Monday Mealtime Motivation: Easy-Peasy Chicken Spinach Stew

If you're anything like me then you are always looking for a really good, simple meal to add into your line-up of usual meals. This is one of my favorites! And sometimes all we need in life is a little extra motivation... either to step out of our comfort zone or to be convinced we can make a simple meal at home instead of picking up something from the drive-thru. So here is a little Monday Mealtime Motivation for you! I hope you enjoy this stew as much as I do!

Easy-Peasy Chicken Spinach Stew

Meat

• 12 oz. Beef Smoked Sausage 
• Cooked shredded chicken (either taken from a store bought rotessiere chicken OR a portion I've made ahead in the crock pot & grabbed from the freezer. I can totally share that recipe another Monday if anybody is interested!)

Produce

• 1 (10 oz.) bag of baby spinach 
• 1 tsp. minced garlic
• 1 large onion
• 2 large sweet potatoes

Canned Goods

• 1 box of chicken broth
• 2 cans of petite diced tomatoes

Baking & Spices

• salt, pepper, and whatever seasoning you like, to taste 

Instructions:

1. Grab your sweet potatoes and onion -- peel, cut, chop, dice them to your preference.  For the potatoes I usually do somewhere between a quarter or a dice when I chop them and I cut the onion into julienne strips... really just up to your preference.

2. Place the sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, and whatever seasoning you'd like in a 4-to 6-quart slow cooker. (Note on seasoning: I use what I have on hand. In the past some of the seasoning blends I've used and liked is either the 21 Seasoning Salute from Trader Joes, McCormick's Montreal Chicken blend, or Herbs de Provence. Use what you have and like!)

3. Cut the sausage to your preference. (This time I'm using Hillshire Farm Smoked Sausage.)
4.Add the chicken and sausage over produce; toss in tomatoes and broth.

5. Cover and cook on LOW for 6 hours.

6. Stir in spinach and let it sit a few minutes before serving. You don't have to use every bit of the 10 oz. of spinach... again just put in as much or as little as you prefer.

This is just what I use and how I make it. You can adapt it as you need or as you'd like. For example, if you'd like to adapt this to a stovetop recipe - you could easily do that! If you'd like to add different ingredients or take any away - you go Glen Coco! (Mean Girls reference for anyone wondering what the hell I'm talking about.)

We love Aidells sausage and have used several different kinds of their chicken sausage in place of the beef smoked sausage before. I've added canned green beans (drained and rinsed) many times in the past, too. I almost never make recipes the same twice. Mostly because I'm the type of person who eyeballs everything and just make things up as I go along.

 Here are photos of some of the things I referenced in this post and what they look like just for frame of reference:

Let me know if you make it and how you liked it or modified it!! This concludes our first Monday Mealtime Motivation... thanks for visiting! 

If you have any tried-and-true favorite recipes to submit or would be interested in guest blogging or sponsoring in the future shoot me an e-mail at aduggan520@gmail.com

New Year.

Anybody else feel like life has been moving super fast lately? I really can't believe 2019 is already here. There are lots of joyful things happening this year for us. Tony and I are going to see Justin Timberlake when he comes back to Memphis this month and later in the year Amanda and I are going to see the Backstreet Boys! Both concerts we'll be sitting nosebleeds but I'm honestly just so excited to be there that it doesn't even matter to me. In between those shows we'll be celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary and I'll be in my happy place all year while planning our first family vacation in FOREVER for Walt Disney World for this Fall!!!!

Every year at this time I love reflecting in attempt to learn something from the last year about myself and potentially how I can make healthier decisions in the coming year. I haven't done as much journaling and reflecting as I'd like to, but the little bit that I finished so far I wanted to share here on my blog. Here is the list of prompts I followed. I picked them up from my sister who got them from somewhere else on the interwebs so here is a recreated version of the original list and then my answers below that.

This year...

A bad habit I'm going to break:

Being so quick to lose my patience. I know I can try a lot harder in this arena. I'd also like to make it to mass this year. I was originally going to say "make it to mass more this year" but to be honest, if I went to mass two times in 2019 that'd technically be more than I did in 2018. So. Saying more wouldn't exactly be clear enough. I'd like to make it to mass as a family this year. I'm hoping to break the bad habit of being complacent in not going.

A new skill I'd like to learn:

To live minimally.

A person I hope to be more like:

The "Girl Wash Your Face" girl (Rachel Hollis) and Glennon Doyle. Rachel seems to have refocused her energies on the things (as a wife and mom) that really, actually matter. She seems to have switched from being unforgiving of herself to loving and being kind to herself. That's the biggest shift within myself I could make this new year. I always want to be a bit more like Glennon but especially getting up and doing good for other people is what I wish I did more of like she does.

A good deed I'm going to do:

Donate blood. No excuses.

A place I'd like to visit:

Dallas. I'm not sure it'll happen this year but it's always on my list of places to visit someday.

A book I'd like to read:

A ton of books. I want to read this year. Last year I kinda fell off the reading wagon and it's something I miss so much. But the first book that came to mind for this was "Girl Wash Your Face" since I was just thinking about Rachel Hollis.

A letter I'm going to write:

Goodbye letters to Gramma Myers and Granny. The things I would have liked to tell them or talk to them about before they passed.

A new food I'm going to try:

I really can't think of one! So I'm going to go with a turkey leg from Walt Disney World. And macaroons. I've never had them and would like to try them. AND. I'd like to try sake. I know that's a drink but it's something I've always wanted to try.

I'm going to do better at:

Homeschool stuff for BOTH girls. Getting out of the house a bit more. Cleaning out and organizing the house to potentially move. Drink more water. Be more physically active.

Which leads me to my word of the year... BREATHE. I'd like to take a deep breathe and clear my head more often before responding this year. If I allow myself a moment to breathe before doing or responding or reacting then I'm hoping it'll give me a moment to grasp onto my reserve of kindness and patience. To respond more often with love instead of bitterness or anger or cynicism. To wait a minute and hear someone out completely instead of assuming the worst and jumping right in. Breathe. This is the first time for me to choose a word to focus on for the year and I'm loving the idea and the motivation. I'm looking for the perfect accessory so I can carry the word with me throughout the year.

Let me know how you spend the new year this year - did you reflect or make resolutions or did you choose a word? If so, what were they? I'd love to know! I hope it's a year for growth and reaching our potential.

So long, 2018.

Before moving forward it's nice to take a look back at how far you've come. 2018 was a true rollercoaster of a year for the Duggan clan. We had some tough hits this year and we had so many good days. It was a full year.

January is when we began our homeschool journey with Presley and the month she also had her tonsillectomy. Molly got her first haircut and thanks to my wonderful husband I saw Finding Neverland with Selena.

In February we had lots of days at home, at the zoo, at Shelby Farms, and at the Children's Museum.

March brought Betsy's bachelorette weekend in Wilmington, NC! My first trip away from my family and a chance to see some far away friends and act like we were teens again. And I got to see so many of the One Tree Hill spots around town plus Betsy spotted one of the actors from the show, too!

Presley had her first cavity and filling in April and it was my first time mowing the lawn.

May was a super fun month as we all traveled to the Quad Cities for Betsy's wedding! It was Crosby's first time to Illinois. We had a fun afternoon in St. Louis while we were on the road, saw lots of family (including my cousin Breanne) for the first time in nearly three years, Betsy got married, and Crosby was baptized! We celebrated seven years of marriage which lined up perfectly with TJ & Barb getting married. We also ran our first 5k of the season at the zoo.

In June we ran our favorite 5k ever - the Harbortown 5k! We went to Dairy Queen to remember my dad on his birthday. We went to the splash pad at the Children's Museum. A lot. And we ran the Orion 5k in beautiful downtown Memphis.

I went back to the Quad Cities in July to see Jess marry Will! It also marked the 3rd time of seeing most of these far away friends in one year!!! Molly had a big month: she stopped sucking her thumb and became potty trained! We had an "underwear party" at IKEA since now she gets to go into the big kid playroom now that she's potty trained. Oh, and is it really July if you don't get matching Old Navy flag tees?!

August is a blur that I really don't remember much about other than I started teaching PRE (Parish Religious Education) with Amanda! Our first grade class is the sweetest bunch of kids.

The first day of September is 901 day which is the perfect time to reflect on how much I love the city of Memphis! I also went on one of the best, funnest dates ever when Tony surprised me for a ride around our beautiful city on Bird scooters!

 I also went to the beach...

...to say goodbye to someone who was already gone.

But I got to take a trip with my big sister. And I got my favorite sandwich. 

Then I had to say another impossible goodbye to someone who meant so much to me.

And afterward we celebrated her big, vibrant life with friends and family.

In October we did Fall stuff. Like my first ever pig race. And Crosby turned two! And we did Halloween stuff.

Next came November where we celebrated the Day of the Dead and had a feast at our house. I turned 31. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at Amanda & John's and then had Selena over to our house for our first ever Thanksgiving meal at home!

In December we did Christmas stuff like seeing Santa and the Grinch. We celebrated Peyton becoming a fiancé. We saw so much family which is the absolute best part of the holidays.

Like I said: 2018 was a very full year. I'm ready to carry what remains from the last year along with me into 2019. The heartaches, the lessons learned, the promises kept, the loved ones both here on earth with us and those locked up tight in our hearts. So long, 2018. I hope to have learned something from you.