A Book for Parker

I was on Walmart's website recently and I came across a kit to make a cute little fabric book. So I bought one. :)
Parker does okay with his board books, but he still bends them occasionally or tries to pull them apart so I'm thinking he's not too old yet for fabric ones. And these kind are super easy to put together! It comes as a panel of fabric with the directions printed right on it. All I had to do was cut out the six 'page' pieces, pin them right-sides together along with a piece of batting (which was included), and sew around them. Then they are turned right-side-out, stacked in the right order, and I sew a seam down the middle to bind them all together. Done!

Although,... I made a few slight changes. The batting was really thin so I doubled it for the pages, to make them thick enough that they're not see-through. But that meant I didn't have enough batting for the cover, so I cut out some white fleece for lining and it worked just as well! And, finally, before I put the book together I topstiched around all the pages to hold their shape. That way if the book gets washed later it won't bunch up as bad. That's it! Easiest sewing project ever. :)

Chicken Enchiladas

I love enchiladas. But they have to be good enchiladas. I've tried a few recipes from random cookbooks/magazines but didn't love any of them enough to add them on our regular meal list. Finally I went to allrecipes.com and found this one. I don't know why I didn't check there sooner--I look up recipes on that site all the time! And I love that so many people rate and review what they make because it helps me narrow down the choices when I'm looking for a particular recipe. I usually only make ones that have a four or five star rating, and they've turned out great every time!

Anyway, these enchiladas looked really good from the picture AND they had a good rating, so I had to try them. It took a little more prep work than other ones I've tried, but SO worth it! I loved how they turned out and Kyle did, too, saying they were a lot better than the other kinds we've had. :) Even Parker was impressed--he ate half of one all by himself!

Angela's Awesome Enchiladas
from allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast meat - cut into chunks
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 1/4 cups sour cream
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1 tablespoon butter
1 small onion, chopped
1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chilies, drained
1 (1.25 ounce) package mild taco seasoning mix
1 bunch green onions, chopped, divided
1 cup water
1 teaspoon lime juice
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
5 (12 inch) flour tortillas
3 cups Cheddar cheese, shredded, divided
1 (10 ounce) can enchilada sauce
1 (6 ounce) can sliced black olives
Directions

Place the chicken in a large pot and add water to cover. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the chicken pieces are no longer pink, about 10 minutes. Shred chicken by placing two forks back to back and pulling meat apart. Set the shredded chicken aside. Meanwhile, combine the cream of chicken soup, sour cream, and chili powder in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, then turn off the heat and cover to keep warm.
Heat the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in the onion; cook and stir until the onion has softened and turned translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the shredded chicken, chopped green chilies, taco seasoning, half of the bunch of chopped green onion, and water. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in the lime juice, onion powder, and garlic powder; simmer for an additional 10 minutes.
Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Stir 1 cup of the soup mixture into the skillet with the chicken mixture. Spread the remaining soup mixture on the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish.
Fill each tortilla with chicken mixture. Sprinkle Cheddar cheese over the chicken filling before folding the tortillas, reserving half of the shredded cheese for topping the enchiladas. Fold tortillas over the filling and place seam-side down in the prepared pan.
Pour enchilada sauce evenly over the enchiladas. Cover with the remaining 1 1/2 cups of Cheddar cheese. Sprinkle the reserved chopped green onions and the sliced olives on top of the cheese. Bake in the preheated oven until filling is heated through and the cheese is melted and bubbling, about 25 minutes.

I liked that the chicken filling was re-cooked with seasoning so it had a lot of flavor. And I liked the sauce. It was a good mix of creamy and cheesy. MMmmmmmm.... :) The only changes I made were baking the chicken rather than boiling it (375 degrees for about 45 minutes) and I didn't use the yellow onion.

I used regular large tortillas for mine and I got nine good-sized enchiladas. I decided to freeze a couple to see how good they are thawed and warmed up. Still haven't tried the frozen ones yet, but if they taste good I'll be making some of these for freezer meals!
I tried to get a few pics, but I forgot to get one of the finished meal until after we had eaten! Here's what was left...

So for anyone looking for a good recipe, thought I'd share one of our new favorites!

Found It!

I'm SO thankful today...
About six years ago, Kyle gave me a jewelry set for Christmas. It had a set of diamond stud earrings, and a small matching pendant. I love it! But when we lived in our apartment in Pacifica a few years ago, I lost the pendant. I looked everywhere...until I finally gave up, thinking it had either been dropped or pushed behind our big wooden wardrobes or that it had gotten caught on a shoe and dragged outside or...who knows. It was gone. And I was SO disappointed, not to mention that I felt terrible about losing it! I had prayed that I would find it, but it never turned up. And it happened so long ago that I wasn't expecting to see it again.
Well, I was doing some cleaning today and I came across the little velvet case the jewelry set had come in. I keep the earrings in my jewelry box, so the case was empty. To be honest, I'm not even sure why I had held onto it. Before I threw it in the trash I opened it one last time to make sure there was nothing in it, and I took out the bottom piece of cardboard. Nothing. I pressed my finger along the inside of the hinge to close it, and I felt a little bump underneath. I tore back the ribbon, and there was my little pendant!! It had somehow gotten lodged in the back of the case and I was about to throw it away!
Praise the Lord! What a great reminder that God is good and that even our small prayer requests don't go unheard! :)

Cribs Are Not For Eating

But they probably taste good, right? I mean, they must because Parker has started gnawing on his lately. Or maybe he just feels that I'm not feeding him enough fiber...? :) Not sure why he chews on it, but I'm not liking the little teeth marks he leaves behind. His crib will later be converted into a full size bed, so I (and future-Parker) would prefer that the footboard not be chewed up. Thankfully most of these marks are on the sides and not the front footboard piece.

I went online and started looking up covers for crib rails and I found several, the cheapest of which was $33. It was a soft, brown minky fabric and tied around the top rails. Looked pretty simple, and I was hoping making one would cost less than buying one so I decided to try!

First I had to measure the crib--the inside of the rails on the front and side. Once I figured out the lengths I needed, I packed up Parker and my Joann's flyer and headed out to find fabric. I liked the look of the brown minky one, so I bought that for the outside layer, I got a bag of quilt batting for the inside and plain brown flannel for the bottom. When I took it up to pay, guess what the total was? $33. Doh...and that was after a coupon and sale discounts. Well, on the bright side, I could make and use it right away instead of ordering it and having to wait a week or two to have it delivered. And hey, it's fun to say you tried making something new, right?? :)

I tossed the fabric in the laundry as soon as I got home. I don't use any new fabric until it's been washed and dried to get any shrinkage out.

It was dry and ready to use after dinner, so I pulled out my mat and rotary cutter and got to work. I had written out measurements for all the pieces I needed from each fabric and once I had them cut, I put it aside for the night.

The next morning I started by sewing the ties and got them all turned right-side-out. Parker helped by carrying them around the room while I worked. I decided to wait and do the rest of the sewing after dinner...Parker would be asleep and Kyle would be out at a meeting.
I started with the long front cover first, as that's the rail I'm most concerned with protecting. I laid out the layers of batting, flannel and minky, then started pinning the ties in place. Halfway done, I was a little disappointed, although not surprised, to see that my non-mathematical mind had written down the wrong number of ties needed. *Sigh.* I knew I needed six ties on the front, but I didn't take into account that that meant six on the front and six on the back--so they could actually TIE. :) I had plenty of ties for the front cover, but would need to make more before I could make the side covers.

Anyway, back to my sewing... Here's the long piece pinned and ready to sew.

Yes, I may have gone a little overboard with pins but I noticed that when I sewed the ties it tends to shift or move a little bit so I just pinned these pieces--a lot! I sewed around it, leaving a small hole on one end. After I clipped the corners off,

I turned it right-side-out and stiched the open end closed.

Done!

I had to wait until the following morning to put it on, because Parker was already in bed for the night. But I was happy to see that it fit perfectly! Looks just like the one I saw online. Wish I could say it was a whole lot cheaper, but.... :)

I'm planning to make the side pieces in the next few days as well. Hopefully these will protect the rails from Parker's little teeth when he gets those midnight cravings!

First Haircut

We're realizing that Parker is looking (and becoming) more and more like a little boy and less like the sweet little baby he was last year. And I think his new haircut is contributing to that. We LOVED his blonde baby curls, but they were getting a little long and wispy. Cute, yes, but a little long. Poor kid--he (or I) was constantly trying to brush strands of hair out of his eyes.

We had wanted to cut it sooner but every weekend we tried, something would come up and thwart our plans! So after having to put it off for a couple months, we finally made it out last weekend to get Parker's first haircut! I didn't want to do it myself for fear that he would squirm around and I'd do a bad job or, worse, that I'd hurt him. So I found a local salon that cut kids' hair and made an appointment. It was a pretty cute place! Parker was buckled into a little john deere tractor and he quietly sat and watched tv while the hairdresser cut. From the time we walked in until we left was only about 10 minutes!

Here are a couple pictures I had taken of him that morning...

....watching Dora on tv while getting a trim.




And here are a couple pictures after... much better!

It's amazing how different he looks after just one haircut! We were a little sad to see the curls go, but it was definitely time! And they're not actually gone--turns out that if it's the child's first haircut, the hairdresser gives you a tiny bag with locks of your baby's hair and a certificate showing the date of their first cut! So I can now put a few of those sweet little curls into his baby book. :)

Tote Bag

When Kyle bought my new sewing machine it came with a membership to the sewing/quilting store, including free monthly classes as well as discounts on fabric and supplies! Awesome! A friend from church had recently bought the same machine as mine, so we decided to take the February sewing class together. I couldn't wait to make something, so I decided we should do it on the earliest date available--February 2nd. :) The project this month is a tote bag. I looked at the pattern picture and the sample bag they had in the store and I wasn't totally sure I would love it, but I took the class anyway. I usually have a hard time picking out fabric. I'm way too indecisive and never know if I'm going to like the fabric once I sew it into something! But I found this red, white and black print at Joann's and thought it would be a good choice. Then I got a piece of marbled red to match, as well as some black.
The class was fun! It was pretty casual--just an open sewing time where the instructor would walk around and answer any questions or provide help when needed. The pattern was fairly easy to follow but, after the three hours were up, most of us still weren't finished. I packed up the pieces and worked at it a little bit here and there on Friday until I finally finished it! It was supposed to have a black pocket on the front and back but I changed my mind--didn't like how it looked with the red. I put one black pocket inside instead. And rather than have a flap/snap closure, I made ties. I may look for a couple big black wooden beads to tie on the ends later. Overall, I like how it turned out! It's cuter than I thought it would be. :)

My other recent sewing project was another pair of slippers for Parker. The blue flannel ones fit him really well but when I made them I wasn't thinking about our floors. We have tile. And I have since realized that flannel-covered, fast-moving little feet and smooth tile floors do not go well together! I don't like having to put his outside shoes on him when he's running around the tile part of the house, so I decided to make another pair of slippers, this time with non-skid soles. I found jiffy grip at Joanns and I had some knit fabric and fleece at home. The knit was actually a onsie! The last day he wore it was when he had a seizure. At some point it was cut off him by the paramedics because when we gathered up his clothes later that night, I picked up the onsie and this is what was left of it...

And it was only worn a couple times. Well, I loved the turtles so I threw it in my fabric pile and thought maybe I could use it for something later. Good thing I kept it! :)
I used the same pattern for these as I did for the blue pair. The only change was the non-skid bottom

Now Parker can run all he wants--even on the tile!

Favorite Things

I think I have a new addiction--it's called Pinterest! I kept hearing people talking about ideas, recipes, patterns, etc. that they found on Pinterest, so I finally decided I had to check it out. I signed up and after only a few short weeks, I'm hooked! I already have some ideas pinned that I can't wait to try. And because I see what my friends have pinned every time I log in, there's always a new page of creative ideas to look at! So fun!!
Anyway, I was looking up a few recipes on Pinterest one day and I came across one for cilantro-lime rice, like the kind Chipotle restaurants serve in their burritos. I had to try it! Chipotle is one of our favorite places at the moment, so if this was anything like their version, I'd love to make it at home. The recipe came from a blog: http://www.skinnytaste.com/2009/03/chipotle-cilantro-lime-rice-4-pts.html

It's really easy to make and it turned out better than I thought! It had a nice light flavor and was even a little sticky, just like the real thing. :)

I couldn't remember what all they put in the burritos, so I bought a bottle of marinade and used that to cook some chopped chicken.

I got the biggest tortillas I could find and filled them with the cilantro-lime rice, chicken, pinto beans and cheese.

We had salsa on the side, but I think they needed a little salsa or something (?) inside, as they were a tad dry. Good flavor, though. I think the rice would be good enough on it's own, too, as a side dish.