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Saturday, September 12, 2015

Fav Fall Recipe - Chicken Enchilada Chili Dip/Soup




It's September! Yay! Which means you can start to fully embrace all things fall! Apples, Pumpkins, Leaves, Cinnamon, Owls, Orange Brown Red and Green color combinations, and Pumpkin flavored everything! AND SOUP! Yay for soup! Now, I must admit, I have been known to whip up a good bowl of soup on 110 degree day and while it doesn't always hit the spot on a feverish day, it certainly is welcomed no matter what the temperature outside, as soon as "fall fever" hits in my house! Soup and fall just go hand in hand. Soup, in general, is pretty easy as far as cooking is concerned but I love a good crock pot recipe soup so I can prep EVERYTHING in the morning and not worry about it ever again until I scoop it up to eat for dinner. 

I have a few favorite crock pot soup recipes but last year I found a chicken chili that was amazing and you could eat it as a chili with a spoon or (it was thick enough to) eat it was a dip with tortilla chips that you mixed, rolled out, and baked yourself. (You can find that recipe here at Budget Savvy Diva). However, the recipe calls for cream cheese which I don't always have on hand because it goes bad to easily. So I scoured the interwebs for a more pantry friendly recipe and I found this little gem that I LOVE. It's just as good, and not quite as hot. 

Chicken Enchilada Chili for the Slow Cooker


2 chicken breasts
1 can of corn
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can mild enchilada sauce
2 tablespoons of taco seasoning
2 cups of shredded cheese 
Chopped green onions and sour cream, for garnish 
Tortilla chips

Line your slow cookers with a slow cooker liner. If you don't have one, use cooking spray on your slow cooker (but seriously, go get the liners!). Put in your chicken breasts, can of corn, rinsed black beans, enchilada sauce, and taco seasoning..  Cook for 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high. After about 3 hours on high (or 4 or 5 on low) you should be able to shred your chicken with a fork and finish out the remaining time. It's ok if you aren't able to do this until the end but I like the shredded chicken to soak in some of the juice, if possible. When you're ready to serve, add 1 cup of  cheese.  Spoon bowlfuls and top with cheese, green onions, and sour cream. Serve with chips. It's good just by itself, too. 

Adapted from this recipe

I hope you enjoy!



Friday, August 28, 2015

A Very Suessical Baby Shower

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to throw my SIL a Dr. Suess Baby Shower. It was a super fun baby shower because the baby had already arrived! I think those are the most fun! 😉

Decorations:

I had made the expectant Mom a few Dr. Suess items well before the arrival of the baby (a car seat over, changing pad, and pillow). I had a few scraps left over and used them to make a banner with his name. I got my Dr. Suess Fabric here.  I used my handy dandy silhouette and some heat transfer vinyl for the name. I love using double folded bias tape for banners because it puts them together super fast.  

I love to use balloons for a party because the kids love them so much. So I had balloons for them and a few little Suessy type decorations for them to put on the walls to "help" me. 

I also made a diaper cake. It looked much better before the 1.5 hour flight to get here. With everything else I had to do, I must say I just kind of let it go, but the monkey was suppose to hide the ribbon seams. I used the typical method of rolling diapers. I found Dr. Suess ribbon at JoAnns Fabrics. 



Amazon had this awesome teacher pack of Dr. Suess stuff.  It had tons of cutouts which I used to make the wreath (see below) and I used for the mini diaper cakes and for this book banner. 


I got this from Amazon and set the books around for decorations. They also doubled as backs for writing during the games. 



This bulletin trim was at Target and the straws I picked up at Amazon and the turtle came in the aforementioned teacher pack from Amazon. 


I used this method for the wreath. But I made it rainbow, obviously, and color coded the cutouts. I used regular vinyl for Welcome.


Food:


The shower started at 10:30 so I thought it was a little early for regular munchies. Instead, I went with a breakfast theme. I had a fruit salad, powdered donuts and mini blueberry muffins, goldfish, cinnamon raisin bagels, assortments of mini muffins, croissants with ham and cheese (kroger put lettuce on them and it made it too lunchy and I was kind of irritated), bacon wrapped pretzels, cupcakes (it's still a PARTY!), and a parfait bar. 




We had regular and greek yogurt, two kinds of jams, fruit, granola, almonds, coconut, m&ms, mini trix, etc.


 I sent a picture ahead of time to a relative and she went to Kroger and they made me these cupcakes. I made the toppers with my silhouette cameo. 



I had to get a goldfish bowl for the goldfish. It was just too cute of an idea. 




Get the Bacon Wrapped Pretzel Recipe Here. I only added one T of chili powder and 1/4 of cayenne because I knew my crowd and they were not going to like HOT. The first batch was devoured so I offered to make more. There was some protest and some "oh you don't need to do that" and then the second batch was also devoured. I think they were better cooked for 17 minutes. 





 


For drinks, we had coffee and this punch and water bottles that I wrapped with red and white polka dot duct tape. Yes, the punch was amazing. I did not slushy it because I didn't have time but still very good. 


Games and Memories:

This "I hope" "game" has been floating around the showers I've frequented lately and I think it's a marvelously good idea. Get your Dr. Suess themed "I hope" game here. Each guests fills out their hopes for the baby's future and signs their name. Instant guest list done and a keepsake for the baby. It also puts away the pressure that games sometimes give to guests. 


I had also planned this game but we ended up having a few too many people to play it. Everyone was more interested in chatting and that's fine! 




At the entry, we set up this table, I made the little lorax guy there to hold my sharpies and pencils. I found Dr. Suess stickers and some corresponding scrapbook paper. Set our scissors, brushes,  and mod podge too and let guest decorate their own blocks for the baby. 









I love having favors and this was something I could make easily make ahead of time, green eggs and ham! I found tiny bags at Joann's Fabrics that only held about two which was perfect. All you need are pretzels, white candy melts, and green candy. I found everything but the pretzels at Joann's Fabrics. Put a white candy melt on top of each pretzel and bake at 350 degrees for 5 minutes. Pull them out and pop on a candy and set in fridge to cool. I was worried the candy would pop off but they didn't and they survived a flight in carry-on luggage. 






A fun time was had by all and the new arrival got lots of new fun baby stuff, which is why we throw baby showers, right? 

Friday, August 7, 2015

Exploring the 50 States - Homeschool Style

This year we are studying the 50 states. We have several books and activity pages ready to explore. At the end of each section, we will fill out our fact sheet (get your copy here) and see what we've learned. Each state has many tourism videos that we can watch to see the state come alive. We are going to move pretty fast through them, studying 5 a month, to get through them in one school year. 

Here are some books we are using:

The United States of America: A State-by-State Guide https://www.amazon.com/dp/0439827655/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_MsUWvbQPB9T39

United States Coloring Book (Dover History Coloring Book) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0486401685/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_ytUWvbEWS5BKM

The 50 States: Facts & Fun (Dover Little Activity Books) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0486475247/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_UtUWvb6CPP9T3

The 50 States Book and Magnetic Puzzle Map https://www.amazon.com/dp/0794412882/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_3uUWvbNYTWSYN

Here are some Apps we are using:

Geography Drive
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/geography-drive-usa/id579100969?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Learn The States With Flat Stanley by Flatter World, Inc.

Stack the States™ by Freecloud Design, Inc.


Here is our video and cooking list list (Find Recipes Here):





Monday, August 3, 2015

Virtual Field Trips - 2015/2016

This year we are starting 2 new studies (in addition to everything else we study) in our home-school year. We are going to be learning about each of our 50 states (which I'll get to later) and we are going to be taking virtual field trips. If you haven't ever heard of a virtual field trip you can Wikipedia it here. There are plenty out there already put together for you, or you can design them yourself. I asked my 3rd grader to comprise a list of places he'd like to explore and here is what he came up with for this year:






  1. Paris - August
    1. Paris, France Virtual Field Trip with 4 places of interest
    2. Virtual Field Trip on YouTube
  2. Germany - September
    1. Germany's Black Forest Tour
    2. Berlin Tour Video
    3. Top 25 Things to do in Berlin
    4. Munich and the foothills of the Alps
  3. Hawaii - October
    1. Virtual Hawaii
    2. Walking Travel Tour
    3. Honolulu, What to do Tour
    4. Top 10 things to do in Hawaii
  4. Africa - November
    1. Tour of Africa(Classroom Type Video)
    2. Safari Bookings Video
    3. Africa Virtual Tour
  5. China - December
    1. China virtual field trip 
    2. Virtual field trip to China
    3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIpm2PWBzowLet's travel China
  6. The White House - January 
    1. Interactive White House Tour
    2. Washington DC Virtual Field Trip
    3. Washington DC Tourism Video
  7. Italy - February
    1. Photos of Pompeii 
    2. Vatican
    3. Pisa
    4. Rome 
    5. Rome Vatican City Tour Video
  8. Japan - March
    1. Virtual Field trip to Japan
    2. NatGeo Destination Japan
    3. Japanese Tourism Video
  9. Spain - April
    1. Virtual Field Trip to Spain Video
    2. Spain Tourism Video
    3. Barcelona Tour
  10. Kenya - May
    1. Mombasa Tourist Video
    2. Kenya Vacation Video
    3. Virtual Field Trip to Kenya
It just so happened that we are planning out 10 months so we will be doing one per month, which hopefully will be super easy to keep up with. We are doing this with my prek student as well in group time. This should be fun! 


Monday, April 20, 2015

Sea Turtle - Animal of the Week

This week is all about Sea Turtles! Get the facts and activities here. These creatures are so fascinating, I think. I hope the kids enjoy them! We might catch some Finding Nemo and other flicks with Sea Turtle stars. They seem to be very popular!

Enjoy!

Monday, April 13, 2015

Mountain Lion - Animal of the Week

This week we are studying Mountain Lions. These creatures fascinate me because I feel like it's the closest thing to feeling like you are on safari. These guys pack a real punch and their numbers and growing back into the midwest and east. Find the facts and activities here. I included some bigger words that I will have the kids look up. Also a map of recent cougar sightings in the last 20 years in our state. You can probably find one for your state just as easily. 

Enjoy!