cooking

It’s Soup Season! Southwestern Chowder Recipe

Abby H.

It’s Soup Season y’all! I recently made this soup for the first time after craving something full of veggies, but a little more comforting than a minestrone or Tuscan Sausage soup.

This soup is easy to make and is perfect with cornbread or garlic bread (which many of you know is a staple in my house). I served it with a variety of toppings as well.

Paired with a simple green salad, this is a great fall dinner.

Southwestern Chowder

Ingredients

  • 2 Tablespoons butter or neutral oil (I like Avocado Oil)
  • 1 cup diced onions
  • 1/2 cup peeled and diced carrots
  • 1/2 cup diced celery
  • 2 cups potatoes, cut into bite-size pieces- I used red-skinned potatoes and left the skin on, but if you use russets or Yukon gold (basically any brown-skinned potato), peel them.
  • 1 15 oz. can of corn or 2 cups of frozen corn
  • 1 small can Ortega chilis
  • 2 cups chicken, cut up into bite-sized pieces (leftover rotisserie chicken is great for this or use leftover Turkey!)
  • 4 cups Chicken Stock or Bone Broth
  • 1 can of evaporated milk
  • 1 bay leaf
  • garlic powder, salt, pepper

Directions:

  1. In a large stock pot, saute onions, carrots, and celery in butter/oil over medium, until onions are translucent.
  2. Add in bay leaf, potatoes, corn, and stock/broth.
  3. Cook over medium/low, with the lid on the pot for about 20 minutes, or until potatoes are fork tender.
  4. Add in all remaining ingredients and simmer, stirring occasionally for 15-20 minutes.
  5. Add salt, pepper, and garlic to taste/as needed throughout the simmering.
  6. Ladle into bowls and top with cheese crisps, tortilla strips, sour cream, chives, hot sauce (your choice)
  7. Serve with bread of your choice.

Serves 6-8.

Notes:

  • This soup freezes well, and is great for potlucks!
  • If you prefer your chowder thicc, add 1/2-3/4 cup of potato flakes to the soup and stir to combine about 5 minutes before serving.
  • This Soup is naturally gluten-free.
  • To make this recipe vegan, use vegetable broth, omit butter (sub in oil), use plant-based faux chicken, like this from Sweet Earth), and use plant-based milk or cream in place of evaporated milk. I’ve heard good things about Cashew Cream.

Here are a few of my favorite cheese crisps:
As a reminder, this blog is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. For more information, visit our disclosure page.

Score a Free Dinner From Dream Dinners!

Abby H.

As you are all aware,  Dream Dinners is one of my favorite ways to save time and get tasty, healthy meals on the table in 45 minutes or less!

If you haven’t tried Dream Dinners yet, now is the perfect time! They have lowered their minimum orders to three meals, and new customers can score a free dinner. When you order 3 or more dinners, they get a free medium Cashew Chicken and Noodles with code SHARE at checkout.

There are over 70 Dream Dinners locations throughout the US, but if you don’t live close to one, fret not! There is a deal for you as well! New Guests can get free shipping on their first box of 4 medium dinners as a special offer just for you. Use this code at checkout: FREESHIP.

 

State of the Blogger November 2023

Abby H.

Hey friends, it’s been a hot minute. Honestly, with everything going on in our lives, by the time the kids are in bed, and I’ve got all of my household reset tasks done for the night, I am too exhausted to sit down and blog.

In fact, I “wrote” most of this using my phone’s talk-to-text feature. Seriously. So tired.

The past three months have been busy, and have been snowballing too insanely busy. Hopefully, this month will be a little more forgiving, but I don’t hold out much hope.

I have been using a lot of KC Davis’ resources to keep my house and my life somewhat organized. Using a weekly care task list has been very beneficial. As well as having an end of day reset task list. The end-of-day reset basically it’s just a way for me to give “future me/tomorrow me” a break.

While all of these are on the daily list, they don’t always all get done. A bare minimum is that I take my meds and drink a bottle of water before bed. Sometimes it’s the bare minimum and sometimes I get all of it done.

Between kid’s activities and family stuff, it feels like every weekend has just been something.

This week it was a few activities in the morning, and I spent time this afternoon rearranging parts of the garage, steam cleaning the couch, living room carpet, and my bedroom floor, as well as refilling pantry stables in the kitchen.

Because the one thing I have been putting off in the past month or so is a large restock grocery trip. Our stockpile of key ingredients has dwindled, and since we don’t have a garage attached to our home, bringing up large loads of groceries is my least favorite thing about grocery shopping. However, I broke down and did it last night. I went to Costco by myself and got all of the things we stock up at Costco. And I got a couple extra treats.

So what you can expect to see from now until the end of the year is:

  • More easy, healthy, and tasty recipes
  • Realistic Deals for gifts, and practical gifts for the whole family (including a post with $15 or less stockings from Dollar Tree for each member of the family)
  • Weekly Freebies
  • More time-saving ways to keep your home running smoother

Originally I had a bunch of stuff planned, including giveaways and contests, however, my favorite family blogger event- WOW Summit by Moms Meet was canceled because the May Group (its parent company) went bankrupt earlier this year.  I always connected with brands, bloggers, and friends there. It was a big event for me to go to and came home with all kinds of goodies to share via giveaways and contests. That was the second blogging event that was canceled this year.

I’ve got some meal prep to do- Have a great evening, and I promise, good stuff is coming!

 

Penzeys Sale: $35 for $50 in Gift Cards!

Abby H.

This is one of my favorite deals. It makes a great gift for the home cook, baker, or foodie in your life. It can be used in-store or online.

This deal is back, but only until Sunday, October 8, 2023!

Penzeys is offering two $25 Gift Cards for just $35. Limit of TWENTY Embrace Hope Gift Cards per household during the run of the promotion. Cannot be used on the date of purchase. Cannot be used to purchase other gift cards. Not applicable to prior sales, not valid with other offers. Not for resale. While supplies last. The offer ends at midnight on Sunday, October 8, 2023.

 

It’s Souptember- Soup Recipe Round up!

Abby H.

It’s September! Cooler weather is ahead- and while it’s still hot here, I’m ready for soup. To celebrate Souptember, here are just a few of my favorite soup recipes:

Family Recipe: Albondigas (Meatball Soup)
 Veggie Cheese Tortellini Soup
Crockpot Chili Recipe 
Chicken Gnocchi Soup
Broccoli Cheese Soup
Colonial Chowder
Veggie Soup 
Chicken Fajitas Soup 
Easy Broccoli Cheese Soup
Potato Cheese Soup
Hearty Veggie Soup
Chicken Tortellini Soup
Veggie Tuscan Soup
Homemade Chicken Soup
Zuppa Tuscana Soup CopyCat Recipe
Chicken Corn Chowder
Roasted Onion and Caramelized Onion Bisque
Butternut Squash Bisque
Beef Stew
Harvest Veggie Ravioli Soup

 

How to fight the Sunday Scaries

Abby H.

You know the feeling, it’s Sunday afternoon, about lunchtime, when you realize you have to go back to work tomorrow.

But you don’t wanna go to work. You’re not ready to go back to work. There are dishes to do, and laundry, do you even have anything for lunch this week?

Here is how I fight the Sunday Scaries and ensure our school/work week goes off mostly without a hitch.

I reset the house. Put away all the stuff that’s hanging about in the common living areas. The kids pick up their toys, books, and the worn socks that somehow are littering the living room. Collect all the trash from the little trashcans in each of the bedrooms and bathrooms, and take out the kitchen trash and recycling too. I set the robot vacuum to go through all the rooms in the house. (Full Disclosure- I received the robot vacuum about 18 months ago to review and it is the most decadent thing I own. I feel like Jane Jetson every time I use it).

I refill all of our meds for the week. If you follow me on Instagram, you seen the pictures of when I post my refill shenanigans. It takes about 15 minutes, and it’s just a good way for me to make sure that we have enough for the next 10 days or so, and that everyone will start and end their day with the medicines that they need.

I refill the snack/lunch bins in the cupboard. Make sure we have enough drinks, snacks, and lunch goodies for the week. This goes for both the kids and myself. Because I am taking lunch from home. Regardless of what I’m doing during the day, I always have lunch in an insulated container, and a few bottles of water.

I update all of the calendars. I pull the calendars off of the bedroom and kitchen walls and update them with any new appointments or things that need my attention for the following week or so. I try to sync the paper calendars with the calendar on my computer/phone.

Pull together a week’s worth of outfits. This one is really important for my neurodivergent family members, and myself cause I’m pressed for time in the morning. Also if you or your kids have “must-wear “ outfits for the week make sure they are clean and ready to go. I hang up my clothes by outfit in my closet. And the night before I pull an outfit out and then hang underwear and a bra off the hanger and hang it from a command hook on my closet door. And then I go shove a pair of clean socks into my shoes so that I am already to go in the morning. My kids also set out their outfits the night before including socks, shoes, and any accessories.

Clean out backpacks and purses if you haven’t done so on Friday afternoon. This one only applies during the school year for the kids.  Go through folders, and clean out lunch boxes/lunch bags. I also take this time to pre-pack the shelf stable/non-perishable lunch items in the kid’s lunch bags/lunch boxes and leave them on the counter overnight, and then the next morning, I finish packing the perishable/cold items in their lunch boxes with the cold packs.

Meal plan/meal prep for the week. I do dinners and lunches. Sometimes I’ll meal prep breakfast if I know I’m going to be short on time in the morning (that is usually when there are spirit weeks at school and I have to spend extra time in the morning helping the kids with their crazy hair, or whatever the spirit week theme is).

Change the sheets and pillowcases. This is in my opinion, the way to ensure a good sleep on Sunday nights. It is changing the sheets, and I spray the pillows with lavender “sleep spray“.

I write up my weekly care task list.  It is in the notes section of my phone, and it’s a checklist that I can easily check off completed items.

Recent Kitchen Glow-up on a Budget!

Abby H.

We didn’t end up doing a staycation this summer. Between Summer School and the overall unbearable heat that the southwest has been experiencing, I haven’t really wanted to drag two kids that are sensitive to heat out to “have fun”.

Because of that, I’ve decided to make some small cosmetic changes and upgrades to the kitchen- and the bedrooms too. This post is just covering the kitchen.

Our overhead fluorescent kitchen lights are starting to out. The ballasts are old, and while I’m saving up to have the kitchen lights redone, I needed a little something more. I landed on magnetic, rechargeable under the cabinet lights. I looked online all over, read reviews, and decided to give Temu a try.

I’m sure that you’ve seen advertisements all over for Temu. It’s similar to Ali Express and Amazon combined. Smaller international companies sell their goods on Temu. Shipping is pretty quick, usually less than 2 weeks.

I also picked up a few other things for the kitchen that I had on my “need in the kitchen sometime”. This included:

Plastic Garbage Bag Clips– These keep the trash bag from sliding into the can. If you got kids, these are perfect.

Aluminum Foil Square Stove Burner Covers  I usually buy them on Amazon, but this price and quantity were much better.

 

Dishwasher Magnet Clean Dirty Sign– We had a flippable magnet for years, but it was really hard to get off. This sliding magnet is much easier.

Refrigerator shelf liners– I love these and have wanted some for years. I finally bit the bullet and both sets for the freezer and fridge.

After falling down the rabbit hole of Temu, I switched over to a few other sites- JCP, Target, and Amazon for the other things I needed.

My kitchen canister set was janky. It was at least 11 years old. I got it for Xmas when the biggest kid was a baby. Several of the lids were cracked, and the remaining lids were not able to be cleaned properly.

I did a lot of research online, I looked at 4 or 5 sites, read reviews, and watched videos. I didn’t want glass ones again, and I wanted snap-on lids. So much easier to clean, and easier to stack.  Based on my kitchen size and how much I needed to store, I opted for the 14-piece Airtight Food Storage Containers with Snap-On Lids.

I switched over all of the canisters, and I also poured some other frequently used foods into canisters to be stored on the shelf where I keep our coffee and protein shakes supplies.

The remaining containers I used to store rice, pasta, and some other misc. snacks in the pantry. These all fit really well in our pantry, and yes, it’s all still organized like I did here.

I also bought new kitchen rugs to replace the older ones, and a couple packs of kitchen towels in white (they are easier to keep clean).

While I was doing all of this, I was cleaning out the cupboards and got rid of broken, chipped dishes, unwanted mugs, and extra kitchen stuff. I also ordered new dishes, but they haven’t arrived yet.  Once the new dishes arrive, the remaining old Rachel Ray/Albertsons dishes from the mid-2010’s will be donated.

Now I’m sure y’all are thinking, “How did she pay for all of this??” I worked my “hustles” and saved up Amazon Gift cards by doing surveys (I post opportunities weekly), used my cashback apps, cashed out as soon as I was able to with all of them, and stashed the money in my savings account. All in, I ended up paying $18.51 out of pocket, and that was for the kitchen towels that I bought at Ross.

It’s not new cabinets and new flooring (Cabinets were painted and flooring was replaced last year as part of our water loss), but it’s the little things that make our homes more comfortable!

San Diego, CA-Upcoming Dream Dinners Cooking Class!

Abby H.

This landed in my inbox last night, and I thought I’d share it. With Summer Break coming up, I’ll be leaning on Dream Dinners a few times a week to get us through the summer for those days we are busy.

I don’t get paid when school is out (surprise- teachers and school staff don’t draw a paycheck over the summer months unless they work summer school or opt to spread their paychecks out over 12 months- and some districts don’t offer this), so I really need to be cost-conscious over the summer. Dream Dinners is a great way to have restaurant-quality meals in the comfort of our home for 50% (or more) savings compared to restaurant prices.

And the June Dream Dinners Menu has a bunch of my family’s favorites- Mongolian Beef & Broccoli with White Rice (my fav), and Spinach and Artichoke Ravioli Bake (The kids’ fav) were the top two on my list.

FREE* Dream Dinners Cooking Class

Thursday, June 8th at 5:30

Learn how easy it can be to make Dream Dinners at home. During the class learn how to prepare quick, easy healthy, and delicious meals. In this class, you will learn basic cooking skills you can use to make all types of different meals at home. Save time, save money, and have fun!!

This Month’s Featured Entrée will be the Nashville Chicken served with Summer Grilled Veggies.

Sign up for June 8th Class Here

Call/Text 619-460-6800 for more information. La Mesa Dream Dinners will begin offering a series of cooking classes each month. To stay up to date on our classes, go to lamesadreamdinners.com.

 

* No Fee for class, Minimum Purchase required – 3 meals.

Recipe: Honey chipotle chicken thighs

Abby H.

This is a recipe I recently made. I wanted chipotle chicken but with veggies and sauce.

I looked online for a recipe, however, there was nothing that fit the bill. I headed to the kitchen and started cooking.

This meal turned out AMAZING.

Chipotle Chicken Thighs

Ingredients:

  • 2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs
  • Chipotle sauce from a small tin of adobo pepper in chipotle sauce
  • 1 cup salsa
  • 3T. Hot honey
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 2 large bell peppers or 3 medium bell peppers, cleaned and sliced into bite-sized pieces 
  • Dash cumin
  • Dash salt and pepper
  • Juice of 2 limes
  • 2T. Corn starch
  • 1/3 cup water

Directions:

  1. In a crockpot, combine all ingredients but corn starch and water.
  2. Cook on low for 5 hours, or high for 3 hours.
  3. Strain sauce into a saucepan, and heat over medium until boiling. While sauce is heating, mix water and corn starch and slowly pour into boiling sauce. Stir until thickened, add back into meat and veggies.

Serve with rice, beans, and tortillas. 

If you want extra smokiness, chop 1-2 chipotle peppers and add to the sauce while it thickens on the stovetop. 

This freezes well as well- If you have leftovers.

Family Recipe: Wet Burrito Casserole

Abby H.

This recipe is 100% Midwestern hotdish and 0% South of the Border. It is, however, pretty good. My brother recently texted me and asked for this recipe. It was a favorite of my dad.

Ingredients:

  • 1lb ground beef
  • 1 can of refried beans
  • 1 envelope taco seasoning 
  • 2 cups Mexican cheese
  • 8-10 taco-sized flour tortillas
  • 1 can cream of mushroom soup 
  • 1 small tub sour cream

Directions:

  1. Cook ground beef per taco package directions, once cooked and seasoned, add beans and combine.
  2. Spread 1/4-1/2 cup of beans/beef inside the tortilla, top with a sprinkle of cheese, roll up and place seam side down in greased baking dish.
  3. Once the dish is full, top with a soup and sour cream mixture. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.
  4. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes.
  5. Serve with Spanish Rice and a Salad Kit (I like the Avocado Ranch chopped salad kit from Taylor Ranch)