Recovering ugly chairs

I bought my dining room table about 10 years ago. I didn't have children, or money. It was a small table with 4 chairs and I think I paid about $100. Quite a bargain! Over the course of the years the veneer chipped, bubbled and warped. The top of the table was uneven, stained and pretty unappealing. Also, I have two kids now. The smaller table wasn't working well for crafts, dinner and everything else that dining tables are used for. So I packed up hubby and monsters and headed to Lowe's where I found a very large piece of wood and some nice stain. I removed the old, ugly table top and screwed on the now stained wood. In no time I had a super-sized table!
But the chairs. They were falling apart. Literally. Pieces would break off, screws would fall out and I had to reattach the seats constantly. This poor table. I should just put it out of its misery and send it to the dump, but the thought of shopping for a new table does not fill my heart with glee. Instead I keep replacing, recovering and refinishing. I have twice before recovered the chairs and I think I have replaced every screw at least once in all 4 chairs. Through all that, I was now left with one original chair. I had this great plan to get 5 more chairs, all of various design, and recover them all with the same fabric, possibly even paint them. It would look eclectic and cute (I hoped).
Before I could find even one chair I wanted to refinish, let alone 5, the lone hold out from the original 4 dies. No chairs. My dining table has no chairs. How did this happen?! So I grabbed my younger brother and we set off to scour thrift stores in search of 6 similar, yet different chairs that I would then make look fabulous. We walked into the first thrift store and found 5 of these.

Hideous purple things that look like they belong on the patio of a Mexican restaurant where you pour your own soda. But I saw potential! And at just $5 a piece I was willing to give them a chance.

I removed the seat with a screw driver and laid it on some fabric like so:

Cut the fabric, making sure I had plenty to wrap all the around and simply starting stapling. I used a Stanley t100 staple gun, just $15 at WalMart. The fabric I had from previous projects, but I didn't have quite enough for all 5 so I had to use coordinating fabric on 2 chairs. Maybe not the eclectic look I had originally envisioned but I now have seating for 5 and what amounts to a whole new dining set for a grand total of: $50

Baskets on a wall

Found this idea on pinterest and I applied it to my own bathroom.

My bathroom is large enough, it's just oddly narrow. So storage is a premium and vertical space needs to be utilized. Thankfully I had a few of these wicker baskets that my kids have somehow allowed to escape from their path of destruction. A stud finder, some screws and voila! Instant (and free!) towel storage.

Gluten Free chicken nuggets

1 cup rice flour
1/3 cup corn starch
1/2 tsp each: garlic salt, chili powder, pepper, & salt
5 chicken breasts
Deep fryer, full of oil

Cube chicken, place in freezer for 10 minutes.
Combine all dry ingredients.
Stir in chicken.
Fry approximately 12 minutes in very hot oil.

I made a bunch to freeze. Now my little sweetie has chicken nuggets, ready to go.

And they are gluten free, dairy free and egg free. Which means Killian Friendly!

Gluten free creamy chicken pasta

My house has been hit by the wrath of the wheat monster. Yes, we are now almost completely gluten free. I will possibly delve into this in another post and/or on another blog. But for now, here is a wonderful, if not exactly healthy, gluten free chicken dinner.
Enjoy!

1/2 box gluten free penne pasta
3 garlic cloves, chopped
3 chicken breasts, cut into strips
2 cups fresh broccoli, chopped well
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup prepared pesto sauce (I prefer Costco brand, better than homemade)
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan
salt, pepper, olive oil

Cook gluten free pasta according to directions.
In large frying pan heat olive oil. Add chicken strips and cook until almost done. Add garlic, salt and pepper and cook additional 3 minutes.
Transfer prepared pasta to casserole dish. Mix in pesto and broccoli. Top with chicken, sprinkle peas over pasta.
bake at 375 for 15 minutes
Sprinkle cheese on top and broil for 5 minutes, until cheese is melted.

Serve and savor!

Stacy's Chicken Enchiladas

So good, so easy, so filling!
*see additional instructions below to make this dairy-free

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked & shredded chicken
1 brick cream cheese
2 cups salsa (spiciness to taste)
1 can black beans, rinsed & drained
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp pepper

2 Tbl Olive oil
8 flour tortillas
1 cup shredded cheese
1 cup enchilada sauce

Preheat oven to 350'
Combine first 6 ingredients.
Coat 9x13 pan with olive oil.
Fill tortillas with Chicken mixture & wrap in burrito style.
Place wraps in pan.
Bake 20 minutes
Cover with cheese
bake additional 10 minutes
Cover with warm enchilada sauce
Serve with corn & large side salad. YUM!

If you want to make these super-healthy I have included some easy add-ons. Feel free to use any or all, they should go unnoticed by all but the most sensitive of tasters.
Puree 1/4 cup canned white beans and sub these for same amount of cream cheese.
To chicken mix add 1/2 cup frozen chopped spinach.
Add 1/4 cup chopped carrots to salsa.
Cover with 1/4 cup chopped fresh or canned (chopped) tomatoes, along with enchilada sauce.

To make this dairy free and more allergy friendly simply use soy cream cheese and omit the corn. I have it on good authority that soy cream cheese is an excellent and nearly undetectable replacement for cow's milk cream cheese.

How to shred chicken for dinner tonight

There are a few ways to shred a lot of chicken in a hurry.

First method involves a rotisserie chicken bought from any grocery store.
Just, ya know, take it apart. It should basically shred on its own, as you disassemble it. Get quart freezer bags to save the meat in serving portions to suit your family's needs. The average family should be able to make at least 3 meals from a whole chicken out of the deli.
1. Roasted chicken with potatoes and green beans
2. Shredded Chicken Quesadillas with broccoli and black beans
3. Taco Soup (will post recipe asap)
All of these can be made with very little preparation and in less than 30 minutes.

The second method would be to use a pressure cooker. I have a fancy new digital or electronic pressure cooker but I used to use an older style pressure cooker. Either way will work to cook in a hurry.
I hate to send you away, but the best method for cooking a whole chicken in a pressure cooker is found here
If you plan to use your pressure cooker to cook one of those bags of chicken breasts found in most grocery stores then you'll:
place the roasting rack in your cooker
empty the bag of breasts into your pressure cooker
add 1/2 cup water or stock
cook on High (let pressure regulator rock on high) about 15 minutes
allow pressure to drop naturally
shred with a fork and freeze in quart bags, portions according to your family size

You can then use your shredded chicken for SO many recipes. Enchiladas (recipe to follow asap), quesadillas, taco soup, stir fry, alfredo pizza, chicken scampi,chicken chili, thai pizza....

Online Learning Games from Fisher-Price – For Infants, Toddlers & Preschoolers

Online Learning Games from Fisher-Price – For Infants, Toddlers & Preschoolers