12 Pin Progress

I’ve been diligently working on my 12 pins this month. Here’s the update:

Organizing – For my organization pin this month, I made a menu for January. I cooked the first meal which was delicious, then blew my menu out of the water when I decided to try a detox diet for a week. (Currently on day 3. Ugh.) I’ll reevaluate my menu to continue my detox meals then continue with healthy meals for the rest of the month.

Recipe – I’ll be making many recipes this month, but the one I chose for my 12 Pins Project is a Loaded Potato Chicken Casserole. It was delicious!

Loaded Baked Potato & Chicken Casserole

http://inspiredreamer.com/loaded-baked-potato-chicken-casserole/

Ingredients

·         3 - 4 medium russet potatoes, scrubbed and diced
·         (about 1.5 lbs. or 4 1/2 cups)
·         1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, diced
·         4 slices bacon, cooked crisp, cooled and crumbled
·         1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
·         4 green onions, sliced (green parts only for low-FODMAP/low-fructose)
·         1/2 teaspoon salt
·         1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
·         1/2 cup heavy cream
·         2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
Instructions
1.       Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9" x 9" baking pan or casserole dish.
2.       Spread half of the diced potatoes in bottom of pan. Place the diced chicken breasts evenly on top. Season chicken with 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Sprinkle with half the bacon crumbles, 1/2 cup of the cheese, and half the green onions.
3.       Spread the remaining diced potatoes on top, followed by the remaining bacon, another 1/2 cup cheese, remaining green onions and another 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Pour heavy cream over top of casserole and then dot with the butter. Cover with aluminum foil and bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour. Uncover and bake another 30 minutes. In the last few minutes of baking, sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup cheddar cheese and bake until melted. Serve

Starting a Business – I found a pin that said “Five questions to ask” (before starting a business). Unfortunately, the link was dead. So this month, I learned the valuable lesson of checking links before I include them in the monthly dozen.

Save/Make Money – My friend Dawn has done the five dollar savings plan and it worked for her so I decided to give it a try. I have fifteen dollars in my undie drawer as I type this. Huzzah.

Holiday – I made a gray yarn-wrapped wreath for my son’s birthday in October then turned it into a Halloween wreath by adding bats. Now, it is the argyle heart Valentine wreath that I’ve seen floating around Pinterest from Mineforthemaking.com.

Recipe (dessert) –For the dessert, I chose to make Root Beer Float Cookies. My husband and I decided that even though they were pretty decent, they wouldn’t make it into the baking rotation. I’d take a real root beer float over those any day.

Clothing/Sewing – For this project, I found a pin about adding a ruffle to a sweater. I’ve had a white sweater for about 8 years now that I’ve been wanting to festoon a little. However, before I did anything else, I wanted to dye it royal blue. When I finally did, I was a bit disappointed with how it turned out. It wasn’t as vibrant as I planned so now I don’t know if I want to continue “saving” it.

Kid Stuff – There was a cute pin about making foam circles for the bath tub (courtesy of homemadepins.com). I decided to make different shapes instead. Now Max has circles, squares, arrows, ovals, and his own name to play with, and he’s loved them. I had a packet of foam sheets from the dollar store so this was a really cheap project.