Some Color, FINALLY!

Whoo hoo!  After a year of banging my forehead against my keyboard trying to figure out how to spruce up my blog, I'm slowly figuring it out!  Notice the new design?? :) YAY!  I found this really awesome one I wanted to copy but gave up pretty quickly on the beautiful light gray chevron with pink accents.  It was pretty awesome but not worth the time to figure it out.

Now could somebody PLEASE tell me how to get the different pages at the top of my blog so I can create pages and organize my posts??  Yep, sick and tired of trying to figure this out and going to suck it up and ask for help! :)  I had it somewhat figured out at one time but it kept wanting to go up in my heading, I lack major blogging skills!!

I'll work on changing the pics in the slide show or just scraping it all together and replacing it with something fresh, but no promises on how soon I'll get around to that :)

Pumpkin Souffle

We attempted taking pictures this past weekend for our Christmas card, TOTAL DISASTER.  Went to a park, wearing heavy clothes on an 80 degree day, so flipping hot.  Charley would NOT look at the camera.  Tried to go into this wooded area, got burrs all over us and could not get them out of Charley’s hair.  I couldn't figure out how to get the timer on my camera to take more than 3 pics at a time.  After 2 hours we finally called our friends Mark and Nikki to come to the park and try to take them for us.  By that point, we couldn't even get Charley to sit up she was so exhausted.  Still not sure if we even got one good pic out of 100+ pictures.  UGG, #totalwasteofmakeup.  So have a little compassion for us if you receive a Christmas card with a look of frustration on our face, a dog looking off to the side and major pit stains in our shirts J.   For your comical pleasure, check out the epic fail pics at the bottom of this post.

I did however have one success this weekend; a few weeks ago I saw a pumpkin soufflé recipe on Pinterest that had caught my eye, it looked tasty, I love pumpkin, it’s gluten-free and it is something different for an autumn bite.  One problem, I didn't own any ramekins to bake these in, but problem solved, my birthday was a few weeks ago and it was on my bday wish list.  Thanks Mom and Dad!  You know you are getting old when you want ramekins for your bday, HA!

I have never had room temp soufflé so out of curiosity the first time I made this, I only made one by halving the recipe, experimented by trying it fresh out of the oven and then covering it and trying it left over the next morning.  Success!  It’s just as good not straight from the oven.  That’s important because I like to make things ahead of time and have it still taste yummy. 

Sorry, not a great pic, like my attempt at painting pumpkins?!?! 

 Ingredients (FYI, you can find the unusual ingredients at HyVee’s Health Market)

·     1c pumpkin

·     4 eggs

·     1/4 cup coconut oil, clarified butter, or ghee – melted (I used ghee)

·     2 tablespoons almond butter

·     6 tablespoons maple syrup

·     1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

·     1 tablespoon coconut flour

·     1/4 teaspoon baking soda

·     1 teaspoon cinnamon

·     1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

·     pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Whisk the canned pumpkin, eggs, coconut oil, almond butter, maple syrup, and pure vanilla extract together until well combined.  Sift the coconut flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice into the wet ingredients and continue whisk until well combined.

Pour into oven-save ramekins – either 4 separate 1-cup portions, or larger portions to be served as-shared.

Bake in the center of the oven for 25-35 minutes or until the entire soufflé puffs up and the center no longer appears wet.

SOURCE: http://balancedbites.com/2012/10/easy-recipe-pumpkin-souffle.html


And here are those epic fail pics I promised, hope you find our painful photo shoot comical!

Charley is looking in the opposite direction in 90% of every picture

Holding a dog in between your legs to keep from moving doesn't look very good 

Got rid of the dog but then got wacked in the face by a branch running back after setting the timer 

I don't think holding your hand around a dog's neck to force her to look at the camera is very loving. This is where we got covered in burrs.  

Aaron is getting peeved at this point! 

Hello Charley! Totally wrong direction! 

I think Aaron had enough by this point, if he wasn't acting up, we may have had a good one here!

Who votes on this one making the Xmas card? AWKWARD!

Now I'm beyond peeved! 

Crockpot Chicken and Noodles

This chilly weather SCREAMS comfort food!  We’ve already gotten into our bad habit of late night drive thru at Caribou for hot chocolate.  The chilly weather is also when I start pulling out my most beloved kitchen item… the Crockpot!  I’m a total non-hassle-type-of-cook so whoever invented the Crockpot liners is a genius, just worth mentioning. 

I heart chicken and noodles so when I came across this recipe on Pinterest, I just couldn't stop thinking about it!  So at night when I’m strung out on a hot chocolate sugar high, I’m just laying in bed dreaming of a good ol’ bowl of chicken and noodles.  Unfortunately, I have a serious love for carbs… so mash potatoes with chicken and noodles over top is the carbfest this carboholic craves!  Nothing like a bowl loaded of simple carbs that makes your entire good efforts for the whole week go to waste.  It’s totally worth it though!

Now I’m very particular about my noodles, this recipe called for a bag of frozen noodles, well those tend to be thick and nasty so I went with a package of egg noodles from the dry pasta section.  So basically my point is you can use whatever noodles you prefer. 

I cannot take credit for this picture but mine looked very similar to this, mine was a little more soupy though

 Combine 3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into pieces, 2-10.75 cans of cream of chicken soup, 1/2 cup of butter (sliced) and 42 oz. of chicken broth in your crock pot.  Cover & cook on low for 6-8 hours.  Then add the bag of noodles, depending on what kind you use, cook for an additional 20 min to 1 hr longer.  If you use dry egg noodles, it will be ready in 20 minutes, watch these closely so they don’t become overcooked and mushy.  I seasoned my bowl heavily with black pepper.  Then grab a spoon and CARB IT UP!