Corn Chowder

So another week another soup.

This week it was corn chowder and the amazing thing is there is no cream or half and half so its much better calorie wise :)

Ingredients:

1 medium uncooked potato

1 tablespoon butter

• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 2 cups corn ( I used frozen)
• 1 cup chopped red bell pepper
• 4 ounces cooked bacon
• 2 cups fat-free skim milk
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1 tsp of hot pepper sauce 
• 1/2 tsp cornstarch
• 1/4 cup water
• Pierce potato in several places with a fork; microwave on high power until tender, turning over once, about 8 minutes. Allow to cool; peel and mash.
  
• Meanwhile, coat a large saucepan with cooking spray. Add celery, onion, corn and red pepper; sauté over medium-high heat for 5 minutes.
  
• Stir bacon and milk into saucepan; stir in mashed potato and mix well. Season with salt, pepper and hot pepper sauce; stir to combine.

In another bowl combine water and cornstarch. Once mixed add to the chowder to thicken.

•  Cover and simmer 10 minutes (do not allow to boil). Serves 4 :)

If you try this soup let me know. It was a hit at our house :)

Andrew's Birthday Recap!

Sunday was Andrew's 27th Birthday! He wasn't as excited about it as I was. He is sad he is getting old. 

We had a party with Andrew's family on Saturday before we came back to Raleigh

Andrew and his nephew Conner had the exact same birthday so we celebrate together.

Andrew and all his nephews 

The one in the tie dye is the one he shares a bday with

From his family he got lots of cards, Xbox live subscription and the new Halo 4 game

 When we got back to Raleigh I gave Andrew his birthday presents from me

P.S. look how cute Bently looks with Andrew :)

I got Andrew some new clark boots and a red NC state gingham button up.

BTW both were the wrong size so we took one to the alterations and the other to exchange!

We went to dinner at Ginza Japanese Steak House and then came home for dessert

These cookies were all he wanted!

Overall it was a great birthday! Can't believe this is the 7th one we have spent together!

Thanksgiving via Instagram :)

  I love Thanksgiving

Its a time to be Thankful and enjoy time with your family.

I am also thankful for instagram for allowing me to capture and share my adventures :)

I started my weekend spending time with this girl

 The pupsters got some quality time playing and running with my parents dogs

                             

 

Then it was Thanksgiving. I did to much eating and didn't take any pictures except for these

1. Husband dorking it up as usual

2. My precious nephews that love ava like their sister :)

Then it was time for some black friday shopping.

1.  Target gave you a free clif bar to give you some energy

2. Waiting to get in :)

P.S. 

Have any of you tried this from Chick-fil-a??

It is amazing! A great treat to start the holidays!!!!

Hope you had a great thanksgiving!

Black Friday Shopping

So I don't know about you but in my family Black Friday is its own Holiday

I look forward to the target commercials every year but this year since they got rid of my favorite blonde headed lady they have been lacking!

My mom, sister and I get our paper Thursday and look through the ads and circle everything we want.

Then we map out the order of the stores we are going to hit, take a nap and then off we go until its time for breakfast! Then we make a stop to get some food and then home to sleep again!

What are some of your black friday traditions!

Married Holidays...

Part of being married is spending the rest of your life with your best friends

The second part of marriage is spending half of your time with your spouses family

Hello Holidays....

While most couples have to split time with family every other year our parents live a whooping 3 minutes apart. 

Now while some of you say lucky you it is both a blessing and a curse.

The blessing: we are both fortunate enough to see both of our families on every holiday

The curse: We never have any down time so its never a vacation for us

** We have started joking we are just going to not go home one year**

So here is how our holidays go

Thanksgiving:

Luckily our families celebrate Thanksgiving together. All of Andrews family (18 people) plus my family of 5 all go to Andrew's parents house to and enjoy Thanksgiving Lunch together.

Then we go home take our naps and get up bright and early for some black friday shopping!

(Now here is where it gets tricky)

Christmas Eve: 

We spend dinner time ( my family and Andrews) at his oldest sisters house. Then we go to the movies with my parents come home and open our Christmas Eve gift ( which is always PJ's) and wait for Santa

Christmas Day: 

We wake up eat breakfast at my parents house then open gifts and then get ready for the day.

We head to Andrew's middle sisters to eat Christmas Lunch and exchange gifts with his family

Then we head back to my parents for Christmas dinner and finally to pass out from our food coma.

We have decided through after we have kids we will stay put at our house for Christmas so our children can wake up in their own house. This will be a change since we live 3 hours away!

So how have you split your holidays with your spouse or significant other? Will you change when you have kids?

Weekend Recap

This weekend was one for the books!

We did so much but yet had such a blast!

On Friday I came back to Raleigh after spend the last few days with Ava Gray in Charlotte.

She has gotten so big and when I was there she got two teeth!!

When Andrew got off work Friday we came home and ate some dinner and then wanted to go out for some dessert

We stopped by this little restaurant called Coffee and Crepes. Andrew and I got some coffees and ordered a Banana Nutella Crepe. It was so delicious!

Saturday came and we hosted our first Friendsgiving!

I am such a bad blogger and I took no pictures but here is a recap.

We had 14 friends over our apartment for dinner and dessert and we had a blast!

The only picture I have is the turkey before and after!

It was my first turkey and it wasn't half bad!

Sunday came and I was exhausted. We relaxed all day until we went to small group. I love that time that I get to spend with people who encourage me to talk and grow deeper into the word.

I also have extra exciting news! One of my best friends got engaged! I can't wait to celebrate with her this October!

Italian Wedding Soup

I stumbled upon this recipe on pinterest and I knew I had to try it out.

I love wedding soup and Andrew hates spinach so I knew this would be the perfect dish to make him change his mind!

* 16 Italian Style Meatballs* 1 small onion, diced* 3 carrots, thinly sliced* 3 celery stalks, thinly sliced* 3 cloves garlic, minced* 1 pinch crushed red or green pepper* 5 cups chicken stock* 1 cup orzo* 10 oz baby spinach

* coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

Heat 1 Tbs. oil in a small skillet and brown the chicken sausages on all sides, until heated through, 5 minutes total. Remove from heat.

In a deep pot, heat the remaining 2 Tbs. oil over medium-high. Add the onions, garlic, carrots and celery. Add the crushed pepper along with a pinch of salt and pepper. Saute until the veggies start to soften, 6 minutes.

Add the  stock. Bring to a light boil.

Add the pasta and cook until al dente, 6 minutes.

Add the chicken sausages and spinach. Simmer for about 5 more minutes. Taste and season with more salt and pepper if needed.

Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and enjoy!

Cheesy Vegetable Chowder

With the weather returning back to its pre-winter like state, its the perfect time to start busting out some new soup recipies.

My two favorite soups are vegetable and brocolli and cheddar  so when I found this recipie I was so excited!

It was the perfect blend of the two

So here is the recipie. If you try it let me know what you think.

2 Tablespoons butter

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 cup finely chopped carrot

2 celery stick, finely chopped 

1 Tablespoon minced garlic

4 cups chicken broth

2 large baking potatoes, peeled and chopped

2 Tablespoon flour

1/2 cup water

2/3 cup milk

2 cups chopped broccoli

2 heaping cups shredded cheddar cheese

(make sure you use a sharp aged cheddar to get the right cheese flavor)

Melt the butter in a large soup pot.  Add onions, carrots, and celery and saute over medium heat until tender.  Add garlic and cook 1 or 2 additional minutes.  Add chicken broth and potatoes, bring to a boil, and cook until potatoes are tender.  Mix flour with water, add, and simmer until soup is slightly thickened.  Add milk and broccoli and cook until broccoli is just tender and soup is heated through.  Stir in cheese, allow to melt, and serve.

Lord Jesus its a Fire.....

So I don't normally blog about this type of stuff....

But Lord Jesus its a Fire!!!

No but seriously, the hubs and I were just watching some videos on break.com and came across this.
You have to watch it.

This woman's apartment complex caught on fire here is her interview.

Well then you know all ridiculous videos end up being made into an auto-tune remix and here it is

I can't stop laughing. You wont either. You should probably save this on you computer for when you are having a bad day.

Drawing a Blank

So I feel as if I have come to a blank.

I have so many things coming up within the couple of months but currently I am drawing a bloggig blank!

So here is the time where you have a say! 

Do you have any questions for me? 

Anything you want to hear me blog about?

 I am all ears cause I need some inspiration, motivations, heck really just anything to get my creative juices flowing!!

Until them I am heading home to Charlotte to spend a few days with Baby Ava while my mom has to go OOT for work. 

I am so excited for one on one time!

I should be ... but I am not!

So I am officially tracked out and do not have to return to my school or my 120 6th graders until December 3rd!

There are a million things I could be doing today, and I should be doing today such as cleaning, doing somethings for Grad School, going to the gym, etc.

But I am not. Today I am spending my day with netflix and Season 1 of Revenge!

Of course I have two fur babies to keep me company and are very happy I am home :)

Haley's Army

Growing up I lived in a small town. Anything and everything that happened affected everyone.

Last week, Haley a 15 year old girl that went to the same high school I went to, died of cancer.

Yes Cancer. At 15, I can't imagine.

Our community had been doing so much, corn hole fundraiser at every church, selling shirts and taking donations to help this family pay medical bills.

I never met her but my sister knows her. From what her and her friends say she was a pure blessing and never once said a negative thing about her situation. Just constantly was blessed for another day.

Here is the candlelight service that was held at our high school stadium. Everyone wore purple for a week and purple ribbons were put on the buses throughout our distract.

Please pray for her family and our community during this time.

No Longer a baby!

Happy 18th Birthday To My Baby Sister Cassandra

My students even made her a card today in school. They were so excited!

I am so proud of her and everything she has accomplished in 18 years!

Many things people never do in a lifetime

( I may have cried a little today)

- professional advertising photo shoot for a new tablet

(see picture above)

-Speaks Chinese and competed and won an award when she was the only non-Chinese first language speaker

- Works for the Hope Cancer Crisis ministries in Charlotte to adopt families with children who have cancer

- Already accepted to 3 colleges and awaiting a few more

- OH yea and being a Hart child which makes you awesome !

Love you Cass

Blogger date :)

So this recap is way past due but I have been all over the place lately and I feel as the kids are giving me their germs... grossss

Last week I met up with Tamara! I don't remember how I found Tamara's blog but I am so glad I did cause I feel like I know her! 

(haha so funny but when we met up we both were like umm so we have never meet but I feel like I know everything about you... probably creepy sounding to nonbloggers!)

We met at Raleigh's Cameron Village and enjoyed some wine, flat breads and girl talk at Cafe Caturra!

So perfect for a girls night out!

I have never been on a blogger date before but it was so much fun! One of my favorite things about blogging is following other Raleigh bloggers!

Tamara talked about everything from jobs, to family and even some pretty deep issues! It was so great to share our experiences with each other.

However all the chatting lead us to not taking many pictures!

After dinner we walked to another one of my favorite spots! Even though it was made famous in Chapel Hill I am so glad they brought one to Raleigh so I don't have to make the trip out there for their famous Gelato ( it was on the food network yall!)

I got Mexican Chocolate and Coconut ( mine is pictured below) and Tamara got Key Lime

Overall while our date was long over due ( thanks life) we had such a great time! Glad we are in real life friends so I don't have to say my blog friend Tamara when I talk about her! People who don't understand blogging will think I am less weird now haha!