Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Our blog seemed to take a loong nap. I hope to get things back up and running now that I got a computer! :) Super happy.
Well I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving! My oven is somewhat broken, so it took a very very long time to cook the turkey, but I made Thanksgiving dinner all on my own. On other news, I'm rather excited, some of Dan's friends are renting the garage (Of course it'll still be mine, I'll still have access to it.) but they are letting me use their pottery kiln! How exciting. :)
I am currently trying to learn new ways to get my etsy shop to get more buyers. I'm going to make a few other shops so that my shop doesn't have just a bunch of random stuff, but have multiple shops that specialize in just one thing. Sucks that you have to make a whole nother account for that though. However, if anyone else knows more about owning more than one etsy shop, and if it's possible to own them all under one user name, please let me know! All the info I've found said you had to make more than account.

The kittens are now up and running. Well, run and fall, waddle and fall, stand and fall, sit, and... fall. Very cute I must say.

Well I hope everyone has a fun wonderful time with their families.
-Krystalle

Easy Healthy Chicken Tortilla Soup

This weekend was kinda busy, and not very relaxing. Except, however, my chicken tortilla soup I made. I think, the longer you cook it, the better tasting it is. The spices just have that much time to blend together, and for the soup to thicken. So! When you have some crafting to do, and dinner to get on the table, than this is a great recipe for you. It'll take you either 35 minutes, to a few hours, all depending on how you want to cook it. This would be the same way you'd make it in a crock pot. But I don't have one,...

What You'll Need:

1lbs Shredded Chicken (I used about 3 small boneless chicken breasts.)

1 can whole peeled tomatoes. (Mashed)

1/2 Medium Onion

1 Bell peper

2 cups water

1 Chicken bullion cube (Or chicken broth, but I'm trying to do this as affordable as possible)

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon chili powder (Or more if you want it spicy)

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon peper

1 bay leaf

1/2 can of corn

7 corn tortilla 

Oil

You can also add black beans!

For seasoning the chicken:

This all depends on your own tastes.

I seasoned my chicken with salt, pepper, and chili pepper.

Now Lets Begin:

Start with preheating your oven to 375 degrees. 

Take your thawed out chicken, and place it on a cookie sheet that you had lined up with foil. 

Drizzle your chicken with olive oil, than on both sides sprinkle salt, pepper, and chili pepper.

Stick that into the oven for 20-25 minutes, or untill you know your chicken is done.

Now cut all your veggies, and put them aside. Get your pot, drizzle a little bit of olive oil in there, turn it to medium high, and stir in your veggies (except the tomatoes) and cook them for a few minutes.

Once they are cooked, go ahead and pour in your tomatoes, and mash them, if they arn't already. Make sure you add the juice that came in the can.

I than poured in the water, and the chicken broth cube. Stir that around till the cube dissolves. I brought this to a boil, than turned the heat back down to a shimmer. Toss in all of the seasonings.

At this time, or whenever the chicken was done and cooled down, I shredded up the chicken with my fingers. Found it easier than a fork, but you can do whatever. 

Toss this into the pot, and let it simmer on low, covered, for an hour or so. OR Just boil for a few minutes, and you're done after you add in the tortilla strips.

Cut up your tortillas into strips, and place those into the pot about 5 minutes before serving. 

And it's done! :) Super simple and cheap. 

-Krystalle

healthy sweet chocolate treat

Hey guys, Queen Of The Damned here. Today I made something healthy and delicious,  with chocolate too. Frozen chocolate banana bites. I believe in being able to treat yourself without jumping off the wagon.

You will need a bunch of bananas,  dark chocolate (the higher the cocoa % the better, mine was 62%), wax paper to line a cookie sheet, and a double boiler.

Chop the bananas into chunks, and start melting you chocolate.

Don't have a double boiler? No problem! Use a pot with water and a ceramic/glass bowl instead.

Melt the chocolate completely, stirring occasionally. 

Take your banana chunks and dip them/roll them/ whatever method you want to cover the banana.

Place the bites on the wax paper lined cookie sheet, and pop them into the freezer until frozen enough to handle. Place into a zip lock baggie, and store in the freezer. 

Pretty easy right? I used two bags of chocolate and had just enough to cover all of my banana pieces. In other news, making some Autumn Apple Wine too. My own recipe, I make wine as a side project/hobby as well. This batch finished fermenting waaaay fast, even with adding sugar. We calculated an approximate alcohol content of around 12-15%, but we don't have a fancy meter to measure it after fermentation is done, just a guess according to sugar levels before hand. We re-racked it to let it settle out before bottling. I still need to label my strawberry zinfandel I did about 6 months ago so I don't get them confused lol. Well….I had a picture on here, guess my phone hates me haha! Oh well, its nothing fancy. 

I joined two health challenges today. One is a fruit and veggie challenge where you log in what you eat, and to win you have to score the most points for veggies/fruits eaten. Its only two weeks long. I also joined a two month long challenge to burn 625 calories a day through activity. I use the app called Loseit! and its great. I love the barcode scanner for food, makes life SO easy. 

Well, off to more mundane stuff, I have to finish putting away laundry and start a project and study for my next exam. Go have more fun that me!

May Goth be with you!