Walking Tacos

OK, Hummie...you ask...you receive! Walking tacos...yummy...kid friendly and oh, so easy!

You simply take individual size bags of Doritos, and squeeze the bag so the chips are crushed a little bit. Then, cut the bag open on the LONG side (not the top where you normally open the bag.) Fill with a plop of taco meat, and hand over to the person who wants to eat it. They can add other taco toppings like lettuce, cheese, tomato, onion, salsa, and/or sour cream. Eat it out of the bag with a plastic fork, (while walking around...hence the name...WALKING Taco. ) (Unless you are being served this for lunch in the cafeteria...the cooks kinda frown on kids walking around while eating lunch in the cafeteria.)

Around here, this is a huge food item at football/basketball concession stands, graduation parties, etc. Cameron will be Confirmed in April, and this is the meal he has requested for his Confirmation dinner. Kind of different, BUT...it IS his party, right?

Let me know if any of you make these, and how they are received. I can almost guarantee that they are gonna be a HIT!

Music, Music, Music

It's a busy weekend filled with important contests for Caleb! He plays the sax for jazz band, and they had State Contest in Sumner at the high school today. They played at 8:00 am! YIKES that was early, but they sounded awesome! After playing, they had to do a sight reading test...he said it all went well. They got a Division II rating, which was good, but they were really hoping for a I!

Then, at 9:20, the Sumner-Fredericksburg Sensations, (swing choir) had their State contest performance. Caleb plays the valve trombone for that. The choir got a Division I rating! They were AWESOME!!! I love show choir performances. He and I stayed to watch until about noon.

Had to hurry home when we got a phone call from Rachel that Ethan had been bitten by his hamster Chippy. He was sore and bleeding, but mostly...sad that his beloved pet would do that to him! All is well now!

Ron headed to Camp IO-DIS-E-CA to take the junior high youth for their retreat. He has other chaperones, so he just had to drive down there. Cameron was excited about the event, and looking forward to tomorrow's Snow Olympics! BRRRRRR!

Off to make walking tacos for supper :) MMMMM.

Snow, Snow, Snow

Once again, the kids are thrilled with the 4-5 inches of snow that fell early this morning and throughout the day! It was a light and fluffy snow, fortunately for Caleb and Cameron who had to shovel it!

Church had a slim crowd today, due to all the snow that fell. Ron went part way to West Union for the 8 am service, and turned around and came home. The roads were not good enough for him to continue on!

Services were very nice, and we came home and had honey glazed ham, mashed potatoes and corn. A yummy Sunday dinner. The kids enjoyed playing in the snow and watching movies. The only disappointment about the snow is that it didn't wait 12-24 hours so they'd get a Snow Day out of it! :)

Caleb and Cameron have done a good job of shoveling this year! (of course, we've only had snow TWO times! Caleb worked hard at getting the driveway cleaned off this afternoon! Thanks, boys!


The kids are SO anxious to go sledding, but we just don't have a place for it around here! We may try to go and visit some friends next weekend that have a nice, very hilly, back yard! Rachel had a fun time making SNOW ANGELS this week! Here's some of her artwwork!

TGIF!

It's Friday, and we all survived a week without the man of the house around. We miss him terribly and will be glad when he gets home late tonight!

Caleb has all the paperwork ready for him to get his school permit, allowing him to drive to and from school without an adult. Shall I count my gray hairs NOW, and then compare them to how many I have after he's made the road trip a few times? NOT ready to have a driver! And next month, Cameron turns 14, which means we'll have a second kid with a drivers permit! YIKES! How old am I again?? Caleb also has been stressed over getting his school schedule worked out for the next two years. He finally turned it in this week, and seems to be feeling pretty good about it.

Cameron got great news this week! He was accepted into the Tri-State Honor band! We are thrilled for him...what an honor. Now...to practice! He also had 2 basketball games this week. Yesterday the middle school had a field trip to the Gallagher-Bluedorn Theater associated with UNI in Cedar Falls. I was a sub for the day, so got to attend, too. It was a 1 hour play on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. QUITE good! After the 1 hour bus ride there, 1 hour play, and then an hour ride back to school, Cameron and the bball team got BACK on a bus and drove an hour + to Postville for their game. Cameron said they won by over 50 points, so he got lots of playing time ;-). It was 8:45 til he got home for supper...he was HUNGRY!

Rachel had piano and spent lots of time outside playing in the snow this week! And Ethan had Scouts, and, the homebody that he is, just wanted to veg out at home most of the week. They did both go to Cameron's ball game on Tuesday night...under duress!

Haven't posted a recipe lately, but here's a GREAT one....it is DELICIOUS with pretzels dipped in it, or as a spread on a chicken or ham sandwich. Once I start, I can't STOP eating this stuff. mmmm. I got this recipe from a friend at school, who got it from yet another friend :)

Mustard Dip

1 small bottle of yellow mustard
1 pint sour cream
1 pint Mayo (I use miracle whip)
2 packages of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix, dry
1 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons horseradish (NOT SAUCE)
2-3 T. dry minced onions

Blend it all together in a large bowl. Chill and ENJOY!

Let it SNOW!!

or not....I just said that 'cause my kids are SO happy to finally have snow here in NE Iowa! They've been waiting all winter for the white stuff to come down from the sky! It wasn't a "snow day" technically, because there was no school today anyway, due to teacher inservice. So the four kids enjoyed sleeping in, and then playing in the snow. We had to dig out all the hats, boots, coats, gloves and snowpants...a HUGE task. The good news is that there were hand me downs or stored stuff for everyone to get by for today! Even KT the dog got in on some of the snow fun! They all played outside for quite some time, and then had to come in and enjoy some hot cocoa, of course! After the paper route today, we all headed out to the farm fleet store for snowboots and snowpants for Cameron...the only winter supplies we needed to purchase this year! Woo HOO!
Then we shopped at Pamida for a while, and then enjoyed a dinner at Subway. (anyone guess who is gone on a trip this week? LOL...RON...that's why we got to go to SUBWAY! ) We miss him, but we have lots and lots to do this week, so I'm sure the time will go quickly til he's home again!

A good day for us all, even if it WAS bitter cold and snowy!

Happy 2007!!!

It's been a while, huh? December is gone?!?! How did THAT happen? Ugh...I spent at least 2 weeks of the month really sick. And the rest was just busy, busy, busy!

Christmas with the family was lots of fun. The kids were thrilled with their gifts. A HIGHLIGHT of the Christmas holiday was when Caleb and Cameron and I got to go to a St. Louis Rams/Minnesota Vikings game!!! Go RAMS!!! That was so much fun. None of us had ever been to an NFL game, and the boys are such HUGE Rams fans that it was incredibly fun for ME to watch them watch the game. The final score of 41-21 Rams, was the icing on the cake.




While Caleb and Cameron received tickets to the game for Christmas, Rachel and Ethan were given a day of unlimited rides at the Mall of America. Ron's folks joined us for Monday's adventures at the MOA. We all had lots of fun there. There was so much to see and do! The food was yummy, and we all found a couple of things that we "needed". Of course, the no tax on clothing in Minnesota was a guarantee that we'd come home with some clothing for the kids, at least.

It was a great get-away, and we are glad it all went so smoothly. There WAS one glitch in the whole trip, after we stopped at a rest area. We climbed back in the car, drove away, and an HOUR later, Ron's cell phone rang and he heard his 11 year old daughter say "Daddy. You left me at the rest area!" Oh, the horror we felt. We praise GOD for the custodian working at the rest stop who made sure she was taken care of, and the MN Highway patrol who brought her partway back so that we could be reunited quicker. God was watching over her for those few hours!

Now we're all back to school/work/subbing and trying to find out what "normal" means again!

Oven Beef Stew & Thankfulness

Ok, I've been quite lax in keeping up with this thing, haven't I? Probably 'cause I haven't made anything new and exciting!

Today is the Friday after Thanksgiving. I, for one, am thankful that I'm NOT shopping today! UGH..can't imagine fighting those crowds!

My sister and her husband and 2 kids are here visiting for the holiday. I'm very thankful for that. We have a great time visiting and laughing. Today is the day that we'll have our big Thanksgiving dinner. Our friend Dan will also be joining us again this year. We will miss our dear friends Kent and Mary Beth and their kids at our dinner this year! I'm thankful for email and phones, so that we can keep in touch while so far apart!

This year's appetizers include Hot and Spicy Cranberry dip, sausage, cheese and crackers, salsa and chips and veggies and dip. The main dinner is the usual...Turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, rolls, pumpkin pie. MMMMM. I'm thankful for great food to eat! And for the ability to cook it!

I'm thankful for my wonderful husband who got up at 7 or so this morning to go down to church to get the turkeys reheating for me. I got to sleep an extra hour or so because of that. He's the light of my life...Thankful doesn't even begin to describe it!

I'm thankful for 4 healthy kids. Each one of them is unique and special to me in their own way. God has blessed me more than words can say.

I'm also thankful for the many, many friends I've been blessed with...both in real life friends and the huge online community of friends I have. They keep me sane in an often crazy world!

OK....on to the recipe. When Sue Ann and Bill travel on Thanksgiving day, they don't feel like eating a huge meal, so we save it for Friday. Last night, I made my favorite stew...

Oven Beef Stew

Chop a couple of onions and put in bottom of a pan (I use my big roaster (that holds 3 sticky chickens, LOL). Put all the stew meat on top of the onion. Mix a couple tablespoons of flour, couple shakes of paperika and some pepper (to taste) together. Sprinkle over the beef. Sprinkle about 1/4 or so cup of Soy sauce over the floured meat.

Cover tightly and cook about an hour. Stir.

Add chunked potatoes and (baby) carrots. (last night I added 3 bags of baby carrots, and 20 potatoes, to my 4 onions and 3 big roasts chopped up).

Cover and bake an hour. Remove cover, stir and bake another 30 minutes or so. ( I don't always take the cover off...I just keep it on, as it is really thick already.

My FAVORITE!

Chicken Enchillada Casserole (YAY--my computer's back!)

OK, so it's been since JULY since I've had my computer in a reliable, usable way. I finally got it back yesterday. It SEEMS to be working ok...sort of. The power cord still isn't staying connected all the time. I'm sure I'll have to take it back in again before too long. UGH.

I've been teaching almost full time as a sub! A day at the elementary, a day at the middle school, then 4 days for one person, and 2 days for another...one day I was 4 different people throughout the course of the day!!! That was an exhausting day.

Caleb made this recipe last night for supper. It is a family favorite ;)

CHICKEN ENCHILLADA CASSEROLE

3 chicken breasts
2 cans cream of chicken soup
2 cups sour cream
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
tortillas

Cube and cook chicken breasts. (Sprinkle with taco seasoning in the last little bit for added flavor if desired). Mix sour cream, cream of chicken soup, chicken and cheese. Place a layer of tortillas on the bottom of a greased 9 x 13 (or lasagna size) pan. Spoon a layer of chicken/cheese mix on top. Repeat layers, ending with sauce. Sprinkle with additonal shredded cheese. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes.

VERY tasty!

Breakfast Egg Muffin sandwiches & Sunday

Well our Sunday was a rainy, gloomy, dreary day. Ron (of course!) had a a wonderful message at church today about how "Jesus has the words of Eternal Life". Bible class was a "getting to know you" day of coffee and donuts, and we'll kick off the lessons next week when Ron will have services at West Union at 8:00 am (YUCK!) so he will be around for classes at St. Paul's. YAY!

The rain was a motivator for a nice long nap this afternoon, and then Ron and I went to Adult instruction class at church. A good class, and the last one with this group of people. We've enjoyed having this class with them!

Breakfast meals are definitely a hit around here. Making eggs this "new" way worked beautifully! I've got some in the freezer as well, for one day this week.

Meat, Egg and Cheese "Mc"Muffins

12 English muffins
12 eggs
12 slices cheese
12 Sausage patties

Scramble eggs and add salt and pepper to taste. Add a splash of milk, as desired. Pour onto a cookie sheet with sides. Bake in a 350* oven for 10-12 minutes. Slice with pizza cutter or knift. OR spray a muffin top pan thoroughly with PAM. Fill each hole completely with egg. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes or until cooked.

Assemble sandwiches without adding cheese. Wrap sandwiches and put them in a larger freezer bag. Label and freeze.

To Serve:Thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Microwave on high for one minute. Add a slice of cheese. Microwave on high for 20 seconds.

Ramblings

What a week it has been here at our home! Caleb is doing AWESOME at Cross Country this year. He had two meets, and has earned his FIRST ribbon for coming in 8th in the JV meet...but first for his JV team! He's proud of himself, and glad he chose to run cross country rather than play football this year. I wonder "who's child is this, who WILLINGLY runs 5-6 miles a day?" In my mind, that's insane! But, he loves it, and I'm so glad he's found something that he enjoys. Ron and I are proud of him!

Cameron is playing football, and will have his first game this week. He can't wait! Rachel (6th grade) is pretty much over her middle school jitters and well on her way to sailing through middle school. Ethan was disappointed to discover that his first day of flag football was cancelled today, due to the high school game being played at 1:00 today (after being postponed due to lightening last night).

Ron and I worked at a tournament at the golf course today. Lots of work, but we got to visit with people that we don't often get to socialize with, so it was fun!

Everyone is excited about Sunday School starting tomorrow. Summertime Sunday's are nice and laid back, but we are all ready for that extra time in the Word!

Ham and Scalloped potatoes were on the menu this week and were a huge hit! Peeled, sliced potatoes, cubed ham, cream of chicken soup and sour cream, all layered in the crock pot. EVERYONE wanted seconds of that one :)

My laptop is in the shop AGAIN, due to power supply issues...ugh...hope it is fixed for good this time!

The End of Summer

I always get melancholy over Labor Day weekend. I just love summertime so very much. I love everything about it. Sleeping in, hot sunny summer days, swimming pools, somewhat less hectic schedule, vacation. And I really don't enjoy what is coming up next...the dreaded winter...with all it's ice, snow and cold. AACK...gives me the chills just thinking about it!

Cold season hit our family this past week. I was sick, sick, sick, and Cameron missed 2 days of school already this year! We're both finally on the mend, and praying that no one else in the family gets hit with it! It was a nasty bug!

As I said in my last blog...there wasn't much new and exciting in the kitchen this week. The cinnabon rolls were the extent of the excitement...well...that and the Monkey Bread this morning. That is just a loaf of bread dough (made in the bread machine, of course), broken into little bite sized balls and put in a bundt pan, and layered with a mixture of a package of pudding mix (butterscotch is GREAT!), 1 c. brown sugar and 1/2 cup butter. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or so...mmmmm.

Other than that we had BLT's a couple times this week (thanks to the bags, buckets and boxes of tomatoes that keep mysteriously appearing on our kitchen table). Homemade salsa with nachos. Lunchmeat. BBQ chicken. Nothing exciting, but we ate lots and enjoyed every bite.

Next week looks to be busy with volunteering and subbing, cross country, football, piano and paper routes.

Summer ends, but life goes on.

No time to cook?

Well...it seems that it's going to be one of those days (weeks?) where dinner is just thrown together at the last minute. Nothing fancy, nothing new, probably not exciting either. Plain old, plain old. Like spaghetti. Or goulash. or Mac and Cheese? Who knows.

What's REALLY funny, is that these plain old, plain old dinners, are the ones that often excite the kids the most! Maybe I should quit trying new things, and just stick to plain old, plain old. No....that would be too boring for me!

Tonight, I'll settle for plain and boring. But watch out later...there's BOUND to be something new and interesting to cook!

I subbed all day today, and looking at my schedule, I see that it's all day, every day this week! Well...that'll help build that emergency fund back up, won't it? It'll be great after a long, dry summer with no paychecks!

Cinabon Rolls (bread machine)

oh, boy, oh boy, oh boy! We all can't WAIT to wake up in the morning (which is quite unusual for this household...we're NOT morning people! ) My friend Lee just sent me this recipe today, and I had to try it. I'm gonna get a mom of the year award tomorrow morning (well...that is IF they bake up as nicely as they are rising, LOL.

I made kind of a mess with the filling, though. Learned a lesson. It says to microwave the filling to make it more spreadable. BUT...I had already used spreadable margarine. So it all basically melted, and all oozed out as I was rolling it up. Lesson learned? Don't nuke soft spread margarine when you are using it for a cinnamon roll filling :)

Ron kinda wonders why I've turned over a new leaf...making breakfast for the kids each day. I'm so not a morning person, that they usually have to fend for themselves.

Cinnabon's for the Bread Machine

Ingredients:
This recipe uses a bread machine.
Dough 2 pound ingredient

1 c. milk
1 egg, beaten
4 Tbsp. melted butter
4 Tbsp. water
1/2 box instant vanilla pudding (3.4 oz. box) (1/3 c. of bulk vanilla pudding mix)
4 c. bread flour
1 T. sugar
1/2 t. salt
2-1/2 t. bread machine yeast


Filling
1/2 c. butter, softened
1 c. brown sugar
2 t. cinnamon
1/4 c. chopped walnuts, opt
1/4 c. raisins opt.


Preparation:
Place all ingredients in your machine in order recommended by your machine’s manufacturer. Place the pan in your machine. Select the dough cycle and press start. When cycle is finished, remove the dough, knead enough to punch down and roll to 17X10. Combine first three filling ingredients and mix well. Heat in microwave 10 sec. to make it spreadable--uummmm....maybe not! This made a MESS! Spread over rolled out dough with rubber spatula. Get as close to the edges as possible. Sprinkle nuts or raisins over dough. Starting with widest end, roll the dough into tight log. Cut into 1/2-1” slices. Place in a lightly greased baking dish with sides. Put in warm draft free place and allow them to raise until double. (I turn my oven on warm and place them inside. When the temperature light goes off, turn off the oven. I let them rise 20-30 minutes this way. Take out to heat oven to baking temp.) Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes. When the rolls are done top with frosting of your choice.(We like vanilla cake icing...mmmmmm) Note: For a real treat replace raisins in the filling with chopped dried cherries, blueberries or strawberries. When doing this use frosting 1 or 2 and add a Tbsp. of matching fruit jam.
Yield: A full 9x13 pan.

Cowboy Beans and Rice

Tonight is my golf night, but there's NO food in the house for Ron to just throw something together like he often does when it's my night out with the gals. SO...I told him I'd make another one of our kids' favorites...Cowboy Beans and rice (he'll have to make the rice when he gets home :) This is one of those "no recipe, throw together" kind of meals, but I'll give estimates.

Cowboy Beans and Rice

2 pounds ground beef/turkey
3-4 T. minced onion
3/4 - 1 c. ketchup
1 squirt mustard
1/4-1/2 c. brown sugar (depending on how sweet you like it...this could be omited)
1/4 or a bit more BBQ sauce
Tobasco or other "hot" sauce as you like it
rice to serve your family

Brown the ground meat, with the onion in it. When it's brown, add ketchup, mustard, brown sugar, BBQ and other seasonings as desired (make it your own, LOL). Cook and stir together til hot all the way through.

Serve over cooked rice. Or serve with rice in a flour tortilla.

This is another one of those recipes that I have a hard time making enough of, so that we can all have seconds and maybe even left overs!

OOOH, YUM!

That's the name of the recipe I made for supper tonight. OOOH, Yum! Ethan requested it. It's his favorite. He said "This time, Mom, would you make enough so that I can have seconds?" HA...that's a chore when I'm feeding four hungry kids!

So...here's the recipe.

OOOH Yum!

1 pound ground beef
4 T. soy sauce
4 pkgs Ramen noodles (beef or oriental)
1 package frozen broccoli (up to 2 pkgs.)

Brown the ground beef. Sprinkle with the seasoning packets from 3 (or all 4) of the noodle packages. Add the soy sauce and stir to blend. Add the broccoli to the beef, and cook til done. While the broccoli is cooking, cook the ramen noodles. Drain. Stir into the broccoli and beef.

OOOH YUM!

Golden Pork Chops

A new family favorite! Since I lost 10 years worth of recipes when my hard drive crashed, my friend Lee recommended that I start posting favorite recipes on a blog...so that I can recover them if such a crisis should occur again. So...I'll try that and see how it works.

So, in my quest for recipes that please the family, I hit on a winner first time up! There wasn't enough rice, so I need to remember to make more than 1 1/2 cups to serve our family.

Here's the recipe:

Golden Pork Chops

• 6 pork chops
• seasoned salt (I also added garlic pepper)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 can mushrooms OR 1/2 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
  

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Rinse pork chops, pat dry and place them in a 9x13 inch baking dish.
3. In a separate small bowl, combine the onion, mushrooms and soup. Mix together well and sponn over the chops.
4. Cover and bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 45 minutes, then uncover and bake for 15 more minutes. (Note: Time could be less or more depending on the thickness of the chops.) Pork chops are done when their internal temperature has reached 160 degrees F (70 degrees C).

MMMMMMMM, yummy.