Loaded Chicken and Veggie Soup!

Oh boy did I create a winning recipe yesterday!  I've been dying for homemade chicken noodle soup, you know... the kind that mom makes.  Well, I prefer easy crock-pot recipes, so I did a little online "pinning" on Pinterest and came across many different variations.  Nothing seemed to strike my fancy, so I decided to just wing it and create my own. 

Normally I would have taken photographs as I was chopping veggies, but I was under a time crunch (It was about 11:40am on Sunday when I decided to use the crock-pot and I know chicken recipes take between 6-8 hours if cooked on low.  I wanted to eat at 6, so time of was the essence!

After I chopped up 4 carrots, 3 celery stalks, 3 parsnips, and almost a whole yellow onion, I searched the herbs and spice rack.  I decided on just 2 - garlic powder and thyme.  I swear, thyme makes everything yummy. 

I threw the chopped veggies into the crock-pot, added 5 cups of chicken stock (unsalted since I'm so anti-salt), 1 cup of water, a few "dashes" of garlic powder, and 2 teaspoons of thyme.  Oh yes, and a ridiculous amount of black pepper.  There's just something about black pepper in chicken noodle soup!  Forget the salt - just hand me the pepper shaker and I'm good to go! :) 

After I gave it a quick stir, I threw in three chicken breasts that my wonderful husband prepared.  By prepared I mean he cut the fat off.  You all know I don't do raw chicken.  Yuck. Ew. Gross. Blech!

I then stirred the pot up, turned it on low and set the timer for 6 hours.  After about hour 4, our placed smelled amazing!!! 

I paired the chicken soup with some beer bread from a mix that I bought from Home Goods.  I am obsessed with Home Goods! :)  I always walk out of there with a few mixes for baked goods and coffee mugs.  Just ask Shaun how many "mugs" we have....  we rotated them based on the season! :)

Here's some pictures of dinner that I managed to snap before we all stuffed our faces!

 After 6 hours, carefully pull out the chicken breasts and shred them with 2 forks.  Oh yes, and give the chicken a little taste-test.  Delish! :)

 Put the chicken back in the pot and STIR BABY STIR! :)

Here's the finished produced along with some beer bread!

 Yummy meal for a chilly Fall day! :)

This recipe doesn't call for noodles, FYI! :) But feel free to add them! :)

I am so glad to be back with this blog!  I'll actually be switching websites in a few weeks.  While working on a project for one of my grad classes, I came across a better website program that is much easier to navigate around!  No worries though, this one will remain up and running until I make the switch!

Now I'm off to relax for the evening.  I had quite a long day, plus my head is pounding!  Thank goodness I was able to come home this evening and eat the leftover chicken soup and beer bread! :)

Catch you all later this week with some new recipes.... tomorrow's dinner is chicken meatloaf and Wednesday's Halloweenie dinner will be spooky sloppy joes! :)  Both recipes are already on here, so I won't be posting them.... Well, maybe some pictures of them! :)

Lots of love!

Lauren

XOXO

I'm Back! :)

It's been a ridiculous amount of time since I last posted.  My life is still as hectic as ever, but I've been dying to get back to my blog, for the one person who reads it.  Thanks mom! :) Ha!

I supposed I should do an update on what's been going on in my life the past few months!  Hold on tight - it's been a crazy ride! :)

First, I married the love of my life on July 21, 2012.  It was a beautiful summer Saturday morning for our wedding.  I couldn't have asked for a better day!

My dad walking me down the aisle! 

Here's some other pictures from the big day! :)

 After our wedding, we set off on our Honeymoon, which was a cruise!  It was absolutely amazing.  I was worried I'd feel seasick, but I actually found the rocking of the boat to be soothing!  We went to Grand Cayman and Cozumel (Carnival Cruise Line).  Here's a photo re-cap!

Let's not forget some of the amazing food we shoved in our faces....

 

Yep... the food started off healthy.

 But that didn't last....  Pizza buffet every night!?!?!

The food was just amazing.  I packed on a solid 5 pounds! Ha! :)  I enjoyed every morsel of the delicious food that was available to us! :)

Now back to reality....

The school year is off and running and we're already into the second marking period!  I have a wonderful class full of eager and energetic first graders.... They definitely keep me on my toes!  

In addition to the school year being well under way, I'm also in my first semester of round 2 of grad school!  I'm in the Educational Leadership program at The University of South Florida and I am ABSOLUTELY LOVING IT!  This is by far, one of the best decisions I've ever made.  After being in the program for about 9 weeks now, I have come to the realization that my passion for education just doesn't seem to stop growing.  After every paper that I write, or class session that I sit through, I constantly reflect on myself as an educator and how I can work towards improving education for the students that I teach.  At times, I may begrudgingly complain about reading hundreds of pages of articles for my classes, I just find myself to be whole-heartedly dedicated towards the field of teaching.  Only now, that passion is leaning towards more of a leadership role.  Who knows where I'll end up in a few years, but all I know is, we still are a "Nation at Risk" and have been for far too long.  Maybe I can have an impact on education and help create ways to improve it! :) 

Well, with all of that being said, I'm off to do some reading for tomorrow's Saturday class!  After I read a few articles, we're off to PDQ, a new restaurant that opened by our apartment a few months ago!  A trip to Yogurt Mountain is in the works too!

I'm so excited to be back!  Look for a new recipe as well as some oldies to be posted in the coming days.  I may have not posted on here, but I have been taking photographs as well as trying out tons of new recipes!  Here's a teaser:

Catch ya later this weekend! 

Lots of Love,
Lauren
XOXO

Life Has Been A Whirlwind!

Life needs to just slow down.  I cannot believe how fast our wedding is approaching!  The reason why I haven't updated recently is because life has been NON-STOP! Between traveling to Buffalo for my bridal shower, doing wedding planning, and craziness at work, I've barely had a moment to breathe, let alone do anything fun in the kitchen! Even while I was in Buffalo, I didn't get to have any of my mother's fabulous cooking because we were on the run every night!

To catch you up, here's some of the fun times we had while in Buffalo!

 Me, mom, & the bridal shower planners! :)

 Gosh, I love him.

 Hello deliciousness.

 My mommy is so talented! :)

 Best ribbon bridal bouquet ever!!! :)

Okay, back to cooking.  I decided earlier in the week that I would make an Italian feast today since I enjoyed the food at my shower so much.  Making homemade sauce and meatballs is so much fun even though it's a tremendous amount of work.  Around 11am, I started the whole process by making up some turkey meatballs and preparing the ingredients for the sauce.  Usually I make the sauce and meatballs and let it simmer in a large saucepan on the stove for several hours.  Today I decided to use the crock-pot and let it cook on low for 6 hours.  It turned out perfectly!  

Here's a sneak-peek at the yumminess.  I'm still debating whether or not I want to share my family's sauce recipe! Ha! :)  

 The sauce and meatballs before I turned on the crockpot! 

 Our table! :) Presentation is everything! 

 Yep, I had 2.5 meatballs... Shaun had to do some

 quality assurance before we ate! ha!

 We also had garlic bread and a salad!

And mini cannolis for dessert! :)

Well, I'm off to do some relaxing ~ it's going to be a hectic week at school because my babies are taking the big SAT-10 assessment!  I know they'll knock it out of the ballpark because they are just an amazing group of kiddos! :)

Sweet Hugs,

Lauren

Hello Spring Break!

Spring Break is finally here!!!  I have been ready for vacation for what feels like weeks!!!  I'm looking forward to all the exciting events that are happening this week!  On Wednesday I will be heading to Buffalo for a fun-filled week/weekend of wedding festivities!  My mom's best friend is throwing my bridal shower on Saturday evening and I couldn't be any more excited!  I love that I'm doing unusual wedding things - morning ceremony, brunch reception, and an evening shower!  I am pretty fortunate to have such an amazing group of friends and family that will be showering me with love!  While we're in Buffalo, Shaun and I will also be meeting with the bakery that will be creating our wedding cake! :)  Can't wait to try some scrumptious cake!  We also get to have brunch at the venue where our reception is!  I've tried the brunch before, but Shaun is in for a real treat!  So exciting!!!

This weekend was pretty fabulous.  On Friday, Shaun and I went to the Strawberry Festival because it's berry season here and we had to get our strawberry shortcake fix taken care of!  It was well worth the 25 minute drive, the $5 parking, the $10 admission ticket, and the $3.50 donation to a local catholic church for this deliciousness....

Yes, that is what I call a sinful amount of whipped cream.

  I ended up spooning some of it into Shaun's bowl 

because apparently I was slightly overzealous with how much I took! :)

He's so handsome! :) 

On Saturday, we threw a dinner party for some friends and boy was it an amazing night!  I made a new recipe, Linguine with Garlic Breadcrumbs and Sauteed Shrimp (Grilled Chicken for me).  It was soooo tasty.  I wish I could take credit for the recipe, but I cannot.  I found it here, so if you're wanting to try it, click here!

Here's some pictures from our party! 

 My plate - grilled chicken and 

a small scoop of linguine!

 Now that's a colorful salad! :)

 Table of deliciousness!

 Shaun's plate... with shrimp. Yuck! LOL! 

 I love it! :)  And him! <3

 Dessert was Peanut Butter Yogurt Pie!

We played Life... and Shaun and I tied!

We will definitely be hosting more dinner parties!  Next time I'm thinking Lasagna Soup! :)

I'm off to do some relaxing - I have a full day of errands tomorrow!!!  Enjoy your evening! 

Sweet Hugs,

Lauren

This Time, I Promise!

I know, I know... last time there was a lag in posts, I said I was back for good.  Clearly I've been out-of-control busy with a ton of additional responsibilities for work and have been slightly overwhelmed!  But, I PROMISE I'm back.  My goal is 2-3 posts a week because posting everyday is too time-consuming, especially with things being so hectic in my life right now!

This morning, I woke up super early and decided to get a jump start on the day, so I went right to 7:30am mass!  The priest was uber-quick with mass, so I was home by 8:30! Score!  Home by 8:30 meant that I was able to whip up a new recipe.  Technically it's a recipe I found online, but I altered it a lot because I felt I could make it slightly healthier! :)  

My new recipe?  Banana Muffins! :)  I L-O-V-E bananas, so when I'm wasting my time on Pinterest, I'm always looking for recipes with bananas.  I had a few bananas that were looking less than appealing, so I figured PERFECT!  Brownish-gross bananas make for the best banana bread! ha!  I found the recipe at this website, but like I said, I altered it!

First I mashed up 3 bananas.  Two of the bananas were pretty brown and the other one was still yellow.  It worked out just fine though.  After I mashed the bananas, I added a teaspoon of ground cinnamon - scrumptious! :)  Since I'm OCD about measurements, I measured the mashed up bananas and it was almost 1 full cup.  

 Love mashing the bananas! :)

This is where the recipe was altered - the original recipe called for 3/4 cup of all-purpose white flour and 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour.  I decided to use all whole wheat flour, despite the websites I found online that said it's not a good idea to substitute ALL whole wheat flour.  It worked out just fine!  The recipe also called for a tablespoon of baking powder, but I felt like that was a lot, so I did one teaspoon and it turned out lovely.  I thought maybe it was a typo, but no one left comments about it, so I decided just to do my own thing.  Like I said, it turned out great!  

 I couldn't wait for them to cool...

 I ate it almost right out of the oven! :)

 So yummy! :)

Healthy Banana Walnut Muffins (Makes 12) (Adapted from The Reality of Skinny)

3 ripe bananas, mashed

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/4 cup white sugar

1 egg (I suppose you could use 2 egg whites instead to make it even healthier)

pinch of salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

chopped walnuts, optional

1. Mash bananas in a bowl.  Add 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, stir, and then sit aside.

2. In another bowl, add your flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Stir and then set aside.

3. In another bowl, add your bananas, applesauce, vanilla, egg, and sugar.  Beat with an electric mixer until it's all blended.

4. Add your flour mixture to the banana mixture and blend on low for about 30 seconds until well blended.

5. Pour mixture into muffin tin (I used paper baking cups) and sprinkle a few chopped walnuts over each muffin and bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean!

I enjoyed mine with a few sprays of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!  Delish!  :)

Now I'm off to Lakeshore to laminate some work stations for my first graders for this week!  I may be experimenting with chicken pot pie tonight, so there may be another recipe this afternoon!

Have a stellar Sunday!

Sweet Hugs,

Lauren

Bringing Out My Italian Side! :)

I am 100% not Italian and I don't claim to be... but my sauce and meatballs are pretty rockin' thanks to a family recipe.  Tonight's dinner however had nothing to do with my sauce and meatballs (That's next Sunday's project - unfortunately I will have pics, but ya'll aren't getting the secret recipe!!!).  I found a recipe on Pinterest from Paula Deen's sons for "Lightened Baked Spaghetti".  I loosely followed it, so I cannot call this recipe 100% mine.  You can find the original recipe here, but my version of it will be at the bottom of this post. 

I first started out by boiling some water because you'll need it to cook the angel hair pasta.  As that was boiling, I chopped up half of a white onion and half of a green pepper.  I desperately need the chopper thingy from Pampered Chef because chopping by hand it an accident waiting to happen.  Luckily all of my fingers are still in tact! :) I multi-tasked by getting the pasta ready (I used 1/4 of a box of angel hair spaghetti, whole wheat of course!) and then threw it in the pot of boiling water.  

 I always break the noodles in half... I hate twirling!

After I drained the pasta, I drizzled a little 

olive oil over it so the noodles wouldn't stick as

I was making the rest of the meal! :)

After everything was chopped, I threw olive oil into a pan and let it heat up before I added the chopped onion and green pepper.  I let them saute for about 3 minutes and then I added a little less than 1/4 cup of water and I stirred occasionally for about 7 minutes, until they were nice and soft! 

I love the smell of sauteing peppers & onions!

I then put 1/2 pound of lean ground beef into the pan and browned it.  I then drained it (there was hardly anything to drain, but I can't have juices in the bottom of the pan, ew!!!).  

Lookin' good! :)

After I drained it, I threw in 1/2 of a 29-oz can of crushed tomatoes and a whole bunch of spices and stirred it all up!

 I did NOT end up using the tomato paste -

 it wasn't necessary!

Yummy!!!!!!

After it was all stirred up, I let it come to a boil and then covered it!  It simmered for about 15 minutes! When the 15 minutes was up, I threw in the pasta and tossed it so that the noodles and the sauce became a happy family! :)

Oh yes, at this point I wanted to take my fork

and just dig in!  Patience my friend, patience! :)

I then sprayed a casserole dish with olive oil cooking spray and poured in 1/2 of the pasta.  I then covered it with 1/4 cup of reduced-fat mozzarella cheese.  Then I poured the rest of the pasta and topped it with the remaining 1/4 cup of cheese!  I covered it with aluminum foil and stuck it in a 375 degree oven for 20 minutes.  After the 20 minutes was up, I took the foil off and put it back inside so the cheese would get even more melty! :)

 Before it went into the oven...

And after!!!

After it's done baking, let it sit for about 5 minutes.  It'll be hard not to dig in, but it's worth the wait because the finished product looks like this...

 I had already started to stir it up BEFORE I took

this picture... oops! haha! 

The baked spaghetti was paired with a salad full of veggies! Yummy! Check it out!

So yummy! And don't you love my 

St. Patrick's Day table!?!? :)

Dinner got two thumbs up from Shaun, with the only recommendation of nixing the crushed red pepper flakes.  I agree with him on that.... too much spice! LOL!  Enjoy this recipe!  

Baked Spaghetti - Lightened Up! (adapted from this recipe)

*This recipe makes 3 servings!*

3 oz whole wheat angel hair pasta (1/4 of a box)

1 tsp olive oil

1/2 onion, chopped

1/2 green bell pepper, chopped

1/8 cup of water

1/2 pound lean ground beef (or ground turkey, ground sausage, etc...)

1/2 28oz. can of crushed tomatoes (I used the no-salt added one)

1/2 tsp parsley

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

fresh ground black pepper (I always use a lot)

1/2 cup reduced-fat mozzarella cheese

1. Cook pasta according to directions on box.  Toss with olive oil after you drain it to prevent the noodles from sticking.

2. Heat oil in pan.  Add onion and green peppers, sauteing for about 2-3 minutes.  Add the water, stirring until the veggies are nice and soft (about 7 minutes).

3.  Add ground beef, brown, and then drain.

4. Add the crushed tomatoes and spices and then bring to a boil.  Cover and let simmer for about 15 minutes.

5. Add the pasta to the pan, stirring to mix everything together.

6. Pour 1/2 of the pasta/sauce mixture into a greased casserole dish.  Add 1/4 cup of the mozzarella cheese.  Add the rest of the pasta and top with another 1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese.

7. Cover with aluminum foil and bake in a 375 degree oven for 20 minutes.  Remove foil and put back in oven for 5 minutes.

8. After you take the casserole out of the oven, let it sit for 5 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!!! 

Now I'm off to do some relaxing!  :)  I hope you all had a nice weekend! 

Sweet Hugs,

Lauren