My Little Laundry Helper

My girls are just great!! They love to help me clean. They both love to help me do the dishes and laundry. The thing I love the most is Taylor will wash the baseboards for me!!!! I can't stand dirty baseboards but I sure don't like cleaning them. With both my girls, I started at a young age having them help me clean. It is not always easy because it takes a LOT longer to do but it is so much better for the long run. Well lately Kennedy has been really bad at taking my nicely folded laundry piles and throwing them on the floor next to me. Very aggravating!!! So I decided it was time for her to learn how to put the laundry away. So I had her help me take the folded laundry for me and Daniel into my room. Then she told me that she wanted to take her and Taylor's stuff to their rooms "by herself." So I watched her walk down the hallway and heard the drawers being opened and she kept running back and forth with more clothes with the proudest smile on her face. Well this is what I found when I walked down the hall to their bedrooms!! I was cracking up! She still looked very proud and showed me where she put some of the stuff in the drawers (pretty much all in the wrong drawers which is what I expected and didn't mind!)

Jack in the Box Tacos

I LOVE Jack in the Box tacos!!!! Anyone else with me on that!?! The first thing I do before going out of town is check to see if they have a Jack in the Box. I grew up on those tacos and crave them all the time. So the other day after seeing my chicken and rice taco recipe, my mom sent me a recipe on how to make Jack in the Box tacos. ( She also sent a ton of other yummy restraunt recipes!) So I just HAD to make those tacos that night for dinner. My sweetheart husband went to the store and got me what I needed.

Well they were really really yummy but nothing can compare to Jack in the Box taco. I think it is the taco sauce they use or something. Anyway I would recommend this taco recipe, just don't go into it thinking it is going to taste just like J in the B tacos.

Jack in the Box Tacos

1 lb ground beef
1/3 cup Refried Beans
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbls chili powder
1/4 cup ortega mild taco sauce
12 soft corn tortillas
3 cups of cooking oil
6 slices American cheese (each cut in half)
1 head of lettuce, chopped fine

Slowly brown the beef over low heat, using a wooden spoon to chop and stir the meat, keeping it very fine and smooth. When the beef is brown, drain the fat. Add the refried beans and use the wooden spoon to smash the whole beans into the mixture creating a smooth texture. Add the salt, chili powder, and taco sauce to the mixture. Remove from the heat.

In another skillet heat 1/4 inch of oil unitl hot. Test with a small piece of tortilla-it should bubble when dropped into the oil. Spread beef mixture on the center of each corn tortilla. Fold the tortillas over and press so that the beef filling acts as an adhesive and holds the sides together. Drop each taco in to the pan of hot oil and fry on both sides until crispy. When cooked, remove the tacos from the oil and place them on a rack or some paper towels until they are a little cooler. Pry open slightly and add 1/2 slice of american cheese and some lettuce. Top with additional taco sauce to taste.

I took a picture of the tacos when they were done but can't find it right now. I will try to add it later. It always help me to see a picture when I am cooking something for the first time. ( My hubby thought I was a total nut case for taking a pic of our food!)

Figuring out this blogging thing...

Last week was the first time I tried to add pictures to a blog. I tried several times but was having problems so I just closed out of it and gave up. This morning I saw that it saved what I had been working on and said what the heck I will just post it and see what it looks like. So that is why it is a little weird looking. I am going to try to add a few more pictures now and see if I can figure this thing out. So here are a few more pictures from last week.

My girls crack me up! They love the outdoors and getting dirty but they can be sooo girly. I added the picture of Kennedy with her doll because I thought it was so cute that even when she is "camping" she still wanted to play mama and have her doll and blankie and bottle. The picture of the girls with the wood pile is them pretending they are cutting wood. They were uses smaller wood pieces as axes and kept hitting the woodpile. Taylor has been reading the Little House on the Prairie books and wanted to pretend that we were back in the day and that she was sent to cut some wood. And of course Kennedy had to play right along with her big sissy. Taylor even called Daniel and I, Ma and Pa all weekend. Too funny!

Well lets see how I did with the pictures on this post!! If any of you have any suggestions please share!!!

A Little Getaway from the Real World

We had asked Taylor what she wanted to do this weekend and she wanted to go camping. Well we knew the weather was going to be a little crazy so Daniel and I decided to rent a cabin on the lake. It was nice and turned out to be a good choice since it stormed pretty good Friday night and was raining and cold on Saturday. Sunday turned out to be a nice sunny day though. The cabin was great. It had a full kitchen, living room, bathroom and two bedrooms.

Friday night Daniel's parents joined us for dinner and smores! We made a nice fire outside and roasted marshmellows while we visited.

As soon as we woke up on Saturday, Kennedy wanted to go outside of the deck and look at the "water." The view of the lake was great from the deck. First thing Taylor wanted to do was read her book (she read 3 whole chapter books that weekend). After we all got up and around, we headed out to the boat. It was so cold and raining but the girls wanted to fish. This was Kennedy's first time! We didn't stay out too long. We went back to the campground and fished from there. After that we just let the kids be kids and pick seashells, play in the gravel pile, and play at the little playground that was there.

Luckily the rain went away and we were able to build another fire outside and got to enjoy dinner under the stars. We spent the rest of Saturday playing Scrabble! Taylor was actually able to play with us and Kennedy pretended that she could play.


Sunday we just played around outside for a bit and then we spent the rest of the day on the boat. Fishing, cruisin' and hanging out.

Chicken and Rice Tacos

I used to have a wonderful chicken and rice taco recipe but lost it in a move and have been looking for it since. So last night I decided to try this one out...it isn't the one I was looking for but it was good! I wish I would have thought to have taken a picture of it but I didn't.

Chicken and Rice Tacos
1 TBSP butter or margarine
1 lb ground chicken
1 small onion, chopped well
1 pkt taco seasoning mix
1 1/4 cup water
1 can(8 oz) tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups Minute White Rice, uncooked
1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
Taco shells or small soft tortillas
1 pkg shredded Cheddar cheese
Shredded Lettuce
Chopped tomatoes

Directions
Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and onions; cook and stir until chicken is cooked through. Stir in seasoning mix, water and tomato sauce. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; cover. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add rice and beans; mix well. Cover; remove from heat. Let stand for 5 minutes.

Then fill up a soft tortilla or hard taco shell the way you like it!

*To save time, I bought an already cooked rotisserie chicken at the store and pulled the meat out and chopped it in my food chopper and then added it to the skillet with the onions!

Recipes!!

So those of you that know me well, know that I have an addiction for recipes!! ( Okay, so food in general, ha!) I have TONS of recipes and I love to cook. I decided a little while ago to put all my "loose" recipes that I have written down or torn off of things in a bag and randomly pick new things to make and try. If I like it I type it up for my recipe book. I have some of you friends and family that have been wanting me to share my new recipes with you so I figured that my blog would be a good place to do that. So keep checking back for some new yummy recipes!!