Easiest Loaded Potato Soup Ever

Comfort food like soups... yum. We all love them!
And now with it being officially Fall, it's time to start cooking and eating these delicious foods!

Most places when it's mid October its nice and chilly with temperatures in the low 80s or 70s. Well, not in Bakersfield. October, 13th and it was a high of 95.....

But hey! Who says I can't pretend right!? So I pretended by making one of my favorite comfort foods.... Crockpot Loaded Potato Soup. Yum!

Many of you have asked for this recipe, so I thought I would go ahead and share one of my easiest, yet delicious recipes!

You have a crock pot right!? No? GO GET ONE IMMEDIATELY!

I cannot begin to tell you how much I LOVE my crock pot. 

It has saved me countless hours over a hot stovetop. 

It has saved me many hours after work with not having to cook and already having dinner ready.

Crock pots are amazing and in case you haven't noticed, I highly recommend one.

So now that I got over that rant, here is the recipe!

Loaded Potato Soup

30oz bag of frozen hash browns ( I used shredded)

28oz chicken broth

10.75oz can cream of chicken soup

8oz cream cheese, softened

Minced Onion

Ground Black Pepper

Garlic Salt

Parsley

4-6 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled

Shredded Cheddar Cheese

The best part about this recipe is the fact that you use frozen hash browns instead of washing, peeling, and cutting potatoes. This skips the most time consuming step and tastes just as good!

Instructions

Get your Crock Pot on the low setting. 

Mix frozen hash browns (do not thaw), chicken broth (I had no chicken broth when I made this... can you believe that!? So instead, I did three cups of water and 3 tablespoons of butter and it worked out great!), Cream of Chicken Soup, Cream Cheese, Onion, Pepper, Garlic Salt, and Parsley all in the crock pot.

Now for the great part, just close the lid and let it sit for around 5 hours. Or you could put it on high and go for less hours, but I prefer a slow cook.

You can go ahead and give it a stir occasionally making sure all ingredients are combined.

When you are close to being finished get a hand held blender/mixer and give it a really good blend. This is what gives you that creamy consistency without any lumps.

And now it should be all ready! So dish some up in a bowl with shredded cheese on top with some crumbled bacon on top of that or any other toppings you would like. Serve with dinner rolls for a hearty, starchy, comfort filled yummy meal!

Try it! You won't regret it...

Enjoy!

-HW

No Bake Energy Bites

Hi everyone!
With all the stress of wedding planning, moving, school, and much more I found myself letting myself go. (No excuses though, purely my fault). However, I REALLY have no excuses now. It's time to get back into it! Jacob and I have been swimming and bike riding a lot plus playing softball twice a week. I have been doing a lot of meal prep and eating whole foods instead of processed. And we both have committed to drinking a gallon of water a day. And even within the last two weeks I've personally felt a difference in how I feel throughout the day. My face has cleared up, I'm not as bloated, my metabolism is getting faster, and I have much more energy.

But even with clean eating... my sweet tooth is still something fierce, even more so with eating right. So what do you do about it? Ice cream? A candy bar? Cake and cookies? Sometimes... sure. (No judgement here) But every day? NO. So this is one of my absolute favorite recipes to crave a sweet tooth in a healthier way.

No Bake Energy Bites

In a medium bowl mix oats, coconut flakes, peanut butter, flaxseed, honey, vanilla and chocolate chips.

When you choose your ingredients, remember CLEAN EATING! So with coconut, either buy your own coconut and roast it and shred it yourself or get unsweetened organic at the store. The other important ingredient to get clean is the peanut butter. Don't go with Jif or Skippy with all of the extra unnecessarily ingredients, go with a much natural peanut butter. Take a look at the difference in ingredients from Skippy on the left, to what I used on the right...

Once you're done mixing all of the ingredients together, use your hands to make ball shapes. I make mine about an inch by an inch.

Then pop them in a big ziplock bag and refrigerate them until you are ready to eat them. I usually like mine in between breakfast and lunch as a little pick me up. They're SO good and very filling.

Ingredients:
1 cup of whole wheat oats
2/3 cups of unsweetened coconut flakes
3/4 cup of peanut butter
1/2 cup ground flaxseed
1/3 cup of honey
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup of chocolate chips (you can add more or less depending on what you like)

You can add more or less of whatever ingredients you'd like. I usually add craisins, chia seeds, or any type of nut as well. Since they are no bake, there doesn't have to be an exact ratio of anything. I like to substitute honey for agave nectar sometimes too. The possibilities are endless!


Happy Healthy Eating!

-HW

Young, Wild, and Married

I got married 5 days after I turned 20 years old. Because of that I got a lot of "Wow you are SO young" "Are you sure you're ready!?" "You already are getting tied down THIS young!?" A lot of the comments I got were pretty negative or doubtful. And I know that some may look down on young marriages, but honestly, I don't get it. I found my person that I want to spend the rest of my life with... without having to search for very long.  I didn't get my heart broken a bunch, I didn't sleep around, I didn't have a ton of failed relationships. It's not a negative thing, it's a blessing. A big blessing. Not only did it save me a lot of heartache spending many years to find the one... but it also means that I get more time with my spouse (God willing). Do I regret getting married young? Not one bit. I am so incredibly in love with my husband and best friend.

Marriage has honestly been the best thing to happen to me. While Jake and I have a lot of similarities, we are also pretty different in some aspects. It's these differences that make life interesting. Before being with him, I think I lacked every possible ounce of compassion where he had plenty of it. He was patient, I wasn't. He was kinder with his words… I wasn't. But never once did he look down on me for that, or love me less because of it. Instead, he used his compassion, patience, and kind words to help me. We grew together, and that is a beautiful thing. I have been blessed to see many wonderful marriages in my life, and I always prayed that one day… someone, somewhere, would be able to look at my marriage and think the exact same thing. And I truly believe that that will happen.

At the moment, Jake and I are simply a family of two. Our own little Williams family. One day, not anytime soon, but some day… we will expand our family. Until then, Jake and I are working to create that strong foundation for them. It is our job as husband and wife to love and live deeply. To set our family rules and beliefs into place now rather than later. To work hard and play hard. We are only four months into creating our family's foundation… and by golly I think we are doing a pretty damn good job.

So to all the "haters" who questioned, doubted, and thought we were stupid… you were wrong. I'm not in this to "prove anyone wrong" because ultimately that isn't my goal nor my intentions. My goal is to have the best marriage possible with my absolute best friend. And while doing that, sharing my revelations, recipes, DIY projects, thoughts, and anything I feel like on our blog. And maybe that one person… somewhere… someday… will stumble along our blog and be inspired by our marriage and our love.
-HW