Chicken Enchilada Soup

This cold weather has officially put me in the mood for soups.  I think I could live off of soups year round if only I had enough good recipes to rotate.  I made this chicken enchilada soup last night.  It is very simple and so good!

Chicken Enchilada Soup 

3 cans chicken broth

1 c. water

3 cans cream of chicken soup

1 (4 oz) can chopped green chiles

2 c. cooked, chopped chicken (4 breasts)

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 tsp. chili powder

1 lb. Velveeta, cubed

Bring all ingredients, except chicken and cheese, to a boil.  On low heat add Velveeta until melted, then add chicken.  Serve over tortilla chips.

**I cut the recipe by a 1/3 simply because I didn't want to be eating it for the next 2 weeks.  I just placed all the ingredients in my crock pot on low for about 4 hours.  It is so easy.**

I have been itching to get out of the house and go shopping, but instead of dragging the kids around in subzero temperatures, we have been shopping around the house!

Landry seems to be growing facial hair at the rate Brandon does.  He loves to use his new shaving kit every time Brandon shaves. 

If you have any great soup recipes, I would love to add a few to my collection.  I hope everyone is staying warm.  Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Fall Flavors

There are so many things that I absolutely love about fall.  I love the colors of the changing leaves, the cool evenings, football games, and the smell of the air.  For some reason, one of the first things that comes to mind about fall are all the smells. 

Cooking always seems more appealing because of the wonderful smells that fill up the house.  I thought I would share a few recipes with you and the scents that go along with them.

First of all, I have been making my own bread for about a year now.  I registered for a bread machine when we got married and it had been sitting in my cabinet taking up space.  One day I decided to take it out and put it to use.  I'm not going to lie...the frugal side of me came out here as well because my grandpa had it figured that it cost around $.35 to make your own bread as opposed to buying it in the store.  The end result was something that I had been missing out on.  Homemade bread is the best!  If you have a bread machine, I think this is the easiest way to make the dough...yeast and kneading the dough myself scares me (Stephanie I still need lessons!).  The following recipe makes a 1 1/2 pound loaf of bread. 

French Bread
8-9 ounces of water
1 1/2 t. salt
2 T vegetable oil
3 cups bread flour (I buy mine at Sam's in bulk)
2 t. sugar
2 t. active dry yeast (I also buy this at Sam's)

All you do is add the ingredients in this order into your bread machine.  I choose the dough option on my machine.  It takes 1 hour and 20 minutes to knead and let your dough raise.  I then place it in the oven at 350 for 30 minutes.  I choose to bake mine in the oven for two reasons.  Number one...I don't like my crust crispy.  Number two...the smell is absolutely heavenly! 

Since Halloween is approaching us, I have been in the mood to make sugar cookies.  The kids and I made cookies last week and I'm thinking that another batch will have to be made this weekend.  They just don't seem to last around here.  I have a very simple sugar cookie recipe that doesn't stick to the cookie cutters and rolling pin despite all the flour like a lot of recipes I've tried.

Sugar Cookies
1 1/2 t vanilla
2 sticks margarine
3 c. four
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 t. baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 t. salt

Cream butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla.  Add flour, baking powder, and salt.  Mix well.  Roll out dough on floured surface and cut out cookies.  Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes.

Frosting
1/4 c. shortening
1 lb. powdered sugar
3 T. milk
1/4 c. margarine

Mix all together and add food coloring. 

I think the thing that makes these such a treat around here is that for some reason I only make them around Holidays...that's probably a good thing for the waistline! 

Another one of my fall favorite scents is Bath and Body Work's anti-bacterial hand soap in the Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin.  I stumbled upon this scent last year in our church's restrooms and was too late to get it in the store since it is a fall seasonal scent.  I have waited all year for it to come out again.  It makes me want to wash my hands all the time because it smells that good!  One of my friends purchased this scent in the candle and she said it is amazing as well...I might just have to purchase one myself.

Stay tuned for pictures of my little cowboy and leopard...aka Landry and Brynley in their Halloween costumes.  I dressed them up this morning for a Halloween party and they looked so adorable, but I hate to ruin the surprise for the rest of you who may see them.  It would be like opening your presents before Christmas!

Grape Salad & Crazy Love

I thought I would share with you a delicious grape salad recipe...it's a little on the sweet and rich side, so beware.  I think it's a perfect cool summertime dessert and if you choose you can make it with fat free ingredients and Splenda to make it a less guilty pleasure!  If you search grape salad on the Internet you will find about 20 different variations of this recipe, so I have combined a few to come up with my favorite.

Grape Salad

6- 8 cups seedless red or green grapes (or combination)

8 oz sour cream

8 oz cream cheese

8 oz Cool Whip

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup brown sugar

Mix together sour cream, cream cheese, Cool Whip, vanilla, and sugar in a bowl.  Layer grapes in a serving bowl, then the sour cream mixture.  Keep alternating layers and end up with a sour cream layer on top.  Top the dish with the brown sugar and pecans mixed together.  Best if chilled overnight.

*My alteration of this recipe is that I mix the brown sugar in with the sour cream mixture and omit the pecans, but if you like pecans it's good the other way too. *

I also wanted to share with you the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan. 

If you haven't read it, I would highly recommend it.  Our small group is going through it right now and I am only 2 chapters into it and have gotten so much out of it.  For those of you unfamiliar with it, it's not about love in marriage like I thought the title implied.  It's about God's crazy, relentless, and all-powerful love.  It has reinforced for me how amazing God's love for us really is.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Baby Food

The homemade baby food making days are back in full swing at our house since Brynley has recently started eating baby food.  I started making Landry's baby food when he was little at the suggestion of our pediatrician.  He told me it would be a lot cheaper and make for an easier transition into table foods when he got older.  He was right!  I wish I had a way to total up the savings.

If you are interested, all you need is a food processor or blender.  I use a very inexpensive food chopper that I received as a wedding gift.  It can be purchased at Walmart for less than $10 and I use it for so much more than making baby food.

The awesome thing about making baby food in the summer time is that you can buy fresh produce for a reasonable price.  If I can't buy it fresh, I try to use frozen vegetables or fruits.  The pediatrician recommended steering clear of canned vegetables as much as possible to avoid the unneeded sodium. 

I usually try to set aside an hour to make up at least a couple of weeks worth of baby food to freeze.  I recently made frozen peas and carrots and fresh yellow squash and avocados.  I also made fresh peaches, bananas, pears, and blueberries (a few pictures below).  All you need to do is cook your vegetables in the microwave as directed on the package or cook them until they are soft if using fresh vegetables.  Then place them in your chopper and chop, chop, chop!  You may need to add a little water to get to a baby food consistency.  The fruits are the easiest.  All you do is peel and chop.  Most of the time, no water is needed since fruits tend to be a little juicy anyways. 

Once you get done chopping, spoon the mixture into ice cube trays and place in freezer to freeze.  Allow approximately 4-6 hours to freeze.  Remove, place in labeled Ziploc bags, and throw in the freezer.  All you have to do is zap them in the microwave when your little one is ready to eat or if you are on the go throw them in a small container to take with you.  More than likely they will be thawed and ready to eat when you are ready for them.

I would recommend trying it at least once to see what you think.  You will be surprised at how much money it will save you and how easy it is!  If nothing else, you can make the simple switch from applesauce baby food to unsweetened applesauce in a jar.  And if your babies are anything like mine, they will love the real food even more!

Microwave Caramel Popcorn

One of my favorite treats for movie nights, ball games, or just a sweet snack is microwave caramel popcorn.  I have been known to sneak it into the movie theaters even, because I think it is so much better than theater popcorn.  If you haven't tried it before, it's really easy to make.  Beware...it is addicting!

I use my stir crazy popcorn popper and combine 1 cup yellow popping corn with 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil.  Plug it in and let the popping begin.  If you don't have one, I would highly recommend it as an alternative to microwave popcorn.  It pops the corn so fast and you can add your own toppings for a fraction of the cost of microwave popcorn.  I know there are other versions of these that will work as well.

 Microwave Caramel Popcorn

16 cups popped corn

1 cup brown sugar

1 stick margarine or butter

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Place popped corn in a large brown paper sack.  Combine brown sugar, margarine, syrup and salt.  Place in microwave and bring to a boil (approximately 3 minutes).  Once boiling, boil mixture for 3 minutes, stirring after every 1 minute.  Remove and stir in baking soda well.  Pour mixture over popcorn in brown paper sack and mix.  Place sack in microwave for 1 minute 15 seconds.  Remove and stir/shake.  Place back in microwave for 1 minute 15 seconds; stir/shake again.  Place back in for 30 seconds.  Remove popcorn from sack and enjoy! 

I am having trouble posting comments on other blogs and my own.  Does anyone know what I may be doing wrong?  It just keeps telling me there is an error...

I hope everyone is having a great week.  It has been another hot one around here.  My baby girl turned 6 months old today...once again time is just flying by!