chicken and corn pies with cornbread crust

Chicken and Corn Pies with Corbread Crust

Ingredients:

1 can enchilada sauce

1 can Rotel tomatoes, drained

1 can corn, drained

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 t. chili powder

2 chicken breasts*

1 pkg. Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix

2/3 c. milk

1 large egg

2 T. vegetable oil

1 c. shredded Mexican blend cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375F.  Cook and chop chicken breasts.  In a saucepan over medium heat, stir together enchilada sauce, Rotel, corn, black beans and chili powder until combined.  Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes; add chicken.  In a bowl, whisk together cornbread mix, milk, egg, oil and cheese.  Pour chicken mixture into 5 lightly greased (10-oz) ramekins.  Spoon cornbread mixture over hot chicken mixture.  Divide ramekins onto 2 jelly roll pans.  Bake for 30 minutes or until golden and bubbly.  Garnish with sour creamand sliced jalapenos.

Note: Mixture may be prepared in a lightly greased casserole dish also.  Place on a jelly roll pan and bake for 30 minutes or until golden and bubbly. 

*can also use 2 cans of chicken, drained.

I didn't get to take a picture before we ate, so I snapped one of the casserole dish before I cleaned up the kitchen.  Once I looked at the picture, I realized that it really doesn't look that great.  So please don't judge by my picture.  Why do you think I put it at the bottom of the post?

panty party

Well, it's about that time!  Yep, we're slowly (very slowly) starting some potty training with Addison.  When she moves into her next classroom at school, they will enforce potty training during the day, so until then we can't expect her to do too much. 

One night last week I asked if she wanted to put on her big girl panties for a little while.  She was so excited and asked if she could have a panty party.  I told her I was not going to strip down to my panties with her, but she could call it a party if she wanted to.  She chose a pair of Minnie Mouse panties, which of course sparked the idea to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  I made a deal with her and told her if she'd stay on the towl I put on the floor she could watch it. She couldn't have been more excited!

Showing me her Minnie.  Not quite sure what that look is on her face??

And here's her new "cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese" face.

She did a great job and didn't have an accident.  I know this is just the tip of the iceberg, but I feel like it's a step in the right direction at least!  Wish us luck!!!!! 

I'm quite certian this is not the last you'll hear on this topic!

this & that

This might just be the most random post I've ever done, but there are just a few totally unrelated things I'd like to talk about, so here it goes!

Pillows:

I bought some new red pillows for our living room!  Aren't they so great?  Where do you think I found them...Pottery Barn?  Nope!

WAL-MART!!!!

Can you believe?? For only $12!! 

Makes me love them even more!

Hiding things in the kitchen:

In an effort to get things off my counter tops and put them away, I started brainstorming ways to get my cutting boards into my lower cabinets, even though they were too tall to fit on the shelves. 

Solution: 3M command hooks! 

Have I told you how much I adore these things?  I'm sure I have, but let me just tell you again.  I mean seriously, how great is this?  I didn't even have to put a hole in the door!  Easy fix! 

I also did the same thing with Addi's bibs.  She doesn't wear them often (just when she eats really messy things like spaghetti-o's, syrup, etc.)

This little project is going to be a work in progress because I feel like there is so much stuff out on our counters just cluttering it up. I will keep you posted along the way.

Refrigerator Vent:

Did you know that the vent on the bottom of your fridge can be removed so it can be cleaned?  Well I didn't!  I was vacuuming the vent last weekend and it was SO disgusting!  I grabbed the Clorox wipes and I still couldn't get all the grime off.  One end was a little loose and I thought it was broken.  I tried to snap it back on and ended up yanking the entire thing off!  I thought I really had broken it then, and then it dawned on me that it could easily go back on...genius!  I spent about 30 minutes cleaning it with hot soapy water and goo-gone.  I am so mad that I didn't know it came off because it's been 6 years and that thing has never (not once) been cleaned.  How embarrassing to admit!  I would have been mortified if anyone would have witnessed the filth that I discovered.  YUCK!!!!  So here's my PSA...your vent comes off!

Magnet board:

I wanted to put something cute and functional next to Addi's small table in our kitchen.  She's always bringing home artwork and admiring the art that she creates at home so I thought why not a small magnet board?  I found this cute one at Office Depot for about $15.  She loves it and is proud to post her creations.  I was pleased with the size; it really does fit just perfectly in the space.  I might have picked a different color, but it was either green or navy.  The green is fine.  I like it.

Guess how I hung it up?  3m Command Hooks!  I'm telling you, they can do just about anything!!  HERE are the ones I used for this project and several others around the house!

Here's my sweet girl admiring her work and loving her new big bird juice after her nap.  You can tell by the crazy hair and sleep eyes that she's not quite all the way awake yet! 

I love it when she looks at me with amazement like I've just done the most coolest thing ever.  That's the looks she gave me when I folded a piece of paper in half and cut a heart out...when I opened that paper up she about fell out of her chair!  "Wow Mama!  You did good!" *melts my heart!!*

She also thought it was a pretty great that I spelled her name with stickers.  "Mama you made Addi!!" (Like I didn't know what I was doing!)

Newsflash:

My last piece of important business is to announce that Addi can FINALLY jump!!!!  For the longest time she would sort of gallop and flap her arms like she was doing the chicken dance.  I truly have been worried because all of her friends can jump.  She finally did it the other morning before school and Scott and I both froze in our tracks.  I had her do it over and over and she did great!  Whew!  Check that one off the list!

Okay, I think that's all for now.  I warned you that it was totally random!

shower for baby carlock

Last weekend we made a quick trip to Ardmore to throw a party for some of our dearest frineds, the Carlocks.  Teal and Laren are expeting their first baby (it a boy!) in February and of course, we wanted to shower them with love and gifts! 

Amanda found the cutest invitaitons ever on Tiny Prints!!  This is just the sample, but isn't it so cute??

Cookies to match the invitations.

The tables turned our really cute.  The pictures turned out horrendous!  The lighting was terrible in the clubhouse and my flash made them even worse.  You'll just have to take my word for it.

My first attempt at a diaper cake.  I didn't reallize it was leaning until I downloaded the pictures.  Maybe I was just tilted a little bit.  Oh well. Scott hand rolled every single diaper for me!!  Thanks Scott!

I thought it turned out really cute!  I did use newborn diapers and next time I will use 1's or 2's.  The newborn diapers were so tiny, I felt like the cake was so short, even on a cakestand!  I put a vase in the top so we could use fresh flowers.  Now I've never done Mayfair (Lindsi that's for you!!) but I think it turned out really cute!

Here's the gang from way back! 

Jake, Teal, Mitch, Clark and I all went to preschool together.  Teal, Mitch and Clark all moved away in middle school but we all reunited in college.  All 5 of the guys were Betas together at OU and they all married such fun gals!  We're so lucky to have such wonderful friends!!

Congrats Teal, Laren and Baby Boy!!!

Teal and Laren gave us such a clever hostess gift...I just had to share.

Table Topics!  Isn't that fun? 

I love that case and card are so cute and colorful. 

They really look good just sitting out so I've just left them on the side table in the living room.

Thanks Teal and Laren!!

 

dumping ground

The entry into our house from the garage (which is pretty much the only entrance we use) leads you directly into a hallway with a wall right in front of you.  Our bedroom is to the immediate right and the kitchen and laundry room are on the left.  Before we had Addison, I didn't have anything on this wall.  It tends to get a little cramped, and can be tight if you're carrying things.  Well when Addi came along our dining room table or our bed became an absolute dumping ground...coats, diaper bag, my purse, extra clothes, camera bag, school papers, and so on.  I installed these hooks for coats and bags and it worked well, for a while.  Then last summer bought this cubby system at Target.  It's not the cutest piece of furniture, but it's functional.  Even this gets to be overflowing with stuff just about every single time we walk in the door!! 

I know when baby #2 gets here the amout of stuff will double, so I'm trying to be creative with this space ahead of time...but I stuck!  There really isn't room for anything more than 12" deep (which is what the cubbies are) so a storage bench is out of the question.  Also, we can't put anything tall due to the alarm keypad, which is the white box under the far right hook. 

Sure I can find things that I like.

I mean, this one is just okay.  I might be able to walk in to this every day. 

I don't know though...

Obviously I'm totally kidding. I would SO LOVE to have a mud room or someplace to house all of our things that come and go with us daily!

This one pretty much left me drooling.  Are you kidding me?? There are even empty shelves over the coat hooks!  I would have no trouble filling those up!! And that rustic old bench in the center...let's just say I REALLY like this.  A lot.

This one is a tad more realistic...not quite as huge. But still, you have to have the space for something like this and clearly I do not.  I have a very narrow hallway and that's it!! 

Oh this one is just lovely too.  I've found SO many inspirational ideas and trust me, they are being filed away in my "someday" folder.  Don't know if "someday" will ever happen, but it's okay to keep a file on it, right?  Just so I'm prepared if the day ever comes! 

I did love this idea of backing it in corkboard.  How great to just be able to post anything you need to it...school forms, rehearsal/practice schedules, etc. 

Now back to the Hofmann house.  Here's my idea...

I'm going to raise the 6 hooks up several inches.  It will be tall for me, but that's okay, I'm use to standing on my tippy-ties!  Then I bought two more hook racks that match the existing one.  They each have 3 hooks on them (they are propped up in the picture below).  My thought is to have one for each child:  Addi's coat, school bag, etc. and the another one for the baby.  The cubby system is going to be moved into Addi's new big girl closet and then I'm going to get another one that is 2 high by 3 wide...basically what we already have if you take the top row off.  Closetmaid makes an identical system that only has 6 cubbies HERE.  I know it's going to look a little squatty, but I really think we're going to need the storage space for gloves and smaller items.  Plus, this is where our pool bag and park bag end up in the warm months.

Do you have any ideas for my space??  I really need help with this one!  Please share your thoughts, experiences, ideas, etc.  I would love to have some input!!