Making it Work

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

Cream Cheese Enchiladas Another Pinterest find this time courtesy of Pearls, Handcuffs, and Happy Hour. I showed these to D and he begged me to make them for him. They would be perfect as a quick potluck dish, something to take to a family when someone is sick or just had a baby.

Ingrediants:
2-3 chicken breasts or a rotisserie chicken, shredded
8oz. softened cream cheese

28 oz. can(s) green enchilada sauce
1 can black beans, drained & rinsed

1 can corn (my own personal tweak)
2 cups cooked rice (I cheated and did boil in bag)

Tortillas
1-2 cups shredded Monterrey & Colby cheese

First brown your chicken (I seasoned mine with salt, pepper, and chili powder and browned it in a little bit of butter). After its cooked, shred it up, I used 2 forks pulling the breast apart.

While you’re cooking your chicken go ahead and start your rice if you’re using the boil in bag kind, it generally takes about 10 minutes.

Once your chicken is shredded combine it with the cream cheese and 1 cup of the enchilada sauce.

Take one cup enchilada sauce and pour it into the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.
On your tortilla layer rice, black beans, and corn to taste.

Then add the chicken mixture.

Roll them up and place them seam side down in the baking dish (I found this hard to do with out tearing the tortilla).
Notes: I should have added more sauce to the bottom of the dish, thats not quite a cup hence why the picture of the end result shows a jumbled mess. It was a yummy mess though.

Top with 1 cup of the enchilada sauce.

Add 1-2 cups of the Monterrey and Colby cheese to the top.

Bake in your oven at 375 for about 25 minutes covered.The original recipe says to than take the cover off and broil for another 5 minutes. I didn’t see much of a difference in doing this than just leave it in covered for 30 minutes vs. 25.

Here’s a printable version of the recipe:

Ingrediants:
2-3 chicken breasts or a rotisserie chicken, shredded
8oz. softened cream cheese28 oz. can(s) green enchilada sauce
1 can black beans, drained & rinsed
1 can corn (my own personal tweak)
2 cups cooked rice (I cheated and did boil in bag)
Tortillas 
1-2 cups shredded Monterrey & Colby cheese

First brown your chicken (I seasoned mine with salt, pepper, and chili powder and browned it in a little bit of butter). After its cooked, shred it up, I used 2 forks pulling the breast apart.
While you’re cooking your chicken go ahead and start your rice if you’re using the boil in bag kind, it generally takes about 10 minutes.
Once your chicken is shredded combine it with the cream cheese and 1 cup of the enchilada sauce.
Take one cup enchilada sauce and pour it into the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.
On your tortilla layer rice, black beans, and corn to taste.
Then add the chicken mixture.
Roll them up and place them seam side down in the baking dish (I found this hard to do with out tearing the tortilla).
Top with 1 cup of the enchilada sauce.
Add 1-2 cups of the Monterrey and Colby cheese to the top.
Bake in your oven at 375 for about 25 minutes covered. The original recipe says to than take the cover off and broil for another 5 minutes. I didn’t see much of a difference in doing this than just leave it in covered for 30 minutes vs. 25.

Layered Oreo Pudding

Found this awesomeness on Pinterest the other day and couldnt pass it up. Its amazingly easy to make and would be perfect for a quick dessert to take to parties, holiday get togethers, or just because. 

Ingredients:
1 bag Oreos crushed
8oz cream cheese softened
1/4 cup butter 
12 oz Cool Whip
2 small boxes instant vanilla pudding 
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar 
3 cups milk 

Mix softened cream cheese, butter, powered sugar, and vanilla together.   

In separate bowl mix milk & pudding chill until set.
Fold in Cool Whip after pudding has set and add cream cheese mixture. 
Crush up entire bag of Oreos (I know, sad, but totally worth it in the end).

Layer mixture with Oreos.

Chill until ready to serve!

Notes: Unless you do HUGE layers of the cream cheese/pudding/cool whip mixture you almost need 2 bags of oreos. The oreo layers arent very thick. Other than that I cant think of anything I would change. 

Recipe Again-

Layered Oreo Pudding

Ingredients:
1 bag Oreos crushed
8oz cream cheese softened
1/4 cup butter 
12 oz Cool Whip
2 small boxes instant vanilla pudding 
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup powdered sugar 
3 cups milk 

Mix softened cream cheese, butter, powered sugar, and vanilla together.  
In separate bowl mix milk & pudding chill until set.
Fold in Cool Whip after pudding has set and add cream cheese mixture. 
Layer mixture and Oreos.
Chill until ready to serve.

Hope you guys enjoy!

Oops, Slacker

I’ve been slacking on this whole blog thing. I’ve recently started back to work. Working, baby, and trying to keep up with everything else around the house has been a crazy ride I’m having to get used to. 

Anywho!

This week I’ve found some AWESOME stuff on Pinterest that I’m going to try for dinner. 

First is cream cheese enchiladas originally posted on Pearls, Handcuffs, and Happy Hour’s blog.

Next is a yummy shepherds pie from Kraft Canada’s website

Last but not least are some pork chops for D from Creations by Kara. 

As a bonus I may try to make this glorious dessert for us to munch on through the week. 

1 bag Oreos 

crushed 8oz cream cheese

softened 1/4 cup butter 

1 cup powdered sugar 

3 cups milk 

2 small boxes instant vanilla pudding 

1/2 tsp vanilla 

12 oz Cool Whip

Mix softened cream cheese, butter, powered sugar, and vanilla together.  

In separate bowl mix milk & pudding chill until set.

Fold in Cool Whip after pudding has set and add cream cheese mixture. 

Layer with Oreos.

Chill until ready to serve!

Prego Belly

You’re pregnant for 40 weeks, thats technically 9 months. Thats 280 days! And every day you find something new that has happened to your body. First its you look like you’re about to start your period. Bloated, boobs swollen and tender, tired, moody, face may break out a little bit. Than your realize that NOPE, you’re not about to start your period but that you’re pregnant! Surprise! Than nausea may kick in, your boobs keep getting bigger, you still look and feel bloated, you’re tired, and you may be moody and just want to stab everyone in the eyeball, it happens to the best of us. Than you move out of the bloated stage into the food baby stage. You know when you eat a REALLY big meal (think Thanksgiving dinner) and you’re way beyond bloated and sucking it in doesnt do anything either so you unbutton your jeans to accomodate the extra… ness. Yeah, thats when you pull out those extra hair ties you have hidden in your bathroom vanity for emergencies and you rig the button on your pants.

Than you go to the stage where not even the hair tie is working but you’re still too small (<hahaha, Dont feel small do ya?) to fit into maternity jeans. Go buy yourself a nice pair of yoga pants or leggings and a few short dresses, you probably wont be comfortable (those days are LONG gone) but at least you’ll be cute, in everyone elses eyes that is because no matter what anyone says to you you’re going to have days where you feel like you look like a pile of poo. This stage is also where strangers begin to stare at you wondering “Ok, is she fat or pregnant? Do I ask and make an ass of myself? Nope, I’m just going to stand here and stare at this already very insecure woman and make her feel even more secure by trying to figure out if she’s fat or prego.”

Than you get to the point that you can wear maternity clothes, hopefully you’ve grown out of the pukey and overly tired stuff by this point and you have awesome energy. This is generally the point where people tell you that you’re “glowing”. What they dont know is that pretty “glow” you have is because its effin HOT and you’re sweating like a pig but hey, people think ya look good. Oh than when you least expect it you plop your cute little fluffy baby making rear end onto the couch and when you go to get up… you cant. WELCOME To the beached whale stage. Basically when ever you sit down/go horizontal make sure there is something/one there to help you get up again. After this stage you pretty much wish you where permanently attached to what ever surface you can get comfortable, which is rare, so when you do find it do.not.move. until you absolutely have to, which really is only when you have to pee.

Than there’s labor (WOOHOO….not really), the meeting of the slimy screaming thing that just popped out of you (you can woohoo for real now), and than they clean it off and hand you a baby! Now, you wont notice it until you get home and even than you might not, but if you look down at your belly region you’ll see that you’ve reverted back to the “is she pregnant or fat stage” except this time you’re belly isnt cute and and kinda firm… its squishy like jello. Go on, give it a poke. See, Jello. BUT, do not be discouraged that jello-y feeling goes away (sometimes, sorry, truth hurts). Its magical though, its like that 9 months of awkward belly stuff starts to melt away! You start regressing back through those awkward stages in a matter of days/months! 

Dont believe me, here are some pictures. Now. I’m probably not the BEST example in the world but I am all I have so here goes. I started my pregnancy weighing *cringe* 185. I dropped to 182, and than the day I delivered I weighed 198. 2 weeks after having B I weighed 174 and than 6 weeks after I weighed 173. If we start from the 182 weight I gained 16 pounds. I’ve lost 25! Not too bad if I do say so myself. B is 12 weeks old (12 weeks yesterday) and I dont know what my weight it right now. Dont own a scale, will blog about that at a later date. Anywho, here’s pictorial proof of the above stages. 

Starting at the top left I was 8 weeks, 17w 4d, 18w 3d, 19w, 24w3d, 27w, 29w, 31w, 33w, 33w4d, 35w, 39w, 39w4d, 6 days post partum, 3 weeks, 7 weeks. 

My Birth Story

                                                  Went into my doctor appointment at 10am on Wednesday, June 20, at exactly 40 weeks. They took my blood pressure (BP) and it was higher than it had been for the past few weeks which it had only been getting higher and higher. The doctor wanted me to go to triage for pre eclampsia (pre-e) monitoring but said I could go home first and wait for D to get home. I got home at about 12, my mom came and got the dog at about 1, D got home at 2 and we got to the hospital at 3. They hooked me up to monitors and took my BP every 15 minutes, this lasted all the way until I started pushing, my arm was bruised for a week. It was still high but getting lower with each reading. The midwife (joint practice between DR’s and midwives) came in and told D and I that we could go home and my unstable BP could turn into pre-e or we could go ahead and induce that night since I was contracting every 5 minutes. We talked about it and chose to induce.

We where officially checked in at 5pm. They gave me 2 bags of fluids and where talking about cytotec (a pill they insert into your vagina in order to “ripen” or soften the cervix to make it dilate) and then Patrick, our mid husband as D kept calling him, came in and said no to cytotec because I was contracting too much and said we’d do a foley-bulb instead. A foley-bulb/catheter is a small rubber tube with a balloon on the end that they insert into your vagina and through your cervix, inflate the balloon and than tape the catheter (rubber tube) to your leg in order to make your cervix dilate (cervix should dilate or “open” to 10 centimeters in order for a baby to be delivered vaginally). Every 20-30 minutes they come in and pull the catheter and re-tape it. This is to cause the balloon to put pressure on your cervix causing it to dilate to a 5 or 6.  The Dr came in at 8 to place foley and she had the SHORTEST fingers ever, to the point she had to call in another DR with longer fingers to place it. The placing of it was painful but the actual foley wasn’t which is uncommon for most women, a lot of women choose to get an epidural before the foley is placed. It did, however, make my contractions stronger so they gave me some REEEEAAAAALLLLY good stuff in my IV and I was able to sleep, at about 10 she came in and gave me a booster of the IV pain meds (things get a little fuzzy here, I was feeling goooooood). Foley was taken out at 11 and I had gone from a 1 to a 5. Contractions kept getting stronger but I could not get past a 6.

At 3am I got my epi and that was a BITCH. When you get an epi you have to hug a pillow and lean as far over the side of the bed as you can. For a 9 month pregnant woman this is not easy because its like having to bend around a basketball. On top of this I have my nurse on my right side with her arm under my belly trying to hold the fetal heart monitor on and D on my left keeping me from falling off the bed. I have the anesthesiologist behind me trying to place the epi who keeps telling me to lean forward, the nurse under me telling me to lean back so she can get the heart beat back on the monitor, me getting tangled in my gown, and all of a sudden I just yelled for everyone to quit touching me and to back off. I was over whelmed! So many people where around me, telling me total opposite things to do and I was still having contractions that hurt like hell. I start hysterically ripping my gown off at this point because it was one of the only things I could control. D and my nurse get me calmed down enough so that they could take if off of me with out me tearing my IV out. My nurse gets settled again, D pretty much bear hugs me, and after the 5th time, yup, took them 5 times to place the epi, they get it in to their satisfaction (<key words). They anesthesiologist hands me the little button to push to send the meds pumping and tells me that I can push it 80 times but it will only give me medicine every 10 minutes. Well this went in one ear and out the other because I was pushing that button like my life depended on it.

The first time we each held him.

After about an hour of pushing the pretty-button-that-makes-things-all-better I realize to my udder disappointment that it only makes things half better. The epi only took on my right side (remember when I said “their satisfaction” where keywords?). My right side from half my belly down was as dead as a doornail. I couldnt feel a thing or move anything. My left? I could have done a jig down the street and back again. I tell them, they tell me to give it time and to just push the button. So I keep pushing the damned button and my whole right side from belly down becomes paralyzed and I’m still moaning through my contractions. They come back and tell me to lay on my left side “so gravity can help”. It helped and my left side went numb, not dead like my right, I could still move my toes. But laying on my left caused the baby’s heart rate to drop so the nurse would come in and make me roll to my right and then we’d call because the epi would fail on my left again and the anesthesiologist would come in and tell me to roll to my left, back and forth like this for about 3 hours. I finally roll to my left side and the nurse comes in to tell me to roll back to my right. Before she opened her mouth I held up my hand and told her to keep her eyeballs on the monitor and if his BP didnt stabilize in 10 minutes I would roll back over. After 10 minutes it did stabilize and I got some ever needed sleep.

                                                Day after. 

Then around 8am I go to push the Epi button and an alarm starts to go off on the pump. Call the anesthesia lady back in and she “fixes” it (this is the one that placed the epi and has been in and out of my room trying to fix it all night). About an hour later, same thing. This happens 4 times and she apparently got fed up with me and sent the head anesthesia person in and he looked at the pump and realized it was broken (thanks for making me suffer bitch lady anesthesia person). Guy gets me a new pump and apologizes profusely for it and came in a few hours later to check on me. At 1pm the nurse checks me and tells me I’m a 9 with a lip, meaning my cervix was still kinda there. She calls in another Dr who says I’m a 9, who than calls in another Dr who says I’m a 10, who calls in another who says I’m 9 with a lip. At this point I’m thinking they should just call in the janitor and cafeteria lady too while their at it. Finally they call in Patrick and he tells them that I was a full 9 and told the nurse to chill out in my room with us and call him when I felt ready to push.

At 2pm I tell the nurse there’s TONS pressure and I was trying NOT to push and she calls in Patrick and he was the most awesome thing ever! He sat in my room with us the whole time it took for me to push B out. For the first hour or so he kept his fingers on my vag/perineum area to help me push so I knew what muscles to use and he was so encouraging. At about the 1.5 hour mark my Epi started failing and by 2 hours it was completely gone on my left and then about hour 3 it was ALL gone. I had a complete melt down, boo hoo crying because it hurt so bad, D even started tearing up because he felt bad for me and just wanted it to be over for me. The anesthesia guy comes in and says he can inject the medicine directly into my back. I told him no, that it was too frustrating in the beginning and that I would just figure out how to deal with it. I dont know if it was because I was so tired or just ready to meet my son but I dont remember much after that moment. D said it was like I blacked out between each set of pushes and would wake up and say “ready” or “ok” and they’d grab my legs and Id push 4 times, and then collapse.

The next thing I know I hear “His head is out, one more big push!” Lord let me tell you I pushed that baby out as hard as I could and the next thing I know there was a screaming, slimy, warm thing on my belly and D was kissing me and tearing up and I’m just laying there staring at my son saying “Hi baby!” over and over again. B was born at 5:48pm, 7lb 10oz, 19.75 inches long. After a 24 hour induction and 4 hours of pushing I only had a 1st degree tear (which Patrick didnt even want to call it that but did anyway) on the inside and he put like 2 stitches in it. D was a champ and watched everything. He said he was amazed at what my body could do and 100% proud for how I handled everything. In hindsight I probably wouldnt have gotten the epi and instead had them keep giving me the happy juice in my IV. As crappy as my epi experience was, my birthing experience was AMAZING and I loved everything about it. 

Our sweet boy. 

Snicker Doodles!

So I married Betty Crocker. He LOVES to bake and my ever fluctuating waistline can never get enough of the yumminess that he prepares. D made snicker doodles last night, one of my favorite cookies, and I was in hog heaven. 

Here’s his recipe:

Snicker Doodles

1 box yellow cake mix

2 eggs 

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2tbs sugar 

1tsp cinnamon

mix cake mix, eggs, and oil together throughly

mix sugar and cinnamon together

roll dough into 1 inch balls

roll balls in sugar mixture 

bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes

Creamy Garlic Pasta

Mines on the left, theirs on the right. 

I found this recipe on Pinterest from my fellow Tumblr The Cheese Pusher. I made it a few weeks ago and since then we’ve had it just about once a week. I love it because I can make it all in one skillet, there’s minimal clean up, and lets not forget about the cheese. 

Here’s the recipe:

Creamy Garlic Pasta
2 tsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp butter
¼  tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
3 cups chicken stock
½ lb spaghetti or angel hair pasta
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
¾ cup heavy cream
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

In a pot, bring the olive oil to medium-low heat. Add the garlic and stir, allowing it to cook for 1-2 minutes. Mix in the butter until melted. Add the salt, pepper and chicken stock. Raise the heat to high and let it come to a boil. 

Once it is at a rolling boil, add the pasta and cook for as long as the box’s directions indicate. Reduce the stove to medium heat and mix in the parmesan until completely melted. Turn off the heat and stir in the cream and parsley. Serve immediately.

Changes I made: 

I grilled some chicken (about 2 breasts) in the skillet before I added anything else. I seasoned them with chili powder and once they were done I chopped them up, returning them back to the skillet. I then started the recipe as it states. Thats why mine looks darker than the original version. I also may or may not have added more cheese as well, I’m hopelessly addicted to cheese. 

Introductions are in order…

Well hello Tumblr world and the internet!

I’m not quite sure how much of my personal self I’m willing to throw out there yet with out feeling exposed so I’ll start slow. 

I’m Mary Ellen, I’m 23 and am loving life right now! I married my best friend (D) in 2011 and we have welcomed our first son (B) this June 2012. I love art, photography, to cook (even though I make a terrible mess), make up, clothes, shoes, and Pinterest. You could go as far as to say I’m addicted. My only problem with Pinterest is that I NEVER, ok maybe one or two times I have, follow through with whatever it is that I’ve pinned. So I’m hoping that by trying to accomplish at least one thing from my Pinterest. account a day (ok, lets be honest, more like a week) I can force myself to become productive! 

I’d also like to talk/blog about being a new mommy. Gloat, rant, cry, brag, complain, and just all around give people the God’s honest truth about what its like, for me, to be a new mom. 

I also hope to give reviews on my favorite things, whether it be mascara or swaddle blankets for B. My reasons? I feel like people can never have too much information, depending on the context that is. What works for one, may not work for another, or someone else may have a better ideas. Me, I’ll show you things the best way I know how to do them and let you be deciding judge. 

tumblrbot asked: WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE INANIMATE OBJECT?

My camera!