The Perfect Tortilla Pan Set

I have tired making baked taco salad bowls off and on for years.  They have turned out okay but still not great.  And I really do love taco salads in a tortilla bowl.  Well last Saturday Scott's dad and his wife were here for the weekend and we decided to go shopping.  First we went to a very nice goodwill store about 35 minutes from our home.  I love to shop at goodwill our oldest so picked up a nice flat screen monitor for about 15 dollars.  Since us girls got to shop there the men wanted to go to Fry's Electronics Store.  Don't even let me start talking about that place All I will say is it is Huge!

 

Okay while we were there I saw the Perfect Tortilla Pan Set.  And being the as seen on TV people that we are Scott and I decided to try it.  Well let me tell you they work great.  I have never seen a better tortilla bowl except in a restaurant.  Plus it was baked not fried so much better for me. 

 

First you just press the tortilla in to the pan it is so easy much better than trying to press them around a bowl and no oil needed. 

 

Then you put them in a preheated 400 degree oven for 10 minutes

 

 

 

 

This is what you come out with a perfectly shaped bowl that is crispy and delicious.

You are suppose to let them cool for about 10 minutes.

 

 

 

 

Then you just fill it with all you yummy taco salad ingredients and you are ready to eat

 

 

I hope you get a chance to try these out they are well worth the money .  I will let you know how well the hold up over time. 

 

Stephanie

Tasty Tuesday ( Italian Chicken)

I had some chicken breasts thawed out last night and wasn't sure what I wanted to do with them. I finally came up withe this recipe and all I can say is WOW! They were awesome. Great flavor and very moist. If you like Italian dressing then you will want to try this recipe!

Italian Chicken

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 bottle of Italian dressing ( I like the Kraft Zesty Italian)
2 packages of dry Italian dressing mix ( you may need more or less depending on how big your chicken is)

Marinate your chicken in the Italian dressing. I let mine sit for about 15 minutes. Next dip your chicken in the dry Italian dressing. Place in baking dish. I poured the rest of the liquid dressing over the top of this but that is up to you if you want to do that. Bake for 1 hour at 350.

Mozzarella Beef Roll-Ups

 

 

I had no idea what I was going to fix for dinner tonight. I was looking through my recipe book and came across this recipe. It had been awhile since I had made it so it was perfect to make for tonight. It is so simple to make that anyone can do it!

 

Mozzarella Beef Roll-Ups

1 pound ground beef
1 medium green pepper, chopped
1/3 cup chopped onion
1 can (8 ounces) pizza sauce plus extra for the top if desired
28 slices pepperoni
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
6 flour tortillas (10 inches), warmed
6 pieces (1 ounce each) string cheese

Directions

In a large skillet, cook the beef, green pepper and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in the pizza sauce, pepperoni and oregano.

Spoon about 1/2 cup beef mixture off-center on each tortilla; top with a piece of string cheese. Fold one side of tortilla over filling and roll up from the opposite side.

Place seam side down on an ungreased baking sheet. ( I always add more pizza sauce over the top but that is up to you!)

 Bake at 350° for 10 minutes or until heated through and cheese is melted.

 

Paper snowflakes

It was snowing here most of the morning.  And all the children for home childcare were here.  So I decided to make a old but fun craft Paper Snowflakes.  We used coffee filters to make our snow flakes.  We folded them in half then in half again then one more fold in half so that we ended up with a triangle.  Then we all set to cutting we used scissors that were just plain and some with different shaped blades on them so we got some very interesting snow flakes. 

The children them had a lot of fun making it snow in the playroom by throwing them up in the air over and over.  I did not get a picture of that I was having to much fun watching them.

After they were done and had left for the day I taped them up all over the room now we have a snowflake room .

 

I have to say I am really enjoying having a play room for the children.  After 9 years of running a home childcare this is the first time I have been able to dedicate a room just to childcare.  Don't get me wrong they still play all over the house but it nice at the end of the day to be able to close the door and be done for the day. 

 

Pie Filling Coffeecake

I was digging through my stack of recipes the other day and came across this one.It had been awhile since I had had made a cooffe cake so me and my youngest daughter got to work!

Pie Filling Coffee Cake

1 cup sugar
1 cup oil
4 eggs
 2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 can fruit pie filling ( we used apple)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp sugar

Mix the 1 cup sugar, oil, eggs, flour, baking powder, salt and vanilla together. Spread half into a floured 9x13 pan. Spread can of pie filling over this and cover with remaining batter. Mix the cinnamon and sugar together and sprinkle on top of batter. Bake 30 min at 350.

Tasty Tuesday (Spaghetti Inside Garlic Bread)

We eat a lot of spaghetti in my house. I love it and it is cheap and filling for everyone. Of course I have to make garlic bread with the spaghetti so when I saw this recipe I had to try it. I changed it a little to fit my family and it would be easy to change to fit yours to!

First you need a frozen loaf of bread, thawed out

Roll it out using a rolling pin. I used some non stick spray on the counter to help it from sticking.

Once it is rolled out I covered it with some saran wrap to keep it moist. While it was covered I cooked my spaghetti and browned my ground beef.

Uncover your dough and cut slits up both sides. Put on your cookie sheet

Add your cooked spaghetti and ground beef down the middle. I topped mine with mozzarella and parmesean cheese.

Criss cross your dough giving a braid effect.

Brush your dough with a egg white. I then sprinkled it with some more parmesan cheese and soem garlic powder.

Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.

Thrifty Thursday ( Soy Garlic Chicken)

Kroger had chicken legs on sale last week for 88 cents a pound. I picked up a large pack and decided to make them for dinner last night. I didn't want to do my usual recipe of just adding barbecue sauce so I made up a marindae to use. I thought it tasted pretty good and even the girls ate it ( they are super picky so this means a lot lol)

First thing I did was cut the skin off all the chicken legs

Then I mixed up 1/2 cup of soy sauce, a couple tablespoons of minced garlic and about 6 tbsp of melted butter. I poured it on top of the chicken legs.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour. Eat and Enjoy!!

Great gift for moms, dads,and grandparents.

Hand Print Dish Towel

Hey everyone Stephanie here.  I wanted to share a gift I made for the parents of the children I have at my in home childcare.  I wanted to do something real special.  I thought hand prints of some kind would be great.  The only problem with that is that 2 of the children do not like to touch anything really messy.  Play dough is okay but not much messier than that.  So I decided to sew hand prints on to dish towels for them. 

First I went to the dollar tree and got hand towels.

Then I traced the children's hand prints on to plain paper,  then I cut them out and then I traced them on fabric scrapes I had here.  Blue jean for dad and a tee-shirt for mom.  I used the tee-shirt because I wanted to avoid it fraying.

Next I sewed the and prints down to the dish towels.  So simple but so cute.

Whatever Wednesday ( OTC meds and RLS)

When I was pregnant with my oldest daughter ( who is now 8) I would have horrible leg pain. I went through some tests and no one could ever figure out what was causing it. They ended up giving me a low dose of pain meds to help me make it through until I delivered her. They did help and I thought that once I gave birth the leg pain would go away. I was wrong. Shortly after she was born the pain came back. It was horrible. I couldn't sleep at night and the pain was something that was hard to explain. I went back in to see my doctor and she decided that she thought I had Restless Leg Syndrome ( RLS) It was still pretty new back then but I had heard of it and my symptoms fit it 100 %. She sent me on to a neurologist who confirmed it. There is no actual test to diagnose it but they listen to your symptoms and usually check your iron levels. I was told that people who have RLS have iron levels that are normal but on the low side of normal. The neurologist put me on a medicine called Requip. It was like a miracle drug. I was on it for many years until the pain came back. I went to a higher dose of the Requip but it made me so sick that I couldn't take it. There was a second medicine out there at that point called Mirapex. I started it and it worked just as well as the Requip and didn't make me sick. Now it is the beginning of the year and we have a deductible to meet before the insurance pays for my medicine. I decided to try a over the counter  medicine I saw at CVS to see if it would help take the edge off. It is made by Hylands and is called Restless Leg.

I was pleasantly surprised that it worked. You take 2-3 tablets and let them dissolve under your tongue. It doesn't take the pain away for me ( I was told that have a severe case of it) but it does help take the edge off. If anyone feels like they may have RLS this would be a good medicine to try!

Tasty Tuesday ( Breakfast Pizza and Sandwiches)

I was cleaning out my refrigerator this morning and saw that I had 2 cans of crescent rolls and a dozen eggs that were going to expire this week. Yesterday Craig and I had cleaned out the pantry and I couldn't believe how much food we threw away that had expired. Not wanting to throw anything else away I decided to go ahead and make some stuff up. First I made a breakfast pizza ( well kind of , I am just not sure what else to call it lol) and then I made up some bacon, egg and cheese crescent sandwiches.

For the pizza I took one can of crescent rolls and spread them out of a pizza pan. You can top it with anything you would like but I used bacon, egg and cheese.

I then folded over the top part of the crescent.

Bake at 375 for about 15 minutes.

Cut and serve!

For the sandwiches I just unrolled each of the crescent rolls and topped with bacon, egg and cheese, Roll back up and bake at 375 for 10 minutes.

You could freeze these or just make them up and heat them over for breakfast all week. I am not a big breakfast person but these both were really good and so easy to make!
-Mindy

Thrifty Thursday Body Scrub From the pantry

Hello everyone if you are like me you get really dry skin in the winter.  I have been itching like crazy because of dry skin.  So I decided to do something about it.  I made a body scrub using 3 simple ingredients that you probably have In your pantry right now.

Recipe
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
a few drops extract in your favorite sent.

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl.  If it is not moist enough add a little more olive oil.  Mine was fine with just the 1/4 cup. Then store in a plastic container in the shower. Scrub your body with it next time you shower it helps remove dead dry skin and add traps in much need moister from the oil.

This was so easy I let the children I babysit make some for their mom for her upcoming birthday.
these would make great gifts.

what ever wednesday

Hey everyone
Happy Wednesday everyone.  So I promised to tell you guys what funny national day it was yesterday.  Okay it was First foot forward day.  I was not able to get any good pictures for today's day.  Because it was run it up a flag pole and see who salutes day. And I don't have a flag pole.  Sorry guys!

But take a look at my little Tinkerbell and son playing in the snow

she has really gotten big since I last posted pictures of her.

Tasty Tuesday ( Velveeta Spicy Cheeseburger Dip)

Usually on New Years Eve I don't fix dinner, I just fix a bunch of snacks. Cheese Dip is always one of them. This year I tried a new dip and it was really yummy. The recipe came from Velveeta.

Velveeta Spicy Cheeseburger Dip

1 lb. (16 oz.) VELVEETA, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1 can (10 oz.) RO*TEL Diced Tomatoes & Green Chilies, undrained

1 cup KRAFT Shredded Low-Moisture Part-Skim Mozzarella Cheese

1/2 lb. ground beef, cooked, drained

4 green onions, sliced

Combine all ingredients except onions in microwaveable bowl.

Microwave on HIGH 5 min. or until VELVEETA is melted and mixture is well blended, stirring after 3 min. Stir in onions.

Serve with RITZ Crackers and assorted cut-up fresh vegetables. ( we use tortilla chips)

-MINDY

funny national days

First off Happy New Years Everyone....now on to the post

I was looking around the web the other day and found this page with a real list of national days.  Most of them are silly,  so I decided to post pictures and see if anyone can guess what funny national day it is today.

Feel free to post your guesses in the comments. 
Have a great day.
Stephanie