Taco Ring Recipe

We eat some form of tacos probably once a week. Last night, we tried a fun variation on tacos, with the Taco Ring!  It was really easy and quick to make, which was nice since we got a late start on dinner yesterday.

Ingredients:

• 1 pack of crescent rolls
• ground beef
• cheese
• any taco toppings you like

Directions:

First, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Start cooking your ground beef with taco seasoning, and whatever else you might like such as green peppers, onions, etc. While that's cooking, starting arranging your crescent triangles in a circular shape, with the corners overlapping.  Make sure you spray your cookie sheet with cooking spray!

When the beef was just about done, Matt stirred some shredded cheese into it.  Then, you put it on top of the crescent rolls and fold the triangles in.

 The directions said to cook it for 18-22 minutes, but it only took about 14 minutes for us.

We cut it into smaller sections with a pizza cutter, and had sour cream for dipping! We also had shredded lettuce and small pieces of tomatoes! So good!

If you have any quick or easy recipes you like, please comment and share!

Hamburger Cups

We are all about quick and easy recipes over here! Especially when we both get home from work and don't feel like waiting forever for dinner to cook.

Do you like the Facebook page Tasty? They share recipes on Facebook by playing a video showing the food being prepared, the ingredients & amounts, etc. I've shared a few recipes on my Facebook, just so I can have them to refer back to. I tried one of the recipes, Hamburger Cups, and it's actually a meal we have quite often now. Super easy and really delicious too!

Here's what you're gonna need:

• 1 pack Grands Biscuits
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1/2 cup of ketchup
• 1 tsp worcestershire
• 1 T mustard
• 2 Tbs brown sugar
• cheese
• any other toppings you want

First, mix together the ketchup, worcestershire, mustard and brown sugar.

Cook the beef in a skillet and then drain.  Add the beef back to the pan and mix it with the ketchup mixture.

Grease your muffin tin, then take your biscuits dough and stretch out each biscuit until it can fit into each of the holes in the tin.

 Fill the biscuit cups with the beef/ketchup mixture. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

Top with cheese (Matt prefers shredded cheddar, I like sliced American cheese) and bake an additional 5 minutes.

YUM! 

2014 To-Do List: 3rd Recap

It's that time again! Time to check back in with where I am in my 2014 to-do list.  No procrastinating here, so here we go!

#1. Blog more realistically.
Let's see, in my first recap, I had only blogged 18 times in 3 months; in my second recap I had blogged 24 times; and in the past three months, I've blogged 22 times.  Meh,not bad, but could be better. Dear Self, please get better at this.

But, the next recap will definitely top the rest, because that will include December, which will include my 25 Days of Christmas posts--they'll be here before you know it!

#2. Cook more.
I've been helping more, but when I look back, it seems like our summer was so busy that we just did something quick, or we weren't even here!  However, I did try a couple new recipes.  This Loaded Baked Potato and Chicken Casserole was pretty good.  I wasn't a huge fan of the chicken part in it, but the baked potato part was great!

I also made this orzo salad recipe, but when I didn't find orzo in the pantry like I thought we had, I just used some other pasta noodles instead.  Still tasted great to me, and it was really great to take to work in my lunch! Also, in that pasta recipe, I used mozzarella cheese instead of feta cheese.

Without sounding like I'm trying to make excuses, I did honestly have better intentions of trying to cook more, but a lot of the time, it just didn't work for our schedules.  Matt is off Mondays and is always home from work before me, so most of the time if it's a crock pot meal, he preps and starts it on Monday, or starts dinner first anyway. I'm very thankful for him and his love for cooking!!

Within the next three months, especially around Christmas, I know more baking will definitely come :)

#3. Participate in more races.
Well, of course we completed the Spartan race!! But, that's the extent of races for these three months, it seems. Bummer.  However, assuming all gets better -*fingers crossed*- there are several fun races to come for the last three months of the year!!

#4. Read more. 
Since I was off for the summer I really knocked this one out of the park! Here are all of the books I've read since July 1st:

• Wesley the Owl by Stacey O'Brien
• How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
• Beauty Queens by Libba Bray
• Hairspray and Homicide by Cindy Bell
• The Women of Duck Commander by Kay, Korie, Missy, Jessica and Lisa Robertson
• The St. Valentine's Day Cookie Massacre by Elisabeth Crabtre
• To All The Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
• Better Off Friends by Elizabeth Eulberg
• Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea by Chelsea Handler by
• Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
• Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy
• Cruel Summer by Alyson Noël
• The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle
• No Place Like Oz by Danielle Paige
• Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige
• Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern
• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
• Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles
• A Sixteenth Summer Novel - Pulled Under by Michelle Dalton
• How to Ruin a Summer Vacation by Simone Elkeles

Boy, am I missing summer and having SO much free time to read, now!! I'm only on my second book since school started!

If you missed my other 2014 To-Do List Recaps, here are those links for you:
1st Recap
2nd Recap

2014 To-Do List: 1st Recap

At the beginning of the year, I posted some things on my 2014 To-Do List. Instead of waiting until December 31 to look back at the year to see what I accomplished, I decided I'll do a post every three months to check back and see how I'm doing on this To-Do List. Here's the first check-in!

#1. Blog more reastically.
Unfortunately, this is probably the one thing on my 2014 to-do list that I haven't stuck with the most. My goal was to aim to post something on my blog 2-3 times a week.  When I look back at each month so far, in January I only had 7 posts, in February I had 4 posts, and in March I had 7 posts, including this one. I have no clue why February was the worst, and I only posted an average of once a week! Well, maybe it's because we had so much snow this year, and you can only post but so many pictures of snow before it gets old! haha I hope I'll get better at this one throughout the year! I'm thinking I will...because with warmer temperatures, I'll get out and do more, and have more pictures to share!

#2. Cook more.
I definitely have stepped up a little bit more in this area! haha. I really love flipping through Miss. Kay's Duck Commander cookbook that Matt's parents gave me for Christmas! I've made Jep's Best Baked Beans, Jep's Meatloaf Choice, and Willie's Famous Chicken Strips. I've also made coffee cake, BBQ bacon wrapped chicken tenders, and several other things where I've had Matt's assistance in making sure it comes out edible...haha. Sunday evening, I tried a Pinterest recipe and made these delicious roasted peppers! YUM!

Here's Matt's way of "topping the meatloaf with bacon." So worth it though! haha

 

If you'd like me to share any of these recipes, let me know and I can do that in a future post!

#3. Participate in more races.
Actually, just three days ago was the first race of the year to check off the to-do list. We ran in the Ukrop's Monument Avenue 10K on Saturday, and for the most part, I was pleased with my time. I really wanted to finish in under an hour...even if I finished at 59:59. Matt and I finished in 1 hour and 17 seconds. SEVENTEEN. SECONDS. I can't believe it.
Well, without it sounding like I'm making excuses for myself, I never trained in the rain (which we ran in on Saturday), and I had no intentions of hurting through the whole race. First it was my foot, then my knee.  I never got tired, I was just ANNOYED more than anything that I was hurting. However, my head wasn't hurting (until after lunch) so I definitely won't complain about that!
Regardless, it was fun! After completing it, Matt, Dad and I waited for Abby and Mom, and we got to see a lot of the fun costumes!

Apparently, even in 2014, there are still people who don't know how to take a picture on a phone...Sad.

#4. Read more.
I've definitely gotten a good start on this to-do list! The first book I read this year was the first one I got for Christmas, Melissa Explains it All by Melissa Joan Hart. I'm now just about finished in the second book I got for Christmas, Reshaping it All by Candace Cameron Bure. I only have a few more chapters to go! This book is really neat, because at the end of each chapter are healthy recipes. I've made one so far, fresh salsa, which I lovvvee. It's so simple: just tomatoes, red onion and cilantro. All to taste. I even took it to a small covered dish lunch we had at school on Friday, and everyone loved it!  Next up to read is my third book from Christmas, which Mom had to pre-order for me. It came earlier in the month, and she sent it to me via "The Pony" so I'd get it at school. (The Pony is like a mail delivery system only through the schools, Central Office, etc.) I have a few more books on my shelf to read after that, so I told myself to stop buying more books until I finish reading all of these! haha