Homemade Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

Just like mamma makes it!

{Homemade Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup}

Ingredients:
One baked chicken
frozen peas and carrots
40 ounces of chicken broth
two cans of cream of chicken
12 oz egg noodles

Directions:
Boil then shred chicken. Heat broth, then add peas, carrots and noodles. Simmer until veggies and noodles are tender ( about 8 minutes). Add cream of chicken soup, milk, salt, pepper and shredded chicken. Simmer until heated through and ready to serve.

Note: May I suggest adding 2 more cups of chicken broth or water to make more broth in the finished product. A lot boiled out during while the noodles cooked.

Also, I’ve always served this with a biscuit let’s just say it’s the icing on one delicious cake!

Lasagna Roll Ups

Ingredients:

– 9 -12 whole wheat lasagna noodles

– 15 oz of skim milk Ricotta cheese

– 1 cup mozzarella cheese

– 1 large egg

– 1 medium bell pepper (diced)

– handful of sliced bella mushrooms (diced)

Directions:

– Put noodles on to boil you will want time for these to drain and cool down before you lay them out. Dice the bell pepper and mushroom and sauté with a teaspoon of olive oil for five to ten minutes. In a large bowl mix the ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, egg, bell pepper and mushrooms.

Lay the cooled and drained noodles on a clean surface. Spread mixture onto the noodles, about 3 tablespoons on each noodle.

Bake the lasagna roll ups at 450 degrees for 20 minutes.

The whole meal takes about 30 minutes and makes 6-8 servings.

Nutritional Information: (for 8 servings)

Calories   Carbs    Fat    Protein

Kroger – Whole Wheat – Whole Grain – Lasagna Noodles, 9 pieces dry	648	148	4	25
Cheese – Ricotta, part skim milk, 15 oz	586	22	34	48
Kraft – Low Fat Mozzarella Cheese Shredded, 1 C	180	8	0	36
Kroger – Grade A – Large Eggs, 1 egg	70	0	5	6
Prego Traditional – Spaghetti Sauce, 2 cup	280	52	6	8
Raw – Bell Peppers, 1 Medium	25	6	0	1
Organic – Baby Bella Mushrooms, 106 g	20	2	0	3

Per Serving:

226

30

6

16

Lasagna Soup

This is seriously good soup! I found this recipe on Pinterst by the Deen Bros — I love it Paula Deen’s sons have started a website where they take their mom’s recipes and make them healthy! Best foodie find ever!!

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 pound ground turkey
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 (32-ounce) container chicken broth
1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can petite diced tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
4 ounces broken whole-wheat lasagna noodles (about 4 noodles)
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup reduced-fat shredded mozzarella cheese
8 Whole-wheat breadsticks or grissini (optional)

Instructions:

Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a large nonstick saucepan or Dutch oven. Add the sausage, onion, bell pepper, and garlic. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the sausage is crumbled and browned, 8 – 10 minutes.

(This part would work well in a crockpot too!) Add the broth, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, salt, and crushed red pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the flavors are blended, about 20 minutes. Add the noodles; bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the soup thickens slightly and the noodles are tender, 10 – 12 minutes. Remove from the heat; stir in mozzarella, basil, and the Parmesan. Serve with the whole grain bread.

Via the Deen Bros

Baked Avocado

This recipe came from a craving for avocado, pesto and mozzarella cheese. And it is delicious!

All you need:
1 medium Avocado
2 tomato basil string cheese
1 tsp pesto

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

Step 4:
Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

Calories:
Both halves: 255 calories
One half: 127.5 calories

Easy Chicken and Dumplings

This is the easiest chicken and dumplings ever! I found this recipe on Pinterest.

It’s so simple. You only need:

1 can chicken broth (I’d probably add one more)

2 cans cream of chicken

5 chicken thighs

parsley flakes

garlic powder

1 can flakey biscuits

Like I said easy not healthy, but the perfect comfort food!

Check out BubbleCrum.com for the directions. And enjoy!

Black Bean and Corn Salsa Quinoa

I just have to say this was one of the best 15 minute meals I’ve made in a while.

Ingredients:

• black bean quinoa
• black bean corn salsa
• avocado
• frozen black bean corn medley
• chicken sausage

This meal is extremely simple:

Boil the quinoa, pan fry the sausage, microwave the frozen veggies and add in the avocado and corn salsa to taste.

And the final product looks a little bit like this…

Excuse the messy bowl, but I was so hungry I couldn’t wait one more second! This meal is about 200 calories and filling! The best part… it made three servings so I have two pre-made lunches for this week!

Side note: This is seriously the best salsa I have ever eaten!

Birthday Fun!

This weekend marked my sweet friend Michele’s birthday! She came over Tuesday and we celebrated with delicious ice cream cake from Carvel and one yummy grilled cheese!

The Yummy Grilled Cheese:

My parents were in town this weekend and they brought a huge spiral ham with them, so needless to say I have a ton left over. While thinking of what to make for Michele’s birthday dinner I stumbled upon this great idea from my Yummy Noms board on Pinterest. It’s an Avocado Bacon Grilled Cheese Sandwich! Instead of using bacon I used the ham (which ended up being a good idea).

Avocado Ham Grilled Cheese:

• I used Colby Jack and Havarti cheese
• Cut the ham into bit size pieces (if you like I drizzled a little ham glaze on it)
• 1/4 avocado – I put it right in the middle of all the ingredients to hold it in the sandwich better

Quick and delicious!

For the ice cream cake I found these cute candles:

Here are some more pictures of the cake!

      

Avocado, Egg, Mozzarella & Balsamic Sandwich

I got a little inspired today after my work out. Out of my craving came this beauty!

Ingredients:

1 small avocado

1 egg

1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese

1 tbsp of mayo

Side salad:

handful of cherry tomatoes

handful of green olives

2 fresh okra

It was a quick, easy and delicious meal! The best part I input all the ingredients into my calorie tracker and this meal (not including the wine) is only…

460 Calories!

Spotlight: FoodSpotting

Ever wished you could search for a restaurant by typing in a certain dish, food or drink? Me too and now we can via FoodSpotting! I’m a huge foodie so this is the best app I have ever found! Speaking of that ice cream looks amazing in that picture. I just tried it out to see how this works and take a look. I have a craving for Bloody Mary’s for some reason.  Love this idea.

Life by Emily is officially off the ground!

After years of trial and error, countless hours and lots of soul-searching: Life by Emily is officially off the ground. In the right hand column you will find six categories: Projects, Sgt. Pepper, DIY, Noms, Heart and Seasons.

A little about about Emily (me):

This blog is basically the random assortment of my everyday life.

My parents both come from strong Cajun French/French families so I love great food, enjoy simple pleasures and am completely obsessed LSU football!

I have a small child named Sgt. Pepper (okay so he’s a dog). He is a 5 lb. Yorkie and he stole my heart from the moment we met (I’ll post the story). I love that dog!

I am a Marketing/ Advertising/ Promotions coordinator at an engineering company by day and an amateur designer by night. Life by Emily has become my creative space! Here you will find posts about things that I love, my current design work, DIY projects, funny stories from my life (seriously I couldn’t even make this stuff up) and a random assortment of things that inspire me.

Projects:

While I am a Marketing Coordinator at an engineering company by day, my true passion is print design. Lately I’ve been asking (we’ll begging) my recently engaged friends to let me help with designing save-the-dates, announcements, invitations and just about anything else they need. The projects page will showcase those projects! [So yes a couple of them said yes!] So far I only have a couple, but I’m hoping to have more soon.

Sgt. Pepper:

I have a small Yorkie – Sgt. Pepper. Yes that was a Beatles-inspired choice. I call him Pepper for short. While I am whole-heartedly for rescuing dogs sadly Pepper was not rescued. When i first met Pepper he was so tiny (1 lb. exactly). And he was still the biggest little trouble maker I have ever met. Right then I knew we were prefect for each other. On this page I will try to continuously update it with pictures and short posts of my life with Pepper. He’s a feisty one so that page may get a bit interesting!

DIY:

Do-it-yourself or DIY is now a huge part of our weekends, am I right? Do you spend time during the week scouring Pinterest for the latest and greatest DIY projects that will complete that room you never finished or update that tiny apartment you’ve crammed yourself in? No worries I do it too. This page will show your all of my DIY projects that I’ve boldly taken on. Many of them are in the process of being completed to stay tuned!

Heart:

This is basically a compilation of things that I love and/or inspire me to be a better person. This page may get a bit random so be prepared to find something new and exciting every week!

Noms:

I grew up in a large cajun-french family, where seasonings reign as king and roux is a staple in every dish. Needless to say I love to cook and I love even more to eat! This page is where I will share my favorite recipes.

Seasons:

I’m a huge fan of holidays, maybe it’s the religious aspect or maybe it’s the excuse to get a little drunk with your favorite people. I also love to make seasonal cards – which will be posted here! So Merry Christmas, Happy New Years, Happy Easter or whatever time of year it is!

So that’s just about sums up Life by Emily! Thanks to those who have followed me though the painful year and half it took me to get here. And for those of you who are just joining me thanks for visiting I hope you continue to read up on Life by Emily!