Enchilada Pasta

Me and my family love to eat chicken enchiladas, so when I found this recipe online, I was so happy. I was worried that it would be super super spicy but if its good enough for me, it's good enough for many. I love spicy food but just can't eat it, it will burn me up from the inside.

Anyway, it was not spicy at all! It called for 2 tbsp of chili powder and 1 tbsp of cumin. I only added 1 tbsp of chili powder. And don't be cheap with the cheese!! Love a lot of cheese. I hope you enjoy it as much as my whole family did. Can't want for left over tonight!! I did not add any of the suggested toppings and you could (if you want to save time) use a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken.


Ingredients:
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (cooked and shredded)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves (minced)
1 medium onion (diced)
1 red bell pepper (diced)
1 (4 ounce) can diced green chilies
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
2 (10 ounce) cans green chili enchilada sauce
2/3 cups red enchilada sauce
2 cups shredded Colby-jack cheese
1 cup sour cream
1 big package penne pasta

Toppings:

avocado
green onions
tomatoes
sour cream
black olives


Step 1:
Cook penne pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, heat olive oil to medium heat in a large deep skillet. Add onions and cook for 5 minutes. Add garlic and red pepper and cook for an additional 3 minutes. Add shredded cooked chicken, green chilies, cumin, chili powder, salt, green enchilada sauce, and red enchilada sauce. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 8-10 minutes.


Step 2:

Add the Colby-jack cheese and stir until the cheese has melted. Stir in the sour cream over low heat. Stir until the sour cream is well incorporated. Cook on low until heated through.
Step 3: Drain the pasta and add it to a large serving bowl. Pour the sauce over the pasta and mix well. Serve with toppings such as avocado, green onions, tomatoes, black olives, and sour cream.

Fall decoration

I found this nice apothecary bowl at TJ MAXX, for $10. A steal! And I bought a bag of candy corn at the store. I was first looking for a regular scented candle but found at Target (I can never go to Target without buying more than what I need) a flameless candle, looks just like a real candle. It cost less than $20 to do this and the bowl can be used for alot of other things. I already have several ideas for Christmas but I need to hold myself back for at least another month.

Chicken Salad!

This is the easiest chicken salad you will ever try, and one of the yummiest! I could not believe all I needed was 4 simple ingredients. I kept asking my friend "what else did you put in this!?".

You will need:
1 rotisserie chicken (or any chicken, left over chicken breast etc.)
Celery (I normally don't like celery but I love it in this, the crisp makes it)
Elbow macaronis
Hellman's Mayonnaise

You boil the macaronis per instructions on the box. Piece of cake, right? No picture needed.


                                                        




Cut up the chicken to desired pieces, I always do bite size pieces.











Cut desired amount of celery, I usually use 4 sticks, cut them in half and then I chop them.

Mix the chicken and celery together in a bowl, add the macaronis when they are done and have been drained.

I can not tell you how much mayo to put in this salad, you need to experiment yourself through it. I start off with a little bit, mix it all and I taste. If I need to add more, I add more. If not, put it in the fridge and wait til the macaronis has cooled off. Unless, you want to eat your salad like it is.

ENJOY! And let me know how you like it, what else did

Letters

There seem to never be enough time of the day to sit down and blog. Bare with me.

Here is a small project I have been wanting to try but as I just said, times never enough. Now that my 2 year old have started daycare twice a week, and when my 1 year old is sleeping -- I get 4 hours a week ALL TO MYSELF!! I think this one will be easy and fast, I love easy and fast -- but I still like challenges, sometimes.

The idea originated from this blogging mama. I liked her color too but since we currently live in an apartment with the wonderful color of.... wait for it.....BEIGE, I feel like I am limited to what color I can use. And it has to go with the rest of the colors of the home as well. Anyway, love it.

I bought the letters at Hobby Lobby for 30% off each item. I bought as you can see HOME and also WASH. I bought the spray paint there as well. What I didn't know at the time, is that these spray paint bottles are half as expensive at Walmart. Keep that in mind. Here are a couple of pictures, will post pictures when it's all on the wall.

When you do decide to do these, REMEMBER (I learned this the hard way): when you spray the letters, spray from a distance and move the bottle side to side, don't spray the same spot for more than 2 secs. It took me all day to get the letters covered. HAVE PATIENCE!

Let's rock n roll.

I've tried this blogging thing before and I guess it wasn't really my time.

But now, I figured I have alot more to share. For example, the food that I cook and try, who doesn't love food? And as a mom to 4 kids, they can't all be satisfied with the same food. The crafty DIY projects I have started, but yet to finish -- I gather alot of ideas from the help of Google Pinterest, we all love Pinterest but most of the tags we do are "I will put that on my loooong list of want-to-do's". Thats how it works for me anyway. The crazy everyday life of my family. What's not to love about that?