To Do Board

My secret sister at church is beautiful, kind, caring, is in college, and lives in an apartment that is very brightly decorated. I wanted to make her something for the start of the school year that would go with her decor, but also be useful. I've been seeing diy dry erase boards on Pinterest and wanted to try my hand at it. This is what came out of it:

Supplies needed:

$3 ugly picture frame from Goodwill

$1 can of white spray paint

2 sheets of scrapbook paper from your pile of scrapbook paper that's not ever going to be used

Hot glue gun

Ribbon from your bridal shower that was 2 years ago

Brown paper bag

1. Start with your $3 ugly picture from Goodwill. Remove backing, picture and glass from frame. Lay frame on top of the brown paper bag and spray paint. It might need to do this a couple of times.

Picture before.

2. While paint is drying, make your "picture." My goodwill picture was glued to two borders and backing. I flipped the picture over to the backing side and pasted my paper on the smooth surface. My backing and frame were larger than my paper, so I added another sheet of paper to make the border. I first measured my center paper and determined how wide my border needed to be. I then stick glued strips for the border and then added the full sheet.

Like this!

3. Put your frame and picture back together. I wanted to add a little more pizzazz, so I added ribbon I had stuck in my closet since my bridal shower 2 years ago. Hot glue the ribbon to the back of the frame. Cover the back of the frame with packing paper for a cleaned, finished look.

4. Ta-Da! It's done. That's it! It really only took me 10 minutes to make (not counting drying time) and cost me $4. I hope she likes it!

P.S.

My secret sister totally knows who I am. It's ok if she sees this :)

Freezer Meals- Chicken Style!

I must confess. I'm tired of last minute, throw together meals. I only work three days a week, but on those three days, I leave at 5:30 am and get home at 8:

30 pm. This usually means Andrew and I fend for ourselves, or something quick is made- usually spaghetti (Not knocking your spaghetti Andrew. I appreciat

e you making supper and you do a great job at it.) I just need a little variety. I decided to try my hand at freezer meals.

Disclaimer: I have never tried freezing and then baking these recipes. Hopefully they work. Also, I played a lot of these by ear- sometimes making for great results and sometimes not so awesome.

I started by using 14 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breasts. I got an awesome sale on them $1.88/lb. I usually pay over $2/lb- and that's for frozen.

Before I started any of the recipes, I grilled 12 of the 14 lbs of chicken with a little steak seasoning (I left 2 or3 lbs for the Italian Chicken). This is a healthier approach and I'm not dirtying extra pans. I can also cook a lot of chicken at once, saving time. I then shredded all of the chicken with 2 forks. Make sure to shred the chicken while it's still warm. It will make the job much easier!

My first recipe was the easiest and most simple:

Italian Chicken

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 packet Italian dressing mix

1- 16 oz jar banana peppers

1. Combine all ingredients into your crock pot. Cook on high for 4 hours, or low for 6-8.

2. After chicken is cooked, shred and place in freezer zip-lock bags. You can also increase this recipe to make more. I used 6 chicken breasts, 1 jar of peppers, and 1 1/2 packets of seasoning, making 2- 1 liter bags of chicken.

For serving: Thaw chicken in refrigerator or microwave. Heat through and serve on toast or buns. The chicken can also be used in soups, on salads, in tortillas....the options are endless.

Baked Spaghetti with Chicken

3 lbs spaghetti

shredded chicken

4 jars spaghetti sauce

1 package mozzarella cheese

1. Boil pasta and drain. Drizzle olive oil or butter to prevent sticking.

2. Place spaghetti in aluminum pans. This recipe made 2 large pans and one smaller pan. Pour 1 1/2 jars of sauce for each large pan and 1 jar for the smaller pan. The spaghetti may require more or less sauce- just eyeball it, but make sure you use plenty of sauce. The spaghetti tends to soak it up. Add chicken (eyeball this too) and combine. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Cover with plastic wrap (to help prevent freezer burning) and then foil.

3. To serve: Defrost overnight for an evening meal the next day. Bake with foil on (don't forget to remove the plastic wrap first). When spaghetti is almost heated through, remove foil and bake until cheese is melted. Serve with bread and salad.

Chicken Fajita Enchiladas

I made these for my brother and sister-in-law one day after church. That time I used leftover grilled pork tenderloin. They loved them, I loved them, and Andrew really loved them. I hope they freeze just as well!

3 green pepper

2 onions

1 tbs oil

Shredded chicken

1 packet taco seasoning

20- 10 inch tortillas

1 packet shredded mexican style cheese

1 jar salsa

1. In a large pan, heat oil until very hot. Add peppers, onion, and chicken. Cook until peppers still have a little crispness to them. Add seasoning packet and a small amount of water. Stir until chicken and vegetables are coated.

2. Fill each tortilla with mixture, add cheese, and roll. Place tortillas seam side down. Each large pan should fit 10 tortillas. Spray tortillas with cooking spray for extra crispness when baked.

3. To prevent sogginess, place salsa and cheese in 2 separate freezer bags for each pan. Plastic wrap and foil.

To serve: Thaw overnight. Serve with Chipotle Style Rice, baked tortilla chips, salsa, and fat-free refried beans.

BBQ Chicken

Please note on this recipe: I have no idea how it tastes. I'm a little skeptical. You could also just combine chicken and a bottle of bbq sauce and it would be just as good. But...if you want to try to be super home-makerish, use this recipe and cross your fingers.

1 1/2 c ketchup

3/4 c spicy brown mustard

1 onion

1/4 c lemon

2 tbs apple cider vinegar

1 tbs Worcestershire sauce

1 tbs brown sugar

1/2 c water

2 tbsp grill seasoning

Shredded chicken

1. Combine all.

2. Place chicken into 1 gallon freezer bags (makes 2 bags). For low mess, place bag into a blender. Fold bag over the sides and fill. Genius!

In the end, I made 2 bags Italian Chicken, 3 pans Bakes Spaghetti, 2 pans Chicken Fajita Enchiladas, and 2 bags BBQ Chicken. It took only 3 hours and not very many pans. And I'm very tired of chicken :). Maybe we'll save these meals for next week!

Turtle Cheesecake

Out of all the sweets I've baked, I've never made a true cheesecake. Why? I have no idea! I insisted we get spring-form pans on our registry two years ago so I could make cheesecake, but they've been piled and shoved and rattled in my cabinet waiting to be used. On our date Friday, I asked Andrew what his favorite dessert was besides ice cream and cake. He answer was cheesecake. Who knew? So being the good wife I am (ok, maybe I secretly really like cheesecake too) I decided to bake Andrew a cheesecake. A turtle cheesecake to be exact. I found a recipe on Kraftrecipes.com and went with it (and changed a few things also). It's Kraft, it has to be easy! And it was.

Ultimate Turtle Cheesecake

24 Oreo Cookies, finely crushed (about 2 cups)...which means you can eat some and still have plenty left)

6 Tbsp. butter or margarine, melted

1 pkg. (14 oz.) Kraft Caramels

1/2 cup milk

1 cup chopped Pecans (I only had walnuts, so I used those)

3 pkg. (8 oz each) Cream Cheese, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1Tbsp Vanilla

3 eggs

1/2 cup chocolate chips + 2 Tbsp milk

1. Place your 24 Oreos into a gallon sized Zip-lock bag. Using a rolling pin, crush the cookies until they're small crumbs.

2. Melt your butter and add it to the cookies. Seal bag and shake (smoosh) around until combined.

3. Press your cookie mixture onto the bottom and 2 inches up the side of your 9-inch springform pan. (BTW: I had three sizes of pans, but didn't know which one was 9 inches, and I couldn't find a ruler or tape measure. If you are ever in a bind like I was, there is a website called iruler.net that has an actual ruler to measure. What did we ever do before we had the internet?)

4. After you've made your crust, melt your bag of caramels with the milk for 3 minutes, stirring after each minute, until melted and smooth. Pour 1/2 of the mixture over the crust. Sprinkle 1/2 of the nuts on top. Refrigerate for 10 minutes.

5. While the crust is cooling, combine 3- 8 oz. packages of cream cheese (I used reduced fat), vanilla, and sugar (I might try Splenda next time) until smooth.

6. Add room temperature eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended. pour over caramel layer in crust.

7. Bake at 325 for 1 hour 10 minutes or until center is almost set. Tip: Place a pan of water in the oven, along with the cheesecake, to prevent cracking.

8. When done, remove from oven and run a knife around the rim. Refrigerate until cool (about 4 hours if you can stand it) before removing the ring.

9. Melt remaining caramel and pour over cheesecake. Combine the milk and chocolate chips in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds, until melted. Drizzle over cheesecake. Sprinkle remaining nuts.

10. Eat and enjoy!!!!

It was way easier than I ever expected and didn't really take that much time to make. I'll definitely make this again soon!