Dark Chocolate Oatmeal

Now that it is getting colder, I have seriously been eating this every day for breakfast!!  I love this oatmeal! I might have already given you this recipe...but just in case I didn't - here it is!!

 Makes 2 servings
3/4 cup old fashioned oats
1 cup milk
1 Tablespoon sugar (I use honey!)
1 Tablespoon cocoa powder
2 Tablespoons dark chocolate chips

Directions:
Combine oats, milk, sugar or honey, and cocoa powder in a pan.  Bring to a boil over medium high heat and stir frequently! Reduce heat to low and simmer for five minutes - or until the milk is absorbed and the oats soften! Then, stir in the chocolate chips until they are melted. Then you can put it in two bowls and add a few more chocolate chips on top! Also, I LOVE to pour milk on the oatmeal too!! Yummmmm!

Lots of times I just need one serving of this, so here is the half recipe!!

6 Tablespoons oats
1/2 Cup milk
1/2 Tablespoon sugar (honey) and cocoa
1 Tablespoon choc. chips
....since I am so good with math, haha, I recently realized that I've been using 1/2 Teaspoon of cocoa and honey, instead of half a Tablespoon! haha! It was even better when I put the correct amount of cocoa in!

(by the by, I got this recipe from the Pastry Affair site!)

Bacon, egg & toast cups

I saw this recipe on pinterest and thought it looked so good! I love breakfast food!
So you just need:
3 Tablespoons butter, melted
8 slices white or whole wheat bread
6 slices bacon
6 large eggs
salt & pepper
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, then butter 6 standard muffin cups. Flatten the bread with a rolling pin (the recipe calls for 8 slices, but I only used 6) and cut out with a 4 1/4" cookie cutter. Cut each round of bread in half then press 2 halves into each muffin cup (at first I was like why cut them in half and then squish them back together in the pan?....but I found out it actually does work best to do that!) You can use the extra bread to patch up the gaps. Then you brush the bread with the remaining butter. (oops, I forgot to do this & they still turned out fine!)

Then you cook the bacon (not at moms house though, haha!) for like 4 minutes - or til it's crisp if you want. It does cook more in the oven- so you don't have to cook it all the way - but I like it crispy so I cooked it longer. Then you lay one slice of bacon in each bread cup & crack an egg over each one. Season it with salt & pepper (we used essence too!). Cook for 20-25 minutes - just until the egg whites are set. Run a knife around each cup to loosen the toast. Yummmmm!
**Side note: I just made these again today & I didn't put bacon in cause I didn't want to cook it, but I did put Man Chili and cheese on top after it was done cooking, and it was REALLY good that way too!

Mom's Potato Soup!

Mom gave me this potato soup recipe and it's so good! This first picture reminded me of "Stone Soup" cause it was so watery, haha! This was me trying to figure out how to take a "good" picture with my point & shoot camera, and everything says "use natural light, only use natural light," and on and on, and I thought that I better take it when the light was coming in through the window instead of at night time when we ate....And, I also really didn't want Ryan to make fun of me for taking it! Can't you just hear him? Why the crap do you have a bowl of soup on a chair in the front room?! haha! So anywho... these first 2 pictures were just for your amusement, or you could say I put them on to contrast how much thicker it is at the end! haha! Yes... that sounds much more professional! haha!

Ta-dah! The finished - and thickened- soup!

Directions:
Bake potatoes (12-14 potatoes- but you can use more or less of course!) at 350 degrees for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Then peel them and dice them (ah-oh...you know what just popped into my head? "boil em, mash em, stick em in a stew!" haha! remember that?) - then stick them in the crock pot and add 2 cans of chicken broth and fill the rest of the crock pot with water. Then you can add whatever seasonings you want! Mom puts in diced onion and salt and pepper, and I of course added Italian seasoning, and garlic. Then you let it cook for a few hours- either on high or low, I've done it on both settings and since the potatoes are already cooked I don't think it matters too much...Then, just before you're ready to eat you add a can of evaporated milk and some potato flakes. Just add as much as you want to make it as thick as you want. But add about 1/4 cup of flakes at a time and then wait just a minute for them to thicken up- then add more if you want!
Love you girl!