Strawberry Shortcake

Yes, you read that right. 

While I may have given up sweets for Lent, I found a way to make up for it during breakfast.

Last Friday after yoga-madness we had everyone over for our weekly dinner, and this week pancakes won out. And there were a lot left over. 

Not wanting to go the traditional route of pancakes in the morning I decided to spruce it up.

Greek honey yogurt, a smidge of honey, and strawberries.

What I ended up with was a delicious recreation of a (hopefully healthier) version of strawberry shortcake.

And the fact that it satisfies my sweet tooth is just an added benefit :)

All I can say is that in 5 days I will be in a very happy sugar-high state :)

Home-made Chicken Noodle Soup

A few weeks ago I found a burst of productivity and slammed out to massive meals in one fell swoop.

Why this productivity can't hit me all the time, I'll never know... but if it did I'm pretty sure I could solve world hunger...and peace.

Yes. I'm that productive.

It all started with the whole frozen chicken we got for free from Manna (an awesome program at a local church that provides us with free food! Score!)

I first decided to make a casserole (I'll be posting that later this week) and then I found that I had  A LOT of broth, and quite a bit of chicken left over.

Which meant...

chicken noodle soup.

What you need:

Whole Chicken

Water

Carrots (as many as you can handle)

Celery (same as above)

Onion (same as above)

butter (to saute celery and onions)

2-3 Eggs

Flour (no exact amount you'll see why later)

Parsley 

Salt

 Step 1:

fill up a large stock pot with water and place the chicken in.

make sure that the chicken is pretty much covered with water.

Bring it to a boil then drop it down to a simmer and let it sit with a lid on .

It took maybe 1.5- 2hours for my chicken to be done.

The legs will literally be falling off and the skin will come off easily.

When your chicken is done take it out and let it cool.

Step 2: 

Once the chicken has cooled start ripping the meat of the bone.

If you are a vegetarian the next picture may frighten you.

Your chicken will end up looking kind of like this. This was maybe 1/2 way through the process.

(I forgot to mention... the water you boiled your chicken in has now become your broth...so please don't toss it out!)

Step 3:

Chop up your veggies and add 'em in!

Step 4:

As for the celery and onions...

sauté them in some butter before adding them into the mix.

Why?

I'm not sure... my mom told me too.

But it did add some yummy buttery flavor to the pot!

Next come the "noodles" or as my mom calls them..

rivlets.

Step 5:

Take your eggs and beat them with a fork. Add in some salt and parsley and stir it all together.

Step 6:

Now you'll want to start adding in flour.

Keep mixing until the batter is quite thick. As in it takes like 3 minutes for a glop of it to fall off the fork :)

Ok... maybe not that thick. But it definitely should NOT be runny.

Just waiting for the Rivlets to arrive

Step 7:

Put your rivlet batter into a strainer (yes, it's weird. just do it. my mom said so.)

And start smashing it through.

You want little tiny dumplings in your soup, not great big ones.

Or maybe you do want great big ones... but for the purpose of this post, you want tiny ones.

I guarantee that your arms will start to hurt from holding the strainer and trying to smash the rivlet batter through the tiny holes.

I also guarantee that you will then make your husband do it while you steal the camera and get some awesome shots of the rivlets.

And this goes without saying... but all that work will have totally been worth it when this batch of soup feeds you, your husband, and friends for the next couple of days.

Super Easy. Super Delicious.

Enjoy!

Meet Dan

I just have to start by saying we've been 100% blessed by the amazing people we've met out here.

The group of gals and guys we've been getting to know have just be great.

They share our love of God, learning, food, excellent movies (read: Tommy Boy), and the boys happen to share a passion of cooking :)

Jon has definitely been the meal maker around here before and I ALWAYS appreciate a man who can cook, no matter who he is.

Last friday a few of us ladies went to free yoga while the boys played X-box and then made us dinner.  I am all for coming home to tacos and fajitas that I didn't help prepare in any way shape or form.

Our friend Dan then volunteered himself to make us brunch the next morning

biscuits. and. gravy

I took him up on his offer, and he didn't disappoint.

Meet Dan. Dan is the Man

not to be confused with Jon who is my Mon (a little Jamaican flare for ya'll)

OH breakfast sausage... it's been WAAAAAAAY to long.

getting the gravy ready. 

you most definitely do not want to know how much butter and salt went into this

let's just say it was totally worth my stomach feeling slightly uncomfortable for the next 2 days.

The sausage has been added... magic is happening folks

crisp.golden.biscuits

yes

please

For the love...

This was inhaled in about 2 minutes, I'm still salivating thinking about them

Dan you are definitely the man, and I'm totally thinking we need to make this 

"guys cooking for the gals" a weekly habit :)

Question: Does anyone know some substitutions that would maybe make this a little healthier? Not that I don't love clogging my arteries...

Lent

Today is fat tuesday... and I'm indulging in some last minute ice cream :)

Last year for Lent Jon and I started our journey with The Love Dare and really loved it, but this year I decided to sacrifice something that is very close to me. sweets. and hopefully most processed sugars.

My friend Claire and I decided we were giving it a go and keeping each other accountable. Our definition would be cakes, candy, ice cream, cookies, etc. and I'm hoping to extend that to a lot of processed sugar. I'll stick with honey for a little sweetener, but for the next 40 days I'm calling it quits!

Growing up with Lent I don't know that I fully understand the true concept of doing something for Lent, but for me, now, it means sacrificing something that is important to me. and believe me, sugar is EXTREMELY important to me...

shall we take a gander??

Clearly I have some sort of addiction

although I will say that I'm having a little bit of a struggle at the thought of giving up my frozen yogurt. While the gummy bears and fruity pebbles are obviously not an option, my frozen yogurt choices have 0g of sugar, and no HFCS or anything like that..

 (yes I looked up the nutrition facts and ingredients online)

What do you think??

Are ya'll giving up anything for Lent?

I love work

... Jon's work that is.

He now works for Denver Seminary as part of the set up crew for events... which means....

amazing leftovers.

chocolate covered strawberries and the most amazing oreo cupcake... EVER.

it reminds me of my catering days. hopefully I won't add on the 10 pounds from my catering days.

meh... I won't think about that right now. I'll just wash it all down with some milk :)

I wonder when Jon works next... maybe I can request some creme brulee?

Dinna' Time

Tonight Jon and I found ourselves in a bit of a quandary.

Jon had been sick all day, I'd been studying, and we had church at 6.

While I thoroughly enjoy Saturday evening church, it's a difficult time to plan dinner around.

We don't like eating before because it's too early, and by the time we get home at 8 we don't want to take the time to prep and cook.

We were thinking of some sort of cheesy potato creation and something to use up the massive amounts of venison we have occupying our freezer space.

So I decided to was time for the crock-pot to pay a visit and we whipped up this little creation in no time!

Now I will say... the pictures aren't fabulous (dang you yellow lighting!) and there are non of the prep, but it's beyond simple... and it's so satisfying :)

What you'll need:

6-7 potatoes sliced (we did ours a it thicker, but you can do any size)

1 chopped onion

1 lb ground venison (or hamburger, ground turkey... or whatever you prefer)

Lowry's season salt

2 heads of broccoli

3/4 c milk

1 can cream of mushroom soup

Shredded Cheddar Cheese (as much as you prefer)

1) use your prep crew (i.e. Jon) to slice potatoes, cut onions, and split up the broccoli.

2) While your prep crew is doing that, brown the meat with seasoned salt and some garlic powder if you like.

3)layer the potatoes, onions, venison, broccoli and cheese... then layer 'em again

4) stir together milk and cream of mushroom soup and pour on the top of your layers

5) put the crockpot on high and come back from church 3 hours later... and dig in :)

a little salt and pepper on top to taste and you've got yourself a hearty, yummy, satisfying meal :)

And don't forget to enjoy with some Woodhuck Hard Cider...

What are some of your fave crock-pot creations?

La Dolce Vita: The last of Cinque

We had assumed that since the past 2 days had been gloriously sunny, no rain, and warmer temps... the trails would be open!!! And one was. The dinky walk of love... a solid 20 minute walk from Riomaggiore to Manorola. To say we were beyond bummed is an under-exaggeration. I think all of us were a bit cranky... but we managed to perk up and hike the one and only trail that was open.

Ashley and I putting out the "vibe" on the walk of love

Sara + Ashley

= BFF for life :)

yummy calzone and pizza for dinna

Soooooo delish

Our last day consisted of no hiking (shocker) and taking Dan (ashley's bf) to Genoa to get his flight back to Bulgaria.

When we got back to Vernazza the delicious gelato stand was open!!! 

So of course we hit it up :)

Limone, Strawberry, and some sort of Orange... sugar free, and milk free... and probably the BEST gelato I've EVER had.... oh goodness.

We ended our last evening with a rainbow and rain :)

Although we weren't able to hike through Cinque Tierre... it was still gloriously beautiful and I feel so blessed that we were able to go!!!

I guess we'll just have to go back to hit up the hiking :)

Finlandia: I ate Rudolph

It's hard for me to believe that we've been gone from Korea land for two weeks.

That in those past two weeks we've traveled around Finland and gone to Russia.

What's even more unbelievable is that tomorrow we embark on a 5 week trip around Europe. Who am I?

So, tonight for our farewell dinner (well not quite we'll be back for a weekend in Nov.) Joel and Miia took us too a traditional Finnish Restaurant.

It was phenomenal!

I ate Rudolph

Reindeer, mashed potatoes, and cranberries... delish.

Jon and Joel went for Bullwinkle

And just to show that one of us is animal and cartoon friendly

Miia got the Vegetable casserole

It was a wonderfully delicious way to end an amazing two weeks in Finland.

We've had such a great time with Joel and Miia and have felt so blessed to go on this adventure!

Speaking of going on an adventure... I have a feeling our internet access could be zilch as we are traveling which means blogging might not happen. If it does, it'll be sporadic and random. 

Hopefully I'll get to post with each country we are headed too... but you never know!

For now I'm signing off and enjoying our last evening before the madness and travel begins!

St. Petersburg: The Churches

We got off the ship and headed out for the day!

We decided to make Friday, Churches day. And oh my goodness we saw some absolutely GORGEOUS churches. This post is only half of the photos... sorry bout that :)

This was our first church stop. The Church of the Lady Kazan.  Unfortunately we weren't able to take pictures. But oh my goodness it was so lovely. There was a service going on so songs were echoing through every area.  There were people praying, prostrating themselves on the ground, and so many candles I couldn't believe it. I wanted to stay forever, it was just so... dare I say... heavenly?

Then it was time for a lunch pit stop.

Melissa Gaalswyk these pictures are for you :)

mmmmm what's that??? Melissa... I was thinking of you!

Amazingness :)

Our next stop was the Church of the Savior on the Blood. It marks the spot where Alexander II was fatally wounded.... now isn't that a nice little story? But this church was the sweetest thing I've ever seen.

Staring at how awesome it is.

Now, as you are looking at ALL of the following pictures keep in mind that ALL of what you see on the wall (except for the obvious marble) is mosaic. As in, all tiny little tiles about the size of my thumb nail... put into place. Are you freaking kidding me!? I just wish I could've found out how many tiles are actually on all of those walls and ceilings.

Ya see that Jesus up in the dome? Tiles... allllllll tiles.

ALL TILES! Can you imagine the time that would take?

The large canopy thing is the exact spot that Alexander II was fatally wounded.

And what would a vacation be without souvenirs??

Coming up, St. Isaac's Church... one of the largest cathedrals in the world!

Who's excited!?