Sara's SortaLike Chicken Florentine

Last week I came up with this yummy concoction, using ingredients we had on hand. This was a rare occasion because we (hubby) usually plan our meals for the week, and buy just what we need. My bff, Jen, over at Mom Rocks Mealtime is a pro at menu planning!
Anyway, this is what I had to work with:

• 1 very large chicken breast
• Yellow onion
• Garlic
• Olive oil
• Canned spinach
• Canned, diced tomatoes
• Chopped olives
• Arborio rice

Saute garlic & onion in a pan with olive oil. Meanwhile, in a separate pan, start cooking the Arborio rice according to package instructions. It takes a while.

Season the chicken breast as desired. I think I used seasoned salt, powdered garlic & onion powder. Place the chicken in the pan with garlic & onions. Cook for a few minutes on each side over medium heat. Time will depend on how thick the chicken is.
When chicken is nearly done, add the spinach & tomatoes (drained, or it will get too soupy).  Add chopped olives. Let it all co-mingle for a while.

Once it all looks done to you, spoon some of the arborio on each plate. Put a piece of chicken on the rice and spoon the yummy spinach and tomato goodness over the top. If you happen to have some feta cheese on hand, sprinkle some on top. I tried this with a later rendition and it was DIVINE! Sorry, I forgot to take a pic both times I made this dish. I am probably  making it for my folks next weekend, so I'll snap a pic for you then.

Instead of arborio, you could also serve up some brown rice, pasta, or whatever Roni box you have in your pantry.

Enjoy!

Trick Or Treating!

Thanks for Mom Rocks Mealtime (our kiddos are bestest buds!), Free Digital Scrapbooking, Jah-JustJennifer (she turned me on to MyMemories...I won it on her blog), and MyMemories Suite, I was able to whip up this layout in the thirty minutes from when I gave up on my work project (it had already long since given up on ME!) and picking up my munchkin from pre-school.

My Memories: No Faces Challenge

I recently won a copy of the MyMemories Suite digital scrap booking software from a contest at Jah-JustJennifer.

I became a fan of the MyMemories Facebook page and have been having LOTS of fun learning new techniques. The one I'll share today is from the blog. It's a No Faces Allowed Challenge! Let me know what you think! I am thinking I might go back and put a frame on the black and white image. There's just so much WHITE from my wedding gown, I think it's a little distracting. Feel free to give me feedback! I'm learning. 

My Top 10 Stress Busters

I recently read Top 10: Ways to De-Stress. It made me think about the stress in my own life right now and how I'm dealing with it.  Here's my top 5 ways to de-stress (in no particular order):

1. Read: I used to love love LOOOOOVE to read! I would read anything I could get my hands on. Sometimes that was the back of  a cereal box during breakfast. Now that I read all day at work, I have sort of lost interest. I recently started picking up free and cheap novels for my Kindle app on my phone. I have fallen in love with reading again. Having books on my phone makes it really handy to sneak in a chapter here and there! 
2. Exercise: It's amazing what a quick workout on my Wii, or a walk around the neighborhood can do. There was a day recently where I was really down and beating myself up mentally pretty badly. I finally stepped away from my computer, got up and did my Just Dance II workout for about 20 minutes. It was TRANSFORMING! 
3. Get Creative: Whether it's making cards, scrap-booking (digitally or old school), quilting, or knitting (which I pretty much gave up when my daughter came along, but hope to pick it up again someday), getting creative is a great for me to de-stress. It takes my head out of whatever is stressing me out and time just seems to FLY by. I have a couple of upcoming PTO days specifically for this purpose. I'm going to visit my BFF and we're going to spend the day making cards together. I can't wait! 
4. Snuggle: Whether it's snuggling my hubby, my daughter, or both, I believe stress busting endorphins are released when snuggling! Especially when I sniff the top of my daughter's head!
5. Date night: Our daughter's daycare offers monthly "Kids Night Out."  One Friday a month, we drop her off with her pajamas and don't pick her up until 9:00 or 10:00 at night. They entertain the kiddos with movies, crafts, and dinner. When we pick her up, she's in her jammies and ready for bed. She usually requires a little snuggle time after such a long day apart, but that has stress busting qualities in and of itself! 

My Digital Studio (MDS) Monday (a day late!)

I have been studying the My Digital Studio community website and user guide. I also FINALLY found my Sale-A-Bration content CD that I had stashed somewhere! Naturally that was AFTER I started this spring time card for the MDS Monday challenge over at Utah Divas International. 

This card came together so quickly! I picked out my paper, grabbed a couple punches, couple stamps, added the ribbon and voila! The hardest part was getting Miss M's cute little face into a circle! I finally figured it out though! The stamp set is Easter Blossoms and the Designer Series Paper (DSP) is from the Springtime Vintage Collection. It's in the Occasions catalog that ends April 31, but I think it will still be available for MDS after that. I'm still learning the ropes about how retired sets work when it comes to MDS!

If you have your own program for digital scrapping and stamping, you can still use Stampin' Up Images. There is an option to download them as a JPG file instead of an MDS file!

March Swaps!

My swaps this month were inspired by Martha Stewart, over at Seasons of Stamping!

Supplies:
Base- Old Olive Card Stock
Layer 1- Daffodil Delight Patterns DSP
Layer 2- Whisper White Card stock stamped with:

• For All You Do Stamp set
• Old Olive Classic Stamp Pad
• Daffodil Delight Classic Stamp Pad
• Pumpkin Pie Classic Stamp Pad

Embossed using the Big Shot & Square Lattice embossing folder.

Embellished the centers of the flowers with Basic Rhinestones. 
Sentiment punched with Decorative Label Punch.

Some Things Have to be Believed to be Seen

I am building up a stash of positive and encouraging cards to give my mother in law over the next 6 weeks or more. She lives in Costa Rica, but she is staying with us while she undergoes radiation treatment.  I thought it would be nice to have at least one card for week, plus more for days I think she might need an extra boost.

I made extras for a swap I am in. Actually I have two swaps to finish but I haven't decided which one this is for yet: my monthly swap with a group of other stampers or a masculine swap.

Here are the Stampin' Up supplies that were used to make this card front:

• Just Believe stamp set
• Big Shot & Top note die
• Old Olive card stock & DSP (Designer Series Paper)
• Decorative Label Punch
• Basic Rhinestones Jewel Accents (I think that means I need to use this for my stamper swap, not my masculine swap! Mind officially made up!)

There are other factors in my life right now causing stress. Nothing major, but the combined total of it all is taking it's toll on me. I have found stamping to be very therapeutic. It gets me into the creative side of my brain, where everything else just disappears. It also feels good to do something nice for someone else.

I also received some swaps in the mail this week. Just looking at them, gave me a lot of peace and happiness. I'll share pics of those in another post.

Gift Bag & birthday card

I love this technique for making gift bags!  I will do a tutorial soon. It involves decoratingvdirt cheap manila envelopes. When folded just right, they make a fabulous gift bag!

I made the card for a kids birthday swap I'm in. I had an extra. Since it's the same colors as the bag, PRESTO! Instant matching set!

The recipient is in Daisies, the youngest girl scout group. I thought this punch kindda resembled a daisy. I used sticky strip & grosgrain ribbon for the flower stems.

Funny Birthday Card story!

January is chock full o' birthdays in my family! Mine is on the 13th, my daugther's is on the 19th (she was due on my birthday, and what a gift that would have been, but she showed up a week late!), my mom's is a week later on the 26th, and my aunt's is the 18th..I mean 16th! That's the funny part! To me, anyway!

My parents and my brother came for an overnighter on Saturday, the 15th. Mom figured we would just have on grand celebration, which was awesome. My little one is turning two and we're having a big Wiggles party, but Mom figured she wouldn't know if they were here or not and this way they could spend more quality time together. It was great!

Fast forward to Sunday night, the 16th...I get a voice mail from my aunt, saying my dad had called to wish her a happy birthday and said they'd been having a belated celebration with me, etc., etc. She went on to apologe for not calling me on my birthday...which is funny to ME because on my calendar her birthday is on the 18th! So, I made her this card using My Digital Studio today and will email to her with a funny message about how we both got our dates mixed up. Knowing my aunt, she will see the humor in it.

I CASEd (copy and steal everything) it from the Stampin' Bug.

My Digital Studio (MDS) is a great way to play around with many of the Stampin' Up products without taking up a lot of room! I also like to use it to design cards before I sit down to make them. In this case, it's also a great way to make a card for someone and send it electronically. If you are already a digital stamper or scrapper, you can still purchase and use MDS downloads with any program that uses JPG files.

I hope you enjoy this birthday card!

Warm Winter Wishes

I have no idea yet who will receive this card. I created this card which I believe fits into two challenges:

Clearly Inspired Challenge #20 : Use three shades of blue, and use one of their stamps. The gals at Clearly iStamp even tossed in a freebie, which I used in the challenge.

Stampin' Sisters Challenge #39: Based on Ephesians 4:29, we were instructed to make a card that would encourage someone. Ah! Now I know who will receive this card!

Besides the Clearly iStamp snowman stamp, I used paper I had on hand. The following supplies came from Stampin' Up:

• Ribbon
• Flower brad 
• Crystal Effects (snowman's hat band)
• I printed the sentiment on my computer and punched it out with the Scallop Oval Punch.

I had a lot of fun creating this.