Fifteen Minute Beef and Bean Chili

Seriously.  Fifteen minutes.  And it is perfect for serving over Hot Dogs, French Fries, Noodles, or simply on it's own.  Enjoy!

1 tablespoon garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 lb ground beef
1 can diced green chilis
2 14.5 oz cans petite diced tomatoes - undrained
1 14.5 oz can red kidney beans - undrained
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1 tablespoon Cumin
2 tablespoons Chili powder
salt and pepper to taste
Grated Cheese (to garnish)

1) In a large skillet, combine garlic and oil.  Saute until garlic is fragrant, and slightly golden.  Add ground beef and brown until cooked through.

2) Drain and rinse cooked beef.  (if using super lean meat, you can omit this step).

3) Add to the skillet the tomatoes, kidney beans, tomato sauce, cumin, chili powder, salt, and pepper.  Stir through.  Bring to a boil. Cook for one minute, then reduce heat to simmer.  Stir occasionally  cooking approximately 10 minutes longer or until as thick as desired.  Serve.

You can add extra vegetables in the very first step - saute onion, celery, and carrot, for example.  I do that when I have a little more time and want to add more ooomph.  You can also cut down on the cooking time by adding a jar of pre-cooked beef stew bits instead of ground beef (YUMMY!)  It really is quick and easy, and your family will love it...

Happy Cooking!

Painting with Chalk Paint

There's been a lot of buzz on the interwebs lately about "ChalkPaint".  Annie Sloan makes a brand that is supposedly this great wonderment of all wonders for furniture makeovers - no need to prime, or sand, or - anything!  Since I"m not a big fan of prep-work, I wanted to give it a try.  Only problem was - I couldn't find any Annie Sloan chalk paint anywhere locally and to buy it online and ship it...and well, I'm way too cheap and impatient thrifty for that.  So I went to the trusty interwebs to find a recipe.

I love Pinterest.

I found several recipes online for chalk paint, but the one I ended up using is this:

4 Tablespoons of Plaster of Paris (available at craft and home improvement stores)
2 1/2 tablespoons of water
2 cups (give or take a little) paint of your choosing.

1,) Mix the Plaster of Paris until smooth - it should have the consistency of yogurt- the regular American kind, not the Greek kind....(mmmmmm....Greek Yogurt....ahem, sorry.)

2.) Add the smooth Plaster of Paris to the paint and mix well. There should be no chunks in the plaster or you will end up with chunks in your paint...it will look like cottage cheese...this does not spread well. *go ahead, ask me how I know this...I dare you.*

You have to work QUICKLY.  The paint/Plaster mixture dries very fast.  Which is great for someone like me whom we have already decided is impatient. :)


Once I found a lovely recipe, I needed to find a small project I could try it out on - and not be disappointed if it didn't work.  This is a first time around thing, after all, and I did NOT want to do it on a big piece of furniture that I'd have to look at every day if I did a bad job.

You understand, don't you?

This is the piece I chose:

It is just screaming "PAINT ME!" isn't it?

The colors I chose are called "Mayonnaise" and "Stunning".  Both are Benjamin Moore colors, and fit the decor in my house PERFECTLY.  (Come to think of it, I now have a piece that one could be described as "Stunning mayonnaise....")

I started by cleaning the piece.  I used vinegar and water in a spray bottle and a soft rag.  You want to remove all of the dust particles so that they don't get caught in your paint and give you a bubbly surface.

Next, since the paint supposedly needs no extra refinishing-I took my accent color and applied it anywhere I was going to want to distress the piece.  In this case, it was "Stunning" - which in this picture looks more purple, but I swear, it's navy blue.

 Next I worked on applying the "Mayonnaise" - wow, that sounds weird.   I really didn't take any pictures of this part...should have, but didn't.   One thing though...I started with a brush.  The paint was so thick that it left brush lines.  I hated that.  I went and got a sponge roller to finish the job.  That went much better.

 I then added these cute little handles I found at Target on Clearance.  I love when I find things on Clearance!  These things were marked down from 12.00 to 2.98 - And I think they are perfect.  Finally, I distressed the areas I wanted distressed, to give it a little bit of a cozy farmy look.

Finally, you need to put a coat of wax on the surface. As my sister in law pointed out - it's a MATTE finish, which means all the fun sticky little hand prints will stick to it - and stay.

Voila!!!  A new entry table/storage cabinet painted with Chalk Paint!

I love how it turned out, and am super excited to see if my husband notices AND if he likes it too.  Next project?  That would be THIS thing...

 I, KNOW....RIGHT???

Happy Crafting!

Bare Minerals - Secret Bottom (How to get all the mineral makeup out of the sifter jar)

I've been wearing Bare Minerals makeup now for about 8 years.

Wow.  That makes me feel old.

If you aren't familiar with Mineral makeup, and are looking for something new in your beauty routine, I highly recommend it. It's light, and doesn't feel oily, and since I started using it, my face has completely been devoid of acne...although - we did just determine that I am pretty dang old...

Anyway - that isn't the reason for this post.

If you have worn Bare Minerals brand specifically for a while, you may have noticed that about two years ago they changed the way their little powder canisters seal.  Where they USED to have a nifty little sifter that you could pop out when your makeup was running low to get the last few bits out - now they are completely sealed up top leaving disappointed cheapskates makeup wearers like me completely frustrated at leaving those last few days worth of makeup in the jar.

So one day, while in a Bare Minerals store purchasing some pretty sparkley silver eye shadow (that my daughter immediately started calling crushed-up-Edward - I love that kid) I brought up the frustration to the girl behind the counter.  To which she said...

"Just flip it over and take out the bottom."

WHAT????

Voila!  You sure can!

Now I'm wishing I had saved all those past jars.  Oh well -now I know!