Quick meal for busy nights (& a giveaway)

Oh, where does the time go?  Between starting a new childcare venture, enjoying the beautiful spring weather, getting sick, and then caring for two little girls with ferocious cases of the stomach flu, April has come and gone before I even wrapped my head around the fact that it was here.  The days have been flying by lately and by dinner time I find myself frazzled at the day's events and at a loss of what to prepare.  Enter the "Get Creative with Leftovers" mission.  Here is a sample:

The target leftovers:
grilled chicken, cubed or shredded

Staple ingredients found in fridge:
2 tortillas
salsa
cheese
leftover rice (I had about 3/4 cup)
onions, chopped
sour cream

And from the pantry:
tortilla chips
black refried beans

This was thrown together quickly in order to avert an emergency pizza delivery! 

Chicken "burritos"

1. Place tortillas on microwavable plates, spread refried beans and a scoop of rice.
2. Divide chicken and add shredded cheese.
3. Microwave until warm, add salsa, sour cream, and chopped onions as desired.  (I prefer the onions fresh and uncooked on such dishes!)

Layered dip

1. Spread refried beans over a small plate.  (One with a significant rim works well.)
2. Next layer sour cream, salsa, cheese, onions as desired.
3. Serve with tortilla chips.

Ready in 10 minutes, hardly enough time for a pre-dinner cerveza :)

And a sidenote, there is a great giveaway on "The Ramblings and Adventures of a S.A.H.M."  Good stuff, check it out!

More Easter ramblings

Oh, where does the time go.  I am late to provide ideas for this year, but just wanted to share a couple more Easter happenings at our house last week.

First, another craft that was SO fun and easy, and it is especially noteworthy (blog-worthy?) because the Bear fully participated in this without giving me anxiety.  And it turned out beautifully!!!  I got an e-newsletter last week from BabyCenter with the idea to make sun-catcher Easter eggs and it reminded me of something I'm sure I've seen before but can't remember where.  Using contact paper, black construction paper, and brightly colored tissue paper, we made some really beautiful stained glass "windows" that we hung on our actual windows and admired all Easter weekend.

 This was the big one that we all worked on together.  After we hung it up (just using the contact paper around the edges- how perfect, right??) Tinkerbell saw the sunlight streaming through it and put her hand to her mouth and said "Oh, Mom!  It's just like Grandma's church!"

The Bear hard at work.  She thought this was GREAT.

One last picture of the front door display.  These were so eye-catching; I noticed them every time I pulled into the driveway.

And some Easter-themed "homework" for Tinkerbell (she loves doing homework, although she sighs like it is a big burden, but that is all part of the act.)

I found a Williams-Sonoma catalog in a pile of mail that was put to good use for this activity.  I just cut out some shapes (while the girls were working on the stained glass project) and traced them onto plain paper, and Tinkerbell used a glue stick to paste the shapes onto the paper in the correct spot as she named each.

Finally, in honor of Easter I wanted to post this video that I came across recently and was brought to tears over.  It is one thing to read the Easter story but it is such a different experience when it is set to music and the magic of movies.  (If you haven't seen The Passion of the Christ I think it is something that you should force yourself to do soon!!  Hard to watch but something I think everyone needs to see.) This video is a montage of clips from The Passion of the Christ and is set to music by Casting Crowns.  Take a few minutes to watch it.....I hope it moves you the way it does me.