Week 13 - Not so triumphant

Along with my successes this week, I also had a couple not so successful moments.  We can start with the Chicken Parmesan Bake from the blog Food Wishes.  This pin looked so good that I actually repinned in 3 times without realizing it! :)  This picture looks great doesn't it?

The blog features the list of ingredients then a video to go over the recipe.  I prefer to follow a written recipe as opposed to a video, but it was pretty easy, so I didn't mind.  I bought chicken breast cutlets from sprouts, so they would be thinner to start with and take less time to bake.  The recipe calls for 35 minutes to bake, but mine took closer to an hour to make even when the thinner cuts.  The only problem with baking it longer is the cheese on top gets a little burnt.  I scooped some out for my kiddos and some for me.  I ate a little, and unfortunately wasn't too impressed.  The croutons got pretty soggy and mushy and didn't get that crispiness that he described in the recipe.  Both kids ate about two bites and were done.  My husband, the chicken parm fanatic, didn't even try the leftovers I put for him in the fridge.  Oh well, don't think I will trying this again.  Too bad, it looked really good!

Our other attempt was started off really cool, so it wasn't a total fail!  We attempted to make the puffy paint for the bathtub. 

 We tried the Ivory soap in the microwave from the blog Toys in the Dryer.  This part was a success.  The kids and I both marveled at how the soap puffed up like a cloud in a matter of seconds.  You quarter a bar of soap then stick it in the microwave.  I put a paper towel on a plate then put the soap on top of the paper towel.  It says to set the microwave for 3 minutes, but it took less than a minute to get all the puff we needed from the soap.  It was pretty cool, and it made the kitchen smell nice and soapy clean!  Bonus!! :)

Soap before

Soap after

For the next part I referred to the blog, Housing a Forest.  I followed the directions, and blended the puffed soap with water until it reached the yogurt consistency.  I poured it into cups and mixed in the food coloring. 

I knew something probably wasn't right when I saw the liquid at the bottom separating, but I tried to just remix it and keep going.  When I poured it into the baggies, I tried to pour out some of the liquid that had separated again before putting it in the baggies.  The continued to separate in the baggies, so I just squished them around to remix.  By the time we got around to trying them that evening at bath time they had gelled up pretty good. 

What was supposed to be puff paint more turned into congealed, dyed soap.  The kids enjoyed smooshing on the bath walls (they had looked so looked forward to using it all day, that I couldn't tell them no), but it was not so fun to clean up out of the bottom of the tub. 

Not sure what I did to mess this up, but if anyone has suggestions, let me know!