CraftyHope

Food: My menu, PB&J Croissant recipe, and recipe review

It's another Monday and another meal plan from me! I do hope you had a lovely weekend but let's just jump on into this. Oh, since this is a food-related post, I just have to share with you the funky cool baby corn I found while shucking some fresh corn last week.

Isn't it cute?

Now on with the tasty.

Breakfasts: Cereal, Juice, Bacon & cheese omelets, Blueberry wheat pancakes, Cinnamon sugar croissants

Skinny Taste's Whole Wheat Pancakes

Lunches: Tuna salad pitas, Bean burritos, Hummus pitas, Angel Hair pasta with white sauce w/salad, Soup w/grilled cheese, Leftovers, Snack lunch, PB&J

Bell' alimento's angel Hair Pasta with White Sauce

Dinners:

MyRecipes' Bucatini with Mushrooms

Grilled Chicken w/green beans and potatoes

Pasta with mushrooms w/peas

Corn Chowder

Tacos w/all the fixins

Sweet Pea's Kitchen's Corn Chowder

For more Menu Plan Monday head over to I'm an Organizing Junkie.

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Last week I mentioned making PB&J croissants and Kim asked how to make them so I figured I'd share this super simple recipe with you.

PB&J Croissants

Ingredients

1 can of refrigerated crescent rolls

Jelly of your choice

Peanut butter of your choice

Directions:

Gather Ingredients along with some parchment paper, utensils for spreading the PB&J, and a baking sheet.

Pre-heat oven to temperature indicated on crescent rolls. Lay out parchment paper on baking sheet. Unroll dough triangles on sheet.

Spread peanut butter then jelly on the dough triangles, avoiding the edges as best you can.

Roll up the dough.

Repeat for all dough pieces.

Bake for time suggested on the crescent roll container.

Consume!

Easy peasy!! Oh, and the parchment paper totally makes for easy clean up and helps them from sticking too much.

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Let me review last week's new recipes (the ones I actually made).

PB&J Croissants (above): These were oh, so easy and yummy to boot. For some reason though, I didn't find them very filling. They definitely need to be paired with some fruit or other food item.

Crustless Quiche in a cup: These were tasty and we definitely preferred the broccoli to the previous week's squash quiche. I used some leftover broccoli from the night before instead of blanching it in the morning. Let me also direct you to the Original post of the Crustless Quiche in a Cup as the other link just links to that and I didn't notice until I was trying to make them. I will most likely make them again.

Summer Corn and White Bean Soup: This was fine. Hubs got seconds. I did make a few alterations to the recipe as I only realized at the last minute that I didn't have any ham to use. So I substituted bacon grease for the canola oil and added some pork bullion for the ham flavor. The green chilies gave the soup most of the flavor and a little heat. It was meh. I won't be making it again.

Sweet & Spicy Shrimp with Rice Noodles: We both really liked this. I couldn't find Thai chili so I just used a jalapeno. It worked out fine. I'm not usually big on sweet peppers, but mostly enjoyed them in this dish. I would have liked just a little more than the 4oz of noodles and may use a whole package (8oz) next time. There will most likely be a next time.

Lemon Basil Pasta: The recipe calls for grilled chicken, but I omitted it because it's just as good without it. This Pioneer Woman recipe has become almost a staple in out house. I try not to make it too often, but it's hard not to. It's SOOOOO good! It comes together quickly too. It will definitely be made again.

Enchilada Stuffed Mushrooms: We had these last night and I was so looking forward to them. I did add some jalapenos to them for a little additional vegetable to go with all the cheese. I could have just eaten that stuffing from the bowl. I also made them with large portobello mushroom caps. It was a blessing that I put some parchment paper down for them as the cheese stuffing ran ALL OVER the baking sheet. I don't know what happened. As far as the taste, they were pretty ok. I probably won't make them again though. . .at least not this recipe.

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That's it for me today. Here's hoping there's some tasty in your future too!

Focusing on Life Week 24: Green

I had almost forgotten about this week's Focusing on Life prompt. Okay, I'll admit that I thought about it each and every day this week when I made my to-do list, but it quickly flew from my mind as soon as the letter N on "Green" was written.

After writing yesterday's Commitment post, I knew my next 'to do' was to be a green picture. Hmmmmm. . I looked around my desk for something green. I guess I thought something was going to pop out at me. Guess what. Something did.

Remember a few weeks back when youngest niece stayed the week with us? Well, she got to do some crafting. Not just any crafting either, she decided she wanted to make some jewelry like her Hopey (that's what she calls me, so what of it.) Before I knew it, she was in my polymer clay. I gave her full reign over my clay supplies, and she opted to mostly stamp some pendants.

Once we had the pendants baked, we had to let them cool. To give them some time, off to the bead store we tromped to buy beads for her jewelry endeavors. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of just the beads she chose, but you can see some of them in the picture below of our next step. . .painting.

Once the pendants were painted, they had to dry.

The waiting was the hardest part, but she FINALLY got to make a necklace!

And yes, it had to be ALL GREEN. That is her favorite color after all. At some point she wants to sell it on Hopey's website. I'll let y'all know when it's listed. It's her job to help me do that too. I wanted her to see each step of the job. She even got to help take some of the pictures of her necklace. The one below in particular was hers.

Not too bad. I think I've got some competition!

Check out more Green on Sally's blog, The Studio Sublime.

Year of Jewelry Week 24: Commitment

Five days of blog posts IN A ROW!?
It's taken real commitment, but I've actually done it and am pretty pleased with myself. . .it's the little things in life that make me happy.

Speaking of commitment, that's actually this week's prompt for the Year of Jewelry Project. I didn't consciously work on this week's theme but when this necklace was finished today, I knew it fit the bill. Don't ya think?

It had been a simple brass cross. The simplicity of it had left me dumbstruck so I added the acrylic floral piece with some E6000. From there, the design just kinda took off.

I dug through my beads for white, ivory, and off-white beads and a few brass/gold tone pieces. I even did something I hardly ever do anymore, I worked on this piece while I watched a movie with Pat last night. That took commitment. . .

It was no time at all before I finished it up this morning. It's WAY longer than I had planned (guess I got carried away while watching that movie), but just perfect the way it is. You can see more 'Commitment' in the YOJ Facebook album.

I'm going to try to be a little more committed to the Year of Jewelry Project's prompts, but I really can't promise anything. My days and weeks always surprise me. Does the end of the week ever sneak up on you before you realize that you didn't get half the tasks done you had planned doing? This was a good one for me, we'll see how next week goes.

New Buttons (For the Blog)

If you're like me and read most of your blogs in a feed-reader, you don't often actually SEE the changes made on actual blogs unless the blogger mentions it. Well, I've recently made a few changes to mine that I've been wanting to make for ages so I thought I'd mention it as well as how I did it. (Oh, and it's mostly button additions, you know how I like buttons! ;) )

The first change I made was to clean up the social media buttons on my right sidebar. If you remember, they looked something like this.

Ewwwww!

And I was able to re-vamp that into this.

Ahhhhh!

Fabulous right!? I'm guessing some of you might want to know just HOW I was able to do it. Well, with the help of the following.

This post from My Favorite Things on how to add social media buttons. There are actually many, many posts out there similar to this one, but her instructions seemed the most clear and easy-to-follow.
The links at the bottom of this Moms Make Money post. The post itself has a video with instructions on adding the links if you want, but I just needed some free social button images. (The last link with the cute color icons was the one I used.)
Photobucket. Basically, that's where you save your social button images so that you have an online link in order to put them into the code.

That's all I REALLY needed to get the changes made, but let me admit the last resource I used

4. (optional) My own limited knowledge of how to work with HTML from my time working at a website design company (though I just wrote the copy for the websites, I DID NOT write the code.) As well, my husband is a software programmer/coder extraordinaire and was able to help me get the buttons cooperate just the way I wanted them to.

Now, that's not all the changes I made.

I also added a widget so that you can follow the CraftyHope blog by e-mail. I know that is becoming a popular option lately. Check out the widget just above my new flashy social media buttons on the right. This was super easy to add in Blogger.

From your Blogger drop-down menu select Layout
In Layout mode, you'll see several buttons in the middle of the screen that say "Add a Gadget", click that.
A new window will pop open. Scroll down the list in that window until you see "Follow by Email" and click into that.
From there, it's as easy as clicking save and making sure the Gadget is placed where you want it on your blog layout. DONE!

A reply button was also added to my comments section. I've actually been trying to figure out a way to add this little button for MONTHS and finally found this post from Spice up Your Blog that made it way simple to do.

Anyway, that's all the changes so far. I know there are a few others I want to make, but I'm so happy right now just to have gotten rid of some of the clutter that was plaguing my sidebar.

For a final dose of pretty, I listed these earrings today!

Unique Delight Earrings

I hope I was able to help you add some pizazz. . .or just some more buttons. . .to your blog also.

More Baby Conch Creations

I promised last week when I showed off my ZnetShows Baby Conch pieces that I would share a better picture of the pink earrings if I got one.

Well, here you go. . .

Oh, and I also made a whole 'nother necklace with some of the beach glass beads.

Yup, I made one of my JUNK necklaces.

There are baby conchs and real shells in there as well as all kinds of found objects including a zipper pull, Christmas light bulb, old earring, key, bell, and watch face.

What's even more enchanting about it is the sound it makes when it moves. Heavenly!

I'm digging it, but what do you think?

In case you need a smile too

I'm Moody Mooderson today and have been really thankful for the small smiles I've been able to eke out. Just in case you're in need of some smiles today too, I thought I'd share what brightened my day.

**I've had Pandora on most of the day and the song below made me giggle.

Screenshot from my iPad

**Anything Jonathan Coulton will also usually do a good job of turning a frown upside down. It's been a while since I heard this one and it was one of the first songs Pandora played for me today. (How did Pandora KNOW!?)

**I was able to be a little productive and finally finished this necklace that's taken me FOREVER (well, since Friday) to get done.

**I got a bracelet listed in the shop.

Perfect Wave Bracelet

**I'm making this amazing yumminess for dinner. (minus the grilled chicken)

Pioneer Woman Grilled Chicken with Lemon Basil Pasta

**And eating some of this for dessert.

Actually, mine will be Mediterranean Mint

**And, most of all. . .THIS made me smile SO MUCH

Bahahahaha!!

I hope something on this list made you smile too!

Monday Meal Plan and Recipe Review

It's been so rainy and dreary here the past two days that I feel absolutely waterlogged. As well, overcast skies don't make me very productive either. Sigh.

My darkened view for the past few days.

At least I think it's finally starting to clear up some and I've got a yummy menu to look forward to (don't you like the way I transitioned there?)

Breakfasts: Oatmeal/Cheese grits, Juice, Crustless quiche in a cup, PB&J croissants, Breakfast burritos

Crustless Quiche

Lunches: PB&J, Hummus pitas, Grilled cheese w/soup, Mexican pizza, Tuna salad sandwiches, Pita pizza, Snack lunch, or Leftovers

Dinners:

Corn and white bean soup

Sweet & Spicy shrimp with rice noodles

Lemon basil pasta w/broccoli

Grilled chicken w/roasted green beans and potatoes

Enchilada stuffed mushrooms w/black beans and corn

There's more Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

I've decided to add my review of the 'new' recipes I try each week. Remember last week's menu? Here are my thoughts on the recipes I actually made.
Hashbrown baskets: I've made these several times in the past, but this time I omitted meat entirely and used 1/2 regular eggs and 1/2 egg whites (oh, as a deviation from the recipe instructions I usually just mix up a batch of scrambled eggs and pour those into the muffin cups since we're not big on non-scrambled eggs.) The half egg white mix worked wonderfully. Will definitely make again.

Creamy curried cauliflower soup: It was pretty good but a bit chunkier than I had hoped. I think the use of an immersion blender instead of my regular blender would help the texture. Might make again.

Chipotle Bean Burritos: These were fine, a lot like the bean burritos we make with regular cans of refried beans. However, the chipotle really did give the beans a yummy kick. Not sure if I'll make again, maybe.

Lazy Girl Quiche: This was easier than I thought, but I do have quite a few comments on it. The recipe called for 2 cups of squash AND 2 cups of zucchini but this was WAY more vegetables than could fit in my pie crust. I would definitely half that. As well, I'm not personally a fan of mushy squash/zucchini and this recipe made it much more soft than we like. I'm just going to use a different vegetable next time (maybe broccoli). Lastly, I recommend putting a cookie sheet under your pie pan before filling it so that transferring it into the oven is easier. On my first try of getting it into the oven, the egg/milk mixture sloshed over into the hot oven (THAT was fun!) I'll admit that I am a klutz and if you are too, use a cookie sheet. Otherwise, the quiche was really yummy and filling. I will most likely make it again (with different vegetables.)

Pasta with roasted tomatoes, white beans, and herbs: I changed the recipe slightly as I didn't get any fresh rosemary so I just used some dried. It worked fine. As well, the hubs isn't fond of chunks of tomatoes so I blended them before adding them to the pot. It was a really yummy meal. I will be making this again.

And for my final trick. . .ha, just kidding. I actually just wanted to let you know that a few items got marked down in the Etsy shop if you'd like to take a look.

Amber Waves Necklace

Cootie Earrings

Easy Peasy Earrings

That's all I've got for now and I think that was plenty. I hope the sun is shining where ever you are!

Focusing on Life Week 23: Typography

I didn't think I was going to get a chance to post for this week's prompt, but here I am. When I saw the prompt, Typography, I was immediately excited because I've got a thing for words and fonts and whatnot. You should see me scroll through the list of fonts in Word or PhotoShop anytime I've got a chance to make something a little different. It's always a task to pick one that conveys just the right feeling.

However, as the week wore on, I just wasn't struck by the lettering on any print or sign in my environment, so I was resigned to let another week slip by. As we are currently enjoying a slow Saturday morning; me sitting in front of my laptop while the hubby tinkers with his new metal lathe in the garage, it occured to me that I could be blogging. So I pondered what words have made the most impact on me this week and it became quite clear what my photo subject should be.

Yup, one of my designs was accepted into Jewelry Stringing magazine again, and I'm pleased as punch. Like last time, you'll find it in the bracelet gallery section.

I think that's as short and sweet as I need to make today's post. You can see more examples of Typography for this week's Focusing on Life series on Sally's blog, The Studio Sublime.

ZnetShows Baby Conchs

I lucked out again when the guys at ZnetShows surprised me with a beautiful spectrum of mini conch shells.

These beach glass beads are perfect for earrings, but that wasn't my first thought of how to use them.

I grouped a few of my favorite colors (ones that reminded me of the beach) and hung them together on a silver ring from a chain to make a necklace.

Perfectly beachy!

From there I moved on to making some earrings. This design came to me out of the blue, so into the sketchbook it went until I was able to play with my e-beads and conchs.

I had to test out several wire types and gauges before I settled on the sturdy 20g galvanized steel wire for the frame. It worked perfectly.

Less perfect was the progression of the next pair. I had a fabulous idea involving memory wire. I played with some memory wire rings for FAR too long and finally remembered why I hardly ever use the stuff. In frustration, I threw that idea to the side and simply wrapped some seed beads around the top of two of these cobalt blue mini conchs.

Simple, easy, and beautiful (if I do say so myself.)

Finally, I wanted to do something a little different. While I'm not usually drawn to pink, the pale pink conchs called to me. Pairing them with silver, black, and pearl seemed natural.

I really couldn't get a great picture of these as the weather was being so weird. If I get a better one, I'll replace the one above or post it later.

Speaking of later, I've still got plenty of these to play with and a few more ideas. I'll share what comes to be. What fun these little babies were!

Thanks Bill for giving me the chance at them.

Menu Plan and My Shrimp Mac-n-Cheese with Bacon Recipe

Now that "Hopey and Little Bit's week-of-fun" (a-la Joey and Janice's day of fun, from Friends, see video clip below) has concluded, I'm working on getting back on track. Doesn't it seem that I'm ALWAYS getting back on track. Is it just me?
Anyway, a whole week with a 10-year-old made for some strange eating habits. Granted we didn't stray TOO far off track from our normal diet, but there was more fried food, eating out, and meat involved than usual. Let me admit that on her first night she came up with a fabulous concoction that I readily made for all of us. It was a shrimp mac-n-cheese with bacon sprinkled on top. Oh lawdy, it was tasty! I've shared the recipe below (unfortunately I didn't get a picture of it before we were gobbling it up.)

For now, I'm focusing on a healthier meal plan for the week.

Breakfasts: Peanut butter toast w/fruit, Juice, French toast w/fruit, Hashbrown baskets w/fruit, Breakfast quesidillas

Pioneer Woman's Breakfast Quesidillas

Lunch options: Tuna noodles w/fruit, Soup w/grilled cheese, Hummus pita w/veggies, Mexican pizza, PB&J w/string cheese & fruit, Pita pizzas, Snack lunch (crackers, cheese, fruit, veggies), Leftovers

Honey, What's Cooking's Mexican Tortilla Pizza

Dinners:

Creamy curried cauliflower soup w/sourdough bread

Chipotle bean burritos w/corn & salsa

Lazy girl quiche w/salad

Sweet & spicy shrimp with rice noodles

Pasta with roasted tomatoes, white beans, and herbs w/salad

At least that's the plan. You can see more Menu Plan Monday at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Now for that recipe I mentioned at the top. Here's what I did.

Shrimp Mac-n-cheese with Bacon

Ingredients:

4 slices of think sliced bacon

1 pound of shrimp (de-veined and de-headed, uncooked)

1 box corkscrew noodles

1/4 C butter

1/4 C all purpose flour

2 C half and half

1/2 C almond milk (unsweetened, no flavor)

1 egg

2 C grated cheese (we used a combination of sharp cheddar and monterey jack)

Kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, granulated garlic, & dry mustard (to taste )

1. Boil pasta just over HALF the time recommended on the package, drain, set aside.

2. Peel the shrimp and cut each shrimp into about three pieces.

3. Cook bacon until crispy then set it aside on paper towels to drain.

4. Pour out about half of the bacon grease into an acceptable receptacle. (As a proper Southern girl, it goes into a jar in the fridge for cooking with later.)

5. Add shrimp to pan with remaining bacon grease and cook until done. (3-5 minutes)

6. Using a soup pot (I use the same pot that I boiled the pasta in), melt butter over medium heat.

7. Whisk flour into butter until creamy for about 1 minute (don't let the mixture get too dark)

8. SLOWLY whisk in the milk/half and half so that no lumps form. Turn down stove to low-med and cook for about 5 minutes until creamy, stirring/whisking often.

9. Beat your egg in a small bowl and slowly add about 1/4 of the flour/milk mixture into the small bowl whisking it in until fully combined. Pour the egg mixture into the pot and stir well.

10. Add your seasonings to taste.

11. Turn off the pot, add the grated cheese, and stir until all cheese has melted.

12. Add pasta and shrimp to pot. Stir well.

13. Pour contents from pot into a greased baking dish and crumble bacon over the top of it.

14. Bake for 20 minutes on 350 degrees.

I hope you enjoy this as much as we did. Little Bit and I even ate the leftovers the next day for dinner it was so good!

While I've got you here, check out some of the newest pieces in my shop.

New Life Necklace

Juicy Earrings

Music Necklace

Here's hoping this Monday involves you getting back on track too. . .or at least having a good time being off-track!