French Onion Soup

I do not like french onion soup. 

I have found out that I LOVE french onion soup. 

Get this, no one else I live with likes it so I don't have to share!!! 
(insert happy dance here!)  

Here it is: 

I think that I left it in the broiler a little to long. :( 

OR I didn't add enough cheese to the top. 

Yes I think I will go with that. Not enough cheese!!

This is what you will need:

6 medium onions, thinly sliced

3 garlic cloves, minced

5 tablespoons of butter

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (I used WildTree!)

2 tablespoons brown sugar

3 tablespoons flour

64 ounces of beef stock-low sodium (or 8 cubes) 

1/2 teaspoon pepper 

french bread

Mozzarella cheese 

     (I know I know it's not what you use, it's what I had!!) 

I have been checking out other recipes and another girl put in beer! Now that's something I might have to do next time. 8-12 ounces. 

To cook: Use soup pot over medium heat, add onions, garlic, brown sugar, butter, balsamic and pepper. Mix until combined. Let it cook until the onions turn a caramel color, remember to stir occasionally. Add in the flour and stir until mixed again. Let it sit for 5 minutes. Add in the beef stock and bring to a boil. Now if you only have the cubes. Follow directions on the jar to make the stock. Turn the heat down and let it simmer. I will make this in the morning then let it simmer until lunch time. By then I can not handle it anymore and I have to eat it!! 

Before I do though I add the soup to a oven safe bowl cut up my french bread place that on top and add cheese! I turn my boiler on then on a cookie sheet I place my bowl. Keep your eye on it, the cheese on top will melt pretty quickly. 2-3 minutes. 

A Week of Valentine's

I am not a big fan of Valentine's Day. A day that if you have a guy in your life they are "made" to do something for you. I think that they should always do something nice for you. Although the longer that I am married I am understanding why so many other women love this day. I was watching a show yesterday and the host was telling a woman, a man does not "forget" Valentine's Day. He is just cheap. Now I am not saying Chris is cheap. He is just lacking in being creative with the money he has. So this year I started early. I sent him a link for free dates ideas and also a link to something I would love if he had the money. We will see if anything happens. 

So just because Valentine's Day isn't the greatest for myself that doesn't mean I can't have fun with the girls. I cut out little hearts and have been putting them up on their bedroom door with cute little sayings on them. We have spent time getting the cards ready for school. Avery has been working on writing her name. She has gotten pretty good at it. Although she spells it "Avert" lol. That "Y" is still a little hard for her! I have been crafting and I showed Whitney how to stitch the blanket stitch. She is making her boyfriend a present. It's an elephant out of old Valentine pj bottoms I had gotten her years ago. Tonight, Avery and I will put together the butterfly cards I made with Whitney when she was in preschool. 

I have been cooking a lot more lately. I found a recipe on Pinterest that showed carrots in the shape of hearts. So I HAD to do that. Turns out they are not as easy as I thought. Everyone still loved them though. This is what I made. 

Chicken Riddle Soup, 
from "Kids in the Kitchen" Cookbook from Pampered Chef. 

Cute right? :)

This is what you will need;

1 small onion

2 medium carrots

2 celery stalks

2 tablespoons snipped parsley

3/4 pound chicken

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 garlic clove

2 packages ramen-chicken flavor

5 cups water 

Cut onion, peel and cut carrots.(for the hearts, cut v-shape out of top then peel to shape into hearts) cut up celery, mince the garlic. I put all of this into a soup pot. I cooked them until they were softened. Then added the seasoning packets and the water. 

I cooked the chicken in a pan after cutting them into cubes. Once they were done I added them to the soup pot. Bring soup to a boil then reduce the heat to low and cover. Simmer for 15 minutes. 

Break noodles into small pieces, this part was fun!!! Add them to the soup, increase the heat to medium. Cook until the noodles are tender. 

Just before serving stir in the parsley. 

OK you may have noticed that I crossed out the parsley and the salt. I didn't have parsley and to tell you the truth. I wouldn't have added it if I did. My kids do not like green things floating around the soup. Add it if your kids are not weird like mine! Then I didn't add anymore salt. If you have ever had the ramen you know that it has enough salt in the seasoning packet. 

Thanks for letting me share! I hope this all make sense if not. Blame the lack of coffee!! OR just post a comment if you have any questions. 

Always and Forever,

Just Kim

I Made Dinner Tonight!!

I know there are people out there all the time making dinner every night for the family or yourself. I just have not felt like it. So I am doing the happy dance that I did do it. Well until Avery wouldn't eat the smallest piece of chicken ever! That story can be for later. Stay tuned!!! LOL. 

This is what I made. Creamy Bow-Tie Pasta with Chicken and Broccoli. YUMMY!! F.Y.I. Please read the whole blog post before making! 

Don't you just love my plates? 

They look so nice next to the broccoli. 

Here is what you need:

3 cups (8oz) bow-tie pasta(or the whole box)

4 cups broccoli florets, (I used half of a 10 oz bag)

3 Tbsp. Italian Dressing, (use what ever one is on sale!)

1.5 lbs. of Chicken, 

   (I do not like touching chicken so I got the tenders. 

    Then most of the cutting it done! Woot!)

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 can of Hunt's four cheese pasta sauce, (.88@Walmart!! Hello!)

8 oz of Cream Cheese (yes you can used the low fat one, party pooper)

1/4 cup of Parmesan Cheese

I cut up my chicken a couple of hours before dinner and put it in a dish with some of the salad dressing, then put it back in the refrigerator. 

COOK pasta as directed on the package. In the last three minutes throw in the broccoli. (This is where I take some of the pasta out before the broccoli and make buttered noodles for Avery)

While that is cooking start chicken. I heated my pan and put in a little of Wild Tree's Grape Seed Oil with the garlic. Once that looked good I scooped out the chicken and put it in the pan. It shouldn't take more then 10 minutes to cook. (Make sure it reaches, 160F)

While the pasta is cooking and the chicken is cooking put the pasta sauce in a sauce pan and put on the stove. Cube the cream cheese and throw that in with the sauce. (This is really something I do first just because it takes a little bit for the cheese to melt into the sauce)

Drain the pasta and broccoli. You can put this into a serving dish or save yourself dishes and use the pot you cooked it in. Don't forget the trivet for your table. Once the the chicken is cooked the sauce should be done. Bring everything to the table. Enjoy!!! 

Now in all reality I don't think that my hubby ate anything all day and this did not fill him. So salad as another side might be a good idea. You could add more chicken. I only used that amount because I have an Avery that doesn't eat the chicken. Nice segway huh? 

So little miss I don't eat chicken, "oh but you kind of do because you eat nuggets. Now I know you wouldn't if you only knew what was in them....well never mind! You like chicken!!"

I told her at the beginning of dinner that she had to try my chicken. Not even a whole chunk half of that. She said no, shocker right? So everyone is done with dinner, plates are cleared, lunches are made, dishes had been started. Whitney took a shower. Avery, she is still at the table, with the smallest piece of chicken ever! She screamed, she stomped, she "cried", she plotted. (Her plan was to wait until everyone was asleep then she was going to bed and still not eat the chicken!!) She finally ate it and then wanted more!! 

OH. MY. GOSH!!! 

I hope you like it, let me know if you have questions. Good luck if you have small people in your life! 

It's Been A Year

It has been more then a year now since my Mom past. It doesn't feel like a year, it doesn't even feel like a month. My heart still hurts every time I think about her. I was at Walmart and a man walked past me and he smelled like my Grandfather. I reached for my phone to call her. Until I realized that I couldn't call her. I even sent her a message on Facebook. There has been so much she has missed. She might have been gone for only a year but she was in the hospital for a while before that. Then before that we couldn't talk on the phone very much due to cell phone minutes. I told her when she was in the hospital that I started this blog. She never got to read any of it. I didn't get to tell her that since the fire I have been able to look back at it and see the blessings. That I have friends that are wonderful. That I am a stronger person. When I would go visit her in the hospital we didn't get to talk like we did before. She was on the vent and what we talked about most was what was going on with her medically. 


The feelings that I have failed her is sometimes to much to handle. I have not buried her ashes. I have not moved into a house. Among other things. Since the beginning of the new year, you see all the stop smoking commercials. My Mom tried those things. They never worked for her. She just didn't want to. Was this her way of slowly killing herself? I will never know. There is another TV commercial that has a Grandmother and Granddaughter spending a birthday together. I told Whitney that I know that can't happen with Nana, but that I will do everything I can to stay healthy. I have been doing so much better with controlling my diabetes. I want to be there for any future grand kids. I am looking forward to sleep overs, date nights and feeding them to much candy. I want to be all the things my Mom couldn't be because she was sick. 

Frog Butts

A few days ago I went out with a friend of mine, Jen, after she was done with work. We went to a local pizza place and vowed not to eat pizza. We didn't have the hubbies or the kids, we could finally have adult food!! Well after looking and looking nothing sounded as good as, $5.75 all you can eat one topping pizza!!! So that's what we got. In that time of trying to figure out what we wanted the poor waitress came by out table three times. We would ask more questions then she would come back. This girl didn't know who she just got sat with. I was being so funny!! Jen was being so funny! We were cracking ourselves up! 

It was nice sitting down to my half cheese half pepperoni and Jen with her half tomato and half chicken and just having adult conversation. It wasn't planned. Whitney got picked up at Jen's store by a friend. Chris just happened to figure out I was at the store and came by. He told me to stay as long as I wanted and he took Avery home with him. Insert the AWE here!!! During dinner, I had asked how her hubby asked her to marry him. She said she didn't really remember, ummm. :/ She asked me how Chris asked me. I told her that he sent me on a scavenger hunt. That will have to be for another blog post. ;)

To tell you the truth I still do not remember how we got to talking about frog butts, and I know I am the one that said something about it first. Football was on the TV's so I am sure it had something to do with that. My thoughts are baby boys and older men are like frogs. You stand the frog up on it's feet, pads what ever and they have no butt. Same with baby boys and older men. The babies are born that way, they have to grow a butt. After time men butts start to erode away. I don't know if it's from having a desk job, scratching it or maybe it fell off into the toilet? Jen I think might have been laughing so hard she was crying a little. She asked me, then what happens with women's butts. 

I told her that they melt into our thighs. 

My Favorite Thing About Fall

This is what I was asked to enter a give away on Facebook. I think that I sat looking at the little blinkie thing for five minutes. I do not have just one thing that is my favorite. I know for most people that fall is their favorite. So I started thinking, what is it about fall that I LOVE? 

The leaves changing is a given. 
Apples and pumpkins go hand in hand also. 
Using blankets for snuggling with my little one. 
The fresh crisp air. 
Cooking w/the oven. I would say baking but I'm diabetic.  
Drinking hot coffee! Oh and spiced apple cider. 
Going to pumpkin farms and corn mazes with friends. 
Crafting, learning how to knit seems like a better idea in fall. 
Eating soup and chili.
Wearing sweaters.
School starting and school pictures.
Not getting picked on for wearing shoes and socks!
Getting ready for Trick or Treat. 
Watching football. Now I will lie about this to the hubby, but it is part of fall that I love. 

I am sure that I am missing a lot of things. For now this is all I can think of. 

What are you favorite thing(S) of Fall? 

Meow Meow Kitties

I miss them. We had three before the fire, one survived. She is now living with my sister and her family. We do not get to see her that much, and I miss her. 

Chris came with Tigger. Orange and white tabby that didn't like me at first. He would chase me out of the bathroom and try to bite the backs of my legs. Then Chris and I moved in together. Tigger and I had a talk one day in the closet. After that we were best friends. We would sit down to eat and he would be right there. Sitting at the table on one of the chairs, looking like he was ready for dinner. I got pregnant with Whitney and he would be by my side as soon as I got home. 

Then we got Cleopatra, Ms. Cleo for short. She was mostly gray with a little white under her chin. We got her from a friend of a friend. She had a little girl that would just chase her. When I got to hold her for the first time I fell in love. She was so small. We brought her home that night without even thinking about it. She was so fun. She would untie my shoes when ever I would put them on. Which was great when I got home from work, not so much when I was leaving! She didn't get very big. So once I got big with Whitney I would still put Cleo on me. Tigger seemed to love her pretty much from the beginning also. I would find them curled around each other sleeping in the sun. 

A few years later we got Princess. A mix of dark brown, and white with a little caramel spot on top of her head. I guess the story goes that one of Chris's co-workers had a kitty that had babies. I said no. He brought home pictures, I fell in love. Jerk! ;) So now this kitty was going to be Whitney's kitty. She was to play with her and clean one of the litter boxes. The cleaning part didn't last very long, but the playing did. Princess would follow her around and cry for her when she went to school. As soon as she would be home Princess would be right on her. She would be licking Whitney's nose and snuggling with her. We tried to have a place on the floor in Whitney's room for her to sleep. Again that didn't last long. We would find Princess in her bed when we would go check on her. 

I remember when it was 10PM Cleo would come out into the living room and meow at me. She was like my Mom telling me it was time for bed. She wouldn't stop until I came to bed. Once I was ready she would wait for me to lay on my right side. Then she would walk up me and lay on my left side. That got to the point I couldn't move, ever! So I got her to move. She would then lay right by my face. I would hug her, smell her and give her a kiss. Then we would go to sleep. Well until Tigger would jump up on Chris's side of the bed, walk over him to get to me. Then lay down on my head. I would move him down by my legs and he would always come back up to my pillow. If I tried to move him to many times he would do a deep meow at me. Letting me know this was not the deal! 

I know that the people that do not have cats or do not even like them probably are thinking that I am crazy. I was, crazy about my furry babies!! They each had a personality. I would call to them, all three in different ways and they would come to me. Chris would be so annoyed by it. "How do you get them to do that?!" I don't know. They just like me better I guess. :)

Not everyday was a great day with three cats in a small apartment with towards the end four people. We bought new furniture right before we had Avery. So the cleaning up after the cat fur was driving me insane. I got big so I no longer wanted extra fur in my face while I was trying to get some sleep. Once Avery came we would find Princess in the fold and go. Chris would have to clean it. Almost everyday. Tigger was getting sick everywhere. Cleo was fine. To tell the truth. I don't even know if Avery ever saw Cleo. So having what felt like four babies was a lot for me to deal with. 

I do miss them though. Sometimes when I am about to be awake, I think I feel one of them jump up on the bed. I get so happy wondering which one it will be. Then I remember where I am and know that's not possible. I have been going to a kitty shelter here in the downtown area. The girls and I have favorites. Chris doesn't go to the shelter. Since being away from the meows for so long he is now allergic to them. So the chances of us getting kitties again in the future really will depend on him being able to breathe.