Featured Freebies for the Week of March 21

Happy Monday!

The following are links to free printables and digital images found on blogs and websites or sent to us by friends.

Beccy's Place is getting into the Easter spirit with these adorable bunny digital images which can be colored and used for cards, scrapbook pages, or any papercrafting project imaginable.

Handful of Stamps posted a monster digital image that would be great on boy related pages or papercraft projects.

Spyder's Corner is featuring an Easter Bunny to celebrate 500 new followers to her blog.

MelJen's Designs shares a hello bunny digital image that would look great on a card

Little Scraps of Heaven Designs shares a cute bunny with egg digital image that I can't wait to use on an Easter card.

Crafting with Deedee's Designs is offering a free birdhouse digital stamp to introduce you to her stamp line

Have fun with the free images!
Creativity Bug ~ Sue

Recipe Friday: Bean and Spinach Soup

Today's recipe is for a really easy and extremely yummy crockpot soup.

Ingredients:

3 (14 oz) cans vegetable broth 

1 (15 oz) can tomato puree

1 (15 oz) can white or Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained 

½ cup rice (not instant)

½ cup chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon dried basil, crushed

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

8 cups coarsely chopped fresh spinach or kale leaves

Shredded Parmesan cheese

Directions:

• In a 3-1/2- or 4-quart slow cooker combine broth, tomato puree, beans, rice, onion, garlic, basil, salt, and pepper.
• Cover; cook on low-heat setting for 5 to 7 hours or on high-heat setting for 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 hours.
• Stir spinach into soup. 
• Serve with Parmesan cheese.

*** The broth can easily substituted with chicken or beef broth. You can also substitute with 42 ounces of water and a few bouillon cubes.

*** If you don't like Northern beans, this soup tastes great with lentils.

Nutrition Facts Per Serving:

• Servings: 6 main-dish servings
• Calories150
• Total Fat (g)3
• Saturated Fat (g)1
• Cholesterol (mg)4
• Sodium (mg)1137
• Carbohydrate (g)31
• Total Sugar (g)1
•  Fiber (g)8
•  Protein (g)9

 Have a great Friday!

  Creativity Bug ~ Sue

Irish Blessings Coming Your Way

May the wings of the butterfly kiss the sun

And find your shoulder to light on

To bring you luck, happiness, and riches

Today, tomorrow, and beyond

The Creativity Bugs ~ Sandy and Sue

BESTeam Weekly Feature - Bits n' Beads by Gilliauna

Come check out this week's BESTeam featured site Bits n' Beads by Gilliauna.

While a US citizen. Gilliauna lives and works over the border in British Columbia, Canada. She enjoys a variety of crafts but her current interest are in designing colorful, quality artisan jewelry.

Gilliauna has over 20 years of experience in jewelry design . Besides Etsy, she sells her designs at craft shows in the Kitsap/Mason county area as well as around the western Washington state peninsula sold by Aunt Billie's Candy and Crafts. 

Each piece offered in the Bits n’ Beads shop is a unique, hand-crafted piece of art lovingly created to be enjoyed for years to come. She often use cleaned and re-purposed as well as vintage jewelry parts and beads in many of her colorful creations.

The skilled craftsmanship and loving attention to detail is apparent when you take a peek at the collection  which includes:

Frosted Green Glass Teardrop Earrings

Bronze Floral Choker

 

Handmade Gemstone Bracelet - Going Green with Peridot

Please check out the rest of this beautiful collection of jewelry pieces by Gilliauna in her Etsy shop and also take the time to view more exquisite items on her blog The Meandering Musings of a Consummate Shopper.

Happy Shopping!

Creativity Bug ~ Sue

New Etsy Items

Come stop by the Creativity Bugs Etsy shop to check out some of the new items added to the shop. Here are a few sneak peaks.

Happy Birthday Elephant Card

Happy Birthday Turtle Card

Firefly Flower Card

Thanks for stopping by!
Creativity Bug ~ Sue

Featured Freebies for the Week of March 14

Here are this week's freebies found on blog and websites, or sent to us by friends.

Over at the Beccy's Place blog there is a link to a cupcake with candles

Tip Junkie has a ton of new printables including St. Patrick's Day bingo card,  recipe cards, home management worksheets, and cupcake wrappers

Living Locurto has a few new printables including these rainbow cupcake toppers, menu planning lists, and congratulations card

From JGoodeDesigns.com comes an adorable penguin memory match up game

Found on the Creature Comfort blog are these lacy printable label tags

That's it for this week. If you have any free printables to share, please feel to include the link in the comment section below or email us.

Have a great Monday!
Creativity Bug ~ Sue

Recipe Friday: Cheesy Penne Floretine

Wednesday started the Lenten season which means for the next few Fridays, I can't have meat. Last year I ate a lot of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. Don't get me wrong, I love them both but I really need to eat more healthy.

Anyway, I found a terrific recipe that I wanted to try only to find out one of the ingredients was chicken. So, last night I got into my kitchen with recipe in hand and tweaked it a bit so that it can be enjoyed with or without meat and also healthified it a bit with more veggies and lower fat cheeses.

Here is the modified recipe:

Ingredients:

Olive oil cooking spray
4 cups thinly sliced fresh mushrooms
1 small onion diced
1 medium red pepper chopped
3 cups fresh spinach, lightly chopped
1 tablespoon fresh oregano or 1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (16 oz) carton of low-fat cottage cheese
4 cups cooked whole-wheat penne pasta
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded reduced fat blend of cheeses (cheddar, mozzarella, colby jack), divided
1/4 cup (2 ounces) freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup skim milk
1 (10 3/4 ounce) can reduced fat cream of mushroom soup, undiluted

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Spray a large non-stick skillet with olive oil cooking spray and turn on heat to medium high.
3. Add mushrooms, onion, and pepper. Saute until tender; about 4 minute.
4. Add spinach, oregano, and pepper. Saute another 3 minutes or until spinach wilts.
5. In a food processor or blender, add cottage cheese and process until smooth.
6. In a large bowl, combine spinach mixture, cottage cheese, pasta, 3/4 cup cheese blend, milk, and soup.
7. Spoon mixture into 2-quart baking dish coated with cooking spray.
8. Sprinkle the top with remaining 1/4 cup cheese blend and Parmesan cheese.
9. Bake at 425 degrees for 25 minutes or until lightly brown and bubbly

*** if you are making this recipe with meat, use cream of chicken soup in place of cream of mushroom and add 2 cups shredded chicken breast in step 6. ***

I suggest serving with a large veggie filled side salad dressed with a low-cal balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

Enjoy!
Creativity Bug ~ Sue