Cody's Spicy Vegetable Soup

Cody's been on a health kick lately and since it's going to be a snow filled weekend (or so we're told) he thought it was the perfect time to make a nice vegetable soup.

If I ate all of this stuff, I'd be saying yummy yummy, regardless I still have to admit that it does look good and chunky - just how I like my soups!

Without further ado, the recipe for Cody's Spice Vegetable Soup:

• Chicken broth (we got the big can, you can also use vegetable - we just couldn't find a big can of veggie broth)
• 1 lb. of baby carrots
• a few sticks of celery
• 1/2 white onion, chopped into big chunks
• 1 can of black beans
• 1 can of kidney beans
• 1 can of corn
• mushrooms
• a handful or so of fresh green beans
• 1 can of peas
• 2 jalapenos, halved with seeds
• 1 green pepper, chopped  
• 1/2 bunch of cilantro, just the leaves

Everything here can be added or lessened depending on personal preference. If you don't like spice definitely leave out the jalapenos. :)

Cody's also going to add some rice to it when he eats it, just another idea to make it a hearty dinner.

I called this spicy vegetable soup, but it turns out Cody calls this Super Soup because of all the goodies. Use whichever name you like and enjoy! 

South of the Border

We went south of the border tonight and had Mexican!! I made Taco Bake with a side of boxed Spanish rice. This recipe was beyond simple and turned out to be amazing and so filling!

Taco Bake:

Ingredients:

• 2 or 3 8 inch flour tortillas
• 1 lb. ground beef
• one bag shredded taco or Mexican cheese
• 1/2 cup salsa con queso
• 1 packet taco seasoning
• sour cream

Directions:

1. Brown meat and drain excess grease. Mix in taco seasoning packet and water as stated on package. Follow directions on packet. Once done mix in 1/2 cup salsa con queso and stir.
2. Preheat oven to 350°.
3. Spray pan with nonstick cooking spray or spread a small amount of cooking oil in pan. Place tortilla in pan. Cover tortilla with a couple spoonfuls of meat - enough to cover most of the tortilla. 
4. Sprinkle shredded cheese over meat. Use as little or as much cheese as you feel is necessary.
5. Place another tortilla on top of the cheese. Repeat process with more meat and then cheese.
6. If you still have meat left over, you can do another layer of meat and then cheese.
7. Bake in oven for 15-20 minutes or until cheese is melted.
8. Serve with sour cream and diced tomatoes if you like.

I was very wary of this recipe. It just did not seem like it was going to be a lot of food. I ended up making a three layer taco bake and cutting it up like a pizza. One piece with a side of rice had me completely full. Not to mention, it was so, so good!

This is something cheap and easy to throw together last minute that I will definitely be making again. :)

Chicken Parmesan Casserole & Homemade Garlic Bread

Mhmm, mhmm, mhmm! 

That describes this dinner perfectly!

 


Chicken Parmesan Casserole

Ingredients:

• chicken breasts
• marinara sauce
• olive oil
• one clove of garlic, minced
• parmesan cheese
• mozzarella cheese
• croutons, crushed

Directions:

1. A dollop or so of oil olive poured into pan to coat the bottom. Toss in minced garlic clove and put in chicken breasts.
2. Cover chicken breasts with as much marinara sauce as you deem necessary.
3. Spread parmesan and mozzarella cheese over marinara sauce. 
4. Pour crushed croutons over cheese.
5. Spread more parmesan and mozzarella cheese over croutons.
6. Bake on 400°F for one hour and ten minutes, roughly for frozen chicken breasts. Cook for less time if using fresh chicken.

I used 2 8 oz. bags of mozzarella and 2 6 oz. bags of parmesan for this recipe. You can use less if you'd like. We're a cheese family, so the cheesier the better.

This was absolutely delicious and so, so simple! I will definitely be making this again - it was a hit!

Homemade Garlic Bread

Ingredients:

• Fresh baked bread
• butter
• clove of garlic, chopped
• dill weed

Directions:

1. Slice bread. For ten slices, I used 4 tbsp of melted butter and mixed in the chopped gloves of garlic.
2. Spread butter and garlic mixture onto both sides of bread.
3. Sprinkle dill weed on both sides of bread.
4. Bake on 400º for about 20 minutes or a little less, depending on how crunchy you like your garlic bread.

This was an incredibly simple dinner and I am so happy with the way it turned out. I was a bit worried, because I was cooking for someone who's favorite meal is chicken parmesan. This one was a hit with him, so you can be sure that it'll be a hit with anyone!

Enjoy!

What's for dinner?

If you read my post yesterday you know that I'm going to be doing weekly meals from scratch. If you want to find out what brought this you can read all about that here. 

So, for the first of many dinners I made homemade sirloin steaks with a gravy sauce and optional kaiser bun with a side of fresh, steamed broccoli and a tropical fruit salad. For dessert, I made homemade apple and cinnamon muffins. Everything was delicious and pleased my dinner guests. ;)

If you're interested in trying these recipes as well they'll be posted down below along with photos of the food.

Main Course:

Homemade Salisbury Steaks
Serve 6-7

Ingredients: 

• 2 yellow onions (optional)
• 3-4 pounds of ground beef
• Kaiser buns, Texas toast, or ciabatta loaf (optional)
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Season beef to taste with salt and pepper, then shape into 8 patties. I also used an all-purpose season on both sides of the patty. I cooked mine on the grill or you could cook them in a skillet. Cook to liking.
2. I also grilled the onions on the grill as well as steamed some in a foil basket.
3. Remove patties and onions from grill, serve on kaiser bun or not. It's optional and tastes good both ways. I served mine with a beef gravy on top and it complimented the salisbury steaks perfectly.

Tropical Fruit Salad

Serves 6-7

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe mangoes
• 2 small cans of mandarin oranges
• 1 pineapple (grapefruit can be substituted if preferred)
• 1 lime (lime rind and lime juice)
• shredded coconut

Directions:

1. Chunk the mangoes and pineapple. Combine those in a bowl with the mandarin oranges. You can include in the mandarin juice if you wish,  I did. Mix.
2. Grate the lime to get the lime rind in the bowl with the fruit. Then, squeeze the lime to get the juice. Mix.
3. Coconut can be added now or when served to individual liking.

Dessert:

Apple & Cinnamon Muffins

Makes 2 dozen

Ingredients:

• 2 1/3 cup white all-purpose flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 apples (peeled, cored, and finely chopped)
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 8 tbsp butter, melted

Topping:

• brown sugar 
• ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Line muffin pan with paper cups.
2. Whisk flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl. Stir in sugar and chopped apples. In a separate bowl, mix together the milk, eggs and butter. Then, gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry.
3. Place the batter into the paper cups. 
4. To make the topping take a few lumps of brown sugar and mix it with about a tsp of ground cinnamon. More of less of both can be added depending on taste and how much topping you want on your muffins.
5. Sprinkle the topping on the muffins and then bake them in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until they are golden and have risen. 
6. These can be served warm or cold and are delicious both ways.

Come back next week and see what's cooking!

Adult Life

I graduated from college. Now what? Well, now I play the game where you send your resume and applications to employers and you wait for an answer. It's not a very fun game, but I hear a lot of people are playing it so that must mean something right? ;)
Anyway, in the meantime while I wait to become an official, official adult by getting a permanent job I decided to do something else to make myself feel like a grown up. I've decided to cook one meal & dessert once a week from scratch. If you know me you know I'm not a cooker, at all, so this is huge. It'll make me feel productive and teach me life lessons that I can use forever - double score!
I'll start tomorrow and I plan to post photos of the foods I make along with the recipes so you can follow me on this exciting life journey I'm taking and maybe make some of the recipes too, if you want.
It'll be fun and hopefully tasty. So, stay tuned to this blog because this is where the deliciousness will be posted weekly.

Oh, fun fact: to celebrate my graduation I bought myself a bunny. She's adorable and does those adorable little nose twitches that rabbits do. 

Sydney, rabbit extraordinaire  

Some creative writing for your late night reading

It's Saturday, technically Sunday morning and I feel like writing! So, I'm going to go to Slacker and play a random "new & trending" song and use that as inspiration to do a little creative writing. Here we go...

*Song: Gone, Gone, Gone by Phillip Phillips

I yelled, "Just go!"

His back turned toward me I could see him let out a sigh. He shoulders relaxed under his tight gray shirt. I could see him raise a hand up to his face. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he turns towards me. Looking me in the eyes he says, "You know I can't do that."

"Can't or won't? 'Cause we both know that you sure as hell can walk out that door and never come back. So, why? Why won't you leave Jacob?" He shakes his ever so slightly and gives me the saddest look. It pierces my heart and for a split second I don't want him to leave. I want him to wrap me in his arms and tell me everything is going to be okay and that it will all go back to how it used to be. I want to wake up in the morning with his scent on the pillow. I want to breathe him in like I'm drowning and he's the only thing giving me oxygen. I want him more than my next breathe. I look back up at his eyes that used to warm me with their chocolate gaze and realize it's not sadness that he's looking at me with. It's sympathy. He feels sorry for me.

"Babe." I can't. I just...I don't understand where things went wrong. We were perfect yesterday and today I just can't do it.

"No, don't 'babe' me. You need to leave. I just..."

"I know. I'm sorry. I love you, Trace." He walks toward me, arms extended ready to wrap me in the muscular arms that have always eased my pain before. Now, I'm looking at him with sadness clouding my vision. Tears blur and I can no longer see his face clearly. The grayness keeps coming and soon it's all I see as I sob into his chest.

He envelops me in warmness, but I can feel the hurt. It's in the way his arms don't hold me as tight. It's in the way he's slowly rubbing circles on my back trying to soothe me.  It's the way he softly kisses my hair and murmurs, "It's okay," when really it's not okay. It will never be okay again. We will never be okay and neither will I.

I rest my head on his chest and let the tears fall. I try to remember every detail about him, every little thing that I love about him. I don't want to forget any of it. I don't want any of the good memories tainted by this. What we had was real and it'll always be there.

When I smell coffee I'll always think of him and how he would wake up every morning and give me a kiss before hopping out of bed to start the pot. When I see a rose, I'll remember how he would surprise me with them every month just to give me something to really smile about that day. It didn't matter what kind of day I was having he always knew what to do or say to make it all better. The simplest smile could make my heart beat faster and fill me with a joyous love I've never known possible. My whole body would feel warm, from my toes all the way to my heart, warmth would radiate just because he smiled at me.

It's all over now. There's no more warmth. There's only pain. I can feel the hurt in every part of my body. I ache all over. That's how strong my love for him is. I'm crushed. I don't know if the pieces will every fit back together again.

I lift my head and slowly break the hold he has on me. I can't even look up at him.

"If you won't leave, then I guess I will." I take a full step away, hold out my hand and he takes the letter that arrived today out of it.

It's so silent. I think I hear his heart break as he takes the letter. He looks down at the envelope addressed to him.

"I'm sorry. If this is what you need, I'll give it to you. I made you a promise that I would love you forever. I'm not breaking that, but if you need me to go, then I will."

He folds the letter and puts it in his back pocket. He looks back up and I can see the heartache. He kisses me softly on the cheek and walks out the room and out of my life.

Failure and the art of getting back up

Mostly everyone is afraid of failing at one thing or another. We're afraid because it's looked down upon to fail. "Oh, you didn't get this." or "Oh, you failed." "You must be no good."

No. Stop. 

This stigma that failing or not getting something means you aren't good at whatever it is needs to stop. It's not true and it's hurtful. It leads to people giving up their dreams.

You can do it. Believe in yourself!

Nobody but you needs to believe.

If you fall get right back up. Show the world and yourself that you are strong and can do this! Failing isn't a sign of failure. Giving up is. 

Don't give up. 

If you never put yourself out there, you can never get ahead. It's okay to stumble. We start life out falling, so why when we fall later in life is it not okay? Be brave. If you have a passion, go after it. Don't hold anything back. Whatever you hold back turns into regret later.

Live with no regrets. 

Be the best you that you can be. Don't let others bring you down. Lift yourself up. You have the potential to be the strongest person you know. If you never try, you never know.

Be strong.

Don't be afraid to fail, fall, be rejected etc. 

It's a part of life. 

If you don't experience it how can you get to where you're supposed to end up?