Tex-Mex Skillet

On occasion, I'm going to be adding some of my personal recipes here - so that I can add them to my Yumprint Cookbook and have them in my menu line up.

This is one of those times.

This is a meal that was one of my mom's go-to recipes when we were kids and I've loved it so much that it's now one of the staples in our house. It's tasty, easy, flexible, nutritious, cooks all in one pan, and I almost always have all the ingredients.

What's not to love?

Over the years, I've adapted the recipe to my family's liking by adding a few things and removing the chili seasoning packet (at first because I didn't have it on hand, but then realized that I liked it better with the real ingredients). At the end, I'll add the original recipe in case you are interested. It's really good and almost the same, but has some differences that make it slightly quicker (and easier for those nights when you have a meeting and your 13-year-old daughter is saving the family from eating scrambled eggs . . . the only dinner that Dad comes up with --- not that I have any experience with that . . . {wink}).

Tex-Mex Skillet

1 lb. ground beef or turkey
1 large onion, diced
3 1/2 c. water
1 1/2 c. uncooked rice
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 15 oz. can beans (kidney, black, pinto), drained
1 can corn, drained (optional)
1 Tb. chili powder
crushed red pepper (optional - add more or less to taste)
2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. cumin
1 Tb. salt
1 tsp. basil
1/4 tsp. black pepper
parsley, to taste
1 lg. green pepper, diced

Cook meat and onion in large skillet until meat is browned. Drain any excess fat.

Add all remaining ingredients EXCEPT green pepper. Mix and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to a simmer and cover tightly. Simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally and checking to make sure there is still enough liquid to cook rice. Add a little more water, if needed.

Once rice is tender, remove from heat and stir in green pepper.

Cover and let stand 5 minutes.

**I often make this recipe using my pressure cooker by reducing the amount of water by a bit and cooking at high pressure for about 5 minutes, then letting the pressure come down naturally. I have also substituted brown rice for white when using my pressure cooker and changing the cook time to about 20 minutes.**


Easy Tex-Mex Skillet

1 lb. ground beef or turkey
1 large onion, diced
3 c. water
1 c. uncooked rice
1 15 oz. can kidney beans
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 pkg. chili seasoning mix
1 tsp. salt
1 large green pepper, diced

Cook meat and onion in large skillet until meat is browned. Drain excess fat. Add all remaining ingredients EXCEPT green pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat. Cover tightly and simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Stir in green pepper. Cover and let stand 5 minutes.

In My Next Life . . .

Have I ever told you that in my next life

. . . the one that will begin when I'm about 50 . . .

I want to be a midwife.

I do. I've spent a lot of time thinking about it the last 3 years.

I think when the girls are grown, I'm going to go back to school to deliver babies and teach women about how amazing their bodies are.

I love where I'm at right now, but someday . . .

No Handbook Provided . . .

I so love when one of those raging-mad moments can turn into a teaching moment.

{{{sigh}}}

There is a merciful God in Heaven. I know it.

This evening, while dinner was in the oven, Hazel, Lilie, and I had it all out.

The emotions went from zero to crazy in about 10 seconds.

There was a great deal of dust and dirt, sassing and weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth going on. It wasn't pretty.

I tell you what --- you don't want to get into a power play with me. I can hardly contain myself. Just ask my family about how Rachel can't help herself but have the last word.

Darn it. I still haven't really grown up in many some ways.

However, once we all calmed our-sweet-selves down and the dust and frustration was washed down the drain, I had a chance to sit and talk to my girls while brushing their hair and painting their nails. We got to the heart of the problem and were able to commit to do better in the future.

Sometimes in the heat of the battle and the busy-ness of each day I miss out on these moments to connect with my kids ----- but when they DO come . . . it's like heaven on earth. I would say that those are some of the most rewarding experiences that I've had - certainly in parenting but perhaps in my entire life.

Hazel is always so open, so transparent. She is so forgiving and understanding and so willing and wanting to do her very best. She reminds me so much of Nels in that way. I love it. I'm pretty sure that she teaches me far more than I teach her. It is so vitally important to her to be able to talk through the issue, resolve it, and then let it go with a smile and a hug. When I get upset, she just melts --- her emotion level always matching my own. I can see how, through her, the Lord is giving me an opportunity to grow and learn to be a calmer and more loving mother. He is teaching me how to be more like Him. God truly sends very special (and strong) people to be first-borns.

Lilie is harder to crack open. She holds her fears, insecurities, and guilt close to her heart. It doesn't even come across her face or often manifests as anger. She is so like me. She takes things harder than I realize. We sat on the bathroom floor and I painted her finger nails bright red tonight and as I did, she told me (through tears) how she felt like the consequences that inevitably befell the two of them were all her fault. We talked about what happened and talked through her feelings. It's been amazing to me how in the last couple of months, we've had a few of these moments and it has been so wonderful to have a chance to help her understand herself a bit better and, in so doing, I come to see myself a little more clearly.

I've often complained that children don't come with an instruction manual. I mean, seriously. What kind of Plan is this? that sends sweet, innocent children down to a couple of dummies for parents that have no clue what they're doing???

However, over the course of the past 9 years, I've also been given some very clear impressions that this is EXACTLY the Plan.

And for good reason.

This is the way it was meant to be and our learning here on earth is definitely not finished when that first little child is placed in our arms. That's when real learning begins.

For all my practicing, I'm never going to get it all the way right ---- but as long as I'm doing my best, the Lord can make up for my severe shortcomings in both my life and the lives of those sweet, innocent children.

And tonight, I'm so thankful that it ended well -- with both girls cuddled up on the couches clean, smiling, and reading

-- and that there are two loads of laundry that I'M not going to have to fold tomorrow.   :)

Reclaiming Dinner with Yumprint

When Pinterest rolled into town it took me a while to look into it, but once I did I realized that it filled a huge hole in my life.

Seriously.

Well, seriously in a completely silly sort of way.

For years I'd had links upon links of bookmarks in my bookmark folders to many great and amazing ideas that I'd found in my internet browsing. It was hard to keep track of which was which, but it worked. Sort of.

Then along came Pinterest and it changed my life. :)

I spent two days going through all my crafty and shoppy bookmarks sorting through which were keepers and which were duds and "pinning" my little brains out. It was like reconnecting with old friends --- and now they were all organized and right in front of me for my great viewing pleasure as pictures.

SUCH a genius idea.

In every way but one.

Recipes.

How many people have I talked to that say something along the lines of, "Pinterest has such great looking recipes on it, but almost every one I've made has been disgusting!"?

Many, my friends. Many. And it's happened to you, too.

A dirty trick, to be sure.

Me? I just don't cook anything from Pinterest - even though they look good - because I'm a Cautious Cooker. I want to hear what someone else has to say about it before I'll jump into the deep end and use my time, resources, and taste buds to cook something that very-well may taste like cat food. (Unless that something is in the form of a brownie or somesuch. I figure when you're adding butter, sugar, cocoa, and flour together, how wrong can it really go, right?)

Also, I'm not going to take recommendations from,

"Another pinner says . . . "

Ya know what I mean? Not really instilling much confidence with what "another pinner" had to say. I want to know what my friends, family, or favorite food blogger thinks (not the creepy people who live across the street from my friend and people-watch the neighborhood from their open garage).

Enter  yumprint.

A fabulous website that is starting to save dinner at our house.

It's like Pinterest - for food!  (Only better!)  Be still my heart!

I can save recipes from anywhere on the web and organize them into cookbooks and MENUs! I can see what recipes my friends and others are saving and read their reviews. And if I'm super lazy, I can see what they're cooking for dinner this week and just copy them.

I love it.

I've had a few places that I trust and have become my "go-to" websites to look for new recipe ideas and I've also come across some tasty-looking ones on friends blogs. On a rare occasion I'll spend hours combing through recipes on websites like food.com or allrecipes.com. Wherever I'm looking, I'll always print off a couple (if I have ink) or I'll write down the recipe (on the back of my kids' coloring page) with grand plans of putting it into my "Recipes Binder", but inevitably (before or after I've made it) I can never find it again. It gets thrown in the trash by accident (because it looks like a coloring page) or gets left to fend for itself in the never-ending stack of recipes that I never look at again because Ican'trememberifIlikeditornotandrecipefilingisn'tthatmuchfun.

With Yumprint, I can save recipes right when I find them. I can even edit them and add my own notes. It's incredible!

Last night we had some new friends over for dinner. They're vegetarians (or herbivores - if you're Elsie) and while I have a few okay or so-so vegetarian recipes (you know, like quesadillas), I really wanted something to knock our socks off --- and I didn't want to spend all my cooking time combing the internet for something that looked good, but might taste questionable.

I went to Yumprint, clicked on my cousin's profile, found her Vegetarian cookbook, and found an incredible recipe that she and others had made and reviewed for Vegetable Tamale Pie.

And it was SO GOOD!!! I was seriously, doing a happy dance with how well it turned out. - And it was made even better because I was able to quickly read other reviews about minor adjustments that made it even better. Afterward I added my own notes, so that I can remember next time --- and there will be a next time.

Hooray!

After a year-long break from making consistent menus, I'm finally getting back in the game and having so much fun doing it! I am finally breaking out of my Family Cookbook and trying new recipes that I love.

Thank you, Yumprint, for filling yet another hole in my life that I didn't even know existed.

{{{happy sigh}}}

Now.

What all of YOU need to do is go to Yumprint and sign up! So that I can see what YOU'RE cooking and get even more ideas!

http://www.yumprint.com

Photo Challenge Day 17: Technology

I'm skipping Day 16 for now. It's Long Exposure and it's just not happening.

There is a lot of technology that I use in my life everyday. . .

. . . Technology.

It sounds kind of old-fashioned and strange to even call it that.

Oh well. Whatevs. I'm in a time crunch and I'm not going to spend the next 15 minutes thinking of an easier or more clever way to write two sentences.

....................

Anyway.

I just spent the last 15 minutes thinking of a way to write about my subject matter without sounding like a boring weirdo as I gush about my new washer and dryer.

I now need to rush to get Elsie to preschool, so I'm just going to say -

A) that I think they're extra cool because they wash huge loads

B) I think it's weird that they have computers for brains

and

C) no freaking wonder I never blog anymore! It's been so long that I'm out of practice writing - so most of what I write gets erased because it's a little "too real". I've finally realized that having 5 kids is a whole lot of work. The whole time I'm writing or working at the computer at all, I'm trying to pull kids and kittens out from under the computer desk because they keep pushing the button the power strip and turn off the computer. And I end up feeling the whole time like I'm going to punch someone.

Here is my photo of the day. 8 months late.

A Few Things I Learned Last Night

In my childhood memories, watching or helping my mom can food holds a prominent spot.

As a mother myself, I've found great satisfaction in it as well. However, the last couple of years haven't been my most productive. Almost all my jars are empty and it makes me so sad! :) Not really sad that I haven't had a bunch of food to cart around from place to place to place, but still sad.

This year I determined that I was definitely going to can some applesauce. My family loves it and we finally finished off my last bottle a couple months ago.

A list of some things I learned last night while cleaning up.

~ 40 lbs. of apples makes surprisingly less sauce than I thought it would. -- About 9+ quarts.

~ I love the smell of fresh apples. If I could bottle that up and keep it in my kitchen always, I would.

~ I don't think I'll can applesauce again unless it's with FREE apples. Not real economical.

~ Tart-er apples make better applesauce. Eating apples are for eating. The ones people let fall on the ground in their yards, those are for saucing.

~ I like tart kids.

~ Regardless of whether or not my time, money, or spent energy were economical yesterday, it was super fun to spend my time, money, AND energy with the most enthusiastic "bestest Applesauce Turner Squisher in the whole world!"

I really love this kid. She is fun and really very well-natured. I love her crazy blonde hair. I love her little voice.

She has the sweetest little jabbery nonsense all day filled with lots of "oh!oh!" as she explores the world around her

I love it!

She has been my most patient and gentle child . . . as a little baby.

More recently, the word she has perfected best? "No!"

This morning I got her out of her crib and asked her for a kiss. "No!"

"Clara, let's change your diaper."
"No!"

She is such an opinionated and sassy little person! Maybe because she has been such a patient little thing, she's just fed up. Tired of getting taken advantage of! :)

Yesterday as we were sitting in the van, I reached behind me and tickled her cute-little-chubby leg. To my surprise, instead of giggling, she pulled her leg away from me, scowled at me, and growled "eehnh!" You know, the sound that big, ornery kids make when they are whining about someone teasing them? My one-year-old gave me major attitude!

Sometimes I push her because, surely, she can't know what she's saying. She can't really be telling me NO all the time. But whenever I do, she lets me know that she knows full-well what she's saying and gets really mad when I don't listen to her.

"Here, Clara. One more bite."
"No."
"Come on. Just one more bite."

Followed by me trying to sneak it in.

Which is inevitably followed by spitting food all over herself and me.

At this point in my life, I really should know better . . . but how can one so small, have such strong ideas about things?

. . .

On second thought, after considering . . . um, a couple of other people in our family . . . don't answer that.