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Church Family Rules and Mod Podge Lessons

Posted by Nat on Feb 6, 2012 in family, home decor, Mod Podge, move-away, ramblings | Comments Off on Church Family Rules and Mod Podge Lessons

My church had an event with an auction.  I decided to make a set of Family Rules for them to auction off.  Here’s a little peek.

I didn’t have much time to take pictures because I wanted to cross this off my list in a very bad way.  These are also not my most favorite rules.  I LOVE the hearts at the bottom- definitely going to do that again.  But I learned a lesson or two about paper and Mod Podge with these rules.  They were more like reminders for me, but because I rushed this project, I need to write them down so I don’t forget.  Hopefully they’ll help you, too.

Lesson One:

Quality counts for something if you’re using Mod Podge and paper.  Do not use cheap-y, flimsy scrapbooking paper if you are adhering it to a canvas.  It will bubble on you and it will possibly stay bubbled.  Sometimes, with other projects, the paper will bubble and then flatten out as it dries, but with this project, or with canvas & paper projects, you have to be uber careful.  In my case, I don’t mind the bubbling- I think it adds some visual appeal.  But if you want/need an uber-flat surface, be careful with cheap/thin paper.

Lesson Two:

Less is More.  I LOVE the Mod Podge part of this project- it’s my favorite part because everything starts coming together.  However, with this set of rules I learned that as much as I like to dump the Mod Podge all over the canvas and spread it around, that’s really a bit cocky of me. Mod Podge does not like to be abused.  So spread it nicely and not too thick.  It dries really fast- you’ll get that second coat on before you know it.

Do you have any Mod Podge questions?  Tips?  I love Mod Podge.  It’s my crafting hero.

If you’d like to see other Family Rules I’ve made, click here and here.

I’m linking up to

Garage Door Update

Posted by Nat on Feb 3, 2012 in home, house, makeovers, move-away | 1 comment

My friend, Janis, watched my little one yesterday and she reminded me that I hadn’t updated on the new garage door.  It’s amazing what a little pop of white will do, no?

Here’s a side-by-side comparison.

We have to decide what to do about the trim- they had to add some pieces to even things out, so we have a combo of white, wood and brown.  I’m voting white, but Michael isn’t so sure.  Thoughts?  We agonized about the color and the window shape, but I’m happy with what we ended up getting.  I have never really paid attention to garages before- now I do.

I’m not sure that I’ll ever show you the inside of our garage, but let me tell you- it’s like a whole new world in there.  Animals cannot get in (unless we leave the breezeway door open…oops), there’s light coming in from the windows, so it’s not uber-scary.  Dreamy, really.  We have a lot of organizing to do before I can park my momvan in there, but it’s coming along.  Progress!

Make Your Own Chicken Nuggets {in bulk}

Posted by Nat on Feb 2, 2012 in food, move-away, tutorial | 1 comment

One of my goals recently has been to find good, tasty recipes that my whole family will eat.  No more short order chef!  Paired with that is that I want to cut out a lot of processed foods, especially meats.  My kids LOVE chicken nuggets.  I, however, found myself cringing every time I put them in the toaster oven because I know too much about chicken nuggets now.  They gross me out.

I recently bought this cookbook and I love it.  I’m still working my way through it, but I have tried several recipes.  So far, this one is our ultimate for a chicken nugget replacement.  It tastes AMAZING.  And here’s the thing- I do not like coconut.  But I LOVE this chicken recipe.

I decided to take it one step further and make it in bulk so that I could freeze a bunch and have them ready for an easy dinner. I am so happy I did this- it was a bit of a process, but now we have a ton of these in the freezer.  I learned a lot the first time around, so hopefully I can pass on some tips to you so you can do this with the same recipe or one that is similar.

Here’s what I recommend if you think you want to try this.

1)  Try the recipe for dinner sometime soon.  Just make one batch. (recipe below)

2)  Love it?  Move on.  Make it in bulk.

3)  Hate it?  Something is wrong with you.  Try again. (Just kidding!)

So here is the recipe in it’s original state.  See below the recipe for a few notes from me.

Coconut Chicken Fingers

by the Meal Makeover Moms

• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 4 teaspoons canola or peanut oil, divided

1. Place the chicken on a cutting board and slice each breast into 1/2-inch thick by 4-inch long strips (to yield about 7 strips per breast).
2. Place the coconut, bread crumbs, salt, ginger and garlic powder in a medium bowl and stir to combine.  Use a fork or your fingers to break up any clumps of coconut.
3. Place the egg in another bowl and the flour on a plate.  To bread the chicken, coat both sides with the flour and shake off excess.  Dip in the egg and then coat evenly with the coconut mixture.
4. Heat 2 teaspoons of the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the chicken and cook until the bottoms are golden brown, 4 to 5 minutes.  Reduce the heat if the coconut browns too quickly.  Flip the chicken strips, add the remaining oil, and cook until the meat is no longer pink and the bottoms are golden brown, about 4 minutes.

My notes on just the single-meal recipe:  I used more egg and flour.  I think in the end I used 3 eggs and about a 1/4 cup of flour.  The key to this recipe is in the breading, though, which I also doubled.  I must have macho chicken pieces or something. Also, you’ll see in some of my photos below that the coconut browns very easily.  Unless it’s totally black and singed, this does not affect the taste at all, so don’t feel like you’ll ruin them if there’s some dark brown coconut- it’s still delish!

Another Note:  you can watch these ladies make a version of this recipe in a video here.  In the video online they add flaxseed meal to the breading- I will do that next time and will update the bulk recipe after I do so.  Totally wish I had watched this video first!  It does bother me how neat they are, though- I made a complete mess when making them.

 Now make them in bulk!

Okay, so, now if you’ve tried the original recipe and you love it as much as I did, then you’ve come back and are ready to make it in a big batch.

Some things to think about as you plan when and how you’re going to do this.

• Don’t plan much the day you do this.  It is straight forward, but it’s time consuming.  If you have really small kids like me, then I would recommend doing this when your partner is home to keep things less stressful.  You’re going to be dealing with a lot of raw chicken and you don’t want to mess it (or your family) up.
• Give yourself plenty of time.
• Wear some good shoes.  I know-weird, but you’ll be standing a lot, so you should be comfy.
• Make space in your fridge just in case you need to throw the chicken in while you take a break or if you feel like it’s getting too warm.   You don’t want to have to rearrange things mid-process, believe me.

Here are some basic things you’ll want to pull before you get started

• at least 4 cookie/baking sheets- 2 for raw chicken and 2 for cooked
• parchment paper
• foil
• disposable gloves (if desired, for working with raw chicken)
• meat mallet/pounder (if you like to have flat chicken- not totally necessary)
• large freezer bags
• paper towels
• lots of clean bowls
• a good pair of tongs for turning over the meat
• a good sturdy cooking pan- bigger is better
• cutting board
• patience and a desire to eat this totally awesome recipe again

Here is the adjusted recipe, followed by the process I followed.  I’m sure one could do this faster, but I didn’t want to mess it up.  After you do it once you’ll have your own process down in your head and you can make your own changes.

Recipe Adjusted for Large Quantities*:

You’ll see below that I bought two bags of all-natural, whole chicken breasts, rather than using chicken breast halves.  These two bags combined had seven whole breasts in them.  I got mine at Trader Joe’s, but this is cooking, not baking, so you don’t have to be too precise with most of this- the breading is the only thing.

• boneless chicken breasts; about 7 or 8
• 4 cups sweetened shredded coconut
• 4 cups panko bread crumbs
• 4 teaspoons kosher salt
• 4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 6 large eggs, beaten
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• a bottle of canola oil (or peanut if that floats your boat)

*In general, make sure you have extra of all of these ingredients.  If you run out of something, you don’t want to be scrambling for it right when you need it- no fun.  If you run out of the breading, you can refer to the original recipe to make a smaller amount, but the ratio of panko crumbs, ginger, garlic and salt is sooo important, so be sure to stick to it!  Also, as you work, pay very close attention to your chicken.  You don’t want it getting too warm or you run the risk of making yourself or your family very sick.  When in doubt, stick it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Rinse and pat dry your chicken.  This takes away the slime (blech) and makes it easier to cut into pieces.  You can also remove any bits of fat or other things you don’t want.

I used parchment paper.  This is for later, but best to do it while the chicken is still cold.  It just felt better than putting them directly on the sheet.

You can see above how I handled the really big breasts (tee hee).  I butterflied them, and then each half was cut into about 8 pieces.  I did end up cutting some of those really long pieces again, so sometimes I had as much as 20 pieces per breast.  If you want, while you prep the chicken you can pound it so that it’s all the same thickness.  I started with that in mind and then sort of threw that idea out the window after the second or third chicken breast.  To each his own.

This is a good stopping point if you need to take a rest. I did.  If you’re going to take a long break, be sure to cover your chicken with some saran wrap or it will dry out.

Step 4:  Dredge the chicken pieces in flour.  I didn’t take any pics of this process because it was very hands-on and I didn’t want to get my camera all covered with flour and chicken.

This was a great space saver.  When I filled up the first parchment-lined cookie sheet, I placed a big cooling rack on top of it so that when I filled up the 2nd sheet, I could just slide the first sheet on top of the second.  This way I could keep the chicken cool while I put together the breading and got the eggs ready.   If you’re going to take another long break, be sure to cover them up.

You could also do this ahead of time, but your chicken will likely need to cool down a bit if it took you a while to dredge it in the flour piece-by-piece.  This breading is the magic of this recipe.  Do not mess with it- it’s awesome!

Step 7:  Beat your eggs.  Don’t have a pic.  You can beat your eggs without referring to a picture, right? 🙂

 This is what worked for me:  I like working from left to right, so I set up the tray of chicken, the eggs, the breading, and then got my cook top ready to go.  I made sure I had extra ingredients at the ready- especially the canola oil because you need to replenish it often while cooking.  Here’s another view:

Start your process.  I worked really hard this time to figure out a way to prevent both hands from becoming nasty, flour/egg/breading messes.  Here’s what worked for me:

Left   hand:

• Use a fork to place flour-coated chicken pieces in the egg.
• Transfer egg-coated pieces to the breading bowl.

Right   hand:

• Use a different fork to coat the chicken in breading.
• Transfer the chicken to the pan to be cooked.

You’ll see in the picture above that there are little bits of coconut everywhere.  You need to turn your chicken carefully or your tongs will essentially peel off the breading, so be very gentle when flipping them over.  Regardless, you will need a coconut depository or you’ll have lots of overcooked coconut.  Mine was reallly fancy-  I used a paper towel, and I put it right above my cooktop so I could just grab them during the process:

As you begin, you need to find your magic number.

 I worked with no more than six pieces of chicken at a time.  I threw six pieces in the egg, transfered them to the breading.  They are easy to lose in the breading, and you don’t want to pull out a piece of chicken and wonder,”How long has this been buried in here?” or “Did I get them all?”  So I decided that six was my magic number.  Once I plopped one batch into the pan to start, I could prep another while they cooked on their first side.  Soon I had a rhythm to it.

The paper towels will absorb a lot of the excess oil.

You just made a boat load of chicken.

Once the chicken has cooled a bit, bag it up for the freezer.  I filled four gallon-sized freezer bags full of this yumminess.  I didn’t want to jam them too full so that the breading would stay nice.  I labeled them with the date and how many pieces were in each bag.  For our family, 25-30 pieces serves all four eating humans (7-month-old baby isn’t quite there yet). I’m sure that will change, but for now it works.

To reheat, I would recommend doing them at 375 for about 15 minutes, give or take.  They reheat very nicely, but you want to get them very hot so that the breading will crisp up again.  Do not even think about reheating these in the microwave- they will not crisp up again.  And if I hear about it I will hurt you.  Okay, maybe not, but still- use your oven or your toaster-oven.

Did you get to the bottom of this post?  If so, I’d love it if you left me a comment!  I’d really love to know if you do this- I’m so excited about it because it’s so much better for my family and ME.  I know what I’m eating, I know it’s fresh, I know it’s yummy because I MADE IT.  If you got this far, I’d also love it if you “liked” me on Facebook.  If you scroll back up to the top you’ll see a “like me on Facebook” in my sidebar.  I’m trying very hard to “grow” my blog and my audience, so I’d love to hear from you here or on Facebook!  Thanks for stopping by!

*please note, I am not getting paid for this post; I dig the Meal Makeover Moms and their book, but am not making any cash-ola in singing their praises or elaborating/extending this recipe.

Do Yourself a Favor… {Make this soup!}

Posted by Nat on Feb 1, 2012 in food, move-away, Pinterest, Pinterest Projects | Comments Off on Do Yourself a Favor… {Make this soup!}

Warning…  this post has a lot of bird-walking.

Sweet Potato Chowder, folks!  I’m tellin’ you.  Nom nom.

This chowder is so good that I started writing the post before I even tasted it.  Yeah, I know.  What I like most is when a soup you cook for just about 30 minutes tastes like it’s been cooking all day.  This one tastes just. Like. That.

Here is the one picture that turned out well.  Good thing it’s a closeup of bacon.  (If you’re vegetarian, don’t leave! I think this recipe would be delish sans bacon, too.)

This is like a “twofer” deal because you get the original recipe and my own adaptation.  Why my adaptation?  I don’t like chilies or peppers.  Isn’t it funny that my last name is Chiles but I don’t like chilies?  🙂  I always want to spell it chillies.  Or Chili’s like the restaurant.

Anyhoo, I pinned this recipe recently on my Food & Drink board.  Man, that board is getting crazy.  I need Pinterest to start allowing drag and drop editing with boards because mine are a bit cluttered.  I digress.

Here is the original recipe from Real Simple:

My problem is that chiles really don’t sit well with me, both in taste and digestion fun.  I just don’t put them in my food.  And the taste of any pepper- red, green, yellow… makes me want to gag. However, if you look at that recipe, you’ll see that it has quite a bit of chile and pepper action going on.   I knew that if I didn’t substitute anything else in for the chilies and peppers it would be pretty colorless and bland.  I also love a good, creamy chowder, so here’s my new, adapted version of this soup:

Nat’s Sweet Potato Chowder

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound thick-sliced bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1/2 large white onion, diced
• 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
• 3 13-ounce cans chicken broth
• 2 14-ounce cans corn
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 8-12 oz. frozen peas, to taste
• kosher salt
• Greek yogurt for serving

Directions

1. Cook the bacon in a large stockpot over medium heat until it begins to crisp, 6 to 8 minutes. Spoon off all but 1 tablespoon of the drippings. (I found that when I spooned off the grease it was exactly 1 tablespoon.  Just sayin’.)
2. Add the onion to the bacon and continue cooking, stirring frequently, until the onions are tender, 3 to 5 minutes.
3. Add the sweet potatoes and chicken broth and simmer, covered, 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.
4. Stir in the corn, peas, milk, and ½ teaspoon salt and cook until heated through.
5. If desired, plop on some Greek yogurt.  Enjoy!

New Garage Door

Posted by Nat on Jan 27, 2012 in home, house, makeovers, move-away | 2 comments

We’re getting a new garage door today.  I’m super excited!!!!!!!!  No really.  For reals.  Why so excited, you ask?  Well, the current state of affairs is rather dismal.  Here’s our current garage door: 

(Please disregard our cracked and dirty driveway.  Our driveway is huge.  I want a leaf blower.)

Now, granted it does actually enclose the garage to keep out animals and sunlight, but that’s sort of where the love ends for me.  This door is rotting.  If you stand IN the garage when the sun is out you can see the sunshine coming in through little cracks in the wood.  But it gets even better.

This garage door does not open on it’s own. Nope.  So we have to lug it open.  It’s frickin’ HEAVY.  And even better than that…  when it rains, it somehow sucks in all the moisture like a sponge and then it doesn’t stay open, so if you have to open it, you have to be able to get what you need out AND hold it open at the same time.  Neat.  It also, as you can see below, does not close flat, and the lock with which one would secure it shut to keep out robbers… doesn’t work.

Farewell, garage door. Today you will meet your demise.  You will be replaced with a lovely, white garage door that has these lovely transparent things called windows.  It will have a magical button I can push.  When I push the button, it will open and close at my command.  It will have a keypad.  It will be….marvelous.

I can’t WAIT to show you the after pics!  We are doing some special stuff this weekend so I will likely not post until Wednesday or so.  Hooray!

Jane’s Family Rules

Posted by Nat on Jan 26, 2012 in crafting, family, Featured, Mod Podge, move-away, paper | 2 comments

Yesterday I introduced you to my wonderful friend, Jane.  Jane’s birthday is in May.  It is now January.  Why does that matter?  Well, it was in May that I told Jane that I’d make her a set of family rules for her home.  And just this past weekend I finally actually gave them to her!  Granted, I did have a baby in July, and Jane did have to come up with the rules (a fun, but daunting task).  Here they are in all of their Mod Podged glory (and please note:  I REALLY need/want a new camera- ours is getting tired):

What I loved about this project, aside from the fact that I got to make this for someone I care about so much, was that I knew Jane would want something slightly different than my family rules.  I welcomed the challenge.  The one I made for our family is definitely my style- loud, colorful…a bit busy.  They fit me and my family to a ‘T.’  And with the color scheme in our kitchen, they work.  I love how they *pop* off the wall and people notice them when they come over for the first time.  Jane has different decor than we do (she has a smokin’ 80s kitchen while ours is still smack-dab in the swanky 70s) and has always liked certain colors.  I wanted to make her Family Rules “look like her,” and to go with her family and her home.  I think I did a good job.  She seems to like them, anyway.  I need to get over to her house and take a picture because all of these photos are in my home.

I’ve actually made another set to send to a church auction (post forthcoming) and have realized:  I LOVE making these things.  A lot.  So get ready for some giveaways and some fun because I think I may have found at least one path to my creative life- we’ll see!

J is for Jane

Posted by Nat on Jan 25, 2012 in move-away, ramblings | 1 comment

This post is in preparation for tomorrow’s post.  You need some backstory.

Do you have a Jane in your life?  I do.  My Jane is rad.   (Hey, Jane- if you’re reading this, grab your tissues just in case.)

I met Jane in Texas in 1999.  She and I were teaching at the same school in Dallas.   At first we just sort of said hello to each other at meetings, nothing huge.  I was a new music teacher, and she was a new 5th grade teacher.

Young. Carefree.  Single.  (And perhaps a bit tipsy.)

One of my first memories of Jane is a blur.  I was on a horrible date.  Horrible.  Awkward.  Painfully long silences.  For some reason he asked me to go dancing at a country dancing bar place, and for some reason I said,”Uh…okay.”  We each had a drink and then he asked me to dance.  He could at least lead, which was nice.  He was two-stepping me around the dance floor (albeit, with totally sweaty palms), when all of a sudden I saw Jane’s blurry face, her big smile, go by my line of vision.  “Hey!  You two know each other?!”  She had gone to high school with him.  Neat.  We stopped and talked to her for a few minutes and soon after, the date was over.  Funny how at the end of the evening, I thought to myself, “Well, that date wasn’t so great but at least I got to see Jane.”

I taught music to her class, and one day, at the end of that first school year teaching together, she brought her class up to my door and said, “I hear you’re looking for a roommate.”  The rest, as they say, is history.  We moved into a new building that used to be where the first Dr. Pepper bottling plant was in Dallas.   We had a few mutual agreements.  She wouldn’t hang her Aggie (Texas A&M) stuff in the main area, and I wouldn’t hang my SMU stuff, either.  Done.  Living with Jane was as easy as it was fun.  We had just the right balance of fun together and space apart.  I learned to leave her alone if she fell asleep on the couch (grumpy), and she learned that I do my dishes (eventually).

Me, Jane, and Kelley

A few months after moving in, Jane’s cousin, Kelley, called her up.  A few minutes into the conversation, Jane asked me if I’d want to move to San Diego with her and Kelley.  “When?”  “This summer.”  ……..”Okay.”  Leave the hot Texas summer for the breeze of the beach?  Done.  We embarked on an adventure that continues today, because…. we’re still here.  And we have *almost* seven kids between us (did I mention Jane is due any day with baby #4?  Yeah- she’s amazing.).  We’ve both gotten married, had kids, moved to different parts of town, but our roots are now here in San Diego.

What I value most in my friendship with Jane is that she teaches me without even realizing it.  Just by knowing Jane I have learned, for example:

• How to share (you don’t get Jane all to yourself- she’s too awesome.  She also doesn’t know a stranger.  So when you’re friends with her, you automatically gain oodles of other wonderful friends.)
• How to parent (Jane is an encyclopedia of motherly knowledge.  Since she had her first son, Luke, before I started my family, I get to watch how she does things and see what works for her.  Then I copy what works because she doesn’t mind.)
• How to love (Jane is a hugger. Not a fake hugger, but a real hugger.)
• How to stand up for what you believe in (Jane does not compromise her beliefs.  Love that.)

and of course…

• How to party (though we don’t do that nearly as much as we used to now that we have so many kids to take care of…dang it!)

If I went up to Jane and told her, prior to posting this piece, that I was going to write a blog post about how much I love her, and how wonderful I think she is, and how much her friendship means to me, she would a) turn bright red, b) tell me it’s not necessary, she doesn’t do anything that special, and c) immediately change the subject.  Jane is a person who focuses on others.  She does not like to be the focus of attention in any way.  Too bad, my sweet Janie.  I’ve just written a whole blog post about you and me, and how great you are.  I have loved being friends with you for so long. You are one of my longest held friends, and I am so blessed to have you in my life.  I’m so happy that we are both “stuck” in San Diego together.

I made something for Jane.  I’ll show it to you tomorrow.  🙂

Right Now

Posted by Nat on Jan 24, 2012 in ramblings | Comments Off on Right Now

I have so many pending posts.  Photos just need to be edited and I need to get typing.  But I’m stuck.  I’m sort of in this place where I’m wrapping up my past and it’s a bit out of my control.  It’s hard to focus on the present when you need your past chapters to close.  I feel like one of those joggers you see at an intersection, jogging in place while they wait for the light to change so they can continue their run.

Patience is a virtue.  I, however, am not a patient person in all areas of my life.  But I will wait.  And soon I can completely let go of my past teaching life and move on into a more creative one (I hope).   I never, ever thought I’d be anything but a teacher, but here I am on the cusp of something else, and I have no idea what it is exactly, but it’s exciting.

I’ve spent most of my post-children-sleeping evening preparing documents and getting things prepared, and it’s amazing how much diving back into my world of teaching automatically sends my stress level to an old, familiar place.  It’s not something I enjoy.

I’m hoping that I can get caught up this week- the weekend ended so quickly that I haven’t had a chance to get grounded yet.  I have some great posts coming your way, though, including more Mod Podge and more food.  Yum.  I love food.

Make Your Own Coffee Creamer {Genius!}

Posted by Nat on Jan 23, 2012 in food, home, ideas, move-away | Comments Off on Make Your Own Coffee Creamer {Genius!}

My sister, Stephanie, is responsible for this one.  Thanks, Steph!

She can tell when I’m on a kick.  Lately I’m on a “make my own stuff” kick, as you may have read in my post about making my own laundry detergent.  Soon after that post, Stephanie texted me that she had tried making her own coffee creamer and it tasted pretty good.  She shared this link with me.   I immediately gravitate to all things chocolate, of course, so I decided to give the mocha recipe a try.   I also happened to have dry milk in my pantry (bread making) and hadn’t used it yet.  I had all of the ingredients (only three!) so I made it up.  I have to say…. I like it!

A lot of whether or not you might enjoy this creamer is, I think, going to be based on how much you need the cream experience in your coffee.  While it doesn’t give me that, “MmmmmMMMMMMMM!” experience that some of my favorite flavors of creamer give me, it still does the job of making my coffee taste less… like coffee.  And the cocoa is very nice- at the end it’s almost like having a cup of hot chocolate- nice!  What I like most is that it’s not made with high fructose corn syrup, it’s only three ingredients, and those ingredients are simple.  Sugar?  Yup.  Sugar is not going to kill me if I put just a few (okay, three) spoonfuls in my coffee.

If you like the experience of watching your creamer take over your coffee and change it from a dark, black mass of caffeinated sludge to a caramel-colored, smooth warm drink… this is not going to do it for you.  As shown above, your coffee will not look that much lighter.  But it does make your coffee taste… less like coffee and more like creamer.  There are other flavors listed on the link, but here’s the recipe I used:

Mocha Coffee Creamer

• 1 cup sugar
• 2 cups nonfat dry milk
• 4 teaspoons cocoa

Of course, I did add a bit of this and that helped with the creaminess.  Nom-nom.

Stephanie tried the orange flavor.  She said that she used Splenda and it was very sweet, but she still liked it.

Thanks, Steph!  And thanks, “desertgal”, whomever and wherever you are!

Keep it Happy in 2012

Posted by Nat on Jan 19, 2012 in freebies, move-away, printable | Comments Off on Keep it Happy in 2012

I posted here about how I feel about resolutions for myself, and that instead, I would have a theme for this year.  I didn’t realize it but apparently I was right on trend, so I’ll be linking up over here at the Lettered Cottage to share my “word of the year” (even though I have three….).    I finally got to playing around in Photoshop, and this is what I came up with:

I chose teal, but I made a bunch so that I can change it up as the year goes on.  No one likes to have only one option, right?  I’m glad that I’ll have this in my entry way- I’ll pass it hundreds of times a day, so it will remind me to stay positive and be happy, dammit. 🙂

So friends, I give you an 8×10 “Keep it Happy” print.  Have fun.  Let me know what color you pick, or if you have another color you’d like to suggest, I would be more than happy to add more.  You should be able to click on the print of your choice and save it to your hard drive, but let me know if you have problems.  Happy day!