Loaded Baked Potato Soup

I came across two different recipes for Loaded Baked Potato Soup as of late and I combined the two for a super tasty, nutritious, low-fat recipe. It was really easy and delish! Try it out!

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

2 Russett Potatoes, poke holes with fork, microwave for 5 mins, flip over then microwave 5 more mins, cool, peel
1 small head of cauliflower, steamed
1 & 1/2 C chicken broth
1 & 1/2 C skim or 1% milk
4 oz cream cheese
1/4 C Fat-Free or low fat sour cream
salt to taste
pepper to taste
1 TBSP(ish) chives
sharp cheddar cheese, grated
bacon bits
green onions, chopped OR chives

Steam cauliflower with water while potatoes are microwaving. Drain and set aside. Add chicken broth, milk, cream cheese, sour cream, salt, pepper, chives to pot. Add peeled "baked" potatoes. Mash so that the potatoes are still chunky. Add steamed cauliflower. Bring to boil.
To serve, add a scoop of soup to bowl, top with grated sharp cheddar cheese, bacon bits and a few green onions OR chives.

European Adventure 2011

    Bill and I had the opportunity last month to go on a trip where we went to London, then on tour of Italy... talk about dream come true! London was just how I had always imagined; Italy was even more beautiful than I ever dreamed.  Each day we had different experiences which made it seem like they were all different vacations all wrapped up into one.
    My favorite part of the experience was being the foreigner.  I was shopping in a mall in Venice where nobody knew English.   When I asked where the fitting room was, they looked at me like I was speaking parsel-tongue or something! I was totally amused!
  Uncle Rex let me borrow his old camera and tried to teach me how to use it (student error).  Anyhow, I took tons of pictures!  Take a look at them and see just what I mean about how beautiful the sites and scenery are.

Click here to see the European Adventure Album

Halloween!

We had fun for Halloween this year, unlike last year....
We had a spooky dinner for the nieces and nephews on Sunday, then we dressed up and went to the ward Trunk or Treat on Monday.  Take a look... :)

Body Part Jell-o

Uncle Bill and Mae Bromley

Cooper the Skeleton

Dirt Pudding

Graveyard Bean-Dip

Lu and Drew

Mimi and Mia

Mummy Dogs

Spider Ordurves

Ella's Cauldrons

New York, New York!

My mother had never been to New York, and she'd always talk about how she really wanted to go there.  She wanted to see shows on Broadway, see the Statue of Liberty, etc., etc... So, I decided to take her there, being the New York connoseour that I am (haha!)  
I invited my mother-in-law Lynne, and we had a "mothers and daughter" trip.  It was really so fun!  I'm pretty sure I wore them out though.  Our motto was, "hurry, come on, we'll sleep when we're dead" (or something to that effect.  
Although Lynne had been to New York several time, she was very gracious in putting up with our sight seeing.  I tried to lead us to the biggest tourist sites.  We even got to see Wicked and Mary Poppins on Broadway.  Check out the pictures...

Central Park

Subway

Wicked

Ellis Island

Pre-show dinner

My special Mom

Bottom's up Lynne!

I don't know what I was posing like

Carnegie Deli!

Benash Cheesecake!

Central Park

The biggest Forever 21 I've ever seen! on 5th Avenue

Wax Museum

Lynne is scared of the Soup Nazi

Lynne's Huge Carnegie Sandwhich

I Believe in the Magic!

Mom, or Mary?

Miss New York!

Mmm... Soup!

Mom's Carnegie

No Soup for You!

It took us HOURS to find this Pizza place in Little Italy!

Let's start this blog 7 months ago...

Bill and I were married July 10, 2010 in the St. George temple... 7 months ago.  It was a beautiful, hot summer day.  Let's actually go back 5 years and 7 months ago in 2005 when I first moved to St. George and the only friend I had in town was Kimmie Smedley whom I had gone to school with since the 7th grade.  Kimmie was living with her uncle Dave Wilkey and loved spending time with her family. So often times I would go over to the Wilkey estate and hang out with the family.  All of her cousins, especially Bill and I had been friends ever since then.  We loved to have Scrubs marathons, where we would watch the TV series for hours.  Years into our friendship, Bill and I went on our first date in July of 2009 when Bill made me late for the premier of Harry Potter.  We really enjoyed each other's company so much that we repeated the date the next week-yes, we saw Harry Potter again so we could see the beginning which we missed.  But of course, you guessed it, we missed more the second time than we did the first time. Naturally, I wrote him off; I can't date someone who doesn't appreciate Harry Potter as much as I do!

 We started dating again in November 2009.  We got unofficially engaged sometime in May 2010.  We began announcing our wedding before Bill had asked my father's permission, and before he gave me the ring.  We travelled up to SLC for me to get endowed with my brother Jordan who would soon be leaving on his mission to Taiwan. The night before I went through the temple, my dad gave Bill his permission to marry me. While at the temple Bill cornered me, whispered in my ear "Will you marry me?" and I said "yes."  Haha!  A little late for that!  in just 6 short weeks after that, we were married. 

Seven months later, we look back on it, and I can't say that we have enjoyed every minute of it, but I dare say pretty darn close to it!  We love being married and learning how to do life together as a team.

This is totally new to me....

Last night as I was looking at some friends posts on facebook I was linked to one friend's blog.  As I was reading through her blog and looking at all the pictures, I noticed the list of followers of her blog and realized I have a ton of friends doing this blogging thing!  I started browsing through all of their blogs and somehow got sent to the link that signed me up for a blog.  Naturally I started experimenting and before you knew it, I had not only created a blog, but I was having so much fun trying to figure it out.  I remember when Myspace was popular and I had so much fun changing my background and stuff...this takes me back.  I don't know anything about blogging, but I am determined to figure it out.  Bare with me.

Orlando

We got to go to Orlando, Florida on holiday this month.  Bill and the other men had golf work to do while us girls went out to Disney World, Harry Potter Land (Universal Studios) and shopping!  I don't know about Bill, but I had a lot of fun with the girls!  Once the work was done, Bill joined us on a tour of the Everglades.  We even saw real live gators!

Bobbi and Davey

Bobbi, Davey, Me and Melissa Ball

Sheeshters (Ashley and Me)

A hippo

Dumbos

An underwater Hippo

Gorilla

Gorilla arms

Me, Bobbi, Davey, Lynne, Ashley

Davey and Mimi

Me, Ashley, Bobbi, Melissa Ball, Lynne

Me, Nancy, Melissa, Ashley, Lynne, Bobbi, Davey

Hogwarts Express

Hogwarts

Joke Shop

Extendable Ears

Me in front of Hogwarts

Everglades

Crikey! A gator!

Crikey! Another one!

Ashley, Bill, Me, Bobbi, Lynne, Uncle Bill