Wordless Wednesday: Dress Up

Cheater Dinners: Tacos

I think it's universal for families to resort to tacos as an easy dinner, so I'll spare you any extra explanation and go straight to the recipes. 

Taco Seasoning
I think I got this recipe out of one of my mom's old cookbooks . . . like a ward cookbook or food storage cookbook or something.  I looooove it.  I almost never use packet taco seasoning because this works great, and I always have the ingredients on hand, where I don't always have a packet. 

2 tsp dry onion
1 tsp salt
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp dried oregano

Mix and use to season 1 pound ground beef.  (I like to brown the ground beef, then rinse it to remove extra fat, and add a little water, 1/4-1/3 cup or so, back in with the seasoning and cook until the liquid evaporates.  I also usually add refried beans with the water, and cook it together.  It really helps to stretch the meat farther.) 

We've always made soft shell tacos, but recently we've branched out to hard shell. Soft shell is generally easier for little hands. Everyone has their favorite taco ingredients, so I won't elaborate about that.  But here's a tip for kids that are picky about their food "touching:"  Since Isaiah was little we've served our kids their tacos as more of a buffet.  They get a pile of each ingredient on their plate (and for them, preferably sectioned plates), and eat it finger-food style.  The tomatoes, avocados, and other veggies generally get skipped, and the olives are everyone's favorite, but with a little ranch for dipping, everyone tries something. 

Taco Salad
1/2 lb ground beef, cooked and rinsed
1/3 cup water
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper
1 can kidney beans

2 cups shredded lettuce or green salad mix
1/2 cup grated cheese (Cheddar or Colby Jack)
1/3 cup olives
(optional) 1 tomato, seeded and chopped, 1/2 avocado, sliced lengthwise, sour cream

corn chips (you could fry up some tortilla bowls, but the point of this is easy, right?)

Cook ground beef and drain thoroughly, place back in pan.  To the beef, add the water, chili powder, salt, garlic powder, crushed red pepper and kidney beans.  Heat to boiling, then reduce heat and simmer uncovered for ten minutes or until liquid is absorbed. 

Allow diners to build salad as desired. 

Taco Soup
It doesn't get any easier than this!

oil
1 small onion, diced

1 lb ground beef
1 can red kidney beans, drain and rinse
1 can corn, drain
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1 small can sliced olives
1 pkg taco seasoning (or recipe above)
1 cup water

In a medium soup pot, heat a little oil and fry onions for a moment until translucent.  Add ground beef and brown.  Drain.  Add remaining ingredients and heat thoroughly.  Eat with bite-sized corn chips, cheese and sour cream. 

None of these dinners takes more than 20 minutes, unless you decide to add a side of Spanish rice and corn sprinkled with chili powder.  Mmmmm . . .

Two Peas in a Pod

Last week I spent some quality time with my nieces, one of whom is only 6 months older than Max.  She is just about the busiest little girl I've met, and so full of personality.  Max is also a very busy boy, so it was so fun to see her and Max interact throughout the week. 

One morning I sat all the girls (and Max, at his request) down to do their hair.  By the time I finished, the little ones were insisting that their babies needed their hair done, too.  (I decided not to tell them that these babies were, in fact, bald.  Maybe she picked up on that when she insisted, "Baby needs bow!")

I'm amazed that in the whole week we never had an accident with our newly potty trained niece.  In fact, she was very encouraging to Max, as he insisted he needed to potty every time she did:

And though they fought over toys like any toddlers (our most-heard refrain from the week: "Mine!"), they really were inseparable, even cleaning each other up:

We are so lucky to have their family so close, and that the kids are so close in age!  It really is a joy to see them interact and love each other so much. 

The Rock Star Party

So I'm about three weeks past the event, but Isaiah did turn 7! He requested a "Kidz Bop party" which I translated to mean a rock star party. We sent out backstage passes as invites (sorry no pics . . . they were not my favorite invitations ever anyway, but it was a cute idea in theory). Isaiah and Katie prepared by puff painting some shirts and spray painting their hair wild colors. Then we decorated to the hilt. Isaiah is lucky to have some really awesome uncles. They pulled some strings and we had a mirror ball and all kinds of lights, a fog machine, and an amp with a microphone. I hung silver stars on the walls and a metallic fringe curtain over the archway. We put on Kidz Bop and the kids danced while all the VIPs arrived. (Keep in mind that I am no pro photographer, so pictures in the dark require a flash.  The room was dark at the time, with lights flashing just like a disco, so these pictures really don't do it justice . . .)

Then the kids decorated cardboard guitars with markers and stickers:

 

And they rocked out some more with their guitars:

Then Isaiah opened some presents:

We had some cake:

Then we threw out some glow bracelets as the kids rocked out some more.  The rock stars were kind enough to pose for a shot together:

Then we handed out party bags as their drivers came to wisk them away to their next gig:

All in all, a successful party as everyone seemed to have fun, and it was relatively low-stress for the stage managers (aka Mom and Dad).  Most of all, our resident rock star got the party he wanted and had a great time. 

Happy Father's Day!

The Haircut

Those of you who know us well, have seen us from a distance, or have only seen my blog, know Katie has always had this amazing long, thick hair.  Case in point:

6 weeks old, on her blessing day (Nov 2005)

7 months old, with pigtails--pigtails! (Apr 2006)

2 years old, yes that was her natural curl (Sept 2007)

just before she turned 3 (Sept 2008)

at 4.5 years old (May 2010)

I have never been one of those moms that wouldn't cut my little girl's hair.  She's had many trims and even *gasp* haircuts of two inches or more over the years.  But her hair has always been exceptionally long, thick, and beautiful for her age.  Which requires a lot of upkeep.  The older she gets the thicker it gets, and the thicker it gets the harder it is to keep it unsnarled.  Last week, as she whimpered through me brushing through her hair, she said, "I wish I could cut my hair."  Normally, she is talking about how she wishes her hair was as long as Rapunzel's (or Chandler's, a girl her age in our ward who has even more exceptionally long, thick hair than Katie), but I realized it was taking upwards of 20-30 minutes just to brush her hair, say nothing of styling it.  So, knowing I was probably fighting a losing battle, I reminded her that if we cut it there would be a lot less hairdos we could, well, do.  She was insistent.  I told her we would think about it for a few days. 

She brought it up every day for a week before I got the courage to get out the scissors.  I sat her on the stool and cut about three inches off the bottom layer, then showed her how much shorter it was (kind of in a hope to scare her into agreeing to the length I was comfortable with).  She was not having it.  "I want it to be the same as yours," she said for about the millionth time.  So, off came another three inches.  At this point, I realized the gravity of the situation--I had not taken a "before" picture!!  I let down her top layer, and took a picture (you can see the difference in length of the shorter hair showing through, but it did get shorter as I evened things out):

And then we cut it off!  I after I finished and swept up the hair on the floor, I felt like I was having a panic attack.  Her hair had been so much of her identity, I was worried about her being "special" anymore.  So vain, I know.  But she was so excited, and is still so thrilled to have less hair to comb, less hair to weigh her down, and a brand new "grown up" look: 

We'll post more pics of it "done" soon, I just wanted to put this out there for those of you who have been waiting with bated breath! 

Cheater Dinners: Italian

So, everyone knows that "spaghetti" is synonymous with "easy dinner."  But there are lots of ways to make an easy pasta dinner seem like more than just spaghetti. 

Since we were newlyweds I always made my own spaghetti sauce.  Not from tomatoes or anything, just added my own seasoning to tomato sauce.  There are times when this is convenient (like when you don't have bottled sauce), but it has gotten to be an onerous task for me.  This was particularly because I never measured anything, so Adam would sometimes complain that he didn't like it one night, or compliment me saying it was particularly good another night.  I never thought I did anything different, but in the last few months it got to where it was easier to just buy the bottled sauce on sale or with coupons (well, actually both), and have a stash in the pantry.  If you're feeling adventurous, here are the seasonings I use (and rather like) when I do make homemade sauce.  They are in descending order of how much of each I use.  As a side note: I am not a lover of sweet spaghetti sauce, so I don't add sugar like a lot of people.  But there is nothing wrong with that if you love it! 

Italian Sauce
tomato sauce
garlic powder (not salt)
oregano
basil
thyme
parsley
salt
pepper

Heat to boiling, and simmer while cooking pasta to enhance flavor. 

Okay, here are my tricks for making pasta special, when in reality it is just a quick, easy fix for dinner:

Bread
At our house, bread makes or breaks the meal, and particularly so with pasta (hey, no one in our house is counting carbs!).  If there is no bread on the table with a pasta dinner, an unnamed someone will sigh and grab a loaf of bread and butter and plunk it on the table.  Therefore, I have become tricky with the bread that is oh, so essential and often adds too much time and effort to be worth it to me. 

• French bread.  This is our number one choice for an Italian dinner: French bread, sliced lengthwise in half, slathered with butter and sprinkled with garlic and Italian seasoning.  Bake directly on oven rack, buttered side up, for 5-10 minutes at 350 degrees. 
• Crescent rolls.  When there is no opportunity to get to the store for fresh French bread, I say a quick prayer and hope there are crescent rolls in the fridge (I try to keep a couple of refrigerated packages of reduced fat crescent rolls on hand for all kinds of tricky things).  Slice some mozzarella to roll up inside, then sprinkle the rolls with grated Parmesan, garlic, and Italian seasoning.  Bake at 375 degrees for 10ish minutes. 
• White bread.  A plain loaf of white bread will do in a pinch, but I like to butter and season it, then bake it directly on the oven rack for a few minutes. 

Meat

• We like meat in our meals, so if nothing else I will crumble and brown ground beef to add to spaghetti sauce. 
• You can also change things up, like adding chicken instead of beef to marinara sauce. 
• Or, if you have alfredo sauce, sometimes fettuccine alfredo makes a nice side dish for pork or steak or whatever cut of meat you already have in the fridge or freezer. 
• My kids love meatballs, but I really dislike the time it takes to make them.  As a compromise, when Lin's has their big meat sale every 6 months or so, I stock up on ground beef and before freezing it, make a giant batch of meatballs to freeze.  Here's my meatball recipe.  You just lay them out on a cookie sheet and freeze for a few hours, then transfer to gallon-sized Ziploc freezer bags (I like to double bag them to prevent freezer burn).  I'm pretty stingy with the meatballs so they will last a long time.  Or, you can just buy pre-made frozen meatballs to keep in the freezer! 

Pasta
If I have no other way to dress it up, shaped pasta will do the trick.  Bowties are our personal favorites, but angel hair, fettuccine, rotini, ziti, shells and elbow macaroni have all made their way into our pasta meals.  My kids get so excited to have bowties with alfredo and chicken!  And don't forget ravioli and other filled pastas.  You can buy these frozen and just keep them on hand (Costco carries some that's really good).  Here I will suggest trying different flavors of pasta sauce, but only if your kids aren't too picky, like mine.  We have two varieties at our house: white and red.  We're fine with that, though.  And for those special occasions, when you actually want to spend time cooking: lasagna.  I won't even elaborate about lasagna, because it makes me tired just thinking about it.  (I will say, though, that there are lots of frozen lasagnas that are really good, like Stouffer's.) 

Finally...
One thing I struggle with is measuring the right amount of spaghetti.  I'm not usually so off on other types of pasta, but spaghetti can be tricky for me for some reason.  We have a spaghetti measuring tool (it looks a lot like this one) that helps a lot with that. 

And for a quick, easy pasta dish that's really different (and really yummy), here's a fun recipe: Angel Hair Pasta Chicken.  I think I'm actually going to go make that for dinner right now...