A Valentine Mantle

As soon as I took my Christmas decor down I was already hunting for Valentine Mantle inspiration. Now that I have the vintage window from last years TN trip, I just really like changing it up for the holidays. I've never been a big fan of Valentines Day but Emma is obsessed so I decided to embrace it.
I Saw these two on pinterest but pinterest was kind of disappointing (gasp, I know) in the way of Valentine Mantle inspiration. I mean, my first picture wasn't even a mantle but a shelf.

who else but, The House of Smiths

Better Homes and Gardens

I also saw this really cute, easy and in-expensive garland...

Noodlehead

I was going to hang it in the playroom window for the kids. Then I decided to reclaim the playroom for my craft room so I used it on the mantle. Here's what I came up with...

 The cupcake liner wreath was on the door last year. I hope to make a different one this year but haven't decided what kind yet. The L-O-V-E letters I've had forever. Since college, back in the day of 'Live, laugh, Love.' They were silver and I spray painted them red.

 I hung my garland across the front of the mantle and around the topiary pot.

Then added construction paper hearts.I just used needle and thread to string them up.

I think it came out cute. It put me in a festive mood and I didn't have to take all my usual decor down and find a place to store it. 

Post pics of your great Valentine ideas. I have a few more places around the house that I could stand to show a little love!

Memory Quilt: Part I

As part of my 'get organized and de-clutter my life' kick I decided I wanted to make a Memory Quilt with the kids baby clothes.  I saved a ton with Emma knowing I was going to have another, I wanted to keep them to pass down. Eli quickly convinced us we were done having kids. So I didn't keep quite as much but it was still hard to part with my favorites. I first heard about this back in Delta Zeta, a lot of the girls had it done with their tees. I started looking on pinterest for some inspirations.
This first is actually a memory game but somebody had pinned it as a quilt idea and I like the random blank square.

The Purl Bee

 This one is made of vintage sheets. I thought it may be easiest but wasn't sure how it would look.

SparklePower on Etsy

 This next one pretty much convinced me, I couldn't just push the project to the 'one day' list.

Diary of Regular Moms

 Although I love the previous, I prefer a simpler design and wanted it to be something that maybe the kids would want to use a little longer and didn't feel to young.

Wee Wonderfuls

So I got motivated and started cutting.  Let me throw out this disclaimer. I am by no means a professional quilter. This is actually my very first. If you're interested in this project I just hope to give you some ideas and any tips I come up with. Its kind of a trial and error for me but I hope by the time I get to Emmas, I may be able to write a more clear how to. Also, for me, this is a messy project. It takes up the whole room and there is just clothes fabric in piles everywhere.

In the quilt I chose to model mine after, she used 4x4 squares. I chose to cut 5x5 for a little seam room and to give me a little bigger space for some of the things I wanted to show. I carefully measured a cardboard to trace. Then with a sharpie went and traced a square onto everything I knew I wanted to use.

Be creative. Above, the tractor under the cardboard couldn't be  used to take up two full 5x5 sections, so I cut some off the sleeve of that shirt to add to it. Here are some more cuts. Top Left was Eli's 1st Easter. Top right was a gift from a friend when he arrived ( i tried to use most of his monogrammed things, burp cloths could be used as well.) Bottom left, my mom got him that cute little button up and I liked the pocket with the bear and the button holes. Bottom right, I bought that for him, Daddy's Favorite Band.

Be sure to set aside all the leftovers. You may have to come back and cut a few more squares if you weren't keeping count (you will need 96 to make it as big as the inspiration's, plus one for the middle.) This is where the mess comes in.

I know, embarassing, Right!

Also, I plan on using the leftovers that can be salvaged for paci clips. I want to make my kids a little stuffed animal for Valentines day too. (I'm torn between the little Doxin like our new Abby or the rice owl.) The tree pillow is another great idea.

Friends of Socktopus

Just Another Hang Up

Cluck Cluck Sew

All so cute, I just need to decide quick and get rid of the rest!
Ok, so then I laid it out. Center, then 5x5 (squares), then 9x9, then 13x13 (the white in betweem is 3x3, 7x7, 11x11.)

TIP: Do not do what I did, and cut a random center size. Make it square. 
I just really wanted to use the little drop seat PJ's with his name on it.

Next I picked what I wanted to use for my solid color (you'll have to wait for the big reveal to see what I went with.

Here's a link how I did the middle from How To Quilt It took me a couple tries so you may want to practice on something else. I had to rip my seams a couple times. Ha!
Then I started sewing the pieces together. I chose to line up at the very edge since I had button holes, snaps and other things I wanted showing. That way my need would miss some of those things.

Sewed right up next to the snap

Once everything was sewed I  started piecing it together. This is where my lack of experience comes in.  I will have the rest up on Memory Quilt: Part II

Menu Monday 1/23

Alright guys, this will be my final menu Monday post. Its really hard to get the recipes all together and get them to you on time each week. I will however, try to keep posting one or two recipes on  Monday's for you to try. So here's this week, enjoy.
Monday:
Meatloaf - Unfortunately, I cannot share my meatloaf recipe as it is a family recipe that goes at least 4 generations back. But I will tell you I am just substituting turkey for beef. I'm sure you all have a meatloaf recipe you can do the same with? If not, look around on pinterest and various recipe sites, there are lots of good ones! I am serving this with loaded cauliflower from week 1.  I also made this tonight, I love meatloaf re-heated anyway and since the hubby has class tomorrow night, it easier on me to have that part done!

Tuesday:
Chicken in Cream Sauce -  This is actually called Braciole alla Panna {Pork Chops in Cream Sauce} but since I LOVE chicken Marsala I decided to make it with chicken. Update: Pork Chops were on sale so I stuck with the original recipe. It was awesome! 

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter - use light
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
4 boneless chicken breasts
salt/pepper
1 cup Marsala wine - I am using just the cooking wine found near the Vinegar at our grocery store
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon all purpose flour
8 ounces button mushrooms – sliced

Steps:
1. Into a saute pan add butter and oil and heat over medium heat until butter has melted. Add Chicken. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until browned on both sides. Turning as necessary. Transfer chicken to a plate and keep warm.

2. Into your hot pan add Marsala and deglaze pan. Cook until wine has reduced in half. Place flour into cream and mix together. Add cream mixture to pan and whisk together. Season with salt and pepper. Allow to simmer for approximately 5 minutes.

3. Add mushrooms and continue cooking on LOW for approximately 5 minutes or until mushrooms are cooked through and sauce has thickened. Then, return chicken to pan. Turning to coat. - serve!

I am serving this with a green salad Ended up serving with yellow squash

I told you I take horrible food pictures. It was way better then it looks.

Wednesday

Tosca's Keep It Tight Tilapia - we did not use all the Tilapia from last week so I wanted to find another recipe.

Ingredients

• ¼ cup / 60 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
• 1 tsp / 5 ml paprika
• 1 tsp / 5 ml ginger
• 1 tsp / 5 ml fresh ground black pepper
• 1 tsp / 5 ml dried mustard
• 1 tsp / 5 ml oregano
• 1 tsp / 5 ml chili powder
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper
• 4 tilapia filets, thawed

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF/ 205ºC. Line your baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a medium-sized bowl combine olive oil, garlic and seasonings.
3. Dip each filet into the seasoning and place it on the baking sheet.
4. Pour any remaining seasoning over the filets on the sheet and place the baking sheet in the oven.
5. Bake for 10 minutes. - We may grill it. Thats how we ended up cooking it last week and it was really good.

This will be served with yellow squash. I just bought the frozen squash and will saute it with half an onion, maybe a touch of butter or oil and sprinkle with just a pinch of salt.

Thursday

 Baked Pork Tenderloin with Gravy - adapted from food.com - The recipe was SO good from this site last week it motivated me to look around more. I can't wait to try this one, Im also using the honey butter pork recipe from last week on chicken this week. 

Ingredients

2 - 2.5 lbs pork tenderloin

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

3/4 cup flour

2 tbs olive oil

1/3 package onion soup mix

1 can cream of chicken soup

2 cups hot water

Steps:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Season pork tenderloin with salt and pepper.  Coat tenderloin well with flour.  Heat oil in an oven proof pot over medium high heat.  Brown tenderloin on all sides for 5 minutes.

Mix onion soup, cream of chicken soup, and hot water.  Turn heat down to medium low and add to pot.  Cover and bake for 1 hour.  Serve over mashed potatoes or cooked rice (if you aren't watching your carbs.)

Friday

Honey Butter Chicken

4 tbs butter

2 tbs honey

1 1/2 pounds chicken breast

1/2 tsp Cajun seasoning

1/2 tsp black pepper

3/4 cup water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In an ovenproof pot, heat butter and honey over medium heat until melted.  Sprinkle  pork tenderloin with Cajun seasoning and black pepper.  Brown each side for 5 minutes.  

Place pot in oven and roast for 7 - 10 minutes (watch it on the chicken, it may cook faster and you don't want it to dry out.)  Transfer the chicken to a plate covered with foil to rest. Add water to pan and stir over medium heat.  Simmer until sauce is reduced to about 1/2 cup.  Serve chicken with sauce drizzled over the top.

I'm not sure yet what veggie I am serving with this.

Saturday

Pork Chops Oscar - I love asparagus and hollandaise sauce so when I saw this on pinterest it went on as a priority for this weeks menu, 

Brush Asparagus with a litle Olive oil and grill until desired tenderness (I don't like mine too soft)

Brush a little Olive oil over chicken breast and rub some dried onion, garlic, and paprika on it. Grill as usual.

Lay out the chicken on your plate, add a few Asparagus sprigs, and top with some Hollandaise. I also like to add a few shakes of some Paprika. 

For Hollandaise sauce, use either a store bought packet and follow directions or make it from scratch like so:

Hollandaise Sauce:

4 Egg yokes
1-3 Tablespoons of Lemon Juice
1 stick of melted unsalted butter
 up to 1/4 cup of hot water if needed
a dash of paprika and salt (optional)
Steps
Whisk the egg yolks and lemon juice together in a glass heat proof bowl until the mixture is fluffy and doubled in volume. Place the bowl over a saucepan containing barely simmering water (or use a double boiler,) the water should not touch the bottom of the bowl. Continue to whisk rapidly. Be careful not to let the eggs get too hot or they will scramble. Slowly drizzle in the melted butter and continue to whisk until the sauce is thickened and doubled in volume. Remove from heat, stir in lemon juice. 

Well folks, thats a wrap! Your last week in a menu. Please feel free to share any recipes. This week I am going to try to take pics as I cook so I can share them with you but, if you're curious, check out the other blogs I linked. They all have pictures of wonderful looking dishes. 

Tomorrow I will be introducing our new little Dachshund, Abby, to you all. I'll also fill you in on the car trouble saga and all its glory. But until then, enjoy cooking!

Excuses Are like...

Is there really any need for me to finish that statement? Well I am here to deliver just that to you. My excuse for not posting anything this week.  See its been a really rough week. 

It started off with a high note but things spun out of control rather quickly. This weekend we decided to take back the playroom and make it my craft room. The kids never used it except to trash it and then the toys overflowed throughout the house. So we made room in their rooms and closets and started moving everything around. I stated by bringing the sewing machine and desk in -then bam, mental roadblock. I suddenly cannot get into making my own craft room. Whats wrong with me, this is a dream come true and every time I walk in there I stand there staring at everything. That was just when I started losing my grasp on control for the week.

Next.

I signed Emma up for swim class so she would be ready by summer. I really love the Houston Swim Club, if you're looking for a place to take the kids. I have no complaints about them and they are very professional. I prefer early morning classes, which they were able to provide. However, it happens to start at the same time as school. The first lesson is mandatory everyday for two weeks, leaving me rushed from the time I wake up until I drop her off on school days. Actually, I'm not going to lie, its a good thing I don't have a 9-5 job because I am not sure I would be able to ever arrive on time. Morning traffic is horrendous and as soon as I pull into it, I feel late and rushed.  So I have been adjusting to the running back and forth on a tight schedule and delivering Emma and hour late to school (which makes me a bit crazy.) But wait, there's more!

On Tuesday after dropping Emma at school my car started doing something really strange. UGH!  We just started our budget 19 days ago and here comes the mother load! Well I'm not really sure if its the mother load as they have yet to diagnose the problem but, I feel my Dave Ramsey "snowball effect" budget turning to to an avalanche of looming expenses. Knowing the hubby is going to take it harder then I am, I call to be the bearer of bad news. We spend the afternoon researching the symptoms in hopes that my pretty car savvy husband can make the repairs. Since the check engine light had come on we took in to AMCCO to get the free Check Engine light service they offer. That narrowed the possibilities a lot. The hubby came home- it had to be after dark of course, it was a school night for him too - and did everything suggested in our research. We started the car back up and tada!.. Service Engine Soon. So I decide to take it to the dealer in the morning. We found out in our research there was a recall on a part that may have something to do with whats going on. 

So I run west of town for swim class, of course it got cold so I needed to dry Emmas hair with the blow dryer  tacking on about 20 extra min, stopped at Goodwill (hey, it was right there,) then headed East past our house to get to the dealership. Like any time you need auto work, I had to leave the car. Luckily it was lunch time, I was pretty close to the Hubby's office, and he was free. So we broke budget and are no eating out resolution and headed to the Chinese Buffet. Long story short, I picked him up from work and we picked up the car. I got in hopeful and a little excited, they washed and vacuumed it. Started the engine, Service Engine Soon. I'm really getting tired of that stupid light! Obviously, the recall replacement did not fix our issue. 

That brings us to this morning. Swim class, blow dryer, school. Oh wait, on the way to school the car really started acting up and my gauges stopped working so I had no idea my speed limit. Nice right, I am assuming it was slow because people were flying by but I was too nervous to keep up.  So school then back to AMCCO. I had made a 10:30 appointment, they said it would take about an hour and half so they brought me home. Here is 1:30 and I just called they are "looking at it right now." Of course I am due to get Emma Bean at 2 so had to call a friend to handle that. I told her I feel like I am in college and too broke to buy gas so I'm bumming rides off my friends.  Being the good friend she is, I truly think she doesnt mind. Besides our kids are in the same class and my house is pretty much on the way home. But its still frustrating for me. 

Anyway, there's my excuse for my absence this week. Say a little prayer for an inexpensive fix and my sanity. Also, send me some craft room help! 

Menu Monday 1/16

I hope everybody had a wonderful weekend. We did all our shopping yesterday, only because I planned poorly last week and was not really sure what I would be cooking up for dinner last night. Plus my mom came in and she's on her first ever, first cycle of the 17 day diet. So I needed some fabulous recipe to wow her with.
I don't think I started this weekly menu thing with this disclaimer but it just occurred to me "what if I have to repeat a recipe?" I decided it would be ok because it is only a menu and intended to help you out if you aren't feeling like making your own or if you just want ot try my method.
That being said yesterday morning I re-created the egg muffin brunch  (toward the bottom) from a couple weeks ago. I wasn't too fond of the broccoli in it, even though I really like broccoli. Besides, the hubby has been dropping hints he's had about all the broccoli he can stand for a while. It came out FANTASTIC, even Eli loved it. So much so, he set his fork aside and was shoveling into his mouth by the handful. It was pretty hilarious. So if you didn't try that recipe you have to try this one.
Too Much Broccoli Egg Muffins
Ingredients
1 pound Breakfast Sausage, whichever you like
1 onion finely chopped
7 large eggs
1/4 cup milk 
1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp baking powder
salt & pepper to taste, if you want, I did not
Shredded cheese (optional) I used low fat mozzarella
Foil cupcake liners, I used jumbo with a regular size pan because they have boiled over both times I've made them.
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. Brown the breakfast sausage and onion together until sausage is no longer pink. Drain when cooked.
3. Whisk together eggs, milk, oil and baking powder.  Season with salt and pepper if you choose. I did this as I am browning the sausage.
4.Add cupcake liners to the cupcake pan (please do not skip the liners. I did so and used pam then ended up trashing my pan.) Spoon out the sausage and broccoli mixture evenly into each cupcake liner. Sprinkle with just a pinch of cheese if you're using
5. Ladle the egg mixture over sausage mixture. 
8.  Bake for 15-20 minutes until egg is cooked. It takes mine about 18min.
Then give it a whirl. Seriously, I think I am going to try this with other stuff one night a week. Its easy healthy and well received by the fam. 


For dinner, my recipe to wow mom with, I picked Zucchini Lasagna. 
It was an excellent choice and made so much food I was able to freeze half of it. Even the kids ate it. Look around at Katie's blog, she has a lot of healthy alternatives for some classic favorites. 

Ingredients

For the Noodles:

• 6 large zucchini, cut lengthwise into 1/8 inch strips, should resemble thick lasagna type “noodles”

For the Meat Sauce:

• 1.25 lb lean ground turkey meat (you could also leave this out and make to make a vegetarian version!)
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 cups fresh or frozen broccoli (or 2 cups of another veggie of choice) - I pickles carrots. This is still a no broccoli week at our house.
• 2 cups fresh or frozen cauliflower (or 2 cups of another veggie of choice)
• 2 cups fresh or frozen chopped spinach (or 2 cups of another veggie of choice)
• 1 (25 ounce) jar of spaghetti sauce (I used one with 70 calories per 1/2 cup serving)
• 1 tbs garlic powder (or 1 clove garlic, minced)
• Pinch of salt and pepper, or to taste
• *Optional seasoning: 2 tbs of Italian Seasoning -I didn't use this

For the Cheese Layer:

• 1 (16 ounce) container light cottage cheese (or light ricotta cheese) - Found fat free, used cottage cheese but next time I want to look for ricotta. The fat free only came large curd and the hubby is not a big fan though, he did not complain.
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese -Skipped
• 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese - I used just enough to sprinkle on top

*Note: If you don’t want to use zucchini for the ‘noodles’, you could also use a large eggplant, cut lengthwise into 1/8 inch strips, or 1 box no-boil lasagna noodles!

Method

1. For the noodle layer: Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray, arrange zucchini slices and season with salt and pepper. Bake zucchini slices for 5 minutes on each side, then remove from oven. Set zucchini slices aside and lower oven temperature to 375 degrees.
2. For the meat sauce layer: In a large non-stick skillet, cook meat until it’s browned. To the skillet, add the veggies, seasonings, and the entire jar of spaghetti sauce. Simmer for about 10 minutes, (or until veggies are de-thawed/begin to soften), stirring occasionally.-I sauteed about half the onion with the meat. I also chopped the cauliflower and carrots in the food processor. I had thawed them before, so I just added it to the meat then was ready to start layering. 
3. For the cheesy layer: Mix the cottage cheese and parmesan cheese together, ( this can be done right in the cottage cheese container!)
4. Put it all together: Spray a 9×13 baking dish with non-stick cooking spray. Begin by spreading 1/3 of the meat sauce in the bottom of the pan. Follow meat sauce with a layer of zucchini slices, followed by a layer of cottage cheese. Repeat the layers until casserole dish is full. 
5. Finish it off: Sprinkle the mozzarella evenly over the top. Cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour -I suggest setting your casserole dish on a cookie sheet while cooking. Mine boiled over and was only 3 layers, this prevents it from getting in your oven. Mine is cooking off the burn stink right now as I blog. 
6. Remove foil and bake or broil another 5-10 minutes until cheese is browned. Remove from oven and let rest for about 10 minutes before slicing, and serve warm!

Monday:

This one is a bit on the splurge side this week. But I landed smack in the middle of my goal weight range at 126lbs (woot! woot!) So decided I could mix it up a bit this week. This was found on food.com, I believe I read it was a Martha Stewart recipe
Update: I started writing this entry yesterday, Sunday, because I wanted to get it out to you. Life Happens! We had this tonight and it was wonderful! The hubby even admitted the cauliflower mashed potatoes weren't that bad.

Honey Butter Pork Tenderloin

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons butter- light
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 1/2 lbs pork tenderloins, trimmed of silver skin
• salt
• pepper
• 1/4 cup waterI also used some GrillMates Kickin' Chicken possibly something Chipolte would be good too 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. In a dutch oven or ovenproof skillet, heat the butter and honey over medium heat, stirring to melt butter.
3. Season the pork with 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper and place in pan.
4. Cook until underside is lightly browned, about 5 minutes.
5. Turn pork, and cook until other side is browned, about 5 min more.
6. (Lower the heat if the honey begins to burn.) Put the pan in the oven, and roast until the pork is just cooked through, 7 to 10 minutes.
7. Transfer the pork to a plate and cover with foil to rest.
8. Add the water to the pan, and stir over medium heat to scrape up all the browned bits.
9. Add any accumulated pork juices from the plate, and simmer until sauce is reduced to about 1/2 cup.
10. Slice the pork on the diagonal and served drizzled with the sauce.

I'm serving with green salad and cauliflower mashed potatoes- the hubby's not going to be a fan- which may be a repeat if you follow religiously, but I have yet to make them since I've started bloggin' my recipe adventures. 

Tuesday
Tilapia from Everyday with Rachael Ray- Does that make it Tilapia Tuesday? OK, OK, really corny. I don't usually do fish, what are we rich? No, I just am not real sure how to cook it and it is a little expensive to "play" with. But it was a meal deal this week at HEB so I got it. - Totally off topic, did you get your free Ken's 90z Salad Dressing from HEB this week. it was 5/$5 and there was a $1.00 off coupon in the 1/8 SS.

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia

INGREDIENTS

¾ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

2 teaspoons paprika

1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley

4 tilapia fillets (about 1 pound total)

1 lemon, cut into wedges

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400°. In a shallow dish, combine the cheese with the paprika and parsley and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle the fish with olive oil and dredge in the cheese mixture. Place on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake until the fish is opaque in the thickest part, 10 to 12 minutes. Serve the fish with the lemon wedges.

With pamesan roasted green beans and salad


Wednesday
Creamy Chicken - this is a lot like Alfredo. I love this recipe and not too sure where I originally got it. Its been a while. We change up the veggies all the time. If you want to be really bad, try it on pasta!
Ingredients

3-4 boneless chicken breasts-cut up into bite sized pieces
2 tbsp olive oil
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
3 cups broccoli florets (fresh or frozen)
1 can low sodium chicken broth
1 8oz. bar of fat free cream cheese
1 packet hidden valley ranch powder dip mix

* I've used peas and carrots (frozen), mushrooms, mushrooms and peas, 4 bell peppers (each color,) broccoli - any combo really is good

Steps:

In a skillet:
Saute the chicken in olive oil until almost cooked through
Add all veggies to saute with chicken
Add 1/2 the can of chicken broth to saute

In a seperate sauce pot add:
Last 1/2 of chicken broth
8oz fat free cream cheese
1 packet hidden valley ranch dip mix
Cook until mixture is smooth.
Add sauce to saute mixture and serve! - YUM!

Thursday

Green Chili Chicken and White Bean Enchiladas- this one is long but very good.

Chicken and White Bean Filling:

• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1/4 cup minced white onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can (4.5 oz) chopped green chiles
• 15.5 oz can Navy beans (or Cannellini beans)
• 8 oz cooked shredded chicken breast
• 1/3 can water
• 1 chicken bullion
• 1 tsp cumin

Green Chile Enchilada Sauce:

• 1 tsp butter
• 1/2 cup chopped white onion
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1 cup fat free chicken broth
• 7 oz can chopped green chile
• 2 jalapeños, chopped (I used jarred)
• salt
• 1/2 cup light sour cream

• 3/4 cup reduced fat Mexican cheese
• 8 medium low carb tortillas
• chopped fresh cilantro or scallions (or both!)

Preheat oven to 375°.
For the Filling:
In a medium pan, heat olive oil on low. Add onions, garlic and saute until soft, about 2-3 minutes. Add green chiles, beans, water, bullion, and cumin. Mix well and cover.Simmer on low 15 minutes. Remove cover, add chicken and cook an additional 5 minutes, or until it thickens and liquid boils down. Set aside.
Green Chile Enchilada Sauce: 
In a large nonstick pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion softens and starts to turn translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Add flour and stir well. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Slowly whisk in the chicken broth. Whisk until the sauce becomes smooth. Cook over medium heat until the sauce boils and thickens, about 4-5 minutes. Add green chiles, jalepeños, and salt to tatse. Cook another minute then remove from the heat. Stir in the sour cream.


Spread about 1/4 cup of the enchilada sauce on the bottom of a 9x13" baking dish.Fill each tortilla with 1/3 cup of the chicken/white bean filling. Roll the tortillas and place seam side down in the prepared baking dish. Continue filling remainder of the tortillas.
Pour the enchilada sauce over the top of the enchiladas. Top with cheese. Cover with aluminum and bake 20-30 minutes, until the enchiladas are hot and the cheese is melted. Remove from oven and top with fresh cilantro or scallions.

Friday
Super Healthy, Ultra Clean, Meatballs This recipe was found on pinterest and I followed it back to Blogilates. I have to say I think this is the one I am most excited about trying. Her pictures look SO GOOD! Maybe I will try to start taking pictures for you guys too.  Anyway, here you go. If you try it before Friday, let me know how it turns out. 

INGREDIENTS (makes about 20 huge meatballs):

• 2.5 lbs ground chicken BREAST
• 3 egg whites
• 1 cup dried quick oats
• 2 medium green bell peppers
• 1 purple onion
• 2 TBS paprika
• 1 TBS chopped garlic
• 1 TBS dried basil
• 1 TBS oregano
• 1-2TBS of fish sauce or you can add flavor with a pinch or two of salt
• (You can basically season it however you want spice wise)

DIRECTIONS:

• Mix all of the ingredients together in a big ole bowl
• Spray a muffin tin (or regular pan) with PAM
• Mush into balls
• Cook at 375F for about 35 min

She has some great suggestions on what else to serve these with. I will just do salad and marinara sauce for dipping. 

Saturday - Game Day!

Pizza Muffins - This is one I am making up. We liked the pizza with egg crust and the sausage and onion muffins, earlier mentioned, so well we decided to take the left over ingredients and work up this concoction. You may want to wait until we actually try it, before you decide to. Unless you're brave. I am by no means a chef!

Ingredients
1 pound Italian Sausage or leftover turkey pepperoni
1 sauteed onion- chopped
Mushrooms, if you like them
9 large eggs if you add mushrooms, 8 if not
pizza sauce - we're using leftover so I am not sure how much. Enough to make sure its all covered
1/4 cup milk 
1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp baking powder
shredded mozzarella 
foil cupcake liners
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
2. In a large saute pan, over medium high heat, brown Italian Sausage or saute pepperoni with onions and mushrooms for about 5 minutes (or until the sausage is no longer pink.) Then add pizza sauce
3. Whisk together eggs, milk, oil and baking powder.  
4. Line each cupcake slot with a foil liner. Spoon out the meat and veggie mixture evenly into each cupcake.
5. Ladle the egg mixture over meat and veggie mixture. 
6. Sprinkle mozzarella on top.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes.


Serve with salad (or you could do buffalo chicken)


Sunday you guys are on  your own, unless I do my shopping Saturday and come up with a meal plan. 
I am thinking of deeming this Menu Monday here on the blog. What do you think?


Stay tuned, lots of big projects in the works for the house this weekend. If we're lucky we'll also be adopting a sweet new dog. Lots of posts to talk about! 
Happy Cooking!