Chicken Rice Vegetable Soup

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Giant Eagle for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

There is something about Sunday evenings lately that always have me wanting to make soup! I still consider Sunday evenings the weekend though so I don't like to spend a ton of time in the kitchen (less time cooking means more time I get to craft!!!), but I do like to make some type of home cooked meal to enjoy with my hubby on Sundays and lately that has been soup!

This weekend I made a Chicken and Rice Vegatable Soup that came together super quick with the help of a Knorr Chicken and Broccoli Rice Side but still had that yummy taste of homeade soup.  Ever since I've started on this soup kick both hubby and I have become a little bit of soup snops...canned soup just no longer tastes any good to me!

The secret to making this homeade soup super yummy is to use a good selection of fresh veggies.

The recipe that I tried out from Knorr actually called for peppers, zuchinni, and celery, but I really don't like any of those veggies.  Hah!! A little picky am I?? Well, that's the nice thing about a veggie soup, you can substitute other veggies that you prefer instead! I kept the onions (not pictured) but substitued in carrots, potatoes and corn.

After you have your veggies picked out and chopped up, the rest is easy! I cooked my veggies in my dutch oven with a little olive oil and thyme and after they are done you just add in chicken broth, water and the Knorr Chicken and Broccoli Rice Side.  Bring to a boil and then cook for ten minutes.  Add in some shredded chicken (I just picked up a roasted chickn from the grocery store so I had one less thing to cook!) and then you are ready to serve!

Here is the full recipe from Knorr that can be found in this Free Recipe Book!

 

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 3 medium red bell peppers, chopped
• 1 3/4 cups chopped onion
• 3/4 cup zucchini, halved lenthwise, then sliced
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1/4 tsp. dried thyme leaves
• 2 cans (14.5 oz. ea.) reduced sodium chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 package Knorr® Rice Sides™ - Chicken flavor Broccoli
• 2 1/3 cups shredded cooked boneless, skinless chicken breasts

 

Directions

• Heat olive oil in 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat and cook vegetables and thyme, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender, about 6 minutes.
• Add broth, water and Knorr® Rice Sides™ - Chicken flavor Broccoli. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cook covered 10 minutes or until rice is tender.
• Stir in chicken and serve immediately.

The Knorr Rice Sides are available at Giant Eagle.  Using them in this receipe made my meal come together super quick and still packed a ton of flavor in each spoonfull.  A win-win for me: less time in the kitchen and more time crafting during the afternoon and then snuggling when dinner was done with a full and happy husband!!

Weight Loss Update

I thought I would pop in to give a little update on my diet situation I talked about last month. Today marks about two months into trying to get more fit as well as two more months until my hubby and I go to Jamaica (which is the kick in the pants I really needed to start this journey). 

 

To date I have lost 16 pounds. Whoohoo! I was pretty proud of that until I read my other post and was reminded that 11 of those pounds I lost the first month and this second month I've only dropped 5.  Whoops! Oh well, I guess it does make sense to loose more at the beginning when I first made the changes to my diet and started exercising more. So I will still be proud of that 16 pounds :) I won't mind loosing another 16 over the next two months so when we get to Jamaica I'd be a total of 32 pounds less!!

 

I still havn't noticed much change when I look in the mirror BUT last Friday I put on my regular jeans I wear EVERY casual Friday (because I hated what size they were and didn't want to buy any more!!) and they felt pretty baggy and didn't look that nice.  So on a whim I dug around in my drawer and found an older pair of jeans in one size down.  And they fit! Woot!

 

(pst, it's hard to take a pic of your own jeans haha)

 

That made for a happy start to my morning :)

 I think the biggest thing I need to work on right now is not going crazy on the weekends. I do let myself "cheat" during the weekend some which I think you need to do to stay sane :) But I need to limit it to one or two meals instead of just eating crappy all weekend.  This weekend was hard because we were away with friends in the Poconos and had lots of yummy food and snacks and of course booze around at all times. I pretty much ate whatever I felt like which I paid for on the scale!!!  I had been down to 16 pounds last Thursday but after going away I was WAY up and it took me until today to get back to 16 pounds down.  If I'm not constantly having to make up for what I did wrong on the weekend I think I would see more loss.

 

I did go for a run outside on Saturday while we were away which I NEVER would have done before I started this diet. So that was good at least.  It was actually really nice - the weather got up into the 40s and I went jogging in my short sleeves amongst the foot of snow still on the ground up in the Poconos!

 

As far as my other exercises, I'm still going to a Zumba class once a week, running on the treadmill and doing exercise videos.  Jillian Michaels has really been whooping my butt!  All the squats she has me doing have been making me walk around like an old lady moaning whenever I move. I've also started to take the mindset that any exercise is better than none.  Yesterday I was going to be busy after work and wouldn't get home until 8:30PM to eat dinner so I knew if I had to exercise I'd have to do it in the morning (and I'm not very good at getting up before 7AM!!) But I begrudengly got out of bed and was ready to exercise by about 6:20. So I knew I wouldn't have a ton of time to exercise but I did the first video of the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred which was only 30 minutes. I didn't burn a ton of calories but my muscles are sore today and those 250 calories I burned helped keep me in my calorie goal on My Fitness Pal (my username is mygirlishwhims if you want to follow me!). And 250 calories burned is better than just being lazy and sleeping that extra half hour!

 

So that's where I am now. I still feel motivated two months in which is more than I can say for most healthy spurts I go on.  Here's to staying motivated and getting fit!!! :) 

 

Your Whims Wednesday #153 {And Features}

Time for another Your Whims Wednesday Party!

<center> <a href="http://www.mygirlishwhims.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y77/Becca187/YWWsnip.jpg"/></a></center>

 

Let me apologize first off for completely SPACING about last weeks party! I thought about it Wednesday afternoon...whoops!! I'm not a plan ahead blogger, I post when projects and topics come to me and I so I also don't schedule this party out way far in advance. Since I've been making a more conscious effort to exercise daily I never feel quite caught up on all my blogging stufffff anymore.  Oh well. We are back at it this week and more ready to party than ever!!

Here are some of my favorites from the last party:

Felt Poppy Flower by Mommy Like Whoa


Cross Stitch Sweater by The Crafty Blog Stalker


DIY Wine Glass Charms by Always a Project


DIY Multi-Strand Necklace by Kolture Shoq

Thanks to all who linked up! Grab a button if you were featured :)  
<center> <a href="http://www.mygirlishwhims.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y77/Becca187/featurededited.jpg"/></a></center>   Now... onto this weeks party!

I show off my girlish whims weekly on my blog, and now I want to see yours with 
Your Whims Wednesday!

Guidlines:

1. Link up as many projects as you would like: as long as it is one of your girly ways, you can link it! I'd love to see crafts, recipes, style posts, etc. Anything and everything feminine :)

2.Please add my button (code at the top of this post) to either your blog post or somewhere on your blog. 

3. Take a quick moment to comment on at least one other entry. We we all love comments!! 

4.I'd love if you would follow me as well :)

An InLinkz Link-up

On the Go Shaving with the Venus Snap

Do you have a spot that you ALWAYS miss while shaving? I know it must happen to everyone!  Of course we never notice we've missed that spot until we are halfway through the day and no where near a shower and/or razor to fix it! For me, it's always the back of my ankles.  I don't know why but I never seem to be able to shave properly there and I randomly find like inch long hairs on my ankles every now and again. Super attractive I know :)

 

For this very reason I was excited to learn about the the new Venus Snap Razor. The Venus Snap is a mini razor that is perfect to throw in your bag and take wherever you go to catch those missed spots easily in whatever situation you are in! It comes in a convenient holder to throw in your purse or gym bag, and the razor is so small it fits perfectly in the palm of your hand! Now smoothness on the go is easily attainable (and won't take up a lot of room!!)

I've started to pack my Venus Snap in my gym bag for when I go to Zumba every week. Its been SUPER helpful because since it's still winter and cold out I do not shave my legs every day...or every other day.... or every week....or.... you get the idea :) So sometimes I pull my capris on and am PRETTY embarrassed at the state of my hairy ankles. 

But with just a couple strokes with my Venus Razor, my ankles are back to being presentable again!  The mini handle is super easy to grip and the head of the razor pivots to move around all your curves without cutting. It even has a water activated ribbon of moisture for a smooth glide - so no worries if you don't have room to throw in soap or shaving cream.

The Venus Snap would be handy for lots of other situations too - throw it in your beach bag for any stray hairs you notice while in your bathing suit, toss it in your purse for your next fancy night out, or just use it as your travel razor to take up less space in your suitcase! The Venus Snap is your perfect accessory and new MUST-HAVE to avoid all "hairy" situations. You can find the Venus Snap at your local Target!

 

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Trip to Cousin Corporation Day 3

It seems like ages ago since I got back from visiting the headquarters of Cousin Corporation in Florida. {If you missed my first two recaps of the trip read them here and here!) I would totally be ok with going back to the beach and all of the beads pronto!!!! But since that won't be happening anytime soon I will just reminisce on my last day there I suppose :)

The last day that we were in Florida was pretty quick.  We were picked up at the hotel at 7:30AM and had to be all packed for the airport. It was lovely getting ready that last morning - as it got closer to 7 and the sun came up I left my balcony door open to hear the ocean better and feel the fresh air.  Such a glorious feeling!!

That morning at Cousin we had a variety of meetings learning more about their sister retail site Prima Bead (Cousin only sells beads wholesale to major suppliers like Walmart and Michaels and also to local bead shops, so Prima allows them to sell right to the public), how Cousin follows current trends, and more about the production process of getting the beads into the stores. I learned so much about the jewelry supplies biz during this trip! 

After all of our learning the last activity was the one I had been looking forward to for MONTHS before this trip - filling up a big box full of beads to take home!! We were given a priority mailing box:

 And then were led out to this big warehouse....

 And then we got closer...to...the...PROMISED LAND OF BEADS.

Two long hallways stocked full of discontinued beads that we were free to "shop" from and Cousin would package up and send home to us.

 We had about 20 minutes to stuff our box and it got pretty intense.  It was CRAZY humid this last day and the warehouse was not air conditioned, I started to work up a sweat from grabbing so many beads!!! (Hence the crazy hair in this photo)

My strategy was to hit up all of the chain first. I love using chain in my jewelry and wanted a bigger stash up it so I scooped up most of them in the beginning. Sorry other ambassadors!! Haha, we actually all have very different styles so we gravitated to different types of beads. Below you can see Dawn trying to stuff her box full and Allison and Shelly still picking a few items to top theirs off with!

I just got my box back in the mail this week and of course HAD to spread it all out to take a good look: 

Hello my pretties...

Cousin, you know how to make a bead hoarding/crafting/jewelry making girls dreams come true :)

Overall the trip was a BLAST and I'm so sad I have to just go back to virtually talking to all my beading friends! We all got along great and loved spending time learning and creating together. Cousin also welcomed all of us to stay on as ambassadors for another year so I am excited for more projects and beading news to share with you all! But for now...I have to find a home for all of my new beads!!!