My Brain on Hyperdrive

I'm giving you the recipe this time! This is one of my favorites and it's a lighter soup, so I don't feel as weird having it in the warmer months as well as the colder ones. Greek Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup Servings ~ 4 Ingredients: 7 cups chicken broth (or equivalent in bouillon) 1 cup (uncooked) orzo 2 cups cooked, shredded chicken 4 large eggs 1/4 cup lemon juice 1/4 tsp ground white pepper Directions: 1. Bring the broth to a boil in a large saucepan and add uncooked orzo. Cook until orzo is almost done. 2. Whisk together the eggs and lemon juice in a medium bowl. Whisk in 1 cup of the hot broth from the orzo (it's ok if some orzo gets in, but try not to get too much). 3. Whisk warmed egg mixture into the saucepan and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the chicken and pepper and cook, stirring often, until chicken is heated through (1-2 minutes) 4. Serve and enjoy!

Roasted garlic and lemon chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy. Soooo tasty! If you like my photography (and many of you tell me you do), PLEASE leave comments on my pictures throughout this year. I don't know if I'll be able to continue without that encouragement. Also needed will be suggestions for photography subjects or locations. I'm always looking for ideas!

Angel Food Lemon Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. Yum. Easy recipe: Mix Angel Food cake mix with can of lemon pie filling and cup of shredded coconut. Spread in 15x10x1 pan (I didn't have that size, so mine were a little thinner) and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. Top with your favorite cream cheese frosting and sprinkle grated lemon peel to finish. Refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving. If you like my photography (and many of you tell me you do), PLEASE leave comments on my pictures throughout this year. I don't know if I'll be able to continue without that encouragement. Also needed will be suggestions for photography subjects or locations. I'm always looking for ideas!

Recipe here .  She did a much better job taking a picture. I'm going to have to work on my food photography. If you like my photography (and many of you tell me you do), PLEASE leave comments on my pictures throughout this year. I don't know if I'll be able to continue without that encouragement. Also needed will be suggestions for photography subjects or locations. I'm always looking for ideas!

Since my husband gave me his cold, soup seemed in order for dinner tonight. I think this might be the best beef and barley soup I've ever had. So yummy and super easy to make. Not a lot of extra seasonings so you can taste the flavors of all the ingredients. And you're in luck because I'm including the recipe down below! Beef and Barley Soup Makes 4 Servings Ingredients 1 lb boneless round steak, cut into 1-inch cubes 1/2 cup pearl barley 5 cups water 2 beef bullion cubes 3 carrots, chopped 1 onion, chopped 2 celery stalks, chopped 1 tsp salt 1/8 tsp black ground pepper In a large saucepan, combine the meat, barley, water, and bullion; bring to a boil. Skim off any foam, then add the carrots, onion, celery, salt, and pepper; bring back to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for approx. 45 minutes. Optional: stir in 1 cup sliced mushrooms at the end, then cook, covered, an additional 10 minutes. Approximately 260 calories per serving If you l...

In January, I began a new routine of working out every morning before work. As someone who's not a morning person, this was extremely difficult for me. It's gotten a bit easier, but I haven't noticed any weight change (in fact I went up a few pounds). I suppose that was to be expected, though, because I didn't really change the way I was eating. News flash: Exercise alone will not make you lose weight! You have to alter your eating habits. So my man and I have superficially started discussing over the last month what sort of changes we want to make, what sort of guidelines we might want, if we want to stick to one of the popular diets or create our own thing. We haven't made any real decisions yet; probably because both of us want to avoid having to change the way we eat. But yesterday I decided to pull one trigger at least. I signed up for MyFitnessPal, which is free, as a way to keep track of everything I'm eating and my exercising. I've heard Weig...

This meal is soooo yummy, I just had to share! I found the recipe in a magazine, and I've shared the recipe with you at the end of this post. You're definitely going to want to try it. Assemble your ingredients. First we chop the half onion. Brown the sausage and the onions together. While the sausage is cooking, cook the tortellini according to the directions on the package. Once the sausage is cooked and no longer pink, you'll need to drain it. I found a great tip for draining meat. I used to look for an empty can or jar, but its frustrating if you've just taken out the recyclables. So I learned a great place to put the hot grease as you wait for it to cool (because you definitely don't want to dump it down the drain no matter how many times the boy tries to do that) is to put some foil in a bowl. When the grease cools, you can just take out the foil and throw it in the trash. Then you get to use the toy to puree the roasted red peppe...

I was a little delayed in uploading the final four images of the series due to having company for the holiday, but here they are now (along with a couple bonus recipe links). The first night they were here, we made cheesy chicken wild rice casserole ( recipe from Picky Palate ), one of my favorites. On Sunday, day 23, we made Spritz cookies. We made traditional almond flavor and a different raspberry gelatin recipe . Christmas Eve we opened gifts and celebrated with my parents. Look at all those presents under our tree! I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

One of many awesome wedding gifts we received was a cookbook titled 101 Things to do with Popcorn. There are some interesting recipes inside and some really fun ones. I've made a couple and decided to try something new tonight. I didn't have the right ingredients for anything specific from the book, so I mixed and matched and came up with my own concoction.  To start, you need some popped popcorn. We don't want the special butter or movie popcorn you can buy in the store because we're putting our own topping on it. So we want to start with about 1/3 cup of unpopped kernels and we're going to dump them in a regular old brown paper lunch bag.  Fold up the top of the bag so the kernels don't come out as they pop.  My microwave has a popcorn setting. If yours doesn't, just put it in for about 3 - 4 minutes and listen for the popping to slow.  After the popcorn is popped comes my least favorite step. It's a little awkward, but necessary if...

It's the time of year for pumpkin treats. I love pumpkin bread and everyone loves the recipe I use, but this post is about something slightly sweeter, Pumpkies! They can also be referred to as pumpkin brownies, although they don't have any chocolate. They're super yummy, though! I actually made a double batch here, which is why it's more than you'll see in the recipe at the end. First things first, the recipe says to stir butter until light and fluffy. I'm not sure how they managed to do that, but I edited a bit and mixed it with the sugar.   Then I mixed in the egg and pumpkin puree: It looks a little like tomato sauce, but I promise it's pumpkin. Now for the dry stuff, the flour and spices.  Everything's mixed, ready for the pan: Like I said, this is a double batch, so I'm using a 9x13 pan. It still only took about 35 minutes in the oven, though. And out it comes, beautifully golden and smelling heavenly. You...

The other night the boy and I tried a new recipe. It looked promising. A version of lasagna that includes veggies and a cheese sauce. Sounds good, right? Well, yes, but... I'll get to that but in a moment. I started out by chopping up the veggies: Then we cooked the diced onion with a clove of chopped garlic. Once the onions were tender, we added in 1 cup of ground beef. I admit this seemed like a small amount, but we went with it. Brown the beef, then add in the carrots, celery and diced tomatoes. Now if you read my first recipe post , you know I don't enjoy tomato chunks. So I pureed them again! Now we've got something that looks like this: The recipe said to cook this for 30 minutes, and I admit, I skimped a bit and only cooked it for 15 - 20. I guess this is my first question: Would it have made a difference if I had cooked it longer? So now it was time to make the lasagna layers. Here's the stuff: The recipe had directions for a cheese sauce, b...

We made some tasty goodness the other night. SOOOO Yummy! The peppers, tomato puree, sausage, and cheese all combine for amazing flavor. This recipe is definitely a keeper. 5 Spoons! You can find the link to the recipe at the end of the post. It started out looking like this: See how nicely I cut up those peppers and sausages? It's so colorful!  Note for next time: When you cut the sausages too large, they'll take longer to cook. The recipe called for diced tomatoes. I'm not a fan of tomato chunks. I like ketchup. I like spaghetti sauce. I don't like raw or cooked tomatoes. So I used my fun toy to puree them. This turned out to be an awesome choice. Substituting tomato or spaghetti sauce would have been too thick and heavy. This added just the right amount of flavor and a light sauce. Then mix in the pasta and CHEESE! And you're ready to serve, sprinkled with Parmesan. (More CHEESE!) You can find it  here  and make it yourself. Highl...