Spicy Broccoli and Cheese Soup

It's starting to get cold out and that's my favorite time of the year. I love fall. I love the cold. And I love being able to make my broccoli and cheese soup.

This is super easy to make and super yummy to eat!

Ingredients Needed:

1 Chopped Yellow Onion
1 Clove of Garlic - Minced
1 Tablespoon of Earth Balance Butter (or whatever butter you would like)
3 Cups of Fat Free, Less Sodium Chicken Broth
1 (16 ounce) Bag of Broccoli Florets
2 1/2 Cups of Milk - I use Soy Milk
1/3 Cup All Purpose Flour
1/4 teaspoon Black Pepper
8 ounces 2% Milk Velveeta Cheese, cubed.
McCormicks Mesquite Seasoning (optional)

Ready to Cook?

Chop your yellow onion and mince your garlic. Heat a large sauce pan on medium-high heat. Add one tablespoon butter in sauce pan with onions and garlic. Saute for about 3 mins or until tender. Stir frequently to prevent sticking. After that, add chicken broth and broccoli, bring to a boil. Reduce to medium heat and cook for 10 mins.

Mix flour and milk in bowl, stirring until well blended. Once your broccoli has finished cooking for the 10 mins., add your milk/flour mixture and cook for another 5 mins or until slightly thick. Stir constantly or it will stick. Stir in your pepper. Add your cubed cheese and stir until melted. If you are using the McCormicks Mesquite Seasoning, add 1/2 - 1 package of seasoning, just depends on how spicy you want it. *This is optional, if you want your soup spicy.

Place one-third of the soup in a blender or food processor, and blend until smooth. Return pureed soup mixture to pan and stir together.

Allow to cool and then you are ready to eat. I hope you enjoy this lovely, yummy fall dish.

Fall Wreath Y'all

In the words of my son, "Oh My Lanta." I LOVE how this turned out and had so much fun doing it!

Materials Needed:

12" Green Box Style Metal Wreath Frame. - bought at Hobby Lobby
12" Styrofoam Extruded Wreath - bought at Hobby Lobby
Wooden Initial - We did D for our last name.
Yarn - whatever color you like, we did green.
Buttons & Flowers - optional 

I luckily went on the right day and got the orange burlap and the chevron burlap for 40% off. The tulle I already had at home, so that worked out perfectly.

Let Us Assemble:

I used some crafting wire to securely attach the styrofoam to the metal wreath.

I wrapped the green tulle around the first metal ring all the way around the metal wreath. I wrapped the orange burlap in between the first and second ring covering all of the styrofoam.

This was my finished product. And it just looked like it was missing something. SO, I went back to Hobby Lobby and picked up the initial D and some green yarn. I wrapped my D with the yarn, the corners at the top and bottom were a little tricky. It was left bare, so that's when I decided to add the buttons. It covered the spots that were missing yarn and added a little something extra. Luckily, I already had the buttons on hand. *confession: I am a hoarder of craft supplies.

I used the chevron burlap ribbon to hang my D. It was being a little tricky since it's wide ribbon, it was going to show one side chevron, one side brown. I couldn't have that, so I folded it in half and hot glued it together to keep it from coming undone. So I hung the D. Still, it seemed like it was missing something. So, I went back to my craft supplies and pulled out the flowers. I actually had made these into flower hair bows, but repurposed them for my new wreath! See, there are some perks to being a craft supply hoarder. Haha.

I just decided on the order I wanted to place my flowers and then hot glued them down. Eeek, how cute does that look?

So there you have it, my finished wreath. Such a fun craft to do and I now have the perfect fall wreath to hang every year.

Hope this gets your creative juices flowing and inspires you to create something special to hang on your door! :)

Halloween Care Package

So the hubs is stationed in Turkey right now and stuck in hotel room while he waits for a dorm room. So, the kiddo and I prepared his first care package. With it being October, we wanted to decorate it Halloween style.

We used craft paint to paint the inside. The kiddo decorated the one with all the stickers! It's the best one, in my opinion! ;)

We got a pretty big box to send him lots of goodies and necessities since he'll be in his hotel for about 2 months. Luckily, he has a refrigerator, microwave and kitchen sink. So here's what we sent him, and this is just a general idea. You can include whatever goodies you would like if sending a care package!

SEE! Lots of goodies. Microwavable foods, bowls, silverware, kitchen cloths and towels, snacks, breakfast food, toiletries etc. and what would a Halloween care package be without some chocolate thrown in there? :)

If you ask my husband, the best and his favorite item in the box was the Spiderman toothbrush. Our kiddo picked that out on his own because "Daddy will LOVE it!!!"

We had such a blast putting this package together and we look forward to the many many many more to come. Did I mention there will be many? 14 ish months to go, can't wait to see what we do next!

So if you are a military family, wife, girl, fiance or just a friend, hope this helps give you an idea of what you can do or send! Get those creative wheels spinning, these really are fun to decorate! :)

Sun-Catcher Fun

So I was browsing through Pinterest like I so often do and came across this Bead-dazzle me a Sun-Catcher at Clever Catastrophe. What a fun project to do with the kiddo.

So given it's the month of October, we made a Pumpkin themed sun-catcher and then the kiddo chose all the different beads for our second one.

Materials Needed:

Cake Pan - As noted in the tutorial I came across and I highly agree with this, any scratches in your pan will show up on your sun-catcher, the hubs said it adds character!
Metal Washers - I used these to leave a hole in my sun-catcher to make hanging easier.
Plastic Beads - Any color you want!

Let's Craft:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Arrange beads however you would like, if using pony beads like these, I placed flat with hole side up. I'm sure it would be okay if the beads were on their sides too....but I tend to be a perfectionist so this is how I did it!
*Please note, the melting plastic will produce an odor.

Like I said, arrange beads however you would like.

I used two metal washers per sun-catcher, double stacked them. Bake for 20-30 minutes, depending on your oven. So I would just check after 20 mins and go from there. After it's done baking allow beads to cool and then just pop them out of the pan. Now, on our second sun-catcher I think I left it in the pan to cool for longer than I should have....it was difficult to get out of the pan. Popped a few beads out while trying to remove it, but like the hubs says, it adds character! I used grosgrain ribbon to hang them.

And done! How cute are those? And what I love about this craft...the possibilities are endless. I do believe we will make more for each holiday! Hope you enjoy this craft as much as the kiddo and I did! :)

Ground Turkey and Rice Casserole

My newest creation, Ground Turkey and Rice Casserole. I usually make Chicken and Rice Casserole, but wanted to change things up. I've mentioned before and probably will mention it many more times....the thing I love about recipes is that you can always change things up and make it your own. The possibilities are endless when it comes to cooking and that's what I love.

Ingredients Needed:
2 Cups of Minute Rice (uncooked)
1 Cup of Water
2 Cans of Broccoli Cheese Condensed Soup
1 Can of Mild Diced Tomatoes and Chilies
1 Small Yellow Onion
1 Jumbo Garlic (optional)
1 lb Ground Turkey
Bacon - Cut into bite size pieces (as many slices as you would like)
1 Package of McCormick Mesquite Seasoning

Let's Get to Cooking:
Preheat over to 350 degrees.

First you're going to cook your bacon, using as many pieces as you want. I used about 8 pieces. While your bacon is cooking, chop your onion, peel and mince your garlic - I use a Food Chopper to mince the garlic. If you aren't sure how to peel your garlic, this is a great tutorial to show you how. Once my bacon was done cooking, I sauteed the onion and garlic in the yumminess the bacon left behind. After a few minutes, add your turkey meat.

While your turkey is cooking, mix together in your casserole dish (I use a glass 14 x 9.5) your 2 Cups of Rice, 1 Cup of Water, 2 Cans of Broccoli and Cheese Condensed Soup, 1 Can of Mild Diced Tomatoes and Chilies, Bite Size Pieces of Bacon and McCormick Mesquite Seasoning. With the seasoning, use as little or as much as you would like. It just depends on how spicy you would like it. Once your turkey/onion/garlic is done cooking, add to the mixture in your casserole dish and mix together.

Bake for 30-45 minutes.

I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I did. The hubs is stationed in Turkey right now, so he'll have to try it on his mid tour! :)

Gluten Free/Dairy Free Granola

My son is on a gluten free/dairy free diet and I'm always on the hunt for yummy recipes. I came across this recipe on simplygluten-free. It's typical of me to find a new recipe to try and really just use it as a guideline. I always change it up. So here's my version....super yummy too! :)

Ingredients Needed:
3/4 cup Honey Roasted Peanut Butter
1/2 cup Earth Balance Butter (melted)
1 Organic Banana - peeled and mashed
1 tablespoon Pure Vanilla Extract 
1/2 cup Organic Coconut Sugar
1/2 cup Dairy Free Chocolate Chunks/Chips
1 cup of Currants (or any other dried fruit)
2 1/2 cups Gluten Free Quick Cooking Oats (I use The Red Mill brand)

The peanut butter we use is made right there in the store at Earth Fare, oh how I will miss that store when we move from Alabama to Arkansas.

Let's Make Granola:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In large mixing bowl mix your honey roasted peanut butter (or whatever kind you use), peel and mash your banana, melted butter, vanilla extract and coconut sugar. Mix well. Then add your chocolate chunks/chips and dried fruit. Mix well. Finally add your gluten free quick oats and mix well.

Spray an 8x8 baking dish (I use a glass dish) with non-stick cooking spray. Pour into dish and press firmly and evenly. I like to push some chocolate chips into the top of the granola before placing in the oven, to give it some extra chocolate! :)

Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool completely. I store in the refrigerator, which will keep for at least a week.

This is super yummy with vanilla coconut milk yogurt, I use the So Delicious brand.

I hope you and your family enjoy this super yummy Gluten Free/Dairy Free Granola recipe as much as my family does! :)

Outdoor Halloween Decor

It's October and it's time to put out our Halloween Decor. This is something really fun and easy to make and inexpensive. My husband, son and I made this last year and it's one of my favorite decorations we have!

We went to Lowe's and got a 2x4. These are the measurements we had them cut.
Base (bottom) board: 29 1/2"
Pumpkin: 8"
Mummy: 10"
Frankenstein: 18"
Black Cat: 9"
Ghost: 8"

We already had craft paint on hand, but you can pick some up from Walmart or Hobby Lobby. Hobby Lobby will have a bigger selection. We used orange, green, black, lime green, gold and white. For our base board we picked up a can of webbing spray from Hobby Lobby, it only cost $4.99. It was a last minute idea that I thought would look cute. :)

You can obviously put them in any order you would like, this is just the order we chose. We did nail them to the board and did leave one nail sticking out further from the rest to help is stay on the ground. For the Mummy, we picked up a ACE Brand Self-Adhering Elastic Bandage. Once everything is painted, dried and put together we sprayed with clear sealer to help keep the paint safe!

This was such a fun family project and is such a cute decoration. We really really enjoyed making these, I hope your family does too! :)

If you are looking for another fun Halloween craft idea, check out  the Outdoor Halloween Ghost Decoration blog entry.

Outdoor Halloween Ghost Decoration

This is so so super easy and just a fun little craft to do with the family. Also, super inexpensive, which is always good! What I love about this is you can make more than just ghost. You could make pumpkins, black cats, mummy's or Frankenstein's.

We only made 4, but you can obviously make more. We picked a 4x4 from Lowe's, there machine couldn't cut it (weird, huh?), so the hubs picked up a saw while we were there too. Since we were making this a fun family craft we ended up hand painting these, obviously spray paint would be faster. And then we used black craft paint, that you can pick up at Hobby Lobby, to paint the face. And we just gave them different expressions. We did hammer a nail on the bottoms, or you could do a large screw, so we could push it into the ground and it would stay standing!

So you can do whatever measurements you want, I didn't want them all the same size. So these are the measurements we went with.
15"
20"
21"
17"

This really was a fun family craft that we enjoyed so much, hope your family enjoys it too!
If you are looking for another fun Halloween Decor craft to do check out the Outdoor Halloween Decor blog entry!