Kids in the Kitchen - Crock pot Venison Taco Salad

I’ve joined forces with my good friend Carrie @YoungLivingOilLady
to bring you this family friendly recipe link up. It is our desire to encourage
families to cook and eat together. Meals cooked at home are healthier, and time
spent together in the kitchen is good for families!

We use Cooking 101 as part of our family homeschool. I’m teaching the boys to
put together healthy family meals, life skills, and budgeting, as well as teaching them tips for cooking in the kitchen. We encourage real food vs. processed food. Let’s bring the family, back to the table!

This week: 

Crock pot venison taco salad 

I buy a big thing of Taco seasoning from SAM's Club - with no MSG - to use in our frequent 

tex mex meals. The venison was provided this deer season by my hunter-gatherer husband. 

The crock pot was a gift from my mother - just in case you wanted to know.

Dinner provided by my 3 boys! We followed directions using the corn tortilla taco shells, Parker handled the shells and the oven and added seasoning to the pot. Walker chopped up some onion. Spencer grated cheese. The crock pot did most of the work on the meat! 

On top of a bed of lettuce - add meat, cheese, onions, sour cream, salsa, and broken up chips

Join us by linking up your favorite family recipes! Grab a button from below, on my side bar, or use a text link back to Adventurez. Please visit another participant or more to help encourage each other. I’ll be visiting and Pinning away on our Kids in the Kitchen Pinterest board here. It’s a wonderful resource for finding yummy recipes the whole family will love. 

Enjoy your time in the kitchen this week!

I'm linking with these fine blogs: Titus 2 Tues

The Better Mom  Holy Spirit Led Homeschooling Food Renegade Try New Recipe 

  Happy LiL Hearts   Hip Homeschool Hop  Creative Mondays                   

L is for . . . Leftover Turkey Casserole and Lavaca, AR

My good friend Marcy Crabtree @ BenandMe  hosts a weekly Blogging through the Alphabet series that we enjoy participating in each week. I am hosting for her this week as she visits her family in Lavaca, AR for the holiday.

 Check out her post " L is for Lavaca" here if you want to leave her a Happy Thanksgiving message! She'll be back soon with her reviews, App schooling tips, and helpful homeschool advice.

 If you don't know Marcy, you're gonna love her. She's  "down to earth" good people - I've had the privilege of knowing IRL for several years. She reached out to me, a stranger, when I was homeschooling alone in a different state. I needed help and information to get my boys on track while we worked our way through a tough year for our family. Her kindness and wisdom meant more than she knew. She has a heart for the Lord and a love for others. I'm fortunate to call her friend. 

At our house - L if for . . . Leftover Turkey Casserole 




If you have a ton of turkey leftover - or even just a cup or two - you can turn it into this cheesy 
deliciousness.  I don't know about you, but I can hardly look at another slice of turkey - but this is 
a whole other animal (or so to speak). 

Get the full recipe here - feel free to link up your own recipe posts - new link up starts tomorrow and repeats  every Tuesday with our Kids in the Kitchen link up. Older posts are fine - no kids required in post pictures- just good family recipes which encourage the family to get back to the table together.

L is for Leftover Turkey Casserole

linking with Manic Mondays

31 days of Homeschool encouragement - Kids in the Kitchen - Link up #37 - Apple Strudel

As part of the blogging series hosted by The Nester - I'm blogging through October to encourage homeschool families. We spend time in the kitchen each and every week preparing meals and learning together as a family. We had a full house this week - and it sure was fun! 

Who says homeschoolers don't socialize? 

Carrie @Young Living Oil Lady and I join forces each week to bring you this recipe link up 

Are you cooking with the kids lately? We use it to jazz up our family homeschool 

Not only are the boys learning how to cook - but they are learning about nutrition - meal planning 

shopping on a budget to feed the family - and much more! 

This week in our kitchen: 

There's been a whole lotta cookin' goin on! We had some homeschool friends over for a cooking class. 

We've been studying Germany in our homeschool - so we made Apple Strudel, Chocolate Pretzels, and Stroganoff. Yes. Stroganoff. As soon as my husband walked in the door - he reminded me that it is a Russian dish - and not from Germany. So, we pretended it was from Germany instead. 

Apple Strudel: 

6 sheets phyllo dough                                           1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup melted buter                                            1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup breadcrumbs                                           1/4 tsp nutmeg

2 apples - cored and sliced                                  1/2 tsp ginger 

if desired  1/2 cup raisins                                     1 egg + 1 tsp water, beaten

if desired  1/4 cup slivered almonds                      powdered sugar

1. preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place a damp kitchen towel on counter. Cover with one sheet of phyllo dough. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Repeat. Repeat again. (we added extra) 

2. leaving a half-inch margin around the edges of the dough, cover with half the apples, raisins, and almonds. Mix sugar with cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Generously sprinkle over dough. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Very gently roll, and seal ends shut. Brush with melted butter and beaten egg. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Transfer to a greased baking sheet, using the towel to aid you if needed.

3. Repeat for 2nd strudel. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes then sprinkle with powdered sugar. 

*Recipe from our Eat Your Way Around the World by Jamie Aramini 

Link up: 

Grab the button from below or from the code on my side bar. Add your family friendly recipes to our collection. No kids required in pictures - but we sure do think they are cute! Please visit and pin each other to encourage others to bring the family back to the table: 

Please let me know if you find these reminders and information useful or if there is something else you are looking for. I am happy to share what God has led us through (some pretty big challenges) and how He continues to carry us through each day.

 - visit others participating in 31 days series from The Nester here -

- Read my other posts of encouragement for your homeschool here-

I'm linking with these fine blogs: Comfy in the Kitchen  Shrinking Kitchen Titus 2 Tues
I heart Naptime Nourishing Treasures  The Better Mom  Holy Spirit Led Homeschooling Food Renegade Try New Recipe   Happy LiL Hearts   Hip Homeschool Hop  Creative Mondays healthy2day TastyTues Beyond The Peel Heart and Home NaptimeCreations CrazySweetTues

Kids in the Kitchen - 31 days of Homeschool Encouragement - inspiration via the taste buds!

I've mentioned a time or two that one of my goals in homeschooling our kids is to inspire a love for learning in them. I like to see them fired up about what we are studying. I love for them to be excited to dig deeper and learn more.

One of the ways we inspire them is by enjoying time together in the kitchen. By incorporating homeschool into our family meals - and visa versa - we are adding another element of inspiration and one that offers skills they will carry with them throughout their lifetime.

They simply think it's fun!



This past week in our family homeschool - we traveled to France (virtually - that is). After the boys stamped their pretend passports :

Gotta love those cheesy "not another picture. . . " smiles! 

 They found France on the map - added it to their own maps - and we read about the country from several of our homeschool books - and then we headed to the kitchen.

We used our book from GeoMatters by Jamie Aramini called "Eat Your Way Around the World" 
to come up with recipes from France and learn a little about French food. We made a yummy pot of French Onion Soup - which was a big hit for the whole family & we used up some leftovers in the process!

Our soup was a little different. I had no beef broth - so we used our left over steak from fajitas to make some and left the beef in our soup for good measure. Technically- I suppose it was actually:

French Beef and Onion soup: 

What we did: 

     We filled a large pot with water and added our leftover steak to boil. The steak was already cooked,

      flavored with taco seasoning. We also added 2 tablespoons of coconut oil because it's good for you. 

We added about a tablespoon of garlic powder and salt and pepper to taste. After chopping an onion - we added that to the soup as well. That is all. It was very simple - we slow cooked it for over an hour and everyone loved it. The recipe in the book is a bit different - it's probably better - but we worked with what we had on hand (another good lesson for the boys).

We use as many organic ingredients as possible. I'm teaching the boys about nutrition at the same time. 

Last week - I shared some more ways to use the kitchen in your homeschool and a recipe for baked apples. You can read more about that here.

Please let me know if you find these reminders and information useful or if there is something else you are looking for. I am happy to share what God has led us through (some pretty big challenges) and how He continues to carry us through each day.

 - visit others participating in 31 days series from The Nester here -
- Read my other posts of encouragement for your homeschool here-

I'm linking with these fine blogs: Comfy in the Kitchen  Shrinking Kitchen Titus 2 Tues
I heart Naptime Nourishing Treasures  The Better Mom  Holy Spirit Led Homeschooling Food Renegade Try New Recipe   Happy LiL Hearts   Hip Homeschool Hop  Creative Mondays healthy2day TastyTues Beyond The Peel Heart and Home

Link Up: 

I hope you'll join us by linking up a family recipe. I partner with my friend Carrie@ YoungLivingOilLady each week to bring you the Kids in the Kitchen link up. You are not required to homeschool - or to even show kids in the photo's of the recipe link up - Please link back to me,
and leave a comment, it is customary to visit at least one or two others who are participating.
 Feel free to Pin -I cannot always make it to every page but I try.
 I'm pinning and sharing your recipes! 

Grab the button below or from the code on my side bar (text links are also fine): 

Kids in the Kitchen - Link Up #33 - Kitchen skills and nutrition

I'm joining forces each week with my friend Carrie @YoungLivingOilLady to bring you this family friendly recipe link up. No kids required in your pictures - just great recipes to encourage families to spend time in the kitchen cooking and eating together - or tips for teaching kiddos about cooking and nutrition. 

 We strive to bring you healthy recipes with REAL food! 

This Week: 

Taco Night is always a big hit at our house! It is a bit of a cheat when we use shells out of a box - but we also use fresh corn tortillas when we can. The boys get excited about taco night - and it's possible you've seen it here on the blog before! 

When cooking with kids one of the most important things to remember is to find age appropriate jobs that they can do. As they practice these skills - their confidence will grow as will their abilities in the kitchen. 

Little ones can grate cheese, and even slice onions! We use a table knife - I chop it in quarters and then let them take over to chop into small pieces for the tacos or casseroles. 

Be sure to supervise kids closely while they master their kitchen tasks. 

 

Ripping up lettuce and other veggies is a great way for children to participate! We don't have any fun or allow any silliness in the kitchen at all. That would just be silly! Silly. silly. 

Big kids can do bigger work - our 11 year old mans the stove top to stir up taco meat as it browns. We are super careful when handling raw meat in the kitchen. It is also an opportunity to teach the boys about bacteria and food born illness. We clean counters, hands, and any kitchen tools immediately after coming in contact with raw meat and throw wash rags straight into the washer. 

Whether you use fresh corn tortillas, or boxed crunchy tacos - you'll want to choose taco seasoning that is free from MSG and use products with as few ingredients in them as possible. Fresh and organic is best! 

Learning about nutrition - we use our time in the kitchen to talk about what makes a healthy body. We talk about the foods we eat and plan other meals. The more we dialogue about it - the more the boys are becoming interested in finding out more about what is and is not good for them. 

How are you teaching kids to be healthy? 

I'm linking with these fine blogs: Comfy in the Kitchen  Shrinking Kitchen Titus 2 Tues
I heart Naptime Nourishing Treasures  The Better Mom  Holy Spirit Led Homeschooling Food Renegade Try New Recipe   Happy LiL Hearts   Hip Homeschool Hop  Creative Mondays

Grab the button from below or with code on the side bar - or use a text link to link up! 

Please be sure to visit other blogs - pin and share recipes - Find me here on Pinterest  -I've been pinning your recipes to the Kids in the Kitchen board and sharing on facebook and twitter! 

Kids in the Kitchen - Link up #32 - Featured Recipe

Each week I join forces with my friend Carrie @ YoungLivingOilLady to bring you this 

Kids in the Kitchen Link up - we want to encourage families to cook and eat together using real food! 

Let's bring the family back to the table-

Today I have a special treat for you! I'm featuring a special recipe from one of our fabulous link ups
last week! I was so impressed with this one - I'm sure you will be too - Jeannine @Waddlee-ah-chaa
linked up her Good Morning Sunshine Mango Smoothies!  with a FREE printable recipe guide for Kids! 
How awesome is THAT??? Yup, I thought so too-

A sneak peek at the healthy ingredients: 

And the beautiful finished product: 

After you link up your favorite recipe below- be sure to head over to Jeannine's (here) to get the full recipe! 

Super easy - the kiddos can follow it all by themselves (well, some may need a little supervision) but for the most part - it's a healthy breakfast they can learn to make themselves - they'll be so proud! 

I think we may use strawberries in ours and try it out this week! Follow Jeannine on Pinterest here 

You can follow Adventurez in ChildRearing on Pinterest here

Are you ready to link up? Maybe you'll be featured soon! I'll be pinning and sharing for sure

Grab a button from below - or via the code on my sidebar - or use a text link: 

Please leave a comment - and be sure to share and encourage others by visiting

Thank you so much for continuing to participate each week - I love your recipes! 

I'm linking with these fine blogs: Comfy in the Kitchen  Shrinking Kitchen Titus 2 Tues
I heart Naptime Nourishing Treasures  The Better Mom  Holy Spirit Led Homeschooling Food Renegade Try New Recipe   Happy LiL Hearts   Hip Homeschool Hop  Creative Mondays

Kids in the Kitchen - Link up #31 - Cooking 101 free unit study

Joining together with Carrie @YoungLivingOilLady to bring you this fun family link up! 

Our goal is to encourage families to cook and eat together - food is healthier when made at home 

Family friendly recipes welcome - especially healthy food - but treats are good sometimes too. 

We encourage real food, fresh food, and whole grains! We love to see your cuties in the kitchen 

but pictures of your children are not required for the link up - 

won't you help us encourage families to spend time together at the table? 

At our house this week: 

Walker learned a new skill - He cracked eggs by himself and scrambled them in a bowl - teach kids to break the eggs into a separate bowl so if they drop any shell it can be spooned out! 

You don't always have to be ready with a full recipe to spend time with the kids in the kitchen! They also enjoy learning one new skill at a time and knowing they played an important role in preparing the meal. 

Created for you - A new Cooking 101 Unit Study - Aa is for Apple: 

(also for older students- includes recipe and  ideas for Bible, science, language arts and more) 

Download here: 

Link up your favorite family recipe or your kids in the kitchen experience 

Grab the button below or on my side bar- please leave a comment and try to encourage others 

by visiting their links. We've had some great recipes lately - I'm Pinning away! 

I'm linking with these fine blogs: Comfy in the Kitchen  Shrinking Kitchen Titus 2 Tues
I heart Naptime Nourishing Treasures  The Better Mom  Holy Spirit Led Homeschooling Food Renegade Try New Recipe   Happy LiL Hearts   Hip Homeschool Hop  Creative Mondays

Kids in the Kitchen - Link Up #30 - Steak Roll Up's

I team up each week with my good friend Carrie @YoungLivingOilLady to bring you this link up!

It is our desire to encourage families to spend time cooking and eating together - meals cooked at home 

are healthier and when they are made with love - all that much more so! 

This is my anniversary week and I have a confession -I let the Kids in the Kitchen post sneak up on me 

We cook together several times each week and spend time in the kitchen together most every day.

 I don't always have a new recipe to share with brand new pictures for you. 

This week I thought I'd share something we do as a family when we are on the go. 

We celebrated our 12th Anniversary out on the boat the past 2 afternoons and into the evening - 

We needed something tasty - and portable to take with us on our adventure: 

Steak "roll ups" - 

Simple ingredients include pre-cooked steak or chicken - I usually carry it in a gallon baggie. 

Add grated cheese, and some fresh pico de gaio or your favorite salsa to the meat on a tortilla and . . . 

roll it up! I've put these babies together on the beach, on the boat, and at the park! No plate necessary. 

We had fresh avocado to go with it - we often carry hummus and baby carrots to dip into it. 

Healthy, delicious, and ready to roll!  

Link up your favorite family recipes - no kids necessary - but we sure do think they're cute! 

Just grab the button below - or from the code on the side bar 

(text links are fine) Please be sure to visit a couple others who link up to encourage them as well. 

I can't always leave a comment on each page - but I have been very busy pinning and sharing! 

I'm linking with these fine blogs: Comfy in the Kitchen  Shrinking Kitchen Titus 2 Tues
I heart Naptime Nourishing Treasures  The Better Mom  Holy Spirit Led Homeschooling Food Renegade Try New Recipe   Happy LiL Hearts   Hip Homeschool Hop  Creative Mondays

Kids in the Kitchen - Link Up #28 - Beefy Rigatoni

My friend Carrie @YoungLivingOilLady  and I team up each week to bring you this 

Kids in the Kitchen Link Up - Real food - cooked at home - with the family is always healthier - 

We are aiming to encourage families to get into the kitchen and enjoy cooking and eating together! 

Easy Beefy Rigatoni: 

Box of Rigatoni pasta (or other of your choice - gluten free is fine) 

1 lb of hamburger meat - browned and drained 

1 can of 100% Natural Hunts roasted garlic tomatoes 

1 cup of either spaghetti sauce or plain tomato sauce (we used random leftover sauce from a jar) 

1 small chopped onion (or 1/2 large) 

Italian spices - parsley, Italian mix, garlic powder and salt to taste 

1 1/2 cups grated cheese (we used cheddar - mozzarella would be great) 

1 1/2 cup sour cream 

1 1/2 cup cottage cheese 

Cook pasta according to directions - we use a bit of olive oil in water to keep it from sticking - al dente 

Add tomato sauce and canned tomatoes to meat along with spices and onion 

(Our youngest uses a regular kitchen knife to chop onion like a champ - I cut it in 1/2 first and peel) 

When pasta is done, drain it and then stir in sour cream and cottage cheese with a touch of salt and spoon half of pasta into casserole dish. Add half of meat with sauce on top - then do second layer of pasta then meat. Sprinkle top with grated cheese and cook in oven at 350 for 15 minutes or until cheese is melted. 

Serve with fresh veggies - we used yellow squash, onions, and zucchini cooked in a skillet with olive oil.

Gathering 'round the kitchen is a wonderful way to spend time and share as a family - the children in your home can learn about kitchen safety as well as learning about how to cook. It establishes a feeling of camaraderie between family members as they work side by side and communicate with one another. It also encourages younger children to try new foods - as they are more likely to take part if they have played a role in it's preparation. Children feel a sense of pride with their accomplishment and let's face it- food brings people together. Why shouldn't  the most important people in our life be the ones we socialize with?

Please join us by linking up your own family favorite recipes 

Kids are not required in the pictures - although it's encouraged 

Grab a button from below or with code on my sidebar 

Please leave a comment below and try to visit and pin as many others as possible

Have a beautiful - tasty week! 

"The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace."  Numbers 6:24-26

I'm linking with these fine blogs: Comfy in the Kitchen  Shrinking Kitchen Titus 2 Tues

I heart Naptime Nourishing Treasures  The Better Mom  Holy Spirit Led Homeschooling Food Renegade