Easiest way to shred chicken

I love shredded chicken!  I love it in salads, casseroles, pasta and enchiladas to name a few.  What I don't love is shredding chicken, in fact I despise shredding chicken.  Well I should say I did despise shredding chicken until I heard, thanks to my dad and a dear friend, how useful a certain kitchen appliance is in getting this awful job done.  Bring in the Kitchen Aid!  Yup that's right, the Kitchen Aid mixer is your best friend when shredding chicken!

 

Here's what I did-

Cooked 4 chicken breasts in the crock pot (low for 4-6 hours) with some water and spices.  You don't have to use a crock pot to cook the chicken you can boil, bake, grill or cook them up in a pan, how ever you want.

Break the chicken into big chunks while still hot.

Put in mixer using the paddle attachment.

Mix on low-medium until the chicken is shredded to your liking.

See I told you it was easy :-)

 

 

 

 

For this particular batch I made chicken salad for my daughter's first birthday.  I loosely used this recipe.  It was so good!

What do you love to use shredded chicken for?

Easy toddler breakfast

My almost 1 year old LOVES sweet potatoes so when I saw sweet potato pancakes on sale at the local health food store I had to try them out.  They were great!  They come in a frozen pack, easy to heat up and she absolutely gobbled them up.  The problem is that there were only about 6 in the pack and they didn't last very long.  The next time I went to the store I saw this box of mix and decided to give it a try.  I'm all about meal planning lately, it just makes life a little easier all around.

 

In the future I would like to try and make them from scratch but for now the box mix worked beautifully. 

 

 

 

Just add water and mix.  I used the whole box that way I can freeze the rest and just heat them up as needed.

 

I scooped out 1/4 cup for each pancake.  Cook a bit longer than regular pancakes.  Just remember to watch for the bubbles, when it's bubbling it's time to flip.  I left a few out to put in the fridge and then put the rest in freezer bags for later.  It made 22 pancakes. 

 

 

As you can see the Peanut loves them.  She literally shovels them in her mouth.

What are some easy meals you make for your little ones? 

Freezer breakfast burritos

 I have recently discovered that I love breakfast burritos.  I mean who doesn't love a delicious breakfast rolled up and perfect for on the go?  It's a genius idea! I follow Mindovermunch on Instagram and she posted this recipe for breakfast burritos so I tried it and WHOOAAA so good!

Here's my picture step by step.

You can use any veggies you want to and could use ground beef or sausage. 

I used:

1 package of ground turkey

1 packet of taco seasoning

1 cup of mushrooms

1/4 cup of red onions

1 cup spinach

1 cup cherry tomatoes

5 eggs

1 cup of egg whites

2 cups of Mexican blend shredded cheese

2 packages of tortillas of your choice.  (8 come in a pack and I was able to make 9 with this recipe)

 

 Veggies:

                                 

                         

                         

                         

 

Ground turkey cooked with taco seasoning

                                                                                     Whisk eggs and egg whites together

(I took the ground turkey out of the pan and cooked the eggs in the same pan)

                                                 

              Add in veggies             

                                                

                                        

                               Add in the ground turkey                                        

                                                

After the veggies, eggs and turkey are all combined scoop out some and place it in the middle of a tortilla and top it with cheese. 

                                                  

Fold it up and wrap it in plastic wrap

                                                  

                                

                                          

Ta-Da!  There's your breakfast for the week or more.  Well in may case it was breakfast for a few days considering my husband, myself and our Spanish exchange student all eat them in the morning.  The next batch I made double the recipe so it lasted longer.

 

You can pop these in the freezer and they should last 4-6 weeks.  If frozen then microwave them for 1 minute, rotate and microwave 1 more minute.  If not frozen microwave 45 seconds and enjoy :-)

                                      

DIY laundry detergent



I've been wanting to make my own laundry detergent for a while and have seen tons of recipes floating around so I finally decided to do it.  Let me tell you, it's super easy, cheap and I probably won't ever buy premade detergent again!
First I had to find a recipe that will work on my daughters cloth diapers as well as my husbands stinking, sweaty clothes.  In order to do that I searched the wide world of pinterest and asked some of my CD (cloth diaper) using mom friends.  Through all that I decided on this concoction:

1 cup of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (which I could only find at Wal-Mart, not Target)

1 cup of Borax (Wal-Mart but I'm pretty sure Target and Publix have it also)

1 cup of Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap (found at the local health food store, I got 1 Tea Tree Oil bar and one Citrus Orange bar because they were on sale.  I really wanted the lavender one but they were sold out. I love Dr. Bronner's because it's made with all organic oils and is really mild on skin)



You will need a container to hold the detergent.  I got this at Wal-Mart.  It came with 3 other smaller containers.



                               

 

You can either use a food processor or if you don't have one (like me) just use a cheese grater. 

Grate the bar of soap over a container in order to get 1 cup. 

 

                         

 

Here's what it looks like once grated. 

                                

 

Then add one cup of Broax and one cup of the Washing Soda. 

 

Shake up the container to mix it and enjoy nice and clean laundry and a fraction of the price. 

                                   

 

When washing clothes I use 2 tablespoons and when washing my cloth diapers I use only 1 tablespoon.  When I grated up the soap the bar came out to be more than 1 cup so for this batch I'm leaving it this way but the next batch I'll add the whole bar.  So far the detergent seems perfectly fine on the cloth diapers.  I'll be sure to let you know if I notice leaking issues or smell issues on the diapers. 

 

4 Months

 

 

I forgot to post this last month but here is her 4 month info :-)

 

 

Weight: 14.5 pounds!

Height:  24 inches

 

Clothing size: She fits into some of her 3 month clothes but is mostly wearing 3-6 months and some 6 months.   

Diaper size: 2

Feeding: She has gotten into a good schedule with eating.  She eats every 3 hours and then gets a bottle of pumped milk before bed.

Sleep: She had a bit of the dreaded "4 month sleep regression" for a week or so where she was waking up ever 1-2hrs.  For the most part she sleeps from 10 or 10:30 till 5 or 6. 

Milestones: According to this chart Kate is doing the emerging skills. She loves to play with her feet and hands.  She is always grabbing things and everything goes in her mouth!  

Loves: Her newest love is Baker our dog!  She is obsessed with him!  She will sit there and watch him all day if he would let her.  

Dislikes: Hmmm, sometimes she really doesn't like falling asleep. She will fight it forever!  Once she gets over tired she will scream until she falls asleep :-(

Adventures: We went to Atlanta to visit my brother and sister in law and their kids.  She did great in the car and had a blast playing with her cousins. 

Mommy and Daddy could not get through the month without: The activity bar for her car seat.  It was a life saver for our 8 hour drive.

The Arrival of Kate

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Dear Kathryn...

I have been thinking a lot lately about the type of mom I want to be.  It's easy being a mom now.  It's more physically demanding than anything at this stage.  It worries me to think of how emotionally and mentally demanding it will be when Kate is older, specifically a pre-teen and then teenager.  Yikes, is the first thing that comes to mind.  It is so easy to judge what other moms do and say "well if that were MY child, I would..." because my baby is still a little baby.  So when I see parents interact with their children I take notes in my head- things I want to do and things I want to avoid.  Being a teacher and working with children my entire working life I have had a lot of time and opportunities to see what type of a parent I want to be.  I have also learned that the best way to get the outcome you want is to be prepared and plan for it. 
With that being said I thought it would be a good idea to jot down things I want to remember in the years to come.  Things I will need to know when it gets tough.  Things that will make me be the mom I want to be.  Things that I will only know to do because I plan on doing them.  Things to help me be calm and rational.  Here goes nothing...

 

Dear Kathryn-

As your mom here are some things I hope to do for you...

I hope to listen when you speak, not brush you off because I'm busy.

I hope to make you aware of how special you are to me each and every day.

I hope to show you how to use your imagination and play make believe.

I hope to encourage your creativity, in whatever way you chose to show it.

I hope to be a positive and healthy role model for you.

I hope to show you how to love others and to be kind.

I hope to be slow to anger.

I hope to always think before I speak to you.

I hope to be patient, even when it's really hard.

I hope to teach you self worth and how to love yourself.

I hope to show you what true love looks like by what you see between your dad and me.

I hope to be your friend but above that I hope to be respected as your mom.

I hope even when you think you hate me or are mad at me, that you know it's because I love you.

I hope to show you God's love everyday.

I hope to show you what it's like to mess up but to always learn from the messes.

I hope to show you respect. 

These are just some of the things I want to do for you.  I preface them all with "I hope to" instead of "I promise to" because I know I will mess up and I know I won't always do these things that I wish to do.  Therefore I don't want to make promises to you that I can't keep.  Life is a constant learning experience. Though I'm sure I will fail as your mom from time to time I hope you see that you can learn from everything you do in life as long as you stay humble and admit when you mess up.

Here are some things I hope for you...

I hope that you won't be afraid to chase after the things you want.

I hope that you won't be afraid to fail every now and then.

I hope that you do something that makes you happy everyday.

I hope that you do something to make someone else happy everyday.

I hope that you respect yourself more than anything else.

I hope that you know you are a precious child of God and your body is a temple which should be cared for with only the highest respect.

I hope that you know no man will ever love you as much as your daddy.

I hope that you shed more tears from laughter than from sadness.

I hope that you don't waste your time following the crowd.

I hope that you realize you are the best at being you.

I hope you know and understand you are fearfully and wonderfully made.

I hope you realize that God has a plan for you, one bigger and better than you can imagine.

I hope that you don't make promises that you don't intend to keep.

I hope that you don't let what others say determine how you feel about yourself.

I hope that you laugh and love every single day.

I hope that you know just how much I love you.

You are very young and there will be many many many more things I hope for you and hope to do for you.  This is just the beginning. 

I love you Princess Peanut!

-Mom