What I Am Loving Wednesday Vol 4.

It is Wednesday Already?  Wow this week is flying by!  Katie gets married in 3 days, I pick up Kady one of my oldest and dearest friends tomorrow from the airport (it feels like ages since I have seen her), and there is a three day weekend coming up!   What is not to love?  This weekend is going to be packed with exciting memories, I cannot wait to share it all with you guys!  But here is a list of what I am loving now!

First I am obviously loving that I get to spend this long weekend celebrating the wedding of my best friend, and on top of that I get to be with some very special people!

I am loving that the weather is starting to get cooler, and that fall is right around the corner!  Fall is my very favorite season!  Not only is my birthday in the fall, but fall is full of fabulous colors and smells!  I love watching the leaves change from green to the vibrant oranges and reds.  

I was so excited to see Pumpkin Spice Lattes on the Starbucks menu the other day!

Guess this means its time for more Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal!

I am loving the new fall candle scents at Bath and Body Works!  

They all smell amazing, and yes I went around and smelled ALL of them!

To be completely honest I am loving a lot of things right now, today has just been one of those days where I am full of energy and just excited about everything! 

I hope you all have a fantastic Wednesday, and remember to live Happily Ever Healthy!

A Rainy Day Calls for Soup

Today was a rainy and gloomy day here in Minnesota, and on those types of days the only thing I really want to do is curl up in a blanket and be lazy.  And you know what that is exactly what Mark and I did.  Minus running to the gym, and to have my bridesmaids dress fixed I spent all day in the house!  It was glorious!  Mark rented a few movies for us and we curled up on the couch with bowls of mac and cheese.  Yes I said Mac and Cheese, I decided I wanted to try the Annie's Organic Version of  Shells and Cheese.

I have to say I was not that impressed, it was a little bland!  However I enjoyed it old like I did when I was little with peas, carrots and well I had to add some garlic to liven it up! Not sure if I will buy it again!

Have any of you ever seen the movie Limitless?  With Bradley Cooper?  Thats what Mark and I watched today it was a bit odd!  Non the less it killed some time!  Along with searching for the perfect rainy day soup to make!  Tortilla Soup seemed to be the soup of the day in the blog world, and as soon as I saw all the wonderful recipes my mouth started watering.  I knew tortilla soup was what I wanted for dinner, and it wasn't hard to convince Mark or my mom into the soup for dinner either!  However on looking in the pantry I saw the house lacked a few key ingredients... let the recipe search begin!  I found this recipe for Salsa Chicken Soup on Taste of Homes website, added bonus we had all the ingredients!  Another added bonus the soup is a one pot dinner, and super easy to make.  I added some extra veggies for bulk and some beans because to me a tortilla salsa soup needs beans!!

Here is what you need:

Adapted from this Taste Of Home Recipe

1 Can Low Sodium Chicken Broth 

1-3/4 Cup Water

1 Cup Salsa of your choice 

1/2 Pound Chicken Cubed

1 Cup Corn 

Chili Powder, Garlic and Cilantro 

1 Can Black Beans 

Cheese and Limes for Garnish 

1 Medium Red Pepper

1/2 Medium Onion 

For Crispy Tortilla Strips 

5-6 Tortillas

Olive Oil Cooking Spray 

Salt, Pepper and Garlic

What you do:

In a soup pot combine Water, Chicken Broth spices and Chicken.  I also added my Onions and Peppers in this step (they were not originally in the recipe).  Bring to a boil and cover for 5 minutes.

Next add your Corn

and your Salsa.

Return the lid to the pot and simmer until chicken is cooked through!

While I was waiting for the chicken to cook Mark and I focused on the Tortilla Strips.  He cut the tortillas into thin strips, sprayed them with cooking spray and seasoned them. Place them in a 300 degree oven and broil them until crispy!  I don't have an exact time I simply just watched them till the reached the crispness I wanted!

Time to serve!

The perfect dinner for a rainy day!  Tonights soup was a bit on the hot side, I used hot salsa.  Milk was definitely the perfect compliment to a spicy  dinner!

I am off or a friendly game of Sorry!  

Enjoy and remember to live Happily Ever Healthy!

Plummer House and Festivities Recap

Yesterday before going out to celebrate my parents 31st wedding anniversary Mark and I did a little tour of Rochester.  Rochester has three huge mansions, two were home of the Mayo Brothers (I talked about Will Mayo's house in this post) and one was Dr. Plummer's.  The Plummer house is one of my favorite houses. Not only is the house beautiful, but the gardens are sprawling and studded with beautiful flowers and fountains! I held my Graduation (from high school) open house there and even took some of my senior pictures there.  Dr Plummer was not only a wonderful doctor but helped the clinic in many ways, he came up with a correspondence system that was used throughout the Clinic, and was the first doctor to understand and operate the X-Ray machine.  Here are a few pictures from our adventure!

 The tower in the side garden

 Front door to the house!

 I love these fountains!

 King of the Rock!

We spent the rest of our day relaxing and gearing up for the celebration!  Lets transition into talking about the fabulous dinner we had last night!

Hill Vs. The Pancakes, and Updates from Margaritaville

Have you ever watched the show Man Vs. Food?  Well I felt like Man Vs. Food yesterday when my plate of pancakes came out at breakfast!  I dubbed my fake show Hill Vs. The Pancakes!  These mammoth size pancakes were curtsey of The Butter Cafe!  I was so excited to go to The Butter Cafe for brunch, I have been wanting to go there for some time now!  Butter Cafe supports sustainable cooking, which means they use only the best ingredients (ingredients that don't hurt animals, the environment and are healthy for consumers) aka lots of Organic!!

 I was struggling on what to get, everything sounded so good post run, and I was starving!  I went between Banana Pancakes, French Toast Kebabs, Oatmeal, and Cinnamon Sugar Pancakes!  I wish I could have ordered one of each (then you would have been rolling me out of the cafe)!  So what did I finally settle on?  Drum roll please...  Cinnamon Sugar Pancakes!  Best decision ever, these pancakes were sweet but not that overpowering sweet.  Topped with bananas and of course peanut butter, the pancakes hit the spot!  I took the rest of my pancakes with me to snack on latter because let me tell you those suckers were huge!  Take a look.

Mammouth Cinnamon Sugar Pancakes!!

And after Mark, his mom and I Went to town!

Clearly food won that round in Hill Vs. The Pancakes!  

We left the Butter Cafe ready to tackle the hour and a half drive to Indy for the Concert!!

Upon arriving in Indy we decided we would check into our hotel before hitting up the venue... lets just say its a good thing we did!  There were a few issues with the hotel lets just leave it at that (makes for a great story)!

Margaritaville-And What I am Thankful For

*I am thankful that during this stressful time of transition I have a wonderful family, wonderful boyfriend and friends that are behind me 100% of the time.  I am thankful for having such a wonderful strong support system!

Head on over to Henning Love to see what other bloggers are thankful for!

Today marks my second encounter with the emphasis Jimmy Buffett Concert.  

Recap of the North Shore!

I am back!  I think it is safe to say my family had a fabulous time up on the North Shore.  I forgot how absolutly breathtaking the scenery is up there.  I had not been to the North Shore since I was in middle school, needless to say I think I have a new appreciation for the serenity of the lake.  I enjoyed beautiful scenery on long morning runs, and a scenic view of the lake while I ate my breakfast.  In the afternoons my family and I went on excursions such as hiking at Gooseberry Falls, and exploring the historic Split Rock Light House.  It felt great to be able to unwind a little and allow my mind to relax (and that doesn't happen very often)!  Here is a smattering of pictures that were taken on the trip on the North Shore!  Let me tell you there were a lot, my sister loves a good photo op!

Enjoy!
Our first day we stopped in Duluth for the day, here are a few pictures of the lift bridge.

 

The view from our cottage porch!

 Love the couch!

Cove by the lodge, nature walks out to the point at the cove was always a great adventure when younger!

 Perfect!

 Photo Opt!

What I spent my morning looking at, no better way to eat breakfast then by a lake!

 Gooseberry Falls!

 4 Generations!

Sis Grandma and I!

The stairs we hiked to the lake at gooseberry falls!

 Always A Delta!

 The Wolfe Girls!

 Mama and I!

Sissy!

Moose!

Testing the Water

Photo Opt with Grandpa!

Brave enough to put our feet in.

 The most photographed light house!  Split Rock Light House!

Hi from Minnesota!

The most fabulous Hummus Sandwich!

I hope you enjoyed all the pictures!  I have a wonderful Kale recipe to share with you!  More to come!
As always remember to live Happily Ever Healthy!