READY FOR THE COLD DAY WITH A BOWL OF CHILI

Hello wonderful, amazing, sweet and lovely friends. How are y'all doing today? I hope y'all are having a great day today and are not letting anyone steal your joy. Welcome to Maryam's Joyful Life. Today is a beautiful day!

It's the winter! That means cold days and colder nights. I don't know about you but I just feel like laying in bed longer because the bed feels particularly cozier in this season. Or is it just me? LOL!

I love cooking for my family. I also know that I have to be wise with what I cook and how much I cook. There are days when I don't feel like spending too much time in the kitchen. It is because of such days that I make a big pot of chili or soup that can be easily warmed up and eaten for a couple of days. Today is one of such days for me.

I made a delicious pot of chili using a range of ingredients from Great Value to Clover Valley. These are Walmart and Dollar General stores brands respectively. I love how affordable their store brand items are. Before sharing pictures with you all, I wanted to first share what I learned recently from a Hallmark movie that I had watched recently. Prior to watching that movie, I didn't know the difference between wooden and metal spoons. Wooden spoons have wider spouts because they are better used for combining and mixing spices and ingredients in the pot. Metal spoons on the other hand, are designed to be used for serving the food. And I had no idea 😀. Did you always know this information? Share below.

Recipe List:

 Clover Valley Crushed Tomatoes

 2 Packs of McCormick Chili seasoning and 3 Clover Valley Chili Ready Beans

 A tea spoon of salt and 1/2 a table spoon of Caldo de Res(optional)

A tea spoon of Great Value Italian Seasoning

2 Pounds Pack of Ground Beef. Cook in a sauce pan/pot with chopped onion and garlic until brown.

Drain grease and rinse with about 2 1/2 cups of water.
Place pot/pan on stove at medium heat. Add beans, tomatoes and all spices and stir until perfectly combined. Cook covered for 25 minutes. Turn off heat and let sit, to cool for about 10-15mins and then enjoy😋!

You can enjoy plain or with cheese!

I hope you enjoy trying out this recipe!

Until next time.
Many blessings to you and your family!
💖

I LOVE BREAKFAST TIME WITH MY FAMILY

Hello wonderful, amazing, sweet and lovely people. How are y'all doing today? I hope y'all are having a great day today and are not letting anyone steal your joy. Welcome to Maryam's Joyful Life. Today is a beautiful day!

It is always amazing to write. Anytime I get the opportunity to blog, I feel very happy and blessed!

What makes you feel particularly blessed? Share with me in the comments below.

My sweet family loves to eat. Food is a tradition in our home and we all enjoy it. I am very thankful for the ability God has given me to cook and enjoy the food with my sweet family.
My sweet man loves eating together as a family. It's something he looks forward to whenever he is off work and can eat breakfast with us. So, I decided to go all out this time. Our normal breakfast is sausage biscuits and water. The kids usually eat breakfast before we do and they enjoy their warm cereal. I decided to break the norm and give us something different to eat.

My menu was bacon, sausage biscuits, apple juice, tater tots, and apple slices. My sweet man was so thankful for breakfast and I was very happy. The food was so good and so much that I took a nap after breakfast. We ate everything except for the tater tots.
I also filmed the process for my internet family. If you want to hangout with me in the kitchen and with us at the dining table, watch the video?:

God is good, God is love and I am so thankful to Him for my family and His many blessings.
Until next time.

Maryam💕

MY NEW VEGGIE RICE RECIPE

Hello there! You sweet, lovely and amazing person. You guys are so amazing and I'm so glad to be back with fire.

Here's the list of recipe for today's video:

3 Tablespoons of Olive Oil
A dash of salt(about a teaspoon)
A full onion and 3 lovely garlic cloves(chop onion and garlic cloves)
Half of a bell pepper(red, yellow and orange)
3 hearty stalks of celery
A roll of knorr(two cubes)
2 cups of rice
Two yummy cuts of skinless boneless chicken breasts(chop or slice into tiny bits)
3 Sticks of yummy carrots
3 cups of water
Old bay seasoning
Season your chicken as seen in the video
A 1 gallon pot(whatever pot you have that can carry food for 8 people)
A wooden spoon or whatever kind you have

Directions:

Turn on your stove to medium high heat
Get your pot
Set it on the stove
Add your oil
Let oil sit for 2 minutes
Add your onions and garlic cloves
Stir lightly for about 60-90 seconds

Add seasoned chicken to the onion-garlic mixture
Let chicken sit for about 3 mins in oil browning
Flip it so the other side can cook about 3 mins also
Stir mixture
After about 5 mins
Add your chopped carrots, celery, and peppers
Add your Knorr, salt and black pepper(if you like it)
Let cook for about 5 minutes
Add your dry clean rice
Stir to combine all pot content together
 Add about 4 cups of water(make sure water level is about an inch above rice)
Cover your pot
Let cook for about 20-25 minutes
Check it every 5-6 mins to make sure the water is being absorbed and your rice is not burning
When the rice is softened and steamy(20-25 minutes later)
Turn off stove
Get yourself a bowl and serve some
Let sit for 5-10 minutes or until cool enough for you
Then proceed to enjoy your MASTERPIECE!

I hope this was an easy enough explanation for you. Please come back later for more fun and yummy recipes.
Until next time,
I love you for reading!
Yours sweet and lovely friend,
Maryam

MY SWEET, AMAZING APPLE PIE RECIPE

What's up wonderful, amazing, sweet and lovely people. How are you all doing today? I hope you're all having an amazing day today and not allowing anybody steal your joyyyyy. Welcome to Maryam's Joyful Life. Today is a beautiful day and I've been doing A WHOLE LOTTA IMAGING!

I have been doing a lot of studying about why I think the way I think and how that related to the kind of results I'm getting from life. I must tell you that it's been both eye-opening and mind-blowing. Life doesn't have to be very complicated. But see, I didn't know that. I know that my Bible tells me that God is a god of principles but I didn't know that getting money or achieving great feats also have principles behind them apart from working really hard. I mean, I sort of knew but ONLY very little about it. Well, not anymore. I know now that the universe is controlled and governed by principles set by God. Understanding these principles and how to apply them will give me access to WHATEVER I desire in life.

Matthew 7:7 states that "Ask and it shall be given..." is true. It shouldn't be complicated. It didn't place any limit to how much you can ask. So, I have been asking for BIG THINGS.

The Bible says "as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." I am learning to control my mind and reject what I don't want more than ever before because I've got to "guard my heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life." This is from Proverbs. Anyways, I'll just leave you with this: Whatever you want out of life, don't think about reasons why you CAN'T get it, just fix your eyes on it and start acting the way you would as though you already had it. Yes, I'm disciplining myself to do more of that. Let's be GREAT TOGETHER, sweet people! This was supposed to be a recipe post. Sorry, I had to share some sweet life recipes first. Here is the original recipe I had imaged and wanted to share with you.

MY APPLE PIE RECIPE 

You need 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour, an egg, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/3 cup of olive oil, a cup of apple pie filling, 1/3 cup of water, half a cup of brown sugar, 3 whole apples and a baking pan. Get your oven preheated at 350 degrees.

Here are pictures to show you:

Chop the apples:

Flour, salt, egg, water and olive oil:

Mix flour, egg, water, salt and olive oil together. Use your hand to combine together. Do it right, it looks like this:

Roll dough on a cutting board with a pin:

It should look like this:

Place it in a pan that was greased up:

Now let's move on to the next. Cooking the chopped apple in water and brown sugar:

Cook the apple for about 10 mins. Then pour content into the pan:

Take some another egg. Beat it and get a brush and brush the top of the crust. Then take the other rolled out dough and place on the top of the filling.

Cut off the excess dough. Like the picture above.

Take your sweet pie and place in the oven:

45 mins later, here's your delicious apple pie!

From the heart of a home-cook, to your homes; My sweet, amazing pie!


ENJOY!

I'll see you next time.
Don't stop dreaming BIG!
LOVE,
MARYAM

I CAN FEEL MY BODY IS GETTING READY FOR A BABY

Hello wonderful, amazing, sweet and lovely friends. I would like to welcome you into the month of March. May this month bring you a lot of love, joy, peace and financial prosperity in Jesus Name! Amen!!

Yesterday( Feb. 28, 2018) was a great day. I had the privilege of serving the homeless at A Higher Calling, Inc., Griffin, GA. We served some freshly cooked breakfast and they were so thankful for it.
I'll be adding a few pictures to this post. Anyways, I also wanted to say that I can feel my body. It's telling me to take it easy because my baby is close. I love my work in the community but I also want to be wise with how I handle my body. Thank God for my friend; Bernita, who came to help me. I didn't realize how tired I was until I picked up a couple of gallons of juice and I could tell that I've reached a point where I need to take a break.
I may organize one more event in this month of March and take a break afterwards till my sweet baby is born. Just make sure to follow me on my various platforms to keep up with me.
Thank you to everyone who support my nonprofit: DREAM BIG CORP. May the Lord bless and meet you at every point of your needs in Jesus Name!

To see more pictures, go to our Facebook page: Facebook.com/dreambigcorp.
Here's a video from the event. Enjoy!



XOXO

Maryam

MY HOMEMADE OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CEREAL RECIPE

Hello friends. Thanks for visiting my blog today. I'm so glad you stopped by to read my first recipe post today.
This recipe I'm about to share with you is borne out of experimentation. One would never truly know what hidden culinary talents lies within, until one dares to experiment in one's kitchen.

My oatmeal chocolate recipe has become one of my sweet baby's favorite foods and the "ONLY" cereal he would eat. Prior to my revolutionizing oatmeal cereal in my kitchen, I had tried to feed my baby cold cereal, dried cereal and all kinds of cereal that I could lay my hands but failed miserably! Although all of my previous attempts failed 🙁, I didn't let failure to discourage me from trying again.

 Our breakthrough finally came when I made this warm chocolate cereal for him. It was like we had suddenly struck gold 😀... At least in my mind. The great thing about this recipe is that it's very high in fiber and can be eaten anytime of day.

What You Will Need:

1. Quaker oats oatmeal
2. Some milk chocolate chips/morsels
3. Some honey
4. some maple syrup
5. Some whole or skimmed milk (anyone that works for you)
6. Some water

Directions & Measurements

• You will need a small size pot. (I cook mine on the stove top that's why having a pot is necessary.)
• Add about 1/4 cup of water to the pot.
• Add 2 1/2 tablespoons of your oatmeal to the water.
• Stir to make sure the water level is just slightly above the oatmeal.
• Turn on your stove at medium temperature, then place the pot on it.
• Let it cook for about 5 mins covered. Make sure to reduce heat if it starts bubbling up.
• Next, add a tablespoon of small milk chocolate morsels to the content. 
• Stir until the chocolate morsels melt and mix up with the oatmeal content.
• At this point, turn off the stove and empty content of pot into a small plastic or ceramic bowl. 
• Then proceed to add about 2 tablespoons of milk, 2 teaspoons of honey and 1 1/2 teaspoons of maple syrup.
• Stir until content is mixed up into one delicious bowl of pudding and let sit for 2 mins before serving to your sweet baby.

That's it y'all. It's as easy as easy can be 😬😬😬. If you're looking for a new oatmeal recipe, don't hesitate to give mine a try.

'Cos you just might love it as much as my sweet baby does.
Can you tell from this empty bowl? 😬😬😬😬😬

If you give this recipe a try, I would love to hear about your experience; how you liked or hated it. Make sure to leave me a comment and I'll be sure to respond to you. Until next time.
Laters friends!

xoxo

Maryam