I made up this Chicken Taco Soup recipe the other day. It made a lot and was very easy to make. Feel free to add other spices or vegetables or whatever to it. I'm sure it will be good, especially once you add the cheese and tortilla chips.
Easy Chicken Taco Soup
3 chicken breasts
oil, salt and pepper
1 carton of chicken broth (32 oz I think)
1 large can of diced tomatoes (or 2 normal sized cans)
1 can of rotel (tomatoes with green chillies)
1 can of corn (drained)
1 small can of tomato sauce
1 can of black beans (drained and rinsed)
1 package of taco seasoning
water
toppings-shredded cheese (I like pepper jack), sour cream, hot sauce, crushed tortilla chips
-Cook the chicken in a little bit of oil in the bottom of a big pan or dutch oven. Season with salt and pepper. Remove the chicken and shred it.
-Add everything else to the same pan and then add the chicken back in.
-Add a couple cans of water depending on how thick you want the soup to be.
-Let simmer for awhile (I let it cook for about an hour).
-Serve with the toppings.
I made some burnt grilled cheeses to go with this. I suck at making grilled cheese but my husband is really good at it so we've made that his specialty in the kitchen from now on.
PS-Obviously don't make this if you are currently in one of the states that having record breaking temperatures this week. However it's been rainy and cooler here so it worked for me.
You should probably make this tonight since there's so many tv shows on. You don't want to be making something hard while you are trying to watch 8 tv shows at the same time. Or maybe that's just me.
I was going to make this a Wordless Wednesday but I thought my Honda Accord deserved a few words. Happy 100,000 miles to my Honda Accord!
We met in college and have survived moving to Maryland and back together. We have only hit one parked car and one parking deck post. A few things have hit us including a bunch of acorns and a couple other cars but after 11 years we are still holding strong together.
I recently thought about selling my Honda Accord. However I took it back when I had to get my seat belt replaced and I found out I didn't have to pay for it because it was covered under some warranty. It was then that I decided to keep this car forever.
Well maybe.
Has anyone else had the same car for a very long time?
"Dad, look how fast I can run" was my favorite line from How I Met Your Mother last night, but this post has nothing to do with that. So...onward.
I'm just going to go ahead and put it out there. I have a craft supply buying problem. I sort of thought I had this problem but it became very apparent once I decided to clean my craft room this weekend. (Also a lot of the things I make are not as great as I think they are at the time.)
Here are a few of the many things I found in my craft room....
A bag of buttons (OK well I made the bag of button with all the buttons I found). Does anyone else have this many buttons? This stems from my time of trying to make everything with buttons. Button picture frames, button candle holders, button earrings. I guess I'm just not that in to buttons anymore. And just so you know I don't have a sewing machine or sew (except for like once) so these buttons were not intended for that purpose.
Here is my box of random different types of paper.
Then there are a bunch of things I decorated with glue and tissues paper such as Christmas ornaments and glass candle holders.
There's the flip flops and solid colored T-shirts I bought at Michael's. I don't think I was going to decorate them with buttons but I can't be sure.
I really had high hopes for the wooden H and a wooden E. Apparently I was going to make something for Hobie as those are his initials. I'm pretty sure I was going to stick buttons on them.
Paint. I now have a paint bag featuring water colors, puffy paint, fabric paint, acrylic paint, glass paint, paint pens, etc.
Popsicle sticks.
Flower Pots. (One of them was actually painted but it did not look good)
Soooo many beads, all around, unorganized.
And a bunch of old earrings I have made which I now deem ugly.
But the spare bedroom looks more like a spare bedroom now and less like Michael's exploded in there. So that's good.
Someone please tell Michael's to stop sending me weekly coupons and flyers. How am I ever going to get through this addiction? (J/K, I love you Michael's)
What should I do with my wooden 'H'?
Anyone have good ideas for decorating those flip flops?
Good news. Coming up soon I'll be doing another product review for CSN Stores. If you forgot from my last review, CSN Stores sales everything from kitchen items, to shoes, to baby items, to dining sets. So what should I review this time? I have some ideas but I'm still thinking about it. I'll let you know.
Speaking of dining sets, this is my dining room table. Last week I started to feel like my life was taken over by TV so I wanted to prove to you that I do more than just watch TV all the time. So here is my dining room table aka my current craft table.
So this weekend I did the following non TV related things....
1-I made a bunch of wine charm wedding favors on my dining room table/craft table.
2-I attempted to clean my craft room/spare bedroom.
3-I finished reading Harry Potter 7 again. The last time I read it I stayed up until like 4 in the morning reading it so I could get to the end. This time I payed more attention. It is a wonderful tale of bravery and friendship and I recommend it to everyone.
4-I went out to dinner with some friends.
5-My dinner inspired me to make this salad. Now some of you will not like this because it is a sweet salad. But I loved it. My version is as follows and it's loosely based on the version I had at the restaurant.
Harvest Popeye Summer Fall Salad
-1 apple
-1 tablespoon brown sugar
-1 bag of baby spinach
-3/4 cup of craisins (or any dried cranberries)
-3/4 cup granola
-Fresh blue cheese
-Raspberry Vinaigrette Salad Dressing (I used Annie's)
Cut the apple in to small pieces and cook for five minutes with brown sugar on medium heat on the stove. Then let this cool. Toss everything else together and add apples. Granola is good in salad. I just learned that.
So that was my weekend. And my craft room/spare bedroom looks much better but I can't lie. I listened/watched like 4 old episodes of Gilmore Girls while I was cleaning. So much for no TV (I mean come on. It rained all day on Sunday, what was I supposed to do? Go Outside? I don't think so.)
Here is my wrap up on all the season premiers this week that I watched. If you hate tv or didn't watch any of them this probably won't interest you at all. But if you did watch them, then give me your thoughts or favorite quotes or whatever on them. Or tell me what I should have watched instead.
How I Met Your Mother-Ok, so the whole time this was on my tv, the voices were slightly unaligned with the characters mouths which was really annoying. But anyways besides that I thought it was good. I loved dirty Robin (who eats hair Cheetos). I was really expecting to find out whose wedding that was so that was kind of a let down. Here's hoping for a revamped Robarney!
The Event-Supposedly this show is the "the love child of 24 and Lost". I'm hoping for that. It was mostly just confusing but definitely intriguing. I will keep watching and I've heard we get a lot of answers in episode 2. Also it made me miss Gilmore Girls (Luke without a baseball cap, what's that?)
Glee-I love the songs. I loved Empire State of Mind and Telephone (even though I hated that song when it first came out). I loved Sue and Will temporarily working together. Good Stuff. Ahh and it took my awhile to figure out, but I finally realized that the new Vocal Adrenaline coach is the dude that was on 30 Rock last season. I knew I knew him from somewhere.
Modern Family-I love Phil Dunphy. The kids joking around and mocking their parents at the end was classic. Also Cameron is awesome, "I prefer a champagne Dijon to a standard yellow." Also Manny and his 'burgandy dinner jacket" are awesome. Ok, who are we kidding? I love all the characters on this show.
Cougar Town-Ok this is a bonus. I never watch this show but I guess the Friends Lover in me couldn't change the channel when I saw Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox Arquette together again on tv. It was pretty funny. But I'm pretty sure that Christa Miller who played Jordan on Scrubs is playing the exact same character on this show.
Community-For some reason seeing Jeff Winger get punched in the face was hilarious to me. (And I hate violence). Betty White was good but the standout of the episode was Ken Jeong as Senor Chang who now has to attend Greendale as a student. "Do you have any room in your pocket for some spare Chang?"
30 Rock-Matt Damon! Liz Lemon has Life Alert. I loved Jenna as a producer. I love the Kenneth/Tracy Jordan stuff. They need each other. But mostly I loved the Barefoot Contessa Stuff. "Her husband only comes home on the weekends and she spends the rest of the time eating and drinking with her gay friends."-Liz Lemon. Plus any mention of SNOOD is awesome in my book.
The Office-Things I love... Lip Dub (I love Ed Helms Dancing/Lip Syncing skills so much), Michael's Magician costume, Pam's return to her old hairstyle, Kelly's Business suit, Dwight's constant hydration, JAM interaction, and I'm gonna throw it out there...I even like Gabe, especially when he practically sat in Michael's lap so Kathy Bates didn't have to talk to his crotch. I thought this was a great episode. I was even super excited that they changed up the opening credits.
I also watched part of the new show Outsourced but it just wasn't really holding my attention. I miss Parksand Recreation!
I'm going to watch Grey's Anatomy this weekend!
OK that's TV for the week. What did you think about TV this week?
Don't worry, I'm going to spend a lot of time doing non-tv related things this weekend.
(Well, after I watch Grey's Anatomy)
So obviously if you have read this blog, you know that I'm a huge "Office" dork. I mentioned previously that I made a video for the fan episode of The Office. However, I haven't yet mentioned that I actually made 2 other videos. I didn't want you to think I was weird. Now I'm not sure what's going on with this fanisode but I did notice that all the scene's had not yet been made by fans so I decided to do another one. Everything that was left had a ton of characters in them and I did not think I'd be able to round up 12 of my friends to participate. So I went ahead and spent a whole afternoon making Popsicle stick versions of the characters. Yeah, I'm a dork. So here they are and here's a link to my other videos.
So can you tell who is who? I like my Phyllis, Dwight, and Andy best. Oh and also Jim's hair (featured below). Pam and Erin ended up looking a little monstrous. Sorry.
So what are you going to watch tonight?
Community, 30 Rock, The Office, Outsourced, The Big Bang Theory, Grey's Anatomy, Vampire Diaries, Nikita, Bones, Fringe, Sh@# My Dad Says (I actually heard that is the worst new show but hey, I haven't seen it so who knows)??????? So much is happening tonight I just don't know what to do. Well obviously I'm going to watch The Office but still, TIVO is going to have some work to do.
PS-My mom says I've been drawing noses on people like that since I was little. Hmm.
****UPDATE**** Here is the link to the full fanisode. I'm famous. Well sort of.
In addition to Hobie's "birthday", it was also my sister in law's birthday last Friday. Because of a family funeral that we all attended, she ended up being at my house on her birthday. I was not exactly sure what her favorite type of dessert was so I went with a classic; chocolate chip cookies. (I have since surveyed her on all her favorite desserts. B was wrong when he told me she probably liked chocolate cake, glad I didn't go with that.) Since it was her birthday I decided to make a giant chocolate chip cookie cake. I really wanted to decorate it like a soccer ball because she coaches soccer and played soccer in college but I was having a really hard time with that. So she ended up with a simpler decoration on her cookie cake. I made this by using the recipe on the back of the Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chips. It seems to always get the job done. (PS does anyone remember that episode of Friends where Phoebe can't remember the recipe for her grandma's famous chocolate chip cookies?)
And just because I know you all loved the Hobie pictures from before, here is Hobie right before he ate his "birthday" cake. (Don't worry it's from the Pet Store, I didn't make it.)
If today was your birthday, what would you want me to make you as a dessert?
Ok, so we don't know Hobie's real birthday because we adopted him. He came from the hard cold streets of Tennessee. We adopted him when he was estimated to be somewhere between 2 and 3 years old. We do know the date that he came to live with us last September. So we are considering that his new "birthday".
Because we adopted him from a dog foster program we had to answer a bunch of surveys and questions to make sure we'd give him a good home. One of the questions was...
What kind of personality traits are you looking for in a dog?
I responded...
"We are not looking for a super hyper dog. We want one that we can play with and walk but that is also ok laying around watching tv with us."
(I think most of that answer stems from my laziness and love of TV)
That is pretty much exactly what we got as you can see from Hobie's time with us.
Watching his favorite Soap, The Bold and the Beautiful
The day he got his first rope bone
Maybe it's time for a new rope bone
Family Portrait
BFFs
Foot belly rub per his request
So anyway we will be celebrating Hobie's "birthday" this week. Maybe with some Dog Fro-Yo from Feeney's (yeah they actually have that). And sorry if you hate dogs or hearing about people's dogs or looking a bunch of pictures of dogs. I used to think it was weird too before I had my own dog.
Next week is when all/most TV Shows come back from Summer Break. It's the happiest time of the year (well except for May Sweeps). I wasn't even that excited until I saw the promo for next Thursday NBC Comedy. (PS-If you like the Office, go check out officetally.com. It's the best Office website ever.)
What do I like about this promo?
1-Well Community is a wonderful show and Chevy Chase is really funny in it and you should all check it out if you haven't already. And Betty White is awesome. She might need some vacation days though soon since she is in basically every new movie and tv show out there.
2-Matt Damon (yeah he's still one of my crushes even after all these years).
3-Um all the Office Peeps dancing and Pam and Dwight stuck in an elevator.
Note-I'm a little sad Parks and Rec isn't coming back yet but I guess I will give this other show a try. Maybe.
Are you excited for new TV?
What new shows are you thinking of checking out?
I have tried making earring wires several times on my own. I'm not good at it. Usually I get the wrong type of wire. I tried beating it with a hammer. Usually it would just end up breaking. So I figure if you can't make something, buy it from someone who can. So I found these ear wires on Etsy (at Shel's Jewelry Supplies) a couple weeks ago and bought some. I also bought the mini version cause I love mini stuff.
This weekend Beezus5 attempted to take me to her favorite beads store downtown but it was closed. Fortunately there was another bead store across the street. So after checking out every bead they had I ended up buying a few. I made these earrings for myself with the mini hoops.
I like them. I think the ear wires really "make" the earring.
And here are some more I made for my Etsy shop with the bigger hoops.
Red Box-We got Date Night because I heart Steve Carell and Tina Fey. I had never used Red Box but our local Blockbuster just closed down and all our Netflix were TV shows and we wanted to watch a movie.
Plus
Twizzlers-Because twizzlers are good and they are necessary for Movie night.
Plus
Cobbler-I googled "best peach cobbler" and got this recipe by Paula Deen. It was actually very good and now it is gone and now I've decided to diet this week.
Equals
A Nice Little Saturday Night. And yeah I might have fallen asleep for a few minutes in the middle of date night but I think I still got the main points of the movie. (so I guess not the best movie I have ever seen but I still heart Steve Carell and Tina Fey).
So did you have an exciting Saturday Night or did you just take some time to hang out with a loved one/friend/dog and watch a movie?
My city has a down town farmer's market every Saturday. I have never gone. I have always wanted to go. So this week when Beezus5 asked me if I wanted to go, I was like yeah man. So we went. Here are some pictures of Beezus5 with some fresh produce.
I purchased... three tomatoes, a bag of basil, a thing of honey fig goat cheese, a honey bear, and a bag of pita bread. All were wonderful scores.
I used the pita bread, goat cheese and honey to make us breakfast today. Pretty tasty.
For dinner I made a pita pizza with pesto (homemade), tomatoes, and shrimp. (If you'd like to know more about my trials and tribulations with pesto check out that awesome Making Stuff Is Hard tab up there at the top of this blog.)
Does your town have a farmer's market?
If so have you ever been and what do you like to get?
1-TV is Awesome (aka I might be obsessed with TV). Last night my husband went out somewhere to watch The Football game (I think the team from New Orleans played based on Matt Lauer being in New Orleans yesterday morning). So I decided that it was the perfect opportunity for me to watch a show that he would never be in to. Luckily for me, last night was the first episode of Nikita on the CW. Seemed like a great idea. It was pretty good (I mean for a girl show about spies and such) and reminds me a lot of Alias. I don't think B would have loved it. Now the problem is this. In two weeks when the rest of the new TV season starts I could potentially have 4 shows to watch on Thursdays at 9pm....The Office (which I always watch live), Grey's Anatomy (which I usually Tivo and watch over the weekend), Fringe (which I'm still catching up with season 2), and now this new show, Nikita. I'm pretty sure they are not all going to make the cut. But I have to give props to the CW for starting a little early and trying to get me hooked before all the competition comes back.
2-A question. Would you work out more or less if you had a nice workout machine (like a treadmill) in your house instead of having to go to a gym? Or do you like the gym because they have classes, lots of machines, weights, etc? Or do you like your house because it is where you are now and you don't have to drive somewhere to work out? Or do you just go run outside?
3-Good news if you like wine or free stuff-Leah of Lovely Life of Leah is hosting a giveaway on her blog and she is giving away a set of my wine charms. So definitely go check it out and enter! All the cool people are doing it. Plus making wine charms keeps my life from being totally all about TV.
Have a great Friday and weekend!
Did you watch Nikita? Do you judge me for watching Nikita? Did you watch the football game?
Do you work out at the gym/at home/outside/both/none?
Did you check out this cool giveaway?
If you pay attention to details, you may notice that I have a new tab at the top of this page....Making Stuff Is Hard. Here I will be sharing some of my biggest craft and baking failures. Please feel free to email me any failures (with pictures) you have and I will add them to my list. Crafting and cooking are not all fun, all the time, guys. I thought it was time I admit to that. Sometimes laying around on the couch watching reruns of Gilmore Girls is way funner than making stuff.
Do you have any craft or cooking failures to share with me?
So awhile back I decided that I was going to attempt to make some reasonable priced meals. I am one of those people who tends to go to the grocery store 4 times a week and just buy whatever I feel like at the time. I'm not great at planning out a week of meals in advance or even one dinner. I have walked up and down the aisles of the grocery store for long periods of time before just looking for something to make for dinner. So anyways, I have decided that I probably waste a lot of money doing that. So I will be doing a series on cheap meals. Apparently this is a popular topic. There are at least 2 shows on the Food Network about saving money on meals (Money Saving Meals and $10 Dinners) and I also noticed a food magazine featuring 5 meals for 4 for under $10 each while standing in line the other day. So I can totally do this too. Right?
Sometimes I get annoyed at these low price meal shows. Awhile back there was one that I used to watch and the guy would make supposedly affordable meals but he would say well this spice doesn't count because you already have that in the pantry. Or he would buy some weird cheese that would be super expensive at my grocery store. Stuff like that. I will try not to do that.
Onward. When I think of cheap dinners, I think of casseroles. And when I think of cheap meat, I think of canned tuna (which is pretty much the only canned meat I will eat). So I was thinking of making a classic...Tuna Noodle Casserole. That can't be too expensive, right?
Ok, here is my breakdown....
So essentially this meal cost $7.50 to make but buying all the ingredients new cost $14.25. However, I have used those remaining ingredients for other stuff. The remaining cheddar cheese was used in a soup I made last night. The Parmesan cheese (which you could probably leave out anyways) was used in a pasta salad I made for the baby shower. The milk was used in my cereal. The bread crumbs were already half used on something else anyways.
(Oh and if you want to make this just cook the noodles and mix it with the next few ingredients, then top with a little melted butter, bread crumbs and parmesan cheese. Then bake it at 350 for 30 minutes.)
So there you go. I think this meal was actually cheap to make. Some people might not be a big fan of tuna noodle casserole though so next time I will try to make something with fresh meat or vegetarian. I know you can't wait.
