Monday, March 5, 2012

Kids in the Kitchen - 2 For One Recipes - 4th Link Up



Welcome! 
Carrie from Young Living Oil Lady and I are joining forces to bring you 
the Kids in the Kitchen Link Up - It's our goal to see families come together and spend 
time in the kitchen and around the table together. Food is healthier when cooked at home! 



Team-work, communication, co-operation, following directions, critical thinking, creativity, math, reading, chemistry and more happen in your kitchen every time you step in to work with the kiddos on a recipe.

Sometimes a few other things are covered, like dispute resolution, problem solving, and first aide -
 but my goal is to actually convince you that cooking with kids is a good idea - so, we'll save all that
 other business for another time. In case I just lost any of you- let me say- we've never had to implement
 first aide for this reason in all the years I've been working with my little guys in the kitchen. I just enjoy
 a sick sense of humor and hope you can too. Humor can be important when cooking with children. I
 certainly have had to get over some of my more "perfectionist type -A" personality traits in order to
enjoy my boys in the kitchen.

I'm so thankful that I got over myself and opened up to enjoying our family time
 - gathered in the heart of our home - Enough of the chit chat - on with the recipes:

We had a limited budget this week and I decided to help out by stretching a dollar or two
 in the kitchen. This is how we made two full delicious meals out of 
only 1 1/2 pounds of hamburger meat! 
I began by browning the meat and adding taco seasoning 
- I buy a big thing of it from Sam's Club 

The first meal - Taco Casserole : 

Mix 3/4 of a pound - 1 pound of taco meat with 1 container of Philadelphia Cooking Cream 
(Santa Fe inspired Cream) - put down a layer of corn tortillas & spread meat mixture over the top


Sprinkle on a mixture of cheeses - whatever you have on hand 
- we used a bit of cheddar and jack cheese
We chopped up some black olives and spread those on with chopped onions
 and added a can of stewed tomatoes with juices on top - repeat layers -
 cover top with extra cheese - bake 350 for 15 min


Fresh tomatoes would work well for this dish 
We served with a side of mashed pinto beans - our own version of re-fried beans 
It was so good - we needed two spoons each! 


The Second Dish - Taco Mac -N- Cheese
 Use remaining taco meat - cook 1/2 - 1 box of pasta - we used this twisty kind
 boil it in a big pot with a little bit of olive oil and a touch of salt - drain - mix with meat and 
add another one of those cans of tomatoes (or fresh chopped - even better) 


Homemade cheese sauce: 

In skillet place one TBS butter and begin to melt while adding 3 TBS of flour to skillet 
As soon as the flour and butter are mixed together - add 1 cup of milk and stir - add another cup


stir - and add 1 more 1/2 cup of milk and let thicken while stirring - 
add 1 cup of grated cheddar cheese stir until well melted - pour over top of pasta and meat mixture


Place into casserole dish - sprinkle with cheese
 - Cook at 350 degrees for 10 - 15 minutes until cheese melts




Please grab the blog button from my side bar and link up 
your family friendly recipes - It's ok if there are no kids in the pictures 
but we sure do like to see your cute buggers helping you cook- It's a great way 
to help bring the family back to the table! Bonus points for healthy recipes! 

13 comments:

Unknown said...

Those look likes some tasty dinners! Thanks for the link up! =)

Happy Whimsical Hearts said...

We love spending time in the kitchen too!

Rebecca said...

OH< YUMMY! Can I 'pin em'?

Jenn said...

Love cooking with my girls...especially when we don't have all the ingredients or need to stretch an ingredient because we don't have quite enough of it. They are learning problem solving skills and how to "make do" with less. Those are valuable (and tasty:) lessons to learn! Your food looks delicious:)

Lisa Boyle said...

We love taco meals here! These look great! Thanks so much for linking up! :-)

Anonymous said...

Yummo... we made Cheesy Vegetable Soup last night! I just might have to try your Taco Mac-n-cheese.

Anonymous said...

looks great! stopping by from the HHH, happy week to you!

Craig said...

and you did that with your baby? I heart that! And I heart that you had to teach conflict resolution, and maybe first aid, always teaching – always teaching. And have I mentioned that I'm really glad I know you – and I'm kind of glad you didn't go to Blissdom because I ended up not going either – and neither did Rebecca. And why is it that everything you write makes me smile? God bless you Kelli.

Amanda @ The Pelsers said...

I wish we could eat cheese :(

And I'm such a dork.... wrote my post and then forgot to link it up yesterday! Doh! It's linked up now :)

Amy S said...

Really love reading and seeing your ktichen fun with your boys! :)

Carrie - young living oil lady said...

Yummy! We should have made this when we were together! I could eat mexican every night and yet I couldn't stand it until I was pregnant with Cameron. I think Cameron birthed the "Central America" in me with missions and knowing I would be eating a whole lotta mexican food, haha! I can't wait to show the boys the pictures and make this as well (with the dairy adaptation, bummer!) HUGS! So happy to be doing Kids in the Kitchen with you! :)

Anonymous said...

that taco casserole looks yummy! i pinned it!!

Julie@teachinggoodeaters said...

The taco casserole looks really really good!! I didn't actually see the link up... what am I missing??!!