Chicken Enchiladas

January 26, 2012 By Courtney 12 Comments

Janelle from Comfy in the Kitchen is back wtih us today with a wonderful recipe. She writes:

I absolutely LOVE this recipe…now that I think about it, it was the recipe I made when I had my first “dinner party” 9 years ago. I also made this dish a couple weekends ago when we had our dear friends over for “Mexican Night” and a game of Balderdash! Let me tell you…the leftovers are every bit as tasty. I paired these enchiladas up with refried beans, homemade salsa and chips, and corn cake. Muy delicioso!!!!! Enjoy! ~Janelle

Making the sauce: cream of chicken soup, sour cream, chopped green chiles, cumin, green onions

Boil chicken, let cool and cut into bit sized pieces

Place tortillas on dish and heat in microwave for 1 min to soften (some people like to dip these in hot oil one at a time, but this is easier and saves some calories

place open side down in a 9×13

pour sauce over top

sprinkle with remaining cheese

Serve! This seriously is so good!

Chicken Enchiladas

4 Chicken Breasts

2 cans of cream of chicken soup

1 small can chopped green chiles

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup chopped green onions

1 tsp cumin

1 package flour tortillas

1/2 lb cheddar cheese

1/4 lb monterey jack cheese

Boil chicken breast in water until cooked through, cool and dice. Combine next 5 ingredients, heat and set aside. Place tortillas on plate and microwave 1 min to soften. Fill middle of each tortilla with chicken and cheeses. Fold short ends in and roll up. Place open side down in a 9×13 pan. Pour heated mixture over all of tortillas and use rest of cheese to sprinkle on top. Bake at 350 for 30 mins then turn broiler on and broil until lightly browned (appx 5 mins). MMmmmm….

OH Janelle – this looks SO good! Thank you for sharing it with us!

Walk with the King,

If you are in need of some fresh new recipes – then visiting Janelle’s blog at Comfy In the Kitchen is a must! She also has a Feasting In Fellowship Friday Link-Up Party happening right now – join the fun!!

Filed Under: Comfy In The Kitchen, Recipes

A Birthday Wish & WLWW Link-Up Party

January 24, 2012 By Courtney 28 Comments

Tomorrow is my mom’s birthday – and she told me on Sunday when we celebrated her birthday – “now don’t go mentioning this on your blog.” lol!!! So sorry mom – will you forgive me? I just can’t help myself because I LOVE you soooo much!!!

I’ve written about my mom here - on her last birthday so I won’t be redundant – but I still have to give her a shout out! When I was in college – every single Sunday we had a standing phone date where we would talk for an hour and she would get updated on the weekly happenings in my life and give me lots of wisdom to help me through many life decisions. She also sent me lots of packages. In one package – there was a big surprise! I’m not sure if she knows how surprised I was…but we had a rule in our house growing up that we were not allowed to buy ANY secular music. So at this point in college – I did not own any secular CD’s out of obedience to my parents. Then one day a package arrived from my mom – it was a Valentine’s Day package – filled with fun girlie things, cookies and it had a Celine Dion CD in it! ! Surprise – and I loved it! There’s one song on that CD that always made me think of my mom and I wanted to share it – it’s titled “Because You Loved Me.”

Mom – it’s because you loved me enough to teach me the to do the hard things in life – that I am where I am today. Thank you doesn’t seem enough – so I wish you a very Happy Birthday and many more. (((Hugs)))) and Kisses,
Courtney

Now it’s link-up time! It’s Women Living Well’s Wednesday Link-Up Party!!! Join the fun, do a little blog hopping and don’t forget if you join below -please add the Women Living Well Wednesdays button to your post so your readers can find us here! (Posts can include the topics of marriage, parenting, homemaking, finances, recipes, organization and more!)

To find the code go to the sidebar – or right click and “save as” the button and then upload it into your post!

Walk with the King!

Filed Under: Women Living Well Wednesdays

Teaching Our Children How To Be Gentle

January 23, 2012 By Courtney 27 Comments

Since the day my son came out of the womb – he was a rough and tumble little guy. It’s the way God wired him! As a toddler, he rarely cried when he fell or bumped his head and as a school boy he is very high energy. It’s hard to keep him from running, jumping, climbing and diving in the house! lol! He loves contact sports and has played flag football with the public school kids for the last 4 years. This year flag football was a lot like (full contact -minus- the pads) +plus+ some flags! I did a lot of wincing and turning my head – it was hard to watch! He also takes Karate and gets to do a little sparring while learning discipline, respect and tenacity. And then there’s basketball. He is currently playing in the public school league and this is his sport. He loves the non-stop running and to be honest – it seems to be quite a full contact sport at his age also! The kids are still learning the fundamentals of a foul! lol!

I love that my son can use his energy appropriately through sports, but at home this has posed a bit of a challenge. Sometimes he gets his coat out of the closet like he’s going after a football – he throws an elbow at his sister, whips his coat out and dashes out the door leaving her knocked on the floor wondering what just hit her.

This is where manners come into play. Clearly, there’s a long list of manners that are missed in this very simple – and sadly common – coat scenario. First, ladies before gentlemen would solve the entire problem – right? Secondly, words like – “excuse me”, “I am sorry”, “are you okay” “let me help you up” or “you can go first” would also help.

I have taught my children manners many times. Some weeks I’ve been a heavy enforcer and then with the hustle and bustle of life, the manners slide without me noticing. So I ordered this hand book titled: Proper Manners and Health Habits, to begin in the new year and I was so surprised when I opened the book and saw the title to Chapter 1!

Chapter 1 is titled “Gentle Words” and oh boy was I excited to tell the kids that they would be joining me for the January WLW “Gentleness Challenge” – this is a family venture!!! Like us – children need to learn to use “Gentle Words”. So what words are considered “gentle words?”

And there you have it. Lesson 1 for teaching our children to be gentle! These are the words of the month in our house and I’ve been clapping each time they use them…so yesterday Alexis said “thank you” and I kept on doing what I was doing. She called me out on it – “mooooooooooom, I just said thank you.” I said, “your welcome.” Then she repeated – “no mom, I just said thank you.” I repeated, “your welcome Alexis” a bit confused…she said – “aren’t you going to clap mom?” lol! Children love praise which goes with yesterdays post (and by the way – clapping is SO much easier than a sticker/rewards chart and extremely effective – try it – clap and hoot and holler for your kids when they do good – they will light up – they will stand taller!). Let’s teach our children to be gentle through using good manners and remember to praise them 10 times more than we correct them!

Walk with the King,

Filed Under: Parenting, Teaching Our Children Along the Way

Michelle Duggar ~ A Role Model for Gentleness ~ Week 4

January 22, 2012 By Courtney 78 Comments

My son adores Tim Tebow right now and I’m glad he has him to look up to. For us in this gentleness challenge, Michelle Duggar is a role model in the area of gentleness. When I look at the picture of Michelle next to me… I see two similiar women – we love God, our husbands, children and our homes. We both homeschool and I’d say we are a smiley pair! I also see two very different women. We have different philosophies on a few things in life including the fact that she has a few more children then me (17 more to be exact!) . But one of our biggest notable differences would be that her tone of voice is SO much sweeter than mine. If you want to see an example of a Gentle Mom – just tune into TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting – because Michelle is the ultimate “real life” Gentle Mother.

On the Duggars old website they had posted their top 5 parenting tips – and I wrote them down. # 5 read like this:

Ask God to help you conquer anger because it can destroy your relationship with your children. Praise them ten times more than you correct them.

I have latched onto tip number 5. In their book Michelle says – anger shows your worst side and often times when we have angry outbursts, our anger is worse than what the child has actually done!

Michelle follows Proverbs 15:1 “A gentle answer turns away wrath but a harsh word stirs up anger.” She says when she feels angry, she lowers her voice rather than raising it and will sometimes take it to almost a whisper! Now that’s self-control at it’s best!

So you are thinking – “my kids will walk all over me”. Nope – I’ve been working on gentleness for a while now and I must say I feel much better about myself as a mother – and the children are responding. Michelle is right – anger will destroy your relationship with your children. On days when I find myself yelling – I feel guilty and like a failure as a mom. But when I apply Proverbs 15:1 – I find this principle bringing peace into our home.

Tip number 5 also says “praise them 10 times more than you correct them.” Ten times more? That’s a lot! I feel like I am always saying “keep your hands to yourself, that’s not nice, watch your words, don’t take that from her, don’t give me attitude, walk slowly, be gentle, look at me when I am talking, that’s not kind, take care of your toys, don’t make a mess” and on and on the correction list goes.

The Duggars try their best to not say “don’t don’t don’t”. Instead they work hard focusing on the behavior they expect. They compliment every little positive thing they see. They praise their children when they demonstrate diligence, thoroughness, punctuality, patience, compassion, orderliness, generosity, and other Christlike qualities.

My daughter is a very cheerful helper in the kitchen - I usually say “thank you” but I neglect to go on and say ”thank you for your cheerful attitude!” She loves to clean out showers and tubs (thank goodness because I do not lol!). When I first discovered this I praised her. But now, I’m so used to it, I forget to give her the same recognition for her diligence. Usually the children are thorough with their school work and I just say “great job” rather than “great job being so thorough“. When they put their shoes in the wrong place, I correct them, but when they are in the right place I say nothing – when I could say “thanks for putting your shoes in the correct place and being so orderly.”

This weeks challenge: In week 2 we focused on bringing our voices down low close to a whisper when we feel like yelling. In week 3 – we focused on anger management. This week add in words of praise for Christlike qualities. Be specific and really pay attention to the godly things your children are doing. Try to do what the Duggars do - and praise your children 10 times more than you correct them.

For those just joining us – this week’s video comes from my summer Book Club series on Good Morning Girls. Angela (in Texas) and I (in Ohio) are discussing the dangers of raising self-righteous children. We also discuss the struggles we face as moms with our thought lives – thinking negative thoughts, bitter thoughts, and how our children can learn these things off of us.

If you are taking the challenge, I invite you to leave a comment in the comment section with feedback – how is it going? Take time to encourage other women in the comment section – we need each other. If you are a blogger, I invite you to “copy” and “save as” this button and put it somewhere on your blog and link it back to http://www.womenlivingwell.org Then link up below!