Month: February 2012

Project Life Tuesday 2.7.12

Hello and welcome to Project Life Tuesday!

If you are stopping by from The Mom Creative, welcome & thanks for clicking over! If you are not, you might want to click over there when you’re done here for some more great Project Life inspiration!

Here are the pages I have for last week. I ended up doing a 12×10 insert with some extra pictures from the week, including the Father-Daughter Dance pictures. I will probably end up going back and including a 5×7 of that one since SuperMan had a formal picture made of him with the girls at the dance. I can’t wait to see it.

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I’m loving using some new things to me – like the Year-ography pages I got last week (the “FEB” insert above) and some SMASH washi tape (polka dots!) that I am now in love with.

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I also played around with PSE and made some of my own journaling cards – I like to tell the details of the stories and handwriting them just doesn’t always give me enough room.

The journal card that is handwritten (below) was from Elle’s Studio. They are SO pretty – I will be ordering more for sure.

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This is the right side page… more journaling in PSE plus an handwritten journal card. I also used some of the new Martha Stewart labels I picked up at Staples. (LOVE them!) You will be seeing a lot more of those in my books in the future.

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My next project to work on this week is my Move More Eat Well page for February…

You can see my other Project Life posts here.

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Menu Plan Monday 2.6.12

Whew! What a whirlwind the past two weeks have been! I feel like I’m on a crazy ride at an amusement park and I’m just ready for the spinning to stop…

Hoping this week is a little less spastic and crazy, but who knows!

BUT! I am glad that I have my plan in place for our dinners this week.  One of my sanity savers is knowing what we’re having for dinner and not getting caught off-guard with one of those “Uh, oh, what AM I cooking tonight?!?” moments.

Menu Plan:

Here’s what we have planned this week:

  • Monday: Country Fried Steak, gravy & mashed potatoes
  • Tuesday: Chicken Quesadillas (made with leftover crock pot Mexican chicken from this weekend – recipe below)
  • Wednesday: Asian chicken stir fry
  • Thursday: Leftovers
  • Friday: Sloppy Joes
  • Saturday: Chicken Parmesan
  • Sunday: Mom’s day off (eat out for dinner after church)

Great Menu Idea for a Gathering:

We had our small group over for this weekend and I made a Nacho Bar for dinner.  I had all SIX of my crock pots on the counter (I should’ve taken a picture!) filled with yummy goodness.  I made ground beef (seasoned with Rotel tomatoes with chiles and taco seasoning) the chicken (below) and then had another crock with black beans and refried beans (it was a divided crock) and another with a cheese dip to top off the nachos (Velveeta & Rotel) 

On the side, I had the following toppings:

  • shredded lettuce
  • diced tomatoes
  • diced red onions
  • cilantro
  • chile peppers
  • jalepenos
  • sliced black olives
  • three kinds of salsa (including my Tomatillo-Avocado salsa)
  • shredded cheddar cheese

Everyone LOVED it.  I think I’ll be doing it again for another get-together. It was easy because I could do so much ahead of time and then the set-up for the dinner was fairly simple.

I made the cutest sweet “nacho” dessert (found on Pinterest) which was what my baby crock was holding – the chocolate to drizzle over the top… Smile

Crock Pot Mexican Chicken

Here’s the quick, easy and super-yummy crock pot Mexican chicken recipe I made:

1-2 pounds boneless, skinless, chicken breasts (or thighs)
1 package taco seasoning (I use the low sodium variety)
1 jar salsa (I use Newman’s Own Mild)

Place the chicken in the crock pot. Sprinkle the taco seasoning on top of the chicken & pour the salsa over it.  Then cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4-5 hours.  Shred chicken, return to crock pot (with the salsa juices) and serve.  Makes great filling for burritos, tacos, nachos or quesadillas.

I may even make some chicken tortilla soup with some of the leftovers!

Need More Ideas?

You can find more yummy recipes on  orgjunkie.com or Balancing Beauty & Bedlam, where she has her Pantry Challenge going on again for another month!

tasty tuesday larger logo1 Tasty Tuesday: Pantry Challenge Update

‘til the cows come home

I was riding home the other day with the girls and we passed one of the cow pastures that are close to where we live.

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The girls immediately started MOO-ing very loudly…

And of course, I immediately shouted, “Stop! Stop! No more MOO-ing! We don’t need any cows at home!”

Which caused an eruption of giggles and even more MOO-ing – even more loudly.

img_0802You talkin’ to ME?!?

You see, we have a tradition… one that was started many eons ago when my brother and I were children.

Whenever we would pass a cow pasture, we would start MOO-ing very loudly and with much gusto.  The  more we would MOO the more Mom would say, “NO! No MOO-ing! The cows will follow us home!”

And in our childish imaginations, the cows really did follow us home.  So we would MOO and MOO and MOO – until, well, until the cows came home. (sorry, I couldn’t resist!)

It became a great game to play.

The more we MOO-ed the more Mom would become “distressed” and tell us to stop. What kid doesn’t love that?

And, somehow, this tradition has carried over into the next generation. 

And so my girls now MOO at every cow pasture we pass. And I shriek in dismay and plead for them to be quiet so that we don’t have a herd of cows following us home.  And they MOO all the more.  All the while, I’m secretly rejoicing in the continuation of the tradition and thinking it might actually be pretty cool to have a pet cow… no matter what the Homeowners Association might think.

 

img_1212Hey, you got any hay at your place?

Ooey Gooey Goodness

I have mentioned before (once or twice) about how much I love Pinterest. I’m finding so many good things there – crafts, scrapbooking inspiration, and most importantly, new recipes to try.

I have also mentioned before (once or twice) about how I am so not a morning person. I don’t really get going until mid-day, mentally, and so the early mornings required of being a mommy of school-age children is rather challenging for me. Most days, I feel somewhat like a zombie shuffling through the routine. But, I like to have something warm and yummy for my girls to eat before they leave for school.

So, imagine my pleasure when I stumbled across this little gem on Pinterest last week. I knew it had to be somewhere in our future – it looks like a super-easy version of Monkey Bread.

So, this morning was the morning.  I modified the recipe to suit what I had on hand and received no complaints from the monkeys in the house.  They said it was like a cross between cinnamon rolls, biscuits and pancakes.  Well, that is probably because it is! img_1260

I didn’t use the fancy tube pan – I just used my trusty loaf pan – same basic principle but much easier for me to dig out at 5:30 in the morning. (I said it was early, didn’t I?)

You can get the recipe over on Pinterest for the original version.  Or you can use mine here.  I think they’re so close they are virtually the same.

Great idea for a quick breakfast treat.

Gooey Breakfast Goodness

~1 Tbsp cinnamon (I just estimated)
~4 Tbsp butter
~1/2 c sugar (or brown sugar)
~1/4 cup pancake syrup
1 can Pillsbury Grands Biscuits

  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. In a large measuring cup, combine first four ingredients. You may want to melt the butter/syrup in the microwave for about 1 minute to make the mixing easier.  Mix well.
  3. Pour about 1-2 Tbsp of the syrup mixture in the bottom of a well-greased loaf pan (just enough to coat the bottom.
  4. In the pan, then stand biscuits on their sides like little soldiers marching along.
  5. Pour the remaining syrup mixture over the biscuits and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar if desired.
  6. Bake at 350 for about 30-40 minutes.
  7. Allow them to cool for a couple minutes before diving in to the yummy goodness. Can be rewarmed in the microwave if any are left over.

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Roundup January

Happy February 1st!

If you are a scrapbooker, you’ve probably heard of Katie the Scrapbook Lady. Well, if you are a scrapbooker and avid blog reader, you probably have.

Anyway, Katie does a monthly series called “The Roundup” in which she highlights the previous month by answering some questions and then captures it in a scrapbook page. I’ve always admired these roundups and thought it was a great way to get a snapshot of the month. But, I’ve never done them.

So, with my Project Life project in it’s third year and that process well established (loving my new Saturday afternoon scrapbooking habit) I decided to add a monthly roundup to my process.  This will be a digital page that I’ll print (maybe even printing all 12 at the end of the year as a single book?) and include along with the Project Life album.

So, let’s get started…

my January Roundup

Books I read:

Movies, TV Shows, etc. I watched:

Fun things we did together:

  • Hiking and walking (until everyone got sick!)
  • Family movie nights

Gifts I gave/received:

  • Finally gave Jane her Christmas gift!

Accomplishments this month:

  • Walking (again)
  • Making better choices with eating
  • Started another knitting project
  • Attended Cup of Joy retreat
  • Project Life is current (and I’m loving it!)
  • Big Girl finished her speech (early!)
  • Little Bit was selected for a Principal Pal award at school.

Disappointments this month:

  • The kids both got sick.
  • It rained. (a lot!)

How did I do on my goals this month?

  • I didn’t get to walk every day like I had planned. Sad smile
  • I did get back on track with my eating (no more cookies before bed!)

And here’s the scrapbook page:

January Roundup

You can see Katie’s round up over on her blog.