Soup warms the heart & soul

I had chicken breasts from the freezer that needed to be used, so I decided tonight was soup night in this house!  I like to start with a pre-mix soup sometimes to save time on busy nights.  Plus Ryan is a HUGE fan of any kind of soup... brownie points!! :)

Some of my favorite pre-mix soups are "Bear Creek", and I usually purchase them at Fleet Farm of all places!  Tonight I used their Creamy Wild Rice soup mix, 8 cups water, 1/2 lb chicken breasts (cooked ahead of time & cut into 1 in. pieces), and 2 cans of mushroom pieces.  Just follow the directions on the back of the soup mix!  It's such an easy and good soup to enjoy.

 

The Biggest Loser is at weigh in... time to pay attention, it's my favorite part of the show!!

Homemade Applesauce

I know, two posts, back-to-back... but this one is quite exciting!  For the first time ever, I got to experience making homemade applesauce :)  It was a very simple and easy process.  My dad invited me over to make it at his house, so this afternoon, Colby & I headed over and got to work.

I wish I would have gotten a picture of the FULL BOX of apples, but I didn't think about it until there were only a few left in the box.  But we cut all the bad parts off the apples and let them soak. 

From there, my dad transferred the apples to the stove.  He allowed them to heat up and get soft, while mashing them periodically. 

After they were good and soft, they headed into the "grinder" machine... where we would turn the crank and watch the applesauce fall into the bowl.  The machine would separate the peels from the good apple parts. 

We ended up canning 12 jars of sauce! 

I have six at home with me... which means that it will be a wonderful applesauce winter :)  And my favorite part is that the sauce is pink!

Question: How do you like your applesauce?

-My favorite is adding cinnamon to it and warming a bowl up in the microwave before eating!

A weekend full of new recipes...

Every year my family comes together to celebrate Fall & Halloween.  We spend one last weekend together at my parents summer cottage, spend time with family & go through the annual haunted house.  This year, I used it as a weekend to showcase some new recipes I found through blogs.  Well... the results were amazing!  Everyone loved the recipes :)

Let's start with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread... found at Lick the Bowl Good.  Mine didn't turn out exactly like the pictures looked, but it was still loved by all!!

Then I set out to make a pasta salad to share at one of our meals.  I very much enjoy using the Kraft recipes website, so I started searching around, and found Pizza Pasta Salad.  I adjusted this recipe by

1) Using an entire package of pepperoni (cutting them in quarters)
2) Skipped the fresh basil and added McCormick Italian Seasoning instead (about 1 tsp).
3) Used a pint of cherry tomatoes cut in half rather than whole tomatoes
4) Added extra dressing, as I felt it was too dry with only a 1/2 cup.

Results:  Everyone loved this one too!!

Then it was dessert time... I found another great recipe at Lick the Bowl Good, S'more Bars!  SO awesome, and so easy :)

GIANT HERSHEY BARS :)

Marshmallow Cream

Final graham layer

The only change I made to this recipe, is instead of getting regular or king size candy bars, I went right for the "giant" as they were on sale at Target (bought 2), and they fit perfectly side by side in the 8x8 pan.  Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take a "final product" picture, as we were up north and I didn't have my camera on me the whole time.  But take my word they were good, and I was asked for the recipe three times.

Combating the Cookies

So even though I love to bake and.... EAT all kinds of sweet treats, I have to combat the calories somehow!  I have lost 20lbs since June, and would like to continue to lose more.  That means running, spinning & strength training is in order.  I am currently running 5k & 10k races, but I have a goal of running a half marathon in May 2012!

Here is me at the end of my last 5k, in September, the race I had a personal record at (34:53)!!  P.S. I don't normally look like I am dying, they caught me at a "catching my breath moment at the finish line".

I don't have excellent metabolism, so I must watch what I eat and workout consistently to see results... and to maintain my weight loss.  It also helps that I have Colby to walk daily... and trust me, he lets me know if he didn't get walked on any given day!  Meet Colby, the fearless ruler & occasional cookie-sneaker of the house... 

Each week, on Sunday,  I will provide a round-up of my daily workouts.

Typically I try to make healthy versions of my recipes at home, but occasionally you just want the real thing!  Some typical substitutions for me include using egg beaters, natural applesauce, whole wheat flour & cutting the sugar amounts in recipes.  Sometimes making substitutions comes with challenges, like taste, texture and shelf-life.  It can take some trial and error to get it right!!

One day, as my dreams become reality, I would like to be able to offer healthy baked-good options as well as the original!

My Favorite....

Happy Baking Sunday!  Watching the Packer game today, I got the urge to make chocolate chip cookies... I have always been interested in learning more about the history of chocolate chip cookies, why there are so many variations of recipes and what the taste and texture differences are between using butter or shortening.

Let's start with the history.  Apparently the history of the chocolate chip cookie is a widely searched topic! But here is what I learned...

"The first chocolate chip cookies was invented in 1937 by Ruth Graves Wakefield (1905-1977), of Whitman, Massachusetts, who ran the Toll House Restaurant. The Toll House Restaurant site was once a real toll house built in 1709, where stage coach passengers ate a meal while horses were changed and a toll was taken for use of the highway between Boston and New Bedford, a prosperous whaling town. The Wakefields sold the restaurant in 1966. It burned down on New Year's Eve in 1984.

One of Ruth's favorite recipes was an old recipe for "Butter Drop Do" cookies that dated back to colonial times. The recipe called for the use of baker's chocolate. One day Ruth found herself without a needed ingredient. Having a bar of semisweet chocolate on hand, she chopped it into pieces and stirred the chunks of chocolate into the cookie dough. She assumed that the chocolate would melt and spread throughout each cookie. Instead the chocolate bits held their shape and created a sensation. She called her new creation the Toll House Crunch Cookies. The Toll House Crunch Cookies became very popular with guests at the inn, and soon her recipe was published in a Boston newspaper, as well as other papers in the New England area. Word of the cookie spread and it became popular." Source

Today there are so many different kinds of chocolate chips than just Nestle Toll House, but those are still my favorite semi-sweet chips to use! I usually prefer cookies made with shortening rather than butter because of their dense look and taste. Sometimes cookies made with butter come out with a flatter appearance and can be greasy.  After researching why that is... I found out that cookies made with shortening hold their shape more because shortening melts at a higher temperature.  When you use butter, the cookies tend to spread out more because butter melts much quicker, and doesn't give the rest of hte cookie time to set.

Today I decided to use the “Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies” Recipe found on the Crisco website! These cookies never fail me. Just look at the batter...

Ready for the Oven....

Baking Away...

And ready to eat, all warm and gooey out of the oven :)

The other reason I like this recipe is because it's a smaller recipe, and only calls for 1 cup of chocolate chips, as opposed to some recipes which call for the entire bag... I love chocolate, but sometimes too much of a good thing is bad :)