Cream Corn Potato Soup...low cal!

One word: easy and delicious. Okay, that was two.  This soup was easy for a couple reasons.  I actually took my moms advice and had all the ingredients ready before hand so I just had to throw 'em all in the pan. Why didn't I do this before? I chopped the onion and potato and measured out the rest of the ingredients, too. I have a ton of this soup left over, but I figure it will get better with time seeing as it has a ton of spices that will soak into the potatoes and such.  Here is the printable version.  It is also called corn chowder.  


1 1/2 teaspoons canola oil
2 large onions, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 red bell pepper, diced- I added yellow and orange for color.  I would add more spice, possibly
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
3 1/2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme, or 1 teaspoon dried
1 bay leaf
2 cups frozen corn kernels
1 potato, peeled and diced
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 12-ounce can nonfat evaporated milk
Salt & freshly ground pepper, to taste
Pinch cayenne pepper
You can add some 


 Heat oil in a large heavy saucepan over low heat. Add onions and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes. Add celery, bell pepper, garlic and cumin; cook, stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes. Add broth, thyme and bay leaf and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Add corn and potatoes, return to a simmer and cook until all the vegetables are tender, 5 to 10 minutes. Place cornstarch in a small bowl, slowly add evaporated milk, stirring until smooth. Stir into the soup and return to a simmer. Cook, stirring, until thickened, about 2 minutes. Discard the bay leaf. Season with salt, pepper and cayenne.

Let's be honest. I didn't follow any of the directions for boiling, covering, etc. I like spice, so I added cayenne and pepper to the end soup.  It will be really good, though, for cold nights to come! If you are a fan of the corn cream soup at Chili's (I FREAKING LOVE THAT SOUP), it  has more calories but I do hope to make it soon and post! 

A knock off of Emeril Lagasse Pasta

Mom's best friend, Melissa Beatty, is the best cook. And the best acupuncturist.  If you've never tried acupuncture and you have headaches, terrible migraines or just endless pain, you should really look into it.  It does NOT hurt. In other news....Melissa made this great pasta one night for a dinner party. IT IS NOM NOM. We had a little dinner get together on Saturday with the Katie's. Or as Mom likes to call them...Katie 1 and Katie 2.  This is labeled an "easy" recipe...which it isn't difficult, it's just not easy. Here it goes...

This is the printable version :) Pasta Recipe!

The recipe is pretty much like Emeril Lagasse's Crawfish and Cream over pasta dish. But with some changes- like chicken instead of crawfish. Don't get me wrong, shrimp or crawfish would be excellent with this.  The biggest ingredient in this whole thing is Emeril's essence which you can probably buy pre-made, but I made it with the below spices.  The seasoning mix is also referred to as bayou blast.  

Emeril's essence recipe:

• 2.5 T paprika
•  2 T salt
• 2 T garlic powder
• 1 T black pepper
• 1 T onion powder
•  1 T cayenne pepper
• 1 T dried oregano 
• 1 T dried thyme 

For the dish, you will need: 

• 1 lb chicken
• 1 lb fettuccine
• 2 T olive oil
• 6 T butter
• 1 cup chopped yellow onion- I highly recommend getting the already chopped onions- saves time and tears. :) 
• 2 T minced garline
• 2 t emeril essence- recipe above
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/4 t cayenne 
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream 
• 1 T lemon juice

First, put about two T butter 2 T oil in a pan and put stove on medium.   Put about 1/4 cup or more (just a heaping amount) into a bowl and layer the chicken with the emeril's essence seasoning.  Then put the chicken breasts into the pan, cook until done.  It's a personal decision for how you want the chicken to look- I like mine a medium brown. Put the chicken aside.  Cook pasta in large pot of boiling water until al dente for about 8 minutes. Drain and reserve 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid. Return pasta to the pot and toss the olive oil and the cooking liquid into the pot.  Cover to keep warm and set aside.  In a large pan- I used my cast iron skillet and it worked perfectly.  Melt the butter over medium high heat.  Add onions, and cook for about 6 minutes.  Add the 2 t of emeril essence, garlic, salt and cayenne, cook and stir for 1 minute. Add the wine and cook until the wine is evaporated.  Add the cream and lemon juice and cook for about 3 minutes. Reduce heat to low and let sit for another 5 mintes, stirring occasionally.  Add the sauce to the pasta. Stir so sauce is covering noodles.  Now, add chicken.  I just cut my cooked chicken into thin strips.  Toss it and you're good to go! 

The spices to make Emeri's Essence 

The goods. 

Once you make the seasoning, you lightly coat the chicken with the seasoning then put it in a skillet.  

Seeing as how you only need 1/4 cup of white wine, this bota box of chardonnay works well. 

NOM! WINNER! 

Schuett gave it a thumbs up! Find her funny blog here!

Great recipe turned bad, then good, then great.

Chex mix is the perfect snack for Christmas time. I've never actually made this dish, but I hear about people making it, then giving it as gifts. I found this recipe for Chex Mix in the crockpot.  (I love this woman's blog- she did a meal a day in the crock pot for a year.)  Yet, I forgot the whole timer aspect of the recipe.  Thus, I got burnt chex mix. Which, by the way, blows.  And makes your apartment smell heinous.  

Scary stuff in the making. 

But, I kept trucking.  I knew I wanted to make some Chex Mix for my cousin, Brandon, for Christmas. He is overseas serving in the military.  Here's when he was about to go on leave last Spring. He looks sooo much like a Barker.

Ain't we cute? Maddie's eyes are sooo blue here!

Back to the terrible turnout of the Chex mix. Welp, I made it again. The regular way- with the stove and some yum yum ingredients.  

Yummmyyy!

Definitely made the apartment smell delicious. 

Wishing I had two ovens today.  

The three boxes I sent Brandon!
Fudge, Toffee and pretzel Cookies and chex mix! 

I put in about...

3 cups of rice chex cereal, 1/2 cup of salted peanuts, 1/2 not salted nuts, 1 cup of classic pretzels, 1 cup of sticks pretzels, 6 T butter, 2 T Worcestershire sauce, 1.5 t seasoned salt - I used Lawrys, 1.5 t onion powder.  

Heat oven to 250. In large bow, mix dry ingredients (nuts, cereal, peanuts). In ungreased pan, melt butter in oven.  Stir in seasonings.  Put dry mix into pan and stir all ingredients together until the pretzels, peanuts and cereal is coated.  Bake for an hour, stirring occasionally.  The chex mix recipe calls for corn and wheat chex...I chose only rice. Turned out great! 

 I will be posting the recipe for the toffe & pretzel peanut butter cookies soon.  I used the real simple recipe...

Green-er purple monster

I tried this smoothie idea from "Sing for Your Supper" blog, which I highly highly recommend. She describes her smoothie as green that turned brown from the mixture of colors.  

Mine turned purple....go figure.  It's a great way to get your veggie in the morning! Love that about this smoothie.  When my honey came out of the jar, it made the sounds like the aliens on "Signs."  I can't write it in words what it sounded like..but I imagine "kajjhfjjjss...." 

Green Monster Smoothie, Sing for Your Supper recipe (my variations added) 

• 1 banana, roughly chopped - I had old ones that I had frozen. Worked fine.
• 4 or 5 strawberries
• 1/2 cup fresh blueberries
• 1 small peach, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 heaping cup (or more) fresh spinach leaves, thoroughly rinsed. Add more!
• splash vanilla soy milk - I don't like soy (or at least I don't think I do..so I drink Almond milk. It worked great.)
• 1 tablespoon Greek yogurt
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 1/2 cup crushed ice

The goods, all in one.  As gross as it sounds, add more spinach than you want.
It's your veggie in a smoothie! 

One of the many great ready to serve things in freezer section.  

So, this is my mom's blender.
You work with what you have- I highly recommend a smoothie maker, though.  
Guess when it was created. '83? 

First, I am in love with this yogurt. It isn't as expensive as the other greek yogurts.
Plus, who can resist that commercial with Uncle Jesse from Full House aka John Stamos.

So many options..

Note: If you see the spinach isn't blending with the rest, do NOT put your fork in the blender.  

The last of my honey from the farmers market. 

Almost done.

Final product. 

Cooking, my new passion

Living alone has so many perks. It also has its downs. One of which occurs in the kitchen.  It is so hard to cook for one person! All the single ladies living alone out there hear me. For instance, this weekend at the farmers market I only wanted one cucumber & one tomato because if I get a whole basket full, the veggies go bad- and go bad quick.  The sweet farmers took pity on the single girl living alone and gave them to me for free, but I couldn't do that so I gave them the change I did have.   


Although I definitely have the junk in the trunk to prove I never go hungry, it is hard to consume a gallon of milk, a whole bag of potatoes, an entire salad mix...the list goes on and on.  I'm not complaining, I love love love   living on my own.  I especially love cooking in my sweet little kitchen.  I made some nutella cookies the other day from this blog.  So stinkin' yummy.  I took them to UATV and was critical of my dessert, but soon realized the cookies were delicious.  However, I ate the leftovers on top of ice cream (sinful) and stepped on the scale.  Cringed. I would choose chocolate over a run any day. 

*For those that don't know what nutella is...run to the peanut butter aisle and shove your head in a jar

I used a knife to mix in the nutella, but you can use any sharp object: toothpick, husk teeth.  

First two rows are batter mixed with nutella.

Licked it clean!

Vanilla: I've started adding it to pancakes.
 It is a totally essential ingredient to have in your spice cabinet.  

In other news....Madalyn's wedding is a month away.  Pictures from her bachelorette party are soon to come in the next post!