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About Me

Welcome to our blog and thank you for your interest in A Crafty Spoonful! My name is Danielle and I am a work at home mom in San Diego who enjoys raising three young children, a son born in February 2009, a daughter born in December 2010, and a second daughter born in February 2015. I’m married to Joseph (resident IT guy and DIY & Home expert) We love to share the activities and crafts we love, delectable recipes tested on the family, and our favorite DIY projects around the home and garden.

CONNECT WITH ME:

Should you have any questions, comments or concerns please feel free to contact me at danielle@acraftyspoonful.com.

We love to share the activities and crafts we love, delectable recipes tested on the family, and our favorite DIY projects around the home and garden and are thrilled that our blog has become a resource for others.

FEATURED

We’re honored to have been featured on platforms such as the Step 2 blog, Metro US, Delish, Country Living, the Sioux City Journal, and local Fox channels. We were recently listed as one of Cision’s Top 50 U.S. Mom Bloggers. I spoke on creating great video content at SoFabCon 2014 and I’ve also been hired as a contributor for family-focused sites like Someday I’ll Learn and Formula Mom and have received great reviews from clients we’ve worked with.

I also am the Sponsorship Coordinator for my son’s school PTG here in San Diego. With 200+ families in grades Preschool-8th, its a great target audience for your business.

OUR BLOG

We enjoy cooking, baking, and eating healthy (and not so healthy) meals and LOVE sharing our favorite restaurants. We have a few great toddler and kid friendly meals that we share along with tips on how to get the kids to help out in the kitchen.

We love to craft and create. Whether it’s with the kids, making gifts, or just finding a fun hobby. We also love sharing our latest projects around the house.

We love to tend to our garden beds in our front and back yards. We helped found our old neighborhood’s Community Garden and now help lead our school’s garden club. We enjoy growing and learning with our community.

We spend many days exploring San Diego and once or twice a year enjoy going on trips.

Popular San Diego Posts:

Should you have any questions, comments or concerns please feel free to contact me at danielle@acraftyspoonful.com.

Sausage & Kale Soup

May 12, 2012 by Danielle

In an effort to go green and become a bit more eco-friendly we’ve started an organic garden at home. We’ve also been very diligent about choosing a new and unique veggie to take home from the farmer’s market in an effort to teach our kids about eating healthy. One of the vegetables we picked up this week was kale. I’ve heard amazing things about it’s super green, vitamin rich goodness but honestly have never cooked with it before.

So I attempted to make kale chips as a healthy alternative to potato chips for my family. I had heard rave reviews from a few of my friends and just had to try them. What a mistake that was! Burnt to a crisp or so bitter I couldn’t swallow. I threw out the whole batch and was dreading watching the other bunch of kale we had picked.

Until I remembered a friend mentioning using kale in her soups. And then I thought of the sausage and potato soup they serve at the Olive Garden. The light in my head went on and I knew what dinner was going to be! Not only did I get some veggies into our meal, the kids enjoyed it! This soup is simple, easy, and comes together quick. The perfect way to relax in the cool, crisp spring air after enjoying the farmer’s market.

Sausage & Kale Soup

2 sausage links
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, diced
4 carrots, coined
1 tablespoon flour
1 can navy beans, rinsed
4 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
4 cups of kale, stems removed, torn into small pieces
salt & pepper to taste

Saute the sausage in a large pot or dutch oven. Once slightly browned, remove from pan and set aside.

Add olive oil to the pan. Once heated, add onions and carrots to the pot and saute until translucent and tender. Sprinkle flour over the veggies and saute for a minute longer.

Pour chicken stock and water into the pot and add sausage back in. Add the beans and let simmer for 20 minutes, or until all of the flavors are incorporated. Add kale and season with salt and pepper to taste and cook for another 5 minutes.

Serve with some fresh-baked bread or your favorite salad for a wonderful and tasty meal in under 30 minutes.