Pasta Fagioli Soup

This soup is uber yummy! I made it tonight with some fresh bread. I would highly recommend it. I adapted it to my needs from this site. http://iowagirleats.com/2012/09/13/copycat-olive-garden-pasta-e-fagioli-soup/  

Pasta Fagioli Soup Recipe
(Makes about 8 servings)

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground beef or ground turkey
• 1/4 small onion, chopped 
• 3 small carrots, chopped 
• 1 stalk celery, chopped 
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can (28 ounces) crushed tomatoes
• 1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
• 2 cups of beef broth
• 1 can (15 ounces) red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can (15 ounces) cannelini beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 c water water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 4 ounces ditalini pasta, uncooked. 

Directions:

1. In a large pot, over Medium heat, cook the ground beef. Drain. 
2. Stir in the chopped onions, carrots, celery, and minced garlic.  Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Stir in the crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, beef broth, red and white kidney beans and water.
4. Season with the salt, pepper, oregano, basil, and thyme and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
5. When the soup has 7 minutes left to simmer, add the pasta. 

Store in an air tight container in the refrigerator or in the freezer.

Yummiest Cookies

After having chocolate chip cookies at Wildflower Bread Co. the other day I set off to make a similar cookie in my own kitchen. I found one thanks to Pinterest and an incredible baker. The link is http://hostthetoast.com/best-chewy-cafe-style-chocolate-chip-cookies/  I'm also going to post the recipe just in case for some crazy reason that link stops working. I would hate to lose the recipe!

THE BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies!

• Makes 12-20 (it made me a bakers dozen)
• 
  
• Ingredients
• 
  
• 2 cups + 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ sticks (6 oz) butter, melted and cooled
• 1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed (I used light brown sugar, but dark brown sugar will work as well if you want a more molasses-y flavor)
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1½ cups dark chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the cooled melted butter and the sugars with a hand-mixer for about one minute. Then, add in the eggs and vanilla extract. Beat until just combined.
3. Slowly add in the dry ingredients and mix briefly, just until there are no flour clumps left. Fold in the chocolate chips.
4. Cover and refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes to an hour.
5. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and preheat the oven to 325 degrees, making sure you have the racks in the middle of the oven.
6. Scoop ¼ cup of cookie dough at a time and roll into balls. Then, tear the balls in half by pulling gently on both sides. Smush the two halves together again, but this time have the lumpy, torn sides face upward. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, making sure the cookies have plenty of space to spread.
7. Bake for about 12 minutes, rotating half-way through, or until the cookies have spread out and the edges are golden, but the center of the cookie still looks soft and just slightly under-cooked. Let cool on the baking sheets until the cookies are firm enough to remove. Every oven is different, so I recommend starting with just one or two cookies on the tray to see what baking time works best for you!
8. Repeat with remaining batches, until all cookies are baked. Enjoy with a cold glass of milk!

THESE ARE INCREDIBLE! Seriously. Try them.

First Play Date of the Year

It has been awhile since I have been able to see some NICU friends. With the busy holiday season and colds, etc, it just hasn't worked out. I am very happy to say I was able to get together with three lovely ladies and their amazing kiddos for a play date. We went to the train park and had an awesome time...until it started raining.

Noah pushes Anneliese on the swing. So cute!

Crystal and James!

Anneliese and Ella

And then it started to pour. So we took refuge under a covered area. I think we were supposed to be patrons of the little cafe there...but I really don't think they were going to say anything. By then, most had vacated. We thought it would be quick so we fed the lunches we brought. Ha! It was not the typical Arizona rainstorm. It quickly turned chilly and the kids were getting pretty cold.

Shiloh and James try to keep warm and dry.

Jennifer and her girlies.

So we decided to take our little gathering the Wildflower Bread Co. across the street. We got hot chocolates, lattes, soup, muffins, breads...delicious warm yummies!

The kid table, lol. They were "cheers-ing".

We had to get one of all of us. Michelle and Jenna are in this one as well. Her new little baby boy, Jeffrey is in his carrier, so you can't see him. But he's a cutie and a great baby. 

We had an amazing time! Rain and all!

Oh...I can't take credit for the awesome photos. That was all Jennifer's doing :)

Lemon Granita

Quite awhile ago I made an amazing lemon granita that the family loved. Our neighbor has a lemon tree right on the side of our yard so she told us that we could pick anything that we could reach. I juiced about 5cups of lemon juice and made some lemonade concentrate (4 qts of lemonade worth). I also got a request to make the granita again. I had trouble finding the recipe again so I figured I better post it here and share while I was at it. Now, we can have lemon granita tomorrow for dessert. Yay. I feel accomplished.

Lemon Granita
2 c water
Generous 1/2 c sugar
1 c lemon juice (fresh squeezed)
Grated rind of 1 lemon

Boil water and sugar until sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat. Add lemon juice and rind. Stir. Pour into ice cube tray and freeze at least 3-4 hrs. 
Remove frozen cubes, chop coarsely, then place in a food processor or blender and process until it forms small crystals. Spoon into glasses and serve immediately.

Where Have I Been?

I am SUPER behind on posting! I am hoping to change that around this year! I definitely want to share our family with those that are not on Facebook and don't get to see the family regularly.  So I'm just going to post a few pictures and summarize the rest of last year.

First of all. I got a new job in July. I was extremely sad to leave all of my coworkers. They are an amazing support to me. We've known each other for 10 years now. Some of us have had babies together. But the company that I have worked for since we moved out to Arizona recently acquired a small hospital five minutes from our home. Soon after our trip to Michigan I saw a posting for a nursery position that I just couldn't pass up. It's a normal newborn nursery. No sick babies (for the most part) and occasionally I have to take care of postpartum patients but there were just too many perks. I have a five minute drive, saving wear and tear on my car, gas money, time, and let's face it, after 12 hours of work an hour drive is just too long. Also, I can drive Elijah to school because I get off of work in time. Then, as much as I LOVE the preemies, this job is a LOT less stressful. 

All that being said, I got an amazing send off from my coworkers and also went out to lunch. Here's a picture of some coworkers kids with the boys.

We still try to get together for playdates. On this particular occasion we went to Chuck-E-Cheese's.

Now that it's hockey season, we have been enjoying some time in Jake's Red Wing Tavern.

Also, Elijah has been doing amazing in school.  He has been on the honor roll (they call it Principal's Pride) every grading period. Here Jake took him out to celebrate. 

Then we had Halloween. Jonah wanted to be Beaker from the Muppets so I dressed as Miss Piggy. Noah is Obi Wan and Elijah is Luke Skywalker. The city put on a little fair type thing with free games that the kids could play to get candy. We had fun. 

Elijah lost some more teeth!

And Noah and Jonah celebrated their fourth birthday!

More Principal's Pride awards.

Elijah had a special drive in movie night at his school. He and Jake made this cardboard box car and he wore his pajamas and watched "The Lego Movie" projected on the school wall. Pretty fun for a 6 year old. Here we are dropping him off.

Hockey is a love around here. The boys even play in the house!

Of course, Christmas quickly came. Here the twins are visiting Santa.

Jake took Elijah somewhere special. Lucky duck.

And it's Christmas!

Noah got his long awaited Spider-Man skates!

Jonah got a remote control Batman robot. Elijah got tickets to the Red Wings game.

This is us on New Years Eve.

Also, some nice Christmas photos.