Make This: Slow Cooker Quinoa White Chicken Chili

Vacation is officially over.

Gone is the warm and sunny climate of New Orleans, Louisiana. It's been replaced with 45 mph wind gusts and a blizzard warning here in good ol' Illinois.  Thankfully, I don't have to head into work today because of the weather conditions! 

If I had the necessary ingredients my Slow Cooker Quinoa White Chicken Chili would the perfect accompaniment to this day.... Alas. The recipe is posted over on my friend Ashley's blog Messy Kennedy for you to enjoy! 

Slow Cooker Quinoa White Chicken Chili

Ingredients

1 medium onion, diced

2 jalapeno peppers, diced*

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 ½ teaspoons cumin

4 cups chicken broth or chicken stock

1 cup salsa verde

1 pound boneless and skinless chicken breasts, thawed

2 small zucchinis, chopped

1 15 oz. can white beans

½ cup quinoa, rinsed

1 teaspoon oregano

½ a lime, juiced

2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Place all the ingredients, except the lime and cilantro, into the pot of your slow cooker.  Cook on high for 3-4 hours.  Before serving, remove the chicken and shred it.  Return the chicken to the slow cooker along with the lime juice and cilantro. 

*I cleaned one pepper really well and left some of the seeds and ribs in the other for some spice!  

I’m lucky because Matt loves a good, hearty soup and this one is doesn’t require much else to go along with it since it’s loaded with veggies, beans and quinoa.  It really is easy to throw together in the slow cooker and go on about your business.  It’s a perfect, set it and forget it meal!  

Make This: Wine Cork Wreath

For the last several weeks, I've been participating in A Bowl Full of Lemons Home Organization Challenge.  To date, I've purged the kitchen, pantry and most recently our dining room.  The idea is to go through everrrryythinnnggg and rid your house of excess!  Challengers have a facebook page where organizational/functionality ideas are shared and it helps keep many of us accountable.  Sunday after I checked all the items off the list of things to do, I posted a picture on Instagram and in the facebook group to mark my weekly achievement. 

Fellow Challengers posted lovely comments about the room and the decorating style (which I'd sum up as: farmhouse, rustic and country) that we've chosen for our home.  I had questions about how I redid the chairs, the A-frame wine rack and if I had made the placemats, but folks were gaga over the wine cork wreath! Since there was such a genuine interest in how it was made, I promised a tutorial would appear on the blog this week.  So as promised....

Make This: Wine Cork Wreath

Items Needed:
Straw Wreath
Wine Corks
Toothpicks
Jute


Instructions:
First and foremost, do yourself a favor and leave the plastic wrapping on the wreath!  Your wreath will be full of corks and you won't even see it.  It's not worth the mess you'll have if you remove it. 

Cut a rather long piece of jute (or cord or some other heavy string), that will be how your wreath is hung up.  The length is purely your decision.  The jute in the tutorial was 22 inches long.  You'll double it up and lay it underneath your straw wreath.  Feed the tails through the loop at the top and finish by knotting the tails together, as shown.

Now, grab a wine cork and a toothpick.  You will carefully pierce the toothpick into one end of your cork.  You may have to wiggle the toothpick and hold your mouth just so to get it started...  Once you've got the toothpick attached to the cork, start placing the toothpicks into the straw wreath. 

You will continue the process of attaching the toothpick to the cork and place them into the wreath.  Place each cork close to it's neighbor so that you see very little of the straw wreath.  

Inevitably, you will have a toothpick break on you.  Just pull it out and start again.

As you continue to place the cork/toothpicks into the wreath you'll want to remember to fill in the middle and outside edge of the wreath. 

As I was creating this wreath several years ago, I had a couple friends saving corks for me.  I solemnly swear I didn't drink every bottle associated with each cork!  There was a point that I just started sticking the corks in the wreath and added to it as I came across more.  Just last week I added a few corks to a spot or two that was thin.  My wreath is always evolving!  I'd encourage you to jump right in and not wait until you have enough corks.  Honestly, I have no idea how many are enough...

Oh oh!!  Something else that's noteworthy... Depending on the size of your wreath it can get really HEAVY!!!  Seriously.  If you decide to hang it on your wall use an anchor or double-check it's hanging from a stud.  It would be really sad for your wall and your wreath if it came crashing down!

Go collect your supplies, open a bottle of wine because you'll need the cork and get crafting!

Make This: Pumpkin Protein Bites

During the fall, my work calendar is full of classroom presentations about pumpkins.  The best part of scheduling pumpkin presentations is making Pumpkin Patch Pie with the kids!  I find it funny to hear the chorus of "Ewws!" before they actually get to eat their snack, because almost every kiddo is asking for seconds when we're done!

Fun Fact: Illinois farmers grow more pumpkins than anyone else in the world!  

While I do enjoy Pumpkin Patch Pie, I was inspired by With Salt and Wit's recipe to make something a little more healthy.  These tasty nuggets of awesomeness are great for a mid-morning snack and also curb any cravings for sweets after supper! 

Pumpkin Protein Bites
Adapted from With Salt and Wit
Makes 18

Ingredients:
1/4 cup cashews
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1/4 cup canned pumpkin
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 cup Smucker's Reduced Fat Natural Creamy peanut butter or your preferred PB
1 package Advocare Vanilla MRS or approximately 60 grams of vanilla protein powder
2 tablespoons ground flax seeds
1 tablespoon chia seeds
2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Directions:
1.  Combine cashews and oats in a food processor or blender until they are a fine powder.
2.  Mix the pumpkin, maple syrup and peanut butter in a medium bowl until combined.
3.  Add the cashew/oat flour, MRS, ground flax seeds, chia seeds and pumpkin pie spice to the pumpkin mixture.  Stir with spoon to combine.  Note: You may need to get in there with your hands to really mix it well.
4.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
5.  Remove approximately one tablespoon of the 'dough' and form a bite sized ball between your palms.
6.  Eat those bad boys!

Store in the refrigerator for up to a week or freeze for later.

Are you pumpkin'd out yet this fall?

Get In My Belly. Recipes That Didn't Disappoint.

Hey folks!! 

So last time I gushed about all the handmade and personal touches that went into the baby shower that I hosted for my sister-in-law.  I still swoon over the pictures!  This post is dedicated to all the amazing recipes (and their creators) that were created. 

I'm telling you, do yourself a favor and find a reason (any reason) and make some or ALL of these!  You won't be sorry.

With the shower being at 2pm, I knew that I wanted to make some lighter snacky options that were both savory and sweet.  I scoured Pinterest and started pinning away.  The menu was narrowed down to three savory options, fresh fruit and dip and 2 desserts.  Along with the food, guests could choose between iced tea or punch. 

The savory dishes included:

Corn Muffin Thumbprints.  I followed Cristen's recipe to the letter and opted to top these thumbprints with Matt's homemade strawberry jam that he cans every year.  These little gals were delicious!  The honey butter and little bits of corn, woo! 

Fresh Fruit and Orange Creamsicle Dip.  Deliciousness abounds!  I'm a BIG lover of all things creamsicle and this was spot on.  For this recipe I did substitute fresh OJ for concentrate.  

The two other recipes... Blogger Fail.  No pictures.  Alas.  You'll just have to trust me and make them without the pictures.  I'm a trustworthy gal, promise.

This Pickle Wrap Dip tastes JUST LIKE those old school, painstakingly created Pickle Wraps.  My mom is a champion Pickle Wrap maker and finding a shortcut recipe was right up my alley!  I've made this dip several times and always add a splash or two of pickle juice just before stirring.  Extra pickle flavor never hurt nobody!  

At each table setting, I set a small paper cup of this Snack Mix.  I added garlic powder in lieu of the infused olive oil and also added some chili powder.  Initially, I was a little worried this might be more spicy than most of the group could take, but they all ponied up and loved it!

On to the desserts.  Oh, the desserts!

Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake and Mini Apple Tarts, oh my!  They were as delicious as they look.  The cake was epic!  Seriously.  I'm a sucker for the salted caramel phase that's going around and it paired great with vanilla ice cream.  I did end up doubling the chocolate frosting recipe.  Because well, it's frosting!  

The Mini Apple Tarts were a variation of this recipe.  I opted to use store bought pie crust and went with apple filling because I'd canned some last fall... that was delicious!  Is there any interest in having my write up all my adaptations and post this recipe?  Lemme know!

To wash down all these tasty treats, I served good ol' Lipton raspberry ice tea and punch. 

 

The punch was super-duper good, but I didn't follow the recipe to the letter.  Based on several of the reviews I decided to use raspberry sherbert instead of strawberry ice cream.  And I did float some limes and lemons!  It tasted great and obviously the color was spot on too!

Make This: Stenciled Burlap Placemats

When I was showboating with all the pictures of the peonies that I force bloomed, did anyone notice the burlap placemats on the dining room table? 
 

Cute, eh?  Say they're cute.

It probably safe to say that everyone knows that I'm a big fan of burlap!  Things like that happen when you buy a bolt of 100 yards, yes... one hundred, of it for your wedding and are still coming up with ways to use it almost five years later. 

I had originally pinned to my burlap board a similar tutorial, but when it came down to it I made some modifications based on what I had on hand.  The burlap that I have is actually landscaping burlap, not the burlap you'd get at Hobby Lobby or Michael's, which is why I modified the original tutorial.  Keep reading to see how I made mine!

Stenciled Burlap Placemats

Items Needed:
Burlap
Permanent Marker
Scissors
Stencil

Decide what you want your stencil to be.  Fire up your computer and print off those puppies.  I decided to do words, but a monogram would be cute too!  Use all caps or all lowercase, let your imagination run wild!

Cut your burlap to size.  Mine are 19"x14".  This is a super handy tip for cutting burlap and making sure you have a straight cut!

Create fray on each placemat.  I wanted to have a "frame" of frayed threads around each one.  To achieve this I pulled 4 strands out around each side.

Place the words/monogram/what-have-you underneath the burlap and use a permanent marker to copy the word from the paper to the burlap.  Remember, my burlap is landscaping burlap.  It has a really loose weave and is really easy to see through to the words below.  Just something to be aware of as you're crafting! 

Dress your table with your new placemats!

Is anyone else a sucker for burlap or is it just me? 

Make This: Breakfast Mug Muffin

For a while now my breakfasts have been either a smoothie or an Advocare MRS, but winter decided to show up in Illinois this week and cold drinks just weren't cutting it!

Enter this muffin.

It's quick and easy to throw together and it really helps chase away the chill on a cold morning.  I enjoy the taste and texture, but I'm most impressed with the "staying power" it has!  Typically I'm a mid-morning snacker, but yesterday I was presenting at a conference and didn't get hungry 'til around 11:30am.  It's a stick to your ribs sort of muffin!

After pulling the mug from the microwave, I split the muffin open on a plate and add a schmear of sunflower butter which gets all melty and delicious!  I'd be willing to bet some Nutella would be a bangin'...

If you give this recipe a whirl, be sure to come back and let me know what you think!

Breakfast Mug Muffin
Ada[ted from The Preppy Paleo

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons ground flax seed
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon melted coconut oil
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 banana, mashed
Vanilla protein powder*
Splash of almond milk**
Non-stick spray, I use my Pampered Chef Kitchen Spritzer filled with olive oil.

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a greased, microwave safe mug.  Cook on high for two minutes.  The muffin will puff in the microwave, don't be concerned. 

*The protein powder is optional, but I really like it in there!  Using the scoop provided in the powder, I fill it about halfway up.  It's just shy of 1/4 cup.
**Omit milk if not using protein powder.