Pinterest Recipes ~ Tested and Approved

I LOVE PINTEREST!

When I am menu planning, I like to look for new recipes on Pinterest. I never know if they are going to be good or not, so I like to hear from other people that they have tried it and liked it. So, I thought I would share some of the recent recipes I have tried and liked!

Last night I madegrilled honey mustard chicken(I didn't have dijon and had to use regular mustard) and it was great! (Well, to be honest, the grill ran out of gas and it took a lot longer to make than it should have, but that was not the fault of the recipe. #keepingitreal)

I also made creamy potatoes and peas. We have a few peas in our garden so I thought this would be a nice recipe to try. I added bacon as one commenter suggested, but you couldn't really taste it, so I felt like it was wasted bacon.

Other things I have tried and loved...

Pioneer Woman's Cheesy Cauliflower Soup. This was awesome! I usually make soup on Thursday nights during the fall and winter. I think this is a nice, lighter alternative to potato soup.

Skinny Turkey and Wild Rice Soup. We raised our own turkeys last year- one of them was 30 pounds! The others were 17-27 pounds and I had to get creative with the leftovers. This soup was the ticket! I have even frozen it- we ate some yesterday for lunch. I don't usually add the half-and-half. Sometimes I add a little milk, but it doesn't need it because it is already creamy and delicious!

Monte Cristo Sandwiches. If we have ham lunchmeat, this is one of my go-to-last-minute suppers. I had never even heard of these sandwiches before, but we love them!

Taste of Home's 40-minute Hamburger Buns. I made these a few weeks ago when we wanted burgers but didn't have buns. I usually do pretzel buns, but I was in the mood to try something new. I did let mine rise a little longer- maybe a half hour or so. They turned out great! Not too dense, which I was worried about with less rising time.

Have you tried any new recipes lately? I would love to hear about it! I can also add you to my Pinterest Check-Offs board if you send me your e-mail address. :)

Unicorn Doll Quilt

Well, I kinda' had a quilt finish this year.

You see, I will let my girls pick out fat quarters at Joann's when they are on sale. Let me remind everyone that fabric shopping with 5 girls in tow is NOT fun- for me, them, and the store employees. Recently, Grace picked out this one with unicorns and hearts in pink and purple. I mean, what is not to love for a (then) 3yo girl? She soon insisted that her pink cheetah (which had been confiscated) was cold and needed a quilt. Well, I was in the mood to play along and sew something quick and easy.

I had some quilt blocks, border fabric, and binding left over from quilt I made between 2006-2011. (You might be able to spot some of them on my quilt page HERE.) So, I give myself bonus points for using up old scraps. :)

I just pieced the simple 4-patch blocks together, added a border, quilted diagonals, and bound it.

Grace didn't like the quilting on it because it was visible on the unicorn side. Too bad.

Then, my 7yo took some pictures for me after the leopard and cheetah were reunited with their new quilt. 

Happy kids + Very old scraps used up = Success.

Lily's Quiet Book ~ Paper Dolls Pages

I still have some of this paper doll fabric left (from HERE and HERE) and my girls love dressing up the dolls, so it was a given that I would include these pages. I made a few changes, though.

I thought the previous pages were a bit plain so I made it look like there is a floor by sewing a strip along the bottom. (It drives me crazy that they don't line up perfectly, but I broke a needle sewing the pages together and wasn't about to redo it.) I made the dresser in white instead of brown and moved it to the left. To the right of the dresser I added a felt dog. I think he is pretty cute!

Everything else is pretty much the same. The dresser is a storage pocket for all of the cute clothes and accessories.

That is it! You can see all of the pages in Lily's quiet book by clicking on the image below:

You can see my other quiet books by clicking HERE.

Lily's Quiet Book ~ Pie and Tea Party Pages

One of these pages is simple and the other... not so much.

The pie page is pretty easy. I made some HERE and HERE. I really like the gray background on this page, though. I am almost out of the blueberry fabric by now. I don't know if I can make any more of these.

The tea party has two very special guests. I saw many pictures of Lily with her stuffed lamb so I figured it must be a favorite. I really like how mine turned out.

The cat is made of sweater scraps from a sweater of mine that didn't fit well and I upcycled into a sweater dress for my youngest daughter.

I love the texture the animals add to the page. Lily's mom used to made stuffed animals to sell on etsy.

I also added a pennant banner/bunting at the top. Those are all scraps for a large one I am making for our own house to match some of the other items I made last year for Hannah's pink lemonade first birthday.

I made the table smaller than the last tea party page I made and was certain to curve the front of the table this time. 

There is still room for storage underneath...

They can have tea...

...or cookies.

The extra plate in the center is for Lily, of course. Her grandmother said that they like tea, so I hope they liked this page.