Living on Purpose

I try really hard to live "on purpose" every single day. I want to get the most out of life---enjoy things, learn things, experience things, do things, make things, share things, think up new things to do, and do it all on purpose. I do truly believe that each day is a gift and I wake up to it consciously each and every one of them.

With that in mind, I threw out a proposal to my friends for 2014. I'm just always thinking. This year, each month we're going to "do" something around town. There's so much available to us that we take for granted and never take advantage of. I'm planning to change that. I've challenged my friends to each take a month and plan an outing. It can be anything---educational, visiting a new/cute shop, antiquing, an exhibit, a tour, a garden, new restaurant---the possibilities are endless. They have all accepted and have even started "signing up" for months. I didn't expect it to be quite so organized, but that's perfectly fine too. I just thought at our current month outing, someone would volunteer for the next.

We're starting tomorrow with my outing. We're going to The Frist Museum to see the Norman Rockwell exhibit. I've already been in October. It is so wonderful that I wanted to make sure my friends saw it. Afterwards, we're going to one of the new "hottest" restaurants in Nashville---Etch. Mindy's boyfriend is the manager there, so he's set us up with reservations.

Now that I have this little plan of mine all set up, I've discovered a little "fly in the ointment." I have so many ideas on my own list of places to visit and things to do, that I could have planned the entire year myself. Some of the things have time periods attached. I want to make sure I do those and don't miss out on a thing. Sooo, now it already looks like we might have more than one activity a month. Someone has already volunteered to plan our February outing. But in February, the Antique and Garden Show is hosting Lady Fiona Carnarvon from Highclere Castle (home to Downton Abbey). She's giving the keynote speech. There's no way I'm missing that!

Stephanie said she wanted "in" on my plan for the year. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite work out for working folks.

I'm looking forward to 2014 and the endless possibilities. What do you have planned for your year?

And now a recipe share. I always start out each new year with a resolution to try new recipes. I plan for one a week, but don't usually get very far with that. Still, I'm at it again. I got this recipe from one of my favorite food blogs---Six Sisters. It's a lower calorie, crockpot, freezer meal.

Chicken Broccoli Alfredo (Soup)
1 1/2 lbs. chicken breasts
1- 16 oz. pkg. frozen broccoli florets
2- 16 oz. jars light Alfredo sauce
1 large green pepper, chopped
1- 4 oz. can sliced mushrooms, drained

Place all ingredients in a freezer ziplock bag. Freeze. When ready to cook, thaw in the refrigerator overnight. Place in the crockpot and cook on low for 4-6 hours. Serve over fettuccine noodles.

I did not prepare this for the freezer. I put everything in one of the crackpot liners. Even if I decide to make it for the freezer, I will use the crockpot liner inside of a freezer bag. That just makes clean up so much easier.

Now, it was delicious, but I had a little problem. My crock pot cooks so fast---that the broccoli just about disintegrated. I realized that rather than serving it over the pasta, I could just call it soup---it was that good! In fact, that's how I'm going to file it in my recipe box.

If you've tried a new recipe and would like to feature it on my blog---I'll be happy to post it for you.