DIY Felt Flowers - Part 2

I am having way too much fun with felt!  This was my first attempt at making hair bows with felt.  I'm sure there's room for improvement but I was happy with how they turned out for my first try.

I hot glue gunned all the pieces together.  The butterflies are actually buttons.  You can find lots of buttons at Joann's.  I also bought some cute beads at Joann's that I'm going to work with next.

On the back of the bow, I hot glue gunned Alligator clips to the flower and then I stuck a felt circle over the top of the clip to catch the excess glue.  


One word of warning: Be careful with the amount of hot glue you use; too much will melt the felt.


I think next time I'll try making hair bows with ribbon!  Stay tuned!

DIY Felt Flowers - Part 1

I really want to make a wreath for my front door.  I've seen a lot of cute spring wreath ideas on Pinterest that involve felt flowers, but I've never made them before.  So Step 1 is figuring out how to make felt flowers and Step 2 is figuring out how to put them on a wreath in a cute and tasteful way.  As I learned how to make felt flowers I realized that I couldn't fit this all in one post.  So let's start with the felt flowers.  All you'll need is felt, a glue gun and scissors.


The Simple Flower:
First lightly trace a circle on your felt and cut it out.  You don't want to make dark pen marks - if you can use a pen in the shade of your felt that would be best.  Also, the bigger the circle, the bigger the flower.  Then cut a spiral through the circle.  Cut out the small circle at the middle of your spiral like this:

Begin to roll your felt, starting at the outside of the spiral working your way to the center.

Glue gun the small end of the felt to the base of the flower.

Now we need to glue gun the small circle to the base of the flower.

You made your first felt flower!

The Flower with Petals:
To make this flower, you first have to trace a circle onto your felt and then draw petals around the circle.  Your petals don't have to be perfect - you won't be able to tell once it's rolled up.  Also, a bigger circle is better for this flower.

Cut out your flower and begin to cut a spiral into the circle.

Roll up your flower, starting at the outside of the circle.  Stop when there are no more petal to roll up.

Snip off the felt where the petals end and glue the felt to the flower.

You're almost done!  Glue the small circle to the base of the flower and there you have it!

The Fluffy Flower:
I wasn't sure what to call this one.  "Fluffy" sounds about right.  First you need to trace a flower shape onto paper.  I used quarters (and one nickel because I ran out of quarters) to make the shape.

Then cut out your shape...

...and trace it onto your felt.  I traced 6 flowers but you may only need 5 or you may need 7 depending on how big a flower you plan to make.  I only ended up needing 5.  You also need to cut out a circle.  The size of the circle will determine how big your flower is.

To make the flower, take one flower cut out and fold it in half...

 ...and then in half again.

Cut off the tip of the flower.

Put a bit of glue on the end of the flower where you just cut it and glue it to the small circle.

Repeat with the remaining flower shapes and fit as many on as you can to fill out your flower.

Stay tuned for Part 2 - I'm going to make some felt flower hair bows for my girls!

Cafe Rio Sweet Pork Enchiladas

When Tim and I got married we registered for these super sharp, cuts through metal knives from William-Sonoma along with a bunch of other expensive cookware.  I'm not sure why I wanted this stuff considering I didn't even know how to cook.  I sense that Tim is a bit nervous when I'm in the kitchen using those knives.  One time he told me that I should take a "Knife Safety Class".  He was totally serious.  Is there such a thing?  I wouldn't know because I never looked into it and now I've had to get stitches in two different fingers.  I try to be careful but some people (me) are just prone to these type of accidents.


That being said, I try to minimize the amount of cooking that I have to do.  This recipe is great because it makes 10 or 11 HUGE enchiladas which means we have left overs for 2 or 3 days!  I have to thank my friend, Jenna, for introducing me to Cafe Rio.  It has fed my family well.

Crock Pot Ingredients:

• 3 lbs pork tenderloin (have the butcher remove the silver skin)
• 1 can of Coke (we don't drink soda so I bought the cheapest can of cola and it worked just fine)
• ½ cup sugar
• 3-4 chopped bell peppers
• 1 chopped onion
• 7 oz can chipotle chilies in adobo sauce
• 1 tsp dry ground mustard
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp minced garlic

Black Beans and Rice Ingredients:

• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can corn, drained and rinsed (Tim added this at the last minute)
• 2 cups long grain white rice
• ½ bunch cilantro (I didn't have any so we just left it out)
• 1 lime

Other Ingredients:

• ½ cup shredded Mexican cheese
• 1 can La Victoria Green Chile Enchilada Sauce
• 10 flour tortillas

Instructions:

• Remove the chilies from adobo sauce and empty sauce into crock pot.  My trick is to use the soda to wash the sauce from the chilies into the crock pot, then wash out the can with the remaining soda.  That way you get all the adobo sauce.  Also, if you want your enchiladas to be a bit spicy, dice up a tablespoon or two of the chilies and add it to the crock pot.

• Add the remaining Crock Pot Ingredients above to the crock pot, putting the meat in last.
• Cook for 4-6 hours on high or 7-9 hours on low.

• Pull the meat apart using 2 forks and let it cook in the sauce for the last hour.
• Make your rice according the package instructions.  Add the cilantro to the rice while still cooking and squeeze fresh lime juice over rice, then mix lightly.
• Once the meat is done cooking, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray 2 9x13 inch pans with Pam.

• Remove the contents of the crock pot with tongs and place in a dish, draining the liquid into the crock pot.
• Splash a bit of water on each tortilla, stack them on top each other and wrap them in a damp paper towel.  Microwave the tortillas for about 1 minute.  This will make them easier to wrap.

• Fill the tortilla shells with rice, meat, corn and beans and cheese.
• Close the tortilla shell by folding in both ends to seal and place in baking dish with fold side down.  Tim is our semi-professional enchilada wrapper.  Here's his demo:

Beautiful!

• Use a spoon to cover with green chile enchilada sauce (not too much or the tortilla will be soggy) and cheese.  
• Bake for 20 minutes.
• To save the leftovers, cover the baking dish with plastic wrap and foil and refrigerate.

These things are huge!  One easily fills me up, but chips and salsa is a good side to put with it.

Happy 100th Birthday Oreo Cookie!

We love Oreos!  I never thought I'd be the mom that always had Oreos on hand in the pantry but I do.  My little one, Sidney (who's not so little anymore - she just turned 2 years old!), has a dairy, egg and nut allergy.  Needless to say, there are very few treats that she can eat.  Oreos, surprisingly enough, are okay (what is the cream filling made of???) and she LOVES them.  


Back story on why we love Oreos so much:
Sidney had some growth problems about a year ago - she wasn't gaining enough weight - and landed in the hospital for "failure to thrive".  She'd go through these cycles where she'd get sick, stop eating and lose weight.  She also had some feeding issue and food texture issues that caused more problems getting healthy food in her.  We did everything we could to put weight on her.  Oreos definitely helped!  We let her eat Oreos after lunch and dinner every day.  At 2 years old and 10 months after the "failure to thrive" incident at Children's Hospital, Sidney is still a little peanut weighing in at just 19 pounds (while wearing clothes and shoes), but she's doing great and eating lots of healthy foods to compensate for her Oreo addiction!


In honor of Sidney's 2nd birthday and Oreo's 100th birthday, I am sharing my FAVORITE, MOST DELICIOUS, MELT IN YOUR MOUTH, SIDNEY-FRIENDLY, Oreo Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.  Enjoy!

*** I adapted this recipe from For the Love of Cooking.  The picture just above is from this website also.

Sidney-Friendly Oreo Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 stick dairy-free butter, softened (I use Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks)
• ¼ cup + 2 Tbsp sugar 
• ¼ cup + 2 Tbsp brown sugar 
• 1½ tsp Ener-G Egg Replacer + 2 Tbsp warm water, combined thoroughly before adding to the mix (if you would rather use eggs, add 1 egg)
• ½ tsp vanilla 
• 1¼ cups flour 
• ½ tsp baking soda 
• ½ tsp salt 
• 8 Oreo cookies, broken into pieces 
• ½ cup dairy-free chocolate chips (I use Enjoy Life Mini Chips)

Note:
You can find all the dairy and egg free products at Whole Foods.

Instructions:

1. Adjust oven rack to the middle position.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. In a large bowl, beat together butter, white sugar, brown sugar, egg replacer and vanilla until creamy.
4. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt in large bowl and mix thoroughly. 
5. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet and mix. 
6. Add chocolate chips and crushed Oreos, stir until just combined.
7. Drop by the spoonful onto the cookie sheet. 
8. Bake for 7–9 minutes, or until golden brown, but still soft. 
9. Let cool on baking sheet 3 minutes before transferring to cookie rack.

This is BY FAR my favorite cookie!  The Oreos help keep the cooking staying fresh and chewy.  Enjoy!

Pre-K Workbook

The girls and I have been sick with colds/viruses/ear infections (and me with the stomach flu this weekend) for the past few weeks - ugh.  It's gotten so bad that we had to postpone Sidney's second birthday party that was supposed to be this past weekend.  It's better off.  Ava is still coughing a juicy cough, Sidney is starting to get sick with a runny nose and cough and all I did was lay in bed all weekend, eat Saltines and drink Ginger Ale.


When I'm sick, all I want to do is sit in the shower for hours.  The girls and I have done A LOT of that lately.  It can get crowded in the shower, so to keep them from fighting we play games.  Lately, we get the shower doors all steamed up and write on them.  Sidney likes to be quizzed on shapes and Ava likes to write out the alphabet on the shower doors.  Her "finger" writing has improved over the past few months so I thought it was time to practice with a pen on paper.

I found the Alphabet and Number Handwriting Worksheets on the First-School website.  This website has lots of great free printables related to early childhood education.  I printed out the pages and put them in sheet protectors in a binder so that Ava can use a dry erase pen and reuse them.

Simple Salmon Dinner

I've been told that I was a very picky eater as a child.  My staples were cereal, hot dogs (until the food poisoning incident at Disney World) and grilled cheese sandwiches.  My family still jokes about how they'd have to special order me a grilled cheese sandwich at McDonald's (cheese burger hold the burger).  To this day, I still won't eat hamburgers.  I tried one when I was in college and it just confirmed why I don't care for them.  Ground meat grosses me out!  I realize hot dogs are basically random meat pieces smashed together but until the Disney incident, I didn't mind them.


As I have gotten older my tastes have changed for the better. I have found that I like a lot of healthy foods.  I try to be conscious about what I eat and what I feed my family.  Tim and I have been trying to eat more fish lately.  The great thing about this meal is that it's super easy to prepare and I don't dirty up a single pot or pan!

Here are the ingredients you'll need:

• 2 6-8 oz portions of fish (I chose fresh salmon because it was on sale.  Also, see my note below the ingredients)
• 4 tsp. olive oil, divided
• 1 large lemon
• 2 sweet potatoes
• 1 bunch asparagus
• Salt and ground pepper
• Whole grain bread (optional)

Note:

• My mother-in-law sent me a link to this helpful pocket guide to buying seafood from the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  Click here and then click "Download Pocket Guides" then click on the area of the map where you're located.  I keep this in my purse to reference when I'm grocery shopping.

Instructions:

• At least two hours before dinner, wash the sweet potatoes and poke holes in them with a fork or knife.  Double wrap each sweet potato in foil (if you don't double wrap, the sweet potatoes will likely leak out all over your oven.  Bake the sweet potatoes at 450 degrees for 2 hours (or more, you really can't over cook a sweet potato).
• About 30 minutes before dinner, reduce the oven heat oven to 375 degrees and line two baking sheets with foil.

• Wash and dry the asparagus and cut the ends off.  Place the asparagus in a plastic bag with 2 tsp of olive oil and salt and ground pepper to taste.   Seal the bag and shake up the asparagus to coat it. 

• Spread the asparagus over the foil-lined baking sheet so there are no overlapping pieces.
• Wash the salmon and pat dry with paper towels.  Place the salmon on the foil-lined baking sheet and rub 1 tsp of olive oil on each piece of salmon - just use your hands.

• Wash the lemon and slice it into thin slices.  Place the lemon slices over the salmon.

• Slice your bread and wrap it in foil.  I love the Seeduction bread from Whole Foods!
• Remove the sweet potatoes from the oven and place the salmon on the top rack.  Cook for 15-20 minutes at 375 degrees depending on the thickness of your salmon.  I usually take the salmon out after 15 minutes and cut into the middle to see if it's ready.
• With about 10 minutes of cook time left on the salmon, place the asparagus and bread in the oven and cook for 10 minutes at 375 degrees.  The asparagus should be crisp.  If you have thin asparagus, you may only need to cook them for 5 minutes.  They cook fast.
• Serve the bread with olive oil and vinegar and enjoy!

Now if only I could get my kids to start eating salmon!  Let me know if you have any suggestions.