Fall Attire

I am now the proud owner of two of these merino sweaters from J.Crew factory. I bought one and really liked and of course bought another! They come in LOTS of colors and are great for this nice cool Fall weather we are having.

How to Get Away with Murder

Have ya'll seen this new show? It is SO good. It's by Shonda Rimes, creator of Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice and Scandal.... this women cannot NOT have a good show! You all need to watch this, if you forget to watch or DVR is comes on ABC family on Friday nights. Regular show time is ABC, Thursdays at 10pm.

Throwback Thursday!

Check out this gem! The CR and PR team at Lowes all brought in their school pics to put outside our cubes. I couldn't resist bringing this one as the books in the background and the placement of my hands just cracks me up!

I other blogging news-I tried blogging my lunch break yesterday and apparently the internet at work doesn't like the blogger website anymore. Sad day. So I will do the best I can in the mean time! 

Happy Thursday ya'll!

Slow Cooker Veggie Beef Soup!

I made this last night and it made enough for an army. Which is great, because now I will freeze half! With the cold weather hitting us hard this week, I have been in soup mode! This soup I found on Pinterest and all it really entails is popping open a bunch of canned veggies. My kind of easy! Here is the original link to the recipe. Sorry my picture is so lousy! I had already put the soup away in the fridge before I remembered I needed to snap a pic of it for the blog! Ha! Go to the link above for a pretty (and hot) picture ha!

Slow Cooker Veggie Beef Soup 

Ingredients

• 2 pounds ground round
• ½ medium onion, diced
• 2 (15-ounce) cans mixed vegetables, drained
• 2 cups fresh Lima beans or 1 (15-ounce) can Lima beans, drained
• 2 cups fresh corn off the cob 1 (15-ounce) can niblet corn, drained
• 2 cups carrots, sliced or 1 (15-ounce) can carrots, drained
• 4 (15-ounce) cans diced tomatoes
• 1 (15-ounce) can tomatoes and okra
• 2 cups water

*add a tablespoon of salt

Instructions

1. Cook ground round and onions until browned. Add to slow cooker along with all other ingredients.
2. Cook in slow cooker for 4 hours on low.

Hello new friend....

I desperately need some fall/winter nail polishes in my life SO I picked up this new friend, named Essie, at Target yesterday. It's on my toes now and they are loving it.

Yankee Salmon Chowder

Note: See update below!

Last night I made some salmon corn chowder. When the weather gets colder I want soup, soup and more soup! But only the homemade kind :)

My aunt makes everything salmon and she makes this Epicurious salmon chowder recipe. It's always been a favorite of mine. I didn't think to look that up before googling just any salmon chowder recipe lol. SO, I made Rachael Ray's version (called Yankee Salmon Chowder) which is probably less fattening and more simple to make. I was surprised at how quick it was to make as well. But then again, RR does know her way around a 30 minutes or less meal. lol. Anyway, after trying this new version, I really liked it! I think I will add some thyme to it tonight though. It needs some color and I remember that really sticking out in my aunt's recipe.

Yankee salmon chowder 

• 1/2 pound sliced bacon, coarsely chopped (I buy the reduced fat kind)

• 1.5 pounds baking potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes

• 1 large onion, chopped

• 2-15 ounce can  creamed corn

• 2 cups whole milk

• 2 6 ounce pieces of salmon (I buy the frozen salmon at Trader Joe's)

• Salt and pepper

1. In a medium pot, cook the bacon over medium heat until the fat renders. Transfer the bacon to a paper towel to drain, reserving 2 tablespoons fat in the pot. Add the potatoes and onion and cook over medium-high heat, stirring often, for 3 minutes. Stir in the creamed corn, milk and 1 cup water and bring to a simmer. Add the salmon, lower the heat and simmer until the potatoes are tender and the salmon is cooked through, about 15 minutes.
2. Using a fork, break up the salmon into small chunks. Stir in the cooked bacon and season with salt and pepper.

*Recipe Update*

I added a tablespoon of dried thyme, 1/2 tablespoon more of kosher sea salt, 1 teaspoon of cracked black pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon of red pepper flakes to the soup last night..... and it really made an impact and turned out even better than I expected!!!!! I think the combo of the two recipes was a hit and Dave seemed to like it! We had this, grilled cheese, and lactaid. LOL

Fall Curry Chicken Casserole

Isn't this tree pretty? It's two houses up from us. 

I had some left over chicken from Tuesday night so I put together a casserole last night for dinner using it. My mother in law makes an awesome curry chicken casserole and since I didn't have the recipe at work, I figured I'd find something close by using my friend, Pinterest. The dish was a bit on the salty side but really good, really easy, and total comfort food.

Curry Chicken Casserole

(Serves 4-6)

1/3 large onion, diced1 stalk celery, chopped5 -6 large mushrooms, chopped
1/4 cup margarine (I used unsalted butter)
3/4 cup rice (do not use instant rice - I used Jasmine)
1 teaspoon dried parsley 
1 1/2 teaspoons chicken bouillon (or 2 cubes)
1 1/2 cups water
1 (11 3/4 ounce) can cream of mushroom soup (I used 98% fat free)
3/4 cup sour cream (I used light)
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
2 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
1/3 cup parmesan cheese (I did freshly grated)

Directions:
1
In a Dutch oven over medium heat, saute onion, celery and mushrooms in butter until tender.
2
Stir in rice, parsley, boullion and water. Bring to a boil.
3
Reduce heat; cover and simmer until rice is tender, about 25 minutes.
4
Add soup, sour cream and curry powder; mix well. Fold in chicken.
5
Spoon into a greased 2 qt baking dish. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.

Happy Halloweeny!

Who else is totally excited for today?! I walked around the house making ghost noises this morning - pretty sure my dog thinks I am nuts. Oh well! We are doing Halloween pretty low-key this year. Everyone brought in treats to work and I made those nutella cookies again. They're so easy - how could I not? We also are having a banana pudding cook off today at work. We had 3 employees say that theirs is the best so we planned a challenge to really decide whose is the best. As for tonight... I made taco soup and so we'll have that and then sit on the porch and wait for the kiddos to start arriving. Poor Dave is worried about the kids trampling his new grass out from - it's just baby grass right now. I would not be surprised if he brought a wire fence home to put around the lawn. LOL 

Another interesting tid-bit, this morning I saw not one, not two, but THREE Christmas commercials on TV.

And lastly, did any of you all manage to catch the Today show this morning? I am  beginning to think that Matt Lauer is in fact a cross dresser. The outfits he chooses are very.... errr.... feminine. 

This year he chose to be Pam Anderson.

A few years back he was Paris Hilton.

And then there was that time when he was J.Lo.

It's quite scary. 

Maybe this was your big Halloween scare of the day?! ;)

Anyway, have a very SPOOKTACULAR DAY! 

October Walk in Elizabeth

Brees and I took a walk in our neighborhood yesterday. It was super cold here in Charlotte so it was fun to sport my toboggin on our walk!

The fall leaves really are gorgeous right now.

Every year there's a carving station and pumpkin wall set up in a yard.

 

These three were my favorite.

So pretty.

Happy pup! 

Hope you had a nice weekend!

Ellen, you're so funny!

Ellen sends her staff to the Walking Dead Haunted House.

"Stop it, Stop it now!"

LED Halloween Costume

This is one creative dad!
 

Weekend in Pictures

We started our Saturday off with iced coffees and catching up on Homeland. Then Dave really wanted to go to his favorite place, Brio, for lunch. He ordered the below chicken and penne pasta. 

I got the salmon salad with potato sticks, asparagus and feta. It was really good - I loved the dressing.

Then we went by to see our friend's the Davey's new abode. They have done so much work to it and it looks great! 

From there we went to see this little munchkin, baby Savannah, who is a week old today! 

From there we went to our friend's house, the Gomez's, because they were having an impromptu bouncy house party for the kiddos. Apparently wife Lauren got a free bouncy house through work! They found out they are expecting their second baby this week so it was fun to tell them congratulations! And Lauren made some fantastic cocktails, per usual, by mixing apple cider and champagne! Yum yum!

On Sunday we ran some errands! We had our first Costco experience. Dave was not a fan however I was amazed by all the deals! We are still contemplating membership. We of course went to Lowe's for odds and ends, Harris Teeter (which made me feel robbed per usual), did lunch at Moe's (which I am starting not to like because we are such Chipotle fans) and then stopped off at the farmers market to get some fall decorations!

This farmers market used to only be open on certain days of the week but noooow they're open 7 days a week, 8:00am-8:00pm!!

Of course we had to get two mums. They were cheaper than the pumpkins! $3.99/each! The yellow ones are my favorite. 

I'm a big fan of the green and white pumpkins. Unfortunately they are more expensive than the orange lol. Since we don't have children yet, we don't carve pumpkins! Luckily I have these cute lanterns from Target that cover the jack-o-lantern look for Halloween night ;) When we got home I made some chili and watched last season's walking dead.... and then dreamt about zombies..... I don't recommend watching, on a full belly, and falling asleep! haha.

October Cookies

I made two different cookies for my "book club" (no books, just wine) this week. The first was a pumpkin cookie that I sandwiched together with cream cheese frosting. Although it was an easy cookie, it was just, eh, okay. They don't turn out pretty and because they are so moist, it's best to keep them in the fridge. They are healthy though! They don't have any egg or oil in them. A girl I work with does a similar recipe using chocolate cake mix and 1 can pumpkin. She says her kids love it and it makes for a healthier treat.

Ingredients:
1 (15 oz) can of pumpkin
1 box spice cake (ducan hines)

Directions:
Preheat Oven: 350 degrees
Line baking sheet with parchment
Mix together two ingredients until there's no lumps
Bake 13-15 minutes

You could add chocolate chips to these or do an icing over the top. Change it up however you'd like! They're a cake texture... not so much cookie.

My BFF Elly gave me a recipe for Salted Nutella Cookies and they turn out amazing - they were definitely the party pleaser. 

Ingredients:

1 cup Nutella

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon flour

Coarse sea salt for sprinkling

Directions:

Preheat Oven: 350 degrees

Combine everything but salt and mix together

Place dough in freezer for 10 mins

Roll dough into approx 1 in balls - I used a mini icecream scoop, less mess!

Place on baking sheet

Flatted them a bit. 

Bake for 8-10 mins

I sprinkled with salt and let cool on rack.

Salted Carmel Mocha from Starbucks

Wow, I had one of these on Tuesday and it was SO good. It was like drinking straight chocolate so I recommend getting a Tall but boy was it ever tasty!

Happy October Everyone!

Staying Warm

Old Navy has some cute stuff right now! I am going to have to get the above bedazzled sweatshirt and tweed vest. I just love that popped collar!

Spool 72

Rats! This adorable fall scarf already sold out on Spool 72's website!  Hopefully it will be back soon! So darling!!!!!!!

Oh and this sweater is pretty cute too!