Make It Monday! Chili Mac and Cheese!

So if you know me and I'd like to think that if you follow the blog you do know me... You know that I love cooking shows and shows that involve food... anyway I like Emerile lagasse and I know that a few years back he made an appearance on a particular show that was one of my guilty pleasures... on said show he made a recipe with the family called Chilli Mac and when I recently discovered that this show was on Netflix and I re-watched the entire show yes from season 1 right on through I remembered this recipe and when I heard Chilli Mac I thought wouldn't that be better as Chilli Mac and Cheese???

(PS can you name that show? 10 points if you can! haha)

And so My Chili Mac and cheese was born!

Here is the recipe... its easy....

Make your favorite Mac and cheese and also your favorite chili...

Here are my favorite recipes.

Creamy Mac and Cheese
2 TBSP Butter and flour
2 Cups Milk (at room temp)
2 Cups Cheese
1 TSP mustard
3 Cups cooked Macaroni

Start by making a rue with the butter and flour (melt the butter in a sauce pan and add the flour) cook the rue for a few minutes but don't let it brown too much. Add your milk and cook over medium heat until the mix thickens and can coat the back of a spoon. Add the mustard and then melt in 1 and 1/2 cups of the cheese (or as much as you like) once the cheese is completely melted add the macaroni and mix through.

Mild Marsh Chili
(There are no measurements for this recipe as you can make it as saucy or meaty as you like and of course you can make a batch that is as large or small as you need!)
Ground beef or chicken (turkey works well too)
Onion
Mushroom
Carrots (cooked and pureed)
Diced tomatoes
Tomato sauce
Chili powder, thyme, oregano, basil

Brown ground beef or other ground meat. Meanwhile cook carrots in a med pot, once cooked puree and set aside. Once the meat is cooked add mushrooms, onions, carrot puree and can tomatoes. Allow the mix to simmer and then add tomato sauce and spices to your taste. Simmer and serve. As with all Chili and tomato sauce the longer it simmers the better it is!

Now that you have that all done!

Layer your mac and cheese in the bottom of a pyrex dish, top with chili and then one more layer of the mac and cheese, top with cheese and bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. (The above recipe for Mac and cheese will have more than you need for the Chili Mac and Cheese so I make a dish of just Mac and cheese too... just top it with more cheese and pop in the oven!)

It comes out a little spicy, very cheesy and super tasty!

My whole family loves it! And I love that there are lots of left overs for quick lunches, plus there is also lots of options for supper chili, chili mac and cheese or just mac and cheese...

Hope you enjoy! Do you ever dream up a recipe from hearing about another? Tell me about it I'd love to give it a try just leave a link in the comments!

Happy Monday!

Photo Friday! First Family Trip in the Boat!

Robyn's Grandfather has a boat its a nice boat but in the almost 10 years we have been together I have flat out refused to get into the boat as well I am afraid... ok not so much afraid of the boat more so afraid of 1) Throwing up in the boat and B) Drowning... both very rational if you ask me...

Either way if you ask any mother can the kids go in the boat and she says yes you better bet your behind that no matter how afraid she is she will be going with you because 1) She will refuse for her children to do something for the first time without her there if she can help it and B) Her children will not drown without her...

So on our last rip out to visit Robyn's family we went for a trip in the boat and it was FABULOUS!

So for this Photo Friday I have just a few of the 170 photos that I did take! Enjoy!

 

Well as you can tell neither of us drowned and even better I didn't throw up either!
Happy Friday Friends!

Sesame Street Party Overview!

So as I have mentioned a few times we celebrated Max's BIG first Birthday last weekend (the day after his actual birthday) and I have to say it was quite a success!

So I figured I'd give you a run down of what happened and how it went before I give you anymore of the DIY's... so be prepared you are about to see LOTS of adorable pictures of my FABULOUS ONE YEAR OLD and his soon to be FOUR YEAR OLD big sis!

Birthday Boy waiting for friends to show up for some fun!

I love to DIY my decorations and while I have already shared the balloon wreath there is oh so much more to come... Including a whole post on a scalloped edge circle punch!

Playing Oscars Trash Toss!

Super easy Sesame Street theme game, just get a garbage can, I happened upon this Sesame Street one but a regular one would be fine too, and give the kids three pieces of "trash" have them throw each piece toward the can and try to get them in. If you get at least one piece in then you move on, move the trash can a little further away and you just keep going until only one kid gets the trash in the bucket.

CAKE!

What's a party without cake??? 

I make my kiddos their own smash cake up to age three, that way they can dig in get as messy as they want and eat as much as they want without man handling the cake for me the guests.....

 

Max's smash cake was seen on Facebook already but I will give you a few more details in a future post all about the cake... including the secret recipe to the cookie dough filling!

Of course there were presents! 

I wanted to make this area a little special and to make it a little Sesame street too I hung some of my DIY decorations and used a Sesame Street quilt that was given to Max as the present table cloth.

He's a proper member of the Kiss army now... and got lots of Big Boy Toys too!

There was food all around as well... 

Lots of cupcakes and cookies were served up along side of the BBQ and of course they were all topped off with DIY cupcake toppers!

Look for a quick cupcake topper section in the DIY decorations post next week!

I was so inspired by this post (that I found surprise surprise on Pinterest) that I just had to make a Cookie Monster Pinata!

It was super fun and the kids loved it! Look for a full post on making a Cookie Monster Pinata and what to fill it with soon!

So that is the Sesame Street Party in a nutshell.... It was a blast to plan, to DIY and to enjoy with my baby boy! I hope that you will join me next week to have a look at how it all came together from Invites to decorations and of course no birthday part series is complete without a cake post! 

Hows that for a Photo Friday?

Happy Friday!

Photos by Momma Made It! and family!

The Post I Don't Want To Write...

I have been putting this post off for a while...

Truthfully I haven't been posting for a while just to avoid this post...

It's not that not writing this post makes my life any less real or any less painful.

It's not that I have to write this post, I can leave you in the dark about why I haven't been posting, and to be 100% honest with you you're not going to get the whole story, but I feel like its time to get back to the blog and time to get back to my life and this I feel is the first step to doing so.

On June 30th our family suffered a major loss.

My Father In-Law was in a major car accident and passed away.

We were shocked and stunned and rocked to the core. Myself and the kids were on a Canada Day Camping trip and expecting Robyn to come pick us up in the morning when I got the call. Of course we spent the next week with Robyn's Mom and siblings while the kids stayed at home with my Sister.

We have been at home now for almost 3 weeks which has passed so slowly, and we are trying to put our lives back together and find a way to feel normal again.

So please bear with me while I get back to a regular schedule and back to posting on a regular basis.

Photo Friday! A Little Something for Momma!

I have mentioned before that my Momma and my sister are both very crafty people as well and I have to say it comes in handy that my Momma quilts and sews and my sister is an artist, she paints and draws as well she does embroidery and has a great eye for color, and photos... our crafts compliment each other well I must say!

So when I showed her a super cool ring I saw on Pinterest my sister said "I can make that!"
And then about 25 mintues later she showed me this!

I love my knitting ring!

It's so great to have a crafty family! 

Are you part of a crafting family or are you alone in your crafty endeavors?

Tell The Truth Thursday! Why We Don't Have Cable...

I don't think that I have mentioned this before but we don't have cable... up until recently we didn't have anything to watch shows or movies on other than our DVD players and our PS3. A few months ago we decided that we would give Netflix a try and it's been great! Either way I don't think we will ever go back to having cable...

There are so many benifits to not having cable...

- No "just one more show", no "but this is about to come on", no "I saw it on TV" from Delaney
- No issues with what we feel is appropriate for our kids to watch because we decide everything they see and just don't put on what isn't appropriate.
- But the best is no outrageous cable bill! I honestly think that cable is so over rated and over priced! To be honest we don't even watch half of the shows/channels you get with cable.

What is great about it for Delaney...

- We borrow for free from the library.
- We watch her favorites on Netflix for kids.
- We have lots of movies of her favorites at home anyway. Plus we ask family and friends to get the ones she LOVES for hollidays and birthdays.

It's not perfect... I will admit that there are certainly somethings that I miss...

- I love reality TV but it isn't on Netflix and its just not the same to watch on DVD.
- I miss some shows that I really love like Glee or Grey's Anatomy (but you can usually watch them online on the network websites...)

With that said there is certainly a few major things that I don't miss!!

- Commercials need I say more...
- Waiting for the next season of a really great show to find out what happens (in most cases)!
- Bills
- Reruns! Unless you want to re-watch a show... which I do all the time!
- No crappy shows!


In short it works for us not to have cable, we like it and it saves us quite a bit of money each month... I know the day will come when the kids get mad that we don't have cable because all their friends have it and they want to watch a show so they can talk about it with their friends or just so they aren't left out...

But we will cross that bridge when we get to it...


Edit... I should mention that this is NOT a sponsored post, lets face it friends my blog aint that big...

Photo Friday! A day with the Family!

As a part of my birthday gift I asked my sister to take some baby and family photos of us...

So I thought I would share my favorites with you!

Have you had any new family photos taken lately? If you have a family member or friend that has a good camera and an eye for portraits you can do it on the cheap!

Happy Friday!

Tell The Truth Thursday! I love my jammies....

I have a sick obsession with my pajamas I wear them a lot...and by a lot I mean I only get dressed if I am going out. Yep right now I'm wearing pajamas that have little cocktails all over them...

If I know that I am not leaving the house on a particular day I don't put on real clothes... not even sweat pants. I lounge in my jammies all day long, and if I do get dressed to go out or to have visitors as soon as I am home again or when the visitors leave I slip back into my comfy jammies. (you know because I don't believe in the pajamafication of our world... to me there is something a little wrong about wearing your jammies in public... but that is a whole other post.)

All of this wouldn't be so bad but you see I now have two kids.... When I was single or even when I had no kids it didn't matter what I wore around the house, I could have gone naked all the time (not that I did...) and who would care.  However now that I have two kids they look to me for their example... and Momma is making it OK to wear your jammies all day. I let my kids wear their jammies all day if we aren't going out, and that wouldn't be so bad every now and again right... but we only go out a few days a week... so about 4 days out of 7 we are in our jammies all day... 

Part of me says who cares it is clothes and it's still covering them up, they are warm, they are comfortable, they are happy (and that is what matters to me). But then that other part of me, you know the Momma part that feels guilty about almost everything... she knows that I am teaching them things that they will carry on through their lives, things that will shape them into the people they will be, and that part wonders if wearing your jammies all day is a good habit, is it productive, does it tell them that we are lazy, or that we don't work hard enough?

So my confession today is that we are all (yup the four of us) wearing our jammies all day and we do most days! 

Do you hang out in your jammies or do you get up and get dressed every single day no matter what you are doing?

No More Sippy Cups!

Over the last few weeks I have been tackling the sippy cup issue... as we approach Delaney's third birthday I think its time she learn how to use a cup the right way! Maybe I'm a bit early or late but up until now it hasn't been an issue...

But lately when given a sippy cup she bites the top and pulls the lid off and thus spills her drink all over herself and he floor.... Then we thought a straw would do the trick but she then figured out she could fill her mouth with the drink and swish it around in her mouth and if she did it fast enough it would dribble out the sides of her mouth and thus still make a mess.... so its time to be a big girl, time to correct bad behavior and time to drink from a big cup! 

I started by giving her very little in her cup and a little encouragement and day after day she got a little better and a little better...  and now....

So, all of these cups are TRASH! It made me so happy to toss them and get rid of the chewed up lids and grungy old cups....

When did you transition from sippy cups to a regular one for a big kid??? Did you have a hard time making the switch?

Tell the Truth Thursday! Writing about your family!

Do you ask your family before you post about them?
Do you hit publish post and then think oops maybe that wasn't for the whole world to see?

Last week around the bloggy world two of my favorite mommy bloggers posted about this on the same day.... weird? maybe.... maybe not!

Mom-101 posted "Drawing the line" about a funny story that her daughter told her well really a slip of the tongue and then she was mortified and begged that Mom not talk about it... or write about it...

Then Mommy said what? posted "Where do we go from here?"  In which she too spoke to her daughter about posting stories about her, asking if it was ok if she shared some of these stories to which her daughter said "yesh" (yes in three year old... but you already knew that....) "but don't tell anyone."

I wonder a lot of the time if the pictures and stories I post today will harm my child or my family... I make sure not to use names of family and friends if they don't want me too... or if they don't know I even have a blog, which most of my friends don't... but I do wonder that if I say something about Delaney or even just using her name on the blog will hurt her later in life...

This internet thing is permanent I know that and I know that even if I didn't put it here, its still on facebook and its still in email and all that, but is what I'm saying and doing going to change her or hurt her when someday she is applying for a job and the boss Googles her and comes up with a picture of her as an "Irish Princess" at 2 years old or worse.......

After hitting post on the "I'm back" post last week I read these two posts and thought uh-oh what is hubby going to think about me posting all about his illness and what had happened to cause his hospitalization that week... I mean no I didn't go into every detail of his illness and all the tests and procedures he has had or any really personal details of what hospital he was in or what were the conditions of his release... but still its his life. We may share this life as husband and wife but is it my place to say anything at all about him? Long story not so short I got hubby to read it... he said it was fine, he didn't care and it sounded good to him.... (Good thing too because it was already on the blog for the world to see)

So I guess my truth this week is I wonder where to draw that line in the sand myself sometimes.... do I post only what I know has been approved by those who are involved, or do I post what I want to (keeping in mind that I personally choose not to use names).
I usually go with the latter and hope that it dosen't get me into trouble later...

What do you do? Do you feel that it's an issue for you or not?

Fathers Day!

Happy Fathers Day!

Today for me is more about celebrating my Husband and my Mom.... sounds strange... 

Well for a long while, most of my life I feel, my Mom has also been my Dad.... and I always try to do something for her on Fathers Day as well as Mothers Day. 

I feel like if you are doing both jobs you get both days! 

My Mom has always been my rock and one of the people who shaped my life teaching me right from wrong, how to be a lady, how to be myself and most of all how to be sure your treated the way you deserve! She always believed in me and to this day still tells me how proud she is of me! 

Happy Fathers Day Mom!

My Husband is one of the most amazing men I know and he is the light in Delaney's eyes! When she sees him come home she screams and runs to him, when she hasn't seen him in a couple of days like last week when he stayed at work due to car issues she woke up at night crying that she wanted her Daddy! 

We are so grateful for such an amazing man and I thought that the rest of this post ought to be dedicated to him!

Happy Fathers Day Robyn!

I hope that you and your family have a lovely Fathers Day with whom ever you consider your Father figure to be!

I'm Back!

I feel like I've been neglecting the blog for so long... I know I have good reasons and I know that its all that can be done when life falls in your lap and says hey you thought it was all smooth sailing from here well here's a hiccup for ya!

So here are the basics of the situation my husband Robyn has Crohn's Disease which is an autoimmune disease which causes chronic inflammation in the gastrointestinal track. It can be quite painful and limits his activities and what he can eat at times. He became very sick just before I met him and was diagnosed just weeks before we started dating. In a very short time he became progressively worse and required surgery in May of 2004. He recovered quickly and has been relatively healthy since then, through watching his diet and taking better care of himself he has rarely had any pain or issues. Then a few months ago he had noticed a bit of a change and requested through our family Dr to see his specialist (whom he had no need to see for 5 years) once he finally got into see the specialist he requested a routine test to be done in his office in a week or two. 

Which just happened to be last week, Tuesday to be exact. 

On Tuesday morning he went for his test and was told that everything was fine and that he would follow up with the Dr soon and that they wanted to do another test (an upper GI)  but it could be a long wait as this is done through X-ray. Tuesday afternoon he wasn't feeling very good and I could see he was finding it hard to get comfortable. I recommended that he go lay down for a while and that it may help him feel better. Not long after he became violently ill and started vomiting he called the emergency nurses' line and they recommended that he go to the ER to get checked out. After a 9 hour stay in the ER, a set of X-rays showed that he had a small bowel obstruction. We caught it early and were very lucky as this can rupture quite suddenly and be fatal in some situations. 

So he was admitted and watched very closely for a few days as it resolved on its own, they believe that it was just caused by a flare up of his crohn's which could mean that he could be sick again anytime or it may have resolved completely and will settle on its own. 

I think that is the worst part about having this disease you never know whats happening because everyone reacts differently to the meds and to different foods and to different situations. But that is the nature of the beast when your body attacks its self on a regular basis.

We were very lucky to have 7 healthy years with little to no complications and are hoping that he will be able to have another very long stretch between this flare up and the next but since there is no cure for this disease we will deal with this for the rest of our lives.

It was very scary and hard to deal with knowing that as a wife there is nothing I can do other than bring him the things he needs, visit as frequently as I could and take good care of myself and Delaney while he was recuperating in the hospital. I admit that I broke down a time or two (maybe from the stress, maybe from the fear, maybe from the hormones.... ) and its hard not to worry knowing that there is not a thing I can do! 

He was released from the hospital early Saturday morning and returned to work Sunday claiming he was feeling well enough... I took him at his work but worried all day! 

I also had my baby shower on Sunday and was busy having fun with my girlfriends when I got a call that our car had broken down/wasn't working properly...

So now we are in the process of figuring out what is going on with our car and making sure that Robyn is doing ok. The worst part of this is that he works about an hour from home and is staying at work while we figure out the car situation, so after being without him all of last week we got him home for one night and lost him again (aka I cant keep my eyes on him to be sure he isn't over doing it or eating things that are really bad for him...) So in the middle of all of this I have not been crafting or cooking or baking or doing anything relatively creative, and since we were all in and out of the house so much over the last week or two the house work got neglected and I spent all day yesterday picking up toys, doing laundry cleaning out the fridge and on my hands and knees cleaning floors. 

I am hoping to get some crafting done over the next few days even if its just to ease my mind and give me something to do to relax... hopefully there will be something new up soon!

But in the mean time if your interested check out this link to the 

Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of Canada 

for more information.

Make it Monday! Sunday Morning Pancakes!

I am now in love with Sunday! 

For the past few weeks we have been having Pancake Sundays! 

We Love Pancakes! 

So I thought that for Make it Monday I would feature our homemade pancake recipe!

Its super easy and tastes better than any box pancake ever could... (not that I don't make box pancakes... as a matter of fact I have never made this recipe, Robyn is the only one who does but I eat them so that counts right!)

So here you are our pancake recipe!

Sunday Morning Pancakes!

1 1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour

3 1/2 Tsp Baking Powder

1 Tsp Salt

1 Tbsp White Sugar

1 1/4 Cup Milk

1 Egg

3 Tbsp Melted Butter

In a large bowl sift or whisk together Flour Baking Powder, Salt and Sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in Milk, Egg and Butter. Mix well and pour onto hot pan or griddle and cook until bubbles form on top and edges start to brown, then flip and cook on other side until fully cooked and golden brown! 

(for an even better pancake sub in 1/4 c of buttermilk and only use 1 c of regular milk)

Robyn is a purest and like his pancakes plain with syrup but I am a lover of Chocolate!!!!! 

So I get them with Chocolate Chips!

Do you have a specific breakfast for the weekends? Or even a traditional meal every week like Spaghetti Saturday or Turkey Thursday? I'd love to hear about it and maybe even see your recipes you may just end up on Make it Monday!  

Book Sale Finds!

I've mentioned before that I love a great bargain....  (AKA I'm cheap!) 

So when I hear gently used at good prices I get excited! 

Yesterday we went to a GIANT book sale in aid of our local Canadian Federation of University Women group!

They hold this every year (this is our second year going!)  We got so many great books and help raise money for scholarships for women to go to college! (In the word of Charlie..... WINNING!)

I know I've said before I'm not a reader but my whole family is! And they are trying to convert me I think... plus I do read cook books... as a matter of fact I love old 60's, 70's and 80's cookbooks... It's almost a sickness! And you'd be amazed how many cookbooks one can accumulate if they try...

So here is my haul!

They have a section where you can fill a bag for $2! 

Here's our bag! 

(we paid $4 because I felt like we had stuffed 2 bags worth of books into 1 reusable bag...)

there are all kinds of books in this section from self help to crafts to religion and fiction...you name it it's there!

Once I opened up the bag and saw what we got I was shocked! 

 Here's what I got from the craft/cooking section!

And a few that daddy and Delaney picked out! (can you tell who was holding the bag...)

Here are  few of the ones I am  most excited about!

A reprint of a dress making book from the 1870's (If nothing else I will be framing a few of these pages and putting them on the walls!)

Sheet Music.... already have a few crafts in mind to use these for!

Great Cooking Ideas.... They weren't kidding when they named this baby, this book is huge! And there is a recipe on every page! (sure to show up on future Make it Monday's!)

This one I am flipping out over still! James Beard! YES PLEASE!

And this one I got to try some things for Miss Delaney! I may have to YouTube some video's on how to do needle point as I have no freaking idea how I mean experience... 

We also got a  few other books in the regular sections of the sale... 

A few for Delaney... a couple for Daddy and a couple for me to try... My Sister is a good influence what can I say... (she secretly wishes me a reader I think)

Daddy also nabbed us a World Atlas...

It's a bit out of date... as in it still has the USSR... but hey it suits our needs... 

and Delaney is already in love with it!

All in all a great day, we got so many great books, had so much fun looking through everything over and over and everyone went home with a few new reads at super cheap prices! (not to mention that we helped raise money for the Canadian Federation of University Women Scholarship Fund!) 

Have you picked up anything at a great price and gotten a little too excited about it lately? Any great books you've picked up or any great crafty reads?? Please Share it in the comments I'd love to hear all about it!

A Happy Late Easter!

Today I wanted to share a fun crafty post. 

I wanted to post a knitting project... But it isn't finished, with Easter and all of its activities I got slightly delayed with the craft projects. 

So I thought I would share our Easter with you because it was as is every holiday in our family VERY busy and very fun filled! (Be fair warned that this is a post filled with Pictures of Delaney, and its blocked full of every move we made for two days Easter fun)

We started off with an Easter Party at my Dad's work. She had such a good time! They did an egg hunt, Dyed eggs and even had a Mickey Mouse Movie (needless to say she did a whole lot of watching Mickey Mouse and not a whole lot else... ) She had a great time during the egg hunt part but not so much with the Easter Bunny himself. 

At one point the "man in charge" said "Ok lets all get our photos with the Easter Bunny before he leaves!" and Delaney screamed out "NOOOOOOO I don't want my picture with the Bunny!"

But other wise she had fun!

She enjoyed some lovely snacks!

And She looked adorable!

Saturday afternoon we spent with Auntie and we had a great time... 

(more on that later in the week!)

Then on Saturday night she decided that she needed to leave the Easter Bunny a snack however she thought that he would like "Just cold water" to drink and a rice crispy square for his snack! 

Then on Sunday she received this note with her Easter Basket!

It reads 

"Dear Delaney, Thank you for my snack! I hope you enjoy your Egg Hunt and have a wonderful Easter! Love the Easter Bunny!"

She was so excited!

Then commenced the Egg Hunt!

She found all 37 eggs and had a great time! Daddy may have told her where to look helped her find some of them... and then it was breakfast with Papa (Robyn's dad) and the off to Nanny and Poppy's house (my Mom and Step-dad) with Auntie for Easter lunch! 

She loves to wear a pretty dress...

We had a lovely day and when we got home we put on our bunny ears had some chocolate eggs and watched movies! 

All in all a day to remember!

How was your Easter? Did you get to spend it eating Easter eggs and wearing bunny ears? What ever you did I hope you had an amazing day with your family!