Pinterest...and a super yummy dinner

Well, if you haven't discovered Pinteret yet, you just don't know what you are missing.  I am completely addicted, have thousands of pins and feel lost if I don't check it once a day.  One of my favorite things to pin is yummy recipes.  I have all kinds of soup, crock pot dishes, cupcakes, drinks....Now one of my goals this year is to start using/doing some of the things I have pinned...so in that spirit I used a recipe from there to create dinner.  To start with you need to make the chicken...

 

Mexican Crock Pot Chicken

1 3-lb bag of frozen, boneless, skinless chicken breasts or tenderloins

1 can of corn, drained

1 can Ro-tel

1 can black beans, rinsed & drained

1 8 oz block of cream cheese

Place chicken in crock pot.  Add corn, Rotelle, beans; to with cream cheese.  low 6-8 hours.  After an hour or so I stir in the melted cream cheese & continue to stir every 2 hours.  Once done cooking, remove chicken pieces & shred; then mix back in. 

(found on Pinterest, originally from: http://thelarsonlingo.blogspot.com/2011/05/easiest-dinner-ever.html)

This in itself is a yummy meal, but I decided to go a step further.  Here is what I did...

I used flour tortillas, a can of enchilada sauce and a bag of shredded Mexican cheese.

I covered the bottom of a 13x9 casserole dish with a little of the enchilada sauce.  I then filled the tortillas with about 1/2 C of the chicken mixture, rolled and placed seam down in the dish.  I made 6 filled tortillas.  Once your dish is full, cover with about a cup of the enchilada sauce; top with cheese.  Place in a 350 degree oven for 20-30 minutes until heated through, bubbly on top.  Serve with sour cream on top.  Ole!

And, best part, I have half the mixture to freeze for another meal :)

Girly Girls - Part 2

Now for Taylor's card.  While I consider Taylor also be a very girly, girl she is very different from her sister.  She is more free spirited, "hippy-ish"...long hair with braids, bright colors, tye dye...but still into all the girly things.  This image was perfect for her (Hippy Love from Saturated Canary:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/SaturatedCanaryDigis?page=2).  I did pretty much the same for the image as for Brigitte's card...colored with Stampin' Up pencils, added Stickles to the buttons on her skirt & boots, added Smooch to the flowers in her hair, and then I sprayed the image with Smooch Spritz in pearl.  Again, I used paper scraps for the card.  I did emboss the orange piece.  I inked all edges with burnt sienna Cat's Eye chalk.  Added a few flowers and a big bow to finish it off. 

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge: Diamonds or Pearls
http://stamptacularsundaychallenge.blogspot.com/


Pixie Dust Studio: Girly, Girl
http://pixieduststudiopixiechallenge.blogspot.com/

Girly Girls

This morning I decided that after doing the "have to" chores I was going to create.  After checking in the a few of the challenge blogs I follow, one had my creativity flowing.  Pixie Dust Studio (http://pixieduststudiopixiechallenge.blogspot.com/ ) the theme was "Girly, Girl".  Wow, I know for most people that would bring to mind bows, glitter, pink, etc.  My mind was reeling because I actually had a few ideas on how to go for this one and a lot of it was due to the images I had just purchased from Saturated Canary (http://www.etsy.com/shop/SaturatedCanaryDigis?page=2) to make some cards for my BFF's daughters who are away at college.  I consider both of them to be very girly, girls...in their own ways.  So, I made Brigitte's card first...



I consider her to be more of the typical girly girl...make up, clothes, pink & purple...but she is also very intelligent and even a little "geeky"...likes to read, plays video games, etc.  So, this image was perfect for her!  It is "Ivy" by Saturated Canary.  I colored her with Stampin' Up pencils and then embellished...stickles for the legwarmer pom-poms and glasses, Smooch for her blue eyes, and Smooch Spritz over the whole thing to make it shimmery.  I used papers from my scrap bin and then added some flowers, rhinestones, and ribbon.  Very girly, girl!  See my next post for my take on her other daughter, Taylor.

Entered this card into the following challenges:

Stamptacular Sunday Challenge:  Diamonds or Pearls http://stamptacularsundaychallenge.blogspot.com/

Pixie Dust Studio:  Girly, Girl

http://pixieduststudiopixiechallenge.blogspot.com/



Already...

February!  And tomorrow is groundhog day.  I have to say, I am hoping he sees his shadow and goes back in his burrow, I want 6 more weeks of winter.  We have had no real snow this year...it has been so mild, more like a cold spring. 

Did you make any resolutions or goals for the new year?  I took January to think about this...there are a lot of things going on in my life right now that I wish I could change, but...out of my control, so I decided to do something about the things I can control.  So, my five goals for the year are:

1.  To finish what I started...a total house de-clutter.  I have been working this for a couple of months and I want to continue with it. 

2.  Get my scrapbooks caught up.  I am on the way with this...I organized all the digital photos from the last 3 years, made a list of events & I am now comparing with what I have done.  I should have 2011 all caught up in about 4-6 more layouts :)  Then back to 2010!

3.  Work on a healthier lifestyle.  This includes losing some weight, but also just being more active, managing stress in a constructive way, etc.  This includes participating in 2-3 5K with DH and DS.

4.  Blog at least twice a week...and not always craft stuff.  I have decided that if I am going to be on Pinterest, I need to use the pins I save...so I will share that with you...and some other fun things going on.

5.  Slow down!  I feel like I am constantly doing...and overwhelmed at times.  I am going to learn to say, "NO."  and to prioritize and simplify.  I need time for myself...and I need to enjoy things more...

I am sure this list will change as the year progresses and I complete things on the list, but this is a good start.  So, what are your resolutions/goals?

Soup Swap!

Did you know that January 21st is National Soup Swap Day?  I didn't either until about a month ago...So I went to my first swap today.  A group from out church hosted.  I helped by putting together the prizes.  Thiswas fun in itself!  On the suggestion fo the coordinator, I got "Chicken Soup"  Books and used wooden spoons for the "trophies".  OF course I ahd to put a crafty spin on it, so here is what I came up with...Pretty cute, huh?

Don't know if you could see, but one of the prizes was for most creative packaging...right up my alley! I had so many ideas...Here is what I settled on:

inside the bag...soup & a baguette

Completed bag with everything inside. 
Front tag is a recipe card.



Finally, to pick a soup....well, I really did want to try to do something so people would go home with new things. I have a lot of soup recipes....chicken tortilla, zuppa toscano, potato, etc. These were all good, but rather common, so....I decided on French Country Soup. It is one of my favorites and it makes the house smell wonderful! I found the recipe several years back...where, I really don't know...and I have modified it to fit our taste.

French Country Soup:

Ingredients:

8 ounces of dry navy, great Northern, or cannellini beans

6 cups water

1 pound beef or lamb stew mean, cut into 1-inch cubes

4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth or stock

2 stalks of celery cut into 1-inch pieces

2 carrots cut into 1-inch pieces

1 large onion cut into wedges

2 cups dry white wine

6 cloves garlic, minced (1 T)

3 bay leaves

1 ½ teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed

½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

Toasted French bread slices (optional)

Directions

• Rinse & drain beans. In a 4-quart stock pot, combine beans and the water. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Cover & let stand for one hour.

• Drain beans in colander; rinse. In a 3-6 quart slow cooker, stir together beans, meat, broth (or stock), carrots, celery, onion, wine, garlic, bay leaves, rosemary, salt & pepper.

• Cover; cook on low-heat setting for 8-10 hours or high-heat setting for 4-5 hours. Remove & discard bay leaves before serving. If desired, serve with toasted French bread slices.

I like to sprinkle a little fresh, grated Parmesan on top and serve it with the toasted bread. Yummy!

The swap was so much fun.  We had 9 soups to taste with only one repeat.  After tasting we all voted on the three categories.  We had plenty of time to snack and visit with one another.  Once the votes were in we gave out the prizes.  Then we swapped our soups.  I didn't come home with a prize, but I did come home with 4 delicious soups and some new recipes to make.  This was definitely a lot of fun...and I think we all decided we needed to find out when Pie Day is!

So many projects....

so little time!  There are so many projects that I would like to do that I hae decided to make a list and prioritize.  The first is to get my personal scrapbooks caught up, so....I have organized all my photos, made a list of all the things that should be scrapped for the past 5 years and cross referencing it with the pages I have actually done.  this will leave me a list of what i need to do...I am working year-by-year so, I am should have 2011 completely caught up by then end of next week...jsut a few more layouts to do.  I am also doing more hybrid layouts to help 'get it done".  Here are two I just completed:

I have also been trying to make use of the many already made pages I have...I have a stack of about 50 layouts that I made when I worked at the scrapbook store that just need pictures...here is one of them...Yeah! 

I also managed to squeeze in a quick trip to my girlfriend's since the beginnign fo the year.  We scrapped the entire weekend....I needed it!  I completed a mini album for my Dfor our 20th anniversary, colored a lot of digi images for future projects, made a set of cards for a swap, and did a layout for her daughter's prom.  Very productive weekend...really need one of those a month! 



Prom Layout I did for my girlfriend's daughter.



layout my girlfriend did for me "in trade"



Cards done two ways!

These are the cards I made for a swap...since each person will receive two from me I decided to use two color palettes.  The image is a free digi stamp from MelJen's Designs:   http://meljensdesignsdt.blogspot.com/p/freebies.htmlhttp://meljensdesignsdt.blogspot.com/p/freebies.html

Happy New Year

The new year is here...welcome 2012.  I have been working rather diligently on getting my photos and all craft things organized.  My goal for the year is to get those family albums caught up.  I know that this will be much easier if I have everything organized.  So,...

All old photos have been gone through, organized and pared down to one large box instead of the 8 photo boxes from before.  I have organized all digital photos as well...separating them into yearly folders and moving them onto the external hard drive.  Now, I need to organized all video and then I will be ready to move to phase two of this plan...figuring out what has/hasn't been scrapped yet.  That will be next week's project.  Once that is done then I can just start with a page a day & should be able to get caught up in the family albums rather quickly. 

My other goal for the new year is to put a little more focus on me...taking the time to work out, making healthier choices with food, allowing some "me" time each day, etc.  Obviously, i would like to loose some weight, but that is t=not the primary goal.  I just need to find me again.

The final goal I have is to do a major letting go...letting go of things, people, etc...anything that no longer makes me happy, brings me joy or is a positive influence in my life.  We just get so bogged down in today's world with things and people....so, my new philosophy is this...if you do not bring something positive to my world, then you are gone....person or thing.

I will be posting crafty stuff next week...going to Brandi's for the weekend and hoping to get a few projects done.