White Chicken Enchiladas

Oh-my-lanta! This are amazing! This recipe from Joyful Momma's Kitchen went viral on Pinterest. This has turned into one of Skubz favorites, and a go-to meal for me when I don't have a lot of time. I did make a few adjustments to the original recipe. We found that, for our tastes, the recipe didn't have enough spice. If you don't like your food too spicy, you can stick with the original recipe and omit the red pepper flakes and chili powder.

The green chilies aren't hot at all. But we like the flavor so we've doubled the amount! And finally, I can never find shredded Monterey Jack cheese at our local stores, so we have always just used mozzarella. One of these days, when I get out to the cheese factory, I will get some pepperjack, and give that a try!

We buy rotisserie chicken in this family, maybe once every week or so. We take it off the bone and use that in our chicken recipes. It's so convenient, since it is already cooked, seasoned and it shreds so nicely! That's what we use in this recipe as well.

White Chicken Enchiladas
10 soft taco shells
2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken
2 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese
3 Tbsp. butter
3 Tbsp. flour
1 (14.5 oz) can chicken broth
1 cup sour cream
2 (4 oz) can diced green chillies

1 tsp red pepper flakes

1 Tbs chili powder


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan
2. Mix chicken and 1 cup cheese. Put some of the chicken/cheese mixture in each tortilla, roll up and set in the 9x13
3. In a sauce pan, melt butter, stir in flour and cook 1 minute. Add broth and whisk until smooth. Heat over medium heat until thickened.
4. Stir in sour cream, red pepper flakes, chili powder and chilies. DO NOT allow this to come to a boil after the sour cream is added. It will curdle.
5. Pour over enchiladas and top with remaining cheese.
6. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until cheese is stringy. Turn oven onto broil to brown the cheese (if you have the patience, we never do!)

Pudding Poke Cakes

This has been my obsession lately. On Pinterest, I found a banana pudding poke cake, as well as an Oreo pudding poke cake. Since then, I have been trying to come up with all sorts of cake/pudding combinations. The most recent one that I tried, was a "strawberry shortcake" type. I barely feel the need to post an actual recipe, this is so simple. Here is the idea:
Mix, and bake, a boxed cake mix.
Let the cake cool completely
Poke holes in the cake
Prepare two boxes of instant pudding.
BEFORE the pudding sets, pour over cake
Spread cool whip over the top
Finish with any additional toppings you see fit

Some examples would be:
Chocolate cake, Oreo pudding, and crushed oreos on top.
White cake mix, banana pudding, crushed vanilla wafers on top.
Strawberry cake, vanilla pudding, crushed vanilla wafers on top.
Pineapple cake, coconut pudding, graham cracker crumbs on top.

Oh, the possibilities are endless.
Feel free to share some of the pudding poke cake ideas that you have tried.

How to make liquid laundry soap

I've seen tons of recipes and tutorials for homemade laundry soap. I started making my own about a year and a half ago. I've noticed recently that the ingredients for this soap at my local Walmart have been flying off the shelves. Awareness of how easy and cost effective this is has been spreading, which is great!
This detergent doesn't contain any extra chemicals, scents or dyes. With a few drops of essential oils, you could have a nice scented detergent, but we don't find it necessary in our house.
I use this on mine and Skub's clothes, Ivan's clothes and our cloth diapers. It works great for each one!
I will write out the instructions for how I make my soap, and I will also include a video, for those of you who don't enjoy reading. I won't take it personal, I promise.

You will need:
4 Tbs Washing Soda
2 Tbs Borax
1/4 bar of Fels Naptha soap
Water

Tools:
Small saucepan
Grater
Spoon
Large bucket with a lid
Tablespoon
Liquid measuring cup
Funnel
2 gallon sized containers with lids
Potato masher
Soup Ladle

Don't be intimidated by that list! Most of the tools are common kitchen utensils, nothing special. And of course like anything in life, if you don't have something (lets say a potato masher for example) you can always improvise! Maybe make this a cool project with the kids and let them use their hands!

Add one cup of HOT water to the small saucepan. Use the grater to grate the Fels Naptha soap into the hot water. About halfway through, place the saucepan on a burner and turn it to medium heat, and finish the grating.

Stir the soap frequently until ALL the chunks are dissolved. Take off heat and set aside.

Add 10 cups of HOT water into the large bucket, then add the Borax and Washing Soda. Stir.

Pour the Fels Naptha into the large bucket and stir again.

Add 10 more cups of HOT water to the bucket, and stir a final time.

Place the cover on the bucket, and leave it sit overnight. Place it somewhere that it won't be disturbed.

In the morning, your bucket will contain a thick gel. Use the potato masher to break up the gel into small enough bits to fit through the funnel.

Using the funnel and a soup ladle, portion the detergent into the two gallon sized containers. They will each be about half full, maybe a little more.

Fill the remainder of the containers with HOT water, place the overs on them, and shake until the clumps once again form a consistent gel (maybe 3 minutes each.)

It really isn't as hard as it seems, and once you've tried it, it becomes so much easier. It should take about a fourth of a cup of homemade detergent per full load. For cloth diapers, it only takes about two tablespoons. I will never go back to buying detergent, which is outrageously up-priced. I hope this is helpful, and if I was unclear on any of the steps, or if you have questions, feel free to send a message!