I’ll admit it. I love chicken pot pie. I attributing this love to growing up with a father who equally loved them.  In fact, my moms favorite early marriage story is about sending my dad grocery shopping and having him come home with almost nothing but pot pies.

Oh, Dad. Man cannot live off chicken pot pie alone.

However, it still remains a favorite of mine. Even though my family now isn’t always keen on the idea.  Especially my 5 year old. He’s at the age of food protest. Not kidding, he’ll argue about eating pb&j even.

But even he couldn’t deny the awesome pleasure that came in this little dish…

These, my dear sweet friends, are chicken pot pie cupcakes. Healthy food they aren’t. But delicious is just the first word that pops in mind when I look at this little treats.

The best part? All I did was read instructions to the kiddos and put them in the oven after the boys assembled them.  That’s right. A 5 and 6 year old put these bad boys together.

So I found this recipe on Tablespoon.com via Pinterest one day and knew I had to try it.   Want to give it a shot too? You certainly won’t regret it!

Chicken Pot Pie Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1 chicken breast, poached and diced
• 1 (14.5 oz) can cream of chicken soup
• 1 cup Green Giant Valley Fresh Steamers frozen mixed veggies
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 Tbs Herbs De Provence
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp garlic salt
• 2 (10 oz) cans Pillsbury biscuits

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 400.

2. In a large bowl, combine the cooked chicken, cream of chicken soup, frozen veggies, cheese, herbs and spices.

3. Lightly grease a 12-cup muffin tin and place the Pillsbury biscuits into each cup, pressing into the bottom and up the sides.

4. Evenly spoon the pot pie mixture into each biscuit cup. Slide into the oven and bake for about 15 minutes. Check at the 12 minute mark.

5. Let rest for about 3 minutes and dig in!

                                                                                          Tablespoon.com

Hmmm… maybe today is a good day for a warm snack. I mean, it is raining…

Until next time, Happy Tuesday!

Ah, June. You bring so many good things.  My birthday, my sons birthday, the start of summer vacation, *coughthereturnofacertainMIAblog*cough*… strawberries.

Yeah, strawberry season is in full swing in my neck of the woods.  Jon and I took the boys out yesterday to pick a few and ended up coming home with 4 HEAPING quarts.  Uh… yeah… I guess I need to get to making jam…

“But Erin!” you’re probably thinking, “that’s way more than you need for jam! What will you do with the rest???”

Don’t despair.  I think I have 6 great routes I could take to deal with the overabundance of strawberries.

6 Things to do with Strawberries {When You Have Way More Than Necessary For Jam.}

1. Strawberry Cheescake

Taste of Home always has what I’m looking for. Like cheesecake. With strawberries. This recipe is simple enough for a kitchen novice and impressive enough for guests!

2. Strawberry Mousse

The blogger behind Nancy’s Recipes offers up this refreshing looking recipe for a luscious looking strawberry mousse. This looks like something I could make for date night… Or, you know, for myself.

3. Strawberry Pizza

You’re kidding me with this, right? Strawberry. Pizza.  This is literally made out of awesome. Sugar cookie crust, cream cheese, strawberry sauce and sliced strawberries. I’m 97 seconds from racing to the kitchen to whip this little number up.

4. Sweet Strawberry Cobbler

Thank you, Mostly Homemade Mom, for providing a delicious recipe that won’t take all day to make. If you’re a cobbler fan, this recipe is the way to go. Quick, easy and full of tastiness.

**Sugar Crumbs secret: This is one of my FAVORITE recipe blogs.**

5. Strawberry Fritters

I could cry, these look so good. Remember once upon a time when I said I wanted to eat healthier? Do these count??? They should… they’re full of fruit… and only deep fried for 4ish minutes.

Okay, they aren’t that healthy. And I don’t particularly care right now.

6. Banana Split Brownie Pie

My heart! It is filled with the overwhelming joy that only means one thing. A strawberry recipe that includes chocolate. And brownies. And a crushed waffle cone crust.

Please, someone give the blogger behind this recipe a million dollars. This is by far the most amazingly wonderful thing I’ve seen all day.  I salute you, Jocelyn of BruCrewLife.

So there it is. 6 ways to make perfectly healthy treats into perfectly delicious (and not quite as healthy) desserts. Now to stare at my refrigerator and will it into containing some missing ingredients.

What? I want to make on of these. Like, now.

Until next time, Happy Sunday!

This is a question I’ve been asking since tragedy struck.  Maybe you’re wondering the same thing. What can we do to help?

Here are a few reputable places to send donations!

The Red Cross, as usual, is offering assistance to those affected by the disaster. Shelter, food and other necessities are being provided to those in need. With so many in need, its obvious they could use monetary donations. And they made it easy to help.  Text “REDCROSS” to 90999 to make a $10 donation. (That $10 will be added to your cell phone bill.) Also, blood donations are being encouraged.

Salvation Army is also a great place to donate.  They’re offering 3 meals a day to the areas most deeply affected. As with the Red Cross, they have made it easy to lend a hand.  Text the word “STORM” to 80888.  Same rule applies, the money will be charged to your phone bill.

Operation USA is based in LA but is sending relief to the area in the form of emergency shelter and cleaning supplies. You can donate via text as well, by texting the word “AID” to 50555.

You can also donate online by clicking their linked names above!

While monetary donations are preferable, there are some of those who can’t and would rather send supplies. Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief is accepting donations of bottled water, flash lights, non perishable food items and other supplies.

Please, keep these people in your thoughts and prayers. Hug your loved ones a little longer. Say “I love you” as much as you can. And never take for granted the things you have.

You have my prayers, Oklahoma.

Long time no see.

I fell off the blog radar again. Boo Hiss.  I’m a bad girl.

Actually, it’s kind of a good thing that I was away for a while. I had some things to figuredr and it’s time to come clean.

I’m slowing down because I have fibromyalgia AND rheumatoid arthritis.

In case you didn’t know, I’m not too thrilled with either since both of them pretty much ensure that I need to slow down on my passion.

(I know, you’re laughing because I’m passionate about crocheting.)

Either way, now that I know whats up, I’m working towards dealing with both issues so that I can be the spritely spry person I so miss being! But since it’s still a work in progress, here’s a look at what I’ve been doing over the last few weeks.

Yep, lots and lots of crocheting. But I’m limiting myself to one a day.  You can follow along with the Ami A Day Self Imposed Challenge on my facebook page as well!  There’s more there than in the collage, including my interpretation of Little Red Riding Hood.

Here’s hoping I can back into regular posting and Happy Monday!

One of my most popular post happens to be my DIY Laundry detergent post. The secret to over a years worth of laundry soap for about $10 will do that to a post.  However, I get TONS of emails asking if I have a recipe for a detergent that just has more to it.

More often than not, I find myself puzzled about that particular request because I always thought that the easier the recipe, the more inclined people would be to use it.

Oh wait. That’s just me.

Either way, I got a message just the other day that explained this all so well.  A reader wrote in explaining that she really wanted to get into making her own detergent but the recipe seemed so simple. Too good to be true.  Conceptually, she knew it would work but she just couldn’t get over feeling like she hadn’t added real cleansers to her wash.

Well, dear reader, I get it!  100%. I had those same feelings when I started making DIY cleaners.  And so, this post is for you.

I recently ran out of detergent… which meant I needed to make more. However, rather than just go to the old standby recipe, I chose to try something new.

My search led me to HowDoesShe.com and their recipe for The World’s Best Homemade Detergent.  It seemed simple enough (and dare I say pretty?) so I settled on that.  A trip to the grocery store and about 5 minutes of work landed me with this.

And there’s still more in the bucket I mixed it in! That’s quite a lot!  I’ve used it a few times now and it is fabulous! Because of the ingredients, this one does have the store bought detergent scent. That fresh from the washer with a hint of fragrance feel. It’s very nice!

Wanna know how to make it?  Here’s what you need.

Ingredients

• 1 (4 lb 12 oz) Box of Borax- Found in the detergent aisle
• 1 (3 lb 7 oz) Box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda- Found in the detergent aisle
• 1 (3 lb) Container of OxyClean- Found in the detergent aisle
• 2 (14.1 oz) Bars of Zote Soap- Found in the detergent aisle (You can also use Fels Naptha)
• 1 (4 lb) Box of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda- Found in the cooking aisle (You could also get two 2 lb box, we couldn’t find the larger 4lb box when we went)
• 4 Bottles of Scentsy Washer Whiffs- found online or through a Scentsy Representative (you can also use 2 Bottles of Purex Crystals Fabric Enhancer- Found in the detergent aisle)

Instructions

1. Grate zote soap with cheese grater or food processor.

2. Mix all ingredients together in a large bucket.

3. Use 2 -4 Tablespoons per laundry load.

Easy!

Of course, this recipe is going to set you back about $20. Not bad considering the amount it makes though!

So there you go. Another detergent recipe with a bit more “muchness.”

Yay!

Until next time, Happy Monday!

That’s what I am.  A tiny farmer. Not because of my size but because I literally made a tiny garden.

So I know you’re probably thinking about a recipe post… that’s pretty much all I post on Mondays, right?  But this weekend was all about gardening. Complete with trips to 2 nurseries. I’m so ready to get some plants in the ground.

But I should mention that Jon does most of the gardening around these parts… I, uh, have the uncanny ability to destroy nearly every plant I touch. Seriously, I even killed my air plants.

Sigh.

Since Jon does most outdoor planting, I figured I’d take on a small, indoor garden…

Whatcha think?

Obviously, I’m thrilled with this. If you remember correctly, I wanted to do this last year.  But you know, the whole newborn thing just swallowed up my craft time. This year, I opted to just go for it!

And you know what? It. Was. Cake.

The toughest part for me was the house. Sure, I could go buy a premade fairy house… but where’s the fun in that?  Luckily, I found an amazing tutorial online to turn a wood craft birdhouse into a little house fit for a fairy.

After I built the house, it was time for a trip to my local nursery for some tiny plants and a pot to put the whole thing in. Since terrariums are so popular, most nurseries have a “tiny plant” section. Which is where I snagged mine.  It’s also where I picked up the tiny gazing ball and mailbox!

Fairies get mail too, you know?

The final part was putting it all together.  I think it came out rather well!

hehe. I love tiny things.

Want to make your own?  Here are some links to get you started!

http://www.miniaturegardenshoppe.com/TipsTech.html

http://www.twogreenthumbs.com/

Until next time, Happy Monday!