Pinterest Picks 3

Here are our newest experiments:

Crockpot Lemon Chicken
What's not to love about a recipe with a total of 4 ingredients that's cooked in a crockpot? This is one of those pins that drives me crazy...if you click it, it doesn't take you where you're expecting to go. However, it's kind of hard to mess up and the description gives you enough info to make the recipe without having an actual recipe. I wish I had made extra so we could have had leftovers!

Creamy Cheesy Potatoes
There are so many good things in this recipe! Cheese! Cream Cheese! Sour Cream! I mean how can you go wrong? The recipe says to use 6 potatoes. I only had 5, but they were on the large side and I think it was maybe one too many potatoes (my preference is to have more sauce). It turned out well, but I think in the future I would skip using real garlic and use garlic powder instead. I don't like the weird crunch that garlic has when the rest of the dish is kind of smushy. What made this dish even better was adding a little ranch dressing to it. Yum!

I also decided to use the homemade cream of chicken soup recipe from the same source as the Creamy Cheesy Potatoes recipe. I went ahead and pinned it here:

Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup
This was so easy and the final product looked and smelled just like I would expect of the condensed version you buy in a can, but without the weird mystery ingredients. I don't always have chicken broth on hand, so that's the only thing that would keep me from just making my own from now on.

Crescent Roll Casserole
It really sounded like a good idea, but we didn't like the texture of the finished product. It's a good idea in theory, but the rolls stayed gooey from cooking in the soup.

One Pot Mac & Cheese
I have made this several times and it's so easy and only dirties up one pot! I usually add a little browned hamburger meat to it and it's like Hamburger Helper, but way better! This time, my helper accidentally added a TABLESPOON of salt instead of a TEASPOON. Whoops! :) I wouldn't suggest doing that.

These (and all of my previous pinterest trials) are saved here: Tried and True Recipes

Linking up here:

Homemaking Party at Hope in Every Season

Shabby Shadowbox

I've really been wanting to do a little project with a bird nest to tie in the decor of the second master bath to the bedroom.

I already shared some artwork that's in the bedroom, so I thought a nest would work well without being too matchy-matchy.

It started with this shadow box. I really wanted a white one, but the only ones that Hobby Lobby had that would be deep enough for this project were black.



Luckily, I just happened to have some white acrylic paint. :)

I did a quick little paint job on it. I didn't want it to look too perfect, so I left it at the point where some of the background was still showing through. It would look nice with a solid white too or a complementary color, but it's all about personal preference.

To complete the project, I gathered the cast of characters below, plus a hot glue gun. (What would we do without hot glue guns?!)



The shadowbox was 8X10, but when I cut the paper down to that size, it was a little too snug, so I trimmed it down a little. I actually trimmed it a little too much, but thank goodness I wasn't trying to make it look perfect.

After I trimmed the paper down, I hot glued it to the backing of the shadowbox. Here are my helpful hot glue gun hints for this project:

1. Have extra glue sticks within reach
2. Don't try to glue the whole surface at once. Line up your paper like you want it and start in one corner, pressing it down as you glue it.

In other words, learn from my mistakes.

Here's the final product:



Linking with:

Make Bake Create

Artwork Redo

We've been working on staging our house to sell it (don't you just love moving?!), so we've been buying artwork and decorations.

We're decorating the second master in kind of a shabby chic style, so I've been looking for something to hang on the wall in there. I found a few things online, but I just wasn't ready to commit to any of them.

Then we went to Hobby Lobby and wandered and wandered...

And my husband found this (on clearance!):



He has a good eye. The color wouldn't work, but we looked it over and decided we could take it apart and paint it.

We painted the birdcage "Catalina Mist" and the wooden part is a cream colored crackle paint. As an aside, we should really learn to READ the paint cans because the crackle paint was supposed to be step 2 of a 2 step process. Whoops! It didn't crackle all that much, but we were ok with the results.






Before and After:



If only the walls weren't white, but I'm not painting them just to move! :)

Linking here: Homemaking Linkup
Make, Bake, Create
Two Girls and a Party

Pinterest Picks 2

Here are a couple of Pinterest things we've tried recently.

Cream Cheese Filled Chicken

I was a little skeptical of the dredging on this one because it says to dip it in flour, then egg, then corn flake crumbs. I thought the egg would wash off the flour, but actually I think it made the rolled up chicken hold together better. I didn't have a lot of problem with the cream cheese mixture oozing out of the chicken, so I would call that a victory.

It was pretty good. The prep time is minimal, and that always makes me happy! I used pressed garlic instead of garlic salt, and I think maybe I didn't add enough salt to make up for it, but you live and you learn.

Soft and Chewy Springtime Blondies
Do you know of my Cadbury Mini Egg addiction? Well when I saw a dessert that incorporated those little pieces of heaven, I knew right away it would be a winner. I even let a bag of Mini Eggs languish on my kitchen counter for a week or so because I wanted to try this. Well, the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak. I ate the eggs, folks. I still wanted to try the recipe though, so we made it with chocolate chips instead. I'm always skeptical of brownie/blondie recipes because I don't like for them to be cake-like. If it's not chewy, it's not a brownie/blondie. The texture of these are just right and the possibilities are endless as far as what you can mix into them. I have a feeling that we will make lots of variations of these!

What have you tried lately?

Linking here: Hope in Every Season
Make, Bake, Create

This Week's Pinterest Picks

I have a slight addiction to Pinterest. I use it mostly to find recipes to help me get out of the recipe rut, but sometimes I find other things of interest. Mostly I just pin them and never look at them again, but I try to find a couple of things per week to actually try.

Here are some things I've tried recently.

Borax Ant Trap Recipe

It's suddenly like I'm living in a bad 80's movie starring a legion of nasty old ants. My favorite ant killer is Terro Liquid Ant Bait, but it's not always easy to find. The active ingredient in it is Borax. I like it because it's a natural substance and though you wouldn't want to drink the stuff, it's not a pesticide, so it's not as harmful as regular ant killers. Plus, it works REALLY well.

Anyway, my sweet husband searched the world over for it on his way home from work and couldn't find it, so I told him to just grab some Borax so I could make my own.

I put it out last night and when I checked the first trap, I thought it was a flop. My mistake may have been labeling it as ant bait. Maybe ants can read?




Anyway, then I checked the other one and BINGO!



The website says it works overnight. I think that's a bit of a stretch. Even the Terro kind takes a few days to get rid of all of the ants. When I refill it, I will put less liquid in the trap. I want them to drink it and take it home with them, not drown in it. The website says to soak it up on cotton balls, but I didn't have any.

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Sticky Slow Cooker Chicken Teriyaki

This smelled so good cooking! It's always a bonus when I run across a recipe that I have all of the ingredients for. It's also a bonus when I can throw it in a slow cooker and forget about it! I didn't have the ginger this called for, but it was fine without it, and I served it over quinoa instead of rice.

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Melt in Your Mouth Chicken

This was so easy that I was able to prepare it while the cranky teething baby was still awake. Granted, I had to put some gangsta rap on Pandora and sing along while changing the words to make the words baby appropriate. And I had to randomly hide behind the island and jump out to make him laugh, but it worked! My oven has a fancy "cook time" feature that will turn off the oven when the timer goes off, so it worked perfectly for me to pop in the oven just before beginning the marathon that is trying to convince The Baby Fish it is his bedtime. It was a little salty, but I think it was just because I cooked half the amount of chicken the recipe calls for and didn't half the coating. If you're concerned about salt, maybe use a little less of the seasoning salt. You can always add more when it's done if you need to.

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I move all of the recipes I try to my Tried and True Recipe board so I can keep up with what I've tried.

If you've tried any Pinterest experiments this week, share them with me. It's always interesting to see real reviews.

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What I Wish I had Known About Pregnancy

I think that one of these days, this will turn into a series of posts, but the best place to start is the beginning.

When I started this journey I didn't know what I didn't know. I have this annoying habit of questioning things, though. I'm sure it drives people crazy, but whatever.

When I first got pregnant, I chose my care provider based on distance from my house and distance from my husband's workplace. To be fair, I did look up some ratings, I think, but basically that was it. I didn't know what birth preferences were, so I didn't bother to choose a doctor based on my philosophies (I didn't have philosophies about birth yet!). I realized after I had The Baby Fish how lucky I was that I ended up with a doctor who cooperated with me. Most people who share my obnoxious/obstinate/nitpicky ideas about pregnancy and birth choose a midwife/birthing center/home birth. I lucked out, but it makes me a little anxious about next time (if there is a next time) because my current doctor is moving out of state.

So here's what I wish I had known. Let me preface this by saying, I'm not a doctor and I don't care how anyone else births their babies. My only caveat is that you should decide how you want to do things through your own research rather than just bobbing along and letting someone else determine what your experience will be. We are fortunate to live in a time where medical interventions are available and in some cases they are necessary. They just aren't necessary nearly as often as they occur. Do your research. Your body. Your baby. Your birth experience. You have to take responsibility for your care.

1. If you have any crunchy tendencies, read Ina May's Guide to Childbirth the minute the second line shows up on the pee stick.

2. Research your care provider's/hospital's Cesarean rate. I hate to tell you this, but there are some doctors that will try to convince you that you need a C-Section so that they can be home in time for dinner, or so you won't interrupt their day off. They won't tell you that's why you need one. They'll probably say something along the lines of "the baby is just too big" or "failure to progress" or "your bag of water has been ruptured for too long." Again, in some cases that's true. Not always, though.

This is a great article about the rise in the number of C-sections amongst low risk women. You might think, "Oh, but all of those surgeries were necessary to save lives." Not so much. The rate of "bad maternal/fetal outcomes" has not decreased with the increase of C-sections. Seriously. Do your research. The rate of poor maternal/fetal outcomes is super low in the US, but it is still higher than the rate in some undeveloped countries. Isn't that baffling?! Here's another great article.

3. Your doctor will probably mention an induction. You probably don't need one.

If you are low risk and haven't exceeded 42 weeks gestation and you don't want to be induced, do your research, figure out what you want to do, and fight for it. You cannot be forced to consent to any medical procedure. You have a choice. You may have to sign some sort of waiver, but find out what your options are. You are not "overdue" until you exceed 42 weeks. From 40-42 weeks, you are "postdate."

Ask what your Bishop Score is. If you are induced with a low Bishop's score, the probability that your induction will lead to a C-Section skyrockets.

The average gestation for a first time pregnancy is 41 weeks 1 day. My doctor would have happily induced me at 40 weeks. Not because of any complications or concern about the health of my baby or me. It's just kind of what they do. I declined a 40 week induction and the baby came out anyway! He didn't come out at 40 weeks, but he came out when he was ready. Crazy how our bodies and our babies know what to do! :)

4. Research Evidence Based Birth. If your doctor suggests an intervention that you don't want, ask questions about why it's necessary in your particular pregnancy. You are the consumer. You are paying for a service. Don't fail to ask questions because you don't want to "bother" your doctor. A good doctor won't mind answering your questions and putting your mind at ease.

5. Figure out what your birth preferences are well ahead of your due date so you can discuss them with your doctor and get his or her input. You don't want to find out that you're not on the same page in the delivery room. If your doctor isn't supportive of your wishes, find out why and decide if he or she is directing your care from the standpoint of standard protocol or if your particular medical needs are being taken into consideration.

I could go on and on, but the main point is this: Learn as much as you can about what kind of care you want and what kind of care your doctor is going to provide. Be informed. Know your options.

Resources for more info:

Amnesty International
Hypnobabies
The Business of Being Born
Ina May Gaskin
Evidence Based Birth Blog
International Cesarean Awareness Network

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The Demystified Diaper Dilemma

The funk came back. I thought it was a goner, but the funk came back...

I discussed my particular issues with my local diaper experts and they said they thought that my diapers just weren't getting enough water in the rinse to get all of the detergent out. When you don't get all of the detergent out, you get ammonia buildup in diapers = stink! This is a common problem with high efficiency washing machines. The usual "fix" is to throw a wet towel in with the diapers to add weight to the machine and trick it into adding more water.

I had tried doing that (along with nixing the "spin" in my prerinse cycle), but I was still having trouble.

Not only that, but some of my diapers have kind of yellowish brown patches on them that particularly seem to stink. And no, it's not poop. That was a little more mystifying than the smell. Not even the experts were sure of what that was. You can kind of see what I'm talking about on the diaper on the right.



I also picked up some Rockin Green detergent. It's maybe the most popular detergent amongst cloth diaper users because it rinses clean, is all natural, gentle, smells great, and it has cute little gimmicky scent names (Motley Clean, Smashing Watermelons, Barenaked Babies), etc. I thought that since my detergent wasn't rinsing out, maybe a more clean rinsing version would do better.



Then my washing machine died. Lovely, but it might be the best thing that has happened to my diaper routine because I think I've figured out the problem.

The machine wasn't letting enough water in. Even for an HE machine, it wasn't letting enough water in. And it was cutting off in the middle of the rinse cycle. Not only that, but when the repair guy came, he detached the hose that lets water into the machine to check the water pressure, and the clean water that was going into the machine was BROWN! (Umm...hello brown patches on diapers!) Ah the joys of well water! They are supposed to repair it today and I will be anxious to see what kind of difference it makes.

In the meantime we have been back in disposables and back to leaky nighttime ("12 hour"...yeah right!) diapers. Not only that, but I've had dirty diapers sitting in the pail for 3 days now and that is driving me absolutely nuts. I can't wait for it to be fixed!

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