Using my beans

I'm making dinner tonight. Its been a rare occasion these days.

Taco Soup (I got this from my neighbor and do not know the original source)

2 lbs ground beef (today I just used one lb of ground beef and 1 can of black beans)
2 cans pinto beans (don't drain)
2 cans stewed tomatos
2 cans corn (drain)
1 can rotel zesty tomatoes (I use a different brand name that has green chiles in it)
1 pkg hidden valley ranch dressing
1 pkg taco seasoning

dump it all into a crockpot for a couple of hours.

serve with sourcream and shredded cheese and chips.

How to host a Super Hero Training Camp

Super Hero Training Camp starts with a boy who is going to have a 5th birthday party and loves superheros.

Invitations were homemade (by Lster) and told the guests that Lster thought they would be awesome superheros and should come to his superhero training camp to better their skills.

When superhero trainees arrived they were checked at the door to make sure no unauthorized superheros entered. They were then directed to the table to color some pictures while we waited for everyone to arrive.

Once we had all the guests we gathered in the living room to learn a bit about our training camp. Here guests got their masks, capes and an intro to our training activities.

1st Activity: An obstacle course.

2nd Activity: Save the Baby - I had Mster and her friend call me on my cell phone. I put it on speaker and they told the trainees that they had kidnapped a baby and if the superheros didn't find it, they wouldn't be real super heros. (this was a hit so we hid the baby more than once)

3rd Activity: Once we had sufficiently caught the babies and had captured the villains we had to tie them up.

4th Activity - Evading Kryptonite (hot potato with glow sticks)

And it was time for Cake and Presents

I made a super lame cake that all the kids thought was super awesome. It just goes to show that it doesn't take much to impress 5 yr olds.

Then we had an awards ceremony. During presents time I had my helpers come up with something great that each trainee had done and so we called everybody up by name and gave them a medal (sugar cookie) and told them something special they did.

With 15 minutes left (of a 2 hr party), I sent the kids to the basement to pretend play with their capes and masks. I also gave everyone their own glow sticks. (mama was tired) 

Party was a success.



After the party, capes and masks were worn for most of the night.

Jambalaya

I've been on a little bit of a canning kick. I'm on a mission to build up some food supply that's easy to prepare.  Cster makes a pretty mean jambalaya so a few saturdays ago we decided to attempt jambalaya. We weren't sure exactly the best way to accomplish this feat. But Cster had some good ideas. He made the jambalaya without cooking everything all the way through and he didn't add the rice.

I canned the jambalaya "soup".

My neighbour took one look at the jar, raised her eyebrows and said, "you have not sold me yet." :)

Last Sunday, I hadn't really made any plans for dinner. Everybody had been gone all day Saturday and there wasn't a super abundance of food to make dinner. Nor was anything taken out of the freezer. I thought this would be a great day to try out the jambalaya.

Cster opened the jar and dumped it in the pot. He added the appropriate amount of rice. (It will be different for every jar because the liquid is not equally distributed). As soon as the rice was cooked, we ate.

The result...IT WORKED!!

The dish was not as good as freshly made jambalaya but it still tasted great. Really great. So for conveniance food, it was PERFECT!

Will we make jambalaya fresh again? Of course. But for those moments when we don't have a dinner plan, we don't have to do take out.

Tortilla Chips and Leftovers

We've been eating fish tacos lately which use corn tortillas and we can never use the entire package before they go bad. We finally found the solution and now I'm kicking myself that we didn't think of it sooner.

First take your corn tortillas (I'm sure you could use flour but we go through those like hotcakes). Make a solution of 1 part oil and 3 parts lime juice and salt (how much is your preference.) Either spritz or "paint" on both sides of tortilla. Use a pizze cutter to cut the tortillas in 8 wedges. Place tortilla wedges in one layer on a cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 for 7 minutes and then flip over and bake for another 8 minutes

Enjoy and wonder why you never did this sooner.

Ricotta Cheese in Cookies

After my yogurt success, I decided to try my hand at making cheese. And so, a few weeks ago I made some ricotta cheese with a friend of mine. I was thinking pasta and she was thinking dessert. Turned out she used her half in pasta and I found this delectable recipe to make a dessert. The result...delicious.

I was told by more than one person that they tasted like donuts.

I followed the recipe for the cookies but halved the glaze, omitting the shortening and adding way more lemon (extract and real juice) than asked for.

Leftovers and What's on Sale

This plate of leftovers is to just prove that you can make yummy, healthy food, on a budget. Everything on this plate I purchased on sale.



1. Lettuce (green leaf lettuce) - $.49 a bunch

2. Peach Salsa - This was my last minute concoction tonight when at 4:55pm I realized I had no side prepared.

peaches - $.69/lb
roma tomatoes/tomatillos/jalapenos - all roughly $.50/lb
green onions - $.50/bunch
lime - $.06each
avocado - $.33each

3. Chicken - I got an amazing deal on chicken a few weeks ago and marinated it, then grilled a ton of it on Monday to use as dinner and then leftovers during the week.

So...grilled chicken, with peach salsa, salad, all made with leftovers and all made with grocery items (that were not processed) that I got on sale.

Who needs cereal?

I like breakfast. I like to wait a few hours before I eat it in the morning, but I love to eat real breakfast food. I admit I am one of those people that routinely serves breakfast beyond the regular breakfast hours.

With all the yummy choices of breakfast items, my children still love cereal. There HAS to be some healthy alternatives to cereal that can go beyond egg whites, and green shakes. And I'm on a mission to find as many as I can.

A friend of mine gave me this recipe for baked oatmeal. The recipe calls for the baked oats to be eaten warm (from the oven) with warm milk but I've found that I really, really like it cold, with cold milk and strawberries. It really is good. Really. If I don't have fresh strawberries I defrost some frozen ones and add them into the mixture (liquid and all).

Here's the recipe.

 2 1/2 cups combo of quick and old fashioned
 1/2 cup brown sugar
 1 1/2 cup skim milk
 1/4 cup butter, melted
 2 eggs
 2 tsp baking powder
 some salt shakes
 2 tsp vanilla

Combine ingrediants and pour into a greased 9 X 13in pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350F.

Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge.

I heart my wheat grinder

Some people thought it strange that I got a wheat grinder for Christmas. But I LOVE it! I use it at least once a week. I think its the greatest. And yes, I've been mocked for my love affair.

I just think its stinking awesome that I can take this...

And turn it into this...

 

Which in turn makes this...

and this...

and this...

I'm thnking about doing a series of posts on wheat. Please step out of your lurkingness and let me know if you would be interests in more posts about wheat (educational focused ones).

Laundry Detergent by ME!!

A year or so ago my sister-in-law blogged about making her own laundry detergent. I thought that was an interesting concept but at the time had about 10 bottles of detergent tucked away in my laundry closet and moved on to other important matters in my life, like which child had the balloon first.

Jump forward a year and I couldn't find a laundry detergent deal and I was down to one bottle. I decided it was time to try out the new recipe. IT WORKED!!

Not that I didn't trust her...I just have this trouble with doing new things and changing my pattern and I get so excited when I do something new and it works. So yesterday I went and made a little bit more with my supplies. (Of course because deals always come around I picked up some new detergent yesterday for $1 a bottle but I'm pretty pleased that I have my homemade concotion as a backup when I need something to tie us over till the next deal since my husband has this funny request about wearing clean underwear to work. :)

The Recipe:

1 Cup grated Fels-Naptha soap
1/2 Cup Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda
1/2 Cup 20 Mule Team Borax

mix

It takes 2 TBSP per load.