Quick and Easy Chicken Noodle Soup

My little one was sick the other day so I decided to make some chicken noodle soup. I didn't make a lot, but it was enough for me, my hubby, and our little one. There was also enough for lunch for my little one the next day. I don't usually use boullion cubes because of the massive amount of sodium, but I did this time and it was good. I accidentally used too much water and needed the salt and flavor. I had a chicken breast from the night before and just used it. If you don't want the boullion cube, just add another can of broth and reduce your  water. Here's what you need:

1 chicken breast, cooked and chopped
2 cans of reduced sodium chicken broth
3 1/2 cups of water
2 carrots, sliced into rounds
1 stalk of celery, sliced
3 chicken boullion cubes
italian seasoning
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 cups of dry egg noodles

I sauteed the onion, carrots, celery, and garlic. Then I added the chicken and a couple dashes of italian seasoning. Add the chicken broth and water. Bring it to a boil and add the boullion cubes. After the cubes are dissolved, add the noodles and cook for approximately 6-7 minutes. Take it off the heat and let it rest for a few minutes. You shouldn't need any extra seasoning because of the italian seasoning and boullion cubes. And that's it! You're done. My little one took a bite and said "Mmm, Yummy for my Tummy!

Garden Week 5

As promised, here is the most recent picture of my garden. I took this picture last Saturday. It has really taken off. I can't wait until there is actually a crop to eat!

 Here is a picture of my zucchini. It's getting huge! It actually looks like it's going to smother one of my pepper plants.

You can see in this picture how it's taking over my pepper plant. 

Here are my tomatoes:

These are the green beans. We need to make a trellis for them to climb, but haven't yet.

Here are my pepper plants. I am very excited about these. I might need to move the one by the zucchini plant though. I had never had a garden fresh pepper before we started planting them a couple of years ago and boy is there a difference between garden fresh and store bought! I know that can be said for just about anything, but these peppers are a taste explosion! I'm very excited to use them in recipes. A little goes a long way with these fresh, yummy things.

Here are a couple of animals that we've seen in the garden this year:

This little critter has a whole family that lives behind our house. I've been seeing them eyeball my garden. Hopefully they stay away!

Apple

It's been a while...

Sorry I haven't posted in a long time! I think my last post was the beginning of June. I had all sorts of recipes that I've been wanting to make and post, but I've been busy with other things, such as cleaning!

Usually every year I do spring cleaning, but that didn't happen last year so I'm paying for it this year. There is just so much to do. Everything is unorganized and just a mess! The other day I was wanting to do some paper activities with my little one and couldn't find anything. I was so frustrated I just headed out to buy what I couldn't find. I went to my local office supply store and had some things laminated (which I will probably post  next week) and paid $20 for it. While I was waiting for them I decided to go to Target and get some of the things that the office store had totally over priced. While I was there I found a laminating machine for $27! This is after I went to Hobby Lobby and Michael's. Hobby Lobby had it for $70 (and of course they didn't have their usual 40% off coupon that week), and Michael's didn't even have them in stock. My point is, I would not have thought to look at Target. Anyway, I have no need to ever get things laminated at the office store again because I tried out the machine and it is the same quality as the office store!

OK, I got a little sidetracked there, but my house is a mess. For a while I was following the advice from a book I read called "Get Your Act Together: A 7-Day Get Organized Program for the Overworked, and Overwhelmed" by Pam Young and Peggy Jones (which had some pretty funny stories in it, if you ever read it, the story about how she was drying her husbands underwear had me crying because I was laughing so hard). That book helped me get it together. After I had my little one it was like I didn't know how to manage my home anymore, but reading that book gave me the motivation to get back on track. I am not as far gone as they were, but that's what motivated me even more because I figured, if they can do it, I can! I didn't follow it completely because it involves a lot of note cards (which I would never actually take the time to make up), but the advice was easy enough to put into memory and adapt to my personality. Well now I need a refresher course :) Just from not doing my annual big clean, everything is out of order now. Anyway, that's what I've been doing, and will continue doing most of the summer, which leaves little time for fun stuff. So I apologize for my sporadic posting! I can hardly wait for Fall and Winter because those are my favorite times of year and the creative juices really flow then, not to mention my house should be nice and tidy.

My garden is growing beautifully, but I haven't been taking weekly photos, which I knew I wouldn't keep up on ;)  I will take pictures and try to post that next week too.

Here's whats to come (hopefully):

Muffin Week- I have a few recipes I want to try as well as my normal blueberry muffins.

Backpack Post- I actually made it, but haven't posted...obviously :)

My grandma's old fashioned peach cobbler...YUM!!

Italian Wedding Soup- YUM!!

Pictures of my garden- that's a quick and easy one!

Burp cloths

My tote bag tutorial- I love those things!

Child's apron

That's the plan. Who knows when all of that is going to actually happen though. In the meantime, I hope everyone is having a nice summer!

Take Care,

Apple

 

Apple Pie

This is the best apple pie in my opinion. I'm not a big fan of fruit pies, but this one won me over. I got the recipe from here and just check out the ratings. Anyway, like I said in my baked beans post, I didn't take a picture of the finished product, but it always turns out beautiful. I was in a rush and my lattice wasn't very pretty, but it still looked beautiful when I pulled it out of the oven. You can use whatever crust you like, but I always make my own.

Crust:

3 C all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 C shortening (I usually use butter, but this time I used half butter, half Crisco)
1 C cold water (I know that sounds like a lot, but that's how much I use and it turns out perfect everytime. I'm sure many grandma's would beat me with a rolling pin for using that much, but there it is nonetheless. Just use a little at a time).
1 tsp vanilla

Mix the flour and the salt. Cut in the shortening until it resembles small peas. Add the vanilla to your water and start adding the water a little at a time with a fork until dough holds together. Make into a ball and divide dough into thirds. This recipe only calls for two crusts, so feel free to freeze the other one. Roll out and put into pie dish. Cut your strips for your lattice. I put my crusts in the freezer while I get the rest of the mixture together. You might want to put the lattice strips in the refrigerator because I had to wait for mine to unthaw before I could use them, but it was warm in my kitchen, so it didn't take too long.

Just like my biscuit recipe I grate frozen butter into my flour.

I made four balls thinking I could use half of one for the lattice. I ended up going back and rolling out the other ball ;)

Apple Pie Filling:

This filling is different from the original. I followed some of the reviewers advice and it turns out great!

3 Tbsp all purpose flour

½ cup unsalted butter
½ cup white sugar
½ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup water minus 1 Tbsp
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
5 apples - peeled, cored and sliced

Melt butter in a sauce pan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add white sugar, brown sugar and water; bring to a boil. Reduce temperature, and simmer 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off.

Bake 15 minutes at 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes.

Here's what I did differently: I poured about 3/4 of the sauce into my apples and mixed well. Then I added them to the crust. After putting on the lattice, I poured the remainder of the sauce onto the crust. I didn't bother to brush it all over this time (again, I was in a hurry). It still turned out beautiful.

 Melting butter. Nothing spectacular.

Here's the sugar mixture. Don't laugh at my broken bowl :) I can't bring myself to get rid of it. It was the first bowl I bought after my husband and I got married!

Sauce mixture. I totally forgot to add the flour and it still turned out fine.

I used my Pampered Chef Apple peeler, corer, slicer to save time. If you don't like your apples this thin, cut them by hand. 

Here's my poor excuse for a lattice. This is what happens when guests will be arriving in 20 minutes and you still need to do your hair and makeup!

This is a picture of the first time I made this pie. This is what it will look like after baking. See I know how to do a lattice top ;)

Serve warm and with a nice helping of vanilla ice cream! This is another hit with everyone. Enjoy!

Oh, one more tip. Make sure you put your pie pan on a cookie sheet or something to catch any drippings that might bubble out.

Apple

Baked Beans

We had a some friends over this past Saturday for Memorial Day weekend. It was nice. I enjoy spending time with friends, and it's fun to see the kiddos playing together. We've known everyone since before they had kids and now it's cool to see everyone as parents and see the kids interact. This water slide kept them entertained for a while:

We had typical BBQ goodies: Hamburgers, hotdogs, bratwurst, macaroni salad, baked beans, corn on the cob, fruit, drinks, and apple pie. Everything was DELICIOUS! So I decided to post a couple of recipes. Today I'm posting the beans and in a couple days I'll post the apple pie. I didn't take a picture of the finished product because by the time they were done baking, everyone was here and I didn't think about taking a picture.

Here's the recipe (you can halve it, this was for 14 people):

2 large cans of baked beans (28 oz)
1/3 plus half of 1/3 of a cup (6 tsps) of brown sugar
1/3 plus half of 1/3 of a cup (6 tsps) of BBQ sauce
1 tsp of mustard
1/2 of a large onion, chopped and sauteed
8 slices of bacon, crisply cooked and chopped

Mix everything together and put it in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30-45 minutes.

I didn't have two big cans, so as you can see I just used two small cans and one big can.

Sautee your onion.

Add beans and bacon.

Next comes the brown sugar.

Add the BBQ sauce.

Add the mustard. I don't know how much I actually used. I just squeezed some in. Don't forget to add this. I've forgotten it before and it tasted a little off. I heard someone say before that leaving out certain ingredients is like a harp in an orchestra. You don't really notice it's there when everyone is playing, but when it's not there, you can tell somethings missing. Mustard is the harp in this recipe :)

Here's where you stick it in the oven and bake. If you halve the recipe, use 1/3 C of brown sugar and BBQ sauce. It works. But if you doubled the 1/3 C to 2/3 it's too much in the double batch, did that make sense?

Sorry for the weird measurements. I squeeze the sauce into a 1/3 measuring cup and then fill it up again halfway. I suppose I could say 1/6 of a cup, but who says that? I don't know. Maybe Queen Martha?

These beans are always a hit. There are hardly ever leftovers. Enjoy!

Apple