Scrap, scrap, and more scrap...booking that is.

These are pages of Kaden's first pictures. The first picture has his baby announcement and the pictures we took right before heading home from the hospital in his first outfit. I had a hard time making these pictures fit until I added the light blue. It will be one of the few times "other" color is added to the album than the main 5 I chose in the beginning. I just found the picture the hospital took and am going to try to add that one to the page with the baby announcement somehow. It would fit in great if I can manage it!


These next 2 pages are of our trip to Keystone/Hill City with PCA Engineering (Luke's work) when Kaden was 1 month old. We stayed in some cabins and on one of the days we took the train from Hill City to Keystone. Since we took the train we couldn't take a stroller and it ended up being about 100 degrees that day. Kaden blew out of his diaper 2 times and didn't want to eat because he was so hot. The picture of him sleeping on the floor was in a restaurant and it was about the only time he slept all day, I think! I really like how these pages turned out-simple and fun.

Subway Flatbread? At home? I THINK SO.

I forgot to take a picture of the WHOLE sandwhich so I had to take one of Luke's half eaten one! Sorry about that! They were just SOOOO good..who remembers to take a picture of such a goodlooking, mouthwatering, sandwhich? This flat bread is actually really easy once you get the hang of it. Give it a try! The only thing i reccomend is reheating it (like they do at Subway) before using! I did that in my toaster oven on bake at 350*, but the microwave would work just fine too.

Ingredients:
1 c warm water
1 pkg (1 T) yeast
1/4 c sugar
1 egg
3 T milk
1 t salt
3-5 cups flour
1/4-1/2 c butter
onion salt
garlic salt

In mixing bowl sprinkle yeast over water. Add sugar and let sit til frothy. Beat egg and add to yeast water along with milk and salt. Stir in half of the flour until mixture is creamy. Mix in enough flour to form a soft dough. Knead 6-8 minutes. In warm place, let dough raise until doubled (45-60 minutes). Punch down and divide 6-12 balls (depending on desired size of bread. 6 balls should do 6 approximately 6in x 6in pieces (maybe bigger)-pefect for sandwiches like Subway. Twelve would do about 12 3-inch rounds-this would be good if you are just serving the flat bread with soup.)Let balls rest for 15 minutes. Heat grill pan (this makes fun grill marks on the bread, but I'm guessing a frying pan or griddle would work well aslo) over high heat. Punch down then roll out 1 of the rolls of dough. Roll it to about 1/2 centemeter (almost 1/4 inch thick.) I've shown a ruler to help those of you who might be challenged in the area of depth measurement!
Remember, that's 1/4 of the inch side, or 1/2 of the centemeter side. These will expand a little while cooking so make sure they aren't TOO thick. But if they are too thin they will come out more like cracker bread than the doughy yummy flatbread we're all wanting! After you've got one rolled out turn the heat down to LOW for the grill pan. Melt 1/4 cup butter and add onion salt and garlic salt to taste. Brush over rolled out dough. The picture shown here was one of my first "tries" which was rolled out too thin. I wanted to just show you a picture to show how I don't make sure it's a perfect square. Also, I found it super easy to roll it out on my stone pizza pan with my pastry roller (which you can barely see in the corner of the picture) instead of a big rolling pin.
Next, lay it face down in the grill pan and cook (for me, it took about 2-3 minutes on low-2 setting. But watch it carefully!) I do not reccomend using the top part of a grill pan for these. It will bubble on the top side as shown in this picture.
If desired butter the uncooked side and flip over.
It may seem a little doughy when you take it out of the pan-and you will just have to experiment with your stove and your pan to see where perfection lies. For me, it looked a little doughy but turns out it wasn't doughy at all when we ate it. I really super hope someone out there tries this and loves it as much as I did! When I get my southwestern sauce perfected I promise to share that too! One of these days I'm gonna have the upper hand on Subway...one of these days...

More Scrap Pages

Pages 8-9 are of our Happy Family. The yellow card is from Kaden's 2 day Dr. appointment-it has Kaden's size and weight from that visit. I love to keep little things like this for the baby book even if it does make it harder to get it to "fit in" with the page layout and colors! Also, more journaling! It says, "Newborn Pictures with your bear from Grandpa and Grandma Bradley" And there started what was the main inspiration of this scrapbook. You'll have to stay tuned to see where it goes!
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Right now, these next two pages are pages 10-11. I'm unsure if that is where they will stay. I chose to do a Daddy and son page because I kept running across pictures that I wanted to put in his scrapbook that didn't necessarily "fit" with the pages I had in mind. I love this page because it just looks FUN...it is all ages from birth to 4 months which is why I am unsure if it will stay in this order. Notice the buttons. I just love buttons in a baby scrapbook. I try not to over use them!


So there you go! Pages 12-15 will be coming soon!

Ultrasound & Birth pages

Here are pages 4-7 of Kaden's baby book. Pages 4-5 are some of the ultra sound pictures from my pregnancy. These pages always remind me of the little boy at the daycare I worked at while I was pregnant. The kid was about 2 1/2 (Kaden's age now, actually!)-anyway-he would NOT believe there was a baby in my tummy. He even told his mom I was lying to him. It was pretty innocent and cute. Anyway, back to the pages- I have a stencil I got at Walmart that lets me "trace" an area to journal in. You'll see it in many of my pages.


Pages 6-7 are some of my favorites, but probably only because they are pictures of the first time I ever saw my baby boy. I learned not to use "dries clear" glue on the clear parts. I haven't yet figure out exactly what you can use, since photo squares, and clear tape don't work well either. So until I figure it out, I am using glue sticks. It seems to work well. Also, for this page I used the measuring tape they used to measure his head and chest as well as the tag off his crib at the hospital. The bands on the 2nd page are his ankle band and my wrist band. It doesn't fit as well with the jungle theme, but that's hardly noticeable unless I point it out, right? Espeically since I managed to squeeze in that cute little giraffe!

Introducing Scrapbooking into this Blog...

Right now I'm *supposed* to be baking bread, paying bills, and filing. This is my newest procrastination method.
I've decided to add my scrapbooking pages to my blog. I just have to. I'm sorry to those of you who just want recipes-by maybe I can inspire you to scrapbook? OR, maybe it'll just confirm that you don't want to get into such a big project! I'll start with Kaden's scrapbook (which is barely started) and throw in some pages from the scrapbook I made for my Grandparents last year. And someday I might even be brave enough to share my first ever pages-of my wedding.

When you start something like this you definitely have your favorite pages and your "other" pages. Those are the ones you aren't exactly proud of but you're not gonna try to redo them because they kicked your butt the first time. I'll try to make sure I let you know which ones are which! So, without further ado, here is the first 3 pages of Kaden's scrapbook. Keep in mind-I didn't have my (amazingly wonderful) Cricut when I started this one!

Kaden's scrapbook is a Horizontal 8 1/2in X 11in size book which makes page layouts interesting! I decided early on to have a jungle theme for his book as well as 5 different colors to work with. Lesson number 1 (you learn as you go) five colors is too few. In the future, I will pick 5 solids and 5 prints or something like that. This first page just introduces my favorite little boy with some of my favorite first pictures of him. He looks so relaxed!

The next two photos are the next pages. As you open the book you'll see these pages together, so try to imagine it that way! I decided to go back in time to my (lovely) pregnant days. This was a fun and easy layout because the pictures put themselves in order. Please try not to notice how huge I got. He was a big baby, okay!


I just noticed as I was "previewing" my blog to make sure I had the pictures in the right order that there is an ELEPHANT on the same page as my huge preggo pics. REALLY, Bethany??? REALLY? I so did not mean for that, but, it is somewhat ironic. SIGH. This really is what I mean by "learning as you go"... Note to self: no more elephants on pages with pregnant women". The END.

Chicken & Cabbage Salad

I found this recipe while I was re-organizing my recipe books last night. I love this salad...but it's one I would never have picked out of a book. I had it at a party one time and I was sold! I changed it a tiny bit to fit my taste! I hope you love it as much as I do. I'll try to get a picture the next time I make it. It makes a lot, so I usually make half, or make it for a potluck.

Salad Ingredients:
1 small head cabbage
3 chicken breasts
3 green onions
1 package oriental (or beef) flavored Ramen noodles (save packet for dressing)
1/8-1/4 c slivered almonds OR sunflower seeds
1 c oil
1/4 c vinegar
1/4 c sugar
Ramen flavor packet

Directions:
Cube chicken breasts then cook fully. Meanwhile, shred cabbage and place in large bowl. Break up Ramen noodles into small pieces (save packet for dressing), and slice green onions. Combine chicken, noodles, green onions, and almonds/sunflower seeds with cabbage.

Next combine the oil, vinegar, sugar and flavoring packet from the Ramen and mix well. About 1/2 hour before serving, pour dressing over salad and mix well.

Crockpot Chicken (or Beef!) Stroganoff

Dinner's on! And it's only noon!!! That's because I found me some crockpot recipes to try, and BOY AM I EXCITED! I know some of you out there (including my very own sister in law!) have a THING against crockpot foods....I have this to say to you. Get over it. You've probably only had foods that came from the campbell's "I don't have any taste" cookbook or some 3 ingredient or less thing. I LOVE my crockpot, and I'm not afraid to say it. For the rest of you, here's the recipe I'm trying. It originally calls for chicken, but I'm in the mood for some good red meat SOOOO true to my subconcious need to change every recipe, I have modified it some. I'll give it both ways in case you want to try the chicken one!

Ingredients:
4 chicken breast halves, cubed
(1lb-ish cubed deer or beef steak)
2 T butter or margarine
1 pkg (.7 oz) Italian Dressing Mix
1 (10.75 oz) can Cream of Chicken soup
(Cream of Mushroom would be good with the beef)
1 (8oz) block of cream cheese
OPTIONAL: 1 can sliced mushrooms or equivilant fresh
frozen broccoli (for the beef kind, not sure about broccoli with chicken..maybe?)

Throw the cubed chicken (beef) into the crockpot along with the butter and Italian Dressing Mix. Cook on low for 5 hours. One half hour before serving add the soup, cream cheese, and veggies and cook on HIGH until heated through. Serve over rice or egg noodles.

POINTS: 10 per serving
makes 4 servings
14 points if served over 3/4 cup cooked rice OR egg noodles. 13 points if served over 1/2 cup cooked rice.
Weight Watchers has changed their point system, so this point value is only valid with their NEW system. (My GUESS is that it'd be a few less points with the "old" system, but I can't be sure) Curse you WW for changing what I knew so well.

*I'm thinking I might try it next time with some garlic added. We'll see how that goes.*