Yummy Sour Cream Enchilada Bake

This recipe is a lazy person looking to have the yummy tastes of A good sour cream enchilada with out having to roll individual enchiladas. HAHA! It is just as yummy and My family loves it! And it is my own. Yep this my friends is my own original recipe and I am sharing with you today. WOW! We must be great friends...I don't share recipes with just anyone. :)

Seriously.

Emily's Sour Cream Enchilada Bake

INGREDIENTS:

3 lbs cooked and cubed Boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 bag 9-10oz of tortilla chips crushed (kids love to crush the chips) 

I 16oz tub of sour cream

1 family size cream of mushroom soup

1 7oz green chili can undrained

1/2 C of milk

1 lb grated med to sharp cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Reserve about 1 cup of cheese. Mix the remaining ingredients together and place in a greased 9x13 pan. Top with reserved cheese. Bake for approx 30 mins or until cheese is melted and the bake is bubbly. 

LOVES!!

Emily

Summer Reading List

I love to read. SO much! It gets to the point sometimes that I forget to do other important things because of whatever amazing book I am currently reading. Because of this slight character flaw I hardly ever read anymore. All because some sweet little cherub faced babies want to eat dinner every night. Geez, they are selfish! I am only joking people! I feed my kids every night but bathing them is debatable. That is all going to change this summer though! I have made up a little summer reading list for myself. I love summer reading lists. They are light and easy!

Here it is:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone

I love the Harry Potter series and I will force my children to love it too. We are going to read this one out loud everyday. They are not looking forward to this but I soooo am.

The Book of Life

This is the finale of a 3 part series by Deborah Harkness. It is an awesome! I can not wait for this book to come out this summer. It is witches and vampires and forbidden love. And I can't get enough.

Pride and Prejudice

I have read this a couple of times and I am happy to read it again. This is the version that I have and the cover is so charming. I can't get enough of it.

Love Letters to the Dead

I have heard nothing but good about this book. 

Divergent

I am thinking that this is a band wagon I should jump on!

#girlboss

Um need I say more? This book looks so good! What a rad chick!

Those are the six I am hoping to get to this summer. If I don't read all six that is okay and if I read more- even better! What books are on your list? I love recommendations! And fiction as you can see from five out of six of my selections. HA! 

Brazilian Lime Aide

OH baby! This is delish! What a great fancy summer drink! YUM-O Make it! Quick! Yes! Its that good!

Brazilian Lime aide

6 cups cold water

1 cup sugar

2 limes

6-8 Tbsp. sweetened condensed milk

Mix the cold water and sugar together until well blended and sugar is dissolved. Keep in fridge until ready to use. Wash off the limes with some warm water and dish soap since you'll be using the rind as well as the actual juice. Cut each lime into 8 wedges and set aside. Pour half of the sugar water into a blender with half of the lime wedges and pulse until the the lime juice and the sugar water are combined (Limes will look very sad and mangled). Pour through a fine-mesh strainer into a pitcher and discard the limes. Repeat with the remaining sugar water and limes and pour into the pitcher. Stir in the sweetened condensed milk, adding more or less to taste. Serve immediately over ice.

DIY cork board

Since I started back to work full time I have felt the need to get a little more organized in our day to day life. I am taking minuscule baby steps but steps none-the-less. We have been in need of a central place to have all of our appointment cards, permission slips, birthday invites and schedules posted. So how's about a funky cork board? I have been eyeing that crazy cork board down there at SteinMart for a really long time. Once it was marked down and I had a coupon I bought it for 7 bucks! I love getting a good deal. The size is great and I thought the bamboo-esque frame was a great detail. It seemed a little dated with that bronze colored frame. The print on the cork was pretty bad too. It had to go.

After seeing this round up of DIY cork boards at Apartment Therapy  I knew what I wanted to do! I have been grooving on the color combo of white and gold lately. Well really gold with any other color. What a perfect opportunity to test it out! All I did was spray paint the crap out of it! I used white spray paint with primer built in and sprayed over the whole thing- cork included. It took three coats to really cover it well. After the white was totally dry I used blue painters tape to tape off the white frame. Then came the gold. The gold spray paint needed 3 coats as well.  

Heinous! 

I can't wait for those walls to be bright white too! Now I need to find some really great tacks. Maybe I should make some.

BTW I had to air out that bad boy for a couple days. It was super stinky from the spray paint. Nothing like using spray paint to get a contact high! I kid! I kid! But seriously you need a well ventilated space to use spray paint.

Do you use cork boards to help organize your day? Any fun DIY projects lately?

Let me know that bizness- Anne Marie

To you and yours 

from us and ours

Check back on Tuesday 

for some new great posts!!

Recapin it up!

Nothing like a good old recap! We had a couple weeks packed with a bunch of cool posts! Such as: 

Autograph pillow for the last day of school

Emily's families summer bucket list. Awesome ideas for summer time activities.

Slap your Mama Ribs! These are on my families memorial day menu.

Fathers Day printables. FREE and super cute!

Greek Quinoa Salad! It is perfect for hot summer days.

My desperate attempt to be slightly more organized. A sock bag- which is working BTW!

Photgraphing during the golden hour.

Spaetzle is comfort food big time for me! And spaetzle casserole is delicious!

And now a few fun things from around the internets:

Users of small kitchens unite! I need this post of ideas to get a small kitchen organized.

Want to tone up for your two piece? HA me either! But I am starting to feel the itch to start a regular exercise program.

Cute Fathers Day card DIY. We have a daddy who loves bow ties around here so it is really perfect.

Crazy cute Banana Party and a little advice about setting up a kids party table. Plus free printables which I am all about.

Wouldn't using this painted gingham technique be super cute for a quilt?!

Hash brown pie sounds like something right up my alley. I love breakfast casseroles but totally suck at making them. They always end up kind of gross. I am up for another try though!

These avocado cup salads sound perfect for summer! Plus they are sooo pretty!

I am thinking that joining in this disposable camera challenge is a good idea. We are horrible at printing pictures and maybe this would inspire us!

Frigging cute end table DIY! 

Oh man these are cute pants from target. I want! And this dress too while we are on the subject.

Have you seen the black soap trending around? I am thinking that I would like to order some and try it out.

Autograph Pillowcases...A Last day of school idea

Looking for a way to help your kids remember their friends over the summer? How about for years to come? Here is an idea....We made autograph pillow cases.  The girls (Gabby and Sarah who are the only children in our house still in school) will take these cute creations to school with them armed with two of their favorite colors and let their friends autograph their pillowcase. We used the super cheap pillowcases and a fabric marker and sharpies as well and let them design their own. We have used heat transfer vinyl before but they seem to prefer making their own. Crafty kids? Go figure....:) 

ENJOY!

Emily
PS please forgive the pictures...something was crazy with our camera which may or may not be operator error. :)

The Golden Hour

I think it is safe to say that anyone that has picked up a camera has heard of the "golden hour". It is the hour right before sun up and sun down give or take a few minutes where the light is crazy beautiful for photos. I was googling some more info about it and stumbled across a golden hour calculator! It takes your current position and calculates what your golden hour would be. Rad! So we got our results and went walking. Our hour started at 8:03. The light really was just perfect. Now why are my pictures so grainy?! On to the next dilemma.  

My Lola. She is so pretty!

My Nicco. He is so handsome and obsessed with Legos.

Again with the kids cause they are rad!

I want to experiment more during the golden hour. Have you had any success with the golden hour? Any ideas why my pictures are grainy?!

-AnneMarie

Two thumbs up, slap your Mama Ribs-A Fathers Day Dinner Idea

We baked these up for our "after church meal" Sunday and they were unbelievably good! My kids were thanking me over and over again for the awesome deliciousness.  It is going to make a wonderful Fathers Day meal too! 

What dad wouldn't enjoy a marvelous rib dinner? 

INGREDIENTS
1 rack of pork ribs (ours was about 5 lbs of spareribs) It needs to be able to fit on a broiler pan)
1 box chicken broth (32Oz)
Rub mixture
improved BBQ sauce 

Preheat oven to 250, Fill the bottom of a broiler pan with the chicken broth and replace the slotted top. Place the ribs on the slotted top.  Sprinkle rub mixture all over the ribs and rub in. (rub recipe below) Seal the ribs air tight in the pan with aluminum foil. Bake for 12 hours. Once they are out turn on the broiler to high and spoon and spread the improved BBQ sauce (sauce instructions below) over the ribs.  Place them back in the oven or out on the grill to broil just barely long enough for the sauce to start to caramelize. Serve and ENJOY!

PS Don't have 12 hours? Raise the temp to 300 and you could go 3-4 hours and be good. Although the longer the better of course. :)

Jason's RUB
1/2 C Brown sugar
2 TBS Salt
1 TBS Smoked Salt
1/2 TBS chili Powder
1/2 TBS onion powder
1/2 TBS garlic powder 
Mix all in an air tight container. Store extra for future needs. 

IMPROVED BBQ SAUCE
Just simply add brown sugar and honey to taste to your favorite BBQ sauce. (we used sweet baby ray's this time) This makes it really easy to caramelize. This also code for watch it closely so it doesn't get over done which can happen rapidly.

Be on the look out for the potato salad recipe and the country baked beans recipe and also how to make your own smoked salt!! 

LOVES!!

Emily
  

Sock Bag

I have this idea that if I give my kids places to put their stuff that they will magically always put their things away. HA! They prove me wrong every single day. Clearly it is wishful thinking. That didn't stop me from making a little bag to hang in their room to throw their dirty socks when they take them off. That way we may end up with more when it comes time to wash them. Because I swear we are down to three mismatched socks each! 

I have to admit I saw this idea on a blog a long time ago. It was before I became obsessed with Pinterest and only bookmarked the things I loved. Which is no good when your hard-drive has to be replaced! So if anyone knows where this original idea came from please let me know so I can give the proper credit! 

For my version of this project I used a thrifted t-shirt and a 7 inch embroidery hoop. I cut through both the front and back pieces of the t-shirt to 15 inches across and 17 inches top to bottom. I flipped them wrong side out and pinned every few inches. I sewed around the edge leaving a 1/2 inch seam allowance. I am not very good at sewing with knit fabrics but one thing I have learned is to let the fabric move on its own! Don't push or tug it through your machine. You can serge it to finish the inside edge. I honestly left mine raw because I have yet to tackle threading my serger yet. After sewing I folded the top edge in and hammered a huge grommet in it. Putting the grommet on was difficult to say the least! I used this tool set and holy bananas it was hard for me to use. And it looks like crap so no close ups! But it is on and now the bag hangs. After the grommet I put it in the hoop and tightened it up. I trimmed the edge to make it look a little more presentable.

And bingo bango! 

It is hardly perfect but I love it. Plus the kids are excited so far to use it so lets hope it serves its purpose! Now I need to make a bag for all the clean socks without their mates. 

BTW please ignore the mud on the walls! We are in the middle of painting, sanding and re-doing every room in the house. Literally. Maybe some house projects are going to pop up here!

What are you working on right now? Any home organization ideas you can share? I need all the help I can get! 

ut .

Our Summer "Bucket List"

We are SO excited for the summer to finally be here! If there is anything that makes me happy it is spending time with my family! I am lucky enough to have a full range of ages and stages in my house too.  My oldest Alexis is 21 and married to her great husband James, then I have 19 year old Lindsay and 16 year old Christian (hes got 2 older sisters, 2 younger sisters, and is the only boy. Woah. He definitely is learning how to be a mighty woman whisperer)next is my 13 year old Gabby and 6 year old Sarah. Last night we sat down with Dad and decided on a bucket list for the summer.  It was fun to hear what they were hoping to get out of the summer. Obviously there's a good chance we will not be able to cross all of these off the list in one summer but they are posted on the fridge ready for us to start giving it our best shot. WOOT! Here we go...

1. visit a farmers market

2. go for a hike

3. go to Lagoon (amusement park)

4. the museum of curiosity

5. try a drive in movie

6. play laser tag

7. go cart racing

8. bowling

9. pizza party and movie night

10. blow bubbles

11. have a shaving cream fight

12. make a water blob

13. eat smores

14. go camping

15. have a picnic

16. Geocacheing adventure

17. gun shooting (daddy's dept)

18. visit a trampoline place

19. build our firepit up

20. sidewalk art day with chalk and paints etc

21. play with a slip and slide

22. go to raging waters

23. Have a sleepover at the ranch

24. Visit our condo

25. see the Manti pageant

26. grow a garden

27. go to the alpine slide

28. go fishing

29. fireworks

30. visit the aquarium

31. ride a Ferris wheel 

32. make homemade ice-cream or Popsicles

33. build a fort 

34. visit antelope island

35. read a chapter book together

36. eat snow cones

37. go to Taylorsville Dayzz (a local fair)

38. have a scavenger hunt

39. sleep out on the trampoline

40. Sleeping in??? PLEASE! :)

  So there you have it...Our list!

Wish us luck!

 What do you do for your summer fun? 

I'd love to hear!

LOVES!!

Emily

Greek Quinoa Salad

After Tuesdays DIY debacle I needed a win. And here it is! I know this salad is a winner. It is delicious and healthy. I love that it is a vegetarian but chock full of protein. Quinoa is one of my favorite super foods! 

Greek Quinoa Salad

10 oz. package of spinach

10 oz. package of halved grape tomatoes

1/2 red onion chopped

2 english cucumber chopped 

4 cups cooked red quinoa

8 oz. greek vinaigrette

1 can olives

Feta cheese to taste.

Mix all the ingredients except feta. Top with Feta on individual portions to taste.

This salad is great because it is really easy to customize. I prefer kalamata olives but the kids prefer plain black. That means we do plain black. I would rather them eat it with black olives than to refuse it with kalamata. We like red quinoa but any quinoa would be great. It would be good with yellow or white onion as well. You can use regular cucumber but I prefer the english cucumber because they don't seem to get as bitter.  

ut .

A Proud Mama and Free Fathers Day Printables!!

This is my 13 year old Gabrielle (or Gabby for short) She is My Fourth child and third daughter and I love her so much! She is one of those kids that simply excels in everything she does! Gabby is multi talented and just recently played Annie in Annie the Musical! 

(my little orphan Annie/Gabby)

AND 

she has started her own printables company!! Have I mentioned shes only 13?!? These are just a few of her many many talents and abilities!!

She offered to make some fathers day printables for all of us out of the goodness of her heart. (What I doll I tell ya!) We thought something that could go on anything would be appreciated.  Here's our take on how we used the printables...but of course you could use them anyway you see fit. (please for personal use only) 

Click the links below to download.

Download the Bag Topper

Download the #1 Dad

Download the Pop tag

ENJOY!!
Emily

A failure!

Look at those cute pinwheels up there! Aren't they just lovely? So colorful and fun and spinny.... oh wait.. they can't spin. Epic fail! I had everything all planned out. I found this tutorial, gathered supplies and kids and we got started. That is when I got an idea to make them better. You know those people who always think they have a better way of doing something but really they don't? That is me. The kids and I couldn't get those bad boys to stay put together. So we glued the crap out of them with hot glue and called it good. At least they are nice to look at. A little tip from me? Stick them into a pencil eraser like they say you should. 

Look at those smiles! I guess sometimes a fail is okay. They loved crafting and putting them together so maybe it wasn't really as bad as I think.

That was the second DIY fail of the day. Some days are like that, right? Have you had any failed DIY attempts recently?

-AnneMarie

Spaetzle-A German Dumplings dish I learned from my Mama

This is a dish my wonderful mom would make for us often and I love it.  It is German and so are we. (at-least partly)Its fairly reasonable in price and definitely a feel good food.

 I think you'll love it! 

(we quadruple this baby because it 

tastes even better the next day)

Spaetzle Casserole

Serves 6-8

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup milk

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 pinch freshly ground white pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 gallon hot water

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1 LLB smoked sausage sliced

1 can green beans

1 family size cream of mushroom soup

DIRECTIONS:

1. Mix together flour, salt, white pepper, and nutmeg. Beat eggs well, and add alternately with the milk to the dry ingredients. Mix until smooth.

2. Meanwhile pan fry sliced smoked sausage

2.Press dough through spaetzle maker, or a large holed sieve or metal grater.

3.Drop a few at a time into simmering liquid. Cook 5 to 8 minutes. Drain well.

4.Saute cooked spaetzle in butter or margarine. 

5. Mix in the soup, green beans and smoked sausage and serve

ut