The Easiest Recipe Ever!

With a husband that SERIOUSLY likes to eat and eat good food, I am always looking for delicious recipes. And now that I am working again I am on the hunt for healthy, quick recipes that I can throw together when I get home.

The temperature yesterday barely reached 40 degrees so I really wanted something warm and cozy. So I tried out a new soup recipe that sounded easy and my oh my was it good! I had to put a touch of Kelsey in it, so I added a few ingredients.

Enjoy this tasty winter treat; Chicken, Avocado and Tomato Soup!

Chick, Avocado and Tomato Soup

Ingredients:
-6 c low-sodium chicken broth (1 large box of Swanson's Chicken broth is the exact amount needed)
-1 c cooked chicken, shredded or diced
-1 avocado
-1/4 diced yellow or sweet onion
-1 can diced tomatoes
-1 can black beans, drained (A Kelsey addition, so this is totally optional)
-1 can white corn, drained (Also a Kelsey addition, this is totally optional)
-Salt/pepper

1) Bring broth to boil.

2) Stir in black beans, corn, tomatoes and onion. Stir in cooked chicken just before serving.

3) Garnish served soup with avocado.

Yes, it really is this simple! This meal was ready to go in  literally 15 minutes and it's totally healthy and homemade!

My New Obsession

Oh mylanta...it has been incredibly too long since my last post! But, you know how life goes...it never stops or slows down. Since my last blogging session I have started a new job (HALF United check us out on facebook/twitter...the website will be up and running soon), gone to the Marine Corps Birthday Ball (235 years strong), started running again, put almost all of our wall decor up on the walls and fallen in love with something else fall. Whew!

I am totally fascinated and loving pine cones this season. And those of you who know me most likely know my feelings about the color GOLD. I L L L L L L LOVE it. So, I have taken these two things that I like so much and combined them.

I spray painted, literally, dozens of pine cones with gold spray paint. My beautiful creations now are gracing us with their presence in every container that might possibly come to mind...bowls, glass canisters, troughs.

This is seriously the most inexpensive and shiny decoration! I would highly recommend it to all who are feeling crafty and want a little bizzazz as they enter this holiday season.

PUMPKIN!

I love you, pumpkin, oh yes I do!

It's true. I love almost anything pumpkin. Pumpkin seeds. Pumpkin scones. Pumpkin muffins. Pumpkin ice cream. Pumpkin bread...

Last night I tried my hand, for the first time, at baking pumpkin bread from scratch. I scoured the internet looking for the most moist, flavorful pumpkin bread out there. And holy smokes, did I find a recipe to absolutely die for! I found it on the Pioneer Woman's website, but made it slightly my own in the process. http://thepioneerwoman.com/ 

I was pretty sure I found the recipe before I even put the bread in the oven. The smell of the batter was one of the most incredible, cozy, fall smells you could possibly imagine! And much to my delight, when I took my first bight it truly was the best pumpkin treat I have ever tasted. Super moist and fluffy.

I hope you enjoy this fall treat as much as our family does!

Ingredients:

3 c sugar

3 1/2 c flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 TBS baking powder

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp ground cloves

t tsp cinnamon 

4 eggs

1 can pumpkin (15 oz)

1 c apple sauce

1 c water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all wet ingredients (eggs, pumpkin, apple sauce and water). Sift all dry ingredients together in separate bowl. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet mixture.

Mix well in mixer until batter is smooth. This is when the amazing smells will start wafting through the air. 

Grease three loaf pans. Yes, you will need three pans, it really does make that much. If you are young and recently married like me and have not acquired three loaf pans yet, cake pans work perfectly. I had two pumpkin bread cakes and one real loaf of pumpkin bread. :) Make sure you pour equal amounts of batter in each pan no matter what pans you are using. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour. You'll know it's ready to come out of the oven when the top of the loaf starts to crack and a toothpick or knife comes out of the center of the loaf clean.

Let the loaves cool for five minutes before popping the loaves out of the pans. At this point, the original recipe recommended wrapping the loaves tightly in foil and letting them cool the rest of the way. Now, I wrapped two of the loaves in foil, but Jake and I couldn't wait to test out the new recipe an dove right in and started eating the first loaf while it was still warm. YUMMY! We have not made it to the other loaves yet, but I will absolutely let you know how the foil wrapped loaves turned out. 

Double the Football Experience

I know this post is slightly delayed, but the story is just too great to pass up. You all know of my absolute LOVE of Oklahoma football, so there really was no choice in the matter...I had share this story with you.

The Red River Rivalry took place this past weekend in Dallas, Texas, as it always does. A battle this old and great must always be played on neutral ground. I am soo happy to tell all of you that my beloved Sooners did not disappoint! The final score: 28-20 OU.

Yes, it's Thursday morning and I am still relishing in this great victory! But now that you have that news I will press on to the story of last Saturday...

It actually began last Friday night when Jake's brother, Luke, and his friend Grayson came to visit. Jake and I love having visitors, but sometimes it gets a little dicey around here since we all thoroughly enjoy college football...and each of us our own team. So, four different teams and last weekend two battling each other, Navy versus Air Force.

We concocted a fantastic plan. Since we only had one tv in our apartment and Navy v Air Force was beginning only one our before my beloved Sooners took on those longhorns, we decided it would be cheaper to purchase another tv on craigslist than to go somewhere that would show both games. Jake set to work on finding the best deal he possibly could.

Within about 45 minutes we found our new tv. We were all ecstatic and so very pleased with ourselves for being so thrifty. Anxiously waiting for the day of rivalries to come we went to bed.

The next morning we woke up and Jake and I went to go get the tv. It was not the most beautiful of tvs, but it would serve the purpose. We brought it home and hooked  it up. A sigh of relief was heard from each of us when it worked! We synced up our new universal remote, also purchased that morning, and we were ready to go!

As kickoff approached for the Red River Rivalry, I moved into the next room with our new tv. My heart was starting to beat slightly more quickly. The announcers were talking about the upcoming rivalry game and how it was going to be a great game...and then it was game time!

My heart stopped and then started beating about a million times a minute. The channel started broadcasting another game, not my Sooners as I was expecting. I ran and got our listing of channels and started flipping through all the sports channels, but alas my Sooners were no where to be found. Then everyone in the house started looking. People were looking up schedules online, others were flipping channels on both tvs, but still the Sooners were no where to be found.

Finally, I remembered my dear friend, Melanie, had sent me a link to watch OU games online, since they are not shown on a regular basis in NC. Thankfully I only missed the first minutes of the rivalry and was delighted to see my team claim victory in 2010.

So after all of our hard work, we only used our one tv...the one we already had and the new tv sat dim and unused.  And that is the story of our second tv, which is now going to be sold once again on craigslist!

Oooorahhh!

I beg your pardon for the significant amount of time that has lapsed between my last post and now! I was knocked out last week by some sort of flu/cold nastiness. We don't have our couch yet, sooo I resorted to piling pillows up on an air mattress in our living room in order to watch tv. Good times, good times! But, I survived and am ready to share our fun stories with you once again!

When I married Jake, I knew I was marrying into the Marine Corps family. I guess I didn't quite understand all that went into being a Marine wife. My general thoughts were lots of uniforms, deployments and many moves. So one of the things that I never would have thought would become part of my life, haircuts. I mean, obviously, their hair has to be short. And I knew from when Jake and I were dating he had to get a hair cut once a week, but I just thought it was one of those things they had to do while they were in training. But, nope! Please keep reading...

I am two weeks strong a homegrown barber. Who would have thought? In a quest to be more frugal and to spend more time with each other on the weekend I, Kelsey, have started cutting Jake's hair. Ahh! It is nerve racking! Marines have to have a fresh haircut every week. And not just any old trim! They have to have a "0" for most of the cut. And for those of you out there, who like me, are not aware, that is straight clipper on the noggin! Gulp.

My first week I was seriously petrified! I was so scared that 1) I was going to cut Jake, 2) give him a hair cut that would take weeks to recover from and 3) people would make fun of his horrific new do. Thankfully, somehow I managed to successfully give him a high and tight with a fade. He was a great teacher....he literally walked me through it as I was cutting his hair. Jake is a man of GREAT faith!

So here are some photos of the most recent cut! Happy Clippings to you all!

From the front! (Isn't he handsome?!?)

Side numero 1.

Back!

Side dos.

The first full day of AUTUMN!

Oh my goodness...it is FINALLY here!!! 

AUTUMN 

FALL

HARVEST

Take your pick! Fall is here. How EXCITING! I cannot begin to tell you just how incredibly much I love this season. It is by far my absolute favorite season. I look forward to it every single year. I think my love and obsession of fall began as a child living at West Point, New York.

I am really hoping the weather starts to get the picture in the very near future that summer is over and fall is really here. I know it is the first day of fall, so the calendar says, but today in Wilmington it's supposed to be almost 90 degrees.  What's with that?!? I'm supposed to be wearing scarves, boots and jackets right about now.

Now let me just lay out my top 10 favorite things about fall...and if you know me well, you will already to know just about all of these things.

1. Scarves.

2. OU Football.

3. Leaves changing colors.

4. Boots

5. Carved pumpkins.

6. Apple picking.

7. Thanksgiving.

8. Carmel apple cider from Starbucks.

9. Fall decorations.

10. Apple crisp (especially my mama's!) 

I hope you enjoy these glimpses of fall as much as I do! So head out and take in those first sights, sounds and smells of this beautiful season. Throw on a jacket, scarf and boots and inhale the crispness of fall if you are able...and maybe an extra one for me until things cool down in this part of the country!

Add a little ZEST to your life!

Aren't weddings just absolutely brilliant and exhausting?  Well, I think I have recovered from the late nights and early mornings and am back on my game. Wow, do I sound old or what?!?

As I sit down to type this latest post I am listening to Sara Bareilles newest album Kaleidoscope Heart (which I would totally recommend, it's really awesome) and the smell of lemons is wafting through the air of our little home. It smells absolutely DELICIOUS! Holy moly, I love lemons...especially baking lemons!

This summer my mom's really good friend, Judi, threw me an incredible bridal shower in southern California. It was so fun being with family and lifelong family friends celebrating my upcoming marriage to Jake. Anyways, she made the most incredible lemon square bars I have ever had in my entire life.  They were seriously addicting. So my sweet treat to you today is this fantastic recipe. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

 

Lemon Squares

By: Judi Pyke

Crust:

1 cup softened butter (2 sticks)

2 cups flour

1/2 cup powdered sugar

Just mixed up!

 -Blend ingredients and pat mixture into 8x10" pan.

-Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes.

Crust, prior to baking.

Filling:

4 eggs

2 cups of sugar

4 TBS lemon juice (fresh)

2 FULL tsp lemon rind (zested)

4 (to 6) TBS flour

1 tsp baking powder

Filling.

 -Mix together.

-Pour over crust.

-Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes. 

-Sift powdered sugar on top.

Filling poured over crust.

 

Just pulled it out of the oven...

Ready to be feasted upon!

Time...

Isn't time such a funny thing?!? Jake and I spent our entire pre-marriage relationship living in different cities and only getting to see each other for two days (sometimes three for an incredible long weekend) at a time. Well, today I am venturing back up to the nation's capital without my sweet husband. He will join me on Saturday morning, only two short days from now...but, time is such a weird thing...it feels like two days without Jake is going to be an ETERNITY. And the funny thing about this last comment is that prior to marriage is I would have been ecstatic to only have to go two days between visits with Jake. And not only that, I would have thought, "Oh gosh, what a ridiculous thought!".

Ok, well moving on! I get to head up North for some really fun things! I get to hang out with my former roommate, Courtney, and check out her new diggs! It's going to be fantastic. We also are going to indulge in our secret, or not so secret, enjoyment of Chuck Bass watching the season premiere of of Gossip Girl. Oh man, think of all the INCREDIBLE fashion to take in...don't kid yourself, fall fashion is on its way in and will soon wiggle its way into my blog!

And the main reason for my adventure...Meghan Maginnis and Chris Moore are getting married! How fun and exciting! There will definitely be more to come on this topic as well...and pictures. And get this little interesting piece about time...the Anderson family (my family) and the Maginnis family have known each other since 1980...

So, I must get going. Bags packed. Book on tape in hand. I bid you farewell until the wedding festivities come to a conclusion!

The Beginning...

Welcome to my very first day of blogging! I am pretty excited, but slightly nervous, as any new adventure is. This is just one of many new adventures for me these days...getting married, moving to North Carolina, becoming part of the Marine Corps family to name just a few. This blog will serve as a little window into the sights, sounds, tastes and adventures of the lives of Jake and Kelsey Yeager as we travel the country (and maybe the world). I hope it will provide laughter and encouragement to everyone who reads about our experiences.

So on this very first day of blogging I leave you a photo of our new and current hometown, Wilmington, North Carolina...and yes, for those of you tv buffs, we do live where Dawson's Creek and One Tree Hill  were filmed.