Pinspired Recipe: Creamy Crockpot Mexican Soup

Original Pin: Super easy super yummy crock pot soup: can of rotel, can of corn, can of black beans (drained & rinsed), 2 frozen chicken breasts, 8 oz cream cheese, 1 packet dry ranch dressing, 1 tablespoon cumin, 1 teaspoon onion powder, 1 teaspoon chili powder. Put all ingredients in crock pot and cook 6-8 hours. Shred chicken, and enjoy!

We tried this soup on Sunday and it was really good, and really easy--two things that require a dinner repeat in our house. I threw this in the crockpot mid-morning and went about the day getting stuff done, grocery shopping, cleaning, preparing for the week--you get the picture. I usually use the crockpot during the week for a quick weeknight meal, but I sometimes forget that crockpot cooking is great even for the weekend.

I was a little frightened about this recipe at first because it used cream cheese, and cream cheese to me just screams "you're going to get fat". So, I just substituted the regular cream cheese for fat free cream cheese and although I'm sure it's still not great for you, it made me feel better.

I was also a little skeptical of this recipe while it was cooking because it started to smell like a mexican weight watchers dish that I made a LOOONG time ago in college, that turned out TERRIBLE. Don't get me wrong, it smelled good, and so did the weight watchers dish--actually it smelled heavenly while it was cooking--so I just hoped all day long that we wouldn't have a repeat of my previous cooking disaster.

All in all, the dish was great. My husband loved it and I thought it was pretty decent since it literally took me about 5 minutes to throw together. We both went back for seconds too, if that tells you anything. :) It was pretty spicy though so we didn't let our 9 month old try it. I think if I was making this for kids I would cut the cumin in half.

We ate it up so fast that I didn't get a picture, but I'll remember to snap one next time we make it.

Here's the slightly modified version of the recipe as I made it:
1 can of rotel
1 can of corn (drained)
1 can of black beans (drained & rinsed)
4 frozen chicken breasts (they were small breasts)
8 oz fat free cream cheese
1 packet dry ranch dressing
1 tablespoon cumin
1 cup chopped onion (I used frozen onion for convenience)
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 cup water (could have maybe used a little more to make it more soupy)

Put all ingredients in crock pot and cook 6-8 hours. Shred chicken, and enjoy!

Have you tried this yet? What crockpot recipe pins do you want to try soon?

Happy Pinning!
-Annie

Pinspired Project: Argyle Felt/Yarn Wreath

I LOVE wreaths. Absolutely love them. I love that you can find a wreath for practically any occasion/season/decor and it basically completes the look of the front of your house. Icing on the cake, if you will.

But I'm pretty picky. I won't just put up any old wreath. Ever since we bought our home two years ago, I've been on the hunt for good wreaths for the front door. But I couldn't find something that I loved for under $40--and I said I love them, but not that much!

So when I came across several DIY wreath projects on Pinterest, I knew it HAD to be my first project.

As all the neighbor kids were headed back to school, I wanted something for a preppy/back-to-school look. Thus my first Pinspiration (original PIN of someone's amazing argyle felt yarn wreath):

The tools:
Yarn in two different colors (gray and green)
Straw Wreath (leave the plastic on)
Felt in two different colors (ivory and tan)
Fabric glue
Sissors
Patience

The first step is to wrap the yarn around the wreath. On a few tutorials I saw, the ladies thought this part was annoyingly tedious. I felt like it was actually somewhat therapeutic. As I have a 9 month old baby, I was only able to work on this in short spurts after I put her down for bed and before my own bedtime. So the wrapping part actually took several days of working for 15-20 minutes, while watching episodes of Friends on Nick-at-Nite (OMG are we old or what?).

It probably would have gone much faster if I was able to dedicate a solid 45 minutes to an hour to just knock it out. The key is to not worry too much about getting the strands of yarn straight. Just wrap it until you no longer see the straw wreath underneath and then move on. I Actually went back and wrapped it again in a few places where the straw started to show through when I was all done. A few strands out of place here and there give it character, and most of the front stuff gets covered up by felt anyways.

Eventually it looked like this. (I just tied the yarn to another piece of yarn in the back to make sure it didn't unravel.)

Then probably the hardest part for me was cutting out the squares/diamonds of felt. I'm a little bit of a perfectionist and I wanted it to look good, so it took a little time until I got my free-hand cutouts to look the way I wanted to. A normal person probably would have just made a template to trace, but I like to take the long way sometimes. :) Eventually I got there and it looked like this:

Then all I had to do was glue it all down and then tie the green string around it in two different directions to finish off the argyle pattern. And there you have it--my first pinspired project, completed for about 7 bucks!

Oh yeah, I'm totally going to make more of these. In different colors for different seasons and holidays! Maybe even as gifts. Wrapping the yarn took the longest and all in all it was a pretty quick and easy project with a great return on investment. I also think I might use my glue gun next time instead of the fabric glue--the fabric glue seemed to show through a little more than I thought it would.

A little part of me feels a little bad for "copying" this exactly as the original pin, but it was my first project and I didn't want it to be a flop. As I get to feeling more and more pinspired I think I'll feel more confident to reach outside the box. And they say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery... so all in all I'll mark this one as a success!!

What's pinspired you lately?

Happy Pinning!
-Annie

Hi, my name is Annie, and I'm a Pinterest addict.

All together now: Hi, Annie. :)

I don't know about you, but I've recently become overwhelmingly inspired by the unending supply of wonderful ideas on Pinterest.

A little about Pinterest for those that just stumbled upon this blog, and have been trapped under a rock and don't know what pinterest is--it's essentially a gigantic social virtual bulletin board where you "pin" pictures in groups on boards that you create. You can create themes for your boards like DIY craft, home decor or fashion, and then you can re-pin pictures that other people have posted, or create your own "pins" of pictures that you find on the Internet by using the "pin it" button. Your pins are shared with your followers so they can see what you are interested in and re-pin your pins if they wish.

A more accurate description of Pinterest is the word FABULOUS! To me, the beauty of pinterest is that it brings together a bunch of creative people in one place, sharing what inspires them with the rest of the world. Creativity breeds creativity.

By nature, I'm a creative person--but over the last year or so I've been in a creative rut. Last December I gave birth to a sweet baby girl, but life as a new mom (and a working mom at that) doesn't lend itself to much free time for self expression. Not to mention the no-sleep, coffee induced coma I walk around in during the work week.

When I first came across Pinterest, I was skeptical at first. I didn't have time for another social media platform as I was already having trouble keeping up with my facebook and twitter friends. But Pinterest is different. As soon as I got my invite and started making my first few pins I felt all those creative juices start to flow once again, and I was hooked.

So here we are. A few weeks later and I've already completed several fun and easy pinterest inspired projects--and I have a growing list of what I want to do next. And because my poor husband can't handle any more of my constant jabbering, I decided that I needed an official place to talk about it all.

This blog is dedicated to all the things that have "Pinspired" me. I plan to post about Pins that have my creativity and organizational juices flowing, products that I just HAVE TO HAVE, projects I'm working on, pictures and reviews of my finished projects, recipes, as well as a plethora of other things I find amusing. I'll also tell you when a project gets the Pinspired Mama approval, or whether it was a dud and you shouldn't waste your time. Because that's me, I'm honest. :)

If you're new to Pinterest and need a little help getting started, I ran across this tutorial that may help. Pinterest 101 Tutorial

You can also follow me on Pinterest at http://pinterest.com/annieflash/ to see what I'm up to and I might even follow you back. :)

Thanks for checking out my blog!
Happy Pinning!!
-Annie