Crockpot Chicken Enchiladas

I've never posted a recipe of my own here before. Let's be honest, I've never created a recipe of my own.

At least not one I liked.

I've been cooking and baking a lot lately and I've really grown to love it. The crockpot is the best invention ever and I love mexican food...hence this recipe! I hope you enjoy it!

Crockpot Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients:

3-4 chicken breasts

1 jar of salsa

package of tortillas (10)

1 can of black beans

1 can of enchilada sauce

3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tomato diced

shredded lettuce

Pour a little salsa in the bottom of your crockpot, then place the chicken breast on top. Pour the remaining jar of salsa on top of the chicken. Cook on low for 4-5 hours. After chicken is complete, shred chicken (I usually just use two forks to pull it all apart).

Wrap your tortillas in papertowels and microwave for 45 seconds to get them nice and soft.

Pour a little enchilada sauce in the bottom of your 9x13 pan to coat the pan. Then take a tortilla, fill with shredded salsa chicken, black beans and a little shredded cheese. This is the part that can really be fit to taste - add jalapenos, peppers...whatever sounds good!

Tuck in the sides of the tortilla and roll into an enchilada, place in pan seam side down. Repeat until you've used all your tortillas.

Pour remaining enchilada sauce on top of your enchiladas. I usually don't use the whole can because I don't like them too soupy. Put a spoonful of sour cream on top of each enchilada, then cover with remaining shredded cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Serve with diced tomato and shredded lettuce. Yummy!

Ok, so it's been a while. And here's why.

Life is full of responsibilities, commitments and...well, laundry. I'm a multi-tasker and I'm a people pleaser. This is a very bad combination. I've been trying to be great at a lot of different things...at the same time.

So, it's time for me to slow down. As my blog clearly states, I was trying to be a wife, mom and designer. The designer category was a taking a bigger percentage than it should have been. After months of thinking about it, conversations with friends and frankly, God giving me every clue he could...it became very clear that I was trying to do too much. Something had to give. So beginning last month, Lucky Star Press stopped shipping orders. I've loved building my stationery business and I hope I can start it up again someday, but for now, it's not what's best for me or my family.

My kids are young, but they're not getting any younger. It's going by entirely too fast and I want to enjoy it. I've chosen to focus only on freelance projects and my part-time position at Crossroads Church as their designer/communications person. I love my job there and I know it's exactly what I'm supposed to be doing with time right now.

I hope the same for all of you, that you're doing exactly what makes you happy and what's best for you and those around you. There are only so many hours in the day, use them wisely.

top ten things i feel guilty about...and shouldn't

This is one of those blog posts that I hope is therapeutic. Lately, I've been feeling guilty about a lot of things and wondering if I shouldn't be.

1. Working too much.

2. Not working enough.

3. Working on the wrong projects.

4. Going on a vacation with my husband and leaving my kids at home.

5. Not cleaning my house enough.

6. Watching too much TV. While I work.

6. Not updating my blog enough.

7. Guilty that my son's scrapbook covers the first month of his life. He turns 18 months on Friday.

8. Not taking enough pictures.

9. Guilty about changes I'm making, even though in my head, I know they're the right ones.

10. Not spending enough time being a mom, friend, daughter, sister in law, niece or granddaughter.

I was right.

That was therapeutic.

top 10 [new] favorite recipes

My husband describes it as some sort of mid-life crisis. I say my new found love for cooking/baking is because after a year and a half, my husband is home seven nights a week rather than three. I actually have someone to cook for!

I've been making new recipes almost every night, so I thought I'd share a few of my favorites, in no particular order:



(sorry for the photo quality, some are mobile photos)

1. Chili Lime Chicken Tostadas

2. Best Basic Brownie

(just a tip on these, don't put M&Ms in them if you want them to look pretty. trust me.)

3. Grilled Chicken with Lemon Basil Pasta

4. Pasta with Tomato-Bleu Cheese Sauce

hey, I never said these were healthy recipes



5. Granny's Chocolate Cobbler



6. Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

7. Crockpot Lasagna

8. The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie

9. Zesty Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken

And for #10...

With all this recipe searching I knew it was a perfect excuse to find a spiffy new method for organizing them. My little box just wasn't cutting it. My new Cath Kidston Recipe Organizer arrived in the mail today! Here are a few peeks at the inside...

i'm in a book!

I was delighted when Charlotte Rivers from Roto Vision in the UK asked me to be included in the book, Reinventing Letterpress. It's a book that features numerous letterpress companies as well as general information about the letterpress printing process.

You can purchase the UK version here. Or, you can pre-order the US version, to be released by Chronicle books under the name Little Book of Letterpress. Here are a few pictures of the book:

birthday party planning

Hailey's 4th birthday is next week and we're having a mermaid party this Saturday to celebrate. I LOVE planning parties for the kids. I'll take plenty of photos to show you next week, but thought I'd show you a little bit of my inspiration so far...



Rainbow Cake: This cake has been on a ton of blogs, but after I saw it on Martha Stewart I knew Hailey would love it. I've been telling her for a few months that I'm making her a special surprise cake...so let's hope it turns out like the picture!

Lanterns and Streamers: we'll see how this turns out, I have streamers and a friend is making some poms rather than lanterns. (if this is your photo, please let me know, I couldn't find it again to source it!)

Aqua and Hot Pink: I'm wishing I found this photo a few weeks ago, these are the colors I'm going for and am using this banner as inspiration.

Sprinkler, water balloons and fishing over the curtain game: activities for the party, if it doesn't rain (fingers crossed)

Fish bowl centerpiece: these are cute...just not sure the kids will leave them alone :)

top ten tuesday: 10 things I want to accomplish by the end of summer

The Fourth of July has come and gone, school is almost visible on the calendar and Target is stocking their shelves with backpacks...summer is dwindling by the day! I had big plans for myself at the beginning of June and I gotta say, I'm not doing so hot. So, I decided to participate in Top Ten Tuesday to get myself together, let's get to it:



10 Things to Accomplish by the End of Summer:

1. Finish the Couch 2 5K program. I'm on Week 1 and if I stick to the plan, I'll be finished by mid-September.

2. In combination with #1: Convince someone to run/travel to the Wine & Dine 5K weekend in Disney World. I find it only fitting that my first 5K should be somewhere magical, don't you?

3. Finish cleaning out and organizing our basement. We started off strong with a garage sale in May, now time to organize the things we actually want to keep.

4. Plan my daughters 4th birthday party at the end of July. Invitations have been sent, now its time for the fun part!

5. Print Pictures! I have thousands that need to be sorted, printed and put into albums.

6. Paint my son's room (don't tell my husband). He did a lovely job painting the nursery orange..but that was before we knew he was a boy, and now, I really want a new color.

7. Cook! I've been on a roll this summer with learning to cook new dishes. I've been obsessed with the Pioneer Woman's recipes and have enjoyed trying them out on the fam.

8. Spend more time goofing off with the kids. I've limited my work load this summer so that I can spend more time with the kids...its going well so far, but I need to be more strict with my schedule.

9. Figure out what to do with my daughter's preschool art projects...they're everywhere and I have no clue what to do with them!

10. Finish the bathroom! It's painted and the shower curtain is set, I have a couple accessories, but need a few more to complete the look.

Just making that list has made me want to print recipes and plan birthday details!

What do you want to accomplish this summer?