Ingredients:

4 15oz black beans (rinsed & drained)
4 cups oz chicken broth (roughly around 6 cups) (can use vegetable broth instead)
1/2 cup of chopped celerey
1/2 cup chopped carrot
1 cup chopped onion (I use Trader Joe's Mirepoix because I'm lazy)
7oz can of chipotle in adobo sauce
1 can of diced tomatoes with green chilies
1 bay leaf
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp cumin
2 cloves minced garlic
2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp red crushed chili pepper flakes

Directions:
Add all of the ingredients into your slowcooker, make sure the broth covers the beans just slightly. (If you want a thinner soup, add more broth). Cook on low for 8 hours, or high for 3-4 hours, depending on your slow cooker.  Once done, I like to separate some of the broth using a cup. Take the chipotle peppers out of the soup. If you like it spicier, you can deseed the peppers, dice them up, and put them back in the soup, I just take them out entirely.  You can eat it the way it is now, or if you want it thicker like how I make it, take an immersion blender* and blend half of the soup until you get a thick consistency. If its too thick, you can add some of the broth you separated earlier back into the soup to thin it out.

*If you don't have an immersion blender, a food processor or regular blender is just fine, just make sure you open the lid to allow the steam to release while blending or you'll regret it later.

Serve it in a bowl and garnish it with some sour cream, cheese, diced avocado, and/or tortilla strips. We also bought a French Baguette from our local grocery store to dip into the soup to truly get that Panera feeling. It's so easy to make and takes almost zero effort.  This recipe can also quickly become vegan as well, just use vegetable broth instead of chicken!

Beautiful photo from Drink Company's Instagram

There were three or four bars in the building, all sectioned off by rooms. They were all GoT themed of different parts of the world.  This bar room was my most favorite. As packed as it was, it felt so calming hearing the soundtrack as you sipped on your expensive Lady Mormont drink.

Everything was so intricate that it's hard to think the pop-up bar was only a temporary thing. All of the hardwork and creativity gone in a few months. This was one of the most crowded rooms since the bathroom was in the far right corner.

We actually only stood in this room for a little while, only to wait for our turn with the throne photos

The cocktails were horrifically expensive but well worth it to get a little tastes of Westeros.

The Lady Mormont (the bear jar drink!) was my most favorite, my second was the Milk Of The Poppy (the drink with the leaf in it) which tasted like the mormont, but had a very strange yet interesting, milk aftertaste to it.

I'm finally getting around to making a little post about our excursion from our Disney cruise back in July! I decided on separating the Mexico excursion from the rest of the vacation just because we did so much there, that I wanted to have it's own page dedicated to the beauty of Cozumel. Cozumel is a Mexican island on the Caribbean Sea and a popular cruise ship port! There were so many things to see and do while on the island it was hard to choose just one excursion to do! Did we want a tequila and chocolate tasting or did we want to spend the entire day at a beach park? Or should we go to Tulum to see the beautiful Mayan ruins? We decided on doing an excursion that included a little bit of everything.  It included an archaeological site of a Mayan fertility temple in San Gervasio, a Mayan chocolate company tour, and then a 90 minute beach & pool break at Playa Mia! Everything was so beautiful once you left the tourist part of the island, it was hard say goodbye at the end of the day.  I have to admit... I have never done an excursion before, I've barely even left the states, so I was pretty nervous about leaving the port area...  Most of the research I had done on the excursion activities were a little hard to find or made it sound like it was pretty sketch, so I wanted to share with you how enjoyable, clean, and fun everything was! The excursion package was about $60 per person which wasn't bad considering all you could do there, but make sure you pack your swim suit and lots of cash for souvenirs! We ended up buying a Mayan calendar and some chocolate bars that didn't last very long once we got home. #sorrynotsorry

Anywho, here are the photos documenting our trip!

Getting off the ship

A stand in the mall right off the port.

San Gervasio Archealogical Site: The site where Mayan women would travel to to pay their respects to the Goddess of love & fertility, Ixchel

a well the Mayans made

They believe this was once a road the Mayans had built to get to their cities

Mayan road Now I had to take most of the site photos on my phone, as it was an extra fee to use my digital camera. So anyone who is interested in bringing their Nikon or Cannon, just be aware of that. I believe it was an extra 5 pesos? I may be wrong, but it wasn't terrible. It was a humid 80 degrees but the tour was about 30 minutes or less. It wasn't long and our lovely tour guide, Margarita, ensured us we were lucky as it tends to get up to 100% humidity in their summer months. Her and the bus driver were very nice and had cold water and cocoa-cola waiting for us back on the bus if we needed anything to drink.  I had brought my own water bottle with me but had to leave it on the bus as it was a sign of "disrespect" if we brought it to the site. The bus was an old rickety charter bus with AC and curtains to keep it cool when the sun beamed down and had lots of leg room. Once we got back on the bus they took the long way to get to the Mayan Cacao Company to show us the beauty of the Cozumel Island.  The beauty ocean waves crashed around the sandy beaches alongside the road. It was a 45 minute calming drive around.  The Mayan Cacao Company was my absolute favorite, probably because of all the delicious food you could try when visiting.  Seriously, if nothing else interests you getting off a cruise ship, going to the Mayan Cacao Company is still a must. It's beautiful, educational, and just downright delicious!! A sample of their raw cacao they make right in front of you, it was absolutely delish! They then show us how to make the Mayan unsweetened hot cacao, something the Mayans drank for medicinal purposes  After leaving the demo, they had clay cups filled with the hot chocolate waiting for us. They use clay cups as a way to reduce waste.  If you didn't like the unsweetened version, they had sugar you could add to it. I thought it was good without :) Margarita told us that they used chocolate as a sauce as well. A chocolate mole sauce? A woman made the corn tortiallas right in front of us and then they dabbed some UNSWEETENED chocolate sauce on top.  It was actually very delicious! Right outside the demo room, after we drank the hot chocolate, our tour guide gave us 15 minutes to shop around and try out the bar if we were of age.  My husband and I both got Chocolate Margaritas and they were so amazing... I never thought chocolate and margaritas would be such a good combo, but lo and behold. I am drinking one as I try to find WiFi at the Starbucks next door. We had about three of these by the end of the excursion. We also spent $16 on two chocolate bars. My favorite had to have been the Chipotle Chile flavor.. I wish we had bought more. You can sample all of their flavors in their gift shop! Outside the company, our tour guide handed us each a drink ticket for a free margarita or piña colada and then reminded us that we had 90 minutes to chill at the Playa Mia beach park. **Note to self: Bring bathing suit next time T__T**  They had some "cabanas" available to relax on, I'm not sure if you need to reserve these, but I didn't see anyone claim these the whole time we were there. the beautiful view we had of the ocean as we went to grab our free Pina Colada and Margarita

Italian Subs and Shakes
(Like a pro)

Today, I'm going to share with you a meal recipe I learned when I used to work at a Sandwich Shop.  I know what you're thinking, 'They're just sandwiches and shakes? I make that already?'... Yes, BUT, these are special sandwiches and shakes.... restaurant-style-sandwiches and shakes. Out-of-this-world sandwiches and shakes. 

This will wow any guests or family members you have over for lunch. There are about 4 different types of meat that go into this Italian sub, you can alter it to your taste preferences. 

You'll Need:

-Genoa Salami

-Pepperoni

-Hot Capicola 

(or regular if you don't like spicy, though you can hardly taste the spiciness.)

-4th meat of your choice

-Sub Rolls

-Sub toppings of choice, red wine vinegar, olive oil, lettuce (I use spinach) tomatoes, cucumber, red pepper, italian seasoning, whatever you want!

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F, while the oven is preheating, cut the rolls lengthwise and open up. Add about 3-5 Genoa Salami slices lengthwise depending on the length of your sub. Basically just enough to cover the sub. 6-8 Pepperonis, 1.5-3 slices of Capicola, and for the fourth meat, I usually add a peppered salami or 1.5-2 slices of mortadella, prosciutto. You can use whatever, or opt out for none.  Once it's all layered, top off with 2-3 slices of provolone, again, all to just cover the sub, neatly. Place the sub face-open on a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake for 5-10 minutes, until edges are golden and cheese is melted. When the sub is ready, top with your favorite toppings.. In order, I use diced white/yellow onions, spinach, tomatoes, cucumber, drizzle of red wine vinegar, drizzle of olive oil, sprinkle of Italian seasoning, then then I close the sub, using a knife and pressing into the toppings while closing so everything stays in tact still, and cut in half.

Making a good milkshake is easy. You just need to follow this ratio 2:1.  That's 2 parts ice cream to 1 part milk. 1-2 ounces of what ever flavor you want. You can use flavored ice cream to cut out the middle man. I love getting creative with mine. To fancify the shake up for guests, you can add a drizzle of caramel or chocolate to the sides of the glass.

Lets say you have vanilla ice cream and you want a Coffee Brownie Shake:
2 parts vanilla ice cream (we'll say 10 ounces), 1 brownie square, coffee syrup, and 1 part milk(5 ounces). Blend away. Et voila! You've made yourself a damn fine shake, Diane! You could always crumble up the brownie and stir it into the shake for bigger chunks if you wanted too. Drizzle some chocolate around the inside of a glass cup and pour in the shake when you're ready to serve :)

Cheesecake Shake:

2 parts vanilla ice cream, 1 part milk, a slice of cheesecake, a splash of vanilla extract, & graham cracker crumbs for garnish (optional). Blend everything except cheesecake and graham cracker crumbs. Chop up cheesecake into chunks and add to shake, pulse for a few seconds until its just incorporated into the shake. Serve in a Fountain Shoppe Glass, top with whipped cream & graham cracker crumbs, and there you go! Simple! 

*You can do this recipe with a pumpkin pie slice too for the holidays ;), instead of vanilla ice cream, there are a ton of pumpkin pie ice cream flavors to use and just top with whipped cream and pumpkin pie spice <3

Seriously, I love getting creative with these! 

If you want to make any of these into a malt, just add a spoonful or two of malted milk powder, before blending.

Enjoy! I'd love to hear how yours all turned out!

Welcome to a new weekly blog post of mine that will allow me to share some of my recipes with you! Every Wednesday I will share a new recipe of mine that I love to cook, or maybe just some neat cooking tips and tricks you might not have heard before! Today, I wanted to kick off the "series" with one of my favorites that I, personally, love to make whenever I'm too lazy to actually cook, and lets be real here.. I make this entirely way too much. Seriously, it's so easy that I've debated even posting this, but who knows, maybe it'll remind you to make it this week when meal planning! Today I'm sharing 3 pizza toppings with you using Trader Joe's Garlic & Herb Pizza Dough!

**If you don't have a Trader Joes near you, fear not! Just use your favorite pizza dough recipe :)
I don't have exact measurements for any of these recipes, I usually just eye it all out. Do the amounts you feel like you'd personally enjoy better. There's no harm in altering a recipe <3

1.) BBQ Chicken Pizza

3.) Pesto, Spinach, Mushroom (pictures to come)