A Non-waterfall Upside Down Waterfall Braid

Here's the trick to an hour by yourself on a Saturday afternoon after a busy, busy week... Send your husband to watch a video with his Bible student and your daughter. :)
So while the hubby, daughter and student are sitting in the living room watching a video, I decided to stay in our bedroom, catch up on my blog and watch a couple episodes of "Trisha's Southern Kitchen" and "Pioneer Woman" I DVRed (is that a word? LOL) off the Food Network. In me defense, I am nursing a very sore throat and earache. Ugh.
But then I realized... I haven't done any crafts for a couple weeks and haven't downloaded my latest recipes.
What to blog about?
How about a really cute hairstyle I created on my daughter's hair? I call it a non-waterfall upside down waterfall braid. ;) yep, that's a mouthful.







Hannah LOVES this style and it works well when her hair is her natural wave or when I straighten it. It was created because I was tired of the same braid "wreath" I had been creating for weeks and it's still way to cold outside to wear her hair up at school. But Hannah is a child who loves to play hard -- very hard -- and really does need her hair out of her way when she's at school.
It is so easy to create.

Simply pick up three strands of hair from the side of her head as if you're going to start a French braid.




















Then instead of picking up hair from the bottom of the braid, DON'T. That simple.
Make sure you keep picking hair up from the top of head and French braid in a diagonal line.













By the time you get to close to the end of the braid (where you go into a simple braid) you will be pulling long hair from the other side of your daughter's head. It will look kind of like a loose half-ladder braid.



I make sure and braid as tight as possible because Hannah is an extremely active little girl. But this style holds up very well to vigorous play. I'm not saying some of the hair won't come out, but not as much as in normal braids.

Yummy Taco Soup...

OK, well, we are trying not to eat a lot of processed food, but sometimes I find a recipe that is so easy and sounds so good I just have to try it.
This taco soup uses eight cans and taco seasoning... that's it. Easy and completely yummy. And if you rinse the beans, you cut the sodium by... well, by a lot. And the results are so very good - warm and delicious. This soup is perfect for a cold winter night.


Easy Taco Soup

Ingredients

• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can petite diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 can sweet corn, drained
• 1 can white chicken breast, drained (or I use two cooked boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed)
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 can green enchilada sauce
• 1 can chicken broth
• 1 packet taco seasoning (I use the seasoning on yesterday's, Jan. 16, blog)

  

Directions

• Mix together in a large pot.
• Heat until warm, stirring occasionally.

And here's another excellent thing about this soup.... It's only 300 calories per cup!!

Homemade Taco Seasoning... Tasty and no chemicals

As a wife and mother, I am interested in trying to limit the number of additives and chemicals in my family's diet. I think we would feel better and it will teach Hannah that some things are just better homemade. After all this is the child who loved boxed mashed potatoes and hated my homemade mashed potatoes the first five or six times I made them. Now she prefers the homemade kind and has learned to like fewer and fewer premade and boxed meals.
Not that I'm above making Hamburger Helper or slipping a Totino's pizza into the oven on a busy day. :o) I'm not going overboard... yet.  (I did mention that I can be OCD, right? So who knows where this will lead me.)
My family loves tacos but I hate buying the package seasoning, especially since I found several homemade seasoning mixes online. They're cheap and easy to make... with absolutely no additives.
After trying a few, I finally found one that we really like. It's super easy and I bet you have all the ingredients in your pantry!

Taco Seasoning

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• ¼ teaspoon onion powder
• Pinch cayenne or ground red pepper
• ¼ teaspoon oregano
• ½ teaspoon paprika
• 1 ½ teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper

Directions:

• Mix together.

Yes. It is THAT easy.
One recipe equals two packages.
And tomorrow you get to see the yummy and easy taco soup I made with this delicious seasoning.

Chinese take-out the homemade way (sweet and sour chicken)

This week it's all about recipes... healthy, at home recipes where YOU control the ingredients that go into what you eat. It's all part of our family's determination to become healthier and more conscious of what we put in our bodies. (Not that I will ever be above heating up a frozen pizza when I'm too tired to cook :D)

There are probably few things I like more than going out for Chinese. But on a limited budget that is a rare treat. And oh how I miss my Chinese.
Well, I figured out a way around it... HOMEMADE SWEET AND SOUR CHICKEN!
My family loved it so much that it was immediately requested to go into our Mozingo Family Favorites.
Request granted.
The sauce is so yummy! And after it cooks it is so nice and thick.
Pair it with "fried" rice and you have a delicious Chinese meal at less than 1/2 the price of takeout!

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Ingredients

CHICKEN COATING

• Cornstarch
• Eggs
• Salt and pepper to taste

SAUCE

• ¾ cup sugar
  4 tablespoons ketchup
  ½ cup distilled white or apple cider vinegar
  1 tablespoon soy sauce
  1 teaspoon garlic salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Dice 2-3 chicken breasts and salt and pepper.
Dip chicken cubes into cornstarch to coat, then into beaten eggs.
Brown chicken in large skillet until browned, but not cooked through.
Place chicken in a 9x13 baking dish.
Mix sauce and whisk until smooth. Pour over chicken.
Bake for one hour, tossing chicken over every 15 minutes.
Serve over "fried" rice.




Easy "Fried" Rice
Make rice according to directions. I use Minute Rice brown rice.
While rice is cooking, defrost and warm a small box of frozen mixed vegetables or heat a can of mixed vegetables.
After rice is cooked, toss rice and vegetables in a skillet. Add soy sauce to taste.

The Joy of Painting: A scrapbook layout

One of Hannah's favorite things to do is paint. She has so much fun expressing her creativity . . . even with the cheap watercolors!
I had to capture the look on her face.

 These pages are from my stockpile. I'm really trying to work through it. Doesn't help that my friend Keri let me dig through some of her paper she was getting rid of :D Not that I'm complaining AT ALL. I LOVE new paper!
First, I chose matching background paper that was colorful and artsy.
On the left page (above), I used six square punches with Hannah's name. I highlighted the letters with Liquid Glass. Then I used another artsy paper as a mat for the main photo. I used a plain journal block and then decorated with daisy stamps highlighted with Liquid Glass.
On the opposite page I used JOY alphabet stickers and a paintbrush sticker on white paper as a background and highlighted both with Liquid glass.

And there you have it.
A double page layout highlighting the joy of our beautiful Hannah.

In searchof a healthier breakfast: homemade instant oatmeal packs

A few weeks ago, we decided to try and eat healthier. One of the changes for my husband was giving up his daily eggs and toast.
In searching for a different but still tasty solution, my husband told me he really likes the instant oatmeal packets. They are so quick and easy but filled with chemicals and the price can really add up.
My friend Keri reminded me about some homemade instant oatmeal she had seen on Pinterest and I searched for the recipe.
Yep, there it was. Homemade instant oatmeal. But I wouldn't be me if I followed a recipe to the letter. So in our packets I added flax seed. It's good for you and supposed to lower the bad cholesterol and raise the good. And face it, who doesn't need that.
So without further ado...

Homemade Instant Oatmeal

• 1/2 cup instant oats
• 2 teaspoons dry milk
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon flax seed
• Dried fruit, if desired

Simply mix together and place in a Ziploc or snack bag.
In the morning, add 1/2 cup of water or milk and heat in microwave.

My husband really likes them and they are so easy to make. I just throw one in his lunch box in the morning and he has a hot breakfast when he gets to work.
Who knew it would be that easy?

Paper plate animals and the last day of winter break

Well, today was Hannah's last day of winter break. After a week and a half, she's ready to go back to school. Yes, she really is. She likes school! I'm so glad because we don't have to fight about it.
She's talking about wanting to home school next year, though. She's so far ahead of her class that she gets bored. We're talking about it and weighing the pros and cons (including my sanity LOL).
So after a late start, we decided to do one last "mommy/daughter" craft day. We started by doing paper plate animals. Yesterday, for my 30-day mom challenge, I asked her one thing she wanted to do with me this month and she said paper bag puppets. I think this is close ;)
She was ecstatic because I let her use some of my acrylic paints instead of her watercolors. The watercolors just weren't working out with our projects.
So here they are! Our sheep, cows and pigs... She had a blast, too.

 Here are the supplies we used -- most of them. We traded out the watercolors for acrylics. 

Items:

• Paper plates
• paint
• paintbrushes
• colored paper
• scissors
• cotton balls
• Elmer's glue (not pictured)
• glue stick (not pictured)
• wiggly eyes (not pictured)
• pipe cleaners (not pictured)

Instructions for pig:

1. Paint a large paper plate pink. Acrylic paints work best for this.
2. Take second paper plate and cut around center. Paint center to match the large plate.
3. After paint dries, glue smaller plate slightly down center in larger plate.
4. Cut out legs and glue to back of plate.
5. Create a curly q tail with pipe cleaner and attach with brad.
6. Decorate face and add wiggly eyes. We actually used buttons to make it funnier.

 Hannah enjoying painting her pig.

 More painting.

Instructions for sheep:

1. Squirt Elmer's glue all over paper plate.
2. Place cotton balls on plate, including edges.
3. Cut out two legs, one face and one ear.
4. Glue onto back of plate, where they can be seen from the front.
5. Put a wiggly eye on face and paint a small mouth.

 Gluing the cotton balls on the sheep.

Instructions for cow:

1. Cut the center of one paper plate and glue to bottom part of larger paper plate.
2. Paint black spots, if desired, and decorate face, including a nose.
3. Cut out two ears and glue onto head.
4. Cut out two legs and glue onto back of plate.

The finished products.

All in all, not a bad way to spend Hannah's final day of vacation.

Time for new beginnings and a challenge

Wow. I didn't realize that it had been more than two months since I posted my last "real" post. So sorry about that. But today I'm starting anew. I WILL do better about posting projects, recipes, ideas and photos.
At least I'll try.
Really hard :0)
 I'm also determined to take more family photos without depending on my sweet friend and fellow photographer Jenny. Our schedules just don't mesh most of the time. But a couple weeks ago Jenny's family and two other families spent an afternoon at our house and we took the opportunity to take some quick family photos.

 

This is Brian's favorite and the one we gave to our families.

 I think these two show Hannah's joyful personality and I really like the artsy sunspot setting Jenny managed to capture.

And then there is this one. She's just so squishably cute!

So, let's see. More blogging, projects, new recipes and photos.


Another thing I'm going to try do? The 30-day mom challenge.

http://imom.com/tools/build-relationships/30-day-mom-challenge/#.UJ2Ft-1v32U.pinterest

One of my BFFs Miche found the list and idea on Pinterest a couple months ago. She invited me and another mutual friend to try it. I was going to do it at the time, but in all honesty I forgot about it pretty quick. If I don't have something printed out right in front of me I have a tendency to do that.
So last week I printed the list out, laminated it and added it to the front to my organization binder. (a post on that another day) Let's hope this works.
So here's my challenge to my mom readers... Join me on the 30-day mom challenge this month.
It can only help.