Enchilada Casserole

I run into some amazing recipes on Pinterest! When I found this one, I knew it was no different! I was also happy that the recipe came from TheNest.com. That website holds a special place in my heart because I met some of my best friends there! 

Sounds like fate to me! This made a HUGE meatless casserole and it was delicious. Just keep in mind that your avocado will start to turn brown after it is cut up and on the casserole for a while. So, I would have topped each plate individually. 

Serves: 6

Directions:

4 whole wheat flour tortillas (9 inch diameter), quartered

1 (19 ounce) can of sweet potatoes, drained
1 (19 ounce) can of black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup chunky mild salsa
2 teaspoons chili powder

1 (14 ounce) can of tomato sauce
1/2 cup chunky mild salsa
1 cup grated light sharp Cheddar cheese

1 ripe large avocado, diced
1/4 cup finely chopped green onion

1/2 cup light sour cream

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450°F. Arrange half of tortilla pieces in bottom of greased 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
Mash sweet potatoes in medium bowl. Add next 3 ingredients. Stir. Spread evenly over tortillas in baking dish. Arrange remaining tortilla pieces over top.
Combine tomato sauce and second amount of salsa in small bowl. Pour evenly over tortillas. Bake, uncovered, in oven for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake for another 5 minutes until heated through and cheese is golden.
Sprinkle avocado and green onion over top.
Serve with sour cream.
1 serving: 465 Calories; 11.4 g Total Fat (3.4 g Mono, 1.3 g Poly, 4.1 g Sat); 17 mg Cholesterol; 81 g Carbohydrate; 14 g Fibre; 21 g Protein; 1294 mg Sodium

I Love You More Than Bacon burlap sign.

A long time ago I saw a sign that said "I love you more than bacon." I automatically fell in love and filed it away in my mind as a future project.

Of course, I then forgot all about it. Until I was at the craft show and I saw the sign again. So, I decided to make my own!

I found a cute burlap canvas at Hobby Lobby for $4.99.

I cut out the letters on some red vinyl with my Cricut using the Plantation cartridge on size 1.5 inches. 

After I added the letters, the sign just felt incomplete. Until I made and added a piece of bacon to the sign. Now, it's complete!

I found a template here: http://blog.seremeres.com/?p=149 (perfect!)

Then, I cut it out and traced it onto some red and white vinyl. I'm in love with the final product.

Now at least once a day I hear Felicia say "I love you more than baaaacon!"

I can't wait to find it a new spot in my kitchen!

Pumpkin Cheesecake Snickerdoodle Cookies

 

I stumbled on this recipe on Pinterest one evening and I knew I would have to try it out sooner rather than later. 

Some of my favorite things include pumpkin and cheesecake. This was bound to be a winner...so I hopped right over to Therecipecritic.com and I got straight to work... at like 9:00 pm. I'm out of control.

Anyway. This recipe was amazing, and I suggest that you try it out asap. 

Ingredients

• 3¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 1½ tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp. freshly-ground ground nutmeg
• 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup light brown sugar
• ¾ cup pumpkin puree
• 1 large egg
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• Filling Ingredients:
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• ¼ cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• Cinnamon-sugar coating:
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp. ground ginger
• Dash of allspice

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg together. Set aside.
2. In a kitchenaid mixer with a paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugars on medium high speed until fluffy about 2-3 minutes.
3. Blend in pumpkin puree, beat in egg and then add vanilla. Slowly add dry ingredients on low speed just until combined. Cover and chill dough for an hour.
4. To make the cream cheese filling, blend cream cheese, sugar and vanilla together. Chill for an hour.
5. Preheat oven to 350 and line your baking sheets with parchment paper. In a small bowl, combine the sugar and spices for the coating and set aside.
6. To make the cookies, take a tablespoon of the cookie batter. Flatten it like a pancake and place a teaspoon of the cream cheese in center. Form another tablespoon of the cookie batter into a flat pancake shape and place on top of the cream cheese. Pinch the edges together sealing in the cream cheese and roll into a ball. Roll in the cinnamon sugar coating and place on the prepared baking sheet 2 inches apart.
7. Repeat until the dough is gone and flatten the cookie dough balls with a heavy bottomed glass or measuring cup.
8. Bake the cookies for 10-15 minutes or until the tops start to crack. Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and transfer to a wire rack. Enjoy!

Here is the original recipe link for the pretty printable recipe! http://therecipecritic.com/2013/09/pumpkin-cheesecake-snickerdoodles/

Enjoy!

Home Management Binder with FREE Printables!

Happy Sunday!

As you know, I am getting ready to start school later this month! This
means, for the next FEW YEARS (OMG) I am going to be busier than I
have been. You know, with: 2 kids, a husband, a house, a full time
job, an Avon business, and a blog… why not throw school into the
equation?  It will all in worth it in the end of course.

However, this did make me fully aware that I need to get some things
organized around here. You know, nothing big, just my entire life.

I’ve seen a lot of Home Management Binders floating around on
Pinterest and I knew that was just what I needed. When looking through
my thousands of pins, I found great ideas, but unfortunately I
couldn’t find everything I needed. So I made my own printable sheets.

And since I am such a loving caring person I thought I would go ahead
and share them with you! I have listed them out here and grouped
together the way I have them organized in my binder. Feel free to
print these off and use them as needed. Just don’t sell them!

I got the Chevron backgrounds from the lovely ladies over at: TwoMagicalMoms.blogspot.com

Check that blog out when you get a chance. It’s nothing short of
fantastic. I promise.

Here is the post I found them on:

http://twomagicalmoms.blogspot.com/2013/03/free-chevron-digital-papers.html

Just save these printable pages as photos and print them off as 8x10 photos.

Book Cover:

Under my "agenda" tab, I added monthly calendars.These are blank calendar templates so that you can use them for any month.

Next in my binder are my "Cleaning" tabs
Here is my weekly cleaning schedule and monthly cleaning schedule. I left room at the bottom of each so that I can add to them as needed.

I'm pretty much in love with my weekly menu sheet under my "Menu" tab. There is room to write the dinner menu for each day of the week... and to write down the grocery list.

My "Budget" tab is where I have my Monthly budget sheet and my account register for our "bill pay" checking account. It's also where I put my Login Info sheet. I wrote down all of the usernames/ passwords for the Utility companies, and I am no longer the only one with access.

The "Medical tab" is the place for all of our medical information. I think I'll also make copies of the Insurance cards to keep in here.

Under the To do folder I added a master To Do List and a Christmas Shopping list.

Last but not least I have a "Contacts" tab. I pulled out my address book that I bought 4 years ago and copied all of the contact information for the people I am still in touch with. So, after I copied down those 5 whole entries... I shredded the rest of the book pages. :)

I feel so much better knowing that everything I need is in one place!

Enjoy!

Minecraft Printable Food Signs!

This weekend, I suddenly realized that I never posted my printable Minecraft food signs! Oops! I printed off all of these pictures as 3 x 5 photos onto some computer paper. I've had a box for printable postcards for most of my life. So, I folded each postcard in half to make a tent, and then I glued each of my food signs onto the tents.

 I set up a little food table for Rachel's party. And put the tents on display.

 For apples I used a bowl of apples.

 I had a bowl of baby carrots sitting out.

 Creeper juice was green lemon lime soda.

 Diamonds were a bowl of Hershey cookies and cream candies.

 Gold nuggets were a bowl of small chocolate bar.

 For sticks, I used pretzels.

The sticks of TNT was groups of Twizzlers.

Water was... well a bunch of bottles of water.

You are more than welcome to use my signs! I could not find what I wanted online, so I finally just caved and made my own.

Just save each of these pictures and print them off as 3x5 photos.

 I didn't manage to get a picture of the food table before the monsters I mean, sweet little girls, devoured it all.

But, here is a pic of how I used the TNT, Gold Bars and Diamonds for the goody bags!

Stay tuned for more pictures from a couple of other games we played at the Minecraft party!

Book review: Diary of a Dead Guy: A Country Ghost Story

Ok ya'll I finally finished reading book 1 out of the  50 that I have committed to read before I turn 30! I had trouble finding good reading time last month. That won't happen again. ;)

Anyway, I read Diary of a Dead Guy: A Country Ghost Story by Ty Hager. Here is the review I left on Amazon.com.

"This was a crazy, twisted story of a dead country signer taking up residence in the body of a 12 year old boy so that he would get his story out there. It was a little twisted, but very funny and had a great plot twist at the end. I'd recommend this to anyone that is looking for a mystery with a side of raunchy humor."

This was a great story. It was well written, it was funny, and while it was outside of my normal chick-lit comfort zone, I enjoyed reading it. 

Warning: I would not recommend letting your mother, grandmother, small children or pastor accidentally read over shoulder.... There is definetely some strong language and raunchy humor. But, if you are looking for a good read, a lot of laughs and some mystery I suggest you head over to Amazon.com to download your copy. ASAP. 

Also, you may or (most likely) may not have noticed that I have added a second page to the blog! Along the left hard side of the main page, under the banner, you should see a link for 50 books before 30. I will be adding each of the books As I read them, as well as a simple from 1-5 rating. This will give me a great place to keep track, enable myself to be held accountable, AND serve as a one stop resource for all my favorite and not so favorite books! 

Buffalo Chicken Mac & cheese

If it was ever up to my husband, we would only have one condiment lining the doors of our fridge: Franks RedHot Sauce. 

The man uses that stuff on everything. So, naturally when I stumbled across this recipe, I knew it would be a winner. This was another great find from the Hungry Girl to the Max cookbook.

You need:

4 1/2 ounces (about 1 1/4 cups) uncooked high-fiber elbow macaroni

2 stalks celery, chopped

2 medium carrots, chopped

1 small onion chopped

8 ounces cooked and shredded skinless chicken breast

1 teaspoon garlic

1/4 cup Franks RedHot original cayenne pepper sauce, divided

1/2 cup fat-free sour cream

2 teaspoons yellow mustard

2 wedges the laughing cow light creamy Swiss cheese (broken into pieces)

1 1/2 tablespoons reduced-fat Parmesan style grated topping

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8 inch by 8 inch baking pan with nonstick spray. 

Cook pasta per package instructions. 

Bring a skillet sprayed with nonstick spray to medium high heat. Add celery, carrots, and onion. Cook and stir until slightly softened, about 5 minutes.

Add chicken, garlic and 3 tablespoons of hot sauce to the skillet. Mix and remove from heat.

In a microwave safe bowl, combine sour cream, mustard, remaining 1 tablespoon of hot sauce, and cheese wedges. Mix well and microwave for 30 seconds, or until cheese has melted. Stir.

Distribute half of the pasta into the baking dish. Evenly layer with the chicken/veggie mix, remaining pasta and sour cream mixture. Sprinkle with parm style topping and parsley.

Bake until hot and bubbly... About 30 minutes.

Makes four servings. 1 serving is 1/4 of the recipe. 267 calories per serving. 

Yum!