do the weeks go by so fast?! :) Here's our recipe for Meal Idea Monday... it's from Cary. Enjoy!

I have been taking potato soup for years. This is an easy and delicious meal.
-Cary

Easy Potato Soup

4 cups reduced sodium chicken broth
2 cups water
2 oz blocks cream cheese-I usually do the 1/3 less fat.
1 small white onion chopped
30 oz package frozen cubed hash brown potatoes (plain)
1-2 packages cubed ham
1/2 tsp dill weed-I use the McCormick with the red top. You may have to play with this depending on what type you have.
1/4 tsp black pepper
French bread-topping
sour cream-topping
shredded cheese-topping
green onion chopped-topping

Heat water and broth to just boiling. Add cream cheese in chunks, pepper and dill weed. Heat until cream cheese is mixed. Add onion, potatoes, and ham. Cook for 30 min on med-low. Add toppings as desired and serve.

Getting Creative

We'd like to thank Julie at Come Have A Peace for writing a wonderful post on her blog about Foodtidings. She even had some very creative ideas for making the meal you bring even more special. She writes:

Start the trend where you live. Someone is sure to be expecting, starting to feel lousy, packing boxes, or having their kitchen remodeled ... or you could be next and benefit from your organized "Food Tidings" friends. Great things to add to a meal you deliver to a friend:

• a package of fun napkins to make tired, ill, or new people feel better
• a package of paper plates to spare friends some clean up
• a card with the "menu" written on it
• a package of coffee for a single pot
• a box of tissues or tea, if you're reaching out to a friend with a cold

I LOVE those ideas! Thanks, Julie, for sharing your ideas and blogging about us!

I was inspired last night as I was at Michael's, looking in their $1 bins for fun things. They had these cute movie night themed napkins and a matching plastic popcorn bowl...wouldn't it be fun to bring a box of candy, a package of microwave popcorn, fun napkins, and a fun bowl for the popcorn? Put that altogether and you have given your friend a movie night along with dinner.

I hope some of these ideas are helpful to you, and make bringing meals to loved ones even more enjoyable. Get creative, and have fun with it! If you come up with any great ideas, please share them with us on our facebook page. We'd love to hear from you!

Meal Idea Monday- from Mama Jan's Kitchen

Good morning everyone! It's Meal Idea Monday, and I've gotten some great recipe ideas from some wonderful people in our foodtidings community. I'll be featuring a recipe idea each Monday that you can use to take to your friends and family. So if you ever feel stuck, like you can't seem to think of what to make after you've signed up to bring a meal, click "recipe ideas" on the right hand side of our blog to find some great ideas!

Our first recipe to be featured is from Janet at What's Cooking in Mama Jan's Kitchen. She has a food blog with lots of amazing looking recipes! Here's what she wrote to us on our facebook page...
I brought dinner to two families with new babies last night. I don't often do casseroles but found a recipe for a delicious, no-cans casserole with shredded chicken, mushrooms, peas and homemade stuffing. Sides of rosemary olive oil bread and a green salad with mandarin oranges and homemade vinaigrette. For dessert? Chocolate caramel meltaway brownies....

It was definitely a lot of work, esp. with two toddlers underfoot! But so worth it... and my boys love to bring meals to friends. The other day, my 2 1/2 year old even said to me "Mama, that was awesome" after we brought a meal to a new family. :D

How delicious does that sound?! And how awesome that she's showing her little ones the importance of helping others. Here are the links for these recipes. Enjoy!
Chicken, Mushroom, Pea, & Stuffing Casserole
Mandarin Tossed Salad
Chocolate Caramel Meltaways

Thanks for sharing, Janet! And as always, we would love to hear from you- send your recipes to lisa@foodtidings.com.

Awesome Crockpot Recipe Blog

Have you ever signed up for a meal, then immediately started to stress about what you were going to bring? I totally do that all the time! I want it to be just the right meal, and if we're being honest, one of the favorites that is remembered. I know that shouldn't matter, but I want it to be really, really yummy!

Well, here's a great resource for you to check out- it's an awesome blog called A Year Of Slowcooking. The author, Stephanie O'Dea, decided that she would use her crock pot every single day of the year 2008, and she did! It resulted in her being on Rachel Ray, The Today Show twice, and she now has 2 cookbooks out. She seems very down to earth, a family girl, and very funny too. I've found many great recipes for my crock pot using her blog, and I know you will too- ones you can easily bring to friends and family. Enjoy!

Sharing Her Story

Patti from Colorado recently shared her foodtidings story with us, and we wanted to share it with you...

"Your website was an amazing support for us! Our daughter is developmentally disabled. In March, she had major surgery on both legs. A friend set up the Food Tidings website for us and we didn't prepare a meal for a full 5 weeks. It was an amazing lifesaver not to have to think about dinner! Thank you so much for providing this service!"

Thanks for sharing, Patti! And we welcome any of your stories- we'd love to hear from you! You can email them to us at lisa@foodtidings.com.

Meal Idea Monday

Hello to our Foodtidings family! We're currently working on adding to the recipe ideas section of our blog, and we need your help!!! We're officially calling this day "Meal Idea Monday." :) We're looking for recipes that have worked well for you when bringing them to someone- and feel free to even include the sides you brought with the main dish. You can email the recipes to us at lisa@foodtidings.com, you can leave a comment on here, or you can find our facebook page and comment with it. Thank you so much!

A New Arrival!!

Hi there everyone! A few new exciting things happening here...
First, our 4th child was born on July 20th- he's just precious! His name is Deklan Eugene, and he weighed in at 6lb and was 20.5 inches long. Welcome to the world, little Deklan!

We have amazing friends and family who are bringing us dinners, and they've been so wonderful! We've gotten mexican stuffed shells with salad and muffins, bbq sandwiches with cheesy potatoes and brownies, tater tot casserole with ice cream and homemade fudge (yummy!), spaghetti and salad with these amazing raspberry shortbread cookies, lasagna with bread, and we even had pizza delivered to us! We just feel so blessed to have such great support around us, and we're being fed VERY well. There's just not much better than having meals brought during a time like this. The last thing I'm thinking about is making dinners- really, I'm just trying to stay awake enough to take care of my 4 kids! This is quite the transition time, and I know these sleepless nights and raging hormones are only temporary (thank goodness, for my sake and my families sake!) So yes, Zach and I are super tired, but more than that we're just amazed that God could create such a beautiful baby and thankful for our friends and family!!

Also, I just came across a column that was written on azfamily.com (one of our local news stations), and it featured foodtidings in the article! Click here for the link if you want to check it out (it's about 3/4 of the way down the article.)

Keep on helping others by bringing them meals, and in any other way you can- you are making a difference!!!