Stuff your crust

 

Some people like crust and some people don't. I like crust some of the time. I like stuffed crust all of the time.

To make your own stuffed crust all you have to do is put string cheese along the edges of your crust and roll the crust over the cheese. Super easy and super yummy.

Don't tear the string cheese in half cause it isn't enough cheese to make it super yummy afer it melts when baking.

 

 

 

The Best Ever Enchiladas

A while back my sister-in-law sent an e-mail to the family containing the most fabulous recipe. She found it at this blog called Sweet Eats. It is seriously soooooooo delicious and relatively healthy. And for an added bonus it freezes extremely well.

 

Thai Chicken Enchiladas

 

8 flour tortillas

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded

1 tablespoons canola oil

1/2 sweet onion, chopped

1/3 cup chopped/shredded carrots

1/2 cup chopped/shredded cabbage

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

4 green onions, sliced

1/3 cup chopped + crushed peanuts + more for garnish

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro + more for garnish

2 1/2 cups light coconut milk

1/3 cup + 1/2 cup sweet chili sauce

 

 

Heat over medium heat in a large skillet onions, cabbage, carrots, garlic and 1/4 tsp salt. Stir.

 

Add chicken, green onion, peanuts, cilantro remaining salt and pepper. Stir it all together and let it cook for 2 minutes.

 

Add 3/4 C of the coconut milk and 1/3 C of the sweet chili sauce. Stir it all together so that it's evenly distributed and everything is nicely coated with the sauce. If you want it to be on the spicy side, use more sweet chili sauce.

 

Stir together the remaining coconut milk and sweet chili sauce. Pour 1/2 C into the bottom of your 9x13 baking dish. Reserve the rest to go on top of the enchiladas.

 

Fill tortillas with the chicken, veggie mixture and place in dish.

 

 

Pour the rest of the coconut mixture on top of the tortillas. I always makes sure that everything has sauce on it, otherwise the tortillas get crispy quickly.

 

Bake for 20 minutes @ 375* F or put into freezer bags and freeze for dinner later - I usually cook it for 1 hour straight from the freezer and it turns out great. Note: I do not freeze the sauce for topping and I don't freeze it in the tortillas; that would make it mushy,

 

 

 

Yes, I put children's books in between my freezer bags to make them freeze nicely :)

 

 

Remove and garnish with cilantro and peanuts as desired.

 

 

This stuff is seriously sooooo yummy! My 3 year old, 1 & 1/2 year old and my husband all really like this meal.

 

 

 

 

 

Keeping Tights Tight

I love organization. I hate when things don't have a place. I also dislike when things are in their place jumbled with everything else that belongs there (Read: Sock drawer). I keep my tights with my socks. I keep my little girls' socks with her tights. They always seem to come unrolled. I hate it. One day a while back I found my solution. Basically, you tie the tights to themselves. Sounds complicated but it's not.

 

First, you fold the tights in half so that the legs lay on top of each other.
 

 

Second, you roll up the tights, starting from the waistband, leaving a bit of the toe portion unrolled.

 

 

Third, you take the inside leg and pull it out from inside the roll making sure to leave the outside leg rolled. Then wrap the inside leg back around in the other direction.

 

 

 

Fourth, you tie the two toes together in a simple knot.

 

 

 

 

 

Lastly, you're so happy because your tights stay organized, presentable and pretty.

Quiet book

I've been working on making a quiet book for my kids for a while now. I first thought about it when I was pregnant with Zac but didn't do it then. I had a quiet book growing up - my mama  mad DIY sewing skills. Two of my old made quiet books for their kids and I was reminded of quiet books' awesomeness.

So, I  started making a quiet book in September. I bought the materials - felt and interfacing. Then morning sickness hit. I worked on the book maybe two or three times during October and November. Toward the end of November I had to reconvene and refocus. I had already made my templates and cut out a fair portion of the felt. So, I've been working on them a lot. It feels like non-stop but really I only get about 30 minutes everyday to work on it -  though really, that is a decent amount.

Someday soon (cross  your fingers and hope) I'll post pictures of the whole book and the templates.

Remember the Fudge

Remember that one time I said that I pour my fudge into a pan lined with tin foil? Remember how I said it makes it sooo much easier to take out of the pan?

 

I found something even better.

 

Parchment paper. Do it every time now. It is more expensive than tin foil but you can re-use it :) and it doesn't leave little squiggly lines on the bottom and outside edges.

Parchment paper + fudge =

 Awesome, smooth, pretty and delicious.

Ham

 

Whenever I go to Costco I buy ham. I buy two packages and separate it into 4 baggies. We go through ham pretty quickly cause Zac likes his "ham-burgers" but freezing them ensures that we don't have anything go bad. I used to just freeze the pieces how they came packaged, flat on top of each other. This meant some more intense thawing time or the microwave if I didn't notice we needed a new bag out.

 

 

So, once, I tried rolling the individual pieces.

 

 

I'm never going back. 

 

Even when the ham is frozen it's easy to pull out one rolled piece.

This rocks. It does take a tad bit more time in the initial phase but is so worth it.  

 

 

 

Bread

 

 

So, I make a lot of the bread that we consume. Whole wheat bread, rolls, bread sticks, pizza dough, bread stuff. I love having homemade bread things for dinner but baking them while cooking dinner is so stressful. So, I'm sharing an AWEsome trick I learned when I was younger. You can make your bread in the morning, or the day before, form it into loaves or rolls, whatever, and then stick them on the pan, covered with saran wrap, in the fridge. This prevents them from rising. This means I don't have to worry about timing the rising of the bread just right with when dinner will be ready. BEST thing ever! It makes for super yummy, homemade meals and less stress :)

 

One time I tried a whole wheat roll recipe. It was good but I still like white rolls better.

 

 

I used Active dry instead of Instant yeast. So, this is the initial rise.

 

 

Punched down! I LOVE doing this part!

 

 

I grease my pans with butter stick wrappers. I like it better that way.

 

 

I stuck the rolls in the fridge and took them out several hours later and this is what they looked like.

 

 

 This is after they warmed up and rose.

 

 

I used half of the dough to make a spaghetti braid for dinner. Though I didn't adore the whole wheat rolls. This was awesome with whole wheat.