Day 7 - Quinoa Mac and Cheese

Up until making this dish I never liked Quinoa, despite its healthy attributes.  I had it a few times when I belonged to a gym that had a café in it, and every time I was disappointed.  It turns out, it was because they were making it wrong!  It was almost always crunchy and just icky.  When I made it last night, it wasn’t crunchy at all, and in fact, was pretty tasty.  I always like finding comfort food recipes that you can make healthier versions of because I want the yumminess of having something I love but not with all the fat and calories. 

I found the pin below a long time ago and have never tried it.  Mac and Cheese is a weekly favorite in our house, but Quinoa or any new “super food” is always a gamble with my husband.  I decided that this challenge was an excellent excuse to make him eat it.  HA!  Our 13 month old absolutely loved it, which I was delighted by.  Quinoa will soon be in regular rotation in our house!

Source: aroundthetableri.blogspot.com via Erin on Pinterest

So here’s what I did, I put some oil in a heavy sauce pan, heated up my broccoli.  Then I added the Quinoa and some garlic to get it toasty for about 5 minutes over medium heat.  I added 3 cups of water, but you can add chicken broth if you like for more flavor, and some Cajun seasoning.  During this time I pre-heated the oven to 400 degrees (the instructions said 350, but I was in a little bit of a hurry as our toddler needed to eat) and prepped my Pyrex with some olive oil.  I put a lid on my Quinoa mixture and let it reduce for about 15 minutes, stirring every once in a while.  I let it cool for 5 minutes.  During the cooling phase, I mixed ½ cup egg beaters to 1 cup of milk.  After 5 minutes, I dumped 2 cups of reduced fat shredded cheddar and the milk/egg mixture into my skillet, mixed it up, and poured it into the square Pyrex dish. I topped with Panko Bread crumbs and popped it into the oven for 25 minutes. 

Here’s the yummy goodness straight out of the oven. 

Reviews were mixed.  Remi loved it and ate a lot.  Mike said it was “Ok, but it’s Quinoa” whatever that means.  I thought it was a tasty, healthier option for one of my favorite comfort foods.  I think it’s worth repeating since it wasn’t terribly difficult to make and for the three of us it leaves some good leftovers for another night of the week when we’re busy but need a healthy option. 

Day 5 - Pumpkin Wreath

Halloween and Christmas are my most favorite times of the year.  Both holidays let grown adults feel like kids again, and I truly enjoy the feeling of magic or mystical happenings.  With a toddler around, I’ve been finding my time has been going by much more quickly than it used to, so I have decided to try to get a bit of a jump start on Halloween festivities.  I found the following pin while doing a search for DIY Halloween decorations.  This pumpkin looks so adorable and it should really stand out on our “every other townhouse looks like this townhouse” exterior.

            

Source: erin--elizabeth.blogspot.com via Erin on Pinterest

This inspiration was actually pretty challenging.  I had trouble finding orange mesh in the size recommended in the pin, so I purchased a wider spool and cut it down, which took up some time, and also made doing this project in the presence of our son pretty difficult.

Once I got going here's the progress...

Here's my hook and latch canvas.  I attached it to the inner part of an embroidery hoop using floral wire.

Then I cut the canvas down to size.

Here's the  10" piece of mesh (4" wide) and pipe cleaner.  I later realized I needed to cut the piper cleaners in half.   

                                            

Roll up the mesh, bend the pipe cleaner around it as tight as possible.

Start looping the mesh into the hook and latch canvas.  You can make it as concentrated or loose as you want depending on how you want your pumpkin to look.

For day 5, this as far as I got.  Our son took his first steps today, which distracted me a bit from getting it totally completed.  I think I might have about another 45-60 minutes left on this, after spending roughly 2 hours on it already. It's a bit tedious, but I think it looks super cute.  I'll post more pictures later of how it looks on our front door.

Bonus!

Here it is...the bonus pin.  I have a cupcake challenge at work tomorrow and I hope these fair well! It's a wheat cupcake that basically tastes like a buckwheat pancake topped with a caramel maple frosting and a little slice of bacon because, let's be honest folks, bacon makes everything better.  The frosting was the only tricky thing about this recipe because I'm not very good with making caramel, but I think I did a decent job here. See below for the link to the recipe/pin.  And feast your eyes upon my tasty treat!

Link

Day 4 - Chicken Enchilada-Stuffed Pasta Shells

This activity should definitely benefit my family.  So for tonight's pinspiration, I decided to make some chicken enchiladas, but with a twist.  Instead of tortillas, I used pasta shells, yummy!

The link for the pin is also listed below.  I followed the instructions except for the protein.  The recipe called for ground beef or turkey, but I used ground chicken instead.  

First, I sprayed non-stick cooking spray, then poured about a 1/2 cup of enchilada sauce.  Then I stuffed the shells with the chicken/re-fried bean mixture and added them to the dish.

Poured more enchilada sauce over the top!

Covered it with foil before baking.  This is important!  You don't want your noodles to dry out.

After baking the shells for about 25 minutes, I took the foil off and covered in a Fiesta cheese blend.

Baked for 5 more minutes.  Whenever I make anything with cheese on top, I like to broil it for a couple minutes because I like the cheese to be a little golden brown on top.

And there you go!  Chicken enchilada-stuffed pasta! I topped with fresh cilantro and sour cream.  The family really enjoyed it.  Our one year old gobbled up two completely on his own! It took about an hour start to finish and the end product was really satisfying. I would definitely recommend this recipe.

Link to the Pasta Enchiladas

Stay tuned...you may get a bonus pinspiration in the next 12 hours.....

Day 3 - Braided Updo

As any Mom can tell you, time to get ready in the morning, or ever for that matter, is precious.  No one likes a pony tail every day of the week though.  I've spent a lot of time looking for new hair tricks on Pinterest to keep from doing the pony tail thing 5 days a week at work, and found some really easy ones.  I am by no means a hairdresser, and oftentimes require some practice before I can go out in public with a new hairstyle. I really like the following braided style, and it's relatively easy to pull off without a huge learning curve.

My hair isn't as long as the girl's hair in the pin and I have a lot of layers, so some pieces stick out, but can easily be hidden with bobby pins and hair spray.  I also did not rubber band the top of my braids.  I tried it, but the end result was rubber bands you could see, not a good look.

Since my braids aren't quite as long as the pin, I opted to roll the center braid up, towards the top of my head, then I rolled the ends of my side braids toward the middle braid.  Once I figured out I didn't want to use hair bands at the top, this style took about 5 minutes to complete.  I would definitely recommend it as an alternative to a pony tail.

Day 2 - Pampering in a Jar

Today, I decided I would like to do something for someone I know is having a stressful week and may have a couple stressful weeks ahead of her. I love mason jars, and I love the idea of giving a little thoughtful gift in a mason jar.  So I decided to utilize the pin for creating a little pampering gift in a mason jar.  It was a quick, easy project and, I think, will make my friend feel appreciated when she gets it.

I already had some mason jars left from our son's first birthday party.  The rest of the goods I found at Target.  I got fuzzy socks, stress-relief travel lotion, Burt's Bees lip balm, and Lindt's chocolate truffles.  You could really put anything you think would fit in a mason jar if you like.

I gathered all my goodies together.

I added them all to the jar.  I will admit, this was a bit tricky to fit 4 truffles in there along with a lotion and socks.  I think in the future, I may find a different sized lotion or bubble bath to put in there, or possibly a bigger mason jar.  :)

Then I added a bit of ribbon. I tied around some ribbon I had, punched out a circle and fleur de lis from some pink card stock, and added them to the top of the jar.  I think it looks pretty cute, don't you?  I think this is such a great little idea for a friend, co-worker, or even family member when you know they might be having a little extra stress in their life.  It's simple, relatively inexpensive, and thoughtful.  I really hope it goes over well!! I'll post a follow-up comment when I find out.  

Day 1 - T-Shirt Scarf

A long, long time ago, when Pinterest was new and I had no idea how much time I would devote to finding the best inspirations, I pinned the instructional video below via hellogiggles.com.  It was my very first one, and I fully intended to do it.  I even said to my friend, Jackie, "Hey, these are awesome, we totally need to get together and have a craft night!".  Fast forward to nearly a year later, and I still had not made my t-shirt scarf from an old, unneeded piece of cotton.  I also still have not had my craft night with her.  Jackie, if you're reading this, we still need a couple bottles of Asti, a bunch of Pinterest activities, and all the necessary goods to create them for an entire day of crafting goodness.

Okay, let's get down to business.  Since I had the idea to do this blog, I have been debating what my first pin would be to tackle.  I thought about a hair trick, a cleaning tip (which I am sure my husband would have been very glad to hear was my first pick), making something for the baby, but in the end I decided to go back to the beginning, back to the very first inspiration I found, the t-shirt scarf! My husband should be happy about this too because rather than unworn t-shirts sitting up on a shelf taking up much-coveted space, they can be re-born into a new accessory!  Basically, the inspiration behind this pin was that I like doing crafty things, I have a ton of old t-shirts, and it seemed like a pretty quick, inexpensive project.

First, I found an old white t-shirt.  I have a few of these that are too big because when I was pregnant last summer, it was the most comfortable thing to put on when I got home from work.  Then I got some scissors for cutting fabric and an old bracelet I found in a drawer.

 

Next, I followed the instructions in the Pin.  I cut off the top portion of the shirt from armpit to armpit.
 

Then, I trimmed off the bottom hem of the shirt.

The last use of my scissors was in cutting strips for the loops of the scarf.  The video suggested doing no smaller than one inch, so that's what I did.

Finally, I pulled each loop to stretch it out, gathered at the "spine" of the scarf, wrapped around the fabric from the hem of the shirt, and attached the bracelet.  Tadaa!!! The first day of my Pinterest Challenge has been completed.  I would definitely recommend this project, it's quick, easy, no sewing-machine required, and best of all, an inexpensive way to add to your accessory wardrobe. Writing this piece took me longer than making the scarf, so what are you waiting for? Go find an old t-shirt already!