Chicken Broccoli Cheese Soup

Wanna get this on the blog before I forget how I did it, because it's just THAT good.

Tonight I threw together dinner real quick--I've been sick all week, and now that I'm starting to feel better, my husband is sick as all get out. :( So, soup was definitely on the menu!

I'd been craving broccoli cheese soup all week, but was too sick to go out to dinner, and the deli at the market didn't have any...and yeah, canned stuff is not good to eat by itself. LMBO! Not sure why I didn't think to just make it for myself sooner....I mean, I had all the ingredients and everything on hand....likely because I was sick, though.

I just threw this together with no real plan other than to reach broccoli cheese soup status by suppertime, so there are no photos...sorry!

Here are the ingredients I used, though:

1 small onion, chopped fine

4 cloves fresh garlic, minced

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or thighs, or leftover rotisserie chicken or or or or....I won't judge ya)

1 1/2 pounds of frozen broccoli florets (You can use pieces if you'd like, or even a mix of broccoli and cauliflower would work)

1 lb cheddar cheese, shredded

1/3 lb provolone (I ordered some from the deli the other night for sandwiches, and it was cut WAY too thick for sandwiches....so I wanted to use it up...you don't really HAVE to use provolone if you don't have it on hand)

4 cups of milk

4 cups of hot water (you could absolutely use stock if you've got it on hand....I haven't been shopping all week cuz I've been sick, so water it was tonight!)

2 tbsp flour

2 tbsp oil

Tabasco sauce to taste (I think I used like 10-12 dashes for a 5 qt. pot of soup? I didn't count....)

1 packet of instant mashed potatoes--The packet I had made 2 cups of prepared mashed potatoes. I know this sounds REALLY weird, but it'll help thicken it up. You don't have to use the whole packet if you don't want to...stir it in a bit at a time, wait a few mins and see how it thickens up before adding more, etc.

Old bay, fresh cracked black pepper, etc. to taste (I used about 2 tbsp of Old Bay and about 30 cranks of really coarsely ground black pepper.)

That's really it. :)



Start by putting the oil into a pan to heat up over medium heat. Chop up the onion and garlic, throw it in the oil. Cut up the chicken into bite size pieces (I did mine in about 1/2" x 1/2" cubes this time) and toss it in. Dump in the broccoli, cover and let cook for about 10 mins, stirring occasionally.

Pour in the milk and water/stock, season to your liking with Old Bay, Tabasco and black pepper. Bring it to a boil, then turn it down to a simmer and cover. Cook till the broccoli is tender to your liking.

Meanwhile, shred up the cheddar cheese. Mix the flour with the cheddar so it doesn't get clumpy when you add it to your soup. Break the provolone into bits.

Once the broccoli is tender to your liking, add the provolone, mixing after each slice. Once the provolone is all incorporated, add the cheddar a handful at a time, stirring to melt and combine after each addition, until the cheddar is all in the pot.

Bring it back to a simmer, and add the instant potatoes to desired thickness.

Voila! Big pot o' Chicken-Broccoli-Cheese Soup!

Dear Nyquil

How do I love thee? Oh, let me count the ways.....

I started this week with the worst cough I have experienced in recent memory and oh, my goodness how I have been married to this bottle for the last few days. But, today I am finding myself straying....see, as the cough has dwindled, a new set of symptoms has moved into town, and I'm finding myself in falling deeper and deeper for this pretty girl's equally pretty cousin....

So, I'm so in love with these girls that I may be considering becoming a lesbian and leaving my husband and children and moving to some polygamous colony in Utah with them...

...I *REALLY* hope I feel better soon, because I'm awfully fond of my husband and children, but right now these two girls are making me happier than my husband and children ever could have, especially since they've really been making my constant migraine from all the coughing worse....

Tiny Backyards in the Springtime

I think it's safe to say that it's officially Springtime in my neck of the woods. The weather has been in the 60s-low 70s for the last couple weeks straight, and it is just gorgeous outside!

This year brings a new opportunity for our family. For the first time since having children, we live in a house with a small enough backyard where we can view every square inch of it from just about every part of the first floor and half of the second floor of our house. On top of that, our exceedingly tiny yard is 100% privacy fenced with a gate that is locked from the inside as well as from the outside, so it's safe--no one is coming in, and no children are escaping. What does that mean? That means that for the first time in my children's lives, they have ultimate freedom in our back yard. They can come and go as they please, as if it's simply another room in our home.

And my children LOVE their backyard! They have a swingset, lots of outside toys, and more patio space than they know what to do with. They can run and jump and swing and climb and slide and bounce balls and jump rope and draw with chalk and dig in the dirt and blow bubbles and and and and and and...till their hearts' content. And they do. All day long. Every single day.

They come in at the end of the day exhausted. They get a bath and go to bed without so much as an ounce of fussiness almost every night. Ahhhhh, I love Spring!!!

When I looked at this house, I have to admit that I was skeptical about the size of the backyard, but it's proving to be the BEST part of this house!!

I'm *NOT* Microwave-Compatible!

I'd just like to say that it takes mad amounts of skill to blow up a cereal bowl with 2 sticks of butter in it....on 30% power....before the butter is even half melted....

Add this incident to the 3 microwaves I've ruined in the last year, and ya know, I'm beginning to think that I'm not microwave-compatible. I think maybe I should leave all future nuking tasks to my husband.

That is all.

French Coconut Pie

If you've never listened to me before, listen now.

You must make this pie. I mean it. You MUST. MAKE. THIS. PIE.

It is that awesome, and it only takes about $5 worth of ingredients.

I didn't do a photo-by-photo tutorial, because the bloggers over at Tasty Kitchen did it already. :)

French Coconut Pie on Tasty Kitchen's Blog

Holy yum.

This is why I don't blog...

It's been 2 1/2 weeks since I posted to this blog. I'm already slacking! haha! There hasn't been much going on around here worthy of blogging. I have taken photos of a few recipes, including one I totally bombed, but I haven't gotten around to uploading them from my memory card, though. Hopefully I'll have time to do that this week.

Meanwhile....you should totally check out these recipes:

Tiramisu on Give Peas a Chance
Penne a la Betsy on PW
Blueberry French Toast (baked)
Strawberry Whipped Sensation
Luscious Slush Punch
Homemade Snickers Bars
Cheesecake Brownies
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies on Smitten Kitchen
Cranberry Cheesecake Pie
Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Banana Bread on Half Assed Kitchen
BBQ Crackers on Patio Daddio
Waffles on Give Peas a Chance
Shepherd's Pie on Hillbilly Housewife
Soft Pretzels on Smitten Kitchen
Phyllo Cigars on Give Peas a Chance (seriously, try these, if you don't try anything else on this list!)
Cashew Chicken on Tasty Kitchen
Pig Candy on Patio Daddio


Ok, that should be enough to keep ya busy for a while! :) Hope everyone has a happy Easter!

Crayola Colored Bubbles--a review

I'm using the word 'review' lightly here....because I really have nothing good to say about them other than in theory, this is an AWESOME idea! It is really unfortunate that it was so poorly executed.

I took my kids to Walmart to pick out a couple new outside toys. My older son wanted these colored bubbles he'd been seeing on TV. He picked a set that came with half a dozen different wands and two bottles of the bubble soap--orange and green. Package says "Washable" in very prominent letters, and 'Spill-Resistant Bottles!', so I figured we were good to go. My younger son picked out a few other things. Seeing the fight this was going to cause, I picked up some of Walmart's cheapy bubble soap with similar 'spill resistant' lids as well.

We got home about an hour later and the kids, of course, wanted to go outside and use their new bubbles. So I got the scissors out and opened the clamshell package (seriously, WAY overpackaged, Crayola, just sayin') and ripped the seals off the Crayola bottles. Wow....This stuff looks like straight food coloring. I kid you not. It could easily pass for a 4 oz bottle of liquid food coloring. Wow. My better judgment tells me not to give it to my kids. Ya know, though, I've never had ANY issues with Crayola products. Like, at all. I used to teach preschool, and we used nothing BUT Crayola products. I buy practically nothing else for my own kids, either. Never had an issue with Crayola products staining anything, or being any less than spectacular in any way. So, I went against my better judgment and handed over the bubble soap and sent the kids outside. (I gave my 7 year old his colored bubbles, and my 5 year old the regular clear ones...no, this isn't 'unfair', for anyone who may whine--my 5 year old picked another toy as his 'treat'. The new bubbles were simply 'extra' for him.)

I quickly noticed my older son being somewhat messy with it on the patio furniture, so I made him move to the other side of the patio...if for no other reason than that I didn't want to have to take the umbrella down to scrub orange and green spots off of it later....we'll forget about the side of the house and the 2nd floor windows, etc. that I didn't want to clean. haha! I really didn't think too much about the colored spots all over the concrete patio, because, well, again, it's Crayola, and it's WASHABLE.

The boys played with the bubbles for about an hour. They obviously enjoyed their bubbles yesterday! My 7 year old came inside and cleaned up, so I went out to play with my 5 year old. He really wanted to try his brother's colored bubbles, so I said sure, and got them back out. We had fun blowing bubbles together for about 20 minutes before my bladder demanded I go inside to go potty. ;) So I ran inside real quick (my 5 year old is perfectly capable of playing in the fully locked and privacy fenced back yard by himself for a few minutes, trust me). It's just bubble soap, and it's got a similar spill resistant top as the other stuff he hasn't spilled yet. *runs inside*

I go back outside and the utter carnage was nothing short of impressive. Hahaha!

Mental note: Crayola tops are not as spill resistant as cheapy Walmart brand ones. Imagine that?!

See? Impressive, especially considering I was inside for 1-2 mins at the MOST. (I'm going to spare you photos of the THOUSANDS of little dribble and bubble pop spots all over my fence, patio, house, etc....since those are to be expected. LOL!)

As shocking as that mess was, I really should've taken a photo of the kid, but these photos were an afterthought after I got him (and his footprints, and hand prints from the back door to the bathroom) cleaned up. haha! He was covered literally from head to toe. He had it IN HIS EARS. How does that happen? LOL! Oh well. It's Crayola, and it's washable...right?

Bring the kid inside, strip him down, throw his clothes--AND SHOES--into the washer (this is what play clothes are for, after all!), get him redressed and run to Lowes. See, we live in a townhouse...with underground sprinklers. We've lived here for 2 months...it's the first week of April. We have had no need to buy a garden hose before now, so we didn't own one. The package clearly says do not let sit longer than 1 week. Well great, it's only been 20 minutes, so it should come up pretty easily right? I wish!

Hosed it off....tons of green and orange water resulting (haha!), barely faded it. I've got to say that I was amazed at how little actual soap suds came off of the spots. I mean, this stuff is supposed to be bubble soap, right? Got out the scrub brushes, and just about every cleaner in our house--laundry soap, dish soap, Oxyclean, Awesome, vinegar & baking soda, CLR, Lime Away, Scrubbing Bubbles, Tilex, Lysol toilet cleaner, bleach, even various trial packets I had in a junk drawer. NOTHING pulled it off the concrete. We scrubbed and scrubbed till the soap suds ran white. *sigh*

Here are the 'after' photos:

Oh...I guess I *DO* have another nice thing to say about this product--it washed completely out of my son's clothing. Not that I was worried about his play clothes. His week old shoes will never be black and white again, but that's ok. MOST of it came out of his shoes when I threw them through the washer, too.

I've gotta say, this product pretty much needs a big, fat "FAIL!" stamp on the label. Awesome idea, extremely poor execution on Crayola's part. Even if it didn't stain, I probably wouldn't buy it again, as it's really crappy bubble solution that doesn't produce bubbles easily, and when the kids managed to get actual bubbles from it, they were small and there were only a couple from a freshly dipped wand.

I suppose I should add that I called Crayola this morning to voice my concerns. They are issuing me $10 in coupons to purchase a different Crayola product that I DO enjoy. I guess that's good, considering the bubbles cost $8 plus tax, but I wasn't real concerned about my wasted money so much as the mess. I was told 'the rain and sun will fade the stains in about 2-3 weeks'. Um....okie? The rep suggested I spray it with Tilex Mold & Mildew cleaner a couple times a day till the spots are gone. Um....okie? Apparently she missed the part about me not just hosing it off...but scrubbing the bejeezus out of it with every chemical in my house, including Tilex, which was laughable, by the way. Of everything I tried, Tilex did the least bit of good.

Time will tell, I suppose. I'm giving them the 2-3 weeks for the benefit of the doubt, although I'm still rolling my eyes. Doubt it'll do much good. I'll be sure to update this post with follow up photos in a couple of weeks. For now, I would *HIGHLY* recommend against buying this product for your children...unless, of course, you LIKE the permanently speckled look to your patio, fence, and house....Who knows? Maybe the speckled look will be all the rage in suburban backyard decor this summer!

Although, for those doll collectors who know me...I MAY try to cover it in Removezit and Oxy10 and bleach it out in the sun like I would an ink stain on a vinyl CPK head....hrm....That idea does have potential, although it'd likely get spendy. I wonder if the dollar store carries generic Oxy10? Hrm.....