Dvije Princeze

How she cleaned it up - White Chicken Chili

2015-02-07T19:21:00.000-08:00

How She Cleaned It Up

* I have been asked many times if I eat solely Organic, to which I respond: "I like to eat clean". This is something that I am very passionate about, and it is coming up more often in my day to day life. I recently got someone to switch over a few things and start their journey, which inspired me to start this series. I want to share some tips, tricks, & any knowledge I come across with you. Like with any of my posts, all of this is said in love and concern for the greater good. However, that being said, I find more and more ridiculous things the further I dig!

I am saddened by what is happening to children, sometimes without their parents knowledge. I was not educated on any of this for a long while. When I did learn some of these things, I was outraged, I had been feeding my growing babies things I wish I hadn't! I want to help people make a change, but some people HONESTLY think you are borderline elitist if you tell them you eat organic! What is most important in life? Health? Don't get me wrong, we are not necessarily eating "healthy". We are eating just how my grandmother use to eat when she was young, and she loved her sugar!

First thing I changed was milk, eggs, & bread. These are the things that we go through the most in our home, and it wasn't a huge challenge to my budget. As I grew and changed more, I am not going to lie, my grocery bill did go up. It was not the money that I was spending the most on, rather the "time spending" that was most difficult for me personally. The more difficult thing for my family, however, was not wasting food. My humble opinion is that we waste a lot of food in today's culture. If we spent more on what we actually eat, throw less away, our grocery bill doesn't have to sky-rocket. Overall, I believe that we need to get back to simpler times in more ways than one (waste, chemicals & pesticides, waiting to have dinners around the table with family)... Like I said, all said in love & no offense meant. Now back to your regular scheduled post:

White Bean Chili

I started off by finding this recipe, and gathered all my ingredients. Knowing that I wanted to make white bean chili, I had soaked beans the night before and pre-cooked them according to the bag instructions. I then put them into a glass jar I previously had. I try not to use canned anything overall. (key word is try)

As you can see I then used organic chicken broth, I usually like to use "better than bouillon" paste mixed with water. (yes, they have organic as well) This boxed broth was on sale at Sprouts, so I went with it instead. Yes, you caught me, I am using canned chiles... I am not familiar enough with this product to know my other options.

We, as a family, just don't care about having a ton of meat "in" our stuff. Sometimes we just crave a steak, but overall recipes that call for meat get halved. I have noticed a lot of recipes call for two pounds of ground beef... you just don't need that much! So I halved the chicken breast to two and cut them into chunks instead of pulling it apart.

I loved this chili, my oldest did as well. My youngest, well she just doesn't want anything to have any "spiciness" to it, so she did not want it. Let me know what you think!

One year ago today...

2015-02-05T14:25:00.000-08:00

I know Elsa likes to sing about "the past is in the past...",

but I have learned some life lessons from my past, so I am not going to "let it go".

*Hey I'm cheezy like that sometimes*

A year ago today I took this picture:

While it may look like an ordinary winter picture to you, it symbolizes so much more for me.

Last year at this time, my husband was away for work.. we got to see him more than military families get to see thier loved ones. This did not make it any less difficult on our little family however. We made a choice, together, that it would be for the better of our family in the end, and it was!

Like with any good tale, there are two sides of a story...

I can not tell his, as I was not there. I know that it was not easy for him to be away from wife and kids, but I will not speak for him. I will, however, speak for myself.

While I had an amazing support group behind me (you really do find your true friends through struggles) it was still trying at times to raise two little girls through that time. WELL, the only truly hard time was WINTER!

I mean it wasn't like Little House on the Prairie, where I had to chop wood for fire, but hey for some first world problems, I did good. As all of my friends would remind me regularly, "Of course this winter had to be one of the worst we've had in a decade".

When you are not one to regularly do push-ups (or anything else), you need to get up at 3:30 am to shovel snow, then get kids up and breakfast, and shovel snow again, then get lunches packed, then shovel snow again, and kids re-motivated, and shovel snow again...

you get the picture! Hence this picture above, this is one of the many pictures I took to remind myself...

You CAN do everything you put your mind to.

You can push your Camry out of the snow by yourself with two kids inside about to be late for school. You CAN escape all the accidents by taking the country roads slow to work. The metaphors could keep rollin, but the point? You CAN make sacrifices when you know there are greater things to be had.

Valentine's in T-minus 10...

2015-02-04T12:36:00.001-08:00

We have officially hit February 4th, ladies & gentlemen. I know that this day might just be another day in the neighborhood for some of you parents, but I challenge you to make your feelings known!

Some days I feel like I have fallen into a day to day routine now that I have children, how about the rest of you?

However, on a side note, I have also recently made a major life breakthrough, mentally. Not to get to sappy, but once you loose someone close to you, you really start to appreciate how short life is. So again, make it a point on this "Hallmark Holiday" to participate.

I understand the cheesiness of it all, but remember when you're on the receiving end of it, you truly do appreciate it, right?! So write a cute lil message on their morning banana....

Put a quick note on their dashboard....

Or if you are feeling extra LOVING <3 p="">

How about my treat from last year.. I made a brownie box mix, added a couple drops of raspberry extract into the mix & once it was cooled I cut them out with a heart cookie cutter. For the "sauce" I mixed raspberry jam with a little apple juice to dilute it and shook it in a shaker till it was thinned down. I then just spooned a few droplets to add color to the plate.

SO what do you think? Will you take the challenge?

Sometimes these little, very unexpected things are better than the standard card and flowers.

Surprises are a lovely thing <3 p="">

Traditions

2014-12-11T10:33:00.000-08:00

Now that we are in a new city, with new things & new places, new traditions have begun. We all have those special things that we do throughout the year, magical things that occur year after year. What are your favorites? We, as a family, have a ton of them that we will continue, but now that we've moved some of them will have to change. I don't mean to say these things in negative connotation... in fact the opposite!

These last two weekends we did some really fun things that would have never been an option in Indiana! I am excited about exploring the city and all the new opportunities it has to offer. While we are melancholy about our friends in the MidWest (pictured above), we hope to get them to Colorado to enjoy all our new favorite places!

Giving warms the heart

2014-12-10T10:10:00.000-08:00

If you're like me, you want to give and give and give some more around Christmas. I give till I get myself in trouble. I like to shop anyway, and then I continue to see things that "remind me" of this person or that... I have to let them know that I was thinking about them, right?!

Well to keep myself out of trouble, in more than one way, I stay at home one weekend in December and bake & make candies. My munchkins and I have a blast, create memories, & mama spends less dough. {pun intended}

Creating these treats helps me to give baskets to people that I love and think about without breaking the bank. On this occasion, however, I found myself without enough actual baskets to pack in. So here was my innovative solution! Remember the boxes that cuties come in? Yes! I wrapped that sucker in some gift wrap and viola! Instant Christmas basket!

Tis the season.. for Baking

2014-12-09T09:51:00.000-08:00

There is no time more than the holidays, that I love to bake! Unfortunately this year my mixer is in storage... I've been hunting recipes on Pinterest that do not require a mixer. If you have anything for me, please comment, I would love to know what "works" for you, & of course, what tastes delish.

In the mean time I found a site that shows how to cream butter and sugar, but I am now debating how the rest of the process would work?!

I may just look into some pre-made, do they make that in organic dough? :) I'll let you know what I decide, but in the mean time.. enjoy my trip down memory lane with these most adorable pictures.

No place like home for the holidays

2014-12-08T08:46:00.000-08:00

Let me start off by saying, overall, we have been adjusting quite nicely here in CO. I have loved the weather thus far, one day it might be 27º F, but not to worry, the next is 72ºF... not lying. We are in an apartment at the moment, and as a mother and wife I can appreciate how little space I have to clean. I can in fact attest to the fact that we are "closer" by living in an apartment in fact. I kinda like it :)

In the midst of the Holiday season, I am starting to miss my house however. I miss my huge tree, my picture windows with snow outside, and most of all my mantle. So today, I am sharing this nostalgia with you. Is it not beautiful? *sigh*

Life is give and take right?! <3 font="">

Twinkle Twinkle my Christmas Stars

2014-12-05T14:45:00.000-08:00

Before you get too excited by these lovely images, please note they are not my photos, and *sigh* not my living courters either. I am madly in love with this entire kitchen, but the only thing I can claim is that this beautiful star from IKEA.

Now that I not longer have to drive two hours to visit IKEA, I love it all the more. It is nice to see something unique, not the same ole same ole at the other big box stores. Must be that European influence I love! wink, wink ;)

When we lived in the MidWest it was so unusual to pay a visit, it became almost an "event" to get to go. Now that I live close-ish, I run in and out often, and have even went there just to have breakfast... its taking some getting use to.

Anyhow, back on subject... here are our spares Christmas decor this year, this also is taking some getting use to. They are quite lovely, but simple.. they will make a great addition to my others next year in a house. :)

Oh Christmas Tree...

2014-12-04T14:24:00.000-08:00

I have been a busy lil elf lately, sorry for the lack of posting. Once Halloween comes and goes, this mama's brain goes into overdrive! Feasts, cookies, candy, decorations, & presents!

I found this beautiful terrarium over at Pinterest, and immediately fell in love <3 p="">

Considering that my 10 ft tree can not fit in our apartment, this might be a good option for us this year. What do you think? Do you like the Earthiness of this?

Whale Watching?

2014-10-22T20:03:00.000-07:00

Last time I visited California I was on a tighter than usual budget, but had ampul time on my hands. *This is just how life works and we all know it.*

However, as the saying goes "when in Rome..." and I was in California right? How could I not partake in the fun things Cali has to offer? Well, lucky for me I have family in Cali to lead the way! My lovely SIL jumped right on GroupOn and found a wonderful "LifeHack", as I like to call them. We got very cheap tickets to go whale watching, but what we were unaware of at the time is that we would see no whales. It was the wrong time of year for that, hence the cheap tickets. Does this sound like a problem? Well watch below and you MAY change your mind...

Full on Coffee Addict!

2014-10-16T11:28:00.000-07:00

When I first met my husband, the only attachment to coffee I had was with my memories of mornings breakfasts on my grandmothers farm. I had vague memories of her giving me lots of milk with a touch of coffee when I was young... I did NOT like it, at all! As close I came is my Chantico. Coffee to me was so bitter... and not drinkable at all. At 19 I met my lovely husband as well as his family, and as we have covered in the past, they are Bosnian. This is a metaphor for *big time coffee drinkers*, not just any coffee, what most Americans would call Turkish coffee, or my hillbilly grandfather would've called cowboy coffee. I, at 19, turned my nose at this, coffee to me was so bitter.

At about 25, we moved into our new apartment, and with it came a new town, and new places to explore! I found a wonderful place for a sugaraholic like me called South Bend Chocolate Company. I decided one day to try their mocha, verses their hot chocolate. I'll be honest, the chocolate spoon did me in. These mochas were extra extra sweet, so when I began to drink mochas from Starbucks they were very bitter in comparison. I had a few friends, however, that I met on a regular at Starbucks, so I drank them for awhile.

You may have already noticed where I am going with this story, now I am a full on coffee addict! Although I am now drinking Bosnian coffee, Turkish coffee, or Cowboy coffee (however you like to call it), I still drink it with tons of sugar and I LOVE cream in it as well. I get teased a bit from the Bosnians about this, apparently I drink coffee *like a child*, but I can tell you this:

The child me, at grandma's farm, did not like that coffee taste at all!

Its a love/hate relationship with this progression of needing that coffee *bitter* taste :)

A home travels

2014-10-15T10:55:00.000-07:00

Do you remember quite a bit ago I poured my heart out to you about "home" over here...

It's amazing how you don't appreciate things till they have slipped into the past.

Chantico Dream

2014-10-14T10:27:00.000-07:00

A long long time ago in a far away time, I would go to my local Starbucks and purchase this tiny little (maybe) 4 oz. cup of dreamy chocolate. My younger self was not partial to coffee or the taste of it AT ALL (my how times have changed). This little cup was so cute, and honestly the sugaraholic in me could've drank 5 of them in one day.

Then one day *gasp* I merrily skipped to Starbucks, only to have my heart crushed! They had discontinued my precious drink, apparently their were not enough people ordering it. I genuinely believe this to be because not enough people knew about it!

Why were they not advertising this magic?!

Okay, I digress...

Fast forward about a decade, no I'm not kidding...

While in California visiting relatives I found some yummy chocolate bars, like the extra special *wine-tastebud-quality* chocolate. This was the kind of chocolate that would be sacrilege to just open and eat, so I brought it back home and stewed over what special thing to do with it.

You guessed it! I had a sudden flashback to my precious chantico, so I got to work trying to find the perfect recipe. I had one shot to get it right, and SO right it was!

I halved this recipe, considering I didn't have enough chocolate to make a full batch, and it was still perfect I assure you.

Autumn Crafting for kids

2014-10-13T10:06:00.000-07:00

There is about two whole things that I love about Autumn, #1 Boots! and #2 the falling leaves/changing colors. That being said, when fall starts to fall I start to stay "in" more often... drink hot cocoa, and have movie nights as well as crafting time.

I am very blessed to have two kids that love to do crafts with me. My oldest is so in tune with crafts, as you saw last week, so I know she is going to enjoy this one once she sees it!

I found it over at Pinterest, of course.

I'm so in love with these and can not trace back the link :/

However, I found this one too, and it is just as adorable! This blog is where this links too.

Can't wait! When we are done you shall be sure we will share our end result ;)

Pho sure!

2014-10-10T09:46:00.000-07:00

Okay guys, I am from the MidWest so please forgive me that I am a little late to the party. I didn't try sushi right away, and now I am guilty of just trying Pho for the first time. BUT... can you say flippin' DELISH?!

Oh the love. I call myself a foodie very loosely because I am a little skittish to try things, but the heavens opened up for me on this one. I love beef overall anyway, so I tried the rare steak & well done brisket. Lucky for me I had someone with me that was a pro. They explained the Thai basil & bean sprouts, well the saracha too, but I don't do spicy too well so I skipped that.

Now to the point! I wanted to attempt to make this at home. We all know that it is costly to go out to eat often, however this wonderful dish begs to be eaten often. I first found a lovely recipe on Pinterest for the pressure cooker, but the yield was astronomical. Just when I was about to pull out the grocery list and add freezer bags to the ingredient list, I came across this:

What?! AND its organic??? Yes please! I will be on the hunt for this asap, just add noodles and tender lovely beef. Now how hard is it to find bean sprouts and Thai basil?

Be still my heart... and stomach.

Thanksgiving Visitors

2014-10-09T11:12:00.000-07:00

Now I don't know about you all out there, but when we do Halloween, we just do some trick or treating and call it a day. We load our kids buckets FULL, then the parents sneak the "good candy", and then let the kids go crazy for one night a year. We are not the family that has an elaborate Halloween costume party, although I'd like to do that once.

We ARE however the family that does more traditional Thanksgiving family gatherings. That all being said, I stumbled across this on Pinterest. I'm in love with how fricken adorable these are.

I traced it back to tadkapasta and it seems they are calling these to be for Halloween...

I, as you've guessed, would do them for my Thanksgiving gathering. Now all I need to do is get a gathering of people to visit Colorado for Thanksgiving. ;)

Baby Shower for my newest lil niece

2014-10-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

As you can imagine we wanted to spend as much time possible with family before going West. Luckily for us, we had loads of things to do to accomplish this feat. Amongst all the fun last minute things we did, I got to plan a shower for my newest arrival to my extended family. I was getting (now have) a little niece. My sister and I landed on an owl themed shower, and being the good sibling I am I got to "pinning". Like everyone on Pinterest, we found more than we could accomplish, but over all I think it turned out great given the shoestring budget.

If you have been around my blog much, you know that I use to work for a label company, thus always including water bottle designs into every party I plan.

I found something very similar to this on Pinterest, and had to "steal" the idea to make it my own. I like to give credit where credit is due, but when I opened the link to find it, the image was just cache. I put animal crackers inside these and made them our table centerpieces. They did double duty, make the place look pretty, and keep the kids calm and quite while we played games.

Ultrasound pictures were provided by the mother to be, and I made the banner to match our overall color scheme. The lights were a Target dollar spot find! I got them for a dollar and they matched perfectly!

I created this sign in to be very much like the wedding ones I've seen around a lot, but I decided to make the tree more like a storybook theme so that we could hang it in baby's room. I really like how it turned out with the fingerprints as the leaves.

This I can not take credit for, however I wish I could, it turned out perfect! I found one similar on (you guessed it) Pinterest and handed the project over to the mother in law. She did such an awesome job. Definitely competes with the one I found over here.

One more thing that I can not claim as my own, but was amazing! One of the guests brought this awesome diaper cake that just put the final touch on our decor. Is it not lovely?

Over all we had a nice time, delicious food/cake, and great conversation.

That is what showers are for right?!

Wait! It's October?!

2014-10-07T10:12:00.000-07:00

EEkkk.. I'm not scared over here, I am freaking out! I am not ready for this Halloween thing at all! I need to get the girls their costumes, but more importantly, we had traditions in the Midwest... I know where Nothing is here. I don't have a clue where we will be going and trick or treating. I guess I need to get to Google-ing some stuff. I need to go shopping!

While I go get some crap done, here are some cute images from Halloween's past:

My eldest is a crafty one, I may have even shared this one before, but I am just so proud of it/her.

Here is one of the "Chipmunk girls" with her Halloween costume, Yeap you guessed it: ghost!

Cute huh?!

Onward & Upward

2014-10-06T09:38:00.000-07:00

In this past year and a half, a. lot. of things have been going on! Now that all the pieces are falling back together, we are in a new state:

"Onward & Upward" is the new motto for my family!

We are sad to leave our friends and family of the Midwest, but we welcome all the new fun & culture Colorado has. I am sure there will be many exciting things for the my family to "put our stamp" on, and I will select the best places to share with you, my favorite blog friends.

Here's to our new motto "onward and upward"

<3 i="">

Fall is Falling into my life

2014-10-03T08:56:00.000-07:00

Loads of changes are happening in my life, more on that later. These changes, however, are accompanied by vibrant & beautiful Fall. While we have changed states, we will still be having a four season year, so I can not wait to see the vibrance here! In the meantime, lets take a look backward for a picture shall we?

We take a hayride every year with my grandparents, aunts & uncles, as well as cousins. This year we will not be able to attend, but looking at this picture will take the place this year. I just adore that this road will be forever etched into my mind, going back to my seven year old self. <3 i="">

Ding Ding Ding

2014-10-02T17:25:00.001-07:00

Here is some information that I want to do my part of getting out to every.single.mother! Every single parent, grandparent, heck every single person that eats in fact. I am so thankful that she puts all of this knowledge in honest terms. For the most part I have a "live your life" mentality and everyone should make their own choices, BUT this is one thing I can get upon my soapbox about. She really hits me in the heart at "A fundamental shift happen in the way we produced food. It was introduced by a chemical company, it definitely helped them sell more chemicals, but it was introduced without ever informing the American public that it had happened."

Does this only disgust me?! I was eating chemicals hand over fist for years, even while pregnant, without knowing. I know a lot of mothers out there that have said, and I quote: "Do what ever you want to me, hurt me, curse me, but don't ever harm my children". This. This! Is why I am angry about this.... my kids are helpless, and apparently the American public is too.

Meet me in St. Louis

2013-05-24T06:52:00.000-07:00

Off to the city we go.

Arches and weddings await us.

Happy Thursday…

2013-05-23T05:58:00.000-07:00

I am off to a Volunteer Brunch that I got a personal invitation to. Can I just say, I love having children, & a wonderful school for them to be in!

It is wonderful when you truly enjoy the people around your ‘community’. It makes ‘volunteering’ actually fun with friends.

Home.

2013-05-22T06:40:00.000-07:00

When I was a young teenager I remember telling everyone who would listen: ‘Once I am an adult I am moving out of poe-dunk USA Midwest, I am going to the city’. Now although I have not moved to the city, I did move about Three Hundred miles away. I also remember my father telling me upon hearing this: ‘One day you will appreciate your hometown and grow to love it.’ Then he made a comment about me missing it if I really did go to a city. Now that I am no longer that mouthy teenager, I am beginning to realize that Father Indeed Knows Best!

Now like I said, I am not a city girl, and I am still surrounded by farm land 360, but I do…

long for my hometown,

miss my home county,

When I drive that long 300 miles, I am transported back in time. I see the things that hold such strong memories for me. In fact, now that I have a decent camera, I want to pull over every few miles, to capture every. single. one. of. those. memories.

Here are a few:

Sometimes just looking at a picture can open the flood gates on memories, guess that is why they say a picture is worth a thousand words.

Having girls

2013-05-21T06:08:00.000-07:00

Can I just take a minute to express how much I love having two little girls?! I love the fact that they get excited to watch “Cupcake Wars” with me… I love that my little one asks when “Sweet Genius” is going to be on. I just love the fact that I have prissy little girls that love to get excited about the same things that excite me!