organization

Organization is so not my strong point... we have been trying (for the past 4 years) to get the house in order and things where we want them etc... it is hard taking two houses full of stuff and putting them into one... that being said... I am purging our things! it feels good. So far about 1/4 of the attic has been gone through and there are 4 distinct piles! (yard sale, give to church, keep, and Garbage!)  Special thanks to my memmy for storing the "give to church" items until the rummage sale in April.

One thing I am focusing on this week is meal preparation... I despise being in the kitchen every night with my back turned to the kids while i am at the stove making dinner. Back in the fall of the year we were on the go every  night and dinner together was a challenge, thus forcing me to try and prepare meals ahead of time. NO I didn't prepare for every night and yes some nights GASP... we went to McDonalds!   I decided that I am going to try to prepare some meals for each week (2 weeks at a time) so I can enjoy our evenings with minimal activities! More time for legos, books, and whatever else the kids decide... hopefully not the kids dance on the wii... they win every time... ha.

okay back to the meals... so I made a mental list, probably should have actually written it down... but decided on:
Chicken potpie (bf smoked the chicken legs yesterday!)
*stuffed shells
tacos
*santafae bake
chicken fajita soup

*= recipe in this post!

the potpie I don't have a recipe for... it's the way my great grandma made it and  you just dump and pour ingredients... next time I will try and measure to see how i actually do it...

Stuffed Shells: I took a few recipes and threw them together, nothing too difficult:

1lb turkey burger
1/2 green pepper chopped
2 cloves garlic pressed (i LOVE my pampered chef garlic press!)
1/2 sweet onion chopped
1 cup motz or Italian cheese shredded
1 pack of shells (large ones!)
1 to 1 1/2 jar of spaghetti sauce (we recently started using Prego...)

Browned my burger, along with the pepper, garlic and onion. set to side and let cool *add cheese right before stuffing shells.

make shells according to box, drain, fill with cold water and let sit a minute or two to cool

take out each shell (one at a time) and GASP... use your fingers to stuff the meat mixture into the shells.  layer in a glass baking dish (I have a pyrex one with a plastic lid, great to store in the fridge). ***I put a little bit of sauce on the bottom of the dish so the noodles don't bake fast!
then fill all of the shells (there may be extras... the kids can eat those later!) then cover with the remaining sauce and sprinkle a thin layer of cheese on top!

I then threw mine in the fridge. I will bake at 400 for about 20 mins!  Can't wait to see what the kids think!


SANTAFAE BAKE
this is originally from my mom!

2lbs turkey burger (you can use regular burger if you want...)
2 packages taco seasoning
2 cups chicken broth (i often use bullion cubes and 2 cups water...)
1/4 cup flour
1 cup sour cream (or RANCH DRESSING!)
1 sm can chillies
2 cups cheese (a taco/cheddar based works well)

1. brown the burger and add one pack taco seasoning (no water), add the broth and flour to meat, this will thicken, give it a few mins before next step.
2. add sour cream (or ranch) and chili's, mix well
3. grease a baking dish of your choosing (I like a glass loaf pan or a circular dish!)
4. layer taco chips (crush them a bit), meat mixture, cheese (2-3 layers)

top with cheese

bake at 375 for about 20 mins, let sit for about 10 mins before serving! I also LOVE this warmed up!!!
*feel free to add chopped onions or any other favorite ingredients. I often top it with salsa!

Will post more recipes once i try them/figure them out!!! Oh last week we had stuffed pepper soup... it was AWESOME! will post that too!

So far I am on my way to achieving my goal of being more organized in the kitchen this week... lets see what it looks like on friday... haha.

So excited to get to play with the kids instead of working in the kitchen!