Tea Holders

I made these cute tea holders for 2 reasons. First, if you look in my purse, there is always a bag of tea...heaven forbid I get somewhere and they not have tea for me to drink. And second, I needed to make a quick cute gift for my MOPs table. These were fun and turned out adorable. I originally saw these on Lolly Chops. Click here to see her version. She also has a link to a fabric made one. Cute cute cute. She has a pattern you can download there and you can also view the fabric ones from her website. The one on the left shows what it looks like inside and here is a close up:

These were lots of fun for our February meeting and you could do these in any color for any month. Or put chocolate in them. Tuck them in your purse and you have a cute tea/chocolate holder for just in case.

Note: Okay so the pictures aren't the best but the colors are pink, brown, and cream. They are way cuter in person than in picture. I'll try to get some better pics.

Life as a Mom

Okay, so I'm looking at my blog and realized I have not posted much lately. So, be patient, I'm working on it. It's just been such a busy month and I don't need to tell you that because all moms are busy....right?

There is this myth that if you are a stay at home mom that you are actually home. HA HA HA! Who titled us stay at home mom's anyway? My new title is Chief Home Officer. I like it...or do you have a better one? I just know some days I feel like a CEO and some days I feel like an administrative assistant but I'm highly underpaid and overworked.

Between MOPS (Mother's of Preschoolers), Volunteering at the school, baseball (this year is my first with being an assistant to the coaches with my fabulous friend Karalee), soccer, bible study, housework, dog, 2 boys, babysitting, husband (or should I say 3rd child), scheduling appointments, reinventing cooking as I knew it to gluten free, oh and running a business....I'm not complaining but something has to give...so the housework has really given and the blog writing has also taken a back seat.

But stay tuned, I have some cute things to post as soon as they get done and I get pictures of them up! I can't wait to show you. I will have my chore chart pics up, I will also have my scrapbook tea holders to post and, my Velcro Mr. Potato Head. Okay, those will all make more sense when you see them.....I promise!

Crockpot Salsa Chicken

I love it when dinner turns out to be good and it was by accident. Here is what we did tonight and got rave reviews all around. Even my husband who claims to hate chicken ate a good size portion.

What you need:
4 - 6 Boneless Skinless Rinsed Chicken Breast (Mine were frozen--straight from freezer)
8 oz Salsa (I had about 1/2 a jar of Pace Picante)
1/2 Cup Shredded Pepper Jack and Cheddar Cheese Combined

1. Place chicken in crockpot and pour salsa on top.
2. Cook on high 4-6 hours or until chicken is fork tender and easily shreds.
3. Once the chicken is done, carefully place cheese on top of chicken place lid on top let melt. This took about 5 minues.

I served this with Spanish rice (out of the box-Zataran's brand), sour cream, corn and, jalapeno poppers. Recipe for poppers to follow. Oh and I used the left over poppers mix and through it in the crockpot last minute to make a thicker creamier sauce. But you wouldn't have to do this. This was an afterthought after we started eating.

Jalapeno Poppers

Okay, so I really cheated on these. I have a recipe for them that is pretty easy from The Pioneer Woman but I didn't have all the ingredients for them. I had about 2oz of cream cheese, 4 jalapenos, and cut up a few slices of pepper jack and cheddar cheese.

Slice Jalapenos in half and clean out. Mix cream cheese w/the pepper jack and cheddar. Place inside the halved jalapenos and bake 350 for 30 minutes. They were super easy and delicous. I topped them with a little sour cream after..heck why not add a little more cream?

Note: This meal was completely gluten free. I checked and double checked the rice and couldn't find gluten in it. So, I recommend checking your spanish rice and even your salsa if it's out of a box before just taking my word for it. And of course, if you use blended cheeses you need to check as well because sometimes the already shredded blended cheeses have gluten in them.

This would be a fabulous freezer meal! Just place chicken and salsa in a bag for later. I would shred the cheese and place in another bag so that you had it ready to roll.

Painting With Water? (Ages 1-7)

I'm the first to admit that there are times my kids just need to be busy and let me get things done. We've used this activity since they were old enough to walk. And in our house that was very early (9 months). And I don't really what age this becomes uninteresting for them because my 6 1/2 year old still loves it!

What you need: a paint brush (any kind), a bucket or bowl, water. That's it!

Send them outside and have them paint the house, the fence, the concrete, their bikes, whatever they want. Afterall, it's just water and probably can't hurt much. Make sure you explain to them what is off limits. Like my car is offlimits to the kids "painting." I don't want hand marks all over my windows should they reach that high.

My favorite is when they paint the concrete. It changes color when water hits it so they really think they are painting :). Try it! It really works.