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My Favorite Soup {Recipe}

Back in November I visited Philadelphia and a bunch of my friends...while at my friend Nicole's house, her wonderful husband (who is an amazing cook!) whipped together and it was the most simple yet delicious chicken noodle soup. I was thinking about it for WEEKS!

For years, I've made a similar version, but always used orzo or ditalini as the pasta. Mitch used wide egg noodles. {Pure Genius!} I'm not sure I can ever go back...

The odd thing is my Mother-in-Law had a similar reaction to this soup. She visited in December and was on the tail end of some serious flu. I ended up whipping up some of this soup and even now, a month later, she said she still wakes up thinking about it, and looking forward to eating it...

To make this Amazing Chicken Noodle Soup:

Dice into very small pieces: 1 onion, 3-4 peeled carrots, 3-4 stalks of celery (or about 1 cup of each)

*In the photo above I also diced up some fresh ginger, but it was just meh. {Not my favorite version of this soup!}

Add some (about 1 TBSP) olive oil into a large pot on medium-high heat. Add the celery, carrots, and onion. Saute this for 5 minutes or so, stirring frequently.

Once the vegetables are soft, add 1 large (49.5 oz) can of chicken broth (or 6 cups).

Bring it to a boil and add about half a bag of extra wide egg noodle, paying attention to the package cooking time. Lately I've been a big fan of the Ronzoni brand Smart Taste Extra Wide Style because it has extra protein, those noodles need to cook about 10 minutes.

For years and years I would eat Chicken Noodle Soup without any actual chicken...basically just noodles and vegatbles. But this version uses about half of a Rotisserie Chicken. I'd say about a cup of chicken. Because the chicken is already cooked, I usually add this at the very end.

Add some salt and pepper and enjoy. I always enjoy this soup with some cheese and crackers...and some fruit.

Now if only this soup could rid the yuck from our house. It seems like another round just started in our house :(

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Engagement Brownies {Recipe}

I know, I know, I was going to lay off the recipes, but these really are a delicious treat. Make some for yourself, stat. You'll be happy you did.

In my house, we call these engagement brownies because I made them for my husband {then boyfriend} and he swears he knew he had to marry me once he tasted them. So easy to make and REALLY delicious! I was given this recipe by another teacher when I was student teaching. I still think about her, and send my thanks cosmically every time I bite into one of these beauties.

I thought I took a picture of one, but I guess I didn't. You get the idea....

To create engagement brownies for yourself:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a box of brownies (I prefer the milk chocolate kind) but really any kind will do. Once your brownies are prepared to the box directions, simply spoon the brownie mix into the tin foil muffin cups {the paper ones WILL stick!} I usually hoard the tin foil ones and use the paper cups for all other muffin baking. Bake the brownie muffins for about 12 minutes. In the meantime, unwrap Reeses Peanut Butter Cups (either the small bite sized ones, or more recently we've been using snack sized, YUM!) Make sure you've removed ALL of the paper. Once your brownies have baked for about 12 minutes, pull them out of the oven and place ONE Reeses into the top of each brownie. Sometimes I try to push them down so they disappear and are covered in a delicious layer of brownie, but that is not necessary. Once each brownie has a Reeses, place them BACK into the oven for about 10 more minutes. If you prefer 'em a little gooey, back off the time, if you're paranoid, bake 'em a touch longer.

Eat one while they are still warm. You'll be happy you did.

We had this instead of birthday cake and my chocolate lovin' hubby did not mind one bit!

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Samoa (Girl Scout Cookie) Knock Off/Copy Cat {Attempt #1}

So maybe it's just the pregnancy, maybe it's that I've really been enjoying the Girl Scout cookies we ordered this year; but, I hate not having the option/ability/extra money to have these cookies whenever I want them. I had to try to make them myself.

After attempting a google search, I came across this samoa copycat recipe at food.com. The reviews were mostly positive and gave what seemed to be decent suggestions to make the original recipe even better.

My first area where I veered from the original recipe is that I attempted this shortbread cookie recipe instead. I followed this recipe exactly, but wish the actual cookie was a little sweeter. I also did not do a great job rolling my cookies very evenly. Some cookies were a little thicker-not a bad thing-but I think these would be best on the thinner side. No more than 1/4" thick!

The samoa recipe recommended using this recipe, but I decided not to because I didn't want to use shortening (although I'm sure it would have made a delicious cookie) and I also didn't want to have to buy a bunch of buttermilk to only use 2 TBSP...the reviews were also not very good...I also did not have a round cookie cutter, so I used a small juice glass. The cookies ended up being larger than the original GS cookie, but I'm not complaining about that!

Back to the Samoa Recipe. I toasted the coconut for about 2 minutes at a time at 375 degrees. It took about 8 minutes and I would stir every two minutes. Just watch closely at the end so you don't have burnt coconut!

It was super easy to mix the other ingredients together in a saucepan. I ended up with about 2 cups of toasted coconut because I have a hot spot on my cookie sheet (I think) and learned the hard way to watch the coconut carefully while it's toasting (especially at the very end!)

This mix itself is delicious in my opinion.

I used a small ice cream scoop (yes, I have a small ice cream scoop but no cookie cutters?!) and made a blob of the coconut mix on each cookie. I used a knife to smear the good lovin' across the entire cookie.

I put the shortbread cookies with the coconut mixture on top into the freezer for a few minutes. I figured I needed to add some chocolate to these babies, and the freezer was the best bet.

I used about a cup of melted chocolate chips in a bowl and then dipped one entire bottom of the cookie into the chocolate and then had another cookie on stand-by and would have the cookies "kiss" bottoms, to smear the cookies bottom's & the chocolate together. Yum. I then placed them coconut side down on the cookie sheet, and put them back in the freezer for about 30 minutes. I then melted some dark chocolate chips (maybe 1/2 a cup?) and put it into a sandwich bag, trimmed a corner, and drizzled the melted dark chocolate chips on top of the coconut & shortbread cookie mix. Then back to the freezer for these cookies!

I had photography class and forgot about the cookies (I hate to admit) so they were in the freezer for about 2 hours before I got home and finally got to try one!

My husband and I agree that the shortbread cookies were a little thick (and I thought they could be sweeter-maybe even could use some brown sugar?) so the ratio of shortbread to coconut to chocolate was not exact. The cookies are definitely GOOD. But not as good as the ones from the box.

A very talented food blogger I am lucky to know passed along a copycat Samoa Recipe she had heard of, and I'm thinking this recipe will be my next attempt. I will let you know how it goes.

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{Amazing Black Bean Soup} Recipe

Although my intention is not to share food recipes through this blog, I find that in pregnancy the majority of my time is spent thinking about food (well, normally-when I'm not pregnant, I think a lot about food too!) Being that today is St. Patrick's Day, I should be sharing something festive and green, but alas, this black bean soup recipe wins. This is possibly one of my favorite "go to" recipes. I generally always have the ingredients on hand in my pantry. And it is just so hearty and delicious, it's just too good NOT to share.

So here goes:

Amazingly Delicious Black Bean Soup

1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2-3 celery ribs, chopped
2-3 carrots, chopped
1/4 cup bell pepper, chopped (I usually use a frozen pepper mix)
1 teaspoon jalepeno, from the jar, diced finely
2 teaspoon Better Than Bouillon-Vegetable (I'm guessing chicken would work as well, or any broth for that matter)
2 cups water
2 (15 oz) cans black beans, drained & rinsed, low sodium works fine, too
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cumin (to start-but generally I use at LEAST 1 heaping tsp!)
lemon juice-or lime juice-not much is needed maybe 1/4 cup

Toppings (optional):
jasmine rice (seriously try it, it's so good!)
tomato
avocado
cilantro
sour cream

1. In a large pot, add first 8 ingredients, simmer for 10 minutes. (I generally get the bouillon and water boiling and then add the rest as I chop.)
2. Add beans, salt, cumin; cook 5 more minutes.
3. Puree soup (it will be REALLY thick) in a food processor.
4. Serve with rice & other optional toppings.

Easy & delicious. Yum!

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Pregnancy Getting the best of me....

So, I'm nearly in my 3rd trimester. This having a baby goes so quickly, yet takes FOREVER!

One thing I don't think I will miss is cravings. I crave foods that are bizarre, and once I get the idea in my head I cannot let it go. It becomes an obsession.

So when I woke up this morning at 6:30am (yes, on a Sunday) I couldn't stop thinking about the delicious cupcakes my sister in law brought for my birthday from Georgetown Cupcake. I've previously shared my feelings about this magical gift-YUM! But when I woke up all I wanted was a carrot cake cupcake with cream cheese icing.

Because of this craving, this was my big project of the day:

In the early hours of the morning, before the sun even broke through my bedroom window, I started researching carrot cake recipes on my iPhone. I ultimately settled on this one from the Joy of Baking. It's delicious, and healthy (it has carrots AND apple!) I will say, I halved the recipe, I know I will probably lose interest in another day or two, so I didn't want to bake 2 dozen cupcakes to end up throwing half away. I will also note: I substituted Fisher Maple Brown Sugar Pecans (purchased in the baking section at Walmart) and I left out the raisins.

To ice these beauties, I used the Georgetown Cupcake recipe for Cream Cheese Icing, they provided on the TLC website. It's so simple-1/2 stick of butter, 6 oz of cream cheese (both room temp) mixed together, and then 4 cups of confectioners sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract. I only used 3 cups of confectioner's sugar (because that's all I had and I would prefer a cheesier flavor) but now I wish I added more vanilla extract. I generously iced the cupcakes and even froze about a cup of icing that I had leftover.

The cupcakes did NOT disappoint. They are honestly delicious. I'm trying to convince myself not to eat any more. But they are just so good! Try some yourself. You won't regret it!

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The Most Delicious Salad You Will Ever Eat

This salad has a lot of history, and I honestly don't intend on sharing many recipes through this blog, but this recipe is just that good! It's a creation that is intense and a little time consuming but you might just end up eating it two nights in a row (like we did!) once you discover this recipe. I've served this salad for company, and it's not uncommon for our guests to contact me a few days later for the recipe...

This recipe came to life because my husband had gone to lunch and purchased a $14 SALAD. I was shocked and couldn't believe it cost $14 for one person to eat A SALAD! The thing he could tell me about the salad was that it was delicious and everything was chopped up into small pieces. The following day I received an email from Martha Stewart (no, not personally) but it was from her FOOD magazine and it mentioned something about chopped style salads....and I figured wow, I guess I'm behind the curve...chopped salads must be ALL the RAGE! So there you have it, I had to create some kind of chopped salad that would knock my husband's socks off so that the $14 salad place couldn't compete.

Now, sometimes I don't have everything on my list, so I use what I have on hand. If you absolutely hate something I list, it's okay try it without what you don't like. BUT, I challenge you to try it WITH what you don't like because I bet you'll still love this salad. And, if you discover an ingredient you think I need to know, please share!!

So here is what I came up with:
*I generally do not measure any of this recipe, just use your judgement and put the most of the things YOU like!

Romaine Lettuce (usually only 4-5 leaves) you don't need much b/c there is so much other deliciousness in this salad! Chopped vertically & horizontally in pieces that are no larger than 1" square.
Avocado
Mango
Cilantro (large handful, rinsed, and minced)
Sweet Onion (Vidalia preferably, diced as tiny as you can imagine!) *In my opinion the salad must have this!
Tomato
Cucumber (I usually only use about 1/3 or a cuke)
Strawberries (large handful, maybe 6 or so)
Blueberries (large handful)
Cashew nuts (maybe 1/4 cup we're just huge cashew fans, I'm sure any nut would be fine!)
Craisins (maybe 1/4 cup)
Feta Cheese (a generous sprinkle---1/4 cup at LEAST!)
Olives (black, seedless, maybe 1/2 a can?)
Corn (I tend to use 1/2 a can b/c I usually have some on hand, and I use sweet corn)
Rice: I know this might make you raise an eyebrow, BUT, my great friend Nicole always would make the most amazing salads and she is sort of "everything but the kitchen sink" salad maker, and she would use rice wine vinegar dressing (see below) and rice. I recommend using a Jasmine Rice (yes, it makes a difference) and for my husband & I cook 1 cup of Jasmine Rice...if I have it, I will use brown Jasmine Rice or a blend of brown/white Jasmine Rice. You'll be glad you took this step!
Meat: Now this is your choice...BUT, we ALWAYS use either Trader Joe's Soyvay or Very Teriyaki to marinate (if I pull it together) and cook the meat. If I'm short on time, I'll slice chicken breasts into bite sized pieces and cook straight in Soyvay--just another tip---if you have any meat left over (and I doubt you will) use it to make chicken salad (AMAZING!) if you don't have chicken breasts, or want to change things up use pork tenderloin. Again, slice the tenderloin into very small pieces and then cook the meat in a pan with Soyvay! Easy and soooo DELICIOUS, I promise!
Dressing: Extra Virgin Olive Oil & Rice Wine Vinegar. I don't know exact measurements, I use a generous spin around the bowl with oil, mix it all together, and then top with an even MORE generous amount of Rice Wine Vinegar. I would say you can do a 50/50 mix, BUT I would imagine it will taste best with a 40/60 mix of oil to rice wine vinegar.

So I'm sorry about the ingredients list, I am by no means an expert cook and don't want you to wonder what I'm talking about, please let me know if you have any questions...

Directions to put these ingredients together:

Prep rice using package directions.
Start cleaning vegetables and chop into small pieces. As you go, add ingredients into a large bowl.
Slice meat into small pieces (bite sized) and cook meat in Soyvay/Very Teriyaki.
Top "salad" bowl with dressing (rice wine vinegar & oil)
Plate as you prefer (I like to put salad with a well--imagine a volcano--with rice in the middle and then the meat on top. My husband likes rice on the bottom, salad, meat on top.)
Sometimes you need an extra splash of rice wine vinegar...
Enjoy!