Home inspiration

Home inspiration. Okay, so we moved to our home when I was 22 weeks pregnant with our twins and had an almost 2 year old running around. House decorating got put on hold for a little while... well honestly until recently. My living room is the first room you see when you walk in the door and really left something to be desired.

I did what any person would do, and enlisted to help of my facebook friends. Everyone had a suggestion: painting the walls, putting up art work, moving things around. Then one friend asked if she could come over to help me. And that she did! Not only did she come with suggestions but she brought things with her to show me what it would look like. I took her ideas and ran with it! The end product, I am definitely proud of and wanted to show you what under $200 in just a few purchases can really do to a home!

Ikea white shadow frames with matting: $19.99 each. Scrapbooking paper: already on hand (but if you bought it would be about $1 each). Throw pillows from discount store: $40 total. Tree bought 2nd hand for $20. The lamp was being thrown out by its owner since the shade broke. It was a brown color. We changed the color (spray paint) and glued the shade back together and viola!

Hope this inspires you to look around 2nd hand and keep your eyes peeled for some good deals!

Chicken Thigh Quick Meal

While at Costco the other day I saw some chicken thighs and thought I could find something to do with them. We normally eat chicken breasts so this would be fun to find a new recipe. This quick meal comes from All Recipes with a few modifications of my own.

Recipe:

1/2 cup butter (a full stick)

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 tablespoon dried parsley

6-7 chicken thighs (mine were bone-in and had skin)

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Preheat the oven broiler. I had it set on the convection oven. Lightly grease a baking pan (I use Pam butter flavor)

In a microwave safe bowl, mix the butter, soy sauce, pepper, and parsley. On high, I microwaved for 1 minute, stirred, and returned for 30 more seconds.

Arrange chicken on the baking pan, and coat with the butter mixture, reserving some of the mixture for basting.

Broil chicken for 30 minutes in preheated oven, until juices run clear, turning every 5 minutes and basting with remaining butter mixture. Sprinkle with parsley to serve.

I paired this with the glaze carrot recipe I will be writing right after this as well as Radiatori noodles. This is a great meal to pair with rice though as well.

Enjoy!

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Lemon Chicken

Okay, so I have had this one recipe pinned for awhile now. Today, I decided to give it a shot. Here is the original recipe, and below is what I actually did. I had one fresh lemon on hand so I improvised a little bit and my husband is allergic to garlic so you will see I omit that ingredient most of the time.

Recipe:

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 

1/3 cup white wine

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1½ teaspoons dried oregano

1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 boneless chicken breasts, skinless

1 lemon 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Warm the olive oil in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, turn off the heat, add the white wine, lemon zest, lemon juice, oregano, thyme, and 1 teaspoon salt and pour into a 9 X 12-inch baking dish. 

Pat the chicken breasts dry and place them smooth side up over the sauce. Brush the chicken breasts with olive oil and sprinkle them liberally with salt and pepper. Cut the lemon in 8 wedges and tuck it among the pieces of chicken.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken breasts, until the chicken is done and the skin is lightly browned. If the chicken isn’t browned enough, put it under the broiler for 2 minutes. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and serve hot with the pan juices. 

Now because I used skinless, it did not brown (even with going in the broiler). I also thought I covered the breasts in salt but it could have used more, so don't be afraid of that step like I was. The final outcome was good. I have had tastier chicken but this was juicy and was rather healthy. My 2 year old twins gobbled it up and asked for seconds. I also paired with rice this time but I think this is a dish more suited for potatoes.

Easter Egg garland

Got this idea from pinterest, and it was a quick and easy project. The first time I tried it I used thread, but my son pulled on it and it broke. I re-did it using ribbon to be able to keep it up until Easter! I even put it in my Easter box and plan to bring it out next year! This is a bad pic, but the only one I have.

Here is the original pin 

Nutella, Strawberry & Banana crepes

This is was of my most favorite dishes I have EVER made, I seriously think I could eat this everyday!

It looks great and is fairly easy to make. This is too good to only be made on holidays! I made this for Easter morning, and can't wait to make it again!!

Here is where I found the recipe.

BASIC CREPE (recipe via)
What you need:
1 cup flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
Pinch of salt
2 tbsp melted butter
What you do:
1. In a medium mixing bowl, mix together flour and eggs (it’ll obviously be very thick and paste-y).
2. Slowly mix in the milk and water, whisking constantly.
3. Add salt and butter; beat until smooth.
4. Heat your crepe pan or frying pan and oil lightly (you need to start working with the batter right away, or the butter will begin to congeal and make it lumpy).
5. Scoop about 1/4 cup batter into the center and then tilt the pan in a circular motion until the batter spreads out evenly. Important: do not walk away from the stove at any point during this process – it’s very speedy, and you need to monitor it closely.
6. Cook the crepe for 1-2 minutes, or until the first side is lightly golden, then loosen with a spatula, flip, and cook the other side.
I was able to get 5 crepes out of this – I filled two with Nutella, bananas, and strawberries, and sprinkled the other three with lemon juice and superfine sugar. Amaaaazing.

Seriously go make this NOW!!

Easter Egg Cupcakes

So in this post I am actually combing two pins to share. I love mandarin cake, so decided to try this cake recipe and make cupcakes with it.
The original recipe can be found here.

Mandarin Magic Cake

Yield: 24 servings.
1 (18 oz.) yellow cake mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 (11 ounce) can mandarin oranges and juice
1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple
1 small box instant vanilla pudding mix
9 oz. Cool Whip
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together cake mix, eggs, oil, and mandarin oranges and juice; pour into a 9 by 13 inch greased and floured pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until done. Mix the whole can of pineapple along with the juices with pudding powder and Cool Whip. Spread over the cooled cake. Keep this cake refrigerated.

Now I skipped the frosting, because we are making these for an easter egg hunt and they must be kept refrigerated, but I have tried this frosting and it is delicious!!

 Ingredients for the cupcakes

 Ingredients for the frosting, I think mixed green food coloring to the coconut then we stuck it onto the frosted cupcakes, then added M&M eggs. It was fun to do with the kids!

They were perfect to take to the Karate school easter egg hunt potluck!

This is the link for the idea for the cupcakes.

Reward chart

Now I have 4 year old twin boys and a 2 year old boy, and lately I've been feeling more like a drill Sargent or referee than a mum! I've tried a few different chore/reward chart, but most of them have been too complicated and/or too time consuming for me to stick to! Now I came across this one and it seems fairly simple. We created it today, and I've never seen my boys so excited about a reward chart. All night they were talking about the good things which would let them move up the chart! So I'm keeping my fingers crossed the excitement does not wear off!

The idea came from this site, via pinterest.

 I started off with an assortment of card stock and also found some punch out letters to use. I gave my kids a clothespin each and had them decorate them with markers.

Here is the finished product, I just cut the rectangles from different colored card stock, then taped them together with painting tape. I might laminate it, or at least stick it onto cardboard for more strength. I then put a command strip hook on the side of our entertainment center and used a clip to hold it up. My list reads "Awesome, good job, smiley face, start, unhappy face, oh no!, warning  and time out". Each morning the pins start on "start" and if they do something good, they get to move up one board, something bad, they go down one. Now once they get to time out, it's a time out. There are some things like hitting, which automatically go straight to time out. Each time they reach awesome, they get a marble in a jar. They can trade 10 marbles for 10 or 25 cents (have not decided on the monetary amount yet! I will do a follow up post in a couple of weeks to see how it works for us!

Oatmeal with fruit oven bake

Here (from Inspired Taste) is the second half of our Easter breakfast! This was very sweet and a hit with all the kids (of course!) plus super easy to make. Our local store did not have any strawberries in stock so I made it with just bananas, which was fine but the bananas were not my favorite in this recipe. The Chinese 5 spice was found with the Chinese food in the grocery store, not with all the other spices.

Ingredients

2 cups old fashioned rolled oats

1/3 cup light brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon grated orange zest

1 teaspoon Chinese five spice

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup walnut pieces, chopped

1 cup sliced strawberries

1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 cups milk

1 large egg

3 tablespoons butter, melted

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 ripe banana, peeled, 1/2-inch slices

Preheat oven to 375°F and generously spray the inside of a 10-1/2 by 7 inch baking dish with cooking spray and place on a baking sheet.

In a large bowl, mix together the oats, sugar, baking powder, orange zest, Chinese five spice, salt, half the walnuts, half the strawberries and half the chocolate. (Save the other half of strawberries, walnuts and chocolate for the top of the oatmeal).

In another large bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, butter and vanilla extract. Add the oat mixture to prepared baking dish. Arrange the remaining strawberries, walnuts and chocolate on top. Add the banana slices to the top then pour the milk mixture over everything. Gently shimmy/shake the baking dish to help the milk mixture go throughout the oats.

Bake 40 minutes or until the top is nicely golden brown and the milk mixture has set. For an extra tasty top, sprinkle a tablespoon or so of extra brown sugar on top then place back in the oven under the broiler and broil for 20-30 seconds. Serve warm with an extra sprinkle of sugar or drizzle of maple syrup.

Good overall but, next time I make this, I am planning on doing strawberries and blueberries for a different flavor.

Best BBQ Chicken

We are a huge BBQ family. If the sun is shining (which is the majority of the year) we are typically BBQing or slow cooking! I was in search of a good marinade for chicken breast and came across this one on All Recipes. First let's go over the ingredients. Most of these I have just sitting in my pantry and fridge. Hopefully you do too. This is the full recipe but I highly suggest you split the recipe in half, which is what I am writing down for you. The full recipe is available with the link above.

Ingredients

•  3/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon dry mustard
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons black pepper
  • 3/4 teaspoon finely minced fresh parsley
  • 4-6 chicken breasts
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Mix all ingredients except the chicken breast

The oil will begin to separate from the other liquids. It is okay.

I always pound the chicken breast before marinating for a juicer and faster cooking meat.   

Pound the meat between two sheets of plastic until about 1/4" thick. This is what it should look like afterwards. 

This is why I say to cut the recipe in half. This is 5 chicken boneless, skinless chicken breasts.

You can marinate for as little or as long as you would like. I typically let it sit in the fridge for 1-2 hours before cooking. 

Place marinated chicken breast on the BBQ over low heat for 20-30 minutes. 

Finished product!

I typically serve with veggies and either potatoes or rice. The best part is that the flavor of the meat goes with so many side dishes. Enjoy!

Easter Bunny Tracks

Okay if you have little ones around and you do the Easter Bunny, now is the time to cover their eyes, send them out of the room, or come back when they are in bed! I am going to show you how to do the infamous bunny tracks in your home.

Things you need:

Pencil

1 piece of thick paper or cardboard

Scissors

Powder (baking soda, corn starch, baking powder, baby powder...)

Optional: Bunny feet template

To make stecil, you need a thicker paper (I use cardstock) as the powder is going to start to weight down the paper after a few tracks.

Trace bunny feet onto the cardstock with pencil. I free handed mine but you can find several templates through google images. Cut out the bunny feet by gently bending paper in half to get a small slit in the foot then cut around in a circle. This is slightly time consuming but, it does not need to be perfect.

Find the location you would like the bunny feet to start at and place your paper/cardboard down on the ground. Sprinkle powder (I used corn starch as it does not have a smell to it) in said location. Carefully lift stencil up in one upwards motion and move to the next hop spot. Continue until you get the the baskets.

Destroy all evidence of stencils and powder anywhere else in the house! Also remember that it is okay if the powder sprinkles out of the stencil a little, a bunny hopping down would cause that anyway!