Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

I made the most amazing soup today for dinner.  I got the recipe from my sister and I'm so thankful that she shared it with me! 

I love using my crock pot.  I've been using it more often because of how easy it is to throw things together.  I don't like cleaning it though.  6 quart ceramic insert and lid - HEAVY.  I usually stick it in my dishwasher.   ;)

I wish that I had thought to take a picture of all the ingredients together, the process of making it, etc.  I did manage to take a picture of the final product.  Hope you enjoy!

Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

4-6 boneless skinless chicken breasts - frozen!

1 family size cream of chicken soup

2 boxes Uncle Ben's Long grain and wild rice WITH seasoning packets

Milk (I used skim)

Chicken broth

12 slices of pepper jack cheese

In your crock pot, place frozen chicken, soup and at least 1/2 can of milk.  Cook on low until chicken falls apart (couple of hours).  Shred chicken with 2 forks and return to crock pot.

Meanwhile, cook rice according to package directions.  (I omitted the butter/oil.  Didn't see any reason to use it.)  When rice is done and chicken is shredded, add rice to crock pot and stir to combine.  Begin crumbling pepper jack slices into crock pot - taste as you add the cheese.  Continue to simmer soup in crock pot until cheese is melted.  Add chicken broth to thin soup if it seems too thick for you.  Serve with crusty bread.  :)

Some notes on this soup:

I didn't add any measurements for the milk or broth because I didn't bother measuring them when I added them to the soup.  I poured and stirred until it looked good to me.  Feel free to use as much or as little as you like.  Feel free to use whole milk and organic chicken broth if that's what will make you happy.  I used Great Value skim milk and broth.  That's what I had on hand and they work for me.  :)

About the cheese - I'm not a huge fan of pepper jack cheese, but it's REALLY good in this soup.  The cheese doesn't add any heat to the soup, just a nice cheesy, pepper-y flavor.  I used 11 of 12 slices and wish now that I'd only used 8.  I don't care for the taste of peppers, so 11 slices is a bit much - for ME.  Don't worry, we'll still eat the soup.  I just may not like it as much as I would if it had only 8 slices of cheese in it.

My crock pot has 4 settings - HIGH (4 hours and 6 hours) and LOW (8 hours and 10 hours).  I initially set my crock pot for 8 hours.  I knew I'd have about that much time from when I put the chicken in frozen until we needed to eat dinner.  Set your crock pot however you have to.  There are so many on the market now that do so many things. 

I'm taking my crock o'soup to PWOC tomorrow (Protestant Women Of the Chapel to you non-military folks) to share during fellowship time.  I'm sure there won't be much left.  :)  I just wish it wasn't going to be 90 degrees tomorrow.  Soup is a COLD WEATHER MEAL.  Do you hear me, 90 degree day?  It's the end of October - go away and bring us back our football weather!!!

Go forth and make soup and be happy! :)

Blessings,

M

Muffin Tin Monday



OK, so I've completely fallen in love with this idea.  Putting kids snacks/meals into a muffin tin.  Crazy, right?  WRONG!  Timothy has SO enjoyed this.  I get 2 or 3 made in a week - that's all my creative juices have going on right now.  The sad thing is that I don't plan far enough ahead to really do something extra special.  I know that that's how all these other moms did it - doing what they could with what they had.  Then it became 'part of them' so much so that it's just part of their day.  I long to be at that place!!  My MIL commented recently that I had "too much time on my hands."  I know she was kidding.  I told her no, doing this breaks up the monotony of a 12 month deployment.  Anything to make the day more fun, right?  :)

Anyway, each Monday there is a theme.  This week happens to be Halloween.  I wonder why?  Just kidding!  I stole 5 of the 6 ideas from other tins I have seen recently.  Only one is original, but I'm sure someone has done it in the past.  No matter.  Timothy has never seen it and I've never made a Halloween muffin tin meal.  It's brand new to us!

Top row - L to R

Pumpkin carved orange with mandarin oranges

Banana Bread Bars with Cat pick

Green tinted chocolate milk

Bottom row - L to R

cheese, plain and caramel popcorn with jack o'lantern pick

Banana cream pudding with sugar pumpkins

Vanilla wafers with jack o'lanterns drawn on with pb/nutella mix for dipping.

Love doing this for my little guy.  And I love that I can be creative with it.  Stealing ideas at first, but then making them my own.  Thanks to Michelle at Muffin Tin Mom for this wonderful idea!!

Definition of *BOY*

The definition of BOY, noun...

...a noise with dirt on it.


Loving my noises with dirt on them,

Missy

I hate motel noise...

So I'm at Ft. Benning, GA this weekend for a PWOC (Protestant Women Of the Chapel for you non-military folks) conference.  Learning about how to be Christ-like leaders and how to effectively lead our Installation's PWOC for the next year.  I have been immeasurably blessed so far. 

However, all the ladies at the conference are staying at a Suburban Extended Stay Hotel. 

 You know, the kind that you can pay for weekly? 

NOT HOURLY...get your mind out of the gutter...

There are somewhere between 50-75 ladies staying here...in addition to men who are here working locally for whatever reason.  Makes me a little nervous...

What I don't get is why, at 10:40 pm, do people have to be so noisy?!?  The person/persons on the other side of the wall from me are banging around, bumping into stuff, talking loud, etc.  I'm on the top floor, so I don't have to worry about people walking heavily.  Thank goodness...

I do have to remember that I have this whole *room* to myself.  I can sleep in the middle of the bed and I don't have to worry about my children needing me in the middle of the night.  I left them at home with some scraps of food on the floor.  The diaper box says for 22-30 pounds - they mean poop, right?

Just kidding - they're with their grandparents in FL.  I'll pick them up Sunday.

Can't wait to hear the noise they make when they see me,

Missy 

Pool time!!

The boys and I are visiting my parents in Florida this week and it's finally been pretty enough to get into the pool.  The first few days we were here, it was cold and rainy.  Yes, I said cold.  Low 80's for highs.  That's cold in Florida for the first of July.

Anyway, we got into the pool today, much to the delight of my children.  Timothy, my almost 3 year old, loves the water.  I mean, LOVES.  Has no problem whatsoever giving me a heart attack by standing too close to the edge before there's anyone in the pool to rescue him if he happens to fall in.  We borrowed a life jacket from some friends for Timothy to wear.  I was afraid that he wouldn't like to wear it, or would refuse to wear it.  Thankfully, he stood still while I tightened the straps and got it on him.  It wasn't until we were getting into the pool that my mom said "It's on backward."  Thanks mom...couldn't you have mentioned that a few minutes sooner? 

I have a float for my 10 month old, Asher.  It was actually a first birthday present for Timothy, but he never got the chance to use it.  It's really cool in that it has a place for the baby to sit, and it also has mesh on it so the baby can play in the water.  Asher loved it.  His first time in the pool and he was kicking his feet and laughing.  Precious.  However, he did drink and snort up about 2 gallons of water before he stopped dropping his head into the mesh part of the float.  Takes awhile, that one...

We were in the pool for about 1 1/2 hours.  Timothy even got brave enough to jump off the side into my waiting arms.  I wish that I could've seen that happening rather than being on the receiving end of it.  I'm sure it was hysterical.  I hope soon to make sure to put him under when he jumps.  Maybe that will teach him to keep his mouth shut when he jumps.

I'm just kidding about the putting him under...I think...

Many blessings,
Missy  :)

Bread Machine

I bought a bread machine about a month ago with the intention of making a loaf of bread occasionally for us to have.  Bread is the arch enemy and anti-christ to anyone who is dieting, so I'm not sure what my reasoning was for buying it.  "Well, so and so has one!  My sister has one!  I WANT ONE!!!"  Who needs more reason than that?

So, I bought a bread machine and realized that I didn't have all the ingredients that I needed.  I tried my first loaf with some bread flour that I had and the loaf didn't rise AT ALL.  My bread flour was very old.  I think I bought it when we lived in PA, which was about 20 months ago.

So, I bought all new flour and yeast and tried again.  This time, I tried a whole wheat bread.  I like whole wheat bread and I want my children to like it, too.  Dad is gone to Afghanistan, so he won't have to eat any of it.  :)  It turned out better, but it just wasn't what I was expecting.  I need to try to make it again and give the wheat another chance.

This bread machine does it all.  Makes a loaf in 58 minutes, for heaven's sake.  I've not tried that yet. I have tried the dough/pasta setting and have thoroughly enjoyed the pizza dough that this machine cranks out.  The softest dough I've ever felt.   Let's stop for a moment and thank God for pizza.

Moment's up.

Then I discovered this recipe in my book: Oatmeal Date Bread.  It can be made in 80 minutes.  How hard can that be?  And it's got Oatmeal in it - it has to be healthy.

However, I didn't have dates.  Who keeps dates in their pantry?  I did however, have a bag of cranberries, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Oh my good heavens...is this good bread or what?  Dense, with a touch of sweetness from the cranberries and the 1/4 cup brown sugar.  Beautiful loaf of bread, thank you for baking.

Here's the final product...

It's a good thing this loaf of bread is a gift, or you might not have seen it in this perfect state.  You'd have seen about 1/2 of it gone and half a stick of butter gone. 

 Now, go and run 20 laps because you gained about 15 pounds just by looking at this load of bread.

Blessings,

Missy

My boys...

I can't help it...my sons keep me in stitches the live long day.   Let me show you why...


Here's Asher - 10 months old.  He's recently discovered the dog's water bowl and tries to get in it 50 times a day.  No kidding.  I've had to rig a gate across the doorway so he can't get in there. You should see him fight with that gate.  Too funny...

Here's Timothy, just today.  I've had the booster seat out for when company comes over and we need a toddler seat.  But Asher is almost ready to transition from high chair to booster.  Timothy is capable of getting in the booster and buckling himself in.  He's just not able to UNbuckle himself.  He came down the hall like this...

And proceeded to sit in the floor and play whilst still sitting in the booster...

He's such a scream.

I love my kids...

Blessings,
Missy