Homemade Turkey Soup

Happy New Year!

I really don't know where the time has gone, but way back in November, I cooked my first turkey for a Thanksgiving-themed potluck that I hosted for my friends.  I was very nervous but I think it turned out fairly well, and overall it was actually pretty simple.  Even though my friends made a good dent in the turkey, I still had quite a bit left over.  I enjoyed adding it to salads for lunch and heating it up for dinner, but I got to the point where I really didn't want any more turkey, so I decided to put the rest into a soup.

Woops, forgot to get a picture before the turkey was carved.  Sorry for this blurry one!

I just added ingredients as I went and hoped for the best.  It kind of reminded me of the "button soup" story - did anyone else read that when they were younger?  Anyways, I was actually really surprised by how well
it turned out!

Turkey "Button" Soup

Ingredients:
- 15 cups of water
- 5 vegetable bouillon cubes
- about 10 green onions, sliced
- about 4 carrots, sliced
- leftover turkey, torn into pieces
- about half a bag of frozen spinach
- 1 can of cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
- a pinch of dried rosemary
- a hefty shake of dried basil
- 2 bay leaves
- about half a bag of whole wheat egg noodles

Simmer all of the ingredients, except for the egg noodles, in a big pot for about an hour or so, and then add the egg noodles and let it simmer for about another 30 minutes.  Remove the bay leaves before eating.

I'm not very good at photographing soup/ steamy things.

This recipe is extremely easy to customize based on the ingredients you have on hand - you could substitute another type of leftover meat (i.e. chicken, ham, beef roast, etc.) or leave out the meat altogether, use another kind of onion, different kinds of frozen or fresh leafy greens, use different kinds of beans, change up the spices, etc.  The possibilities are endless!

This is a much better picture of the soup, which I had as part of my dinner one night.  I also had a salad with romaine lettuce, a crumbled carrot, beet & bean burger, sliced almonds, and homemade croutons, with half a grapefruit on the side.  

The soup kept well in the fridge for quite awhile and was great to heat up for lunch or dinner.  Even then I couldn't finish it all, so I froze the rest of it and will pull it out sometime during the next semester when I need a quick already-made meal.  I love that I know exactly what's in it, as opposed to store bought cans of soup.

Normally when I make up recipes as I go (which is a very rare occurrence), the results don't turn out very well, but this was definitely an exception.  I'm glad I learned that homemade soup is actually very simple and doesn't take much effort at all!

I hope the new year is off to a great start for everyone!  I got a new phone for Christmas and I've been having fun playing around with the camera on it.  I'm really excited that it can easily take panoramic pictures! I took this picture on a little family trip to Michigan.

Song of the day:

"Coyote" by The Lonely Forest.  My friend Caitlin turned me on to this band and I'm kind of obsessed with this whole album, which is called Arrows.

Belated Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone!  Wait, it's November already?  Oops.

My grandma spoils me.  Look at this amazing care package she gave me.  She even included a pumpkin, and a kit to decorate it!

And basically all of my favorite things - homemade sour cream cookies (so.good.), Reese's, peanut butter crackers, Milky Way bars, a HUGE Hershey's bar, hot chocolate, Goldfish, a super cute owl card, awesome socks, and some festive napkins!  So amazing.

I had some friends over in early October, so of course it was the perfect excuse to get some of my favorite Halloween candy.  Luckily not much was left at the end of the night, because I just can't resist it!

I love decorating for any holiday.

Ooh, scary!

I made this when I was really little, and my mom sent it to me in a care package when I was in undergrad.  He manages to still make an appearance once in awhile.

After not dressing up the past 2 years, last weekend I got to dress up in a couple of different costumes.  On Friday I was a "Southern belle" - I wore a dress that my mom wore as a bridesmaid in the 70s :)  I didn't wear the huge crinoline petticoat that would make it even poofier, though.

My friend Josh was a super scary vampire.  Seriously, he was creeping me out!  Pardon my red eyes - I tried to get rid of them in Photoshop but, 1) I don't know how to use Photoshop, and 2) I have perpetual red eyes that seem to just turn gray when they're "corrected."  Josh's glowing eyes work well with his costume, though!

Saturday I went down to Columbus with a group of friends.  I dressed up as "Bad Sandy" from Grease, and my friend Chris was Danny Zuko.  I stayed up pretty late after the party on Friday night to put curlers in my hair in an attempt to make it super curly for an authentic Bad Sandy look.

And I got to sleep in them.  Lucky me!

Buuuut my hair didn't dry by the time I had to take the curlers out the next day, so I was a less authentic Sandy.  Ohhh well.  (Check out my super cool "Academic" high school letter pinned on "Danny's" sweater, haha.)

I'm terrible at taking pictures - this is my attempt at capturing High Ball (a street festival we went to).

I snapped a picture of this scary monster thing.  And that was the extent of my picture-taking!

I also got to eat at one of my favorite places while we were down in Columbus - Northstar Cafe!  I got the Buddha Bowl with roasted chicken, brown rice, peanut sauce, and veggies.  It was really, really delicious.  I failed at using my chopsticks, though :/  Maybe I should try to develop that skill...

Although this pumpkin made a cute decoration, it was even better after it was roasted :)  Stay tuned for my next post, which will be totally pumpkin themed!  (Very original, I know.)

Song of the day:

"Tightrope" by Walk the Moon.  Very upbeat and fun!

Snappy

I got to spend Memorial Day weekend at my favorite place in the world:

In my opinion, it really doesn't get any better than this beautiful lake.  

Time passed too quickly.  I really hope I get to go back again soon.  

Remember those seaweed snacks I picked up from Trader Joe's last week?  Yeah, probably not.  Anyways, I was excited to try some roasted seaweed snacks.

Well, they became the running joke of the weekend.  I had one on the way up to the lake and was not a fan - it tasted really fishy to me.  And I couldn't pawn them off on anyone else!  Many ideas were thrown around (seaweed pancakes anyone?) but none of them went over very well :)  That white bean and basil hummus, on the other band, is absolutely incredible!  You win some, you lose some.

On the way home, my dad and I stopped to load up on tons of fresh, local asparagus.

We've had it two nights in a row now (grilled, with a little bit of olive oil - my personal favorite, and steamed - still very tasty!).  Yum!!

The idea was to eat some of the asparagus fresh and freeze some so that we could enjoy it after the season is over, but at this rate, I'm not sure any will make it to the freezer!

Nothing else very exciting going on around here, except a little visitor this morning:

I saw something in the straw from my bedroom window this morning and wasn't sure what it was, so I went to get a closer look.

But not too close.  Hello, snapping turtle.  The reason I know this is a snapping turtle is not because I'm an expert at identifying wildlife.  (Surprising, right?)  It's because when I was younger, around 10 years old, we saw a turtle like this in our driveway and my mom made my sister and me get really close to the turtle so she could take a picture of us with it.  This was pre-digital camera for us, so it wasn't until we got the film developed (which, for our family, could take many, many months... or a year) that my dad saw the picture and asked why we were so close to a snapping turtle.  Um yeah.  It definitely could have taken my arm off.  Scary!

And true to form, my mom still cut off the top of my head in the photo.  Worth it?  Not so sure.

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend!

Song of the day:

"Tallulah" by Company of Thieves.  I like this song more and more every time I listen to it.

Bring Your Own Veggies

Hey guys!  How's your week going so far?  I can't believe it's almost mid-April - time is flying by for me.

My other contribution to our family Easter dinner was broccolini.  I was excited to do a vegetable because a lot of times my mom makes a vegetable casserole for big family dinners, and I'm not usually a fan (they tend to contain cheese and cream sauces, which I don't like).  She did in fact make a carrot casserole on Sunday, so I was glad to have an alternative veggie to eat with my meal.

I followed this Martha Stewart recipe but used broccolini instead of broccoli rabe, and also increased the amount of ingredients to make sure we had plenty for everyone.  I made this once before when I had my parents and grandparents over to my apartment for my mom's birthday in February, and it went over really well, so I was excited to serve it again.  I think it was actually more flavorful the first time I made it, probably because I made a smaller batch that time.  But it was still good and I would make it again!  I especially love the almonds added in.

Since I was at my parents' house over the weekend, I didn't really have time to prep food for this week.  Last night I had an evening class, and I was really hungry when I got home and wanted something quick and easy to throw together.  I just thought about what sounded good and mixed everything together.  I had some cooked couscous in the fridge, so I used that as my base and mixed in broccoli (frozen, which I had steamed in the microwave), frozen spinach, frozen shelled edamame, and some canned black beans (which I had rinsed).  I stirred everything up (except for the broccoli), and heated it in the microwave for a few minutes.  Then I stirred in the broccoli and sprinkled on some nutritional yeast (adding extra protein and B vitamins, plus great flavor).  It came together very quickly and was filled with nutritious ingredients.  This is completely customizable depending on what you have on hand - any kind of grain, veggies, and beans could be mixed together.

Sorry for the blurry picture - Hart of Dixie was starting and I was in a rush!

I overdid it on the Easter candy after my lunch yesterday, so I wanted to have a lighter treat last night.  While I was putting my dinner together, I popped a bunch of grapes into the freezer.  When I was ready for dessert, I took the grapes out, and I dipped them into a mixture of Greek yogurt, honey, and granola - it satisfied my sweet tooth while being pretty healthy!

My workout today was another repeat of my most recent strength and treadmill routines, with 7 minutes of warm-up on the elliptical and stretching after.  I'm definitely a fan of routines and not at all a fan of change, in most aspects of my life.  I know it's very important to switch things up while working out (and in other areas, too!), but sometimes I just want to stick with what I know and like.  That's one of the reasons I like group exercise classes so much - even if you go to the same classes, the instructors vary the workouts and you do different things all the time.  Unfortunately the rec center where I belong does not have unlimited group exercise classes (they're pay-as-you-go), so I do my own thing.  It's a little harder for me to change things on my own accord, but I think it's amazing that there are so many great resources online for finding ready-made workout plans.  Hopefully by the end of this week I'll have picked out a new workout to try!

Post-gym protein smoothie:  1 cup almond milk, 1/2 T chia seeds, 1 T natural peanut butter, 1 scoop vanilla Sun Warrior protein powder, 1 frozen banana, 6 frozen strawberries, 2 ice cubes.

Slurp!

Well, it's snowing outside :(  I knew 80* weather in March meant snow in April.  At least these tulips that my mom gave me brought some spring into my apartment.

Hope you're having a great day!  Let me know if you have any tips for switching up your workout routine.

Song of the day:

"Little Lovin'" by Lissie.

Bun in the Oven

Not THAT kind of bun - this kind of bun:

One of my contributions to our family Easter dinner was a loaf of homemade sourdough bread.  I followed this recipe by the lovely and hilairous Mama Pea.  I used my own sourdough starter that I've had for awhile now, though, which I made by following a recipe from Martha Stewart's Breads cookbook.

I let my sourdough starter sit out for about 2 hours, then added all of the ingredients to a mixing bowl:

I stirred together 1 teaspoon active dry yeast, 1/2 cup unsweetened almond milk (heated to about 95*F), 1 1/2 tablespoons honey, 1 1/3 cup white whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon olive oil, and 3/4 cup room temperature sourdough starter.

After the ingredients were all combined, I turned the dough out onto a well-floured surface and kneaded everything together.  I had to add quite a bit of white whole wheat flour, probably about 1/2 cup, and continuously added flour to the counter so that the dough wouldn't stick.

I kneaded the dough for about 10 minutes until it was smooth and springy.

I lightly coated a clean mixing bowl with olive oil and placed the dough inside, turning the dough around so that it was completely coated.

Then I covered the dough with a towel and let it rise overnight, for about 12 hours.

Ta-da!  

I punched the dough down and let it sit for 15 minutes.

Then I placed the dough on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper, which I sprayed with cooking spray, and shaped the dough into a loaf, lightly scoring the top a few times.  I baked it at 375*F for 27 minutes.

It smelled ahhhh-mazing.

And tasted delicious!  My family agreed.  I think it actually tasted more like honey whole wheat bread (which makes sense since it contains both honey and whole wheat, imagine that) but not so much like sourdough.  Still very tasty, though!

I wish I could take credit for this little guy, but my mom got him from Great Harvest.  I wanted to have a back-up loaf of bread in case mine didn't turn out, so I suggested my mom pick up a honey bunny from Great Harvest after seeing them on Kath's blog a lot!

We had a special helper in the kitchen with us:

That's Bella.

Just one of the girls.

Well the weekend went too quickly and it's back to the grind.  I got in some cardio at the gym this morning (elliptical and rowing machine - still loving it) and had to stop by the post office to mail my taxes.  Fun stuff!

Most exciting thing of the day:  Hart of Dixie is finally new again!!  Ahhh so excited, I really love that show.  I will be foam rolling my way through it tonight.  I think 2 Broke Girls is new, too - perfection.  

Hope you had a great weekend (filled with chocolate like mine, haha) and that the week is off to a good start for you.

Song of the day:

Okay, this isn't so much a song of the day as it is a video clip of the day (but I do like the song, too).  For your viewing pleasure, here is James Franco in all of his corn-rowed glory, singing along to "Love You Like a Love Song" by Selena Gomez & The Scene.  Yes.  Yes, please.