Apple Pie Smoothies

I loooooove smoothies. Love them. More often than not, I have a smoothie for an after-dinner snack. It's so easy to keep the essentials on hand. Frozen fruit, greek yogurt, almond milk, orange juice- all convenient to keep at home. Or in the case of this smoothie, I used fresh fruit but added ice. There's just a million combinations and possibilities out there. I came up with this one when I was craving a smoothie and staring at a large bag of apples sitting on the kitchen counter. You'd think the hubby and I were horses with the amount of apples we eat. Once I threw the apples in my smoothie, it just seemed natural to add a little bit of cinnamon and nutmeg to give the concoction an apple pie flavor. And it does. Deliciously. 

So, happy Thursday everyone! It's almost the weekend after another long week. I (and now the hubby) am still sick. I've been sidelined with this nasty cold for a week and 2 days now. It's strictly in my lungs now, and that's the most frustrating part. Running while coughing up gunk from your lungs is not desirable. So I've been resting, and trying to get better. And... I'm pretty tired of resting. I'm usually on the go, I have lots to do, and I usually have tons of energy. Not so much right now. I'm really hoping the remainder of this cold goes away on its own, I'm not really relishing the fact I might have to go to the doctor. I'm definitely one of those people that avoids the doctor as much as possible. 

My plan for today, since I'm still not feeling awesome, is to roast a pumpkin. You know, to make homemade pumpkin puree. I've got 4 amazing pumpkins sitting on my porch as decoration, I think it's time to delve into one of those suckers. I'm picturing all the stuff I'm going to make with homemade pumpkin puree, and getting very excited. I see a Pumpkin Pie Smoothie in my future :) Plus, my pumpkins are pretty big. I should have plenty to freeze. Pumpkin treats year round!

I've never been one to only eat certain things at certain times of the year. I like pumpkin in the spring, and summer too. I like soup in the summer. I like salads and berries in the winter. The only convention I stick to is, I don't eat Chicken Parmesan in the summer. It's a winter-dish only. Don't ask me why, I'm just very stubborn about that rule. In fact, it's getting to be that time of year when I start craving Chicken Parmesan. Crunchy, saucy, cheesy... yum. It might be time to put that one on the menu...

Wow, I got really off-track there. Started out talking about smoothies, apples, and fruit, and somehow winded up waxing poetic about Chicken Parmesan. What can I say? The mind doth like to wander...

So, to surmise- if you like fruit and fruity drink concoctions, this is for you. If you like apple pie, this is for you. If you like somewhat healthy drinks, this is for you. I love this delicious, spicy, apple-iscious smoothie and I think you will too.

Have a great day everyone!

Ingredients (makes 1 large smoothie):

2 apples, chopped

1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt

1/3 cup almond milk

2-3 tsp honey

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1- 1 1/2 cups ice

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in blender. Blend until smooth. Add more or less honey to make smoothie sweeter. Add more ice to make smoothie thicker, if desired. 

2. Pour into glass. Sprinkle top with cinnamon, if desired. Serve immediately. 

Printable Recipe

If you liked this recipe, you may enjoy these:

Chocolate Oat Smoothies

Green Smoothies

Tropical Fruit Smoothies

Linked to: Weekend Potluck, Foodie Friday, Foodie Friends Friday Linky Party, Treasure Box Tuesday

Tropical Fruit Smoothies

Well, this post feels a little inappropriate.

After a gorgeous sunny Sunday, and a stormy but warm Monday, I woke up to SNOW today. Argh. I'm so irritated. The trees are starting to bloom, the grass is getting greener everyday, I'm starting to get tan lines, and now this? It's so much easier to envision yourself on a Hawaiian beach with this smoothie next to your beach chair when it feels summery out. I guess we'll all have to pretend today, hmmm?

These are one of my healthier smoothies. Mostly fruit, a little juice and yogurt, and a hefty tablespoon of coconut oil. You'll be surprised how much coconut flavor you get out of a little bit of oil. Mixing the coconut oil with pineapple and orange lends the perfect tropical flavor combination. I spent the whole week experimenting with using frozen fruit and frozen bananas in lieu of ice. Nothing against ice, but you can get a much better texture out of a smoothy if you skip it. I pretend the frozen fruit is my ice. It makes for a velvety smooth consistency with no crunchy ice chips. I hate crunchy ice chips in a smoothie.

I already know what some of you are going to say about ice chips. That's about the blender. Indeed. My blender model is circa 2001. I bought it the summer before I started college. It's a bright red Kitchen Aid I acquired for $20. And it still works! It's no Ninja or VitaMix, but it cost $20. I'll also tell you that "Smoothie Week" is the first time I've used that blender in my entire relationship with the hubby. That's almost 8 years. I use my food processor for most everything I need. It just so happens you can't make smoothies in the food processor (according to the hubby). With the amount that I use a blender, it'll be a while before I get a high-quality one. The point of this paragraph? You don't need a fancy blender to make smoothies. All of my smoothies are made out of my cheap-y blender, and they still turned smooth and delicious. 

Besides "Smoothie Week", we've got another project underway on the homestead. We are getting a driveway this week! The hubby and I have really approached life differently since we moved to Kentucky. The experiences that drove us here are also driving us to stay out of debt as much as possible. We put a 20% down payment on our home, and any projects done around the house we are paying for in cash. Which means we have to save to have that cash on hand, and the big projects will get done in time. We've got 2 projects on hand for this summer:

1. Concrete- we are getting the driveway poured. We are also getting a walkway to the front door as well as steps onto the front porch. With the work being done, we are also getting a concrete pad poured in the backyard that will function as a patio until the day we decide to build our deck. I'm super excited, especially about the walkway and steps. Currently, we open the garage door and let guests in through the garage when they come over so they don't have to walk through the muddy yard. Needless to say, my entryway is under utilized. Well, not for too much longer!

2. Fencing- We'll be fencing in the backyard. Part of the backyard, actually. We've got what we call "The Front Lot" which is separated from most of our property by a large ditch. We plan on fencing in the front lot later in the future, and putting goats and chickens out there. The small section we are fencing in this summer is mainly for the dogs and our garden. But soon we'll be able to open the back door, and let the dogs out with no worries.

The forms have been set, and the lines marked for concrete. Due to the weather today (grrrr), there will be no concrete. The driveway should be done tomorrow or Thursday, however. I can't wait! Pictures will be soon to follow :)

Happy Tuesday!

Ingredients (makes 2 smoothies):

1 cup pineapple, cubed

1 orange, peeled and sectioned

2 frozen bananas, sliced

1 cup orange juice

1 (8 oz) pineapple Greek yogurt (I used Chobani)

1 large tbsp coconut oil

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth. Distribute between 2 glasses, serve immediately.

Linked to: Weekend Potluck, Foodie Friday

St. Patrick's Pistachio Bread

I'm getting in the Irish holiday spirit already!

I really wanted to make a couple of St. Patty's treats this year, so here I am. This post is brought to you by a failed batch of Bailey's Irish Cream Cookies. I'm undecided whether the Bailey's flavor was just too overwhelmingly strong, or my Bailey's had gone bad. Either way, the cookies sucked. I wasn't about to give up. I began to lead towards a minty treat, and maybe I'll still make one. I did, however, stumble on a recipe for Pistachio Bread in my quest that I just couldn't resist.

Although this technically qualifies as a "quick bread", it tastes like cake. And to be fair, it is made with a cake mix. It's moist, fluffy, and studded with pistachios. Unbeknownst to me, the hubby already loves Pistachio Bread. He did mention my bread was a little more green than Pistachio Breads he's had in the past. I'll admit, I did make mine a bit greener for St. Patty's day. Maybe I could call it Shrek Bread...

Our latest snow event is coming to an end. The temperature got up to 40º yesterday, so we are seeing some melting action. I was finally able to make it to the grocery store yesterday, which gave me a minor break from my cabin fever. The local news finally enlightened everyone as to the reason why Kentucky didn't do any road maintenance earlier this week- they are out of salt. They have placed an order for more that's not here yet, so they are in conservation mode. I think these unpredictable winters are going to be the norm in the future, so I can only hope the state is more prepared next year. Wishful thinking, but a girl can hope.

Today is the first day this week I could go to the gym. As luck would have it, both the hubby and I have colds. Our second colds of 2014. We are not off to a good start. This cold seems like a normal head cold, I'm hoping today is the worst of it. Between going out of town last weekend, and then coming down with a cold, I haven't worked out in over a week. I feel like I'm losing muscle already! I don't know if that's possible after only 9 days or so, but I feel like it is. I have decided not to take my cold to the gym to infect other people. I'm sure they will appreciate that :)

Have a great day everyone!

Ingredients:

1 box yellow cake mix
1 package instant pistachio pudding
4 eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
2 tbsp water
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp green food color
1 tsp almond extract
1 cup pistachios, shelled and chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Coat a loaf pan with cooking spray.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine cake mix through almond extract. Stir with a wooden spoon until smooth. Fold in 3/4 cup pistachios. Spread batter into loaf pan, sprinkle remaining pistachios over the top of the bread.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from oven, cool in pan 30 minutes. Remove loaf to a cooling rack, allow to cool completely before storage.

*Baking note- I halved the recipe to see if I would like it, resulting in smaller slices of bread. The full recipe will result in normal-size slices of bread.

Recipe by Better than Burgers

Linked to: Weekend Potluck

Turkey Taco Casserole

I've got cookies on the brain today, but instead, I'm going to taco to you about casserole. Ha ha. I know, that was bad. I absolutely could not resist :)

Initially, this casserole came into being because ground turkey was on sale and I had all the other ingredients on hand. I'm not sure why, but I never expect casseroles to be outstanding. I don't know why I think this, because I've had some amazing casseroles. My favorite food as a child was my mom's Green Bean Casserole. I adore Shepherd's Pie. This Lasagna-Style Baked Ziti is one of the best things I've ever made. Yet every time I go to make a casserole, I throw it together and expect it to be... eh.  Once again, I'm reminded that that notion is malarky. This casserole was amazing! I've never made Mexican Lasagna, but I'd imagine this casserole could be close to it. The best part? It got better every day after I made it. It didn't matter if I heated the leftovers in the oven or the microwave. I found both methods comparably favorable.

Another thing I love about this casserole is that it's make-ahead. It's also freezable. Talk about convenience! You could always get really crazy and double the recipe to make 2 casserole's to freeze.  Heat the frozen casserole in the oven until the cheese is bubbly, and you have easy, homemade Mexican goodness from the freezer to the table.  The recipe is pretty simple though, so it really didn't take long to assemble. The bake time wasn't bad either. I made this on a weeknight, and the whole she-bang took about an hour and a half, and that's even with a 20 minute rest time coming out of the oven. The casserole was even man-approved.

So... I'm stuck at home again. Argh! I'm not sure why, but Kentucky decided to do no road maintenance yesterday. This is the first time all winter that the roads haven't been plowed and salted, and I'm justifiably annoyed. It is the work week, people basically have to be on the roads. They are usually so on top of winter weather, I'm just surprised with the complete lapse this time. While I keep a lot of pantry staples on hand, fresh produce is impossible to stockpile. Since it's been a week and a half since I last made it to the grocery store, it's going be freezer food tonight. I'm just hoping the roads look better tomorrow, because if the dogs run out of carrots, we might have a mutiny on our hands!

Happy Tuesday!

Ingredients (serves 4-6):

1 tsp olive oil

1 lb ground turkey

1 tbsp chili powder

2 tsp cumin

1 1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

2 (4 oz) cans diced green chilies

1 cup diced tomatoes

1 (16 oz) can refried beans

1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded

2 flour tortillas, cut into 1-inch thick strips (lengthwise- if your tortillas are more oval than round)

1/2 cup salsa, plus more for serving

sour cream for serving

sliced avocado for serving (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375º. Coat a square 8-inch pan with cooking spray, set aside.

2. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When warm, add turkey. Brown the turkey, stirring to crumble. Once slightly browned, add chili powder through cayenne pepper. Mix to combine. Cook until turkey is browned completely. Add 1 can of green chilies and the diced tomatoes to the pan. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until the mixture is heated. Remove from heat.

3. To assemble casserole- spread a layer of the turkey mixture on the bottom of the pan. Top with a layer of refried beans, a layer of chilies, a layer of cheese, and then 4 of the tortilla strips. Repeat until you've used all the turkey mixture. Top casserole with any leftover cheese and 1/2 cup of salsa. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly.

4. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 20 minutes. Cut casserole into squares and top with more salsa, sour cream, and avocado (if using). 

*If preparing casserole to freeze, complete layering process and top with cheese and salsa. Tightly cover pan with aluminum foil and store in the freezer. Bake frozen casserole in a preheated oven at 375º for 1 hour, or until cheese is bubbly. Let stand for 20 minutes before serving.

Recipe adapted from Eat, Live, Run.

Linked to: Weekend Potluck

Random Thoughts: 3/3/14

1. Weekend in Cincinnati

Warped Wing Brewery, Dayton, OH

Hola! It's a very snowy Monday morning here in Kentucky. The hubby and I made it back from Cincinnati just in the nick of time yesterday! We had a fantastic weekend. Friday night, the hubby's cousin and wife took us to my favorite Mexican restaurant near their house. The gods of fate must have been smiling on me, because we only ended up at the Mexican restaurant because there was a 2-hour wait at the restaurant we'd originally planned on going to. Mwhahahaha. Did I send the population of Cincinnati to the original restaurant so I could have Mexican? The world will never know :)

Saturday night, they took us to fabulous little steakhouse near Dayton, OH called The Oakwood Club. The food was fantastic! I ordered the lamb chops, and I'm so glad I did. They were perfect. I compare all lamb to the best lamb I've ever eaten, which was at Texas de Brazil in Las Vegas 6 years ago. This lamb was so close to what I had in Las Vegas, I was just in heaven. Perfectly medium rare, pink, tender, the crust crisp with salt... Uh oh, I'm drooling again. After dinner, the hubby's cousin had picked a couple of brewery's for us to try in the Oregon District (I just love that) of Dayton. Needless to say, after a couple of drinks, the cameras whipped out-

Drinks at Newcom's in the Oregon District.

Cousin's wife and I.

Hubby's cousin, wife, me, and hubby :)

I had to include this pic because I love my face. I have no idea why I'm making it.

We woke on Sunday morning to about a quarter inch of ice on the ground. We were surprised as hell, the storm was supposed to hit late that afternoon. We grabbed our stuff as fast as could, thanked the hubby's cousin and wife, and hastily ran for the car. What an awful drive! The cousin's house is NW of us, so we had to travel about 40 miles east through the ice storm. Among the calamity we saw were a couple of cars sliding off the road and a flipped semi. Not fun.

Sheet of ice covering the road and the front of our car.

Once we got started heading south, we started to outrun it. By the time we were an hour from our house, we were driving in rain. Still, we came home and did not leave! We'd had enough, thank you very much. Until the snow came, which leads me to my next random thought...

2. More birds!

We got another 4 inches of snow last night, which means Casa de Jarrell is the most hopping' bird bar in NE Kentucky!

Seriously. When I opened the blinds this morning, there were flocks of birds in the backyard. Granted, we have 5 feeders, but wowsers! It was, by far, the most birds we've had yet. 

I love this sassy cardinal :)

I might be obsessed with cardinals...

Our latest feeder, a suet basket. Shockingly, the hubby only put it up at 7:30 am. For the 1st time, and they've already found it. I think that's a new record.

It's going to be a great day for birdwatching here on the homestead!

3. The Oscars

Image Source: The Oscars

The hubby and I managed to finish all the movies up for Best Picture. We put "Philomena" on at 4:30 pm yesterday, and powered through. We finished all the movies for the acting awards as well, however we were only able to catch an hour of "Blue Jasmine" before the show started. I felt we got a good idea of Cate Blanchett's performance, though. How'd we do? Awful. Jerame picked 4 out of 24 right, and I got 5 right. I really thought "American Hustle" should have won best picture (I thought it was the most interesting, seamless, well-acted movie we watched), but "12 Years A Slave" is also good choice. It was a very important, well-done movie. I think the only thing I'm flabbergasted by is that Meryl Streep didn't win Best Actress. This is an absolute robbery in my opinion. Her performance in "August: Osage County" is brilliant and awe-inspiring. Yes, Cate Blanchett did a fine job, but her performance didn't hold a candle to Streep's. Of course, this is only my opinion. I also thought Ellen did a great job. I love how her humor is not mean-spirited. And how much does everyone adore Jennifer Lawrence after last night? I can't believe that poor girl fell again. She handled it with such grace and good-humor though, I think I fell in love with her a little bit more. Which I didn't think was possible :)

That's it for today folks. I'm not sure what to do with myself right now, as I'm housebound. Monday's are usually my shopping day. However, the roads are really bad today, so I've relegated myself to being a hermit. I'm trying to summon the energy for a workout, but I've been fighting a losing battle with that all morning. I think the snow is lulling me into a nap. I'm so ready for spring!

Happy Monday everyone!

Roasted Potato, Bacon, and Spinach Salad

Happy Friday! You've made it to the end of "Week of Salads". Congratulations, you've earned a pat on the back and a big glass wine! 

I've saved a truly comforting salad for last. That's right, I called this comfort food. Crisp-on-the-outside/ creamy-on-the-inside potatoes, salty bacon, toasty pine nuts, savory parmesan cheese... and some spinach. Honestly, once you've dressed the salad in the bacon vinaigrette, just about anyone is going to want to eat this salad. It's perfect for a cold winter's day, much like the last 500 days of this winter have been. Seriously, we are looking at 0.35 of an inch of ice on Sunday night, and possibly 10-12 inches of snow on Monday. Argh. It's the winter that feels like it's never going to end. I'm going to have to do a "Week of Soups" at this rate. That's actually not a bad idea...

The hubby and I are off on a mini-vacay this weekend. We are leaving our troubles (and dogs!) at home and tossing our hair to the wind. To the very cold, very arctic, polar vortex wind. So, we'll be riding into the sunset with the windows rolled up and earmuffs on, no biggie. I still plan on having a great time, no matter Mother Nature's attempts to derail my plans. I'm not feeling too worried at this point about this latest storm, the hubby and I plan on being back long before it starts. 

Gizmo, on the other hand, has already confessed he's having doggy nightmares of cold, snowy paws :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Ingredients (serves 4):

1 lb baking potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges

1 tsp olive oil

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp rosemary

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

4 slices thick-cut bacon, chopped

1/8 cup red wine vinegar

2 tbsp olive oil

3 tsp sugar

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 (10 oz) package of fresh baby spinach

4 tbsp pine nuts, toasted

4 tbsp parmesan cheese, grated

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400º. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl, combine potatoes through black pepper. Toss to thoroughly coat. Distribute potatoes in a single layer on baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven 45-50 minutes, or until browned and crispy. Keep warm.

3. In a large skillet, render bacon. Cook until bacon is browned and crisped. Remove with a slotted spoon, drain on a paper towel. Set aside.

4. Whisk vinegar through garlic into the skillet. Cook 3-4 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

5. Combine spinach and dressing. Toss salad to coat spinach. Distribute spinach among plates. Top salads with potatoes, reserved bacon, pine nuts, and parmesan cheese. Serve immediately.

Recipe adapted from Southern Living.

Bakery-Style Mixed Berry Muffins

These muffins are just because.

Because sometimes you don't want a healthy muffin.

Because sometimes you don't want a muffin that tastes like wheat, barley, oats, or quinoa.

Because sometimes you just want a muffin that tastes like it came from Costco.

Am I right? I find it's near impossible to be "good" all the time. I mean, I like treats as much as the next person. And Costco's muffins are.the.bomb.com. I'm not advocating making muffins like these all the time, of course, but you should try them at least once. I used all-purpose flour instead of wheat, canola oil instead of applesauce, and a fair amount of sugar. Yes, I didn't lighten this recipe up one bit. Oh, the results!

The results are- I'm going to have to get these muffins out of the house! They are sooooo yummy. I filled the muffin cups right up to the top, so these muffins are tall and oversized. Take care not to over bake the muffins, they are so moist and flavorful if you yank them from the oven as soon a toothpick pulls out clean.

Happy Friday everyone! Did anyone else have completely weird weather yesterday? We've been under a deep freeze in our little NE corner of Kentucky, for almost the entire last month. Until yesterday. I took the boys out at 8 am, when it was 38º, wearing the whole shebang, of course. This entailed mud boots, leg warmers, pants, shirt, hoodie, coat, gloves, and hat. The next time we went out was 1 pm. The Weather Channel said it was 70º, but who can believe that when it has been in the single digits for a month? I stepped out into the garage in leggings, a long sleeved t-shirt, and FLIP-FLOPS. It was freezing in the garage. Harump, I grumbled to myself at the Weather Channel. Until I made it through the garage to outside, and felt... spring. It was warm. Balmy, I'd say. It felt weird. You'd think you'd enjoy a day like yesterday, but the atmosphere felt incredibly unstable all day. And sure enough,  we had resounding thunderstorms most of the night. 

Now, the local news is telling us to expect SNOW next week. This weather is making me crazy.

I hope everyone has a great weekend! And make these muffins, you won't regret it :)

Ingredients (makes 12 oversize standard muffins):

3 cups all-purpose flour

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

2 large eggs, room temp

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup milk, at room temp

1/2 cup canola oil

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups frozen raspberries and blueberries

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425º. Spray a standard muffin pan with cooking spray, set aside.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour through salt. Give it a quick whisk to blend.

3. In a separate large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until smooth and no lumps remain. Add milk through vanilla, whisk to combine.

4. Fold dry ingredients into wet. Do not over mix. You only want to fold the ingredients together until they are just combined. Vigorous mixing will result in tough muffins. 

5. Very carefully, fold berries into batter. Spoon batter into muffin pan, filling cups to the top. Bake in preheated oven at 425º for 5 minutes, then lower temperature in oven to 375º. Bake for another 11-15 minutes at 375º, or just until a toothpick comes out clean (mine went exactly 12 minutes after I turned the temperature down, however I do have a convection oven).

6. Remove muffins from oven. Cool in muffin pan 20 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack. Serve immediately or allow to cool completely before storage.

Recipe adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction

Linked to: Weekend Potluck

Chickpea Minestrone

Another day of this polar-vortex winter, another cozy bowl of soup :)

Yes, it's still cold here. Right now. However, it is supposed to be 55º today. Hopefully that melts the remainder of the snow on the ground and our lane. I'm officially done with the snow. As per normal, the weather looks to be cray-cray this week. The local news has been touting severe thunderstorm risk on Thursday, which is supposed to be 60º. Craziness, I tell you. While this week is going to be warm, last week was cold, cold, COLD.  In other words, soup weather.

I really liked this soup! It has just the right amount of spice. Just enough so you could feel a little heat, but not hot enough to hurt. In truth, I like any chunky soup that's mostly vegetables. Pasta doesn't hurt either. I used chicken broth to make my soup, but you could make this vegetarian by subbing vegetable broth. You could even make it vegan by omitting the cheese topping. The hubby isn't fond of chickpeas, so I was a little nervous to serve this to him. It turns out I didn't have to be nervous, he loved it. The soup is a good coverup for the taste of the chickpeas, making this a good soup if you have any chickpea-haters in your household.

Well, I'm off. I've got another busy day on hand. Gym, eye appointment, hard boiling eggs and making lunch burritos for the hubby, making dinner (SW Chopped Salad with Creamy Cilantro Dressing), clipping coupons from the weekend, and maybe squeezing in some reading time. I've got library books that need to go back in 2 days that I haven't finished. Eek! Looks like I'll be checking them out again :)

Happy Tuesday friends!

Ingredients (serves 6):

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 (15 oz) cans diced tomatoes, undrained
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth (substitute vegetable broth to make vegetarian)
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
4 oz. short pasta
1 (15 oz) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 (10 oz) package of fresh spinach
Garnish: fresh grated parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. When warm, add onion through garlic. Sauté 5-7 minutes, or until vegetables begin to soften. Add garlic to pan, sauté 1 minute.
2. Add tomatoes through crushed red pepper. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes.
3. While soup is simmering, cook pasta according to package directions. Drain, set aside, and keep warm.
4. Add chickpeas and spinach to pot. Heat for 1 minute, or until spinach wilts. Ladle soup into bowls, and top with cheese. Serve immediately.

Recipe adapted from Kitchen Daily

Linked to: Weekend Potluck

Easy Raspberry Jam

Occasionally, the craving for raspberry strikes in the dead of winter. In the dead of endless winter snowstorms even. Thank goodness for frozen raspberries is all I have to say. 

Add jam to the list of items I won't be purchasing anymore, along with salsa, applesauce, chicken broth, pizza dough, etc. It's so easy. I'm serious! Raspberries (and blackberries) lend their own pectin to the jam by form of their seeds, meaning there are only 3 ingredients in this jam. It took me 10 minutes to make, and it stays good for up to a month in the fridge. You could even take this to the next level, and can it. This recipe provided 2 small mason jars worth of jam. One jar will be consumed, uh, probably immediately, but I froze the second jar.  

Let me tell you how crazy my raspberry addiction is. It's pretty bad. I usually test to see if the jam is ready by putting a dab on a small dish, and then place the dish in the freezer. If the mixture gels after 1-2 minutes, the jam is ready. When I pulled my dish from the freezer to check it, it was indeed done. The jam also looked pretty good on the plate. So I licked it up. That's right, plate to face. I lapped it up. It's too good to waste even one drop. I might need help.

Tomorrow will be all about Valentines Day cookies! I made M&M Valentines Cookies yesterday, and they turned out amaze-balls. I'm glad I took pics of them right after they came out of the oven, because the hubby consumed quite a few upon returning home from work. He's a cookie monster :) As for today-

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for all!

Ingredients:

24 oz frozen raspberries, defrosted

3 cups sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring mixture to a rolling boil. Place a candy thermometer in the mixture. Cook until jam is 221º. Place a spoonful on a small plate, place in the freezer for 1-2 minutes. If mixture gels, the jam is ready. If not, cook 2-3 more minutes. 

2. Allow jam to cool completely before storage. Jam can be canned or frozen. Stays good in the fridge for up to 1 month in an airtight container. 

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart

Linked to: Weekend Potluck

For The Birds

Female cardinal at the feeder.

Nerdy confession time-

I really like bird-watching.

I mean,  I really, really like bird watching. They fascinate me. I could spend an afternoon in a chair by my French doors leading to the backyard, camera in hand, endlessly watching them fly from one tree to another. The hubby and I have acquired 2 bird feeders (and 1 one squirrel feeder that's now a woodpecker feeder) thus far, and I think it's just the beginning. I'm so excited to get some birdhouses in the spring to try and attract some nesting families. 

Are you snickering at me yet? Probably, but that's ok. I'm ok with my avian love. On that note, yes, I've taken lots of pictures of those flying, feathered creatures in my backyard. In the snow no less!

This is my squirrel feeder that now appears to be a woodpecker feeder. This is the female woodpecker at her claimed meal spot. She loves banging away on it.

This is Woody, the male woodpecker.. He's never far from the house, you can always here him when you go outside. He's the loudest woodpecker I've ever known.

A fat little bluejay.

The female woodpecker likes the other feeders as well.

The female cardinal guarding the feeder from what appears to be a finch (or chickadee? Don't know on that one).

Male cardinal by the re-claimed squirrel feeder.

I just love male cardinals.

Nuthatch at the feeder.

I found the female woodpecker's hiding spot!

She's a crafty one :)

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend! We've still got inches of snow on the ground (although not nearly as much my loved ones in Oregon who have received 13 inches of snow in the last couple of days!), which I'm not loving. Our private lane is packed hard with ice, making it hard to get out of the house. The roads are clear if we can get off our private lane, which takes some effort. There's also a chance of more snow in the forecast. I bet you can guess what we're doing today... That's right! Hunkering down and watching movies!

Are we the most exciting couple ever or what?

Happy Sunday friends!