Birthday Round-up...

Well, my other project from my scrap weekend (besides Easter cards, which I'm not posting right now, but caused quite a Cameo ordeal) was making some birthday cards.  I got a quite a few finished, and have ideas for some more, when I get a free moment to continue.  I love how I get so much done on these weekends, cuz I'm not constantly walking dogs, getting phonecalls, thinking about what else I should be doing at my house, etc. etc...I can just focus on craftiness.  <3  A big thank you to Heather for another lovely trip!!!  Anyway, here's my birthday card round-up:

Tim Holtz Birthday Set Cards
Colored with Tombow markers, and embellished with paper, pearls, and stickles.

A Couple Cute Birdies
Both AI Zoo Crew stamps, colored with Tombow markers, washi tape rosette on the owl card, and don't forget to check out the inside of the vulture card :)

House Mouse Birthday Cards
Colored with Tombow markers, embellished with paper, washi tape, etc.

Miscellaneous Birthday Cards
The cat is Penny Black, and the Mouse is Whimsy Doodles (I think?  I can't remember), both colored with Tombow markers.  Did some doodling on the border of the mouse card, and added ribbon and doodling to the cat :)

And that's all for tonight!  Have a good weekend all :)

Journaling Workshop Wrap-Up...

Well, I finally got my last two pages done for my journaling workshop, while I was in Michigan at Heather's the last few days.  I got soooooo much done while I was there...like...47 cards and 2 scrapbook pages...plus shopping, wine drinking, chocolate eating, and sleeping in...woot!  Anyway, here's my last homework assignments (cards to be posted later!):

Journaling in a Venn Diagram (yep...a Venn Diagram)
It would never occur to me journal in a Venn Diagram, and I had a hard time thinking of a topic right off, but once I got it figured out, it really turned out well.  I'm sort of stretching myself to come up with some of the pages for these prompts right now, but I know having them in my stash of ideas will be helpful down the road as well...there's always unique pages that call for unique add-ons.  This one is of the pups (click to enlarge), and shows how much better adjusted they are now that they have each other :)

Journaling in a Spreadsheet
Another one that really hurt my noggin' to come up with a page for, but I like the result, and I'm definitely going to keep it in mind for the future when I have a lot of information to cover.  Particularly if I ever have kids...I think it'd be perfect for that.  For now, it's of me, my Mom, and my sister (click to enlarge).

And that concludes my Grammar Free Journaling Workshoph with Angie Lucas on Big Picture Classes.  I had a lot of fun, and I'm sort of sad that it's over, but I'm glad I learned so much!

House Mouse Monday Challenge (HMFMC 140)

Woot...made it back in time from my scrapping weekend to enter my card for the House Mouse Monday Challenge (#HMFMC 140).  This time the inspiration was ribbons and pearls.  Also, I'm newly obsessed with my silver Sharpies for doodling :)  Other featured items were Stickles and my Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher to do the ribbon detail.  Anyway, here's what I came up with:

Playing Catch Up...

So, I've gotten kinda behind on my journaling homework.  Luckily, I had some time tonight and got pretty close to caught up...only 2 more pages to go.  Here's what I was working on tonight:

Journaling in a Graph
So I miss my friend Chris...we used to go out and karaoke constantly back when I lived in DeKalb.  Long story short, being a grown-up sucks sometimes, and life just gets in the way of getting together...particularly when I work retail and she's a night nurse...talk about making it impossible to mesh schedules!  Anyway, I've been thinking about her a lot lately, so I made this page to honor our karaoke duets and how much we rock the house :)  lol.  Also, it was apparently a washi tape kind of day...I'm obsessed!  (Click picture for a closer view.)

Journaling in a Pie Chart
It would've never occurred to me to journal in a pie chart, although once I got going, I thought of a bunch of other ways to use them.  This graphic representations are sort of nice when you don't have many pictures...they take up a lot of space, but still have a lot of visual interest.  I did a pie chart of the breakdown of my recent vacations with Mom.  It might have taken all of my childhood and part of my adult life, but I finally convinced her that being so busy sightseeing that you need a vacation from your vacation sort of defeats the purpose of going in the first place.  Now, we just relax and soak it in! Aaaand...more washi tape!  (Click picture for a closer view.)

Journaling - Group Quiz Prompt
This was actually the workshop wrap-up (yes, I'm working out of order, but that's because my printer was being stubborn and didn't want to print out my spreadsheet or venn diagram...so look forward to that on my next post!  lol).  I think I've probably scrapped pictures of MYSELF more in this workshop than in the rest of my scrapbooking combined.  And I think I might actually like that.  Weird.  Either way, it'll be nice to have a little snapshot of myself to look back on a few years from now.  (Click picture for a closer view.)

Well, that's all for tonight.  Hopefully, I'll get my last two pages done tomorrow night, but I still have a bunch of stuff to cut on my Cameo for my Easter cards, and I have to work on packing for Michigan...just 3 days till it's wine time at Heather's house!!!  :)

It's Playlist Time...

Ah yes, the season has changed, and it's time for a new driving playlist...here's the rundown!

1) Madness - Muse
2) We Come Running - Youngblood Hawke
3) Six Degrees of Separation - The Script
4) Lego House - Ed Sheeran
5) Just Give Me a Reason - Pink (feat. Nate Ruess)
6) Daylight - Maroon 5
7) Restless Heart - Matt Hires
8) Grace Kelly - MIKA
9) She Got the Honey - Mat Kearney
10) Best Day of Your Life - Katie Herzig
11) Change - Churchill
12) When I Was Your Man - Bruno Mars
13) Just a Fool - Christina Aguilera & Blake Shelton
14) Devil's Been Talkin' - NEEDTOBREATHE
15) Lessons in Love - Neon Trees (feat. Kaskade)

Enjoy :)

Baked Cheesy Chicken Chimichangas...

This one was my sole Pinterest special of the week.  The original can be found at menu managed.  It got really good reviews, and it was pretty easy to throw together, and is promising based on the ingredients.  Here's the recipe:

Baked Cheesy Chicken Chimichangas
8 servings - 352 calories each

Ingredients
8 oz. pkg. cream cheese
8 oz. pepperjack cheese, shredded
1 pkg. taco seasoning
1 lb. cooked chicken, shredded
8 flour tortillas
Cooking spray
(shredded cheddar, green onions, and sour cream for topping, if desired)

Directions
Mix cream cheese, pepperjack, taco seasoning, and chicken together.  Place 1/8 of the mixture on each of the tortillas, fold in ends, and roll up.  Place seam side down on a greased baking sheet.  Spray tops with cooking spray.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.  Flip and bake an additional 15 minutes.  I added some cheese and baked for another 5 minutes, but that's up to you!

And that's all for this month!  Back to crafty posts for the next few weeks before we start all over again!

Italian Crescent Casserole...

Another Pillsbury  special!  I swapped beef for pork sausage when I made it, because I already had two beef dishes for the month.  It was easy and I'm just hoping it tastes as good as it looks!  Here we go:

Italian Crescent Casserole
6 servings - 390 calories each

Ingredients
1 lb. pork sausage (I used hot and zesty), cooked and drained
1 c. pasta sauce
1 can crescent rolls
1 1/2 c. Italian cheese blend, shredded
1/4 tsp. Italian seasoning

Directions
In a skillet, cook sausage and pasta sauce to boiling over med-high heat, stirring occasionally.  While that's cooking, arrange crescent rolls in an ungreased pie plate in a "spoke" pattern, with about 3 inches overhanging the edges of the plate.  Press crescents into bottom/sides of pie plate.  Top with 1 c. of cheese.  Pour in meat mixture, and spread evenly over cheese.  Fold in ends of crescents.  Top with remaining 1/2 c. of cheese and Italian seasoning.  Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

It looks good and was easy and quick, so it's already practically a winner in my book.  We'll see how the reheat goes, and I'll let you know when I do the recipe recap!

Philly Cheesesteak Rolls...

I've been in a mood for Philly cheesesteaks lately.  I think I must've been watching a Diners, Drive-ins & Dives or something, cuz it's not something I usually crave.  At any rate, I sort of love using puff pastry...it used to scare me, but it's actually not too much of an ordeal to use once ya get down to it (and once you let it thaw appropriately...which I learned the hard way, the first couple of times).  Anyway, the original recipe on this one can be found at Pepperidge Farm.  The recipe called for "frozen sandwich steak", which I had no idea what that was, but I went to the store on a wing and a prayer, and low and behold, there it was, aptly labelled, right there in the freezer aisle...woot!  I did adjust the processes a little bit, cuz I'm lazy and like to save time :)  Anyway, here's the recipe:

Philly Cheesesteak Rolls
8 servings - 252 calories each

Ingredients
1 package puff pastry (2 sheets), thawed
1 lg. onion, diced
1-12oz. package frozen sandwich steak, thawed
8 slices American cheese
1 egg, beaten

Directions
In a skillet, cook the steak and onion.  While that's cooking, open the sheets of puff pastry.  Cut sheets into quarters (the original recipe called for rolling out the sheets to a larger size, but I have terrible luck doing that, so I just made it work as is...it all turned out just fine without that extra work!)  Top each piece of puff pastry with meat and onion mixture, and then top that with a slice of cheese.  Fold pastry into a little packet (corner to corner), and seal edges.  Place on greased cookie sheet, seam side down, and brush with egg.  Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. 

And that's it...don't they look good?  I'm excited to try them for lunch someday soon.  I'll let ya know how it turns out in the update in a couple weeks!

Biscuit Cheeseburger Casserole...

And it's another Pillsbury recipe.  This was another easy one...I would use a larger casserole dish next time (larger in diameter...not depth), cuz there wasn't enough room for the entire package of biscuits that was supposed to go on top, so I had one lonely biscuit hanging out by itself after I was finished.  Anyway, it still turned out good...despite the fact that I maybe left it in a couple minutes too long when I got busy walking the dogs and forgot about it...so it's a teensy bit darker than I had planned, but definitely still within the realm of reasonable.  I adjusted some of the vegetable portions a bit, but not a lot.  Sooooo...here's the recipe as I made it:

Biscuit Cheeseburger Casserole
5 servings - 420 calories each

Ingredients
1 lb. ground beef
1 medium onion, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
1 c. tomato sauce (I used the pasta sauce I was also using for another dish, so I wouldn't have leftovers)
1/4 c. ketchup
8 slices American cheese
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 can refrigerated biscuits (the packs that have 10 biscuits in them)

Directions
In a skillet, cook the ground beef, onion, and green pepper...drain.  Add tomato sauce, ketchup, and pepper, and pepper to the meat mixture.  Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes.  In the bottom of an ungreased casserole dish, put 1/3 of the meat mixture.  Top with 4 slices of cheese.  Repeat layers.  Top with remaining 1/3 of meat mixture.  On top of the meat mixture, line casserole dish with biscuits.  Bake at 400 degrees for 13-17 minutes. 

That's all.  Not too bad right?  It was pretty fast to throw together...I had a bite of the filling, and it did taste pretty cheeseburger-y, so that's a plus.  I'll let ya know how it goes with the update later in the month!

Taco Melts...

Well, I picked a few easy-peasys this month...few ingredients + calories that are already calculated for me = time saved for Megan!  Woot!  So first up are Taco Melts...you can find the recipe for this first one at the Pillsbury website.  They were easy to throw together, and look/smell good, so my hopes are high for the reheating later.  Here's the info:

Taco Melts
8 servings - 370 calories each

Ingredients
1 pkg. taco seasoning
2/3 c. water
1/2 c. salsa
1 lb. lean ground beef, cooked & drained
1 can Pillsbury Grands biscuits
1 c. Mexican shredded cheese
(Sour cream & more salsa to top, if desired)

Directions
In a skillet, cook ground beef, salsa, water, and taco seasoning until thickened.  Stretch biscuits to about 6" rounds.  Put about 1 T. of cheese on each biscuit, and then add about 1/3 c. meat mixture to biscuit.  Fold over biscuit, and press edges to seal.  Place on greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 375 degrees for 9-14 minutes.

And that's all.  I'll make sure to post an update later in the month to let ya know how it all turned out :)

March Menu Plan...

I've been doing so much crafty posting lately, it actually seems weird to be posting recipe stuff again!  So, I got together my March menu plan tonight, cuz I'm planning on cooking Saturday when I'm off.  Fingers crossed my ambition level keeps up the way it's been going lately and I don't inadvertently sleep till noon and skip cooking altogether ;)  The recipes that didn't already have calorie information with them were figured on CalorieKing.com, and I went ahead and linked the ones I've made on here before.  Anyway, here's the plan:

Baked Chicken Chimichangas (352 calories) + Cream Cheese Corn (120 calories) = 8 servings at 472 calories each

Philly Cheesesteak Rolls (252 calories) + Potatoes ala Boulangere (117 calories) = 8 servings at 369 calories each

Biscuit Cheeseburger Casserole (420 calories) = 5 servings at 420 calories each

Grands Taco Melts (370 calories) + Hashbrown Parmesan Cups (101 calories) = 8 servings at 471 calories each

Italian Crescent Casserole (390 calories) + Garlic Bread (153 calories) = 6 servings at 543 calories each

And that's all for tonight...better be getting to bed if I expect to not be exhausted at work all day tomorrow!  Have a good one!

February Recipe Update...

Well, it's time for a brief departure from our crafting agenda for an update on the last month's recipes!  Here's the lowdown:

Confetti Mac & Cheese - This was pretty good.  There was a bit of a texture issue with the reheating...it got a little thicker than I would've preferred.  I think next time I'll keep this recipe for a time when I've got a couple people over and we can eat it right away. 

Cheese & Nut Stuffed Shells - Oh vegetarian dishes...you get me everytime.  This tasted really good.  There was literally nothing wrong with it...except...I miss the meat.  Sorry...I'm just a carnivore.  Such is life.  Next time I'll add some spicy sausage or something to that effect.

Spicy Tuscan Soup - This might not be quite spot-on for Olive Garden, but it's pretty darn close.  Especially if I would've used the spicy sausage they called for (they were out when I went grocery shopping).  Definitely a keeper, and reheated really well!

No Peek Beef Tips - Uhhhhh...Yum!  This is definitely a winner, and it'll make it into the regular rotation for sure.  Super fast, super easy, super delicious and reheats well!

Chocolate Pumpkin Muffins - So I'm completely obsessed with these muffins.  I'll be making a double batch this month.  They are DE-LI-CIOUS.  I'd like to have one right now!

Banana Oatmeal Breakfast Muffins - These were pretty darn good too.  I would probably spend an extra few seconds pulsing the oatmeal in the food processor next time, but otherwise, really good.  Plus, they're really filling...excellent breakfast option.

That's all for the update.  March recipe plan coming shortly!

Painless Poetry and Checklist Journaling...

Man, am I feeling accomplished tonight!  Okay, so I was SUPPOSED to be working on St. Patrick's Day cards, BUT I finally had a brainstorm about what to do for my last week's journaling assignments!  So I got that done AND my Project Life update...woot!

The first assignment was Painless Poetry journaling...and I'll admit, I was scared.  It was all stream-of-consciousness writing and highlighting parts you like, etc. etc.  As someone who is lucky if she adds journaling at all (or at least historically, that's been true), I didn't know what I could possibly write that much about.  To top it off, I added the pressure on myself that if I'm going to write that much, it should be MEANINGFUL.  Well, as soon as I took the pressure off and nixed that idea entirely, the words came pouring out!  I just picked a pretty picture from our New England trip this past summer, and went to town.  This one is about how I've become a bit of a "foodie" in the last few years.  I did all the journaling on Microsoft Word, and then changed the size/font color to highlight the parts that I liked.  The rest all fades into the background, but you still get the impression of there being more there (You can see it a little better if you click to enlarge it).  Then I traced over the design in the bottom right corner (yeah, don't give me that much credit...I didn't draw it myself...lol), and added some doodling and a title with a white marker, and voila!  I like it...it looks diner chalkboard-y :)

The second assignment was journaling in a Checklist (specifically, a comparative checklist).  I decided to go with the New England theme (cuz I'm crazy, and I needed the two pages to match...lol).  It actually did work out pretty well though, because I'm always so surprised at how highly regional things are, and how much you don't notice it until someone three states away is looking at you like you just grew a second head.  lol. 

And here's a close-up of the journaling, cuz I wasn't sure how easy it would be to see otherwise (you'll probably STILL have to click on it to actually be able to read it...sorry!)

And that's all for tonight, peeps :)  Hopefully I'll be getting a recipe update for the past month's cooking and a new menu plan up soon too...we'll see how ambitious I'm feeling and whether or not we get that snowstorm they're talking about...again...argh!  Have a good one!

House Mouse Monday Challenge (HMFMC139)...

It's time for another House Mouse Monday Challenge!  :)  This one is Things With Wings (HMFMC139).  I found this stamp on clearance once upon a time ago for $4, and hadn't used it yet!  I thought it would be perfect, and added a little K&Co ladybug and bee to meet the wings portion of the challege.  I even added...wait for it...glitter!  I never add glitter, but it felt like a glittery kind of day, so I just went with it.  I really like how it turned out.  And now, I best get back to my journaling homework.  Everybody have a lovely Friday!