Crafts

Easy Weeknight White Chicken Chili

14 · Dec 2, 2016 · Leave a Comment

Love white chicken chili but don’t always have time to make a complicated recipe? This simple weeknight White Chicken Chili recipe is 30 minutes start to finish and the whole family will love it.

When the temperature dips our family loves to break out all of our favorite soup recipes. This one just happens to be my daughters all-time favorite. It’s one of those perfect pantry soups that takes minimal time to prepare and the whole family loves. It’s simple to make a small recipe or double or triple for larger crowds. Here a quick video showing how to make it…

EASY WEEKNIGHT CHICKEN CHILI RECIPE from Heather Thoming on Vimeo.

Short on time? Grab a rotisserie chicken at the market and shred one of the breast for the chili and save the rest of the bird for dinner tomorrow night.

This is an easy pantry dinner. Keep your pantry stocked with your Old El Paso ingredients, beans, hominy, chicken stock, evaporated milk and all you need to add is chicken. It’s perfect for a last minute dinner.

Run on over to Old El Paso for the full recipe and let us know what you think!

Peppermint Mocha White Chocolate Steamer

11 · Nov 22, 2016 · Leave a Comment

As much as I adore pumpkin, I get even more excited about PEPPERMINT season! I totally remember the first time I had peppermint ice cream as a kid. It was back in the day when peppermint ice cream was only around during the Christmas season. I would save all of the little peppermint pieces in my bowl and savor them for hours after that little bowl of ice cream was long gone. It’s because of that love that I decided to try out a fun new flavor combination for this winter. Peppermint Mocha White Chocolate Steamer… Yep, YUM!

It’s not really a full hot chocolate, it’s more of a steamer (flavored hot milk) with a little bit of white chocolate. Yep, once again… YUM!

I used my favorite International Delight Peppermint Mocha Creamer for this steamer, but you can also create a scrumptious Sugar Cookie steamer with the International Delight Sugar Cookie Creamer. Another perfect pairing with some warm milk!

For the peppermint mocha white chocolate steamer, I placed a few pieces of white chocolate in the bottom of my mug…

I just happened to find some white chocolate with some peppermint in it, so that was perfect. I added the milk and let the chocolate melt a little bit before I added the creamer.

Then I added a splash of the creamer and stirred it with a peppermint stick or peppermint lolly.

The peppermint melts in the the hot milk and creates a scrumptious holiday treat! Your family and friends are going to LOVE it, it’s like Christmas in a cup!

Looking for more ways to create special holiday memories with International Delight? You can sign-up for their newsletter for great tips, recipes and I’m sure a coupon or two! You can also follow ID on Facebook, Instagram & Pinterest.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of International Delight. The opinions and text are all mine.

5 GREAT Thanksgiving Recipes

9 · Nov 21, 2016 · Leave a Comment

Are you gearing up for Thanksgiving? We sure are at our house. Everyone has placed their orders for their favorite Thanksgiving recipes. Most of the shopping has been done and we’re gearing up for a scrumptious day.

Last week, I had a fabulous opportunity to travel out to Denver for a fun early Thanksgiving with some blog friends at WhiteWave Foods. You may not be familiar with WhiteWave Foods, but I’m sure you are familiar with some of their brands. One of my favorites is International Delight! They also have other great brands like Silk, Horizon Organic, Earthbound Farms and many more.

Now, I’ve been an International Delight Ambassador for several months now and they invited me to help cook for their WhiteWave Foods Thanksgiving. Of course I said yes, and set to work to create a fun dessert using International Delight for the feast.

But before we get to dessert, here are some of the other Thanksgiving recipes that my co-chefs brought to the feast.

Lisa from Wine & Glue brought a tasty Bacon Jalapeño Creamed Corn that was scrumptious! This recipe is great for Thanksgiving and any time of the year really. It’s lovely with the Horizon Organic Milk & Cream.

Lisa from Veggies don’t Bite made a Thanksgiving recipe that absolutely blew my mind! I came home raving about it. VEGAN SCALLOPED CAULIFLOWER is my new favorite Thanksgiving dish. This creamy veggie dish doesn’t have a lick of dairy in it and you would NEVER know. You’ll have to check out the recipe to see what magic she created using all plant based ingredients like Silk Cashew Milk. AAAAmazing!

Next, we had a lovely Roasted Acorn Squash Rings from Nosh & Nourish. Again, another totally plant based dish that was out of this world using some great organic ingredients from Earth Bound Farms.

Now, onto the sweets! Kat from Mama’s Losin’ It made lovely Pumpkin Bars that were a scrumptious alternative to Pumpkin Pie!

Last but not least, was my recipe. A mini version of my No-bake Pumpkin Cheesecake using International Delight Simply Pure Vanilla Creamer.

You can grab the recipe and watch the video on how to make this simple & scrumptious treat HERE. All I did to make it mini was to make it in disposable baking cups that are a bit larger than your standard cupcake cup and super sturdy.

All-in-all it was a fabulous WhiteWave Thanksgiving Feast! I LOVED trying all of the new recipes and can’t wait to make them for my own Thanksgiving and throughout the year!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of WhiteWave Foods. The opinions and text are all mine.

Christmas Village Tree – Michaels Dream Tree Challenge

5 · Nov 14, 2016 · Leave a Comment

It’s my favorite time of the year… It’s time to starting thinking about CHRISTMAS!

Don’t you just love going to your friend’s homes to check out their Christmas tree every year? I know I do!

It’s so fun to see everyone’s creativity and their take on this time honored tradition. Thanks to Michaels, we get to do that on a much bigger scale. Every year the Michaels Makers are challenged to create their own dream tree and you get to join in on all of the fun and take a peek at all of these fun creative trees.

First off, let’s talk trees… Michaels has their largest tree assortment this year, including colored and flocked trees. Check out all of their trees, ornaments and coordinating holiday décor on Michaels.com.

I have the 7.5 ft. Pre-Lit Jasper Cashmere Tree and we are in LOVE with it. It uses the innovate Quick Set™ technology that makes assembly SUPER EASY!

This year, I decided to go with a Christmas village theme for our tree…

I picture this as a little alpine village on the side of a mountain all snowy and white. Each little home lights up to give the village that cozy feeling of home.

Instead of going with traditional Christmas colors, I opted for more of a wine and pink for the accent colors, sticking mainly with snowy white as the primary color.

In the background of the tree, my talented daughter drew more of the village on our blackboard wall and topped that with the Christmas Star as a reminder of the true meaning of Christmas. I LOVE how it turned out.

{Ignore the weird honey oak trim in the back, we’re still in a rental… Boo!}

Little Alpine towns also have little woodland creatures that are hidden among the forrest and I made sure to include our little friends.

I tucked them more inside the tree to add a little extra charm to the scene. We all know that they like to stay hidden away from the hustle and bustle of town. That’s our family’s favorite part, all of the hidden animals peeking through.

I found these gorgeous light-up stars and the marquee snowflake to add to the scene.

One little trick that I have is to hot glue your basic ball ornaments to gather into clusters. That gives your tree a more polished, professional look.

Another thing I did was to take a great, large basket/chest from Michaels and cover it with yarn pom-poms.

I had so much fun sitting with my girls, watching The Holiday making poms together!

Inspired to start decorating your own tree? Make sure you visit Michaels’ blog, The Glue String, to see the rest of the Michaels Makers’ dream holiday trees that were created this year.

An InLinkz Link-up

Chicken and Sweet Potato Skillet Recipe – Easy Weeknight Meal

3 · Oct 20, 2016 · 1 Comment

Looking for a new easy weeknight meal? Your family is going to FALL in love with this tasty dish. Savor the flavors of fall with this one pot wonder.

As my kiddos have gotten older, I have found that trying to plan family dinners is getting harder and harder. We have high school activities, church activities, homework, chores… The list goes on and on it seems.

It doesn’t help that I’m a busy at home, working mom and my sweet, hardworking husband works full-time and is going to school as well. Bottom line is, we’re BUSY!

I’ve tried to find ways to help speed-up the weeknight dinner scene and one of the ways that I’ve discovered is to either grill up a bunch of chicken on Sundays or grab a rotisserie chicken or two from the market each week. I can use that chicken to whip-up all kinds of great recipes.

With the Fall rapidly approaching, I thought it would be fun to come-up with a Mexican, Fall inspired dish. Not exactly traditional, but oh-so TASTY! Not only did I want it tasty, I wanted it to be a quick and scrumptious easy weeknight meal. Thank goodness for the help from my friends at Old El Paso! Have you tried their Chicken Taco Seasoning? It’s amazing!!