Have To Try.

I am feeling the need to bake something today. I think I'll try these. I have all the ingredients on hand even. Love it when that happens!

PUMPKIN MUFFINS
1 c. flour

1 c. sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

2 eggs, beaten

1 c. ground pumpkin (canned)

1/2 c. cooking oil

1/3 c. chocolate chips

Make It!

Mix together. Fill muffin cups and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.

Self Nurturing.

I was reading a post on Jeanette Lynton's blog a few weeks back about focusing on 13 self-nurturing practices. Her post talked about thirteen things we can do to brighten, strengthen, reward, and inspire ourselves so we can be a better person to ourselves and others. While the ideas are all things we've heard hundreds of times in our lives, I thought her post served as a good reminder. (we can always use reminders, don't you think?)

13 Self Nurturing Practices

(1) Scripture study
(2) Meditation~ visualize what you desire, etc.
(3) Impressions notebooking~write “on the go” and scribble phrases/ideas that come.
(4) Meaningful prayer~ focus on praise and thanks; don't rush; listen and ponder.
(5) Journaling~ process life events, ask questions of God, answer questions to yourself, reflect on your life.
(6) Fasting with a purpose~ offer deep gratitude to by sacrificing food/water; paired with prayers of praise
(7) Essential oils~ nurture your emotional and physical self in aroma for relaxation and healing.
(8) Creative expression~ experiment hands-on with the medium of your choice.
(9) Soaking in nature~ connect to the outdoors in all seasons. Put your feet in the earth and your face to the sun!
(10) Music therapy~ stream inspirational songs throughout the home, sing, practice/learn an instrument, dance, attend uplifting concerts and cultural events.
(11) Play~ laugh, run, wrestle, play sports, and “be” with children.
(12) Beautify your living space~ create “centers” for expression and unique purposes, decorate, organize, declutter, paint.
(13) Worship~ leave the world behind, connect to heaven, focus.

As the person who chose "enjoy" as their word of the year, this list not only served as a gentle reminder to help me stay focused, but it helped get me thinking about some different ways I can enjoy my life. It gave me some different ideas I could try. What have I decided to try?

Well, I'm determined to get outside more this summer. I love being outdoors, but the past couple of years I haven't been outdoors much. This summer I am vowing to get out and run, walk, bike and hike more. Anything to get me moving (and lose these last 10 pounds!) and anything to get me out there enjoying the great outdoors more!

I have also decided to find a new way to create. Something other than papercrafting. And after much bloggernacking and thinking, I've decided to start refinishing old furniture. It seems like such a great hobby to me! So I've made a list of furniture to search for at garage sales and thrift stores with the hopes of creating some fun new pieces for our home and finding something new to enjoy in the process.

How will doing things for myself, for my own enjoyment, help me to better others? Easy. I'll be a happier person (not that I'm unhappy, but you know what I mean!) and in turn will be a better, happier person to others. Because I will be fed spiritually, emotionally and physically, I'll be better equipped (for lack of a better word at the moment) to help others. It's a win win situation.

Now all I need is to start scouting for some furniture to refinish! And for the sun to stay out for more than 10 minutes at a time so I can enjoy the great outdoors and get some fresh air!

Chicken Marinade.

As we continue our week of using things up, here's dinner tonight:
Seasoned Grilled Chicken
1/4 c Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4 c Chicken Broth
3 Tbls lemon juice
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp lemon-pepper seasoning

Make It!
In bowl combine all ingredients and marinade over chicken for 20 minutes. Grill Chicken over medium heat. If you want extra flavor, reserve some marinade to brush on chicken while grilling.

My friend Courtney emailed this recipe a couple weeks back. We're finally getting around to making it. Hopefully she doesn't mind that I'm posting it?

I do have to admit that I was a little leery about opening up a can of chicken broth and only using 1/4 of a cup of it, it seemed a little wasteful. But as luck would have it, Marty is making a turkey for dinner tomorrow night (it's sitting in the brine as I type!) so I'll just use the leftover chicken broth to make mashed potatoes. Since I have 10 pounds of potatoes to use up this seems like a good "use it up" solution.

Use It Up Week.

For a variety of reasons, this week was declared Use It Up week in our house. It's only Wednesday but I have to say we have already used up so, so, so many things~ my Target list is growing by the minute. While I'm dreading my next Target trip, it feels so good to be using things up. Emptying things out. Clearing out the old. But (there's always a but isn't there?) there's a downside to this self declared Use It Up week~ we're using things up! Translation? We're quickly running out of food!

Today alone I used up two jars of spaghetti sauce, a box of english muffins, 4 almost gone packages of shredded cheese, all but 4 tablespoons of the butter, a jar of peanut butter plus leftover taco fixings from last night were made into a salad for tonight's dinner, and a bottle of coffee creamer was drained when I had my afternoon coffee. Honestly? I'm starting to panic. I mean it's only Wednesday! What in the world are we going to eat the rest of the week???

As luck would have it, during my biggest moment of panic this afternoon, I found a recipe to try that uses ingredients we still have on hand. (Mormons to the rescue!) It will empty out our box of Bisquick and just about polish off a jar of applesauce, leaving us with even less in our cupboards (and more to add to my Target list!) but we'll have 24 muffins to fill our bellies with at breakfast tomorrow! And they sound pretty good, so there has to be something to be said for that I guess, right?!

Applesauce Muffins
2 cups Bisquick
1/2 cup sugar, divided
2 tsp. cinnamon, divided
1/2 cup applesauce
1/4 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 Tbsp. butter, melted

Make It!
Combine Bisquick, 1/4 cup sugar and one teaspoon cinnamon in a large mixing bowl; set aside. In a separate bowl, mix applesauce, milk, egg and oil and then pour into dry ingredients. Beat vigorously for 30 seconds. Line 24 muffin tin with paper muffin cups. Fill 2/3 full. Bake at 400 degrees for 12 minutes. Cool in pan for several minutes. Combine remaining sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Dip each muffin in melted butter and then in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Makes 24.

Scratch Pads Revisited.

After using my made-from-scratch scratch pads for a couple of weeks, I have some updated tips I thought I'd share:

(1) I discovered that the cardboard backing is completely reusable. When your scratch pad is empty, carefully remove the patterned paper along with any paper remnants and viola! your cardboard is ready to be used again.

(2) If you added ribbon and/or buttons, they're totally reusable as well. So, not only is this project still uberly cheap, but you're stretching that cheapness even more by reusing some of the components. Love it!

(3) By reusing some of the components like the cardboard and ribbon, you're saving yourself time when you go to make more because they'll already be measured and cut to the correct size Anything that saves me time in my world is readily welcomed!

(4) After cutting coupons printed from the internet and realizing that I was throwing away half a sheet of unused printer paper with each cut out coupon, I decided I could use the scraps for unlined scratch pads. So again, keeping the costs of an already dirt cheap project down and recycling in the process!

If any of you made these (or something similar) feel free to post pictures of them in the comments section.......I love to see what other people have created!!

Itchin' To Grill!

Grilled Bruschetta Chicken

4 small boneless skinless chicken breasts

1/4 cup Kraft Sun-Dried Tomato Dressing, divided

1 tomato, finely chopped

1/2 cup shredded Mozzarella Cheese

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil or 1 tsp dried basil

Make It!

Heat grill to medium heat. Cover half the grill grate with sheet of heavy-duty foil. Place chicken in large resealable plastic bag. Add 2 Tbsp. dressing; seal bag. Turn bag over several times to evenly coat chicken with dressing. Refrigerate 10 min. Remove chicken from bag; discard bag and dressing. Place chicken on uncovered side of grill; cover with lid. Grill 6 min. Meanwhile, combine remaining dressing, tomatoes, cheese and basil. Turn chicken over; place on foil. Top with tomato mixture. Grill, covered, grill 8 min. or until chicken is done (165ºF).

Totally itching to make this! I've seen this recipe so many times in so many places over the years and it's always on my "to make" list. After seeing it again on this blog I decided enough was enough and we will be making it this weekend. Now, let's just hope it tastes as good as it looks (and sounds!).

Spring? Really?!

According to the cover of Martha Stewart's magazine spring is just around the corner! Dare we dream??!! All I need now is a huge glass of lemonade (with lots of ice of course!) to drink as I read this little ray of sunshine from cover to cover!

Got Creative.

Felt the need to get a little creative today while Addison napped. Super simple project really. In fact it was so simple that I was watching various craft webisodes on my laptop as I worked!

Bought the wooden letters from Walmart for under $2.00 a letter. Visited Julie's store and bought a sheet of scrapbook paper, some buttons and some jute in exchange for the M&M's that she fed Addison while I shopped. When I got home I traced the letters onto the paper, cut them out, modpodged them on, and roughed up the edges with the blade of my scissors. Finally, I added the jute and the buttons and called it good.

If nothing else, it adds a little bit of spring to the house! And I'm really ready for spring!

Homemade Brownies.

There's just nothing like brownies, is there? A fresh pan of brownies on a gloomy winter day? A great pick me up! A fresh pan of brownies served with vanilla ice cream on a hot July afternoon? A yummy yummy treat!

Quick & Easy Brownies
Brownie Ingredients:
4 eggs
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup cocoa

Grease a baking sheet. In large mixing bowl combine wet ingredients and mix well. Stir in dry ingredients making sure to mix well. Pour batter onto cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-17 minutes. Note:these are very thin brownies. While brownies are cooling make the frosting:

Chocolate Frosting:
1/2 cup butter
2 heaping tblsp cocoa
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup water

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add in the cocoa and vanilla. Take off burner and whisk in powdered sugar. The frosting will be hard to stir at this point so add the water a little bit at a time, mixing as you go. (If needed, you can turn the burner back on for about 10 seconds to help dissolve the water and powdered sugar.) Once everything is melted and combined, immediately spread over brownies.