Home Maid Simple

Day: April 6, 2012

  • April Before – Kitchen and a Baby

    April Before – Kitchen and a Baby

    I love this monthly link up at Shine Your Light. I’ve really been able to push some projects through this year!
    This month we’ve got two major projects going on. Some people would probably call us crazy (I think we’re crazy!). The thing is, when your husband is a teacher, and they’ve got a week of Spring Break, it’s the perfect time to get some major things done!
    Our first project this month, is having a baby. Baby Prince was due last Wednesday, but he’s still hanging out in my massively huge tummy (seriously, where’d my belly button go?!).  If he doesn’t decide to make an appearance on his own, I’ve got another appointment on Monday (what do you know, Spring Break means my ob took off as well.)  As long as there’s room at the hospital, we’ll be coaxing Baby Prince out into the real world!
    There will be some much cuter photos at the After Party!
    Our second HUGE project this month is our Kitchen Remodel. After our basement remodel last year, the kitchen was the next room we wanted completely made over. The cupboards were old, and had nails poking out of them that caught a finger on more than one occasion. There weren’t enough outlets for me to really enjoy my cooking escapades with the kids, and counter space was limited. So we sat, planned, and planned some more. With the arrival of Spring Break, we had finally created an outline of our kitchen, and purchased everything from IKEA.

    It really wasn’t a bad looking kitchen, but it wasn’t very functional, or all that pretty.  We’ve been working on it for a week now. The counters are out, the flooring is gone, and the electricity is all wired! Mark is in there right now mudding the walls to prep it for paint, and we should start seeing cabinets next week.

     
    oh yeah, we also scraped off the popcorn ceiling, and will be needing to fix that as well. 
    What are you working on this month?  You can link up your Before and Afters over at Shine Your Light!

     

  • Foodie Friday – Chili Chicken Tortilla Soup

    Foodie Friday – Chili Chicken Tortilla Soup

    <a <span style=”background: yellow;” class=”goog-spellcheck-word”>href</span>=”http://<span style=”background: yellow;” class=”goog-spellcheck-word”>homemaidsimple</span>.<span style=”background: yellow;” class=”goog-spellcheck-word”>blogspot</span>.com”><<span style=”background: yellow;” class=”goog-spellcheck-word”>img</span> <span style=”background: yellow;” class=”goog-spellcheck-word”>src</span>=”http://i1192.<span style=”background: yellow;” class=”goog-spellcheck-word”>photobucket</span>.com/albums/aa339/<span style=”background: yellow;” class=”goog-spellcheck-word”>HomeMaidSimple</span>/<span style=”background: yellow;” class=”goog-spellcheck-word”>Foodiefridaymark</span>-1.<span style=”background: yellow;” class=”goog-spellcheck-word”>jpg</span>” alt=”<span style=”background: yellow;” class=”goog-spellcheck-word”>BWS</span> tips button” width=”125″ height=”150″ /></a>
    Hosted by
    and
    Wow! What a response we got last week! I have loved looking at all your recipes, and hope you all continue to share your kitchen goodness with us!
    Miz Helen shared with us her families recipe for Cherry Pie.  Although I’m still looking for a good recipe that uses lard in the crust, I’m excited to try out Miz Helen’s pie recipe. The twisted crusts on top are just beautiful!
    As part of our freezer meals I put up last week, I made a Chicken Tortilla Soup. I used Oven Love’s recipe as my follow recipe, but made some changes to fit a more mild taste bud.  Mind you one of the changes was actually pretty huge, because my pregnant brain read and interpreted the ingredient completely wrong, lol. So instead of a Chicken Tortilla Soup I give you my very own concotion of
    Chili Chicken Tortilla Soup
    Ingredients
    olive oil
    1 yellow onion, chopped
    2 clove garlic (I used a jar of minced garlic)
    2 tsp chopped fresh cilantro
    1 can tomato with onion and roasted garlic
    1 can mild chili*
    1 tsp ground cumin
    4 cups chicken stock
    1 boneless skinless chicken breast (1/2 lb), cooked and cut into bite size pieces
    salt and pepper to taste
    *Oven Love’s recipe called for a can of chili in adobo sauce. Big difference between that and a can of chili soup, lol. Got to love mindless cooking!

    Directions

    Heat 1 tbs olive oil in frying pan over medium. Add onion, garlic and 2 tsp cilantro. Saute until golden, about 10 minutes. Combine onion mixture, tomatoes and chili in a food blender until smooth.
    In the same frying pan, heat another tablespoon oil. Add the tomato mixture and cumin. Cook until thickened and darkened, 5-6 minutes.
    Transfer the mixture to a large pot over medium heat and add chicken stock. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until soup is slightly thickened, about 15-20 minutes. Add the cooked chicken and stir until warmed through, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

    To freeze, place your pot directly in the freezer to let it cool down a bit. 10-20 minutes. Then you can either pour it into a large freezer bag, or smaller container with an air tight lid.
    To reheat, remove from freezer, dump it back into a pot, and heat through. I used a crock pot, but it kept the soup from really thickening up, so I would suggest using the stove top if you want a thicker soup.

    Let’s see what you’ve got cooking! Link up your recipes below.
    Go ahead and add up to 3 links that you haven’t shared with us before.
    Please link directly to the recipe post, not your homepage.
    And we’d love if you grabbed the button (at the top of the post). It will be smaller when you paste the code on your blog so it fits in the side bar (see my sidebar for actual size).

    document.write(‘