Janette's Quiet Book

Are you in to trading and bartering? I made a sweet deal with my friend Janette. She is a photographer and we needed new family pictures. She wanted a quiet book for her little boy, but didn't know how to make one. Ta da - the trade! We got family pics for free, she got a custom quiet book for free.

The adorable chocolate colored tree fabric for the cover is from Joann's. I made the actual pages on felt, and then hammered in grommets to attach the rings. This way, if she wants to make more pages she can add them in, or if both kiddos want to play with a page.


Here is the classic Noah's Ark page with a zipper pocket. Simple.



I had a lot of fun making the fish page. The end of the fishing rod (shoelace) has velcro so it can "catch" a fish. The boat opens at the top so you can put your catch of the day there. The apples button on the tree and fit in the basket.


Every boy needs a road page! The red, yellow and green light pieces have velcro and the car parks in the garage.


The barn page is so fun with opening doors and animal finger puppets. Janette got married in the Idaho Falls temple, so this page is perfect. Each of the squares and Angel Moroni detach, so you can rebuild the temple. The little buttons open the door and inside is a piece of vinyl above the felt so Janette can put in a wedding picture.

I love this peek-a-boo page, it's one of my son's favorites. If you pull back the mittens I stitched on a piece of vinyl with an opening at the top so Janette can slip in a family picture. And of course, a little pocket for paper, pens and treats.

Quiet books are so much fun to make! If you haven't seen mine yet or want detailed patterns click here.

Sneak Peek (and the mess)

I've been hard at work on my little man's birthday present. I know it's not until April, but sheesh, it might take me that long:) There is felt everywhere in my craft room, and I have some stuck to the bottom of my sock right now.

Here's a little sneak peek, can you tell what it is? I'm almost halfway done and so excited!!





And yes, I had to clear a spot on the floor to take a picture. It's THAT messy:)

Need proof? Here's my craft table, the piles just keep getting taller. Don't worry, it's still my favorite room in the house:)


So, I'm going to crank up my favorite iTunes playlist with only ABBA and Air Supply and get back to work!

And yes, I have patterns, tutorials and instructions to come soon, I just have to finish it first:)

Keree's Quiet Book

I helped my friend Keree make a cover for her quiet book and I snapped a few pictures to show you hers.

She doesn't sew or have a sewing machine, so she went the pellon route. Her pages are all pellon, and then she drew traced the patterns on with a pencil. She used fabric markers to color on the designs, clever right?

All of her patterns came from Mormonchic.

For the cover we tore apart an old pair of jeans and she used some leftover fleece for the initial. We saved one of the back pockets for a little treat pocket on the inside cover. Turned out fabulous!

Lemon Linguine

This pasta is truly heavenly. The linguine is great on it's own, but I like to add some grilled chicken on the side. It's also good with fish, I did a lemon pepper Tilapia last time, mmmm. There are lots of recipes for lemon linguine out there, trust me I've made a lot of them, but this one is the best. Some use lots of olive oil, or cream and one you used the starchy cooking liquid from the noodles to make the sauce. This recipe isn't too heavy, has lemon in every bite and you don't feel like you're just eating oily noodles. It makes a lot, so I usually half the recipe and we still have leftovers (it's even good cold as a pasta salad). Pile on the Parmesan (make sure to get the fancy shredded stuff) and enjoy!

Husband Rating: 5 stars (duh!)

1 lb linguine
4 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lemon, juiced and zested
2 cups sour cream
1/2 tsp. salt (or to taste)
3/4 cup. fancy shredded Parmesan cheese
Parsley to garnish

Preheat oven to 375. Cook linguine according to package directions. In a skillet over low heat melt butter. Stir in minced garlic, cook 1-2 minutes. Add lemon juice and olive oil, turn off heat. Add sour scream and stir until smooth and creamy. Sprinkle with lemon zest and salt. Pour in the linguine and stir until combined. Pour creamy linguine into baking dish and bake, covered, for 15 minutes. Remove lid and bake for 5 minutes more. Squeeze lemon juice over the top and top with Parmesan cheese and parsley.


I got this great little juicer in the $1 bins at Target, it makes juicing the lemon sooo much easier. To get the zest I used a little cheese grater. You can't have too much lemon in my opinion, so I add about 2 Tbsp. of lemon zest to the sauce.


This time I made it I didn't have any linguine noodles, so I used spaghetti. Still delicious! Linguine noodles are flat, so they hold the sauce really well, but they are thinner and easier to eat than fettuccine. You can't go wrong!

Rescuing a box of gross crackers

You've done it too right? Bought a box of whole grain, healthy crackers only to discover they dry and kinda gross. I hate that, because I'm just too frugal to throw them away. I got a little creative and rescued that box that was destined for staleness in the back of the pantry.

Husband Rating: 5 stars (amazing!)

Here's what I did:

Cut 6 six boneless skinless chicken breasts into bite-size nugget pieces

Pour crackers into ziploc bag and crush. I used a rolling pin so they would be finely crushed, or you could take our your diet aggression and bang them on the counter:) To the cracker crumbs at 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese, 3 Tbsp. flour, dash of pepper and garlic salt.

Melt 1/4 cup of butter. Dip chicken pieces in butter, then put in the ziploc bag. Toss to coat. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly spray cookie sheet with cooking spray and arrange chicken nuggets. Bake 15-20 minutes or until chicken is cooked and breading is golden.

No joke here, they are quite delicious and crunchy! I served a handful with fries, carrots and ranch for lunch, so good. I divided the remaining nuggets into freezer containers (shown above) and tossed them in the freezer for a quick meal for later.

To reheat the frozen nuggets you can microwave them (since they're fully cooked) but it does make them a little soggy, I prefer the oven so they keep their crunch. I put them in for 15 minutes and 400* and they were piping hot and crunchy.

A few weeks later I served this meal w/ the same nuggets. I served mashed potatoes, chicken gravy, maple-glazed carrots and the very same chicken. I'm calling it Harvest Baked Chicken, because that sounds better than "Gross Cracker Chicken."

Now, go crush some crackers!

Cookie Cutters

I love my Valentine cookie cutters, don't you? The hearts, the kissy lips, the X's andO's, the cupids . . . but I don't so much love making sugar cookies. Anybody else? It seems like they turn out too hard, too soft and breakable or too sweet. Besides, if I make a batch of cookies guess who is going to eat them all? Me. Yikes.

So, I want to do some fun activities with my cookie cutters that don't involve an insane sugar overload. Here are my favorite ideas:

Heart-shaped French Toast

Mini Valentine Pizzas (cute right? Cut them out, add sauce, cheese and toppings and bake)

Heart-shaped Peanut Butter and Jam Sandwiches

Valentine Cheesy Bisquits

X and O Jello Jigglers

Heart Shaped Eggs & Toast

(Photo from Martha Stewart)

What are your favorite ideas?

January Menu

It's 2011 and I am back to my monthly menu planning. It's freezing cold, so I plan on using my crock pot and warm oven a lot. January is all about comfort food right?

If you want to know why I think monthly menu planning is the best, click here for my details.

Pizza Braid (freezer)

Lazy Spinach Lasagna (freezer)

Homemade Corndogs

Spaghetti

Pork Fried Rice

Rice & Bean Burritos

Citrus Salmon

Potato Soup

Apple Cinnamon German Pancakes

Porcupines

Pork Tortilla Salad

Teriyaki Burgers

Sun-dried Tomato Pasta

Stuffed Shells

Tuna Alfredo

Mini Meatloaves

Tomato Basil Chicken

Lemon Pepper Chicken

Drummies

Homemade Pizza

One Pan Ham

Chicken Taquitos

Waffles

Hubby's Avocado Tacos

I went through and added up my shopping list, it will cost me about $97 dollars for these meals, lunches and kid food/snacks. I like to keep my grocery budget under $140, so looks like we can go out for ice cream, buy some extra snacks and splurge on french bread and ice cream a few times. Fabulous!