Portable Enchiladas, You Say?

One of my current obsessions is food, other than muffins, made in a muffin tin. Sometimes it really is the little things! First of all, let's face it...mini-meals are cute. Secondly, kids like them because they're easy to eat & less messy, which we moms love too! Finally, you can make a lot of them, freeze what you don't eat, then reheat them as needed, so leftovers & snacks are a breeze! There really is no down side to making meals this way, in fact, check out this awesome blog with an entire section devoted to muffin tin meals. I used three of the recipes last week & they were all great!

So....on to tonight's dinner! I've made muffin tin tacos before, and they're great, but this week I started wondering if I could do muffin tin chicken enchiladas...why not? They actually turned out really good & I've got plenty left over to put in the freezer. This recipe makes 24 mini-enchiladas, and they would also make great party appetizers or game day snacks!

INGREDIENTS:
2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
6 C water
3 packages taco seasoning
24 flour tortillas (soft taco size)
1 can red enchilada sauce
1 package queso fresco, crumbled (in the Mexican food section of grocery store)

DIRECTIONS:
The chicken breasts can either be cooked for several hours in the crock pot, or you can boil them on the stove, whichever you prefer. I used the stove this time.
Put 6 C of water in a large pot, mix in all 3 packages of taco seasoning & the 2 lbs. of chicken breasts, then bring to a boil. Turn down to medium-low & let simmer for 1 1/2 hours. This lets the chicken get really tender so it just falls apart. *FYI, this shredded chicken is AWESOME for chicken tacos, taquitos & quesadillas...I use it all the time & it's a no-fail!

While the chicken is cooking, get your tortillas ready! They'll need to be cut down a little to fit into the muffin tin, roughly a 5" diameter circle works fine. I just use a bowl that's roughly 5" across, then cut around it (you can do 4-5 tortillas at a time with a decent knife).

After you get all 24 circles cut, you'll need to soften them in the microwave. Get a clean dishtowel wet, wring it out, then you can wrap 4 circles at a time in it & microwave for 1 minute. After nuking each batch of 4, put them in the muffin tin as shown.

When the chicken is done, use a couple of forks to shred it into a bowl, then discard most of the leftover juice (you can use a few TBS of the juice to keep the chicken moist, but not too much, or your tortillas will get mushy). Distribute shredded chicken evenly among the 24 tortilla cups, then top each one with a spoonful of enchilada sauce & some crumbled queso fresco.

Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 20 minutes. Leftover enchiladas can be wrapped & put in a plastic bag in the freezer for reheating later- the microwave works great for that:)

Enjoy!

Best Cookie Recipe Ever...

I'm a sucker for a great cookie recipe, especially chocolate chip! This is one that I've made over and over again & it never disappoints! I originally found it a few years ago on one of the recipe sites, but I tweaked some of the ingredient amounts & added the toffee chips. Occasionally, I'll even double the recipe & freeze half the dough to bake later. I'm not sure if it's the vanilla pudding or what, but these always turn out soft, dense & absolutely delicious! 

SOFT CHOCOLATE CHIP TOFFEE COOKIES

2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

 1 teaspoon baking soda

 1 cup butter, softened

 3/4 cup packed brown sugar

 1/4 cup white sugar

 1 (3.4 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix

 2 eggs

 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips*

1 package Heath Toffee Bits

*I'm a chocolate snob, and I use Ghirardelli 60% cacao chocolate chips:)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Sift together the flour and baking soda.

In separate bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar & white sugar. 

Beat instant pudding mix until blended. 

Stir in eggs and vanilla. 

Blend in the flour mixture. 

Finally, stir in the chocolate chips & toffee bits. 

Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

Edges should be golden brown- do not overbake!

Enjoy:)

You want HOW much for that???

I recently saw a post on Pinterest for a DIY wine rack made out of a pallet, and I LOVED it! After all, you can get pallets for free (as in $0) from most home improvement or warehouse-type stores, and as much as I crave a good bargain, getting something for free makes me absolutely giddy! The guy at Lowe's even loaded 4 of them into my van for me a few months ago for a table project I was doing.

As I coveted the aforementioned wine rack, I remembered that I still had an extra pallet out in my garage. The project sounded easy enough, so I decided to tackle it for my husband's Valentine's Day present. We're bursting at the seams in our small house, so I'm a big believer in practical, stylish space-savers, and our existing wine rack just took up a lot of unnecessary space.

This turned out to be one of the easiest projects I've ever done, and it looks great! Including staining & mounting it to the wall, it took me about 2 hours from start to finish. And as I already had all of the materials, it cost me nothing to make. Zip, zero, nada....

Oh, and someone is selling these "made to order" wine racks on Etsy. They look EXACTLY the same as the one I made. See the post here.

Wait for it...

Wait for it...

And they are charging $80 plus shipping. SAY WHAT???

Ok. Here are the directions for your free (or extremely cheap, if you don't already have all the materials) wine rack.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
1 wood pallet
Screws
Stain or paint
Sanding block
Hammer
Drill
Saw (my corded, hand-held reciprocating saw worked great!)
Wine bottles to put in your new wine rack!

DIRECTIONS:
Make sure your wood is dry & free from bugs, and saw across about the top 1/3 of the pallet (it's easy to see what I mean from the picture)
You'll also need to remove two boards from the remaining pallet, using your hammer to pry them off. One board is to attach to the bottom of your wine rack & one will attach to the back (behind where the bottoms of the wine bottles would go).
Use your drill & screws to attach the two extra boards.
Now, sand your wine rack. If you want it completely smooth, go for it, but I just focused on the sides & corners because I like the "rough wood" look for stuff like this.
Stain or paint whatever color you like & let it dry.
Now hang it on the wall- you can use whatever method you like to mount it. I used extra-long drywall screws to drill right through it into the studs, so that puppy isn't coming down for anything!
Load up your wine bottles & you're good to go:)

Out With the Old, In With the...Well, You Get It

So...what used to be my "Kiss My Wits" blog, has now been revamped, plucked, moisturized & Botoxed to become "Thrifts, Wits & Kitchen Bits". Hopefully, unlike my abs & my kids and husband during my finals week, it won't be completely neglected. Enjoy, comment, share, eat, create & laugh!

Coming up, I'll be posting a few of my favorite DIY projects!

Is this Walmart, daycare or college?

I've been pretty busy lately and haven't posted anything since school started a few weeks ago.  So far, all is going well, and I've managed to stay on top of my schoolwork, which already puts me ahead of where I was last time I was in college.  It really bodes well for me that this time I don't care nearly as much about keggers at the Delta Chi house.

I read in the Indy Star last week that for the first time ever, the majority of college students in the state of Indiana are over the age of 25, which explains the wrinkle cream display at the Ivy Tech bookstore.  I like to refer to people in my age group as the "Minivan Mafia".  I'm thinking of having sweatshirts made...

Aside from going to classes, I do a lot of people watching.  This has caused my pet-peeve-ometer to go off the scale more than a few times.  Usually, this is due to someone's attire, and their failure to understand what may or may not be appropriate to wear to school.  A few examples (yes, I know-  if "catty" were a perfume, I'd reek of it...):

     ~ Call me old fashioned, but if I can tell that you need a maintenance bikini wax, then your shorts probably need to be a tad longer.
     ~ And here's what I like to call "The Roseanne Act of 1994":  If you are on the larger side, please make sure that the length of your shirt and the rise of your pants are in harmony.  If not, then try not to raise your arms up, lest you give us a midriff view we don't want or need to see.
     ~ Don't take your shoes off in class.  I don't need to elaborate.
     ~ Leggings are meant to be worn under something else, not as pants.  And definitely not as an accent to your tank top, which is also meant to be worn underneath something else.
     ~ Patterned/Dark colored bra + white t-shirt = Saturday night at the trailer park, not Math 023.
     ~ Please don't be offended if you sit next to me and I immediately move across the room.  I'm sure you're a really nice person and all, but you've just been chain-smoking in your car for the last half hour.

On a more positive note, I have found some nice people at school too.  One girl is in both of my classes & is a hairstylist who is getting a business degree so she can open her own salon.  I'm always up for meeting someone to discuss hair, makeup and shopping with!  Another girl who is in our English class is also going for nursing, and her name is Jessica, so right away I knew she was pretty cool.  She's a major Yankee's fan, but I'm working on overlooking that.

Until next time...

"Common sense ain't common." - Will Rogers

 

Top 10 Reasons...

School starts in less than a week, and I'm trying to get myself motivated.  So here is a Top 10 list of the "perks" of being a 36 year-old student...

   10) I'm old enough to be my own room mom, and I make darn good brownies.
     9) I married a math wiz, so I don't have to mow lawns to make extra money for tutoring.
     8) I can refer to most of my professors as "Kiddo", "Sonny" or "Squirt".
     7) I'll never be hung over at an early morning class.
     6) Unlike when I was in school as a kid, they now have hot pink laptops that I can decorate with my own bling.
     5) I don't have to care about getting in good with the popular girls.
     4) I do my own laundry, so I don't have to get all bent out of shape because my mom forgot to iron my pants.
     3) I don't have to experience the angst of having to decide between the Hello Kitty or Wonder Woman backpack.
     2) I'm not forced to eat gelatinous salisbury steak & room-temperature milk for lunch.

And the #1 reason why going back to school at 36 is kinda cool....
     1) I have kids & a husband who'll clap for me and say "Yay!" when I get an A on a test.

Random observations...and back to school

At Panera...
   When we are in a place with such close confines, such as Panera or Starbucks, your "just between us" phone conversation is now between you, Jim in the accounting department, and me.  And for the record, I'm pretty sure Jim can sense your condescending tone, so he's probably not in any hurry whatsoever to hit that deadline for your important meeting this afternoon, and will most likely be on the golf course.

On my street...
   I think it's really cool that the older guy down the street has lost quite a bit of weight & is getting into shape by jogging every night.  What's NOT cool is that he thinks he is in good enough shape to do it shirtless and in spandex shorts.

In my living room...
   Kids are smart & pick up stuff we never think about.  My two year-old, Ian, seems to have a new phase every week.  Lately, when one of us is on the phone, he'll stand nearby and repeat every word we say, right after we say it.  I've started calling him "Pete the Repeater".  Also, the other night, Andy was playing poker online & Ian was standing there watching, saying "All in!  All in!".  Andy had to explain to him that you don't go "all in" with a 5-8 offsuit.  Well, unless you are Tom Dwan.

Back to school update...
   So after a 16-year hiatus, a marriage and two kids, this gal is heading back to school in 3 weeks!  Yes, I know it would have been much easier BEFORE the two kids....  Anyway, I'm only taking 2 classes-  English and Math so I don't overload myself right off the bat.  Ivy Tech has a two-year RN program & I'm really looking forward to getting into the nursing field.  Luckily I married a math major so I can get a good deal on tutoring.


Here are some random thoughts/concerns I've had lately...these are the things that run through my head while I'm trying to fall asleep at night:


-Are there going to be a bunch of young bitchy girls there?  If so, I'm going to have to go all "Kathy Bates in Fried Green Tomatoes" on them...


-How much judgement will I receive if I show up with my Barbie lunch box & thermos?  Ok, maybe I'll just stick with my insulated travel coffee mug with Ian's picture on it.


-What is everyone wearing to school now???  I need to find a good balance between the aforementioned bitchy girls and the mom who has a travel mug with her kid's picture on it.  I'm frowning upon anything with the word "juicy" on the butt.


-Are there still dumb jocks who do the "loser sneeze" when a nerdy looking kid walks in?  Good lord...I've been watching WAY too much Glee.

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