Dinner

Lighter Creamy Chicken & Wild Rice Soup

~ atastytrip ~ 1 Comment

Happy Weekend! Let me preface this post by stating that any obvious typos can be attributed to my fingers having gone completely numb. Robert and I are going on Day 4 of no heat and it has been dipping down into the high 30’s around here. Brrr. After the first missed appointment, the maintenance man finally showed up last night and was unable to find the issue. He wisely advised that we “bundle up and cuddle close” to make it through the night and promised to come back today. Considering Robert and I had a real argument last night about who got to sleep next to Renly the live heater, we better hope he follows through!

Soup Veggies Wild Rice

There are really only a few food items that will suffice for dinner when you are residing in an igloo. Hot, plentiful and warm-you-up-from-the-inside-out are my personal criteria and soup fits the bill. I love soup of all kinds. It’s versatile, healthy, can be made out of literally almost anything you have on hand and most of the time fairly inexpensive. This particular soup recipe came from my mother who clipped it from the weekend section of the local paper. I have since adapted it slightly and made it many times over for friends, family and batch lunches. It is delicious, re-heats perfectly and unlike some soups, filling enough to be a meal on it’s own, even for Robert! If you are really hungry or feeding a crowd, a gooey grilled cheese or crusty bread to dip would be the perfect accompaniment.

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Cheesy Green Chile Chicken and Cauliflower Rice Casserole

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Ok so that recipe title is kind of a mouthful, right? I have subsequently added “recipe naming” to my list of things to work on. You’re welcome in advance. Another thing I’d like to work on, couponing. Extreme couponing = fascinating and bewildering. How people are able to buy 67 tubes of toothpaste, 35 packages of ramen and 10 jars of peanut butter and pay negative seventeen cents is beyond me. I can’t even remember to use my $5 off a purchase of $50 at Publix. I have literally had the same coupon floating around in my purse for 6 months and I only think about using it after I am in my car headed home from the grocery store. Saving money is apparently not really my thing.

I hope everyone had a happy Veterans Day! I am very thankful to all the men and women who have served and continue to serve our great country. I was also very thankful to have a day off from work because I spent it…..drumroll please……sick in bed. Womp. Not even a little bit as exciting or productive as my previous Tuesday off. Instead of checking a million things off of my to-do list, I spent most of the day in bed with Renly. Tough life right?

 Renly

Despite the stuffy nose and headache part, it was actually nice to spend the day resting. I am always so quick to fill up “free time” that I usually forget the whole point of having a day off, to re-charge. Don’t get me wrong, it’s glorious to get things done (especially mid-week) but sometimes we really just need to put the brakes on. I’ve always thought getting a cold was your body’s way of telling you to slow down. Well that or my body’s way of telling me to stop letting the preschoolers I work with sneeze all over me.

So what I had hoped would be another busy Tuesday turned into a day of rest and puppy cuddles, and it was just what I needed. Thank you for slowing me down Veterans and sneezing preschoolers Smile

Another plus to a day at home (even a sick one) is that I had time to prepare a more prep intensive meal than usual. Although I say prep intensive, it was really pretty easy and only involved one extra appliance so don’t click away just yet! I found this yummy looking recipe on one of my favorite food blogs a few weeks ago. Yum right? I’m sure the recipe is absolutely delicious as is (all of hers are!) but I am weird and sometimes like to see how many non-vegetables I can replace with vegetables. Just normal things you would replace with vegetables like pasta, rice, alfredo sauce. What? Doesn’t everyone make alfredo sauce with cauliflower instead of cheese and cream? No? Ok, well just go with it. It may sound crazy, but it tastes delicious. And trust me, if my cheeseburger loving husband actually eats and likes these hidden veggie dishes then there’s a good chance you will too.

cauliflower cauliflower rice

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A Hearty Halloween Treat: Sweet Heat Beef and Bean Chili

~ atastytrip ~ Leave a comment

Happy Halloween! Thanksgiving and Christmas will always be my favorite holidays, but Halloween holds a special place in my heart. Growing up, Halloween was always a time spent with friends; fall festivals, costume parties, scary movies, trick or treating, and of course my dad carting my friends and I to haunted houses so we could scream our heads off and have an excuse to hold hands with the boys we liked. Not so sure my dad had knowledge of the hand holding, or maybe he just preferred not to acknowledge it Smile

Renly the Lion                                                    Renly the cowardly lion

 *side note* I do remember one particular year that my dad had to go into the haunted house to rescue one of my girlfriends who had decided that it was WAY too scary and had sat down on the floor crying hysterically and refused to budge. I’m not sure who was more traumatized, my friend, my dad who had to carry a 13-year-old cowgirl out or the poor “monsters” at the haunted house who tried (unsuccessfully) to help. That year wasn’t so fun but at least we can laugh about it now! Or at least I can, she and my dad may not find it so humorous.

 Ghost                                               My favorite porch decoration

This year, Robert and I are going to spend Halloween with our family at his sister’s house. My sister-in-law is a great hostess and can always be counted on for a fun holiday party. This year she is making chili for a big family style dinner before we take the kids trick or treating. She has asked me to bring cornbread which I quickly agreed to before realizing that I’ve never actually made cornbread before. Whoops. There are going to be about 50 people at her house so the pressure is on. I’ve found a recipe that I want to tweak slightly and attempt….keep your fingers crossed for me! Taste testing a brand new recipe on 50 mostly strangers isn’t intimidating AT ALL!

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