Hearty Chicken pasta

This is a great dish when you have sudden guests coming and your fridge is...well...not fully stocked. It's very affordable, can feed from 2 to whatever, and tastes SO satisfying!

Save-the-day- pasta-dish ( 4-6 portions)


1lb chicken ( whatever pieces you have), diced
1 large onion, diced
1 large carrot, diced
1 large red pepper, diced
1 tomato, diced
2 cloves of garlic
Fresh herbs ( they make all the difference!) cilantro+dill+scallion, a little of each
Cooing Oil
Pinch of the following: coriander, cumin, paprika, turmeric ( if you have)

This is my basic standard list of MUST have items in this dish, but I usually try to sneak in a couple more veggies, like zucchini or green pepper, or mushrooms, even potato sometimes. No celery though, it will overpower all others.


1. Saute onion in 3-4 tbsp of cooking oil in a large non-stick or cast iron pot
2. Add chicken and saute until golden
3. Add as you dice, carrot, pepper, tomato, garlic, etc  Add spices.
4. When everybody is in the pot, saute until veggies just start to get slightly browned.

5.Add water - the amount depends on the consistency you want. I usually make it so it resembles thick soup. Don't forget to season once more with salt and pepper.
6.When it comes to a boil, reduce the heat and and simmer for 30 min.
7. Meanwhile cook pasta of your preference. We like thin linguine or thin spaghetti.
7. When ready to serve, pour a generous amount of soup over the pasta in a deep serving plate or bowl. Add fresh herbs.


Enjoy!


If you need to feed more people, just increase the amount of veggies and pasta!

Hey guys, I would love to hear what you think of this recipe, do you think you'll try it?

I simply like this

Totally love these, not sure if we can get them here in US, but love them anyway.

Oops can be beautiful! Who knew?

Have you seen this book? So cool! Being a creative person that I am, I cannot resist buying it.
It's called Beautiful Oops! I think it's great for promoting creativity and seeing positive things even in oops! ;))) Especially when these oops happen every day in large quantities!:)
Frankly, I am buying it for myself ( love children's books!!), and then when the moment is right I will pass it along, promise!

Time Travel....on fabric

This week Spoonflower's upcoming contest theme is " Time Travel".

The first and only thing I had on my mind when I started thinking about it was a movie " Time Machine", then " Time Traveler's Wife" book joined in ( one of my favorites by the way ;)
But still I had no idea how to translate it into fabric. The ideas were either too tacky, too complicated or too Disney.
And then it hit me! "All aboard!"
Those of you who have toddlers and "PBS kids" channel will understand me. :)))
There is this cartoon " Dinosaur Train" that runs every weekday and both my children watch it. The idea is that there is a time traveling train that takes dinosaur families through different periods of prehistoric era. They make lots of friends while exploring a variety of species that roamed the earth a very long time ago. So in this cartoon, time traveling is just a train ticket away. And that's the idea I decided to use for my fabric.
So... having-to-watch-kids-channel-until-the-catchy-songs-stuck-in-my-head has finally paid off!
Here are two colorways of my fabric (one of these will be entered in the contest today):
Which of the two do you like?
Update: Up for sale here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/NewMomDesigns

Daytime

Nighttime

Have you started your gift shopping?

I found this adorable mini bowling set on Etsy and immediately decided that I have started my holidays gift shopping. Here are a few of my favorite kids related items from Etsy. 

I pre-ordered this for my kids. Boy, do they love to smash things and see them falling... 

Don't they all??

And how enchanting is this??? 3-D fairytale or something...

What about this cute little guy? I am sure he is looking for a loving home this year... ;)

I love everything from this store! Really. Having a hard time selecting what to buy...

More to come soon, I have to go do something about this annoying cold that's been just killing me over the last 3 days, starting right after our Thanksgiving dinner. Oh, Thanks winter season - 3 days terribly sick, all by myself with 2 little kids cooped up in the house is exactly what I needed ;)

A few of my latest fabric designs soon to be for sale at my Etsy shop ( ignore the watermarks on them)

 I like this soft palette for bedrooms, it's so soothing!

This is fresh and colorful, I see it as a cool clutch, a bag, kids clothes accent like sleeves or pockets, it would also make a great puffy skirt!

This is another color combo I love. Imagine cute little toys, pillow covers, even a small side chair upholstered in this fun fabric ( in larger scale, of course) would be an awesome addition to a hip, mid-century inspired room.

This just sings "Holidays" to me. So cheerful and bright!

Ok, enough of self-praising ;))LOL! 

My favorite steak

When it comes to meat I am not as picky as I am with some other foods. I won't freak out if a steak is overcooked and somewhat dry, I will eat it just fine.BUT... my husband is not me. He must have his meat nice and juicy AND almost well-done, which is practically impossible.Therefore I am on constant lookout for a fool-proof juicy steak recipe that will make my hubby singing praises.Well, today was pretty pretty close, he gave two thumbs up!:)
Here is what I've done.

My favorite skirt steak recipe, not really a recipe, just 3 simple steps ;)


1)The day before I marinated a SKIRT STEAK in the mixture of following: cooking oil + soy sauce in equal parts, garlic, salt, pepper to taste.

2) Next day, for lunchtime, I just threw it onto the grill ( it is actually a panini maker, but it works great on chicken and steaks of reasonable thickness :) for around 5 min. ( note, I had the heat coming from both sides, if using regular grill or pan, flip to cook another side until desired doneness)
That's it!! REALLY!

3) After a few minutes rest, I sliced it and made a killer sandwich for my hubby, then nibbled on these super juicy pieces all afternoon. It was completely cooked just as we like it ( no pink) BUT the juiciness was so overwhelming, I couldn't get enough of it!