Jessi's Potato Soup

Jessi's Potato Soup

Ingredients
1 cup cheddar cheese
8 med-lg potatoes (divided)
1 can cream of chicken
1 can cream of potato
1 onion (cut into small pieces)
2 stalks of celery (cut into small pieces)
2 stalks of leeks (cut into small pieces)
3 Tbsp flour
1 1/2 cup water
4-5 strips of bacon (more if you want more)
3 Tbsp sour cream
2 cups of milk

Directions
1. boil 1/2 of the potatoes (these should be cute into small bite size pieces) until very soft drain and set aside
2. boil other half of the potatoes until very soft.  drain and then mash
3. cook bacon and break into pieces (or use bacon bits I didn't have any so I just did this)  set aside 2 Tbsp of the grease
4. cook onion, leek and celery in grease
5. when the veggies are soft add flour and water to mixture and cook until thickened
6. take off heat and add bacon bits
7.  add cream of chicken and potato to the mashed potatoes
8. then add onion/flour mixture, milk, and sour cream to mashed potatoes
9. mix these ingredients together well.
10.  Add the small potato pieces and cheese and stir with a spoon
11.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

This recipe makes a thick soup and is filling enough to serve by itself.  My hubby loved it so much he said it was better then Outback Steakhouse's Potato Soup.  I was shocked :) A good shocked and glad he liked it so much and so did my son who ate every last bite.

If you try it let me know how you thought it was or even some of the adjustments you made.  I bet it might taste good with some sausage pieces instead of bacon...Hmmm might have to try it like that next time.

 

 

First time peach cobbler...

Well yesterday we attended a meeting with some of the faculty from our bible college here in Manila and it was at my mom's house so she asked me if I would make a dessert.  Specifically peach cobbler because she had bought the peaches to make it.  I agreed and went on my search to find an easy recipe for peach cobbler since I never made it before in my life.  lol  I should really taste things before I serve them to other people especially if I have never made it before... oh well....  the recipe I had was so simple...here it is

Peach Cobbler

1-2 cups peaches
1 stick margarine
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1 cup self rising flour
       (if you don't have self rising flour it is so easy to make your own....for every 1 cup of flour mix with the flour 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon of salt)  this is what I did and it worked great...

Directions

Heat oven to 375.  Melt margarine in a baking dish (I just put mine in a bowl in the microwave and melted it and then transferred it to the baking dish).  Add other ingredients (I would mix the flour and sugar and milk with the butter in the dish before you add the peaches it might help with the sloshing out of the dish).  Mix.  Bake for 30-45 minutes until the crust is brown and bubbly.  Serve with ice cream.  

This was really easy and it turned out really good...I doubled the batch so that I would have enough for the 20 people that were there.  I also mixed in the juice that the peaches were in.  Some recipes say to leave it out and others don't say but I figured it would help give the whole dish a little more flavor and it did.

So there you go.  Sorry I forgot to take a picture I was in a bit little of a rush :)  until next time

Slow Cooker Lemon Garlic Chicken

Ok so I said I would post some recipes that I have been trying lately and this by far is one of the best ones and its in the crock pot which I think is one of my favorite kitchen appliances by far well except for the kitchen aide mixer I got for Christmas... :)  ok so on to the recipe :) and I just added a few extra dashes for good measure...  I am no precise cooker here :)  I'll put what i did next to the ingredients :)

Lemon Garlic Chicken

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon dried oregano  (Just covered the breasts until I thought it was enough)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt   (Just covered the breasts until I thought it was enough)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper   (Just covered the breasts until I thought it was enough)
• 2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast halves  (i only used about 1 lbs or 1/2 kilo here in Manila)
• 2 tablespoons butter (no butter)
• 1/4 cup water (1 1/2 cup)
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (1/4 cup)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
• 1 Block cream cheese (cubed) (also suggested online was heavy whipping cream to get the creamy sauce effect for over noodles)

Directions (I didn't follow any of these directions)

1. In a bowl, mix the oregano, salt, and pepper. Rub the mixture into chicken. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Brown chicken in butter for 3 to 5 minutes on each side. Place chicken in a slow cooker.
2. In the same skillet, mix the water, lemon juice, garlic, and bouillon. Bring the mixture to boil. Pour over the chicken in the slow cooker.
3. Cover, and cook on High for 3 hours, or Low for 6 hours. Add the parsley to the slow cooker 15 to 30 minutes before the end of the cook time.

My directions 
1. Defrost Chicken 
2. add all ingredients except salt, pepper, and oregano
3. cover the tops of chicken with 3 left over ingredients 
4. set crock pot on high and leave for 3-4 hours


Serve with noodles and any veggie of choice


So there you go.  I hope you like this recipe, my family loves it because it has great flavor and I love it because it doesn't take that much to make it.  I have put this in the crock pot before we left for church and then just heated up left over noodles to go with it when we got home from church...

Give it a try and let me know if you did anything different

Wow its Feb...

I can't believe that January has already come and gone.

For our family January has been a fun filled month.  We got to introduce 2 new little people into our family one new nephew on my side of the family and one new niece (my first niece!!) on Marc's side of the family.  We are so excited for both families and the two new little babies we get to hold although we only get to hold one right now as the other is on the other side of the ocean...but speaking of that we got to meet her thanks to some awesome technology called Skype.
This is marc's sister holding my niece :)

 This is my niece!! What a cutie!

We use Skype all the time to talk to Marc's family back home and the best part is we not only get to hear but we get to see each other....oh and did I mention its free!  We talk to Marc's parents every week and it has become so routine for us that Reece regularly asks for his Nana and Papa (Marc's parents).  I think it is so nice to be able to communicate with family who are so far away.

My mom was telling me that when they were first here on the mission field she only got to call my grandma (her mom) once a year!  I couldn't believe it!  I can't imagine only talking to my mom once a year!  And then she told me it was only for like 30 mins because it cost so much to make a long distance call... Can you believe that!  Crazy!  We are so spoiled compared to that.  But I'm not going to lie I'm very thankful for all the technology that we have that my son can get to know his grandparents at least to a certain extent...

Also I have been trying lots of new recipes lately and I plan on sharing a few of the hits here.

Thanks for listening and if you live far away from your family check out Skype if you don't already have it.

Sick baby

Reece my little happy boy (for the most part) has been sick for the last few days which meant that he was really whinny and cranky oh and very clingy.  He has been fighting a cold for almost 6 days.  Although I think we have almost kicked it.  Thank goodness!!  When your baby is sick you don't get much rest.  Reece is only a year and a half so I can't give him cough medicine yet and the poor kid needed some so I searched all over the Internet for any kind of home remedy that would help my poor little boy.
I found many people said to give them a 1/2 tsp lemon and 1/2 tsp honey mixed together and warmed.

Now if your baby is not over one you shouldn't try this as it is not suggested to give honey to children under one but since Reece is older then that I decided to give it a shot.  And guess what, it worked!!  He actually slept all night after I gave that to him.  And let me tell you we both needed a good nights sleep.  So the next time your kid has a cough and you can't or don't want to give him medicine try the lemon honey mix.  It just might work.

My awesome find...

Here in Manila we don't have a Joanns but we do have fabric markets :) which is interesting and fun...now don't get me wrong we do have fabric stores but the fabric markets are way cheaper and you can always find interesting prints...I found these awesome fabrics.....do you recognize them?

Yup you guessed it... they are Vera Bradley....evidently the fabric is made here :)  lucky me that means there are leftovers :)  (i'm jumping for joy!!)  lol anyways  my living and dining area in my house is very bland at the moment and I knew it needed some color and this fabric is perfect....so I went to town and made these for that area :)

this was by far the easiest sewing project I have done so far....all you do is cut our rectangles of the fabric and  of batting and then sew them together.  Then you cut one very long rectangle out of a coordinating fabric to make the table runner :) and you are done :)

anyways just had to share with you as I am totally in love :)

DIY Nursing Cover

I spent a little over an hour making this it was so easy and it took me longer because I had a little helper at first :)
I somewhat followed this blog and the way she did it.  But here are a few pictures of the one I made.
cutting out the fabric with my little helper :)

he thought he had to lay on the fabric or sit on it...I'm not quite sure why

 I hemmed all four sides and left the top side with open ends so i could put in the boning...

 Then i attached the strap at the top on the end of the boning to hold the boning where i wanted it

 and the did the same thing with the D rings

 I am not nursing but I used a cover when I was and loved it....

this is going to one of our team members here in manila as she just had her first baby and has been using a blanket....which is fine and all but when those little arms start to move around more while you are nursing having something that is a little more secure is nice :)

Hope you enjoyed...this was super easy to make and would make a great gift for a new mom who you knew was going to be nursing...