Chicken Enchiladas

Chicken Enchiladas

I made these from a recipe I found on pinterest, and they were great!! My husband loved them which is a major plus. I'm so glad he puts up with my pinterest cooking trials. :) I made a few changes which I noted at the end. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups chopped cooked chicken breast
• 2 cups (8 ounces) preshredded reduced-fat 4-cheese Mexican blend cheese
• 1 2/3 cups plain non-fat yogurt
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 (10 3/4-ounce) can condensed reduced-fat, reduced-sodium cream of chicken soup
• 1 (4.5-ounce) can chopped green chiles, drained
• 8 (8-inch) flour tortillas
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• Cooking spray
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) finely shredded reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions

Preparation

1.  Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Combine first 9 ingredients in a large bowl. Remove 1 cup chicken mixture; set mixture aside.
3. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Working with 1 tortilla at a time, brush oil over both sides of tortilla. Add tortilla to pan; cook 5 seconds on each side or until toasted and soft. Remove from pan; arrange 1/2 cup chicken mixture down center of tortilla. Roll jelly-roll style; place filled tortilla, seam side down, in a 13 x 9–inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Repeat procedure with remaining 7 tortillas, remaining oil, and remaining chicken mixture. Spread reserved 1 cup chicken mixture evenly over enchiladas. Cover and bake at 350° for 20 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle evenly with cheddar cheese and green onions; bake an additional 5 minutes or until cheese melts.

***My variation: I did not use oil at all (cooking spray), and sprayed the tortillas with spray butter instead of coating in oil. I also cooked thawed chicken breast in chicken taco seasoning, salt, and pepper before dicing it up and adding to mix to give extra flavor. :)

Cake Makeover

Have you ever tried to make your own buttercream frosting? I have tried many different recipes and they are all epic fails, tasting more like creamy powdered sugar than a yummy bakery replica. So I end up going back to the pre-made canned stuff which honestly just isn't that great either.
But ya'll, I found something yummy this time.
The flavoring is different so some of you may not like it, but I think it's amazing.
You see, this sweet lady we've gotten to know here in Bentonville has made us cakes for special occasions (i.e. Christmas, end of school year, Adelynn's shower), and Jason and I both agreed that we like them better than Rick's...that the icing is just awesome.
I've always hesitated asking her for her secrets cause this is somewhat taboo (right??), but I finally just did it the other day and she was more than gracious to share. She said it was a Wilton's recipe and nothing she invented.
So I thought I'd share with you!
No pictures since it looks just like normal icing, but it tastes super yummy! Give it a try:

In a mixer, mix:
1 cup Crisco
1 tsp. Almond Extract (this is the flavor difference that i LOVE)
2 tsp. water

Sift in separarte bowl:
4 cups powder sugar
1 TBSP mereigne powder (optional)

Mix powder sugar mix in with the crisco mixture, adding a few TBSP of water until it's the creamy texture you want (I think I ended up adding about 4 additional TBSP of water).

YUMMY!

And then have you seen the "improve the box cake" recipe going around Pinterest??? I tried that tonight too and it was great!!! Here it is in case you missed it:

Take you normal cake box recipe, and add 1 Egg, double the oil (but don't actually use any oil at all) and instead use that doubled amount in melted butter, and use milk instead of water.

Happy Baking!!!! Now if I can just learn how to decorate....hmm.

6 Weeks

Little Miss was 6 weeks old yesterday! Crazy. I had my 6 week check-up and it was kind of bittersweet knowing it may be the last time I'm in that office for baby-related stuff. (But maybe not...who knows).
Obviously I have been depleated of deep, thoughtful posts recently - I'll blame it on sleep deprivation - and this is yet another.

But as my "acting baby journal", I thought I'd update on how the tiniest is doing these days.

In a nutshell, much better - Praise the Lord.I can emphatically say now that as a family, we are semi-gracefully adjusting. :) I will say, Jason being off work and home all the time has helped a LOT. He has one more week with us before he goes back (tears). Yesterday, when I came home from the doctor, Jason had cleaned the entire house, ran the dishwasher, did ALL the laundry, and then later that night, he cooked dinner. Then he let me take a long nap. Seriously??? He's awesome.

So Adelynn....She has cracked a few intentional smiles (I think) at me the past few days, and I can't wait until those become frequent. And instead of crying the majority of her awake time, she will lie on her back, happy & content, for about an hour, wiggling her limbs and making cute little noises. She can totally track us as we move around her, and her neck muscles are getting stronger everyday. I bet it's not long before she can hold her head up strong by herself!

She understands when it's nighttime and will sleep longer stretches between feedings, starting around 9:00pm. I trick myself to believing this will make sleep training super easy in a few weeks when we tackle that mountain. ;)
She still eats 3oz. every 2 hours during the day, and goes for about 4-5 hours during the evening. Right now, Jason feeds her at midnight, I get her around 4:00, and then Jason wakes up with her whenever that might be in the morning (this has varied). But, she usually goes down for a long nap pretty quick after she wakes up, so I have often found Jason asleep on the couch with her when I get out of bed.
She still takes a nap between each feeding, though as her happy awake time is increasing, sometimes these naps are no longer than 10 minutes. She usually has one long (1.5-2.5 hours) nap in the afternoon.

As far as my appointment, everything is great. I have noticed some tenderness (I hate that word but can't think of a replacement) in my ab muscles, and the spot on my spine is still super sore from where I got the epideral. I experienced neither of these with last two kids. I assume it will resolve itself, but I hope the ab muscle thing is just soreness from working out (though it feels different).
I have been working out consistently 5 days a week for the past 2 weeks now. The past few days I have started running. Stupid me started running in this 100+ degree weather straight up noon the other day. Smart girl.

The boys seem to be adjusting well to our new addition! Noah is becoming more interested and Lincoln just adores her!

Now don't get me wrong...it's still mad chaos at times in our house and out in public.

 But it's becoming the new normal and we wouldn't change it for anything. :)
Check out her "what's up" pose:

One Month Survival

Miss Adelynn is one month old! I didn't even realize it until today because it's all been such a whirlwind of craziness! :)

But I thought I'd update on her happenings for my records:

EATING.
She's an eater and as of yesterday, completely on formula bottles (I'll explain that in another post). She eats every 2 hours unless it's during her afternoon nap or at night...then she can go from 3-4...usually.
Right now she eats 3oz. I gave her 4 yesterday and she spit up a ton.

SLEEPING.
She cat naps throughout the morning, mainly because her brothers are crazy loud and we're on the go, so she never has the opportunity to fall into a deep sleep.
But i LOVE this because when the boys go down for their afternoon nap, she is exhausted by that time, too and ALL THREE KIDS sleep from 1-4pm every day. Yes. This is my saving grace. And it's happened consistently now for almost two weeks.
At night, she usually falls back into that deep sleep around 9-10, and we just feed her as she gets restless through the night (which is usually every 3 hours).

She is so wide-eyed and alert throughout the day. This is usually what people notice about her and comment on. She's been that way since day one. :)

Since going to formula, her tummy troubles seem to be subsiding. And she is now pooping every day which also seems to help her.

This past week, Jason went to team camp in Austin for 4 days (he is on his way home as we speak!). That was a challenge, but ended up not being as bad as I feared. I attribute this to super sweet friends and family who did random things throughout this time to help out and make my load easier. I love my friends. :)

As far as I'm doing....pretty good. This has been a much tougher transition than #2 was, but we're making it and it's getting easier. Everyone told me 3 is harder than 2, and 4 is easier than 3...I can actually see that reasoning, but again - another post (maybe).

Since this could be our last "birthed" child, I find myself soaking up each little moment and each one makes me a little sad - and wonder if maybe we will just have another. ha. But oddly, the thing I will miss the most is delivery. Yes. I know I'm strange, but I LOVE everything about that day...with all my kids.

So the next two weeks should be great! Jason is off work and we have some fun things planned around here. My friend Bethany now officially lives right by me (4 minute walk down the street - yes we timed it). My other friend Meredith is having her forth baby - little Andrew - MONDAY! I am also going to start working out on Monday. I have 10lbs to go. Let's get it rolling.

I wish I had a picture to document her one month, but I don't. Been a little crazy around here. :)

But she is oh-so-cute and squishy and I'm loving every minute of having a baby girl!

Choosing Joy

Something I've learned this year is that sometimes it comes easy, but other times we have to choose joy. It's not something that necessarily happens to us, and because we live in a fallen world, it's usually not circumstantial.
It's kind of like love...the real kind. You know, how if we relied on our "love feelings" to come naturally, that we would fail miserably at doing what God commands of us? But rather we make a choice each day to love people...because it's hard to love someone...because - let's face it - we are not the most lovable of people. :)

I've come to view joy the same way. If we allowed joy to be circumstantial, to depend on how "good" things were going - because we live in a fallen world - wouldn't we fail miserably at having a joyful heart? How could we ever "consider it pure joy when we face trials of many kinds..." if we didn't choose to do so?

The reason this is on my mind is because I have found myself asking for God to grant me joy at various times lately. I'm not depressed. It's not hormonal. It has come at those times in the night when the house is quiet and my mind will sometimes drift to the things that have occurred in our lives this past year...the death, the sickness, the trials, the losses...

And when I ask, He grants.

This morning I was taking the kids to the park and I had this overwhelming urge to want to go pick up my nephew Tucker and take him with us. Of course this was followed by sadness and lots of tears because I can't do that. I prayed for joy in that moment.

Almost immediately I was overcome with thankfulness. Thankfulness that, even though so many bad things happen in this world and sometimes we can be overwhelmed by them, Jesus still came here...Jesus still lives here - in the hearts of ALL who follow Him (that's a whole lot of JESUS on earth!). And how AMAZING and wonderful that we don't have to wait until Heaven to experience Jesus, but that He's in the murk here in earth, and will be with us forever in eternity, too.
The fact that He desires us to still experience joy here on earth and not wait until Heaven was huge for me today!

And since Jesus' presence on earth is in the hearts of those who follow Him, the more who accept Him as Lord means there's that much more Jesus on earth...right? I know this is simple, but this concept ignited my soul today and made me sadly realize it's been a while since I've personally led someone to know Jesus.

Anyway, just some thoughts today Thanks for reading. :)

3 Little Things

Some new things I'm enjoying these days:

1. A new recipe!

My mom is a pretty darn good cook. She is great at making up recipes from things she has in her kitchen and just making things work in ways I could probably never do on my own. I have inherited many of her recipes since I've been married. One of her latest make-shifts has become a new, easy favorite. And since we're having it tonight, I thought I'd share:
* Thaw some frozen chicken (I thaw mine for an hour or so in a Ziplock bag set in hot/warm water)
* Cut the chicken breasts in half
* Dip chicken pieces in a beaten egg (to moisten), then coat in fried onion pieces (the kind you make greenbean casseroles with)
* Place pieces on cookie sheet and bake in the oven at 400degrees for 25-30 minutes (until done)

Super yummy!!!!! :)

2. Viber (a cell phone App)

It's an app you can download for your phone and it's amazing. One of my best friend's from college lives in Ukraine working with orphans. She moved there the year after we all went (my last year to go while living in Cali), and has been there ever since. Obviously it's great and such an amazing ministry she is helping provide in so many ways, but it sucks how we never get to talk except through emails and such. But not anymore thanks to this lovely app. We downloaded it on our cell phones and can text/talk on the phone for FREE. Are you kidding me??! So if you have friends that live in a different country, this app is a must and SO MUCH FUN for us. Love this thing. Great part is when I'm up nursing in the middle of the night, it's the afternoon for her and we just chat it up. Fantastic.

3. Swaddle Blankets (Aden & Anais)

They didn't make these bundles of awesomeness when I had my other 2 kids, but some sweet friends bought me a pack when Adelynn was born and I love them and highly recommend them. We don't use them as actual swaddle blankets, b/c, let's face it - nothing works  to actually keep a child swaddled that doesn't include locks and chains velcro. These are huge in dimension (which is great) and so nice for summer because of how thin and light they are. Love them when we're out at the pool or park and she still wants to feel cuddled. :)

So just three little things tonight. Thanks for reading. :)

Some Pictures

Jason took the boys swimming this afternoon and the little lady and I tried to get some pictures. We got 3. There more things I was wanting to try but she was not having it. :)

She is 3 weeks old today...our sweet little Tucker would have been 18 months old today. It makes my heart sad that she will never get to know the joy of knowing Tucker while living on earth, but my prayer that she will one day come to know Jesus as Savior. Then we can all sing and dance at the feet of Jesus forever.

Adjusting

One of the AWESOME parts of having a baby is the yummy meals people bring you - truly such a blessing. My friend Bethany (who, BTW is about to be my neighbor - can't.believe.it!) organized meals for a month for us. Pure awesomeness. :)

Last night a girl from my Bible study and her husband brought us dinner and Jason discussed something along the lines of : "You know, when we had Noah, he was so easy and I almost felt bad when people brought us meals cause I thought 'We can cook and go to the store and all...'. But now, between trying to love and entertain toddlers while holding a needy newborn, and working long hours the month of June...I'm pretty sure we could manage to trow a hot dog or sandwich on the table for the boys, but I'm not sure we (meaning Jason and I) would even eat!"
I laughed cause he was right. Just the night before it was 10:00pm and we realized we had not eaten anything and we bantered back and forth on who wold drive to the closest fast food place by our house...or if that was even worth it. :)

So we have always appreciated these awesome meals in the past, but we are incredibly blessed and grateful this time around in a whole new way so thank you.
In the midst of the joys of a sweet new baby in the house, Jason and I took time the other day to discuss the trials so we can better enjoy the blessings. I think the struggles crept up on us because we had the "been there/done that" mentality.

As Jason said to me the other day "We've been winging it, but I think it's time for a gameplan here...". Ha. So we did. We discussed ways to get more effective sleep, help Lincoln and Noah be more entertained, and increase our patience with the kids.
I know the latter only comes from the Holy Spirit so instead of nighttime, my seeking of the Lord now comes first thing in the morning while I'm nursing Adelynn. :)

And as far as entertaining the kids (mainly Lincoln) more, I think I'm going to try going out more this week and meeting up with friends - part in moral support for me and part in letting him change up his environment and be around his buddies. So we have some outings in place and sweet friends to do them with.
So as a disclaimer (Cause sometimes I can sound different than I really feel on here), we're not losing it or anything! :) This is just challenging and I think more so than we thought or were prepared for, and like any new major transitions - we're in the process of working out the kinks.

So here's to the new adjustment and a big thanks to those that are walking with us along the way! :)
And did I mention Bethany is moving down the street in a few days????? Oh.my.goodness. That mean 2 of my closest friends will have moved down the street in the past handful of months. Amazing. Keep 'em coming.

(And just because he makes me smile and laugh so much lately):

Effortlessly

The common question lately..."So how's it going??"
Some have made additional comments of how I seem to be dealing with the new transition "effortlessly"...let me assure you, not-so-much (my husband would attest). :)
Now I'm emotionally ok (most of the time) and am not having nervous breakdowns or walking around in a comatose state, but this definitely takes effort.

For instance, we got a new sectional recently and I needed to get some decorative things to match the new living room. Pre- 3 kids, I would load up the car with no question and hit the shops. And I did that yesterday, only once we rolled into the Gordman's parking lot, I realized: "Oh - this is my first time to take all three kids out shopping."

And then I hesitated wondering if I was really up for hitting 3 stores looking for home decor with all 3 kids.

Then I remembered a blog post I had recently read of a girl who took all her youngins' out in public and got compliment after compliment of "wow your kids are all so well-behaved!" And I thought, hey - I could be that girl, too, writing that blogpost..."

***We can all LAUGH at me now***

Store number one was fine. A breeze. Except I had to carry everything I bought because the cart was full of kids. But we made it.

Store #2? I should have quit while I was ahead because Lincoln (of all kids) had a holy terror meltdown when I didn't let him get his way on something. And when I say meltdown, I mean this escalated into something I have NEVER seen from him (I actually started crying at one point on the home it was that bad). He was so bad (yes, we left the store), that Adelynn started crying and wailing because I think the noise scared her.

So when we checked out, did I get the "Wow! You're kids are so well behaved!"

No. I got "Oh my gosh honey, you have SO much patience."

Yup. So there you have it. Effortlessly. Right? :)

But honestly that was one day - that never really got better, but hey. We have those. The rest have actually been pretty good.

So how's she doing?

* Has gained all her weight back
* Little belly button stub fell off
* Still nursing every 2-3 hours and gets about 2 bottles of formula during the day
* Some nights will sleep for 4-5 hour stretches, others (last night) wakes up every 2-3
* Grunts and makes loud noises while she sleeps at night. We finally moved her cradle swing to the far end of the room so we can't hear it as much :)
* Not a huge fan of the car but not near as bad as Noah was.
* Has been taking little cat naps in the morning and a really long one in the afternoon while boys sleep which has been FANTASTIC

How am I doing?

* I get exhausted come 7:00pm. :) If I wasn't nursing, I might go to bed at that time.
* I lost all but 10lbs after the first week, but am still 10lbs out here at week two.
* I'm a little nervous about the upcoming month. Jason has to work a ton and will be gone out of town one week as well. Thinking about it makes me wanna go into that comatose state I referred to earlier.
* I am feeling super blessed, in the midst of the craziness to be mommy to these 3 crazy kids. :)