All I can say is YUM!    One of the ladies at my stampers group made this a few months ago and I fell in love with it.   She gave me the recipe and Jason and I tried it out today.   It is so light and refreshing, perfect for the summer heat!

Here's the recipe:
Fruit Salsa
Ingredients:
1 c. finely chopped strawberries
1 medium orange, peeled and finely chopped
2 lg. or 3 small kiwi, peeled and finely chopped
1 8oz. can crush pineapple, drained
1/4 c. thinly sliced green onions
1/4 c. finely chopped yellow or green bell pepper
1 T. lime juice
1 jalapeno pepper, finely diced

Combine all ingredients and chill for 6 hours.  Serve with cinnamon crisps.

Cinnamon Crisps:  Cut 12 8-inch tortillas into 8 wedges.   Spread wedges on a baking pan and brush with melted butter.   Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.   Bake at 350 for 10 minutes or until crisp.

I finally got around to making cards this weekend.  Here are a couple of them:

One of my Favorite Recipes....

CHICKEN PARMESAN
Ingredients:
½ c. Italian-style bread crumbs
2 tbsp. reduced-fat Parmesan cheese
½ tsp. garlic powder
1 c. spaghetti sauce
2 slices 2% mozzarella cheese
4 4-oz. BSCB
Directions:
Preheat oven to 425. Combine bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, garlic powder, and salt in a shallow bowl. Spray each breast with Pam. Coat evenly with bread crumb mixture. Spray a baking sheet with Pam. Arrange chicken on baking sheet. Bake 12-14 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink. Pour ¼ c. spaghetti sauce over each piece of chicken. Cut each piece of mozzarella cheese in half, and place on top of chicken. Return to oven and heat until cheese melts. If desired, serve with pasta and spaghetti sauce.

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas...

I'm having technical issues with the camera lately (bad user) but I wanted to share the tree and the fireplace. I would post the village but a hurricane of cats have destroyed it over the past week. Trees have been uprooted and none of the people are still standing. (The stockings were hung by the chimney with great care, just in case you were wondering) :)

A good friend at work made my day today (Thanks, Rebecca) by bringing me some stamps sets and a stamp pad she had duplicates of. Wasn't that the sweetest thing EVER? I certainly thought so and I can't wait to use them! I'll post some cards when I do.

I wanted to share a new recipe today. This one is YUM and can be modified to your taste.

Green Chili Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients
10 medium tortilla, flour, fat-free
4 oz chopped green chilies
3 oz fat-free or reduced-fat cream cheese
1 cup onion(s), diced
1.5 cups shredded cooked chicken breasts
1 can green enchilada sauce
1/4 cup Reduced fat Mexican blend shredded cheese
1 cup salsa or picante sauce

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 and spray a 9x 13 pan with cooking spray. Add a little enchilada sauce to the bottom of the pan. Cook onion in a medium pan until soft. Add chicken, green chilies, salsa, and cream cheese. Mix well. Spread mixture down the middle of tortilla and roll up. Place seam side down in pan. Continue until all tortillas are used. Spread any remaining mixture over the top of tortillas. Pour remaining green enchilada sauce over all and bake 30 minutes, covered. Sprinkle with cheese last 10 minutes.

Hodgepodge for Friday

Ahh....the weekend. I'm looking forward to this weekend as I actually have things planned to do! Tomorrow I will be baking with two wonderful friends; we are getting a big head start on our holiday baking! I hope our co-workers don't mind getting their gifts early as this weekend was the only one that we could really plan on doing it together. I have yet to hear anyone complain about free food, so I'm sure it will be a big hit at both of our offices! I just have to be careful and stay out of the finished goodies. I'm really trying to stay strong about eating healthy and losing weight. I decided to treat this week like my first week of Weight Watchers and do everything right. I am now one pound away from never being obese ever again and I'm itching to get that awesome title of 'overweight'. Is that sad or what?

I had a great dinner tonight that I wanted to share. I had made Meatloaf Muffins (recipe to follow) earlier this week, so I had that accompanied by some steamed broccoli, sauteed mushrooms, and 1/2 cup rice. Very yummy and filling!

Meatloaf Muffins
Ingredients:
1 lb lean ground beef
1 lb ground turkey breast
1 cup onion, chopped
1/2 cup carrot, finely diced
1/2 cup celery, finely diced
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 box Stovetop Stuffing mix, any flavor
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium sauce pan, cook onion, carrot, and celery until soft. Place all ingredients in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Divide mixture into 18 muffins cups (be sure to spray with non-stick cooking spray first)! Cook for 30 minutes or until no longer pink. Enjoy!

As for the rest of the week that just passed, here are a few projects I've been working on:

I love these pictures and I'm not sure the layout really showcases how beautiful they are. I think I need to look for some sort of background paper to relieve some of the starkness. Luckily I did not glue everything down yet. I did love using my new Cricut for the title!









And finally, a lovely card I made: I had a great time playing with this stamp set that I won at my cardmaking class. I love flowers and both sets I won that day were flower sets. Awesome, huh? :) I think some of us craft hoarders sometimes forget that not everyone in the world is as obsessed with pretty paper and supplies like we are.

And finally, what's a blog from me without a cat picture? Jason put the Christmas village down low this year and it has made a great cat bed! We catch them sleeping in it all the time. Here's Bailey from yesterday: