Made on Mondays--Easy Chicken and Noodles

We've decided to add recipes to Made on Mondays. We "make" recipes, so we figured Made on Mondays could include recipes.

Trying to run a business takes up a lot of time. Between our blog, Facebook, Twitter, making stuff for our shop, Beth's full-time job...you get the idea, there's not a lot of time for everyday things like cooking. So, we are always looking for easy recipes to throw together. I personally don't like recipes with a lot of ingredients or complicated directions. I also am self-diagnosed with Celiac Disease (tested positive for the gene needed for Celiac) and because I have complications associated with Celiac, I decided to try a gluten-free diet. (I will post about this in more detail later on.) Getting fast food is pretty much impossible because almost everything you eat out has gluten in it. No more Subway, McDonalds, Dominos! It stinks! Sit-down restaurants offer more choices, but that gets expensive and it isn't quick. Since I love to cook, NOT!!!, I've had to find easy gluten-free recipes.

I have been craving Chicken and Noodles and went searching on Saturday for a quick, easy recipe.

I found a great recipe here courtesy of alaskanmom! Be sure and click on “alaskanmom” for more of her great recipes.

Here is a picture of her finished meal. Mine looked a little different because I used Fusilli pasta.

Easy Chicken and Noodles

Ingredients

Chicken broth (around 50 oz., doesn’t have to be exact)
Water (add enough to boil noodles, about 3 cups)
16 oz. bag egg noodles (I used a 12 oz. bag of Heartland Gluten-Free Fusilli Pasta)
1 to 1 1/2 cups cooked chicken
Salt/pepper to taste
3 T butter

In addition, I added:

1 T cornstarch mixed in cold water (just a little water)

Directions

In a large pot, mix the broth and water. Cook the noodles (pasta) as directed. Add the cornstarch toward the end of the cooking time.

While the noodles are cooking, shred the cooked chicken.

When noodles (pasta) are (is) done, add the chicken, salt (I added a little [very little] salt to the pasta while it was cooking so didn’t add any here), pepper, and butter.

Heat through and serve over mashed potatoes or biscuits or just eat it by itself.

In the future for something different, I’m going to add a bag of frozen mixed vegetables to the mixture. My mom used to fix chicken and noodles with the veggies added in, and they always turned out good. Besides, that way you are getting some vegetables in with your meal. We had cooked carrots (separate, not added in) with ours last night, so that was our veggie.

Well, we hope you enjoy this recipe. If you decide to fix it, let us know how you like it.

Have a great night! Denise

Feature Fridays—Coupon for Free Stuff, a Great Freebie Site, a Great Blog, and some Great Giveaways

So, here we are for Feature Fridays. We are featuring a Coupon for Free Stuff, a Great Freebie Site, a Great Blog, and some Great Giveaways. Here we go!

Who doesn’t like Yoplait Yogurt? You’re going to like it even more because you can get one for free.

Get your coupon for one FREE cup of Yoplait Original Yogurt here. After filling out a short form, they will send you a coupon in the mail. Enjoy!

Sweet Free Stuff!

This quote is directly from their site. “This site is updated every day with brand new posts of current available free samples, free stuff, savings, coupons, deals, sweeps, product samples and anything that can save you some dough!” You can sign up for emails from them to get up-to-date offers. It’s great getting free stuff in the mail. Sometimes it looks like Santa has visited when we open our mailboxes. Link to them here.

House of Smiths

Head on over to House of Smiths and check out the great giveaways Shelley has featured on her blog. First of all, check out her GREAT blog! She has the best sense of humor, and she offers great DIY inspiration and advice. She is featuring a great, new site called Hometalk.

Here is what Shelley says about it, “Hometalk is a community of regular folks and home improvement pros who love to talk about home improvement.” Check it out here. While you are visiting their site, be sure to enter their giveaways. You have to sign up in order to enter the giveaways but heck why not! It’s a great site, and if you’re into home improvement and DIY projects, this is just the site for you. After signing up, go to their home page. Then you have to click on the Search, Ask, or Share buttons in order to see the giveaways currently available on their site (on the right sidebar).

Here are their current giveaways!

Hope you enjoy Shelley’s blog as much as we do! And Good Luck with the Giveaways!

Well, this closes our latest edition of Feature Fridays. Hope you all have a great Memorial Day weekend! Stay safe!

What We Like Wednesdays - Silhouette Machine = LOVE!

Last year I found out about the Cricut machines from reading all of the wonderful blogs I follow on my personal blog. Mom and I shopped around and almost bought one around Thanksgiving because they were so cheap at the time. However, while Mom was researching she came across the Silhouette and after reading all about it, I was SOLD! :)
Photo from the Silhouette America website
I ended up getting one for Christmas from Adam's Dad. (He asked me if there was any one thing that I REALLY wanted for Christmas, so I picked the Silhouette!) The funny thing is, he was really worried it wasn't going to get here in time for Christmas, and it ended up coming on Christmas Eve. :) haha We were leaving their house to head to my mom's house and as we were driving away the UPS guy pulled up in front of their house. I of course started screaming and jumping around the car, and Adam of course told me, you don't know if it's the Silhouette or not. Yeah right! haha :) His Dad even had a backup gift for me just in case it didn't show up in time. He rounded up some colored paper, scissors, markers, cookie cutters (haha, cute right?), and a few other miscellaneous crafting tools for me.

Now if you know me, then you know I'm really bad about using new stuff right after I get it. I'm not the type to rip open the box, plug stuff in, and get started right away. I usually let things sit for awhile until I'm "ready" to use them. LOL :) However, I got to do my first project with the Silhouette the very next day! :) I made Adam's Mom a birthday card since her birthday is December 26. Then I got to make another card on December 28 for my Mom's birthday! :) So needless to say, I learned how to use that machine QUICKLY! Here are a few pictures of those cards.

Here is the first card I made for Adam's Mom for her birthday! It was the same cutout as my Mom's card, I just didn't layer the present shape on top of it so there were no cutouts. Instead, I cut out individual present shapes in coordinating paper and put them on the front of the card! :)

For my Mom's card I went with 2 prints. It made the letters kind of hard to read, so lesson learned for the future. :) Don't pair 2 bold prints because they overwhelm each other. But I still love the colors and both prints! This was a simple card cutout from the Silhouette online store, and I used the extra pieces from the present shapes inside the card to give it some dimension. For my second card, I think it turned out pretty good, but a little hard to read!

They didn't turn out too bad, but I think I've improved a little since then! :) I made some Mother's Day cards as well for our Mom's and they turned out super cute I think!! :)

My Mom's card was a simple card cutout that I downloaded from the Silhouette Online Store. I used a print for the main card, and then put a solid color underneath the front flat to give it some more color. :) (It looked A LOT better than the first card I made using 2 papers with bold prints!)

Adam's Mom's card was also a simple card cutout from the Silhouette online store. I used the yellow, red and pink floral paper for the exterior of the card. Then I used the blue and red coordinating paper for the inside flap!

The interior of the card was just the white back of the floral paper, so I added the 2 little swirls to the corners to give it a little color. They were from the cut-out part of the flourish! :) I always like to reuse those little shapes! They come in handy!

If you're thinking of getting a cutting machine I highly recommend the Silhouette. The software is easy to use and you can get cutting right away without buying any shapes. (Plus, with the Cricut you have to buy those cartridges, so it's like the gift that keeps on giving when you have to keep buying new cartridges all the time!) I also love that with the Silhouette you can also draw your own shapes and use any font that's on your computer with it. There are millions of free fonts online, so the possibilities are endless.

I ended up signing up for the Premium Subscription Plan with the Silhouette Online Store for 1 year. It's gives me $150 in credits per month. (Downloads are usually 99 cents each, but they do offer discounts all the time. There is a free weekly download, weekly clearance sale, and sometimes they do a discount on all the designs.) I paid for it in full and got a discount, so I think it cost me $180 total for the year and I'll end up with $1800 in credits over that time period. :) I'm very happy with it so far, and I've downloaded about 600 shapes so far. :) And I still have credits left from previous months. When you have a subscription plan, you have 60 days to use your credits. So your January credits are good in January and February, then they expire in March. If you use up your monthly $150 credit allowance, you can buy additional shapes at 50% off the normal price too. :)

If anyone has any questions about the Silhouette or needs help figuring something out, just shoot us an email! We're happy to answer your questions! :) Also, be sure to check out the Silhouette Blog for more great tips, ideas, and free stuff!!

Have a great day!

Made on Mondays - Cat Apron

Awhile back I got on an apron kick and decided to research some easy apron patterns. I found a few that I liked and sent them to Mom so she could pick one she liked and make one for me! :) The one we used was how to make an apron in an hour. Well I can tell you, it took a little longer than an hour, and we changed some of the pattern but overall it turned out ADORABLE!

Mom started with this tutorial from Jona G. at Stop Staring and.... Start Sewing - Because it's fun! All it takes is a 1/2 yard of fabric and a fat quarter and that's all you need! :) One of the first adjustments we made was we did not rip the fabric. Mom tried it out and decided it just wasn't working for her, so we ended up using some of the ripped strips for our scarves. Mom ended up just using her rotary cutter to make the 3 strips for the apron.

A few other changes we plan to make when we add something like these aprons to our etsy shop is to make them shorter in length and also make the ties shorter so they don't wrap around to tie in the front.

As soon as we make another one, we'll do a tutorial with all the changes we've made to create our own apron! :) Happy Monday! Hope everyone has a great day!

Feature Friday--Two of Our Discoveries

The Internet is a wonderful invention (don't care who invented it, just care that it was...invented). We have found so many interesting businesses, blogs, websites, etc. along the way that we feel the need to share some of them with you. Here are two of those discoveries.

The first is Brandie's Cottage. She does beautiful, amazing work! The information below is from her Info page on Facebook:

"I can design many different custom items to fit your personality and style. You choose your fabrics and fonts to create your original one-of-a-kind look!"--Brandie

"Totes, diaper bags, purses, bows, stockings, aprons, pajama pants, monogramming, applique, etc. If you don't see it on my site just ask! I am always up for a new challange!"--Brandie

The following pictures are just two examples of her great work!

Aren't they cute?! Check her page out. There is LOTS more to see!

Just wanted to add that Brandie uses Janome embroidery machines for her work. Brandie's creativity and talent plus Janome's machines equals amazing results!

Our Best Bites is our next discovery. Their site is filled with recipes, crafts, tips, tuturials and so much more. Their recipes include everything from appetizers like

Bruschetta

to Soups and Stews like

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Check out one of their craft ideas. It's called Tin Can Treats {For Mother's Day & Teacher Appreciation!}.

This idea is just TOO cute and way easy to make! And it's inexpensive too!

Their site is filled with great information! It will definitely be worth your while to check it out!

Well, hope you enjoyed our Feature Friday. It's a little late due to Blogger being down. Hope you all have a splendid weekend! Looks like ours here is going to be beautiful!

Til next time!

Denise and Beth :)

Janome Rocks!--What We Like (or Don't Like) Wednesdays

Well, here we are for What We Like (or Don't Like) Wednesdays! We are going to review something we LOVE! Our Janome sewing machines!!!

First of all, I have a Janome New Home Memory Craft 8000. It is amazing! Here she is in all her glory!

I adore her!!!!

I have sewn on Viking machines, Kenmore machines, Bernina machines, and Singer machines. None of them even begin to compare with this one.

Here she is all lit up!

I got the machine around 1994, and she was worth every penny (actually lots of pennies). I had to take her in for repair a few months ago to Martelli Enterprises down on "W" Street. The touchscreen had started dimming and had to be repaired. It took FOUR weeks! She was also cleaned and adjusted. They did a great job and were very apologetic that it took so long.

While I was without my machine, I needed another one to sew on. Beth and I had been looking at machines for her and had found the cutest little Janome. Here she is:

We fell in love with this little machine. She's super easy to sew on, especially for a beginner. However, she is also great for someone who has been sewing for a long time. The Magnolia 7330 a workhorse, just like my Memory Craft 8000, and she sews great. So, with that in mind, I purchased TWO of them and surprised Beth with one of them for her birthday (see her post entitled My Birthday came early this year...).

The Janome 7330 Magnolia Computerized Sewing Machine with 30 Built-In Stitches is available at Amazon for $399. (Check out the reviews, all four-star or five-star.) This machine is SO worth every penny. Please consider it before buying a cheaper machine. You won't be sorry with your purchase, and you will LOVE to sew.

We hope you enjoyed this review of Janome sewing machines. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask and we will do our best to answer them.

Have a great day!

Denise and Beth

Made on Mondays - Felt Flower Pin/Brooch tutorial

Happy Monday Everyone! We were really busy this weekend so we missed posting on Friday and Saturday, but we're back today with a tutorial on how we make our felt flower pins/brooches. They are super simple to make and we hope y'all enjoy this tutorial! :) Beth originally learned how to make them through a Jones Design Company tutorial and we tweaked the pattern a little and came up with our own version of the flower pin using felt and a few different techniques.

Felt Flower Pin/Brooch

Materials Needed:

felt (we use felt squares from Joann's, but you can get felt cut by the yard as well)

hot glue gun

hot glue

scissors (regular fabric ones and pinking shears)

marker and/or chalk

pin backs

stencils

Step 1

Choose your felt colors and get cutting. We make multi-color and solid color pins, and most have contrasting backs on them that cover the pin. (Don't forget to plug your hot glue gun in so it's ready to go when you're done cutting!!)

We made a little stencil of a flower and a circle and we use those to trace out the designs for every pin that we make. You can use cardboard, cardstock, plastic, really anything that is tough.

(Note: if you use cardboard or cardstock it starts to get smaller and smaller as you trace and the edges wear down; so we used some plastic sheets that my grandma had given us for our stencils. We're not sure if you can buy these anymore, but we are researching it and will post about it if we find anything similar!)UPDATE - We found it at Amazon!

Quilter's Plastic Template-12x12 3/Pkg

After you've cut out all your petals SAVE YOUR SCRAPS of felt!! :) We'll use those in Step 5!!

Step 2

Lay your circle out and grab a flower.

Fold it in half lengthwise,

and then in half again so it makes a little triangle.

Put hot glue on one side, and place it down onto your circle so it looks like a slice of pizza or a trivial pursuit pie! :)


Our circles are big enough to put four petals on each one. Just try to make sure the pointed ends are in the center of the circle and you'll end up with something like this.

Step 3

For your next 3 petals, fold them in half lengthwise,
and then in half again so it makes a triangle again.

This time however, you'll want to snip off the pointed end so it's flat. This makes it easier for them to fit on top of the other four petals you've already glued down.

Attach the 3 petals to the center of the circle.

Step 4

After you've got your petals on the flower and the glue has cooled; flip the flower over and place a strip of hot glue on the back of it. Place your pin back on top of the glue and press hard to get the glue to come up through the holes in the pin back. Be careful, because the glue is HOT!!

Step 5

Remember those scraps you saved from Step 1? Grab them! :) Cut a small square with your pinking shears in an alternating color or print or you can make it the same color as your circle. Place a small amount of hot glue on either side of the pin back (go ahead and open the pin back before you do the glue; it's easier to get the square on!!) on your circle and lay the square on top of the open pin back and press down hard again. Now the ugly pin back and all that hot glue is covered up with a cute scrap square of felt!

And that's it! You've got a cute felt flower pin ready to wear on your hat, tote bag, purse, scarf, etc. :)

They are so versatile and can be made many different ways and in many different sizes!! :) We hope you all enjoyed this tutorial! (As always though, you can buy them in our shop too!)

We'll be back with more later on! Have a great day!!

We're linking up at: