To Die For Chicken Noodle Soup



Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup


This recipe is an absolute favorite of mine and my husband.   It is SOOOOO good! (due to a secret ingredient) :-)  So bear with me, I promise to give you the recipe but let me ramble a little (and from what the experts say, a “good” blog never rambles…..oh well)

Anyway, 3rd grade 4H Home Ec class, I learned how to make and roll out my own egg noodles. I remember the hardest part was getting my little 9 year old arms to get that dough thin enough, and it is STILL the hardest part of this recipe and no, I’m not telling you how old I am now.  :-)

I always buy those rotisserie chickens at Costco and slice off the good chicken breast and leave all the other pieces on the carcass.  I really don’t like to waste food so I always make this soup with the left over chicken.
Unfortunately I don’t really have a written recipe, but I’m just going to tell you what I do and than you can elaborate with your own ideas at home.

EGG NOODLES: (do this first, double for a large crowd!)

1 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
2 Tbsp. milk

Mix flour and salt in a large bowl.  Make an indent on top of the pile of flour.  In the indent put the egg and milk. Start stirring where the egg and milk is than continue to mix it all together.  The last part of the blending I do by kneading it with my hands.  Flour surface of counter and roll out to around 1/8th inch.  Once rolled out sprinkle with flour and loosely roll up.  Without a lot of pressure cut out 1/4 – 1/2 inch strips.  Unravel and place on a rack or on the bowl to dry.  These should dry for at least 2 hours, but they can dry all day too. (in fact you could do this part a day ahead of time and store in an air tight container) 

These home made noodles really make this dish spectacular and aren’t hard to make, so don’t go buying the pre-packaged noodles on me now!

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CHICKEN SOUP:

Place left over chicken carcass in a pot of water (fill almost up to the top of the chicken)  Bring to a boil than let simmer for 1-2 hours.  You just want the meat to fall off the bone.  Pull out the chicken but keep the broth. 

Separate the chicken off the bones and shred into pieces.

Take out around 3 cups of broth and put it in the blender along with one package (8oz) cream cheese.  THE SECRET INGREDIENT!  Blend up and place it back in the pot.

Add cut celery, onions, carrots, and potatoes.  You could add some minced garlic, salt and pepper too.  Let simmer till veggies are tender.  (another hour?)

Add shredded chicken back into the pot and start back up to a boil.  Add your dried egg noodles to the boiling pot along with a cup of frozen green peas.  Boil for 10 minutes.

It’s ready to eat!!!!  I’d say it serves 4-6 people but really you can make this as big or small as you’d like.  Just add more water or more veggies to make it for a larger crowd.  Of course if you are making a bigger pot don’t forget to add another pack of the secret ingredient Cream Cheese!  I am really excited for you to try this - I think you’ll just love the creamy taste. 


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       I didn’t have any green peas to add, but when you add them it really gives this soup some color.


ENJOY!!!!  Leave a comment when you make this!

~ Creative Juices Decor~

Oh Shoot! It’s Official

Be Sure And Enter My First Give-A- Way!  Ends April 3rd midnight PST


When I found my daughter taking pictures of her soggy shredded wheat one morning I realized I had officially crossed the line into the crazy blogging mother that spends too much time has a blog .  I guess I will accept that I have my camera with me at all times and that I do take 50 different angled pictures of a regular sloppy joe I just made.  (somehow I WILL make this pathetic dish look amazing!) Winking smile


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As I am writing this blog post I can hear her in the background clicking the camera, talking to our dog saying,  “Oh Tay Duke, say Teese!’ Dog face


But if I wasn’t so camera happy I wouldn’t have caught moments like this – so once again, because I need to re-affirm myself that taking 50 pictures of my sloppy joes is not weird, I will say, I am OK with this. Smile


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        Our Goldendoodle dog puts up with so much child torture love.

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                        Making herself a playdoh “slipper”

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Who doesn't love a puppy kiss??

Same Dog, new haircut Smile


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Spring is just around the corner - makes me happy!


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My Goofy Girls


So here’s to “making it official”.  Thanks to all my friends for making that possible! 


~Creative Juices Decor~

A Little Girl’s Pink Room and Lamp Re-do


Today I’m talking about a pretty pink themed room and a lamp I made with scrapbook paper. Smile 



Like most my adventures, my inspiration comes from the thrift store.  After I spotted this little munchkin I knew I had to buy her.

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       Cost: $2.00
Like most things I buy from the thrift store they always need a little TLC. 

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No problem, on my last trip to Michaels I spotted Krylon Fairytale Pink spray paint on clearance for $1.99.  That color is SO JUST PERFECT!

So off I went to tape and spray paint my little lamp.

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I previously bought this lamp shade for $1.00 and sprayed it pink too.

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Once everything dried I found some left over scrapbook paper and torn it into pieces and Mod Podged it onto the lamp shade.

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And Somehow I came out with this sweet little lady.

flower lamp
The flower and pearl necklace was just thrown on there – my daughter was wearing it in the picture above.  I also embellished it with little glued on jewels I had laying around.


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TOTAL COST:  $5.00  Smile  Now that makes me happy!

I had to add this picture because you'll be so inspired!  The wallpaper-esque panels behind the beds are actually pieces of big cardboard that were mod podged with scrapbook paper, JUST like what I did to the lamp shade!  Then she had MDF trim from Home Depot cut to fit around the cardboard panels.

Photo Source from Full House via Little Green Notebook

Want to see her room FINISHED and complete with pink American Clay??  Click on over!!!

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Linking up to Young House Love Book party - fixing up old thrift store lamps was tip # 183

       Enjoy and be inspired!
  ~ Creative Juices Decor~

Sweater Dress for a Little Girl

When I ran across this simple tutorial from Amy of Flexible Dreams I had to ask her if I could show my readers.  I am NOT a seamstress but this actually looked do-able!  It looks like I won’t be giving any more of my sweaters to the Goodwill anymore! 
(Note to my mother, can you make me a few of these?!Smile)





Isn’t that SWEET!!! Thanks Amy!!! Stop by her blog to see the full tutorial.

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On a side note, anyone in the business to sew up “favorite blankies”?  Wouldn’t that be the best business logo:  “I save your child's beloved blankets from dying!”  This one is definitely dying…..my 7 year old son is devastated.  I had to take a picture because it is so pathetic.  He pleadingly asks me with big blue eyes, “Can you  fix it mom?”  Sorry son, I’m just not that good………

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Till another inspiration comes along!

~ Creative Juices Decor

Make Large Canvas Wall Art Out of An Old Map





On my last trip to Pottery Barn opps, I mean my local thrift store, I ran across this old globe.  I loved the robin’s egg blue colors but the ugly plastic really threw me for a loop – oh wait!  No it didn’t, I have SPRAY PAINT!  So I quickly went home and applied my beautiful gold and brown spray paint to the plastic.  Wonders never cease – it looked fabulous. 



It reminded me that I had previously picked up an old slightly laminated MAP from the same thrift store and I began to wonder what I could do with my new found globe and matching map???? Tick tock, tick tock, my creative juices were coming…….

 (globe was $3.00)
Ah Ha!  My son needed something on his wall in his room and since that is where I put the globe how about matching wall art! 

I went to Michaels and picked up a bunch of canvases at 40% off.  I traced around the canvas and cut out each rectangle.  The overall map size was 31”x 50”.  The smaller canvases I bought were 8x10 and the larger were 16x20. You can click the links to take you to my affiliate Amazon where you can purchase similar maps/canvases yourself. :-)

                                                                   World Wall Maps!



                     

Next I spray painted the edges with a left over blue I had from this wine glass project. I am a sucker for anything AGED looking so I spray painted some brown to the edges too.


Once dry, I brushed on some glue and attached my cut out map pieces.


Once that dried (I turned them over to add some weight to the drying process) I wanted to age the edges just a little more so I took out my inking pad, or chalk pad, and “aged” the edges. If you were really brave you could lightly sprayed some gold or brown spray paint on the corners to age it. I also put a little brown glaze on the map itself to try to give it some more character. I can’t decide if it was worth that extra step or not?? 
Anyway, once dry I came back and put Mod Podge over the top in criss cross strokes. If your map does not have a coating on it (some form of lamination) be VERY careful with applying the glue, a lot of people are saying their map is ripping.  My suggestion would be to find a map with some sort of a coating on it. (not just thin paper)

                                              
VOILA!!! Really, that wasn’t too hard. Now I have a BIG piece of wall art for not a lot of money!



Stay creative with me folks – even if you didn’t find a map at a thrift store you could take this same technique and make large canvas art. I found this great tutorial on how to do that with printed scrapbook pages. Just apply (glue) your photo to the canvas and cover with the mod podge. It makes it look like designer canvas prints. The possibilities are endless. How about cutting out a favorite fabric and applying that to the canvas?




Keep those Creative Juices Flowing!!!

I was so excited to see receive an email of one of my readers showing me the map she did using my tutorial! Isn't it great!!  Here's Nicholle’s map. I love the different colors.  




Another reader did her nursery in an "It's a small world" theme!





If you want to see more fun ideas, check out this Pottery Barn Knockoff clock that I did using a round board I found at the thrift store!!



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