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:
Those look likes some tasty dinners! Thanks for the link up! =)
We love spending time in the kitchen too!
OH< YUMMY! Can I 'pin em'?
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:)
We love taco meals here! These look great! Thanks so much for linking up! :-)
Yummo... we made Cheesy Vegetable Soup last night! I just might have to try your Taco Mac-n-cheese.
looks great! stopping by from the HHH, happy week to you!
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.
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 :)
Really love reading and seeing your ktichen fun with your boys! :)
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! :)
that taco casserole looks yummy! i pinned it!!
The taco casserole looks really really good!! I didn't actually see the link up... what am I missing??!!
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