Call me a cooking fool!!

So for those who know me know I am NOT a chef..but with needed to cut back on spending I need to actually cook food for my family instead of heating up something frozen, or what we do most often, eat out. So I've really been into looking for crock pot recipes because for 1, they are simple and hardly any work and 2 because they can be oober cheap. So I'm searching and searching and I find a lot of chicken but I want to use hamburger meat so I stumble upon this one (HERE) from foodonthetable.com {great website and awesome app for your phone}

Well I was drawn to the recipe because it says "Easy". Easy is good, I can do easy..lol AND I actually had the ingredients (well I didn't have chile beans but I posted in my awesome Murphy Canyon Mama's group [Military community where I live] and asked if I could sub them for black beans, which I have an abundance of, and they said yes)

{for those who want the recipe here it is, just in case you can't get to the website} :

Easy Crock Pot Chili

Servings: 6  
Ready In: 7 hours 20 minutes 
Prep Time: 10 minutes 
Cook Time: 10 minutes 
Wait Time: 7 hours

Ingredients

• 1 (15 1/2 ounce can) mild chili beans {*I subbed for black beans*}
  
• 1 (15 1/2 ounce can) hot chili beans {*I subbed for black beans*}
  
• 2 (pound) ground beef
• 1 (12.0 ounce jar) salsa
• 1 (10.0 ounce bottle) ketchup
• 1 (medium) onion, chopped {*didn't use cause A. I don't have any and B. because I'm not an onion fan which is why I don't have any*}
• {*I also added some Tabasco sauce, just a little right now, and maybe more afterwards*}

Directions

1. Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add ground beef and onion; cook until beef is cooked through, approximately 8-10 minutes. Drain meat and add to crock-pot. Add remaining ingredients to crockpot. Set the temperature to high and cook for 6 hours.
2. Reduce heat to low and let simmer for another 1-2 hours.  

So anywho...I didn't realize I had to brown the meat first but that really wasn't a huge deal...here is a pic of everything you need and then all the ingredients all together ready to start cooking.

 (excuse all the mess in the background, that is the boys' playroom)

it's cooking right now and smells sooo yummy (will update the blog later after it's done with how it turned out)

Also for breakfast I made the boys waffles (proud of me cause usually Jason makes them because the couple times I have I have messed up royally, this time I actually didn't)

(it made 3 full waffles but the boys already had gotten into them before I finished all three and could take a pic lol)

So I feel like a pretty good mama right now cooking and being all domesticated and shtuff..lol

Pinterest Cooking

Okay so as we all know by now (and by self proclamation) I am a pinterest addict, I mostly do crafts and diy decorations but I do have a whole board on food...now I am also not a cook in the very least, I hate it, I hate making a mess and I hate cleaning it up. I am trying to start using the crock pot more because its supposed to be super easy and a good penny saving meal thingy lol  So I came upon this pin today (Crockpot Chicken Tacos) and thought hmm..3 ingredients, hey I've got those..that is what we shall have for dinner tonight :) Only things I would change is to add some more something..lol (told you I wasn't a cook) I was thinking some spice like hot sauce or something but my friend tried teh same thing, and thought the same thing, and tried the hot sauce and she said it didn't help...she suggested onions and peppers..who knows, but all in all it was really yummy. Hubby and the kiddos liked it and ate it so that is all that matters! :) Now she also made tacos and I didn't have any tortillas so I decided to make Nachos. (I will share with you have I make mine for a quick an easy yet yummy nacho from the microwave later on in the blog)

So anyways I did what the recipe says except I used two packages of chicken breasts from Costco. They are 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts but like really big, I usually cut them in half, if not more when I cook them. So she wanted us to use 6 but I didn't want to make that much. I still used the 16oz of salsa and the one package of taco seasoning and it worked fine. I wanted to cook mine on low so it would be ready for when hubby came home. She suggests 6-8 hours on low, I set my timer for 7 hours and my friend had me check on it (to see how if it was ready) and it turns out it was and the timer still had 53 min on it. I was actually really surprised in how it literally shred apart as I stirred it with a fork, some pieces I had to really try but not much..(oh I also forgot to mention my chicken breasts were all still a tiny bit frozen, I defrosted them before hand but not entirely) This is it after it was done and I finished mixing it all up:

 This is my nachos before cooking. My secret to making them is adding a tiny bit of cheese to the bottom of the bowl, add a small handful of chips and then add some of the meat (in this case the chicken) and then add another little bit of cheese, then repeat, another small handful of chips, some meat and more cheese on top.

  Put it in the microwave for 2 min and then tada..

 Crunchy chips with yummy chicken and cheesy goodness! Add sour cream and YUMM! Dinner at my house!

Bestest best best best way to display your kid's art

 (our display as of today..Kam's pics are on the bottom and and my "art loving" Liam's are on top, and no he didn't do the family one, that one is mine don't judge me lol I was bored when they were painting one day)

Okay let me start off by saying the minute I saw this I fell in love and a day later was gathering the supplies!!!

Here is the inspiration pin: Kids art display

Basically I just followed the directions she has. I didn't want to paint my wood though, I liked it wood color lol

Our measurements differ from hers though because I got longer wood to fill up all of the wall in the playroom but same amount of clips. I got the clothes pins from Dollar tree and the wood at Lowes, and the wooden shapes from Michaels..(man I wish they paid me or gave me free stuff for dropping their names ha ha ha)

Anyways here are a bunch of pics that I took while my super awesome hubby made it (I did the hot gluing, the clothes pins to the boards and the shapes to the clothes pins)!!

(So I was so into watching him put it all together I totally forgot to take pictures of the first display so there is a pic of just that one and then the rest are of the second display being put together..sorry lol)

 First display done with a couple of the boy's drawings.

 Jason drilling the holes.

 Screwing it all to the wall

 Measuring and marking where all the clips will go (notice the x in one of the pictures below, love him)

 Laid out the order I want the shapes to go (sorry for the sideways pic)

 Hot gluing my lines for the clothes pins (see the awesome x hubby made for me)

 Clothes pins on

 Shapes added

Closer picture of the shapes on the clips

I did try to "hide" the clothes pins on some of them by putting the largest and longest parts of some of the shapes on them but I like seeing some of them too..I'm really into the whole "homemade" look and I like things to look "made" instead of "perfect" {ooo quotation mark overload """"""""""" lol}

Anyways I absolutely adore it and want more!! lol I did make sure we hung it high enough so the boys couldn't pull on the pages because I know they would be all over the floor if they could reach now. Maybe when we move to our new house I will add more displays as they will be older and hopefully less destructive lol 

Father's Day pinterest craft projects 2012

Hey guys so I said in another blog that I had done some father's day crafts with the boys but I couldn't share them yet because hubby is nosey {lol} and would see them before he is supposed to so here is the blog with the quick craft roundup.

First one we did was inspired by this pin: Handprint Tree

First I drew the tree trunk and branches

Now in no way do I consider myself an artist..lol I can't paint or draw for crap but I don't think this came out too bad..I just took the little foam brushes and the paint and kinda dragged it...(oh did I mention I got to use one of my awesome canvases that is already primed {LOVE}

Then I put some paint on paper plates and took the kid's hands and voila

So I didn't get as many hand prints as I wanted due to Liam refusing to participate (his hand prints are the blue ones (notice all the smudging lol) the green and yellow ones are Kam's (he actually had fun) Now if anyone can tell me how they can get the **perfect** hand prints that are from the original pins I would appreciate it. I practiced with Kam on regular paper first and you know it just doesn't happen lol I think it's cute, I want to add words but still need to figure out what I have that I can use.

Second project inspired by this pin: Rock paper weight

So if you know my kids you know they LOVE collecting rocks, no matter where we are so when I saw this I knew it would be perfecto! So we went to the playground and collected as many tiny rocks as we could. Then I laid them all out on the table to spell out my saying.

(sorry about the crappy pic, it was really shady where we were crafting outside)

I followed the directions from the original pin to make my dough and rolled it out and everything and then proceeded to add my rocks (since I added "our" I had to condense some letters and didn't use all the ones I had originally laid out. This is it before I put it in the oven:

 not too shabby..and this is it after it "finished" cooking:

Now I put 'finished' in quotes because after I had let it cool and everything when I was removing it I noticed it was still soft in the middle on the bottom and when I took it off some of it stayed on the sheet so now there is a chink missing on the bottom (still good, just not perfectly smooth and flat on the bottom) So I would recommend cooking it a bit longer..

Third project was his card, this is the inspiration pin: Candy Card

So I thought this was the cutest thing so I went and collected all the candies I could find following this cute story (I wasn't able to find now and later so I left that part out but I did add my own things at the end) I just bought a foam board from the dollar store so it would be sturdy enough to hold all the candies and used double sided tape to secure them.

It says: Dad, we were going to give you a {whopper}ing {100 grand} for Father's Day but the money slipped through our {butterfinger}s. We didn't have an {extra} {whatchamacallit} to sell and it wasn't {payday}. We didn't think a pet {kitkat}, a trip to New {york} or an {orbit} around the {milky way} would be appropriate . We do want to wish you {mounds} of {almond joy} as you eat this card. We hope it doesn't make you {rolo}ver and get sick. If it does we promise not to {snickers}. {kisses}oxo your {3 musketeers} AKA your {sweett(he)art} and your Irish {Twix}ns! Oh and {Reeses Pieces}

it came out okay, jumbled it a little bit, doing it again I would make it neater and probably do it on two poster boards just to give it extra space. Two days before father's day Kamden got into the Reeses peices so that one was messed up by the time Jason got it but he laughed and still thought it was cute. I like the way it came out and I like my add ons :)

This next pinterest project wasn't a father's day gift, just an art project but since it's Daddy related I figure I would post it here. Link to pin: Following in Daddy's shoes

I took one of Jason's boots (old work ones he now uses for when he rides his motorcycle) and generously painted the bottoms with paint (pain in the but because all the paint gets caught up in the crevices)
Here is my final product: [notice I am using the BEST and cutest way to display the kid's artwork..read my blog post on it HERE]

(I used a cardstock piece of paper and it came out eh. I had issues with his boot actually leaving a print and then I outlined it because it looked worse without it, then Kamden was the only one I could get to do it (Liam refused as usual and I was not in the mood to fight him lol) I will probably try this again another time maybe when Liam has more interest in painting and stuff... oo oo I almost forgot another pin I tried [along the same lines] as this one...

Here is the inspiration pin: Handprint painting

Once again Liam refused but I made one of Me and Kam and Daddy and Kam here are the pics:

 Daddy and Kamden

Mommy and Kamden

They came out okay, I just used old scrap book pages (notice the holes on top) because I ran out of plain cardstock and figured why not, once Liam lets me get his hand prints I will make a big collage with the 4 prints and put them together in one frame (almost like this one HERE, blocked out like that but with opposite hands)

Well that concludes this blog..now to go write up the one for the kid's art display so I can add the link lol {just call me a slacker, I thought I had already done it..woops} Thanks for reading!! :)

Quick pinterest recap with links

So I just wanted to recap the many pinterest projects I have attempted in the past week or so :) along with their links so you can try them to if you'd like. Some of these I thought would be fun to do with the kids but they mostly consisted of me yelling things like "no, don't touch that", "KAMDEN" or "LIAM" "stop", "quit hitting your brother" and oh so many more things lol Then I start doing a project where I actually need their help (say a hand print or foot print) and they refuse...ughh..lol so here is just a small list of pictures and the links to go with them.

Crayon Art:

 ( http://pinterest.com/pin/39617671692486397/ also check out my blog on it: http://misapie28.blogspot.com/2012/05/crrafty-day.html )

Pottery Barn inspired $1 store mirror

 (http://pinterest.com/pin/39617671692468075/  I <3 Dollar store crafts!! I actually made two of these but I broke one of the mirrors on the other one so I'm still trying to figure out if I have to take the whole thing apart and replace the mirror or if I can do something else in the frame. Have any suggestions? Leave a comment here!!)

Artwork display for Playroom

 ( http://pinterest.com/pin/39617671692467585/ LOVE, will be doing a blog post on this soon) 

Crib turned art desk (Work in progress)

( http://pinterest.com/pin/39617671692159801/ ADORE this, saw this project a few months ago and debated on wether or not to sell Kamden's crib or make it into this, guess which one won lol Now I'm still working on it, just sooo excited I had to share...I am also going to be making my own chalk board paint using this pin: http://pinterest.com/pin/39617671692488195/ )

Last but certainly not least:

Button monogram art:

 (I have pinned quite a few pages that did this so here are a few:

 http://pinterest.com/pin/39617671691567968/

http://pinterest.com/pin/39617671691775861/

http://pinterest.com/pin/39617671692473503/

http://pinterest.com/pin/39617671692486340/

http://pinterest.com/pin/39617671692492898/ )

Oh, one is a secret because it is for Father's day (with more to come) so after June 16 I can post pictures. Also I will probably do a more drawn out blog post on a couple of these too, if I haven't already :)

I feel like I've done more, I just can't think of them..lol wow, Noon already, past naptime...gotta get this kiddos (and myself) down for a nap..lol yeah right!! {rolls eyes}

Men are from Mars and women are from Venus...BS!!!!

I've been thinking about this for a few days now..I have been reading again (dramatic pause, okay everyone compose yourself)..as I was saying, I have been reading again and I picked up the book "Love and Respect". My mother gave me the set a few years ago and I think its the best thing she has ever given me. It is written by a man and his wife and they figured out what the true differences between a man and a woman really are. What they say (and I'm switching to 'Him' because he is the main writer)...what he says it that Men desire respect and Women desire Love. It really is true..I can't explain to you the difference I see in Jason when I just flat out tell him I respect him rather than just saying I love him. Of course I respect my husband but reading this book has shown me that I don't' always show Jason. Like the way some women feel, that they aren't loved by their husbands when in actuality their husbands love them more than anything. the real problem is in how we all communicate and convey those feelings. Also men don't crave the same things a woman does.   

Women actually want to hear the word 'LOVE"..it makes us feel loved, secure, safe..It makes us feel cared for and desired.. Men when they hear the word love they just hear it as a word..when they hear "RESPECT" it makes them feel like they are succeeding as a husband and father and they are taking care of their family properly. Like they are succeeding at being a man. Now if you are reading this and are thinking "No..not me.." and so on and so forth than I'm sorry but this is for the majority..and has shown to be true in my life.

Now I know I don't always show my husband how much I respect him but I'm working on it..I am really working on being comfortable saying "I respect you". I really can't divulge any other "secrets" on what I am going to do to show my hubby how much I respect and appreciate him because he reads this ;) but as soon as I do them I will post some comments on what I did.

**update, I was going through my blog and saw I never posted this so I am now, I am still a huge fan of the series and believe everything in it and totally recommend it :) **

Button help!!! (no not "therapy" help, although I prob need that too)

So as most of you know I have finally understood what pinterest is good for!! lol You know, it takes the place of "old school" book marking!! :) Woot, so now when your computer crashes (like mine does) and you have to reload everything but oh wait, all those website you had bookmarked on your browser are now lost in la la land...NO MORE!!! Thanks to the geniusness of pinterest you can now "bookmark" everything on there and hopefully you won't lose it lol So I spent some time and Pinned some of my bookmarks..(still have so much more to do but hey..all in moderation..)

What was I saying?? lol Oh yeah, Pinterest = awesomeness!!!

okay okay {Stay on track Melissa}

Okie dokie so I did this fun pinterest idea where you make a monogram with buttons I LOVE BUTTONS (woo feel so much better now that I've gotten that off my chest! lol So I am trying to decorate the boys' playroom and wanted to do ABC. So I did, I used one of the semi large canvas' I bought on sale and did ABC. (insert question part) There is excess space on the edges

(see...)

Okay so I highly doubt you all want a long drawn out explanation on what I did especially because well I am going to link a board of mine on pinterest where there are plenty of these little "monogram" projects, I just adjusted it for what I wanted. BUT I am going to post a little instruction and some pictures I took during..

First off everyone knows I am not patient so instead of opting for mod podge or whatever glue adhesives others use and I went with hot glue. Yes it is stringy but effective and quick (you know since I have all the time in the world to let glue dry..HA)

Okie dokie so I went into my PSP and found a simple chunky font and printed it out to fit a piece of paper (you would do whatever size you want depending on your canvas. [FYI font I used is 'Angsana New' size 1200 stretched] I just printed it on regular printer paper (not cardstock which would be a smarter decision) but anywho, cut that out and then put it up to the canvas and traced with a pencil. Then I proceeded to fill it with buttons lol

I would do big buttons first:

then you start filling in the holes and stacking on other buttons :)

(yes I know there aren't any pictures of A, don't ask me why, I don't know...lol) Basically that is it, now I just need to know what to do to fill in the gaps, I was thinking maybe white and whiteish buttons, but I think that might make it a little more sophisticated than I want for the play room. Maybe some sort of shape made with buttons but all I can think of are "girlie" like hearts and flowers lol alright GO....please comment here with any ideas you have. Any and all are much appreciated!! :)

**woops forgot to add the link to my button board on pinterest..now bare with me, I just started it yesterday so it doesn't have much, but it will soon...oh boy will it!!! lol  Buttons, Buttons, who's got a button?? **