by Melanie

Pinspiration: Chicken Taco Pasta Salad

January 17, 2014 in Kitchen by Melanie

pinterest_sceneWhen I first discovered Pinterest, I would spent hours and hours pinning delicious-looking food, fun-looking activities, and cute-looking crafts. Pinning and pinning for hours and hours.

Do you know what happens when you spent hours and hours pinning things on Pinterest? You run out of time to actually DO any of the things you pinned!

When I realized I was so busy pinning fun activities I could do with my kids instead of actually doing them, I walked away and didn’t even look at it for months.

Yes, I tend to be a bit extreme…

After shaking the addiction, I went back and rediscovered all of these fabulous ideas I wanted to try. Only this time, I had time to try them!

Balance is a beautiful thing. If only I could remember that all the time…

Now Pinterest has become an incredible tool for me, and I have found some of my favorite ideas there – and some of my very favorite recipes. yum

During soccer season, we tend to live on one soccer field or another. With three soccer players, we usually have games 4 nights a week, almost always at dinner time, for several months. My kids (and Mr. 4018) tend to get awfully cranky when they get hungry, and honestly, they’re not big fans of *watching* soccer games. They love to play, but they would rather not sit around and watch someone else play.

Mostly out of desperation and an attempt to save my sanity and avoid the whining that would inevitably fill every soccer game night, I went in search of great game night meals I could serve on the sidelines. You can only have pizza and burgers so many times, afterall.

I went to my Pinterest boards (you should follow me if you’re not already!) and found this Fiesta Ranch Chicken Pasta Salad from Butter with a Side of Bread. We love ranch, chicken, tacos, and pasta, so it sounded like a safe bet.

Oh. my. goodness.

I’m not very good at following a recipe exactly, so I did change it up a bit. Now this is one of our favorite go-to meals – even when we’re not at soccer games – and EVERYONE loves it.

chicken-taco-pasta-salad


Chicken Taco Pasta Salad

  • 1 pkg of pasta (rotini, bowtie, tri-colored, etc)
  • 1 rotisserie chicken, boned and cut down to bite-sized pieces (or you can use cooked chicken breasts or any other chicken meat you love)
  • 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
  • 2 c frozen corn
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 2 tomatoes, chopped
  • 2 avocadoes, diced
  • 2 cups grated Mexican cheese blend (or cheddar)

Cook pasta according to package directions and drain. Add all of the other ingredients and then mix up the dressing. I add the corn frozen and the pasta hot, so the pasta thaws the corn when I mix it up.

Dressing:

  • 1 packet taco seasoning mix
  • 1 c mayonnaise
  • 1 c buttermilk
  • 1 package Hidden Valley Fiesta Ranch dip mix (Walmart has it when no one else does)

Mix dressing well and toss with salad. The taco seasoning was listed with the salad ingredients in the original recipe, but I always mix it in with the dressing. You can use original ranch and add some salsa in place of the rest of the dressing, just be sure to add the taco seasoning.

Refrigerate until ready to serve. Add Frito corn chips to individual servings. This salad is great the next day, too, and everyone asks for it for lunch, but it doesn’t last another day after that. The photo above is pre dressing, and the photo below is after the dressing has been added. Honestly, it’s fab either way.

chicken-taco-pasta-salad-dressing


What have you pinned and tried lately???

by Melanie

You’re Safe With Me

January 14, 2014 in Coffee Table by Melanie

Does it make me anti-social if I don’t want to chat with the dentist while he’s working on my daughter’s teeth? He was asking me about my family’s summer plans (it’s JANUARY) and talking about our last visit when Bree was having her first ever cavity filled. She had a few tears trickle out from the corner of her eye because she was listening to music on her phone and heard a song that made her think about how much she didn’t want to be there. He kept laughing about it and rephrasing the “joke” so I would get it and start laughing with him.

I’m sorry, but I don’t want to laugh at my kid with you, Dr. Dentist. I’m sure he was just being social, but I found myself trying to come up with the least rude way to tell him to stop it! Maybe I’m not as nice as I think…

Although, come to think of it. This isn’t the only time I’ve had this issue where someone is laughing at my kids (in front of them!) and expecting me to join in. I know one person who does this EVERY time I see her… and when I don’t join in, she keeps trying harder and harder (makes fun of them even more) to get me to laugh along. It drives me insane.

Now don’t get me wrong. I think learning to laugh at yourself is an important life skill. But here’s the thing: laughing at yourself – or even with someone else about you – is one thing. Being mocked and humiliated is something else entirely. And when the mocking and humiliating is done by someone in your family, that’s even worse.

I passionately believe that my kids should be able to feel safe at home. And they should feel safe with me no matter where we are or who we are with. Why would they ever tell me what’s going on in their lives if they know it is going to become a punchline for the sake of a cheap laugh? How are they going to trust me with the big issues in their lives if I take any opportunity to make a joke of the small things?

chuckI have to admit, I do post the fun things my kindergartener says on Facebook. I have a regular feature on my family blog called “Words with Chuck” that is simply full of quotable moments from her life. She is hilarious – and she knows it.

But I don’t post her failures as punchlines. I don’t post her struggles as juicy stories. And I certainly don’t post her mistakes as invitations for mocking.

She’s just naturally hilarious. The other day I was making dinner, and she was hanging out with me in the kitchen when she dropped what she was doing and walked to the back door. She threw open the door, blew kisses at the sky, and closed the door again. Then she turned to me and said, “Mom, I’m blowing kisses to Santa and Jesus!” Looks like she’s got all her bases covered.

So here’s my question for you: do you think there’s a difference between sharing a cute story and making fun of your kids? Does it bother you when people laugh at your kids – or is that just the mama bear in me? What do you do in that situation? What would you have said to Dr. Dentist if you were me?

by Melanie

Family Home Evening Fix-Up

January 11, 2014 in Family Room by Melanie

Every Monday night at 4018 is Family Night. We turn off the phones, ignore the doorbell, and just spend the whole evening together. Definitely my favorite night of the week.

A typical FHE looks a lot like this: We eat dinner when Mr. 4018 gets home. After cleaning it up bit (read: piling up the dishes in the sink), we gather in the family room.

Then we gather in the family room. Whoever is conducting that night gives us a warm welcome and calls on several people to choose songs for us to sing – usually our own family versions with crazy actions. My favorite is the melted snowmen dog pile on dad at the end of “Once There Was a Snowman.”

After an opening prayer, then comes the “family council” part of Family Home Evening. We pull out the family calendar and update the coming week and figure out how we’re juggling the chauffeur duties, church meetings, play rehearsals, practices, and games.

Next is the spotlight where one person tells us something awesome about themselves, shows us something awesome they can do (I make them play something on the piano), and then we all go around and say what we think is awesome about them. It’s awesome.

After a lesson, activity, closing song and prayer, we end with a tasty treat.

We’re good at getting together every Monday night, but it’s usually thrown together at the last minute and I think we could be doing more. That’s where this project comes in.

FHE-fixup

Our first FHE of the year was spent talking about changes we want to make and how we can make it better. We used this page to get the conversation going and take notes.FHE-pin


You can use this page, too. Just click on the image for the full-size version and then save it.

I learned some things I wouldn’t have guessed and had some suspicions confirmed. Joy requested that we never attend another sporting event for FHE. Ever. According to Bree, we need to laugh a lot because it’s a lot better than when we get “icy.”

We decided to focus more on scriptures for the lessons and that whoever is assigned the lesson, activity, and treat will talk to each other about ways to make them go together.

I’m calling part one of project FHE fix-up a success. What do you do for Family Night?

by Melanie

Chicken Cordon Bleu Wraps

January 8, 2014 in Kitchen by Melanie

I love sandwiches. Jason’s Deli and Cafe Zupas are some of my very favorite places to grab a bite.

But then there was this one time…

We went to Disneyland for a week, and my husband had this great idea to only eat one meal in the park every day to save money. It really is a GREAT idea, but unfortunately, he didn’t tell me this fabulous idea until we were already there. We had a bunch of stuff to make ham sandwiches on the drive, so every day we went back to our hotel and had ham sandwiches.

Every.

Day.

For an entire week.

Ever since that week, we don’t love sandwiches quite so much, and I have learned to be a lot more creative with our lunches.

This is one of my latest faves:

chicken-cordon-bleu-wraps


Start with a tortilla or a fancy wrap. Spread it with Ranch dressing and mustard. Layer sliced chicken, ham, and cheese like provolone or Swiss. Add lettuce – or if you really want it to be amazing, use arugula and spinach leaves – and tomato. Bree loves to add cilantro, too. And my motto is “everything is better with avocado.” Then wrap it up and enjoy. Simple and delicious. yum!

Have you ever eaten a food so much that you just couldn’t handle eating it anymore?

by Melanie

Cuddle Up

January 5, 2014 in Great Room by Melanie

cuddleI am so excited for tomorrow.

Ridiculously excited for a Monday.

Why?

It’s “Cuddle Up Day!”

Sounds to me like it needs to be celebrated in sweats on the couch with whipped cream-topped hot chocolate and some sweet daughters… until my favorite hunky husband comes home from work and we send the cute daughters to bed and do a little more cuddlin’. This may be my new favorite holiday.

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