Good coffee is essential!

Random Recipe: Carrot Ginger Soup

This is a fall favorite of mine!

And, it just so happens I have a big haul of carrots from my garden!! 

It's healthy, low cost, and very easy to make. It's a great side, or a meal in it's self. 

I found the recipe here, then put my own spin on it. 

Why don't you make it for your family tonight.

Ingredients:

3 cloves of garlic

1 large onion (coarsely chopped)

2 tbsp of butter

6-7 large carrots

2 tsp minced ginger

2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 cups chicken broth

4 cups water

Directions:

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat, and add garlic and onion.Stir often until soft, (approx 5 min). Meanwhile,  grate ginger, peel carrots and slice, then add all to onion mixture. Sprinkle with cumin, salt and nutmeg, stir in water and undiluted chicken broth and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer, stirring often, until vegetables are very tender, (approx 30 minutes).

When finished cooking, use an immersion blender (as seen in the picture) to puree soup.  I'm told you can also use a food processor, but then you have to let the soup cool, it's messy, it's more work... Just my opinion.  I'd suggest an immersion blender, but hey, it's your choice!! 

Serve and enjoy! :)

Jo

Friday Favorites October 18, 2013

A weekly round up of our favorite things

Favorite Find

Maybelline New York Color Show Nail Lacquer, Clearly Spotted

Favorite Laugh

This one from Someecards.com

Favorite Recipe

Crumbly Pumpkin Bread from Damndelicious.net

www.damndelicious.net

Favorite DIY

Halloween Wreath from SummerScraps.com

www.summerscraps.com

Favorite Song

This 1950's Doo Wop Cover of  'We can't stop' by Miley Cyrus

Hope  you enjoyed our Friday Faves this week!

XO

Jess

Thirsty Thursday Pumpkin Spice Chai Latte

These are the ingredients and measurements I used, please keep in mind it's just a guideline, feel free to deviate to your own personal tastes.

Ingredients:

1 cup boiled water

1tbsp loose leaf chai black tea

1 tsp pumpkin spice (+ a sprinkle more)

1/2 tsp of sugar

1/3 cup 2% milk

To start I bought some chai black tea leaves from my local bulk food store.  I steeped about a tbsp worth of loose leaves, and 1 tsp of pumpkin spice in my Tea infuser. Depending on your tastes, you may want to add a sweetener. What ever you would normally use, this would be the point to add it in.  

While the tea was steeping, I heated some milk (I used 2%) in a saucepan for frothing.  The ideal temperature for frothing milk is 140 degrees F.  I winged it though, because my thermometer battery was dead.  So for those in the same situation, keep the milk moving, stir or swirl it.  Look for bubbles forming on the bottom of the pan, as well as a sweet smell. That's the sugars in the milk that sweeten when they get to the right temperature.  Be sure not to boil or skald the milk though, as it will ruin it for the drink.  Heat slowly, I only turned the heat up to a medium low on the stove.

Once the milk is the right temperature, transfer the milk to container where it can be frothed, and then poured from. To froth I use a milk frother. I honestly don't know another way. It's quick and easy and inexpensive, but an amazingly handy little tool.  It's also a great little mixer for making chocolate milk for kids.  They think it's just as great :)

The next part is really self explanatory.  But I will say this.  Pour slowly, let the milk that is under the froth come out and it will mix with the tea like liquid velvet. Last thing is to spoon a little of the froth off the top.

Sprinkle some pumpkin spice over the top, and then enjoy, enjoy, and enjoy some more. :) 

Jo

One Word Wednesday. River

River

Tuesdays Time Out To... DIY Halloween Treats

It's that time of year again! Here's some of our favorite Halloween treats for kids and adults alike. Perfect for class parties, Halloween parties or even October Birthday parties. We've added a few healthier treats for those of us watching our waistlines or those of us with younger children.

Witch's Teeth

What you'll need:

Apples (any Kind)

Peanut Butter

Slivered Almonds

How To:

Slice and core Apples (toss with lemon juice to prevent browning if they're not being eaten right away)

Spread peanut butter on 1 side of each slice.

Wedge almond slivers into the apple slices, peanut butter sides facing each other to form "teeth".

Pumpkin Oreo's

What you'll need:
Oreo's (any kind you like)

White chocolate to melt

Orange food coloring

Black frosting

Green Apple flavor Twizzlers (optional)



How To:

Melt Chocolate according to package instructions, add food coloring to desired color is reached.
Dip Oreo's in chocolate using toothpicks until fully covered.
Place in refrigerator on a wax paper lined cookie sheet to harden.

Pipe black frosting pumpkin faces.

Add stem...you can also just pipe a stem on top as well.

Witches Hats and Broom Sticks

What you'll need:

Witches Hat
Cookies (any kind with chocolate bases is great)
Frosting
Food coloring of your choice (something bright is great)
Hershey Kisses
Witches Broom
Mini Reese Cups
small pretzel sticks

How To:

Witches Hat: Place a dollop of frosting in the center of the cookie (chocolate side up) and center Hershey's Kiss.
Broom Sticks: Simply poke a pretzel stick through the center of a mini Reese's Peanut butter cup

Marshmallow Frankenstein and Pumpkins

What you'll need:
Big Campfire marshmallows
Small pretzel Sticks
White chocolate to melt
Green and Orange food coloring
Edible eyes(or you can pipe them yourself)
Green apple Twizzlers (for the stems of the pumpkins)

How To:
Melt chocolate according to package directions.
Split it in two bowls. Add green coloring to one and orange to the other until you desired color is made.
Dip marshmallows in melted chocolate using toothpicks.
Place in refrigerator on a wax paper lined cookie sheet to harden.
Once hardened make hair for Frankenstein by piping black frosting. Take a toothpick and poke a hole for the pretzels sticks, insert pretzel sticks.
Pipe frosting to make faces for both the Pumpkins and Frankenstein's.

Count Dracula Cookies

What you'll need:
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Sliced Almonds
Mini Marshmallow
Any kind of a red frosting

How To:
Cut the cookie in half.
Add frosting to one side of each half.
Place marshmallows, Then layer the other cookie on top...add almonds for that extra Dracula touch!

Halloween Donuts

What you'll need:
Any of your favorite doughnuts
Colored frosting of your choice
edible eyes(or you can pipe them on yourself)
Vampire teeth

How To:
Dab Frosting to hold eyes in place
Push in Vampire teeth to hold in place.

Ghost Chocolate Strawberries

What you'll need:
Strawberries
White chocolate to melt
Black frosting for the face

How To:
Melt chocolate according to package directions.
Dip Strawberries in melted chocolate using toothpicks until covered.
Place in refrigerator on a wax paper lined cookie sheet to harden.
Pipe frosting to make faces

Nutter Butter Ghost Cookies

What you'll need:
Nutter Butter Cookies
White Chocolate to Melt
Black frosting for the face

How To:
Melt chocolate according to package directions.
Dip top half of cookies in melted chocolate.
Place in refrigerator on a wax paper lined cookie sheet to harden.
Pipe frosting to make faces.

Orange Pumpkins

What you'll need:
Oranges (I find clementine's work well)
Celery for the stem

How To:
Peel oranges
Cut celery to size for your oranges. Push the celery stem into the center of the orange. 

Halloween Pretzels

What you'll need:
Big Stick Pretzels
White chocolate to melt
Black frosting for face
Sprinkles or decorative sugars

How To:
Melt chocolate according to package directions.
Dip top half of pretzels in melted chocolate.
Gently roll pretzels in sugar or sprinkles while the chocolate is still soft.
Place in refrigerator on a wax paper lined cookie sheet to harden.
For Ghost Pretzels pipe faves on with back frosting after the chocolate has hardened

Pumpkin Platter

What you'll need:

Cucumber

Baby carrots

How To:
Cucumber - slice, cut half of it into triangles and half into half circles.
Arrange baby carrots into a circle (preferable on a round platter. Place triangle slices for eyes and nose, and half circles for mouth.

Spider Lollipops

What you'll need:
Tootsie Pops
Black pipe Cleaners
Google eyes (peel and stick are best, if not you'll need to glue them)

How To:
Wrap 4 pipe cleaners around lollipop and bend them to form legs.
Attach google eyes.

Skeleton Veggie Platter

What you'll need:
Bell Peppers
Cucumber
Mushrooms
Cauliflower
Cherry Tomatoes
Spinach
Baby carrots
Block olive
Veggie dip

How To:
This one has no exact directions. Just cut your veggies and arrange them how you'd like to form a skeleton! Some tips: Cucumbers make a great spine, bell peppers are perfect for ribs. Thin slices of olives work great for the eyes. The rest is up to you! Be creative.

Skull Cookies

What You'll Need:

This Sugar Cookie Recipe

This Cookie Frosting Recipe (white pink and black colored)

This Cookie Cutter (If you don't already have a skull and crossbones cookie cutter)

How To:

Make your cookies and frosting according to the recipe instructions. Make sure the cookies are completely cooled before frosting.

Frost the Cookies first entirely with white. Then pipe the black outline and faces, then if you want girly skulls add a pink bow. Let them cool completely until the frosting is hardened. Store in an airtight container.

Hope you enjoy these fun Halloween Treats! If you make them we'd love to see pictures.

XO

Jess

Menu Monday October 14, 2013

As the school year goes on, my days seem to be getting shorter and busier. The last thing I want to do is spend hours in the kitchen cooking and doing dishes. This week I'm making up our menu of one pot meals. They're quick and easy and leave very little to clean up.

Monday 

One-pan Pasta from MarthaStewart.com

Tuesday

Braised Brisket with Potatoes and Carrots From quickfoodrecipes.com

Wednesday

Tex-Mex Chicken Fajitas  from MjandHungryMan.com

Thursday

One Pot Chicken Risotto from sweetcsdesigns.com

Friday

Turkey and Spinach Quinoa Casserole from ifoodreal.com

Saturday

Spanish Chicken with Chorizo and Potatoes from pickyin.blogspot.com.au

Sunday

Skillet Baked Ziti from the-girl-who-ate-everything.com

See you next week for another Menu Monday Round up!

XO

Jess