My new favorite soup

This soup is easy and out of this world delicious! I highly recommend it.

Spicy Butternut Squash and Chicken Soup

1 small diced onion

2 stalks of celery, diced

2 cups of cubed butternut squash

2 cups chicken stock/broth

1 can diced tomatoes, undrained

1 cup chopped cooked chicken

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp cumin

1/8 tsp black pepper

fresh lime juice

bunch of cilantro

Cook onion and celery in a saucepan over medium heat in a drizzle of olive oil for 5 minutes while stirring. Stir in squash, broth, tomatoes, chicken, ginger, salt, cumin, and pepper, and mix well.

Cover, and cook over low heat for 30 minutes or until squash is tender. Stir in the juice of one lime, and serve with fresh cilantro sprinkled on top.

Yum!

Patchwork Colored Pencil Roll

I love this project! Crayon/colored pencil/marker rolls are all over etsy right now, and I thought I'd try my hand at a pieced version for my nephew's birthday. I love the way it turned out, and it was super easy if you're looking for a quick project.

Heart-Healthy Barbecue Sauce

My family and I are spending some time with my parents trying to help them out following my dad's quadruple bypass surgery. I've been busy dreaming up heart-healthy (low fat, low/no sodium, and no sugar) recipes. One of our favorites is homemade barbecue chicken pizza (which we make with whole wheat flour), so I tried to find some good heart-healthy barbecue sauce at the grocery store to no avail. I searched for some recipes and based this recipe off of several of those. It is delicious, and I can't wait to have this on our pizza for dinner!

Heart-Healthy Barbecue Sauce

1/4 white onion, finely chopped

1 small can tomato paste

Diet Coke (I filled the tomato paste can twice to measure)

2 Tablespoons heart-healthy ketchup

2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 Tablespoon mustard

1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 tsp minced garlic

2 tsp worchestershire sauce

a shake or two of your favorite Mrs. Dash

In a skillet over medium heat, saute the onion in olive oil until translucent. Add the rest of the ingredients, and stir to combine. Simmer over low heat for 15-20 minutes until the flavors combine and the sauce thickens slightly. Add more of your ingredients to taste.

Rainbow Cake on a Stick

One of our favorite boys turns two today. Since he got a baby brother as an early birthday gift, we offered to make a cake to deliver to free up her hands a little more. I've been wanting a reason to try out this Rainbow Cake, so we dove in. It was such a fun lesson for my daughter in color-mixing and measuring. We had a blast. I made the cake in loaf pans to cut down into a square, so I had lots of scraps. While my 2-year-old napped, I dreamt up a fun creation for her that was a HUGE hit. I just cut hearts out of each color of cake, put a dot of frosting as glue between each heart, then put it on a stick. To say she was thrilled would be a gross understatement.

No more brown apple slices

(Please forgive my absence lately. Our Internet has been spotty but is finally fixed. Hope to be back up and running regularly now!)

This is a great idea for packing apple slices for on-the-go snacking in a way that keeps them from turning brown. I love this!

Party Favor - Gummy Skewers

What a cute idea! Find the how-to here.

Blackberry Muffins

My mom went blackberry picking a couple of months ago, and she gave me a TON. We've been eating blackberry pancakes, blackberry smoothies, blackberry cobbler, and blackberry syrup on ice cream. Yum, yum, yum. I wanted to find a good blackberry muffin recipe, but I just couldn't find one anywhere. I did some combining and review-reading to come up with this recipe, and it is a hit. I think it could use some tweaking, but as-is they're amazing, and I guarantee there will be none left.

Blackberry Muffins

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups blackberries (rinsed, and dried, and dusted with flour)

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 tsp lemon zest

1 tsp lemon juice

1/2 cup milk

Streusel Topping:

4 Tablespoons white sugar

1 Tablespoon brown sugar

2 Tablespoons flour

1 tsp cinnamon

2 Tablespoons cold butter, cubed

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt, and stir with a whisk.

In the bowl of a mixer, cream the 1/2 cup of butter with the white and brown sugar until fluffy and light. Add eggs, vanilla, lemon zest, and lemon juice.

Gently stir in the dry ingredients alternately with the milk until well-combined.

Add the blackberries, and fold lightly.

In a separate bowl, use a pastry blender (or two knives or even a fork) to mix the streusel topping ingredients.

Using a 1/4 cup scoop, fill a greased (or paper-lined) muffin tin. Sprinkle approx. 1/2 Tablespoon of streusel mixture on top of each muffin, and bake for 25 minutes.