Refried Bean Enchiladas & Homemade Spanish Rice

Simply Soupy next week–I have a GREAT one!

But I thought I’d share a new favorite lunch dish of mine–refried bean enchiladas & homemade spanish rice. I love hot lunches (not a sandwich girl!) and this one is pretty easy & yummy–and can last several days! Anna and I both eat this for lunch.

Refried Bean Enchiladas

• 1 can refried beans (use about 1/2 to 3/4 can total)
• 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup of cottage cheese, small curd
• 1-1/2 cups shredded cheddar or fiesta cheese
• chili powder (optional)
• 1 can enchilada sauce (I like the green chili sauce)
• 4-5 spinach herb wraps or whole wheat flour tortillas

Combine refried beans, cottage cheese, and at least 1/2-3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese. Mix well. Place bean mixture down the center of each tortilla/wrap. Spoon a little enchilada sauce over mixture, and if desired, sprinkle a little chili powder. Roll up and place seam-side-down in a 13×9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Four to five enchiladas should fit snugly. Pour remaining enchilada sauce over the top of tortillas; sprinkle with remaining cheese.

Cover and bake at 350-degrees for 20-25 minutes until heated through.

Homemade Spanish Rice

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 finely chopped onion
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 cup white rice (or brown rice)–but this recipe will be for white rice
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste; or 1 cup diced tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon salt
• dash of oregano

In a large skillet brown rice in olive oil over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic, and cook mixture — stirring frequently — until onions are softened.

In a separate sauce pan, bring stock to a simmer. Add tomato sauce (or paste!), oregano, and salt.

Add browned rice mixture to the broth. Bring to a boil. Cover. Reduce heat and cook 15-25 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand.

 

October Road

Picture Practice: In the Autumn

Oh, dear. What must Summer think? Summer knows she’s been my favorite, year after year… her bright & vivid days, warm breezes, long-lasting sun. She has so many great qualities.

But what must she think, now?– how much I have to fight my urge to declare over and over and over again–that I love Autumn! Her golden hues, her crisp & chilly mornings, yet sunny and bright afternoons; I have even grown to love the stark contrast between a tree on-fire, leaves golden, and a deep overcast sky.

I am sorry, Summer, but if you saw these leaves and the warm, golden cast of the sun, I think you would forgive me.

I hope  one day you can understand, it is possible for me to enjoy one as much as the other. Autumn and Summer, won’t you be friends? You’re practically cousins.

(And no pregnant woman was harmed in the photographing of these autumnal pictures… though she nearly strained her back trying to lift John.)

This is Real Life

I know I always show the glamour shots (ha ha) on here, so I thought it’d be fun to show you some “real life” pictures that are, well, real life. Not posed, not sweet, not super edited… just real life, the real moment, blurry or dark or otherwise.

This is why I did not do Anna’s birthday cake in fondant… my own personal cake wreck. I did a practice run of cakes about two weeks before her birthday, and I was interested in trying fondant. You know my love of cakes, and I thought, how difficult can fondant be? Well, just look again at that picture. : ) I did choose the easier route and made marshmellow fondant — rumored to be less involved, more yummy, and easier to make than regular fondant. All I know is that I have been spooked out of trying it again!!

I already showed you our first attempt at some fall pictures, and I mentioned that the experience confirmed in my head that I would never, never want to be a professional photographer. Anna kept me running almost the entire time. Anna was running the entire time. The majority of photos I took was of her back, her running away from me. When I took a break to try to get some (equally unsuccessfully) of Cousin John, I turned around to find Anna inside a dog pen. One of us adults (there were three of us–and four crawling + walking babies) was constantly trying to stop Anna from charging a group of dogs while screaming happily, “Da! Da!” So we tried to strap her in a little umbrella stroller & went back to snapping pictures. Five minutes later, we’re rushing to save her, since she had almost flipped out (and upside-down, legs in the air) in her desperate attempt to get out of the stroller. Wow, I am exhausted just writing all of that. The above picture is my last, pitiful attempt to get a pretty posed picture of her. You can see how she responded. (BUT, I must say… we tried again a week later, with beautiful fall leaves in the backdrop, and Anna was a perfect doll!!–a totally different baby! And the pictures are beautiful!! And coming soon! : ) )

She likes to rub her hands all over her face and head while she eats. You might even be able to pick out her handprint on her forehead. I think she forgets how much she despises getting her face cleaned after each meal.

Again, the thing with something on her head. She just wants her head covered constantly, and she walks around and around, and as soon as it falls off, she comes and finds me so I can put it back on her head. Her winter hat. A towel. This disgusting stained (but clean!! promise!!) t-shirt that I had to use when I dropped a jar of pasta sauce on the garage floor earlier in the week. (Why didn’t I throw it away? I don’t know–I just laundered it instead. And now Anna likes to wear it. And we let her.)

Does anyone want to take home this HUGE indoor house plant? She could be yours! Seriously–my parents are looking for a home for this big bertha. It was taking over their family room. Look how amazed Anna is. HUGE.

This is the best Halloween picture I have… and it’s noisy and blurry and has our light plug in it. : ) Poor lighting, no nice backdrop. We didn’t get Anna a costume this year (oh, but she is going to be this next year–Rust thinks that’s a little weird but for some reason, it just seems to suit her…hopefully I can find it!!) because we had already committed to going to a Bible study (we are soooo spiritual–kidding!!) and we didn’t realize it was Halloween. When we did realize, I was pretty bummed because I wanted to stay home and answer the door, see all our neighborhood kiddos and connect with the other families in our neighborhood. BUT, we ended up having a great time at the Bible study, and there will always be more Halloween’s and more kids and more costumes and more chances to connect with neighbors.

Love this shot of life-in-action: Anna and John running together down the hall of my parents’ home Halloween night. John even had a cape to go with his Superman outfit.

And This is (some) of our Real Life. Hope you liked these little glimpses into the scenes behind the scenes. : ) We are real people, you know.

Craftiness: Christmas Lists

While I have long been working on a homemade gifts organization book, the Christmas season has snuck up on me, and when Rust asked me to get organized for gift-gifting this year, I made up the Christmas Lists.

I pulled out some Christmas scrapbook paper and cut them 12 inches long and 4 inches wide, then glued white cardstock on top.

Honestly, I just wanted to practice writing like some typefonts and calligraphers. This gave me a perfect excuse.

It all started when I stumbled upon lettergirl’s shop on Etsy, and from there found her blog, where she includes many tips for improving your handwriting. From reading those, the two tips I have put into practice the most have been: use others’ writings (or fonts!) as examples and then practice, practice, practice.

I think I will do this every year–I had fun writing the names out.

And of course the lists are all filled out now — but I couldn’t show y’all that, now could I?

Happy gift planning! (One of my favorite parts!!)

Happy birthday to me!

These are some of my favorite pictures, taken a year ago on my birthday (October 29th). Last year I spent my 25th birthday hanging out at my mom’s house with my parents & my sister & of course Anna and Cousin John. Since I just so happened to be over there again for my birthday, I asked Mandy to take some pictures of us like she did last year!

The leaves changed earlier this year — a year ago they were still green, green, green!

Do I look older? Does Anna look older? : )

Here is proof that Annagirl is not always “all smiles.”

This is from last year, one of the first times she began smiling on her own at 5 1/2 weeks:

And here she is today!!

I also have some fun shots of Cousin John & Mandy from a year ago & then this year, which I will post later this week!!

Fall Feast Follow-up: DIY Envelope Invites

I have mentioned many times that I enjoy working with paper, and that often translates to when we are hosting something, I enjoy making my own invitations. As soon as I had the idea to have a Fall Feast, I saw this envelope invite in my mind.  I wanted it to mimic old-fashioned letters where the writing is on the inside and the letter itself is the envelope.

I have a stash of random, odd-sized envelopes  so I selected a larger one (I don’t know the official name of its size) and tore it apart, then traced its outline twice: once on a heavier piece of cardstock to be my template, and once on a regular white sheet of paper for my model.

The model, and my template, ready to be traced onto a 12×12 kraft cardstock sheet. Lately I have loved used regular old kraft cardstock for my projects… I think it’s the rough texture and the color, it just feels like autumn to me! : )

Now, it was only after I made all of these that I realized you can purchase envelope templates! Paper Source sells an envelope template kit, and Green Sneakers sells many, what they call, Kreate-A-Lope Envelope Maker.

After cutting out my envelopes & sketching out what I wanted them to look like (and measuring, too!), I used Photoshop Elements & Microsoft Word to create the wording for the invites.

I printed two per one 8.5×11 sheet of textured colored cardstock & then cut to size with those neat design scissors that create a cool edge. As you can see, I had a difficult time deciding which color I should choose for the envelope… I ended up using all three!

After that, I made one more section the computer and then decided, that was enough! It was a little difficult to design the triangular sides of the envelope!

I handwrote the rest. I will say: I only did five of these invitations, and I think any more and I wouldn’t have handwritten… it was pretty time consuming!

Here is what the flaps of the envelope invite say:

Once those were completed and folded, I designed wrap-arounds for the front to hold the envelope down (textured dark red cardstock). If I sealed it as a normal envelope, the glue would mess up all the writing — so I realized since I couldn’t glue it down, I had to wrap it up!

I also tied some brown twine to the blank tags (from Hobby Lobby), on which I wrote the names & addresses. I did glue down the tags & the red wrap-around. Then to make sure it was really secure, I wrapped & tied tightly more twine.

Here is the back — I even went all-out & designed autumn address labels (which is another addiction–designing addie labels, I mean–& so, so fun for me!!).

And that’s how an envelope invite was born.

 

October Wrap-Up

{click to enlarge}

1. Diaperless. | 2. First glimpse of autumn light .| 3. Envelope invites – DIY this week! | 4. Fall wreath | 5. Stone Soup

6. Taking ourselves seriously. | 7. A’s room’s facelift | 8. John loves vintage cars | 9. A Fall Feast | 10. Fall sunshine

11. Autumn onesie | 12. Puzzle paci | 13. Muddy Pond | 14. Shocked! | 15. Yoda

16. Fall pictures take 1 | 17. Big girl shoes. | 18. Gigantic plant–up for grabs!! | 19. Mmm, autumn. | 20. October road.

21. Sunday morning reading. | 22. SNEAK PEEK-the real deal autumn photo shoot! | 23. Happy birthday to me! sneak peek | 24. Happy halloween from Superman!

Simply Soupy: Autumn Chowder

Autumn Chowder

2 bacon strips, diced

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 medium red potato, cubed

1 small carrot, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced

1/2 cup water

3/4 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules

1 cup milk

2/3 cup frozen corn

1/8 teaspoon pepper

2-1/2 teaspoons all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons cold water

3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

In a large saucepan, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp; remove to paper towels. Drain, reserving 1 teaspoon drippings. In the drippings, saute onion until tender. Add the potato, carrot, water and bouillon. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the vegetables are almost tender.

Stir in the milk, corn and pepper. Cook 5 minutes longer. Combine the flour and cold water until smooth; gradually whisk into soup. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 1-2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat; stir in cheese until melted. Sprinkle with bacon. Yield: 2 servings.

Thoughts: The originial recipe only makes a serving for two. Two! Much too small for us! So I changed some of the quantities of this soup… I used an entire chopped onion, four red potatoes instead of one, a couple of carrots, and I doubled the rest of the ingredients (I think–I have misplaced my notes I wrote on the recipe!). This was the seventh chowder I have done for my Simply Soupy installments – and I liked this one! (And for the real curious: my favorite chowders are the Sweet Potato Chowder, Country Potato Chowder, & Chunky Veggie Chowder.)

Photo Fun: Vintage with Picnik

While I typically like my photos in bright, vivid colors, sometimes it’s fun to have that “vintage” feel to certain pictures: faded, slightly sepia or brown, with a lower contrast. I realized that Picnik has several ways to achieve some different vintage-feel to your photos.

1) 1960’s Vintage

Picnik comes with this effect: under Create –> Effects, then select the 1960’s. After I applied this effect, I went back to Edit –> Exposure, and lightened itjust a little. Don’t you think her little shirt fits well with this effect?

2) Yellowed & Soft (uhm, not an official name just one I made up–don’t know what else to call it!)

For this one, I slid the exposure and contrast (under edit) to the right, to create a lighter & more contrasting photo. Then I slid the saturation (under colors under edit) to the left to decrease the color ever-so-slightly. After that I used the soften effect (under create –> effect) and to achieve the yellowed look, I used tint, selected a pale yellow (or orange would work, I think) and set the fade to around 40-50%.

3) Soft vintage (my favorite of them… very light, soft, and faded.)

Here is the original picture, too dark & SOOC:

First, I needed to lighten this picture up! I played with the exposure/contrast just a little, then did a few other things with Picnik to lighten it up.

Here is what it ended up looking like lightened. I like it, but was sad I couldn’t figure out a way to lighten it AND keep that pretty blue sky! I know how in Photoshop Elements, but there isn’t really a way (that I could find) in Picnik. I also desaturated this picture, as well, by sliding the saturation to the left to decrease the color.

After that, I used the Boost effect (with a strength set to 15-20%) and then the Sepia effect. I like their Sepia — you can choose what “type” of brown/caramel color you want to tint your photo — spend time playing around with that! There could be many great combinations! For the Sepia effect, I also set the fade to about 35-50%. Again, play around with it — what do you like best?

Once I did all of that, I Softened this photo, setting the softness between 15-20% and the fade to 70%. I didn’t want it to be too blurry.

This is actually my favorite version of the photo! But I wanted to try just a few more things to achieve that soft-faded photo feel.

At this point I used the Cross-Process effect, with the fade set to 67%.

Then, I went back to Exposure, under Edit, and slid the contrast to the left (to -15) to create that fuzzy look that older pictures have.

Some other things you can do: You can add a slight graininess to the picture (yes! it’s an effect under create) and add a vignette. Then, as a final touch, you can add rounded corners, under Create –> Frames.

And there you go! Really, just play around with Picnik to find the best vintage photo that works for you.

Don’t be afraid to try all sorts of effects, there is always the “undo” button. : )