Sunday, November 13, 2011

Recipes

Are you on Pinterest? If not, you should be. If you need an invite to be on, let me know and I'll e-mail you one. There is so much fun stuff to look at, but my latest obsession is recipes. I guess it's not my latest, I've always been obsessed with recipes. I think I'm the only person in the world who, in 3 years of marriage, hardly ever repeats a recipe. When I meal plan, I like to just browse through different cookbooks or apps on my phone, find recipes that looks yummy, buy the ingredients and cook them. Sometimes they're great, sometimes they're not so great. Jonathan would probably actually prefer that I just stick to what I know, but what's the fun in that? If I did that, I wouldn't have come across all these delicious looking recipes on Pinterest, 2 of which we have absolutely loved! I thought I'd share them with you. Here you go:

This first one looks long an complicated buy it's really not at all. It's just a lot of ingredients. But these taste just like the ones at Chili's! They're so yummy!

Southwest Egg Rolls
*Makes about 2-3 dozen

INGREDIENTS:
Rolls:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium yellow or red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
3 (about 1 1/2 pounds) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed
1 green or red pepper, diced small
1 jalapeno pepper, membranes removed, seeded and finely minced or 4 pickled jalapeno rounds from the jar
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
10 ounces frozen, chopped spinach, defrosted and liquid squeezed out (wringing through a kitchen towel works great)
1 cup frozen corn
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 cup freshly chopped cilantro
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2-3 cups shredded cheese, such as Monterey Jack, Pepper Jack or Cheddar
2-3 dozen small, fajita-size flour tortillas

Chipotle Dipping Sauce:
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup salsa
1 teaspoon minced chipotle chiles in adobo sauce (if you are opening a new can to only use 1 teaspoon, freeze the remainder in a freezer-safe ziploc bag and pull out and thaw as needed)

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line two rimmed baking sheets with foil and lightly grease with cooking spray. Set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the dipping sauce ingredients. Mix well and set aside or refrigerate until ready to serve.

In a large 12-inch nonstick skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and saute for 3-4 minutes until softened. Add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add the cubed chicken breasts and peppers and cook over medium or medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes. Add the rinsed and drained black beans, spinach, corn, cilantro and seasonings. Mix well and cook until the mixture is heated through. Add the cheese and stir well, cooking, until the mixture is hot and cheese is mostly melted.

Warm the tortillas. I place 5-6 between two damp paper towels and microwave for about 45 seconds. Place some of the filling on each tortilla and roll up tightly, egg-roll style, folding in the edges. Place seam side down on the prepared baking sheets (secure with a toothpick if needed).

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, until the rolls are lightly browned and heated through. Serve immediately with dipping sauce.


Here's the second one:

I'm not sure if there is a breakfast that is worse for you, but this is SO delicious! I'm thinking we'll definitely have to have this at my parents house over Christmas!

Cinnamon Roll French Toast Bake
Ingredients
1/4 cup melted butter
2 cans (12.4 oz each) Pillsbury® refrigerated cinnamon rolls with icing
5 eggs
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans
3/4 cup maple syrup

Garnish
Icing from cinnamon rolls
Powdered sugar
Maple syrup, if desired

Directions
Melt butter and pour on ungreased 13×9 inch glass dish. Separate cans of dough into 16 rolls reserving the icing for later use. Cut each roll into 8 pieces and add to buttered baking dish.
Beat eggs in medium bowl. Add cream, cinnamon and vanilla and beat until well blended. Pour over cut pieces of cinnamon roll pieces.


Sprinkle with pecans and drizzle 3/4 cup syrup over the top. Bake at 375 for 20 to 28 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 15 minutes.
Remove the covers from icing and microwave on medium or 50% power for 10 to 15 seconds. (Should be thin enough to drizzle.) Drizzle icing over the top. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serve with syrup if desired. Yum!

Now go try them! And if you haven't joined Pinterest, I highly recommend it.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Houdini

A couple months ago Amelia started taking off her pajamas at nap time and bedtime. She wouldn't really do anything except once or twice she peed the bed, but mostly she would just yell for us until we went in to find her stark naked. One night she didn't yell for me, but I just happened to go into her room about an hour after she fell asleep and she was wrapped up in her blankets so cozy, naked. Well, I was telling Melody about it, and being the sewing genius that she is, she whipped up 2 footed sleepers that zip up the back by the next day. Problem solved, right?



WRONG. That worked wonderfully for a couple weeks, and then the other night she was yelling for us from her bed and when Jonathan went to check on her she was naked! She had gotten completely out of a sleeper that zips up the back! What the heck? Who is this child??

Here is a close up of the neck:


Here's a close up of the back, which apparently had enough of a gap that she was able to squiggle her tiny shoulders out of, slip off over her body and escape!


Now each one has an added button on the top that will HOPEFULLY solve the problem.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Clothes galore

We have SO many baby girl clothes it stresses me out. That's a lot. The other day I got out the two huge boxes we have of winter clothes that are a combination of Kalena's, Amelia's, Caroline's, and clothes that Kirsta got from friends that were done having kids. As I'm sorting them into different totes that I think (hope) will be an effective way of organization so we get the best use of all of it, I'm wondering why we would possibly need 15 different pairs of (essentially the same) pink pants. I tried to take a picture so you could get a feel for how many clothes are actually here, but there's just really no way to do it justice. Here's a look anyway:

That's footed outfits on the bed, "pre-made" outfits in one tote, long sleeved shirts in one tote, and just pants in the other tote. That doesn't include any dresses or sweaters, which are hung up.


And here's a close up of that adorable sleeping baby in the midst of it all:


I think there's only one solution for all this: See how many days we can go without repeating an outfit or doing her laundry. That should be a fun game.

I can only keep my fingers tightly crossed that Elsha finds out she's having a girl in March, so that I can give it all away!

Camouflage

Where did Addilyn's legs go!? :)



These are the things that amuse me when I'm sleep deprived.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Pajamas

The other day I was in Old Navy and up by their registers they had some Halloween costumes on 50% off clearance. I didn't think this would make a great costume, but I knew it would make GREAT pajamas, and that Jonathan would love it!

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Mom

Why is it that you can eat 1000 different lasagnas (or enchiladas, or brownies, or...) in your life but your mom's is always the best?

As you all know, my mom was here last week to spend a whole week with me! I guess I need to start having more babies so she'll have a reason to take a week off work to sit around my house with me. It was so relaxing with her here. She made everything seem so easy with a new baby, even if it meant holding her while she cried so I could finish reading a book with Amelia. She also had great parenting tips for us with Amelia. How come we've been struggling with potty training for weeks but as soon as Grandma is here she goes accident free for 3 days in a row? Hmm. There's only one conclusion.. My mom needs to come live with us. :) I sure had a great time with her and hope I can be as great a mom as she is!


Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Happy Halloween

Our Halloween this year was pretty uneventful, mostly because we didn't know when this baby would come, so we didn't know how much we'd feel up to doing. Friday night while Mom and Dad were in town we invited Melody and Tom over for pizza and pumpkin carving. Here are some highlights from that night:

She was pretty grossed out by it all


Me cleaning it out


Jonathan carving it


It's Elmo!!



Last night Jonathan took Amelia trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. She made it to 4 houses and then said she was done, so we went over to a friend's Halloween party for a while and then came home.

Ready to go!


Cutest darn elephant in the world!


I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween!