Beef and Veggie Soup

Hello lovelies! I finally am getting around to posting the final soup I have! It’s Beef Soup. I created this recipe by throwing in a bunch of tasty veggies and spices. Well here we go:

Beef and Veggie Soup

What you need:

·         Oil

·         2 lbs. stew ready beef

·         2 tsp. honey

·         6 cups beef broth (I made mine from bouillon cubes)

·         2 tsp. garlic

·         2 peppers

·         3 large and peeled carrots

·         3 cups onion

·         ½ can diced tomatoes or one fresh tomatoes

·         1/8 tsp. ground cumin

·         1 tsp. parsley

·         A sprinkle of bay leaves

·         ¼ tsp. ground cinnamon

What to do:

1.    In a skillet heat the oil. When it is hot enough place the beef and the honey in the skillet and cook the beef until it is red in the center.

2.   While the beef is cooking, prepare the broth and bring to a simmer.

3.   Chop the veggies (in green) and simmer in the broth.

4.   When beef is cooked drop into the broth, veggie combo and simmer 30 minutes.

5.   Add the spices and simmer for 15 minutes.

6.   Now let’s make the roux:

a.   For this you need 2 cups of the simmering broth and a cup of flour.

b.   In a separate pot whisk the flour and broth until blended

c.   Bring to a simmer and mix the roux into the soup.

7.   Simmer the soup for an hour and serve.

Just a Thought

Finally I got a minute to post! I feel like I haven’t had a break for 5 days! Well other than in my car! On the way to work yesterday I saw the prettiest clouds. They looked like waves and in some spots had a hole like area. It’s kind of indescribable; I wish I had my camera, now I can’t even find a picture online like it. They were just amazing! I was awestruck by God’s creation! It made me feel so small and yet so honored that I was witnessing this sight. I just thought I would share this awesome experience w9th all of you. Thanks for reading, Kirstin    

French Onion Soup

Sorry I skipped a day! I got a little behind yesterday because I wasn’t feeling all that well.  dysautonomia is very unpredictable! I will just extend Soup(er) Week a day so I will have another tasty soup on Saturday! Tomorrow I will have Beef Stew and Saturday I will have Tex-Mex Chili! Ok, now onto today! I present to you French Onion Soup! I got this recipe from my favorite cookbook The New Good House Keeping Cookbook (I thought I should cite my source, I guess that’s what you get when you’re still a student!) Get ready to cry! Not only is this delicious to the point of tears but there is no easy way to cut all the onions! Well here we go:

French Onion Soup

What You Need:

·         1 loaf of French bread

·         4 TBS (of a half stick) of butter or margarine

·         3 large onions (I used 4 medium ones)

·         1 tsp. sugar

·         1TBS all-purpose flour

·         2 ½ cups water

·         ½ cup dry red wine

·         2 10 ½ ounce cans of condensed beef broth

·         4 or 5 slices Swiss cheese (I used Havarti, you can use any of you favorite cheeses)

·         Jelly-roll pan

What to Do:

1.    Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit

2.   Place the butter in a skillet and put on medium heat to melt the butter

3.   While the butter is melting, chop your onions into 1/8 wedges (cunt the onion in half and then into fourths)

4.   Place the onions and the sugar into the skillet and stir every couple minutes, until the onions are golden brown. (about 10 minutes)

5.   Mix in the flour until the mixtures becomes well blended.

6.   Place the onions, water, wine, and broth into a large pot.

7.   Bring the mixture to a boil

8.   Turn the heat down to a low-medium temperature and simmer for 10 minutes

9.   While your soup is simmering, slice the bread into 4 1 inch slices and toast the bread until it is crisp.

10.  After the soup has been simmering for 10 minutes ladle the soup into four bowls and place the bowls on the jelly-roll pan.

11.   Plop the toast into the soup and place a slice of cheese on top

12.  Carefully place the pan into the oven for about 5 minutes, or until the chees is completely melted

13.  All that’s left is to enjoy your delicious French Onion Soup!

Thanks for reading, Kirstin  

Chicken and Rice

Hello everybody! Welcome the second day of Soup(er) week. Today is another favorite of mine; Chicken and Rice Soup. Hope you love it, thanks for reading, Kirstin  

Ingredients:

·         2 cooked chicken breasts (sliced or pulled)

·         16 oz. carton of chicken broth or stock

·         2 large carrots (peeled and sliced)

·         ½ of an onion

·         Sprinkle of parsley leaves

·         Garlic

·         1 cup cooked rice (if you desire)

·         (I just throw in spices to taste, cinnamon is my favorite!)  

What to do:

1.    Cook the chicken fully and slice or pull it. To pull boil the chicken until cooked and “tease” or shred the chicken with 2 forks.

2.   If you want rice cook the rice and set aside

3.   Pour the broth into a large pot and simmer

4.   Throw in all the veggies

5.   Bring to a boil for 10 minutes (until the veggies are cooked)

6.   Then plop the chicken, rice, and the spices, simmer the soup for 5 minutes

7.   Serve and enjoy!

Sweet Potato Soup

Happy Monday all! Today marks the first day of Soup(er) Week! Today I will be sharing a new recipe I tried over the weekend: Sweet Potato Soup! I’m not the biggest fan of soup and broth but I had to eat soup because of my wisdom teeth being removed. This one is quite delicious as well; hope you enjoy it, Kirstin.

 Sweet Potato Soup

·         1 TBS flour

·         1 TBS butter

·         1 ½ cups chicken broth

·         1 TBS brown sugar

·         1 ½ cups cooked sweet potatoes (I used 2 medium sized sweet potatoes)

·         ¼ of an onion

·         2 TBS apple sauce

·         ¼ tsp. ground ginger

·         1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon

·         1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg

·         1 cup milk or cream

·         Salt (to taste)

What to Do:

1.    In a large pot, over medium heat, mix the flour and the butter. Stirring constantly until roux is a light caramel brown.

2.   Add the chicken broth and the brown sugar. Bring to a boil. Then lower to a simmer.

3.   With a beater, beat the sweet potatoes. Add them to the broth along with the remainder of the purple ingredients.  Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minuets.

4.   In a blender puree the soup.

5.   Put the pureed soup back into the pot and add the milk or cream, add salt to taste.

6.   Serve warm (add a couple marshmallows on top if you like) and enjoy!  

Soup(er) Week

Hello lovelies! Sorry it’s been a little while! I had my wisdom teeth removed on Wednesday. I’m puffy and very tired! But I’m also gearing up for a cook-a-long next week. Here on Chasing Daylight October 17 thru 21 shall be Soup(er) week! (my brother wanted it to be called that so I humored him) if any of you have a favorite soup feel free to email me and I’ll give it a try! Hope you all enjoy next week!

Thanks for stopping by, Kirstin

The Best Cookies Ever

These are my favorite cookies in the ENTIRE world! I hope you all enjoy them as much as I do! Thanks for reading, Kirstin  

Ingredients:

½ cup butter

¼ cup vegetable oil

½ cup peanut butter

¾ cup sugar

¾ cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1 ½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 cup flour

2 cups rolled oats

1 ½ cups chocolate chips (or any goodies you care to put in)

Instructions:

·         Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

·         Mix (blender works good for this) all the green ingredients together

·         Blend in the blue ingredients

·         Plop the yummy dough on a cookie sheet and bake for 12-14 minutes

·         Let the cookies cool and enjoy!

Lovely Links

Congratulations!! We made it through another work week! I found some lovely hair accessories on Pinterest to brighten up your weekend!

First off this lovely tutorial on how to tie a scarf to use as a headband: http://www.keikolynn.com/2011/07/head-scarf-tutorial.html

Next Disney at Ruffles and Stuff shows us how to whip up some adorable bow hair clips:  http://www.rufflesandstuff.com/2011/09/simple-projects-week-bows.html

 

And finally these charming little bobby pins from Sew Much Ado: http://sewmuchado.blogspot.com/2011/04/anthro-knock-off-tutorial-brocco.html

Thanks so much for reading! Kirstin

Hug Printable

Howdy lovelies! Lately I’ve been playing around in Photoshop and created this lovely printable for all my wonderful readers. Hope you enjoy it!

And here’s the link-

http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/67802681?access_key=key-21uqo3ymwcwkbygjm4ll

Thank's for reading!    Kirstin

Asian Pasta Salad

Hey all! Hope you’re having a wonderful Wednesday. One quick fact- I love Asian food!! It is by far my favorite food ethnicity. This is one of the best dishes I have made, it’s pretty American but with an Asian flare. Hope you all enjoy it, thanks for reading!

Kirstin

Asian Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

8oz. dried linguine (uncooked)

3 cups broccoli

12 halved cherry tomatoes

4 sliced green onions

2 large carrots

Sauce:

¼ cup soy sauce

2 Tbs. sesame seeds

2 Tbs. brown sugar

2 Tbs. dark sesame oil

1 Tbs. lemon juice

¼ tsp. hot sauce

1 large minced garlic clove

What to Do:

Cook pasta according to package directions; drain. Rinse with cold water; drain again. Place pasta in cold water. Add the rest of ingredients, except for the sauce.

Combine sauce ingredients in a small jar and shake. Pour over pasta and stir in.   


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Thinking Out Loud

Lately I have been asking God “why” a lot.

Why am I sick?

Why can’t I be normal?

Why does life have to be 20 times harder than the people I see around me?

Putting all those together, I realized how selfish that is. I have so much to be thankful; for. All my confusion is a blessing. My questions shouldn’t be about me, they should be about God and what He wants out of my life.

Just thinking out loud, thanks for reading, Kirstin