Ok this was a pretty simple recipe. Most of you probably have a recipe for Vegetable Beef soup that you go to regularly, but I am notorious for never using the same recipe twice.
Last night I made this Vegetable Beef Stew from the Lady & Sons (aka Paula Dean and her two good-looking sons). (I do wish I had taken a picture because my soup doesn't really look like her picture on the site.) It definitely got the seal of approval both from Gabbie and Brent - Gabbie even had a second bowl!
It was SO yummy and VERY flavorful.
I had a few tweaks just based on the availability of my vegetables in my freezer. First, I sauteed a little garlic in the pan before browning my meat. I also only had a bag of vegetable soup mix so instead of chopping up all those carrots and celery and okra, I just dumped a bag into the pot. I then added black eyed peas and lima beans.
I've never had this with macaroni, but I did it last night and it really added a night element of texture to the soup.

Finally, I found this recipe for Red Lobster's Cheddar Garlic Biscuits - they were FANTASTIC. If you have ever tried to make these based on a whim, you may have been disappointed (speaking from experience). These were so fantastic. I think the key to it was using cold butter cut into the bisquick vs some recipes that call for shortening. o.m.g. they were amazing.

I get emails from Tastefully Simple which is a food magazine that my mom used to give me as a gift subscription every year until they just stopped sending them even after she paid for it (arggh). Anyway, I'm still on the email list and occasionally save recipes that they send me.
This week I received one for Slow Cooker Stuffed Bell Peppers. I remember eating these growing up, but I'd never made them for Brent and I (mainly because Brent doesn't like peppers). Every time I used my crock pot, I'm reminded how amazing it is. I mean really, is there is a better meal that you just put everything in a big pot and leave it alone. 8 hours later, it's ready to eat? Seriously brilliant.
I also had read about a chicken tortilla soup recipe from the Pioneer Woman and how she cooked the chicken for it. Again, a new way for me to cook and it sounded as though the flavors would be incredible. The peppers definitely had a tex-mex flare to them, so I wanted the chicken to have a similar taste.
So I took the chicken legs I had, combined a little cumin, chili powder, garlic powder and a pinch of salt. I drizzled a little EVOO over the chicken, then coated the chicken in the spice mixture and baked them on 375 for about 40 minutes. It took a little longer than usual because I only had chicken legs vs breasts or tenders. I would definitely do this one again using chicken breasts or tenders.
When it came out of the oven it looked a lot like this
{I know you're amazed at my photography skilllz. Too bad this isn't my pic - thank you PioneerWoman for being an incredible photographer and letting me borrow your pic}

I didn't take a picture of our entire dinner, mainly because it didn't don on me to do it until after we had polished it off. Let's just say, Mr Whitaker who says he doesn't like peppers polished every bite off his plate as did Gabbie. (and me)

I also discovered that his favorite food is chicken legs. {yuck} We had a deep intellectual conversation over dinner on our favorite "bad" food.
His is KFC's Chicken Legs
Mine is Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. (to which Brent said that's not really a meal - I disagreed and explained I could absolutely make it a meal...)
Neither of which have graced our lips in quite a while, just fyi.
What's your favorite "bad" food?

I have always loved to cook. If you have been around me in the past few years (especially since moving to Nashville) you probably know this. Yes, I own a cake business and yes I obviously bake a lot but I am one of those rare people who like both baking and cooking. A lot of people (like Martha Stewart and Paula Dean) like one or the other. Not me, I like them both.

I have started reading ThePioneerWoman blog a lot more lately - thank you Melody - after realizing she has some AHHHMAZING recipes as well as just funny content. She is fantastic. I've added her blog to the right under "Blogs I Follow." Check it out - I have to say, it is a little tricky to navigate and figure out where her new content is, but it's worth your time. It's also inspired me to involve more of that on my blog - it's a big part of who I am, so why not include it here? I promise I won't turn this into a cooking/recipe blog, but I also use my blog for my own point of reference sometimes - tagging my posts so I can easily go back and find different things I've posted about. {I'm also a little bit of a nerd when it comes to organization. I used to organize my Halloween candy as a child and I even organize my friend groups on Facebook. Wow. Not sure why I just shared that....}

All of our New Year's Eve party food that I prepared was chosen from her blog. I made French Onion Soup Stuff Mushrooms, Spicy Lemon Garlic Shrimp and Mushroom and Swiss Sliders with Fry Sauce. OMG they were all INCREDIBLE! I really should have taken pictures, but if you follow each of those links you will see the amazing photography of Ree - she does an exponentially better job than me at food photography anyway.

I also LOVE using recipes from Faithful Provisions. She sends emails and Facebook updates on coupons and deals, but she also has a great section called her recipe box where she has created yummy recipes based around commons ingredients that are on sale. She does try to make an effort to make them healthy as well. I've talked a lot about her blog over the years - I went to one of her grocery shopping workshops right before I had Gabbie and helped me sooo much. For a while, I was really really good at couponing a little and stockpiling. You may remember a few posts I did bragging about my savings - I still looove to do that, but I'm not as good as taking pictures and posting about it.

So all that to explain a few of my upcoming posts about food.
I've made some super yummy recipes lately and wanted to share them mainly because they all turned out to be super simple and SOO delicious-o. Even Brent, the quirky eater of a husband I have enjoyed them all.

My first one turned out to be such a pretty dinner that I had to post pictures. I wish I had taken a better picture of it because now it's not looking as appetizing as it did when I made it, but I'll work on my photography. I just read a post yesterday from Pioneer Woman about tips she's learned from photographing food....hmm I guess I should re-read that one.