Our Amazing and Full Life....: Food, Flowers and Fish.....

I love to cook, bake and try new recipes. They don't always come out like I expect or look like the picture but its something I enjoy and have a passion for. Besides that I love to eat!!

One of the kids favorite thing that I make is chicken pot pie. I normally season and boil a whole chicken and use some of the broth when I am preparing the mixture. The rest I freeze for chicken noodle soup. If I am in a hurry I will buy a rotisserie chicken. I chop up the chicken, use 2 cans cream of chicken soup, 2 cans of cream of potato soup, and a big bag of frozen mix vegetables thawed. I mix them all and add chicken broth to make creamy and split between 2 deep dish pie crusts. Then I cover with the Pillsbury roll out shells found in the dairy department. I also brush egg on the shells and bake until hot. It is delicious and easy easy easy!!

Ignore the pan. I saw on Pinterest a way to get that film off. I only use that pan with tinfoil or underneath stuff. One thing I read that does that to pans is using generic Pam spray. I am not sure if that is 100% the case but I switched to only using only Pam and it hasn't happened to my other pans.

With the broth from this last chicken and with some I saved I attempted to make chicken noodle soup for the second time. The first time DID NOT come out good. The broth tasted like water and it was a disappointment. I am happy to say that this last batch was awesome!!! I am so proud of myself. When I was boiling the chicken for the pot pie and additional chicken breasts for the soup, I used a lot of garlic salt, garlic powder, onion powder, pepper and parsley. I also boiled some onion, carrots, and celery in the broth for the soup. Then I cut up the chicken and added it back along with more broth, green beans, corn and noodles that I cooked separate so as not to absorb all the broth.

Another thing I saw on a facebook page was a recipe for Zucchini chips. They looked good so I tried them. They were pretty easy to make and tasty.

Here is a link if you want to make your own. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ellie-krieger/zucchini-parmesan-crisps-recipe/index.html

I also baked a few goodies around easter. I made for the first time chocolate dipped macaroons, candy bar surprise cookies and chocolate dipped strawberries...YUM

On to flowers....I previously blogged about my black thumb and being known to kill all things living. I have been diligent in taking care of my flowers and trying to garden out of pots this year and I must say that I am doing AWESOME!!! Look for yourself....

purple peppers

Gerber Daisy's

My garden

Jalapeno

My beautiful tomatoes!!

This is a tree of some sort that I need to plant

Bamboo by the pond

pretty in purple

spider plant

As my garden plants get bigger I move them into bigger pots. So far so good!!

My last few pictures are of the fish, pond and surrounding areas. I just love this time of the year and how everything is growing and looking new and fresh.