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Chicken & Vegetable Soup

I was heading home from work feeling hungry and cold (no surprise) thinking that soup sounded good. Queue Google which lead me to the  Wellness Mama  who provided the best inspiration! There really aren't any rules here; I winged the ratios on veggies and seasonings so do whatever you want. What I Used:  1lb Chicken Breast Tenders 12c Chicken Stock 1 sm. bushel Carrots 2 stocks Broccoli 2 small Zucchini ~1c. Corn ~1c. Peas ~3c. Kale ~2c. Butternut Squash (frozen) 3 Garlic Cloves (frozen Trader Joe's cubes) 3 cubes Basil (frozen Trader Joe's cubes) 1 tsp. Cayenne Pepper 2 tsp. Basil 2 tsp. Curry 2 tsp. Garlic Powder 2 tsp. Turmeric 2 tsp. Oregano 2 tsp. Parsley 2 tsp. Rosemary 2 tbs. Dried Onion (because I forgot to get an onion at the market) Sea Salt Pepper How To:  Poach the chicken in stock. Place chicken in stock pot with stock (~1in. higher than the chicken which was about 6c. for me), bring to a boil on medium heat. Once it boils, reduce
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Epic Combo: Chocolate Chip S'mores Cookies

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Thank you, Pinterest.  I always find fun stuff to make on there, like these fabulous cookies.  However, I should really say " Thank you, Smells Like Home " for giving me a how-to.   The BF was in town and thought these cookies sounded amazing.   While I am normally anti-anything-pre-made, I really wasn't feeling baking.   So, as a compromise (I can totally be flexible... when I want to be) we used a tube of Nestle chocolate chip cookie dough, the big size.   So delicious! These cookies are awesome, HUGE and super delicious!  If you need something quick and tasty, these are perfect. What you'll need Chocolate chip cookie dough  Graham crackers Chocolate bar Marshmallows  Preheat oven to 325  You can make any of the ingredients (maybe not the chocolate bars but, whatever) or you can be lazy, like me, and buy everything from the market.   Talk about easiest things ever to make.  Cut two slices of dough, make a s'more (graham cracker, choco
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Fabulous Floral Wreath

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So, I know this blog is about food but I'm pretty excited about this wreath that I just finished.  It's my 1st wreath ever!  I saw a great autumn wreath on Pinterest by Jones Design Company  (LOVE the tutorials) and set out to make a similar one.  Well, my wreath is definitely more spring time than autumn but I'll take it!   My original plan included adding in some berries and leaves like the JDC one that I originally fell in love with, but once I started putting it together, I decided to make it all flowers instead.   I set out with a pack of coffee filters from Dollar Tree, acrylic paints, scotch tape, a grapevine wreath and glue gun.   To dye the filters, I filled a cup with water and added paint.  With every color, I added some brown paint to give them a little deeper, fall color (well that was the intention, probably should have added a little more brown).  Then, I took a stack of filters, and carefully sunk them into the paint-water.  After letti
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What A Hoot

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Who doesn't love a parliament of chocolate owls? So, after seeing these adorable owl cupcakes that my BF's Mom and Sister made, I've been patiently waiting for an excuse to make them too.  Halloween seemed like the best excuse ever!  Every Halloween, people in my office bring their kids to trick-or-treat and show off how cute their offspring are.  So I figured, what little kid (or parent) doesn't want a tasty homemade treat? I didn't have time to make the cupcakes from scratch (and lets be honest, I really was more excited to decorate these than to bake them) so, I cheated and used a box mix and pre-made frosting.  To me, the thought of box mix and a can of frosting generally makes me cringe but this might have changed my mind given how much time I saved!  Seriously, all of less than 10min to make!  And lets be real, kids don't care.  Add caption What you'll need Cupcakes (homemade, box-mix, doesn't matter) Chocolate frosting (homema
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Classy Comfort

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Been a long day.  So, I decided it was a great day for some comfort food.  Specificaly, grilled cheese.  I looove grilled cheese!  Quick, easy, tasty comfort food.  I'm also a huge fan of brie so clearly a grilled brie sandwich was the best way to go.  After leaving work, I ran to Tader Joe's and picked up everything I would need (basically everything that sounded good): French Double Cream Brie Fig Butter Granny Smith Apple Arugula Wheat Bread One small hiccup in this whole plan is that I SUCK at making grilled cheese!  I always burn it.  So, I decided to try a little trick I discovered.  I baked my "grilled" cheese!  Seriously, whoever thought of this is pretty genius!    Best part, you can easily make multiple sandwiches at once!  How To Build your grilled cheese as you would normally, place it on a baking sheet, bake at 450 degrees for about 5-10 minutes (or however long it takes for your cheese to melt) flipping half way through.   E
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Nutella-Stuffed Brown Butter & Sea Salt Choco Chip Cookies

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Pure tasty. So, it's been a while.  Been a rough couple of days, especially for the BF.  We all said goodbye to one of the cutest, most spirited little buddies of all time, Turbo.  However, calories totally don't count when you're sad so, I've had several of these ridiculously amazing cookies.  Seriously, best cookies ever. Every September, our company has it's annual Community Support Campaign, where offices raise money for charity and do more volunteering.  My office's biggest fundraiser is our annual auction.  After an "I'm having a bad day and need some fresh air SBux run for a Salted Caramel Mocha," I figured out what to bake for the auction, these fabulous cookies .  They might not look like anything special but, they're amazing.  Seriously.  These cookies are seriously life changing and easy to make, albeit slightly time consuming.  However, in the 2hrs that the dough was chilling, I had time to clean up the mess I made in
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Neapolitan Cookies

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So, there is no such thing as a quick trip to the market when the BF comes along.  When I need to make a quick run for one or two things and bring him with me, I have to prepare myself for a much longer journey that will end with multiple other random items not on the list (I say "no," a lot).  Going to the market while on vacation, is no exception.  On this particular trip we ended up with Neapolitan Oreos.  I should preface this with, I'm not an Oreo person at all.  However, these, these are not Oreos, these are awesome!  I don't want to admit how many of them I ate.  The tastiness that these things got me thinking, surely I can recreate these at home- fresher and with less bad stuff in them.   The hardest part was deciding on what kind of cookie to make.  Shortbread or a chewy vanilla cookie? After much deliberation and gathering of opinions, I settled on  shortbread .  Figured that the crunch of the shortbread and the slightly less sweet taste of it would comp
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