Taco Soup

It's not quite that cold outside yet, but since I've been sick, all I want to eat is soup. This is one of my very favorite recipes! It's really easy and I can put it together the night before and in the morning, set the crock pot on low and it's ready by the time I get home. Plus, leftovers taste amazing. Thank you, Paula Deen! Ha ha...

Ingredients:
2 lbs ground beef
2 cups diced onions
2 (15 1/2 oz) cans pinto beans
1 (15 1/2 oz) can pink kidney beans (red is fine-I can never find pink)
1 (15 1/4 oz) can whole-kernel corn, drained
1 (14 1/2 oz) can Mexican-style stewed tomatoes
1 (14 1/2 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 (14 1/2 oz) can tomatoes with chiles
2 (4 1/2 oz) cans diced green chiles
1 (4.6 oz) can black olives, drained & sliced (optional) (I never do this)
1 (1 1/4 oz) packet taco seasoning mix
1 (1 oz) package ranch salad dressing mix
corn chips, for serving (optional)
Garnish Items (optional): Black olives, sour cream, green olives, cheese, or pickled jalapeños

Directions:
Brown the ground beef and onions in a large skillet; drain the excess fat, then transfer the browned beef and onions to a large slow cooker or a stockpot. Add the beans, corn, tomatoes, green chiles, olives, taco seasoning, and ranch dressing mix. Cook in a slow cooker on low for 6 to 8 hours or simmer over low heat for about 1 hour in a pot on the stove. To serve, place a few corn chips in each bowl and ladle soup over them. Top with sour cream, cheese, green onions and jalapeños.

How Horrible Am I?

Alright, so obviously I'm doing super horrible at keeping up with this. In my defense, I have been sick. I have some kind of sinus infection thing going on and really have no ambition to do much really. So, to make up for my serious lack of will, I have decided to post a series of blogs with recipes--something that will take very little effort until I'm able to get rid of this junk and back on my normal schedule. Trust me, there has also been a serious lack of cleaning effort and my house REALLY shows it.

Sorry to anyone who actually follows my postings...really, I am. I'm sure these next few days will also bring an overflow of notifications that I've updated. Again, I do feel bad.

First Day of School

McKayla is getting WAY too old... Today was her first day of Pre-K. She's in a class of 4 and 5-year-olds. So far, she seems to be enjoying what they've started learning. She says that is lots more fun than the 3-year-old class was. She attends a Day Care/Pre-School. They accept kids early in the morning, feed them, and make sure they get the appropriate rooms for their class. I love them. They are really great with kids and make every effort to make sure the parents are getting the type of care they are expecting.
I can't believe she is already 4. Time goes by SO fast. I will be sure to post the pictures of her later, but I don't have the attachments with me to take the pictures from my camera and put them up. Oh well. Time just seems to go by all too fast.

So Irritated

Alright, I spent hours putting together a slide show that CLAIMED I could post it on my blog. I arranged all the pictures and got everything visually appealing, I selected that I wanted to post this on blogger, and slide.com then gave me a code. I followed all of their instructions and blogger gives me an error every time I try to post the slide show. I'm super sad...I wanted to be able to show off a few of the pictures that Jourdyn took for us. If any of you know a better way to do this, let me know, PLEASE. I'm just not all that fond of posting lists of pictures. It's more fun as a slide show or even a collage.

::This is one of my favorites::

Quick Pizza

This is a pretty basic and really easy recipe. McKayla LOVES pizza. She asks for it on a regular basis. We use this recipe in all kinds of ways. Feel free to make any changes you see fit.

What you need:
Baking Sheet
Aluminum Foil (optional)
Pizza/Tomato Sauce
Shredded Cheese
Any Additional Toppings
Pita Bread

I like to line the baking sheet with aluminum foil so there's less clean up, if you don't want to, or if you have a dedicated pizza pan, feel free to use that. Place pita bread on pan and begin layering. First a small amount of sauce, I will sometimes use a jarred bottle of spaghetti sauce and add in a small amount of Italian Seasoning, if you have a good recipe for pizza sauce, even better. Sometimes, I'm just in it for simplicity. Using a spaghetti sauce with mushrooms or peppers also sneaks in vegetables, just a thought. Sprinkle on a little cheese. Layer on any toppings, McKayla really only likes meats and olives. Finally, more cheese on top, this keeps your toppings from falling off while you're eating it. Slide onto the bottom rack of a 375°F oven. If I'm in a huge hurry, I use the broiler setting on my oven. Take out when cheese is bubbly and turning a light golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool slightly, cut into wedges or any other easy to handle shape. Serve. Sometimes, I put a salad with this and turn it into a lunch or dinner during the week. You can also make a great breakfast pizza with this as well!

Well...

Well, since I've been spending every spare minute pouring over crafty ideas, I decided to make myself a little schedule to allow appropriate time to at least work on each project. Sometimes, I'm so excited at the prospect of making this new craft that I kind of push the old one aside. This is a HORRID habit. I know. In order to accomplish this, working full time, raising a child, going to school, and getting ready for Christmas, I'm going to have to allow some things to remain on the back burner and get my butt in gear. These are not fun times for me...I hate the feeling of being overwhelmed with responsibility when really, all you want is a little fun. By the feeling, I mean having to keep on task with myself. So...here goes... This week, I've decided to finish some of the more involved projects I have since I only have classes 2 days a week and it's not alarmingly hot outside, but appropriate enough for me to get some painting out of the way while Miss McKayla plays outside and isn't bugging me with her demands for me to entertain her. At work, we are "spotlighting" a fellow co-worker; my turn will be soon, so I WILL get that project out of the way today. Putting it down in text is like a promise. I must get this done. I'm hoping this "schedule" of sorts will allow me to get something accomplished while still letting me do all the other things in life.
Here is a sort of list of today's goals:
»Finish majority of the spotlight project.
»Sort through McKayla's clothing for anything too small or damaged and move it out of her room/closet.
»File all the paperwork I've been letting pile up on my desk for months.
»Get at least 3 loads of laundry done (may seem like a lot, but somehow, my bathroom floor was filled with water and there are a lot of rags to be washed).
»Sort through craft projects and put them in order of importance/involvement and create some type of timeline in order to complete them all.

Yikes! This working thing is taking up WAY too much of my needed time... If anyone has any suggestions on my lack of time management skills or anything else, please, feel free...

Hazah!

Yikes! It's been a week since I've posted anything. Studying for two finals was crazy. Now that it's over, we can concentrate on doing more fun activities.
I love giving homemade gifts to our friends and family whenever possible. Now that McKayla is a little older, it's more fun to get her involved in the crafts. After browsing through several books and thousands of web-sites for fun ideas, I was still not exactly sure what to do this year. Last night, I went to the fridge to get my daughter some water. There, I happened to glance at all the stuff hanging there... **Lightbulb** I saw a project that I had made with a scrapbook class last year, there was my idea. More to come later...can't ruin any surprises...

::Recipe::

I discovered this recipe one day when I was randomly thumbing through my recipes and for some reason, it stood out a little. I'd had it for a while, but hadn't even attempted to try it before. McKayla LOVES these, as does everyone else that has ever tasted them. I frequently make them as the treat I bring for work parties & treat days. They are actually pretty healthy compared to most cookies and almost taste more like a granola bar. They are SO simple to make, when I was in a hurry, I literally measured things out, and just dumped them into the bowl of my stand mixer, scooped them onto sheet pans and baked them. It's hard to screw this one up, which is great for those of us that don't always have a lot of time. I haven't ever taken pictures while making them since they take honestly less than 10 minutes to throw together. I tried to put all my "hints" in pink, to make them stand out more. I also find that doubling this recipe makes the measuring a little easier, but whatever works for you!

::Oatmeal Cranberry White Chocolate Chunk Cookies::

Ingredients:
2/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 6-oz pkg sweetened, dried cranberries
2/3 cup white chocolate chunks or chips

Directions:
»Preheat oven to 375°F
»Using an electric mixer, beat butter/margarine and sugar together in a medium mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs, mixing well. Combine oats, flour, baking soda and salt in a separate mixing bowl. Add to butter mixture in several additions (mine usually ends up being about 3 additions-trust me, it's okay to just throw it all in), mixing well after each addition. Stir in sweetened, dried cranberries and white chocolate.
»Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls (I am a HUGE fan of cookie scoops, they're great - each cookie is basically the same size!) onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes (I usually put the first batch in and check them at 9 minutes or so, once I'm sure about the time, I set my kitchen timer to that time and each batch comes out perfect) or until golden brown. Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack.

»Makes approx. 2 1/2 dozen cookies«

Special Hint:: As I mentioned, I love cookie scoops. If you have the counter room, (I use a large cutting board) spread out parchment paper (cut to pan size) or just some wax paper if you prefer. When I'm in a hurry, I put the first batch in the oven and while it's baking, I start scooping the dough out onto the paper. If you use parchment paper, you can scoop enough to fit the sheet pan (mine holds 12 since I use a 1 1/2" scoop) and just slide them onto the pans and right back off onto the cooling rack and there's less clean up. Using the paper trick is also great when you're making a cookie like snickerdoodles that have to be rolled into balls and then dipped. You can scoop them all at once, roll them just a little (since the scoop makes them pretty round) and just dip. Hazzah! you're own assembly line! It's great when kids want to help, but you're worried about their "measuring" abilities with spoons.

By Invitation Only

Here we go...we all know that I can be pretty bad at keeping up on things, so since I started this blog a little late, we're going to spend the next few days catching up on a few things. Hopefully, I'll be diligent enough to keep up.

McKayla decided that this year she wanted the type of birthday party that Lilo would have. So, I decided that since Lilo & Stitch isn't exactly the most popular thing at the moment (pretty much impossible to find anything with this theme), I would go with an overall luau with hints of her chosen theme. Since I have been working full time and going to school 4 nights a week, I thought I'd better start preparing early. It also helps that as the graduation themed items start heading to the clearance shelves, the luau stuff is proudly displayed. Her birthday is in July, so if I had waited too long to pick up certain items, we'd be stuck with red, white & blue decorations.

I love making cards & scrapbooking. Cards seem to give an almost instant gratification, so I'm much more thrilled with it. I took on the task of making this year's birthday invitations for our party. I found a really cute design online a while back and was longing to put my own spin on it. I didn't even think to take pictures while I was working on these, but I learned by watching a web tutorial, if anyone would like the link, please let me know, I'd be more than happy to post it. The picture above is my own finished product.
I started by shopping around for invitation envelopes. If you're an avid card maker, you'll know that sets are available with pre-scored cards accompanied by matching envelopes, as great as they are, they don't leave much room for additional bulk. Since I often make cards for different occasions, I find it to be much more cost effective to purchase the card/envelope sets. This was a little awkward, so I took a trip to the Xpedx store in Orem to see if I could find anything. Can I just say that I LOVE this store? Ever since the first time I went, I've adored it. You can basically buy paper, cardstock, vellum, etc by the sheet/ream/roll. I was able to purchase an entire box of envelopes (100, I think...I split them up with a couple of people).
After measuring an envelope and deciding how much "stick" I wanted to show, I started cutting down my cardstock. I already had an entire package of brightly colored cardstock purchased at Wal-Mart ($5 for 100 pages). I selected my colors and a few matching papers to use as accents. After cutting down to my needed size, I took a corner-rounding punch (which I also already owned) and rounded 3 corners of each "card".
The fourth corner is punched with a scallop punch (also previously purchased). Obviously, I didn't use the punch for it's actual purpose in this case, I didn't fully line up the punch to make a rounded scallop in order to make a "bite" mark. Since I had used 2 different colors to make the invitations, I used the large scrap pieces I had from each sheet, cut them down and made the stripe across each card and attached with a gluestick. After putting 20 of these together, I decided it needed something to highlight, I dug around in my supplies when I decided what better color to use than white!? I took out my white ink pad and brushed it directly against the edges of the cards, giving them the "frosted-just from the freezer" look.
I stamped on "You're invited" with just regular black ink and a stamp from my collection. Since I already had the scallop punch out, I used it to punch out the blue scalloped circles. I put one "pop dot" (for the purpose of cards, I look for these at our local Dollar Tree locations, you can usually get tons of them for $1) on the back and attached. I used glitter paper to cut out the 4s with my Cricut. I only had small, square "pop dots" available, so I cut a few in half to fit on the backs of the 4s and attached those as well.

I took advantage of the cute fonts on my laptop and printed the information (Date, Place, Time, etc). I cut these apart using a regular cutter and gluing them into the cards with gluestick. While scouring the dollar store, I found 100 popsicle sticks in a package, I was SO excited, we use these for various art projects and knew I wouldn't be hanging on to these forever. To attach the stick to the card, I used TackyTape, a product I also love! For those not familiar with this, it's basically a VERY sticky version of double sided tape. This comes in several widths, I selected the thinest, since I have a few other projects in mind for this. Each roll is about $3, not too bad, I didn't use much on each card and I have a lot left. I cut lengths of about an inch or so and attached it directly to the popsicle stick. When I was ready, I took off the red, protective coating and put in place. Again, TackyTape is extremely sticky, once it's touching, it's stuck...so be careful!
Cards naturally want to pop open a little, even if you've creased them well. To avoid this and give it an extra cute touch, I found a matching ribbon (through a great sale at JoAnn's), I wrapped a length around the stick and tied a square knot. When you slide the knot up, it actually holds the top portion of the card down. I asked people to RSVP and several called or sent texts to me just to tell me how much they loved the card itself!

Oops...

So, I've only just started blogging and already, I have failed to keep up on it. Wow...this cannot be good news. Oh well, hopefully no one will get bored with my serious lack of upkeep. I'll try, really... Anyway, I decided that since I'm supposed to be posting about fun things, I'll be putting up a lot of pictures/instructions on the crafty things we make. I haven't decided which to start with, but I'll have to go through my trillions of pictures. Please bare with me, if I post more than twice a day for the next few days, really...I'm just trying to catch up and not post things that are too far back. Thanks for deciding to join and keep up with us!

PS: This is one of McKayla's 3-year-old pictures.