Chicken Taco Pasta

We love this recipe!  But it's says taco, so of course we do.  :o)  It has a lot of ingredients, but it's so tasty and very easy to put together.  I got this recipe from my good friend, Krishel.

Ingredients:
3 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed
1 can of black beans rinsed and drained
1 can corn drained
1 can diced chilie's
1 packet taco seasoning
1/2 c. salsa
4 oz. cream cheese
1 packet of hidden valley ranch dressing mix
1 can olives, sliced
6 oz. of cooked penne pasta
shredded cheddar cheese for topping

Cook pasta til done.  While pasta is cooking simmer everything else in a large pan until well combined.  Add pasta when it's done and bake in a 13x9 casserole dish at 350 for 15-20 minutes.  Add the cheese when it's done or if you like it melted put it on a few minutes before it is done in the oven.  Scrumdiddly!

Our First Monday Match-Up :o)

Every Monday Monica and I are gonna do a Monday Match-Up. What is a Monday Match-Up, you ask?! Well...let me explain. For example last week we decided that I got to choose what we did for our first one and I chose a salad. I made a favorite salad in my family, and I'm thinking Moni made one too. :o) I could have chosen a recipe and we both had to do that recipe and see how it turned out, but I thought a fresh summer salad would be a fun first one. I'm excited to compare with hers to see the difference in our dishes, or craft...or whatever we choose to do. Now...this could be somewhat entertaining too. If you look ahead a couple months and compare my Smore cupcakes to Monica's Smore cupcake it is QUITE hilarious! Or at least I thought so.

We are hoping eventually that some of you will want to join in on our Monday Match-Up, and post it to your blog or email us a picture and what you thought about it. Wouldn't that be fun? I think so!

So let's get started with this weeks, *In an announcers voice* Moooooooondaaaaaaaaaay MATCH-UP! (Are you sick of that phrase yet?)

Like I said earlier, I chose to do a salad. My family favorite salad has to be Momma Deb's Taco Salad. Now, I've had taco salads before, but I never had THEE best taco salad until I met my husband. I went to his Mom's for dinner and watched as they made these babies.  It was love at first sight.

 Isn't is gorgeous?!

Here's the ingredients:
Bag of Nacho Cheese Doritoes
1 lb ground beef
Taco Seasoning
Shredded Cheddar cheese
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Olives
Green Onions
Avacados
Jalepenos (if you want some heat)
Garbanzo Beans, or Kidney beans...or any bean you like on a salad
Hidden Valley Ranch packet, the kind you make with 1 cup of mayo and 1 cup of milk (you gotta have this!)

Start by making your ranch. It's gotta get nice and cold to set up nicely. Cook the ground beef until brown. Add taco seasoning according to packet instructions. Cut up all your veggies.

Put a handful of Doritoes on a plate and smash them with your fist or the bottom of a cup. Top with meat, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, olives, green onions, avacados, beans, ranch, and then I sprinkle some more doritoes on top. Then...enjoy. It's heavenly. Jason would have this for dinner every night if I'd let him.

Monica's Take
I have had Deb's Taco Salad and it is deelish! Nice one Erica.
So here's my fave...Spinach Salad....Mmmmmmmm.

My favorite salad of all time has to be this version of Spinach Salad. It has so many flavors that compliment each other and make my taste buds sing. I got this recipe from my mother-in-law (you will find that most of my faves come from her). This recipe was passed on to us from a Relief Society activity. Marilyn said the dressing is actually not the original. Somehow the dressing recipe was misplaced and was improvised using the one we have now. It is delicious. If you're looking for a great salad, give this one a spin (ha ha, no pun intended!). You'll love it.

Spinach Salad

Bag of Fresh Spinach

Dried Cranberries

Bacon- Fried and Crumbled

Slivered Almonds

Feta Cheese, Crumbled

Dressing

1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil

1/4 Cup Rice Vinegar

1/4 Cup Soy Sauce

1 Tbls. Sugar

Dash of Pepper

Fresh Minced Garlic

Mix Dressing and toss with Spinach. Plate on individual plates and top with Bacon, Feta, Almonds, and Cranberries.

The recipe is originally written with 3/4 Cup of Oil, but we have found that to be too much. Also add as much garlic as you want. I like to add about a teaspoon. Enjoy!

Friday Favorites

Every Friday Erica or I will be featuring some of our favorites. It can be a whole blog, a specific post, a website, or whatever. Through out the week I've surfed some blogs looking for something that caught my eye. I went through some oldies but goodies and through five or six new blogs I've never visited before. I linked to Craftiness is Not Optional by I don't remember who and I read and read and loved so many things. Since I started digi scrapping and working full time, I kinda got away from sewing. Hopefully this year I can do more. I've missed it. Here are some of the things that made me happy browsing her blog. Check it out, and take a look yourself!

This dress makes me so happy. It's darling.

Such a cute skirt. Makes me want to get sewing.

She has a ton of tutorials on her blog. One being these seat belt covers. One way to dress up those car seats.

The felt food is to die for. So unbelievably cute.

She has a tutorial for the broccoli. :)

Thanks for the inspiration Jess!
Have a great weekend all!

Monica :)

Honey Wheat Bread

I had a really hard time trying to decide what to do today for the blog.  I must admit I was sort of dreading it and not wanting to do a thing!  My mom called me and I told her that I didn't know what to make for the day, and she told me that I should do my Honey Wheat Bread.  So that is exactly what I made.  It's such an easy recipe, and the results are fantastic and delicious!  Thanks, Mom!

 I think I get my bread making skills from my Grandma Joyce.  I can remember from a very small age her making a whole bunch of bread at least once a week and it lasting all week.  It was Grandpa's favorite dessert, Grandma's homemade wheat bread with some homemade raspberry jam.  Grandma gave me the job of keeping an eye on the dough while it was rising.  When the lid popped off of the HUGE green tupperware bowl, I had to let her know.  She'd punch it down and then pinch of a tiny bit for me to roll out and do what I wanted with it.  She'd give me sprinkles, sugar, and cinnamon.  I can still remember the taste of that bread with the sprinkles...it wasn't that great.  So I have good memories to go along with bread making.  I do have her recipe and I have yet to try it.  It kind of looks difficult.  I will be sure to post it here when I brave it out and make it.  It might be an adventure.

Sorry for blabbering. 
:o)

Here's the recipe:

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast, or one packet

1 tsp. white sugar

1/2 c. warm water

12 oz. can evaporated milk

1/4 c. water

1/4 c. melted butter

1/4 c. honey

2 tsp salt

2 c. whole wheat flour

3 c. bread flour

1/4 c. melted butter for buttering bowl, pans, and bread

Dissolve yeast and sugar in 1/2 c. warm water.

Combine milk, 1/4 c. water, butter, honey, salt, and wheat flour in mixer and mix until well combined.  Add yeast mix making sure it's growing before throwing it in. Mix. 

 By growing...I mean like this.


Let rest for 15 minutes.

Add bread flour and mix until dough forms a ball.

M

Mine really wasn't a ball, but it was all sticking together nicely.
 

Knead dough with dough hook for 80 seconds or 10 minutes by hand. 

I

I'll choose the hook every time!

Place dough in buttered bowl and turn to coat.  Cover bowl and let rise 45 minutes of until doubled in size.

Punch down and divide the dough in half, punch out bubbles, if any. 

Put in buttered 9x5 bread pans.  Cover and let rise until doubled.

Place a small dish of water on bottom shelf in oven.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Bake for 25-35 minutes until dark golden brown.  Butter crusts while still warm.  ENJOY! 

Chocolate Pretzel Caramel Treats

As my daughter was saying her nightly prayer she happend to ask to please not let her be bored the next day.  I thought to myself, "Is it THAT boring around here?"  Must be.  So, I thought I better let her do something not so boring today.  I found these on a BLOG I came across and they looked easy enough and I love chocolate, caramel, and pretzels.  Put them all together...EVEN BETTER!  Her friend came over and helped her make them, and I think they enjoyed it and enjoyed eating them afterwards.

 You need:

Small pretzels

Rolos

Bag of Pretzel M&M's

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Layout pretzels on a cookie sheet then set a Rolo in the center of each pretzel.  Bake for 4-5 minutes until nice and soft but not completely melted.  Remove from oven and press a M&M in the center of each Rolo.  Eat away!

So easy and a fun way to get your kids involved in the kitchen. 

Framed Mirror

I know you've seen this all over the internet. It's not a new idea and seldom do I have my own ideas. I'm a very great copier. I will always give credit where credit is due. So to be completely truthful, this wasn't my idea at all. It was my husband's. We just moved into a little home we bought. This home has a giant mirror in the living room area. It's about 4 feet in height and 8 feet in length. Big. I didn't love the mirror and it was taking precious wall space to hang up other treasures. A few months ago I was at IKEA and saw some shelves. (sorry, couldn't find a photo of them on IKEA's website). I loved them and wanted them for this wall after the mirror came down.

We tried to take the mirror down and it was glued stuck. Aaron said, "if we break the mirror and pull it down we will really damage the wall or we can just frame it." I didn't want all that bad luck with breaking the mirror so we decided to frame it. Aaron got right to work.

Sorry, I don't have a before picture. Here it is before paint.

My ledge. :)

Aaron doing what he does best. :)

The finished mirror!

My ledge. I LOVE it. It's so cute.

I wasn't totally convinced until I actually saw it finished. It's beautiful. Aaron added a ledge on the bottom of the mirror that resembles the one I saw at IKEA. I'm using it as my photo gallery. Aaron is an artist, so my house is covered with his paintings and other artists' paintings. I wanted my own little spot for my photograpy or pictures I love. It really adds to our house and is no longer an eye sore for me.

Thanks to this cute guy for all he does to make me happy. He's the best!

Hope your Tuesday was great!

Digi Day :)

When people find out I digital scrapbook, I usually get asked where I get all my digital supplies. It's really kind of confusing until you actually get to play with the whole process. Each item on my layout is usually separate and already somewhat created by a designer. So you can purchase a pack of "paper" or a pack of "ribbon" then layer them in an editing program to get a page.

Credit for this layout found HERE.

So in this layout, the flower is an element, the heart, the button, the stitches are all different elements. I just use each file to make one big file by layering them. Okay, so back to the original question, where do I get my supplies? Well ladies, let me enable you. :) Just like there are scrapbook or craft stores you physically go to, there are digital stores on the internet you go to. Instead of a product mailed to you, after purchase you download the file and it's yours. The cool thing about digi vs. traditional scrapbooking is the fact that once purchased, I can use those elements over and over again. They are not expendable. It's nice.

Okay, I have three favorite places to go for supplies although there are many more out there. Also, I do like individual designers work, but I'll highlight those another time.

1. Sweet Shoppe Designs- You can find a lot of kits at this store (meaning all your paper, stamps, elements are correlating to a theme and wrapped together as one purchase.) and there is quite the variety. Here are a couple of kits that caught my eye.

So these are full kits. They have paper, frames, elements, an alpha, flowers, ribbon, stamps, etc.

2. Designer Digitals- This place has a lot of product. They have kits but they also sale a lot of individual elements.

3. JessicaSprague.com- You know I love this place. The website started out just offering classes but have really bloomed the last year in offering products from really great designers.

I used these two kits by The Queen of Quirk to make the following layout. Cute stuff.

Alrighty, so now you know where I get my stuff. I will warn you, just like traditional scrapbooking, it's easy to start collecting and forget what you have. I won't name and names. (Rachael) Organizing is a whole other day. Hope your week is wonderful!

Monica

Find Credits Here.

Extra Info: Check out my latest wedding cake Here.