Panera Vegetarian Autumn Squash Soup Recipe

As of writing this post, the soup past has been visited 168 times. The most any one post of mine has been visited. And mainly from Pinterest.

But no one has repinned it.

I have concluded that this means everyone has now tried this wonderful blended taste of Autumn and was hoping that my pin meant a recipe attached to it.

I'm so sorry.

I haven't tempted to make it yet. I've gone back to have it, just haven't had time to try to make it myself. So, I scoured the web to see if anyone else have. I was not disappointed. Apparently, I am not the only one wanting this soup everyday now that it's getting colder.

Since I still have yet to try to make it myself, I give you links to 2 other blog posts where people have made it.. and kept it fairly simple. My only "eh" to them is that they say to garnish with walnuts, and it's very obviously squash/pumpkin seeds on top. So I would probably keep to that. Plus, you already have the seeds from the squashes, why buy an extra ingredient? Eventually (i.e. sometime after the birthday party), I'll try to make a version of this soup as well, but probably crock-pot it. I don't have time to be by a stove for hours.

So without further ado, here's the links to 2 bloggers that ventured into the copycat soup making before me. Let me know how it goes for you!

http://www.hungryhealthygirl.com/2013/10/10/copycat-panera-breads-autumn-squash-soup-vegan-paleo-and-gluten-free/


http://authoradduling.blogspot.com/2013/09/panera-breads-autumn-squash-soup-ever.html

Black Friday Ads

They're out! Well, they're starting to come out anyways. Can you believe it? Halloween isn't even here yet. I just finished with fall decorating! I haven't even put away all the shorts yet!

Christmas is about 10 weeks away. I say "about" since I don't know when you're reading this. 10 weeks. That's it! It's time to start planning. Shopping. Saving.

Yes, saving. If you don't start now, you'll never catch up on those bills. We put aside a little every month for Christmas gifts just so it doesn't hurt us as much when the time comes. We also plan out our prescription refills to coincide for that extra 5% off at Target coupon. Combine that with the 5% off from using RedCard, Black Friday deals, free shipping to avoid the crowds, coupons, and now Cartwheel, I think we do pretty good. We definitely try to get a big bang for our buck, and try not to overbuy. And most of the shopping is done by Cyber Monday. Allows us to enjoy the holidays a bit more. And get everything wrapped, since I'm the family gift wrapper.

(A bin of discounted leftover Halloween costumes.. dress-up clothes. Still a hit!)

What? You don't do Black Friday shopping? Or you do, but you stand in line for days in advance? You're doing it wrong. If you enjoy it, go right ahead. I used to, too. But I have a distinct dislike for people in crowded places. And our babysitters (grandparents) like to shop that day, too, so the hours are shortened. Can't shop with the kiddos.

If you want to know about the deals ahead of time so you can plan out what's worth waiting for and what's an actual good deal, make sure you sign up for the flyers! They've already posted Macy's doorbuster deals, and there's a pair of boots I'm lusting after. I haven't decided yet if it's worth the crowd, though.

Make sure you sign up here (in case the link doesn't work: http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/) to be notified of the deals. They send you deals year-round, too. Not just Black Friday. They even sell t-shirts if you want to be truly hardcore.

The deals are quite exciting for me. We even got our Christmas tree last year for $19! An 8 foot live tree. It was the best find, yet!

(And all decorations are either homemade or after Christmas sales.)

So start planning! Halloween should be done and ready to be enjoyed by now!

Fall Decorating

If you follow any other blogs, you may have realized that the elite few do home tours and link up to each other. I'm still new to the game, so I'm not invited, but rather inspired by all these wonderful decorators. They really make my fingers itch to get in there and put things together into something beautiful.

Having cats and curious children means I have to be creative, too. I.E... everything must be up or behind.

So I'll show you my little pieces of decorating (that changes every day, and has since taking these pictures) and then link you up to other people that do it way earlier and more fabulously than me.

Maybe next year, I can be on the ball and be invited to it. I'm sure that'll make me do more.

Get ready for photo overload....

I think I have a nice mix of fall and Halloween. And yes, there's that Elf on a Shelf. He definately belongs with Halloween. What do you think?

And kick off looking at other beautiful pouch inspirations here and go through the list this week. You won't be disappointed. It's fun to see how so many different people and decorate so differently with the same directions to follow.

Rubber Ducky, You're The One

Yes, I'm talking about "The Rubber Duck Project".

What?? You say you never heard of it? Well, it's all the rage here in the 'burgh.

It's been all over the world. Amsterdam, Belgium, Osaka, Sydney, Sao Paulo, and Hong Kong. And it's visiting the U.S.  here in my backyard.

I believe this is the last week for it, and I have mixed feeling about all this duck business.

We apparently have a lot of duck lovers in the city, but I just don't see what it's all quacked up to be. And yet, I was intrigued. I wanted to see it. Everyone loved it. People were visiting it multiple times. There had to be a reason.

Besides the fact that we were the lucky city to kick off the U.S. part of the tour, I have 2 little girls. This would be a memory for all of us, and a story to tell the grandkids. We had to go. I had to find out.

It's a duck. A giant rubber ducky (I'm not even sure it's made out of rubber) floating on the river. With other real life ducks and geese swimming around it. I think that was the best part. Seeing the comparison.

It may or may not be art. That's for each person to decide on their own. But it did what it came here to do. It brought smiles on faces, kids squealed with joy, adults fought over a good spot to take pictures of said kids....  Whatcha gonna do? Adults will be adults. No matter how much reminiscence a giant duck will give you of your childhood.

So check it out if you get a chance before it leaves us. I can't find if it's visiting any other cities. It seems to like Taiwan a lot though. Just beware of the people! People will do anything to get a picture with this thing!

 It at least made the girls happy. That's what counts.

(The best I got for a family picture.. I have no idea what I was doing.)

eMeals

Has anyone else heard of or used eMeals? Taken from their site:

How It Works:

1) Pick Your Plan
To start getting eMeals, just choose a meal plan based on your eating style, your and even your favorite grocery store.

2) Get Great Recipes
Every week, your meal plan arrives in your inbox — complete with seven simple, creative, family–friendly dinner recipes. Each includes an entrée and side dishes.

3) Shop and Save
Along with the meal plan, you'll receive a detailed grocery list organized by section and coordinated with the weekly sales at selected stores.

4) Relax and Enjoy
We take care of the meal planning, the grocery list and the budgeting — while you take credit for making healthy,  home–cooked meals that your whole family will love.

I'm sure they're not the first company, or going to be the last, but it's the first that seemed to fit my family needs better.

I heard about them awhile ago and started following them on facebook to get a better feel about it all before spending money on it. We've done a similar one before, but the recipes were so extravagant for us that it ended up costing way too much for a dinner for just the 2 of us (this was pre-kids).

This one's different. You can pick your style of cooking/eating and where you want to shop at. It picks recipes according to the sale ads for the stores you chose. Thus making this plan a lot cheaper. We mostly shop at Aldi's, and so our first trail run, we used the "Aldi's Classic Family" meal planning choice. And if you don't like a meal, you can click "skip it" and it takes it out of your shopping list. There's even an app for iPhone that makes it super easy to view all of this. Never have to forget your list at home again!

So far, I really like it, but the meals still seem to take a longer than usual time to make. Most are under an hour, hovering around the 30-40 minute mark. So, it's a normal cooking dinner time frame, I'm just an over-cooker and altered some of the recipes to taste which added time. It also makes a LOT of food. We got to freeze half of the soup, and that was after eating it for 2 days!

Our favorite meal so far was the Smoked Brat Sauté.

It was a google offers one day for $29 for a year subscription, and Brian asked if he should get it. I'm glad I said yes. Even if we don't do every meal plan every week, it's already adding lots of new, yummy foods to our rotation.

Do you guys want me to start a recipe page and add some of our favorite recipes? Both from eMeals and our general rotation? The recipes I make up though... I tend to just throw together with what we have, so that'll be fun trying to figure out how to write it up.

I didn't write this up knowing about the referral plan, but they do have one. So if I piqued your interest, please use the banner below to sign up. Thanks!

Pumpkin's Bed

Here's the mini reveal of Pumpkin's bedroom! I know, I've mentioned it enough times, you thought it would never get done. And you're probably right. But for now, her floor's painted, her bed's built, and her stuff's back in.. including new bedding. She loves it, but still wants yellow walls and now a pink ceiling.

So without further ado...

I know.. all that hype and it doesn't look much different. But she loves it. Now... to decide on walls.

She really wants a pink ceiling, so we were thinking of maybe doing an ombre look going from the floor yellow to the softer pink on the bed (bottom - up). Similar to this, only upside down and pink instead of orange at the opposite end.

The technique doesn't seem as specialized as the gingham look she wanted before, but would that be too much color everywhere? Do an accent wall? If so, which wall? The big, blank wall behind the tree so you can see it, or behind the bed so the design on the headboard can pop out?

Oh decisions, decisions.

Paint's on sale right now, too... So I must decide. And fast!