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Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

November 9, 2015 • 21 Comments

When it comes to soups, stews and chili, I’m typically in the camp of eaters who likes things chunky.

If I can’t have a soup be chunky, then by golly it’d better be thick. I don’t know about you but I like to feel like I’m actually eating when I’m eating something. And for whatever reason, runny soup just doesn’t leave me feeling satisfied, like EVER.

My experience with butternut squash soup outside of the 1-2 times I’ve made it in my home kitchen has not been the best —it’s either too runny or too sweet. Seriously, I think Panera must put 1/4 cup of sugar into their soup because it tastes like you are drinking a savory dessert!

So when a friend recently invited me over to her house to cook butternut squash soup with her, I was excited to make something better.

The sad thing was while we were cooking, I got carried away with talking and forgot to write down the ingredient measurements for the recipe! After one bite of the soup we both agreed it was the best Roasted Butternut Squash Soup we’d ever tasted, and so I remade it later that week in order to share the recipe with you.

Traditional Thanksgiving Stuffing

November 5, 2015 • 15 Comments

Last year Alex and I celebrated our first Thanksgiving away from family. And you know what we did? We went out to eat.

If you’re wondering, why on Earth would a food blogger go out to eat on the most food centric holiday of the year? I’ll tell ya why. I love cooking, baking and all things food. But I don’t like the idea of making a five-course meal for only two people. Especially when one of those two people (cough, cough my husband, cough) doesn’t even like turkey.

At first going out to eat on Thanksgiving felt kind of wrong, but by the end of the night we were both laughing and having a great time. Still nothing could compare to celebrating Thanksgiving with family. Am I right??

So needless to say, when my parents told me they wanted to celebrate with us in Des Moines this year, I was overjoyed.

“Do you know what this means mama?” I squealed into the phone. “I get to cook my first ever full Thanksgiving meal!!!”

After we got of the phone, I immediately started preparing a Thanksgiving meal menu for the four of us. Some of the menu superstars include: turkey, caramelized onion smashed potatoes, this traditional Thanksgiving stuffing, cranberry orange brussels sprouts and butternut squash soup, which will be coming to the blog next week.

I’m ready to have the best Thanksgiving ever. And with this recipe for Traditional Thanksgiving Stuffing, you will be too!

Note: For meal planning I highly recommend the Knock Knock What to Eat Pad. It’s amazing!

Homemade Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

November 2, 2015 • 56 Comments

You only need four ingredients to make these naturally-sweetened, homemade Reese’s peanut butter cups! Dark chocolate + coconut oil + peanut butter + honey = pure deliciousness.

When you think about the things that make your life sweeter — the things that make life even more worth living — what comes to mind? If you’re a believer, I’m sure one of the first things that popped into your mind was having a personal relationship with Jesus. Having someone who loves you enough to leave his throne, die for you and rescue you — It just doesn’t get any sweeter than that does it?

My faith is the sweetest aspect of my life. It’s the reason why I get up in the morning. It’s the reason why I do what I do. It’s the reason I am able to say “It is well with my soul,” even though I am battling chronic pain and illness. Second to faith is my relationship with my husband, family and friends, and now this little guy …

Ladies and gentlemen meet the newest member of the Gaskill family — Reese, our little peanut butter cup! We adopted this beautiful Cavalier King Charles Spaniel this weekend and he has already been making our lives sweeter and lighting the days and nights up with joy.

Sure he is only halfway potty trained and has had his share of accidents this past weekend, but we’re learning, loving, playing and laughing together. It has been a beautiful adventure.

Turkey Pumpkin Chili

October 29, 2015 • 31 Comments

I know what you’re thinking … What? Another recipe with pumpkin in it?

And yes, you are right. This is my fourth pumpkin recipe in a row. First there were the Pumpkin Dirt Pudding Cups for Halloween, then a Pumpkin Apple Crisp, then a Facebook post about Maple Pumpkin Oatmeal and now this Turkey Pumpkin Chili.

Some might call it pumpkin overload. Some might call it madness. But if you’re like me and you could never eat enough pumpkin … I call it culinary heaven. My philosophy is the more pumpkin I eat before winter hits, the better! Who’s with me? Proud pumpkin lovers raise your hands high!

If on the other hand you are a pumpkin hater, I promise next week’s recipes will not involve pumpkin so stay with me! Also regardless of whether or not you like pumpkin I promise you will love this recipe for Turkey Pumpkin Chili.

The Best Gluten-Free Pumpkin Apple Crisp

October 26, 2015 • 33 Comments

There are two kinds of desserts that I must make every fall.

No. 1 is the obligatory pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, which I look forward to baking every year. The smell and taste of this classic pie brings back memories and makes me feel like I’m near family even though they live many states away. Even though the Mr. doesn’t like pumpkin pie, I can trick him into eating it if I throw coconut into the recipe.

No. 2 is apple crisp. Although it can be made a bazillion different ways I’m telling you this is hands down the best gluten-free apple crisp out there. Why? For starters it’s healthier than your usual crisp, but doesn’t sacrifice on taste. But perhaps the greatest feature of this dish is the surprise on the bottom: a caramel-y, gooey layer of pumpkin.

This gluten-free apple crisp is truly the best of both worlds when it comes to fall dessert recipes. It’s like a pumpkin pie and apple crisp all in one! Usually I find myself having to scoop copious amounts of ice cream onto my crisp to round out the flavor, but I found myself not needing to put ice cream on top of this new version, which I am excited to share with you all today. This is not to say ice cream wouldn’t go well with this crisp, I just think it’s a stand-out on its own.

A Minneapolis Love Letter {And Some Pretty Big News!}

October 22, 2015 • 21 Comments

Two-and-a-half years ago I packed up my car and moved across the Midwest to work as an editorial intern for Tiger Oak Publications in downtown Minneapolis.

Though my husband and I were still in college and not married at the time, we knew we needed to start entertaining ideas around where to live after college. Because our family lived in Indiana we wanted to stay in the Midwest but also loved the opportunities that cities like Nashville and Minneapolis had to offer. My summer internship in downtown Minneapolis was a chance for me to experience the city firsthand and decide whether I could see us living there.

I knew no one in the area, save two contacts: a Ball State alum who had visited the university to speak about life after college, and a Christian writer named Krisi, whom I met through the blogging community. Even though Krisi had never met me she invited me to rent a space in her home for the summer.

As I pulled up to the charming old green house, Krisi and a few other roommates were waiting for me on the porch.

“Need any help with anything?” they asked.

“Sure! Thanks so much!” I replied.

“You must be starving,” Krisi said.

I looked at my watch and felt my stomach grumble. It was 8 p.m. Indiana time.

“No worries,” Krisi chuckled. “There’s a place down the street called Pizza Luce that you are going to love! We’ll take you there once all your stuff is unloaded.”

If my first night in Minneapolis wasn’t wonderful enough, my next morning would take the cake. Something you should know about me: I’m the type of person who loves adventure and exploring new places. It’s part of who I am and I think it’s also one of the reasons why I love blogging and trying new recipes all of the time. So now that you know this, maybe you’ll think me to be less crazy when I say I had planned out what I wanted to do during my first week in Minneapolis almost a month in advance.

On my first morning in Minneapolis I jumped out of bed, laced up my tennis shoes, grabbed my keys and headed to Lake Harriet, one of the four lakes that make up the city’s Chain of Lakes. With the July sun shining bright in the sky I couldn’t have asked for a better first day. Halfway through my run around the lake I stopped at an opening in the shoreline where you could see the skyscrapers of downtown shooting up from the surrounding trees. The beauty of the city and the lake overtook me and my skin became covered in happy goosebumps. I am fairly certain for the rest of my run I had a smile on my face, simply because I could not contain my joy.

When I started my internship the next day, those goosebumps returned as I drove straight into downtown. As I turned the steering wheel to follow Hwy 94 toward the Vikings stadium I heard my soul whisper deep inside, “This is my city.”

And in that moment I knew I had fallen in love with Minneapolis. It was where I belonged.

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A month ago, if you’d asked me if I would consider leaving the Twin Cities area I would have laughed in your face. After graduating from Ball State University shortly after my internship at Tiger Oak, my husband and I moved here in the middle of an arctic snowstorm (Remember two winters ago when we had an unprecedented amount of subzero temps? Yeah, that’s the winter we moved!) and even that didn’t keep us from turning the car around and leaving the city we had come to love.Read More