Addison Inspires Recipes: Spinach Curry Chicken Soup

Addison is the inspiration for all my recipes especially when he's not feeling well and it's especially necessary for food to be his medicine. So when he wasn't feeling well last night, this soup recipe was born. Just a warning, I don't measure, I eyeball everything and just throw all and everything I feel will go well in the recipe. I'll try to get better about the whole measuring thing. ;)



Spinach Curry Chicken Soup

Ingredients:

• Organic, free range chicken breast (raw)
• Water
• Apple Cider Vinegar
• Salt
• Pepper
• Curry Powder
• Chicken bone broth
• Natural Season Salt
• Chili Powder
• Red pepper flakes
• Fresh ginger (minced)
• Coconut cream
• Frozen spinach
• Diced onions
• Shredded carrots
• Squeeze of lemon juice

Instructions:

1. Put raw chicken in a pot. Barely cover the chicken with water. Add about a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar. Sprinkle in salt and pepper (I put a nice layer of salt and pepper on the top of water, about 5 shakes of the shakers). Add about double the amount of curry powder. Put on medium-low until chicken is cooked all the way through. 

2. Remove the chicken and put on a cutting board to cool for a minute, chop into small pieces. Add about 1/2 cup bone broth (enough for as much soup as you want). 

3. Add frozen spinach, diced onions and shredded carrots to your desire. Add a couple spoonfuls of coconut cream. Add minced ginger. 

4. Add about 3 shakes of natural season salt , about 3 more shakes of pepper, 2 more good shakes of curry powder, a dash of chili powder, a sprinkle of red pepper flakes. Add a squeeze of lemon juice. Stir and boil on low for 5-7 minutes. 

Sides well with sauerkraut and paleo rolls (a recipe I'll post later). 

How Do I Love Thee? - The Best Valentine's Day Ever!

Oh Valentine's Day, a day set apart for celebrating love. Love is such a wonderful thing whether you love your dog, your work or your super hot spouse. ;) And there are so many ways to love, which brings me to this awesome Mormon Message I stumbled across this past Sunday - How Do I love thee?

How. What a powerful phrase in love.  How, how do I love my spouse? Or even friends, coworkers, neighbors and enemies. We can always "try a little harder to be a little better." And you know what, I think it's a well kept secret to the world that needs to be shared. So here are six ways Addison and I demonstrate our great love for each other:
1. Serve. Service is the key to love. Addison and I are always looking for ways to serve one another, whether it's a simple hug on a hard day, making a meal, or just listening. Just as "God knows all our successes no matter how small and cherishes every one." (President Monson), we recognize every kind deed and cherish them, no matter how small. One time, I asked Addison to finish making cookies I didn't have to make in time for my grandma's birthday dinner. My cookies turned out cute and perfectly round, and when Addison showed up, he sadly showed me a plate of cookie crumbs. I smiled and gave him a hug and thanked him for making the cookies. I was thankful Addison did something a little outside his comfort zone to help me. The cookies would still taste the same, no matter how they looked. Now I didn't realize it until later, but apparently my reaction to his cookie crumbs meant the world to him and he ended up using this story in his Priesthood lesson. After church, the men kept walking by smiling at me and telling me how high Addison speaks of me. I don't share to toot my own horn, but I didn't realize such a small thing could make such a big difference and it can. Cherish and appreciate all that your spouse does for you.
2. Always think the best of them. Elder Holland mentioned this in his talk and I completely agree. We all have our shortcomings, but this is the person you want to spend forever with! You didn't marry them for the bad things, but for all the good. Why should that change after you get married? It shouldn't. End of story. The more I get to know Addison, the more good I find so, while it was easy to always thing the best of him before, it's even easier now! We've been asked before by our own family, "So, do you hate each other yet?" Heck no! I tell Addison a lot that if I love him any more, my heart will burst, but somehow it doesn't and my love keeps growing.
3. Never speak ill of them to anyone. Addison, for example, NEVER says anything bad about me to anyone, including me. Whenever I'm introduced to someone Addison knows, they are always so excited to meet me and think I'm amazing! Why? Not necessarily because I am ;) but because Addison thinks I am so everyone he talks to thinks so too. How sweet and cute is he?
4. Don't fight. We all have our quirks and opinions, but that's not an excuse to fight. Contention is of the devil and he's not welcome in our home. When there's a disagreement, talk it out. No name calling is allowed, no yelling, just discuss. It's a great opportunity to learn more about your spouse as well. :)
5. Encourage each other! You should always be their number one cheerleader! Whenever I am in a tournament or teaching, whatever, Addison is always front and center and the entire neighborhood can hear him cheering. It means the world to me and it makes everyone in the room smile to see such a supportive spouse. Also, be encouraging when they've had a hard day or in the midst of a difficult decision.
6. Have FUN and Laugh a Lot!! I can't tell you how many times Addison and I have laughed until we can't breathe and are in tears. And we have fun with everything we do from grocery shopping, cleaning and through challenging adventures. Maybe we were laughing through the challenging adventures because we couldn't believe what was happening to us, but anyway, the point still stands. We've been sealed for eternity and it's part of our Heavenly Father's plan of happiness so we're going to be as happy as possible.

Love "Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." Addison and I are already starting to experience the "endureth all things" part after one year of marriage and that's alright. We're stronger because of it and our love has grown so much! And today we had an awesome time celebrating our love. First we had a fantastic lunch at Hu Hot, then Addison wanted to go to the zoo but our pathetic little Logan zoo was closed! So we went to the mall instead where Addison bought me a cute new outfit and I was able to sneakily buy Addison a gift. :) My favorite activity is what we did next. We had a $10 reward at Kohl's so we went in and split up. We had 15 minutes to find get each other a gift, $10 max. It was so much fun! Sneaking around the store trying to find fun little gifts for one another. We bumped into each other a couple times and went running the other direction stashing our load and giggling like maniacs. In the end, we paid under $5 and had the time of our lives. We are totally making this a new tradition. After we went to the movie store, got a movie and came home to reveal our Kohl's gifts.
Addison's gift: An awesome wood wick candle I love! And, he bought me an Olaf that will be here next week. So excited. :)

Lindsay's gift: Zoo Hall. Addison was so upset the zoo was closed, so I made him his own zoo! (the card said: Dr. Bear, DC - Chiropractic makes life bearable and so do you!)

A panda :)Monsters at our zoo (It was a game Addison really wanted that just came out.)

A chicken! Those Don Knotts breeds are really rare too. Electric mice, fire lizards, some weird bird, and the black thing, not sure if that's human or animal or machine ;). And of course Doll, our pet pink fox/Sylvion pokemon. :)

I was a cat in the zoo

  

Bate to lure in the Addisaur! :) The latter picture are the gifts I got him at Kohls: candle, luxury bubble bath, and a cool pocket tool with a hammer, wire cutters, wrench, knife and screwdriver. And yes, I did catch the Addisaur. :)
Then we wrote random messages like "You're awesome random person!" and "St. Valentine would be proud of how cool you are!" on our leftover Toy Story Valentines and ding dong ditched our neighborhood. SO much fun! And we got in a nice cardio workout with all our sprinting. :)

 

All in all, it was the best Valentine's Day ever and we are SO in love! 

Introductions, Purpose and Gushy Stuff!

Hello! It's about time we get a post up! :) First item of business, introductions!

Meet the Man of all Men, head of the Hall household...Addison Miles Toca HALL!!!

Addison loves martial arts, Star Wars, Pokemon, reading, plays the trumpet, has the singing voice of an angel and adores his wife more than anything. He has an amazing personality that may be compared to that of a happy puppy - full of energy, life, fun and would never harm a fly, unless you upset his family in any way, then his martial spirit comes out and the guard dog is on duty! Addison is a gymnastics coach at a local gym and loves it! And the kids absolutely adore him! Girls he coached for only 3 weeks still run up and give him hugs when they see and love to show him what they're learning in their new classes. So cute. Addison is studying exercise science in school and one day hopes to teach martial arts and run a gym. Addison also served a full-time LDS mission to Brasilia, Brazil where he became fluent in Portuguese.

Movies: Hook, The Lego Movie

TV shows: Pokemon, Modern Family

Hobbies: Playing video games, karate and MMA (he's been doing martial arts for over 10 years now)

Famous quote: "Gangsters don't dance, we swag!" 

The Wife, The Health-nut and hippie...Lindsay June HALL!!

Lindsay also loves martial arts, health, essential oils, chiropractic, creating recipes and Addison, of course. She also plays the violin and likes to sing. Lindsay's personality is more reserved than Addison, but don't be fooled by her sweet innocence. Once you really get to know her, she's a bit devious (all in good fun, of course), a fighter who will take you down! and very passionate about her health studies, work and family. Lindsay is also an exercise science major graduating this spring and has been accepted to Life West Chiropractic College where she plans to attend starting in July of 2017. She currently works full time as the office manager at Integrity Chiropractic - an ideal job because she gets to learn the business side of chiropractic she won't learn in school. 

Movies: Frozen, The Blind Side, Pocahontas

TV shows: Modern Family, Doctor Who, Cosby Show

Hobbies: Violin, health research, pinterest and cooking

Famous quote: (While rewriting "Love is an Open Door" into a chiropractic number) "...I feel my face! And it's nothing like I've felt before!.."

She's apartment friendly, super cute and the Most Adorable thing you'll ever see...Doll HALL!

                 Doll was a gangster for Halloween

Now, I know you all think we're crazy, but seriously, this doll is alive. Doll was Addison's gift at the Salt Lake Comic Con in September 2014. As soon as we took her home, we knew there was something different about her. She has her own personality that's hard to describe unless you're with her. Anyway, after a couple days of noticing the life about her, we made her a little room and bed, she has a couple toys she likes including her moutain dew pumpkin (long story about that I won't get into). After some investigating involving a couple cats and a dog, we've come to the conclusion that Doll is possessed by Addison's dear beloved former dog. Doll loves to read and play with tennis balls, bubble wrap and balloons.

DECK THE HALLS - A collection of memories, crazy adventures, recipes and the everyday life of a Hall. Put on your mouth guards, we seriously have some crazy adventures but we're always laughing, smiling and bursting with love. :)