Creamy Chicken Taquitos

I got this recipe from my friend, Meredith, and my husband and I LOVE them. These are a bit more time-involved, but so yummy and a GREAT way to make your own freezer meals!

1/3 C. (3 oz.) cream cheese
1/4 C. green salsa
1 T. fresh lime juice
1/2 t. cumin
1 t. chili powder
1/2 t. onion powder
1/4 t. granulated garlic, or garlic powder
3 T. chopped cilantro
2 T. sliced green onions
2 C. shredded cooked chicken
1 C. grated cheese (I recommend pepperjack, but use what you've got)

small corn tortillas (flour tortillas would also work well)
cooking spray
kosher salt
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly coat with cooking spray.

Heat cream cheese in the microwave for 20-30 seconds so it's soft and easy to stir. Add green salsa, lime juice, cumin, chili powder, onion powder and garlic. Stir to combine and then add cilantro and green onions. Shred and add chicken and cheese and combine well.

**You can prepare up to this step ahead of time. Just keep the mixture in the fridge.**
I usually cook my chicken on the grill because I love the flavor, but you could purchase the pre-cooked and packaged stuff, or just fry it in a pan as well.
Work with a few tortillas at a time and heat in the microwave until they are soft enough to roll without cracking. It helps to place them between damp paper towels. Usually 20-30 seconds will do it. If you find yours are cracking when you roll them or are coming unrolled right away, just try heating them longer and try the paper towel thing.

Place 2-3 T. of chicken mixture on the lower third of a tortilla, keeping it about 1/2 inch from the edges. Then roll it up as tight as you can.
Place seam side down on the baking sheet. Lay all the taquitos on the baking sheet and spray the tops lightly with cooking spray or an oil miser and sprinkle some kosher salt on top.

Place pan in oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until crisp and the ends start to get golden brown.

Serve with salsa, sour cream, guacamole, or my favorite: Cafe Rio-style salad dressing.

What? There are loads of leftovers?!?! That's the best part, my friends. Place the rest of the cooked taquitos into ZipLoc bags and freeze! For reheating, you can microwave a few for a few minutes, or preheat your oven to 350* and bake for 20-30 minutes--depending on how many you are cooking.

Reading Chair

So we have this chair that we call our reading chair.

Here it is in our former house in the nursery.

It's not the prettiest chair, but we got it for

$10 off of Craigslist. I had every intention of getting

a slip cover for it, but could never find one that I liked.

I finally decided that when we moved I was going to

make a slipcover for it. WELL... one of the legs broke

off during transit and it is currently being held up by a

stack of phone books (I wish I was kidding.)

Well it seems silly to make a slipcover for a broken chair

so I have been on the look out for a new reading chair.

I came across this before and after picture the other

day and fell in LOVE.

image via The Lettered Cottage

Wish me luck! Hopefully I will be able to share an

awesome before and after picture soon!

Old McDonald

I made these little finger puppets for my daughter, and she loves them! I also have a dog, cow, goat, and cat; but those guys have disappeared somewhere. But here's an idea of the type of animals you can make (that guy on the left is a really strange looking horse).

She has always loved to sing "Old McDonald," but now that she has these guys, she's always asking to sing "E-I-E-I" as she calls it.

I just stitched around them by hand and glued on their features.
I also added a barn page in her quiet book, so we can use it at church too. I'll show more quiet book ideas in a later post.

It's a simple project that has provided hours of entertainment for my little girl!

Button Inspired Jewelry

Buttons. I love them. They add a little something to so many projects. So why not let them be the project? Here are some button earrings I've made:

All you need are two buttons, two earring posts w/backs, thread (if you want), and some super glue or hot glue & a glue gun. It's all pretty basic and doesn't take long at all. 

Thread the buttons so they look finished (if you want), tie a knot on the back, and cut the ends off. Then just glue them to the earring posts. If your buttons don't have holes exposed on the front, you will have to deal with the loop that extends off of the back of the button. Just use some cutting pliers, or something similar to cut the back loop off before you glue the earring posts on. There's no need to thread anything in this case.

I've gotten more than one random compliment from strangers when I have worn mine. 

You don't have to stick to just making earrings either. You can make rings, bracelets, etc. 

Check out the cute bracelet my sister, Lizz Gibson, made:

And aren't we so lucky that there are buttons to match every outfit?

Linking up with:

Today's Creative Blog

Adding Fonts to Your Blog

Fonts can give a plain old blog a little something to make it sparkle! They are like the Fairy Godmothers of blogs. 

Blogger gives you only a limited option of what fonts to choose.

But fortunately there is a way to work around that!

Where to get free fonts

For multiple free fonts, visit any of these:

www.dafont.com

1001 Free fonts

Urban Fonts

Search Free Fonts

Free Scrapbook Fonts

Making your own fonts from your own handwriting to use

One of our contributors, Aliese, posted on her own blog about making her own handwriting into a True Type Font! That means you can type on your computer in your own handwriting. How cool is that?! For those of you who blog or digital scrapbook to keep a journal, this is perfect for you! Aliese does digital scrapbooking on her computer and then just posts those images on her blog to keep readers updated. Two birds with one stone! Check out how to make your own handwriting font HERE.

Changing the font for your post titles, dates, or sidebar titles (HTML)
This is probably the best way to change these fonts, although you will have to deal with some HTML. For this, I will refer you to www.kevinandamanda.com's post HERE. Amanda does an amazing job at explaining how to do this. Plus she makes some great free fonts of her own that you can snag while you are there and use them to your heart's content.

Adding an image to your blog that contains a font (to add a font within your posts, pages, or sidebars without using HTML)

This might be one of the easiest ways to add a font to your blog without messing with HTML. It's really a simple way, almost so simple, you might not have thought of it. You can use this method anywhere blogger allows you to upload a picture/image, but unfortunately you won't be able to change your Post Title font this way.

1. First off, decide where you want your font---in your post, as the sidebar title, etc.

2. Create an image in Photoshop or any other image layering program (get paint.net for free HERE!), making it the size you want to show up on your post, page, or blog sidebar. Start out with the background as transparent, or choose the same color as the background of your blog. If you change backgrounds frequently, choose to start it out with a transparent background rather than your current background color.

Then, type in what you want it to say. You can also make it as decorative as you want.

3. If you chose a transparent background, save the image as a png, then select none for interlaced as you save it to your computer. If you chose the background color to be the same as your blog background or another color, you can save it as a jpg on your computer.

4. Now let's put those images where you want them.

• For inside your posts or pages:
  

All you have to do is select the ADD IMAGE button

while editing your post or page.

Upload it from your computer, and then put it where you want it. If it

showed up smaller than you made it, blogger automatically

resized it. Chances are that this won't happen

unless you made your image wider than 350px or so.

Click HERE to find out how to make it bigger.

I used this technique on our Link-Ups Page.

Before:

After:

• For your sidebar titles:
  

If you want to use this way to make your sidebar titles a different

font, let's say the BLOG ARCHIVE section as an example,

this is what you would do. Select your DESIGN tab and

go to PAGE ELEMENTS where you can edit your gadgets.

Edit your BLOG ARCHIVE gadget and delete the title

(it will be the first box), and then save it. Go back

to your PAGE ELEMENTS layout, and click on ADD A GADGET.

Then all you need to do is select to add a PICTURE.

Upload your image and drag this gadget above your

BLOG ARCHIVE gadget or whatever gadget you want it to be

a title for. For me, there is just barely more of a gap

between the gadget and the title than I'd like, but for

not even messing with HTML, it's an easy way to add

a little something to a plain blog!

Getting rid of the border around your images that contain fonts

Depending on your web browser and blog template, sometimes you will see an outlining border around the images with fonts that you have uploaded. If this bothers you, you can go HERE for instructions on how to remove it.

***If you have done the steps to get rid of the border

around your image, but still see a little something

around it, you are the victim of the pesky

box shadow in your blog template.

Here is how to fix this:

Go to the Edit HTML Tag in your DESIGN tab.

If you see a code like the one I've highlighted below in your EDIT TEMPLATE box,

change it to what I have highlighted here:

Basically, you are just changing the 1px 1px 5px on each row

that is highlighted to: 0px 0px 0px.

Preview, and save your changes. View your blog, and

the shadow should be gone!

Signing a signature after your post

You will start out this method just as you did with the the last section in steps up to step 3, but this time the text will be your signature. You can even use your own True Type Font in your own handwriting like mentioned above so it will look like your real signature! For this particular one, I chose the Sunshine in My Soul font from dafont.com.

4. Then you will upload it to an image hosting site like Photobucket. Once you have saved it, it will give you options of different ways to use your image. Copy the HTML code.

5. Go to your blog's SETTINGS tab, then click on the FORMATTING option.

Scroll to the bottom and you will see a box that says POST TEMPLATE. You will paste the HTML code for your signature in that box. Save settings, and then you will see your signature at the bottom of each post you do!

If you haven't removed the border around your signature yet (and if it bothers you), see the last section on how to remove it.

***If you have multiple contributors for your blog, this signature will be posted no matter who is posting. You don't want "Jill's" signature on "Jackie's" post. In this case, the other person/contributor whose signature it does not belong to, can just delete it while they are posting OR you can save the HTML code of your signature somewhere on your computer where you can quickly find it and copy it whenever you post. Click on the EDIT HTML tab (next to COMPOSE on the top right of your box) while you are editing your post. Scroll down to the bottom and paste your code at the end of your post. 

Click back to COMPOSE, and you will see your signature at the end of your post! You will have to do this for each post that you want your signature on if you do it this way. 

Now go have some fun with those fonts!