• Recipes

    Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup

    Whether you have gravy, casserole, soup, or some other delicious meal planned for your and your family’s dinner tonight, it’s probable that you will find yourself reaching for a can of cream of chicken, cream of mushroom, or cream of celery soup to make the dish pop with flavor and creaminess.  Cream of soups are a staple in many recipes — especially those that boast fast cook times.  But a fast and easy recipe doesn’t mean it has to come from a can.  Homemade cream of soups can be fast and easy, while being healthier and even more delicious than…

  • Uncategorized

    Chicken Mac and Peas

     This one-pot recipe is a fun and fast comfort food that is ready in under 30 minutes. One of my college original recipes, this recipe not only comes together fast and easy, but is very budget friendly using just three ingredients: macaroni pasta, cream of chicken soup, and peas. That’s it! Three easy ingredients plus 25 minutes, and that hangry attitude will be gone! Simply boil your pasta, drain it; add the cream of chicken soup; add the peas; and finish up with a dash of salt & pepper to your liking. Note on Cream of Chicken Soup: We do…

  • Garden - Pantry

    Peas ‘A Plenty: What to do with all those Garden Peas?

    Here we are at the start of the calendar summer, and we are waist deep in peas at my place (literally, waist deep). My little helpers and I were out in the garden yesterday and picked this lovely large bowl full of sugar snap peas.   We are a few weeks into this full explosion of peas, and are loving the thick harvest we are blessed with. I find peas in the garden are simply great for the kids. Not only are they an excellence, healthy snack for the kids to graze on while outside playing in the backyard, but…

  • Pantry

    Bargain Bananas

    I love bananas. In fact, I think most people, save for sister and my husband, love eating bananas. (Okay…maybe  there are more anti-banana eaters out there than I care to admit…) When I was walking through the grocery store this morning and saw a cart full of these red-taped bananas, I got excited. For those of you who don’t know what a red-taped item of fruit is, it is a simple marking many small-scale, local grocery stores use for items on the verge of spoiling. The red tape marks not only that the fruit is riper than ripe and probably…

  • Life&Land

    Follow-Through: A Commitment to Do Better

    One of the many sayings my mother-in-law uses is “onward and upward.” I think these two words and the images they create in our minds can differ slightly depending on the context we place the phrase during any moment of our day. But ultimately, both words invoke the idea of progress. Progress forward, progress upward. I have come to love this portion of a catch-phrase. Onward and upward. One of the unfortunate realities of life is that we all falter. We all stumble, and occasionally fall, on this personal journey we each are trekking. And although it is often tempting…

  • Life&Land

    For the Love of Writing

    I have always loved writing. Writing, for me, has been a form of not just communication to other people, but a way of communicating with myself. It is brainstorming, finding clarity in my own thoughts and my own beliefs. Writing is therapeutic. It gets things out of my head so I can then move on, like removing the pressure of a thought. Writing has always been a huge part of my life (at least it has been a huge portion of my life when calculating the numbers of my life I’ve spent doing in :). As a student in high…

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    Grateful to Want More: a Lesson from the Pilgrims

    As we enter November and enter the holiday season, the familiar feelings of gratitude and charity embrace our hearts and minds. Yet despite our feelings of gratitude, this time of year can also stand to remind us of what we lack and wish we had. It is such a joyous season, offering opportunities for us to outwardly see the goodness that still survives in our local and national communities. Charitable giving of time, money, household necessities, and even dreamed-of frivolities becomes the usual this time of year. Soup kitchens are blessed with additional supplies and volunteers, efforts to hand out…

  • Pantry - Purse

    Sinking the Ship with Eating Out

    Prior to getting married, I received advice from close friends, family members, neighbors, acquaintances, and even some strangers on how to be successful in that major adventure of sharing my life with someone else.  One token of advice was to “Always say ‘yes’ to someone else cooking.” Though this advice was targeting eating food prepared by either a spouse, child, friend, or neighbor out of the goodness of their heart, it can be just as applicable to dining out at a restaurant where a backroom cook or chef is being paid to cook your meal. We all appreciate the respite…

  • Purse

    Feeling the Pinch

    As I push my shopping cart through the crowded grocery store, I see a hundred different people all with their own individual stories, experiences, and struggles. But one struggle we all share in common these days is the struggle of buying our groceries without overburdening our pockets. Every generation experiences the financial pressure of an economic downturn. And many generations feel it more than once.  For those of you who, like me, are experiencing that financial clinch for the first time as an adult, it is an eye-opening experience.  My flooding-over grocery cart gives me plenty of looks from fellow…

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    The Happiness of Quiet

    Days as a young parent are busy and noisy to say the least. As a stay at home mom, I find myself both attuned to the constant commotion of kids in the background, while simultaneously feeling like my head is constantly below water. I am drowning in the noise. The sound of bare feet running across the kitchen floor and tennis shoes skipping on the sidewalk. The sound of singing in the bathroom while going potty and midnight whispers when they’re tucked in bed supposedly asleep. Fighting over seats at the table, screaming when someone gets their hair pulled, or…