4th Pin of Interest...Baked Fajitas

So. Freaking. Good.

This was such a simple and quick dinner. It was lovely. My sister, Danielle, made them one night and I decided that it just sounded so good that I had to have them as well. This is a recipe that we got off of Pinterest...of course...but it's unclear who posted it first. There are a ton of variations to them, so make it how you like it. This is just a great alternative way of fixing an awesome meal. Oh! And, the clean up is EASY!!

So, let's talk ingredients:
Chicken- I used boneless/skinless tenders and cut them into smaller bits
1/2 Red Bell Pepper
1/2 Green Bell Pepper
Onion- sliced, not chopped
Rotel w/ green Chilies- this is totally optional. I didn't use it because I like my fajitas simple
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 tsp Chili Powder
1 1/2 tsp Ground Cumin
1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
1/2 tsp Dried Oregano
1/4 tsp Salt
(to be honest, I didn't use these spices. I used my trusty homemade Chili mix. It has all the same seasonings, and it's awesome. I used enough to coat the chicken- about 1-1 1/2 Tbsp)

So!
Preheat your oven to 400.

Cut your chicken into either strips or small bits
Slice your bell peppers and onions how you like them best. I like smaller pieces, some people like slices.

I put my chicken in a bowl, added the olive oil and spices and mixed until it was coated well. This is where you'd put the rotel in. Then put it in a glass casserole dish.

I put my peppers and onions on top of the chicken without mixing them.

Put dish in the oven for about 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, I took some tongs and mixed the chicken and peppers with out stirring. I just kinda flipped it in the dish. Make sense?

Cook for another 10 minutes and flip one more time.

At this point I turned the oven to broil to get some crispy bits. I let it set on broil for about 5-7 minutes. Watch it the whole time because you don't want to incinerate your dinner, just have some crispy edges.

Take it out of the oven, grab your tortilla's and go to town.

Seriously the whole process took all of 30 minutes. Maybe. It's quick and it's good. Mix you up some beans or what ever else you like on your fajitas, and you're good to go. I put my Avocado Dip on them and it was so awesome!

Anyhoo, that's the most recent Pin of Interest.

For my next one, I'm thinking a piece of art is in order.

Later Chickens!

3rd Pin of Interest - Mouth Watering...Laundry Detergent?

Oh. My. Gosh.

My sister and I made homemade laundry detergent and it smells heavenly. I want to keep the jar open and use it as an air freshener in my room.

I avoided Pinterest for a very long time. I have been singed up for years, but I never got on. I always thought it was a time suck (it is), it's filled with loads of stuff I can't do (it is), it will steal my soul (it has). But! I gave in to the temptation and it has proven to be very interesting and handy. It's given me a project for the year! What more could I ask for?

Let's talk detergent.

It's necessary. It's costly. It's so much fun to buy. Is that just me? I love to buy laundry detergent. I love Downy and Tide. It makes my clothes and bed smell like heaven. But it is so friggin' expensive!

Pinterest to the rescue!

For this Pin of Interest, we have How Does She? to thank. I've read a lot of blogs on detergent. Weird? Maybe. It's really interesting to me for some reason. Anyways, I've read a lot about it, and this blog seemed to put it the easiest way. There are some things I changed (of course), but I really did try to stay as close to the recipe as possible. I've never made detergent, and if this is going to keep my clothes clean, I don't want to screw it up.
Your ingredients:

Box of Borax
Box of Super Washing Soda (different from baking soda)
Baking Soda-her recipe called for 4 lbs! I only had 3.
2 Bars of Zote Laundry Detergent
OxyClean- she called for 3 lbs, I used about 6 heaping scoops because we only had a HUGE box
Downy Unstoppables
One gigantic mixing bowl

So to start, you need to shred the Zote into tiny pieces. A lot of people that I've read about use the fine grater on the cheese grater. Or their food processor. I don't have the patience to grate. I certainly am not fancy enough to own a food processor. So I went with the 3rd option: Microwave. Yep, microwave. I cut up the first bar into chunks like this:

Then I put it on a plate and set the microwave for 30 seconds. I didn't know what was going to happen. Turns out, nothing did. So I added a minute. Then it started to bubble up like a marshmallow. It was awesome! 

Just a fair warning, it is burning (literally) hot when you take it out of the microwave. What you need to do is let it cool completely, then you can peel off the layers and crumble them. Danielle and I used a butcher knife and some other random baking thing my mom had lying around the kitchen to make the crumbles even smaller. We found that if you cut the bars into smaller cubes and put on several different plates, then it goes a lot faster.

See! Several plates and a butcher knife.

Then This hand little pastry utensil
helped us further. 

Once that you have grated, processed, chopped or pulverized all of the Zote, then you just dump in all of the other ingredients. Now. Let me tell ya something. It's important that you have the patience to make the soap fine. If it's too big, it won't dissolve in the water. If it doesn't dissolve, then it sticks to your clothes. If it sticks to your clothes, and you put them in the dryer, it will leave burn marks on your clothing. SO! Patience. I have told everyone that I've talked to about this to have someone help you with this part. It is time consuming either way you do it. Unless you have a food processor. Then you are lucky. However, I'm not sure I'd want to clean this soap out of the processor, it's tenacious. And, I wouldn't want my future food to taste like Zotey soap. Mmmmmmmm.





So! Dumping. Ingredients. Make sure that you incorporate all of the ingredients as uniformly as possible. That was there is enough of everything in every load of laundry that you do.

You will only need 1-2 Tablespoons of the mix per load, depending on the size of load you usually wash. I'm terrible and cram clothes into the washer, so I use 2 good Tablespoons. Actually, I just use my 1/8 cup scooper and scoop it out that way.

This recipe makes a ton of detergent! The fact that you don't have to use all that much per load is awesome! It's way more inexpensive then buying the brand name stuff. And, if you figure that you don't have to buy separate fabric softener, you will realize that by making your laundry detergent, you really do come out on top money wise. The cool thing is...it works!!  I've used it and so has my sister. I washed clothes, she washed towels. Smells good and clean! We ended up splitting the spoils because a) she helped with the tedious task that is Zote and b) it made so freaking much! Just store in an air tight container. I used some Mason jars, a Glad thingie, and an old Animal Cracker container.
 Well, that's all I have on Laundry detergent. If you want to make some, and need some help, just ask. :)

Later gators! -----do it--->

2nd Pin of Interest- Holy Guacamole! Errrrrr...Avocado!

So, I might have fibbed. I said I was going to write about something else before my next Pin of Interest. I really wanted this dip, so now I'm going to write about it. Lucky you!

Today's Pin is brought to you by the letter "A." Avocado Cilantro Dip Stuff (that's my name for it)

The Skinny Taste blog was kind enough to Pin this recipe for Avocado Cilantro Buttermilk Dressing. It's good. Really good. But I liked it as a dip instead of a dressing. I will let y'all know that I first made this a long time ago. Like a whole 3 weeks ago. Sooooo...yeah. Anyhoos, I followed (mostly) the directions.

On summer vacations to San Diego, we always visited El Puerto. I have written about this lovely hole in the wall place before. It's so awesome! They have this guacamole fluff mix stuff that they put on the rolled tacos, and this tasted very similar to that.

But, I wanted to make it better. I made up my first batch and took it down to my parents' house over Christmas. I wanted my sister, Danielle, to taste it. She's the guacamole maker in our family and I wanted her opinion. She really liked it. So much so,she requested I make another batch. I did. It was good. Really good. So she wanted another batch. But wait!!! We were fresh out of buttermilk. We decided on maybe using half and half. Would that work? I don't know. There was an ovoverabundance of sour cream in my mom's fridge. Would that work? Maybe. I thought, what if we mixed the two? That way we have some liquid and cream. Y'all. It was so much better. I don't know why, but it was.

So! On with the (new-ish) recipe!

2-3 Avocados
1 small jalapeno
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
1 clove of garlic (I used close to a tsp of garlic powder instead)
2 scallions (green onions)
1/8 tsp cumin (you don't want to over do this...it's powerful stuff)
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup half and half
1 cup sour cream
1 Lime (this is SO important)

Put the half and half in the blender.

Clean and de-stem (?) the cilantro, then add that to the blender.

Cut up the jalapeno. Now, here's where it gets tricky. If you like spice then you need to leave some seeds. I mean,  let's face it spice is nice (eh, eh...see what I did there??). Yeah, I'm not really that lame. Well, maybe I am. I digress!! So what I usually do is cut the hat off the pepper, then cut about a 1/4 inch and leave it with the seeds. The rest gets gutted. Toss that into the blender too.

Cut the green onions up and...well you get the point.

Blend. And Blend. If I was cool and had a Magic Bullet or Ninja Bullet thingie, I wouldn't have to blend so much. But I don't. So I do.

You don't want a lot if chunks. Well, I don't. You may, and that's fine. I won't judge. Much.

Add 2 avocados to the mix and blend them until it's all creamy goodness.

Here you can either dump this mix into a bowl, or you can keep it in the blender.

Add the sour cream and the spices. Mix, mix, mix. Then mix some more.

Cut the lime in half and add the juice of both halves. It's ok if some of the pulp gets in there. So, remember when I said this is important? When I first made this, I used lemon juice. It was all I had. The taste was great, but the dip started to brown over night. So, it was only good for maaaaybe 24 hours. Limes are key to making it last...that is if you don't eat it all right away. It'll be good for about 2 days, maybe 3. I wouldn't keep it any longer than that.

Now taste. Too spicy? Add another avocado. I made this last night, and Oh. Boy. I'm just giving you guys a fair warning. This batch I made just about punched me in the face. It's a little joke with Danielle and me, because I never pick out the spicy jalapeno. They are always so mild you can just bite off a piece and it really won't phase you. Unless, of course, you don't like the flavor. Then you might barf a bit. But not this time. My lips were on fire for like 3 hours. It suuuuucked. So, to off set the spice, I added another avocado and a smidge of salt and that took the fire down a bit.

Enjoy with chips, on tacos or fajitas, or add some more half and half and use it as a dressing. Like I said though, I really liked it much better as a dip.

So! That's all I have for you for now, chickens. Hope y'all like it!!

If you want to ------>

1st Pin of Interest- Garbage Disposal Bombs

Pow! Zap! Kerrrrrrplunk! 

Maybe I got carried away there. It has bomb in its name, it only seemed fitting. Ok, so I'm going to start my 52 Pins of Interest this week. Today. Right now. My Pins of Interest idea is really for my own benefit. If y'all garner any tips or encouragement from them, then HOLLER!

I'm not a crafty person. I think I have a crafty brain (in more ways than one), but generally I don't do crafts. Not because I don't like them, I do. Mainly because I don't have the patience to do them. Perhaps I'll add that to my goals for this year: Along with my Pins of Interest, I shall endeavor to learn patience and focus. Now that that's out of the way...

So far, the Pins I have decided on are pretty simple. There are a few more challenging ones in there, but I'm going to keep it easy for now.

To begin...

 For some reason or another, I decided on Garbage Disposal Bombs. For this Pin of Interest, PopSugar helped me out. This looks simple enough, and they are way handy. I loved making bath bombs (a blog for another day), so why not garbage disposal bombs? I was sure they'd smell awesome. And if y'all could see what I just dumped down the disposal, you'd probably understand my line of thinking.

I got all of my ingredients together:

***Let me put in a disclaimer here. I look at recipes and crafts, and I hardly ever follow the directions word for word. I always like to add my own thing to them. I don't stray too far from the original, but I add a little Emily Twist to it. I can't seem to help myself. End of disclaimer***
****A disclaimer to the disclaimer, I will most likely do this on most if not all of my Pins. I really can't help myself. End of disclaimer to the disclaimer****

3/4 c of Baking soda
1/2 c of Salt
Lemon (I also used a Lime)
1/2 tsp Liquid Dish Soap
Sweet Orange Essential Oil (again my twisty thing)

In a bowl, you add the baking soda and salt together.
Take your lemon (and lime), and grate the peeling into the bowl and mix together.
Add the liquid dish soap.
Squeeze the juice from the lemon and lime into the bowl, one half at a time. Beware here...the baking soda and the acid from the juice will make some fizz, so add slowly. I used a small strainer to catch the seeds.You may not need all of that juice, so mix as you go. It's definitely easier to do this if you mix by hand. You want the consistency of wet sand. Think beach. Think California. Think...ok, so whatever, just feel wet sand. You don't want the mix to be soppin' wet. You can tell it's damp enough if you pick up a small handful, squeeze it in your fist, and it sticks together.
I noticed that it smelled strongly of baking soda. I wanted more citrus, so I added 10-15 drops of my sweet orange essential oils. That was just the trick! It was perfect for me! The kitchen smelled awesome!
Now time to scoop!
I put some parchment paper on the table and got a Teaspoon measuring spoon and used that to scoop out the bomb mix.

Important thing to note: once you have scooped a spoonful of mix out, press it firmly into the spoon. It will make it adhere to itself a lot more. Bombs can be uber crumbly, so this is an important thing to remember. Otherwise you will have a big fat mess of crumbs on your hands and table. Line up your bombs on your parchment paper, and voila!

Now, leave them alone. DO NOT TOUCH. Let them sit over night, then you can put them in an air tight container. On the Pin, PopSugar had a cute little jar. I will most likely put mine in a plain mason jar, 'cause that's how I roll. Maybe one day I'll make some cute labels. Either way, they turned out so great. They look pretty and smell awesome! I can't wait to use them!!

This recipe makes about 40 little bombs. All in all, it took all of about 10 minutes. It was so simple. To use these little guys, you just put a few in your disposal, turn the water on, then flip the disposal switch. Nothing will explode. Except your senses. They will explode with the sweet, crisp citrusy aroma permeating through the air. (If you read that last sentence in a dreamy, overly dramatic voice, props to you...if not, go read it again)

 I'll probably have another entry before my next Pin of Interest. Not sure what it'll be about. So until then, later Chickens!

If you want to------->  

New Year, Years, Year's.

You see any variation of the above. Happy New Year. It's New Year's Day. New Years (more than one?).  It's funny when it's used incorrectly. Unlike "they, there, and they're" or "to, too, two." The misuse of those words drive me crazy. I'm not a grammar nazi, but I have my limits. hahaha!

Enough of that. It's New Year's Day!!!! This is when we are supposed to make resolutions and raise our expectations, often higher than is reasonable. Not in every case, but in my own experiences, it's what I do. This year shall be different! Like many people, I'm going to make goals instead of "resolutions." Are they the same thing? Basically. But "setting goals" makes it more of an action. Makes it a game to play. My goals are going to be reasonable, doable, much needed goals. And I'm going to try not to work in absolutes. I've decided that very rarely in life are there any absolutes. So, to start the New Year off, I'm going to attempt to put a stop to that (in my life).

1) I'm going to work on getting the clutter out of my life- physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. This is something that can be done fluidly. It's something that I can work on every day. It's going to help me feel more settled in my own environment, which is something I desperately need. It's also a never ending thing, but one that I have sorely neglected the past 12 months. 2013 was not kind to me. Neither was I kind to me. Time to work on that.

2) I'm going to work on being a better friend and family member- I keep in contact with my immediate family and my core group of friends on a very regular basis. But what about the cousins that live far away, or the friends that I don't see regularly? I can be really shy and quiet, but those friends became friends for a reason. I need to remember that so I can re-cultivate those relationships. In my prior post, I mentioned my hilarious extended family. I'm going to work on trying harder to reach out to them. I'm going to try to go visit them. They're awesome! I'm mean, they're related to me, so was there any doubt?

3) I'm going to work on having more positive things in my life- There is so much negativity out there. ALL OVER. I'm not talking about just negative attitudes. I'm talking about negativity in the media, social media, books, music, atmospheres we hang out in, etc. I'm going to try to replace those things with fun, light and more wholesome things. If I see that watching the news and hearing people bash on eachother is taking me down, then I'm going to turn it off, shut off the phone. If the book I'm reading isn't quite what it said it was, then into the trash it goes. If the music that's on makes me feel oogy or angry, then it needs to go the heck away. Y'all get the point. That's what I love about ya!

4) I'm going work on using my right brain more- I'm a nurse. Have been for 13 years. The left side of my brain is tired and worn out, while the right side is jumping around like it's on crack, just waiting to be used. (ha!) It makes for an interesting battle in my head, that's for sure. I love art. I love photography. I love making things. It's time to do more of these, so I can have some sort of creative outlet. I'm positive this will help with the above mentioned goals as well, so score! Also, Santa brought me a sewing machine for Christmas, so I am going to be able to learn something new!

So. Those are my goals, and I'm excited to start! Another thing that I'm going to do to help make all this happen is what I'm going to call "52 Pins of Interest." Recently, I have become obsessed with Pinterest. Mostly because I'm in awe of what some people are capable of making with their own two hands. How much patience and focus they have. And it's all SO SIMPLE! Yeah. Well. I'm going to try to do one Pin a week. Then I'm going to write about it and document with a picture or two or ten. It should be way fun...and funny. I mean, I like to do all these things, but that doesn't mean I'm any good. I will probably have some pretty awesome Pin Fails. All the more fun, I say!

So stay tuned! If you have any input on what I should try, let me know. If you have any comments or questions, hit me up! I hope 2014 treats everyone like the ladies and gentlemen they are (or should be). I hope that we can all get rid of some of the negative and put more light back into our lives. People are awesome (most of the time), we all just need to remember that.