Corn, Black Bean & Avacado Salad

I serve this corn, black bean & avacado salad with my crock pot chicken fajitas and homemade restaurant style salsa.



Corn, Black Bean & Avacado Salad

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 cups frozen corn, thawed
1 avocado, pitted, peeled and diced
2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 cup (or more) cilantro, chopped
2 green onions, diced
Pinch of salt
Juice from 1/2 a lime
Drizzle of olive oil

Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl. Chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Homemade Restaurant Style Salsa

1/2 of an onion, diced
1 can whole tomatoes
1 can mild Rotel
1/2 teaspoon prepared garlic or 1 clove garlic, diced
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1 cup cilantro chopped
Juice from 1/2 a lime

Throw everything in a food processor and pulse about
15 times - that's it. Chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour before serving.

Crock Pot Chicken Fajitas

My family could eat Mexican food seven days a week. In an effort to try something new I made chicken fajitas in the crock pot. They were delicious! The chicken was moist, not dry, and full of flavor. I served it with homemade restaurant style salsa and corn & black bean avacado salad.

Crock Pot Chicken Fajitas
3 to 4 chicken breasts, thawed, trimmed and cut into strips
1 onion, sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
1 can green chilis
1 small can sliced black olives
1 cup salsa
1 teaspoon cumin

Add all ingredients to crock pot and cook on low for six hours.

We added shredded cheese, sour cream and black olives to our fajitas.

Black Bean Soup

1/2 teaspoon prepared garlic (or 1 clove garlic, minced)
1/2 onion, diced
1 can Rotel
2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can beef broth
2 cups water
1 teaspoon cumin

In a saucepan, sauté garlic and onion in 1 teaspoon olive oil. Add remaining ingredients. Stir. Simmer 20 minutes. Using your method of choice (masher, submersible hand blender or regular blender) mash or puree approximately half of the soup. I stick my submersible hand blender into the pot of soup and blend in little pulses until I like the soup's thicker consistency. I leave plenty of beans intact for texture.




Garnish individual servings with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of shredded cheese.

This recipe can easily become a vegetarian meal by exchanging vegetable broth for the beef broth and leaving off the cheese and sour cream toppings.

Toddler Girl's Garden Room

Sophie's garden-themed room received a little update. These paper lanterns from Hobby Lobby were exactly what her room needed.

I sewed her window treatments and matching pillows.


The activity center holds puzzles, dolls, games, and her piano. My girls' growth chart is on the wall to the right, and the bookcase is to the left.


Sophie likes to sleep in her white toddler sleigh bed.


She also enjoys admiring herself in the mirror under the garden arbor her daddy built her.


Sophie likes to read, dance, and play dress-up every day in her toddler girl's garden room.

Bandana Skirts

A few months ago I found V & C0.'s bandana skirt tutorial here. I knew I had to make some for my three girls. I finally sewed them and think they are adorable. Yes, we live in Oklahoma, and, yes, we like some country music now and again. Yes, my oldest owns cowgirl boots, but, I think any little girl would look cute in this easy-to-make bandana skirt.


Riley is searching for crumbs under the table.


Piper is channeling Don King


You just need one bandana per skirt, elastic, and some coordinating fabric for the bottom border. It took me about 25 minutes to sew one skirt.

Ribbon Lovie (Security Blanket) Tutorial

Six of my friends just had, or are about to have, babies. I decided to make each baby a ribbon lovie (security blanket). My own girls love the ones I made for them. They enjoy playing with the ribbon loops and rubbing their hands or face on the soft minky fabric. It makes a great gift for a newborn or a 1st birthday. My oldest daughter is almost three and still cuddles with her lovie all the time.

This project will take about 30 minutes (especially if you are snapping pictures and writing notes as you go - ha!)

You need two 11" by 14" rectangles of fabric. I used navy blue flannel for one piece and light blue ultra soft cuddle fabric (minky or chenille) for my other piece.


This lovie has fourteen ribbon loops around the outside edge. Cut fourteen lengths of ribbon, 4" each. I like to mix and match ribbon colors and widths, but always use grosgrain ribbon.


Pin ribbon loops onto the RIGHT side of ONE blanket piece matching raw edges of ribbon and blanket. I spaced my ribbons at the 2", 5", 8", and 11" marks for the fourteen inch side of the blanket.


Loops should be down away from the edge of the blanket.


I spaced my ribbon loops at the 2.5", 5.5", and 8.5" marks for the eleven inch side of the blanket.


Sandwich the ribbon loops between the Right sides of the two blanket pieces. Pin right sides of blanket pieces together. You should not be able to see any ribbons.


Using a 1/2 inch seem allowance, stitch around the perimeter of the blanket layers leaving a small opening for turning right side out. After you turn it right side out, sew the small opening closed. The finished blanket will be approximately 10" by 13".


Roll it up and tie it with a matching ribbon and name tag. Smile as you enjoy the adorable gift you just made. This lovie is for baby boy, Rhett. Only five more to go!

Peanut Butter & Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

Warning: These cookies are highly addictive and cause restrictive diets to self-destruct.

Disclaimer: I cook and bake with real ingredients. I use real butter and real sugar, always. That being said, after reading many cookie recipe reviews wherein people suggested using Crisco or margarine, I tried it. I admit it. I did use some butter-flavored Crisco in this recipe. Not a lot. I still used real butter too. Honestly, these are some of the best cookies I've ever tasted. Use all butter if it bothers you. We've wolfed down several cookies already and lived to tell about it.



Now, on to the cookie recipe.

Peanut Butter and Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 C unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 C unsalted butter (real butter), softened
1/4 C butter flavored Crisco (see it isn't that much)
1/2 C brown sugar
1/3 C white sugar
1/2 C peanut butter (I used Smuckers creamy organic brand)
1 egg
4 ounces dark chocolate chips (I used 1/3 bag Ghirardelli 60% cacao bittersweet chocolate chips)

*I used unsalted butter and didn't add extra salt to this recipe because the peanut butter has plenty of salty flavor in it.

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees.

1) In a small bowl whisk flour and baking soda together. Set aside.

2) In a medium mixing bowl, cream butter and Crisco together. Using an electric mixer, beat in sugars, peanut butter, and egg. Stir in flour mixture until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips.

3) Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto cookie sheet. These cookies really spread out while baking, so don't use more than one rounded tablespoon of dough per cookie.

4) Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack, plate, or your mouth.

My measurements for the ingredients are only half of what a regular cookie recipe would call for. This recipe made about twenty large cookies. I do this for portion control. There were plenty of cookies for my family even after sharing with our neighbors.

Enjoy!

Ruffled Onesie - Tutorial

My fellow crafty bloggers have been sewing ruffles on everything for quite some time now. I decided to give it a try and quickly found out ruffles (especially in knit) are very easy to sew. Now, I'm addicted.

So, I made this cutie pie! This is a picture of the back of the onesie.



I wanted to add three rows of red ruffles on the bottom of a plain white onesie/bodysuit. The bodysuit measured roughly 9 inches across.


I cut my red knit fabric 1 inch tall and 22.5 inches across(which is 9 in. x 2.5). The ruffle fabric should be about 2 1/2 times the width of the onesie.


Since knit fabric doesn't fray, there was no need to sew the edges of my ruffle fabric.

I set machine to the longest straight stitch possible (basting stitch) and sewed right down the middle of my ruffle fabric the entire length. I did not backstitch at either end so I could do the next step. (I only used black thread for this tutorial so it would show up better in the pictures.)




I pulled only ONE thread while bunching the fabric up into ruffles.


I eyeballed where I thought the ruffle looked even and pinned it onto the onesie. I sewed it onto the onesie sewing right down the middle of the ruffle. I backstitched at the beginning and end this time.


I made two more ruffles and sewed them onto the onesie as well, bunching them together so they overlapped just a bit.


On the front of the onesie I sewed on a little ruffle flower and added a button to the center. To make the ruffle for the flower, I sewed my basting stitch on the side of my ruffle fabric instead of down the center. When I pulled one thread, the sewn side ruffled while the other side fanned out creating the flower. I stitched it in a circle onto the onsie and sewed the button on by hand.


Since I have twins, I did this whole project twice. It was very simple and took about an hour to create both onesies. I was flying by the seat of my (ruffled) pants and enjoying the learning-as-I-go process.

Now I want to chop up all my old t-shirts and put ruffles on everything!

Felt Chocolate Chip Cookie Tutorial

Sophie is quite a girlie girl. She loves baby dolls, purses, shoes, sparkly dresses, and shopping with her little grocery cart. Her imagination runs wild when "cooking" too, so, I made her some felt chocolate chip cookies to add to her grocery stash.



Felt cookies are very easy to make.

Step 1) Cut two "cookie" circles out of tan felt and five "chocolate chips" from dark brown felt.


Step 2) Sew chocolate chips onto one tan cookie circle.


The back will look unsightly, but no one will see it.


Step 3) Sew RIGHT sides of the two tan cookie circles together, leaving a small opening for turning.


Step 4) Turn cookie right side out. Add some stuffing (batting) between the cookie layers.


Step 5) Sew small opening closed.

Sophie is enjoying her felt cookies while wearing her chocolate chip cookie pajamas.