Change of season & change of location

It's been a while since I've posted a new recipe on here. Since my last post, D and I officially became husband & wife and we're in the process of getting settled into our first home!

Coming home to boxes, contractors and unrelenting to-do lists I felt that a revisit with our crock pot was in order this past week. I tried 2 recipes I found on Pinterest (a creative person's virtual tropical island fantasy) and both were total winners with both of us!

Easy Pulled Pork:

- Pork "butt" or "shoulder" (Same thing just depends on your

*We made a 5 lb. cut and got 3 1/4 meals out of it. store's label).

- Lowry's season salt

- 1 can of diet Pepsi

- 1 bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce

Season all sides of the pork generously with season salt (really, go for it)! Place the pig in the crock pot fat side down. Pour the soda over the roast followed by the bottle of BBQ sauce.

Place the lid on the pot and set on low for 4 - 8 hours (depending the size of yo

ur roast). Since my drive home is longer now I didn't pull ours out for about 10 hours. It was still perfect!

When I did pull it out it totally fell apart. Super most and yummy!! I shred

ded it with ease by running two forks through it (being careful to pull out the fatty parts).

The original directions suggested I throw the meat back into the pot to sop up the juices but I felt it was like eating pulled pork soup when I scooped up a "quality control" sample bit out of the pot. So, I threw the whole pot into a strainer and strained out almost all (95%) of the juice. This made it perfect to serve onto rolls yet helped keep it moist for the leftover meals.

As I said, we ate this for 3 1/4 meals afterwards and it was always great. So great in fact, I didn't get a single picture of any of them. =) Highly recommended on soft buns with BBQ Sauce, cole slaw and beans.

Angel Chicken:

Originally served with Angel Hair pasta (hence the name), I made this recipe with brown rice and it was delicious!

- 1 & 1/2 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts (4 breasts)

- 1 8oz pkg of baby mushrooms

- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 0.7 oz pkg. dry Italian salad dressing mix
- 1 10 3/4 oz can cream of mushroom soup
- 1/2 of 8 oz tub of cream cheese with chives and onion
- 1/2 cup dry white white, water or 1/4 cup chicken broth

Place mushrooms on the bottom of the crock pot and add chicken breasts on top of that. In a medium saucepan, melt butter. Stir in dressing mix. Add in soup, broth (wine or water) and cream cheese until combined. Pour over chicken. Cover and cook on low heat for 4-6 hours.

Serve over starch of choice.

This easily could be made casserole style too if you're really in a hurry.

Pumpkin Soup

In honor of Halloween and the fall season I'm happy to share our traditional family dinner on Halloween evening~ Pumpkin Soup! Mom started making it when I was in my early teens and it just stuck! I even went home last year just so I could have it with my family. This evening however I couldn't make it home so I made it for the first time myself and it came out perfectly!

I'm NOT a pumpkin pie fan. I do however like pumpkin butter, pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks, pumpkin pie cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory (sensing a theme here?) aannnddd... Pumpkin Soup. So, if pumpkin's not really your thing know that it's not mine either and I like it.

Quick & Easy Pumpkin Soup
- 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter

- 1 small onion, finely chopped

- 1 green pepper, finely chopped (optional)

- 1 Tbsp. flour

- 1 tsp. salt

- 2 c. canned pumpkin (NOT pie filling!)

- 2 c. chicken broth (fat free if you wish-- won't change taste)

- 2 c. milk (again, fat free if you wish-- won't change taste)

- 1/8 tsp. dried thyme

- 1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Melt butter in heavy pan and add veggies. Cook until veggies are soft but not browned. Add salt and flour and stir together. Add pumpkin, broth, milk, thyme and nutmeg to pot and stir together.

The way I do it is stir constantly for about 3 minutes to ensure the mixture is combined and not burning. Then, I move the pot to a cold burner and allow it to sit for about 15-20 minutes to thicken up a bit.

Another few options/adaptations are:

- Add diced tomatoes to the soup

- Change the milk to a heavier cream

- Add a dollop of sour cream on top

- Add croutons on top for a yummy crunch

- My favorite is to add shredded cheddar cheese on top.

** You might also need to add more salt. This recipe never has enough for me at first.

Serving size: 2 cups

Servings in recipe: 4

WW Points: 2 points if using fat free milk and chicken stock. It's also only 1 more point if you add 1/4 c. fat free shredded cheese. The rest of the higher fat options are gonna cost ya'!

Enjoy-- and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Ode to the immersion blender!

I think fall has officially arrived. The weather is even cooler than before, all the leaves on our tree out front are falling.. constantly and the return of my beloved Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte makes it final for me. I'll eat soup even when it's 100 degrees out but now that we're actually going into "soup season" I thought it would be fitting to try out a new recipe.

Disclaimer: This recipe is best if you have a really good blender or, better yet, an immersion blender. I received mine for Christmas last year from my parents and LOVE it! It blends nearly every soft matter into a perfect liquid. The best part though is that you don't really need to waste time chopping items into bits but instead cut all items into cubes, cook till soft and blend! Save a lot of time.

This Tomato Bisque recipe was, of course, found on my favorite blog-- SkinnyTaste.Com and on again it was a hit! Give it a try for yourself... it's a good basic recipe with a lot of potential to build on.

Tomato Bisque:

- 1 Tbsp butter (low fat)

- 1 medium onion

- 1 cup carrots (I used baby carrots so I didn't have to chop anything)

- 3 cloves of garlic (never have enough in my opinoin!)

- 30 oz. fresh plum tomatoes, peeled (I wasn't about to mess with peeling the crummy tomato's from the grocery store so I bought a high quality brand of of whole peeled tomatoes (28 oz) -- perfectly fine result)

- 32 oz. fat free chicken broth (1 whole carton if you shop at TJ's-- beautiful!)

- 10 basil leaves (a "bunch" was on sale so I just broke off enough "bunches" till I had about 10 leaves and tossed them in. Made it really easy to remove later)

- 2 bay leaves (not sure this made a huge difference but they were cheap so I didn't mind adding them)

- 2 Tbsp fat free sour cream

Here was my method-- the link above will give you the original recipe if you want the true method.

Melt butter in pan. Meanwhile cube onion and slice up garlic cloves a bit so t hey cooks faster. Add the mini carrots, onion and garlic to the hot pan and melted butter. Stir occasionally for about 8-10 minutes or at least the onion pieces are translucent.

Add the whole can of tomatoes WITH juice and broth to the mixture. Add pepper and a little salt (you'll want to taste and season this again at the end). Stir well. Toss in basil and bay leaves. Reduce heat to low, cover and let simmer for 30 minutes.

Discard herbs, add sour cream and blend-- be careful if using a standing blender because hot contents will cause the top to pop! If you're using the immersion blender.. let the magic begin! ;)

Serving size: 2 cups!

Servings in recipe: 5

WW points: 1... yes, 1!! -- if you use regular butter and full fat sour cream the point range is still just 2 points! Don't forget the total goes up if you add Parmesan though. Fat free feta (2 Tbsp is 0 points and a good alternative)