Organized - ME???

Tomorrow is back to school!! EKKKKK!!! My relaxing one drop off/pickup, no homework and no packed lunches days aer OVER!! This school year I have once again a 2 kid/2 school pick up, packed lunches, homework (and man Corey gets alot), soccer and piano. Thanfully Ally's dance class is during school hours. I've decided this year I'm going to try and make a bunch of dinners ahead that can just be thrown in the oven, keeping in under an hour so I can work on homework before dinner.

This is my first shot at making dinners ahead, I even made some of them in throw away pans :) They are nothing special but simple dinners my picky kids will eat.

Pasta Bake

1 box of whatever pasta
1 pound lean ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 (28 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Cook pasta as instructed 8-10 min or al dente. Drain well.
Meanwhile, cook ground beef and chopped onions in a skillet over medium heat until browned.
In a large bowl, mix together spaghetti sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese, pasta, and browned ground beef and onion mixture. Transfer to a greased, 9x13 inch casserole dish.
Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 20 minutes, or until very hot.

Homestyle Chicken & Mushroom Casserole

1 pkg. McCormick® Seasoning Mix

1 cup uncooked regular long-grain white rice 1 can

(4 oz.) sliced mushrooms, drained (I didn't use this because the kids wont eat them)

½ cup frozen peas 2 tbsp.

butter, cut into pieces (optional)

1½ lbs. boneless skinless chicken breast halves

1½ cups milk

1 cup water

Place rice, mushrooms, peas and butter (if desired) in 13x9x2-inch baking dish.

Top with chicken. MIX milk, water and Seasoning Mix until well blended. Pour over chicken and rice. Cover with foil. BAKE 45 min @ 375º F or until chicken is cooked through and rice is tender. Let stand 5 min. Cut chicken into serving-size pieces. Stir rice before serving.

Meatloaf

1 pkg. McCormick® Meat Loaf Seasoning

Mix2 lbs. lean ground beef or turkey

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup dry bread crumbs OR 1 cup soft bread crumbs (2 slices bread)

1/2 cup tomato sauce

MIX all ingredients in large bowl until well blended.
SHAPE meat mixture into a loaf. Place in foil-lined baking pan or 9x5-inch loaf pan.
BAKE in 375° F oven 1 hour or until cooked through

I also got two dinners for the crockpot, pot roast & chicken n dumplings. Cool thing to is we will get leftovers from the dinners so lunch for me or a quick dinner. Im plan is to make this school year STRESS FREE!!

What? It's just DIRT mom

Someone tell me when this little princess

turned into this little tomboy

Tackle It Tuesday - School Supplies & Contracts

OK!!! So I didn't ACTUALLY do any housework TODAY but I DID tackle TWO IMPORTANT THING TODAY!!! SO SUE ME!!!

At lunch I ran and got the VERY long list of school supplies Corey's teacher has requested and thank goodness since "meet the teacher night" is TOMORROW and that's when we have to bring all the supplies.

Next on the list was to meet hubby, kids, realtor and mother in law at the two houses we bid on. One bank has accepted our offer and the other realtor says we are looking good. I hadn't actually seen the 2nd house that Kevin bid on. Brave I know!! Now that I have, Im happy with our decision and have now started escrow on the house that has accepted our offer.

SO HERE IT IS A PICTURE OF OUR NEW HOUSE!! There are things that need to be done before we move in and many things I want to do in the future, BUT the best thing is this is our house for as long as we decided to grow our roots in Vegas so we've got plenty of time.

Maybe NEXT Tuesday I will actually get to some housework. A girl can DREAM!

Not ME Monday

I love how innocent kids are and must share this story.......

Before leaving to Cali for our trip to the beach we were driving home from work/daycare to get the car packed and on our way. Lately I've had the WORST heartburn and knowing Kev was stopping to pick up ice for the cooler I called him and asked him to pick me up from heartburn medicine. If you know Kev he doesn't just say OK you MUST explain why you need whatever you asked him to pick up. Frustrated I described my heartburn and "my chest is burning from the inside out"

After hanging up the phone and NOT realizing Corey was even paying attention to my conversation Corey asked me "mom your heart is burning?" I told him "yes I have heartburn and dad's going to get me some medicine" then the conversation went like this.....

Corey: Mom, sometimes when I get really mad my heart beats really really hard
Mom: What do you mean?
Corey: Mom, when you get mad does your heart beat really really hard?
Mom: sometimes
Corey: Mom, I think your heart is burning because you get really mad and dad and yell
Mom: I think you might be right
Corey: I think your heart will stop burning if you stop yelling so much
Mom: How do you think I should do that?
Corey: I think if dad doesn't play on the computer so much you will stop yelling and your heart will stop burning

DAMN I HAVE ONE SMART KID!!!!

Saturday Stirrings

Even though I finally fell asleep around 4am I didn't mind being woken up by my 6 year old wispering "Mom, I'm making you waffles is 1 ok because the box is empty and Ally and me want 2 each"

I will take a few hours sleep anyday if my babies are going to make me breakfast.

The root of all EVIL is........

INSOMNIA!!!!!!

It's 3:08am and I'M STILL AWAKE!!!! Thank god tomorrow (I mean today) is Saturday or i'd be SCREWED!!!

The night started as.....

This is all I could think about........

Finally I gave up and hit the computer.........

When you see me in the morning (which is NOW)

I NEED SLEEP!!!!!!!!!

We all scream for ice cream CAKE!!

I tried to channel Betty Rocker and make an ice cream cake for the birthday potluck at work. It was going to be an Italian theme so I searched the internet for something that was Italian and ice cream cake. Ekkk!!! I found a recipe but had to tweek it alittle to please the masses. So I started the 3 day process to get this cake made. Freaking out the whole way that it would be a disaster and would taste NASTY. Day one I made the and let it cool hours (would have just been overnight but it was during the work week). I cut the cake in two and put the coffee syrup mixture in the fridge to cool. Now the pictures begin ....

Here I am putting the coffee mixture on the cake to soak up. Ally was my photographer here you can tell how tall she is. Mama say CHEESE!! I work all day, I dont have time to make homemade ice cream.

Sorry you are missing the ice cream layer, Ally had a craving for bananas. Chocolate layer is down and now for the top cake layer and its drenching of the coffee mixture. Getting ready to wrap it for another 24 hour visit to the freezer.

Now the cake goes in the freezer to set for 24 hours................ It was a crazy day so no pictures of putting the coffee ice cream layer on BUT I did sneak down that night (the night before the potluck) to see if the cake was a disaster

Slowly take off the springform. Ohhhhhhhhh!! Yeah it worked and Corey thought it was cool that I made it.



The layers didn't come out perfect like I wanted but it did taste pretty darn GOOD. Since I made it for the potluck I have made it again for papa's birthday. Here is the recipe if anyone wants to try its from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Ice-Cream-Tiramisu-Cake/Detail.aspx

INGREDIENTS

1 cup white sugar
2/3 cup water
1 1/2 cups brewed espresso (I actually used vanilla nut coffee)
1/3 cup coffee flavored liqueur
1 (9 inch) sponge cake (I used Betty Crocker Vanilla Cake)
1/4 cup finely ground espresso beans
2 pints espresso ice cream (Instead of 2 layers of coffee ice cream I make this one chocolate)
2 pints coffee ice cream

DIRECTIONS
In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar and water. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat and stir in espresso and coffee liqueur. Let cool completely.
Split the sponge cake in half horizontally to make two layers. Place bottom layer in a serving dish. Brush with 3/4 cup coffee syrup. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons ground espresso evenly over surface of cake. Beat the espresso ice cream with the paddle attachment of an electric mixer until spreadable. Spread over bottom cake layer. Place the top cake layer over the ice cream. Brush with remaining coffee syrup. Place in freezer 30 minutes.
Beat the coffee ice cream until spreadable. Spread the ice cream over the frozen cake, and swirl to make pretty. Return cake to freezer until firm. As my own special touch I sprinkled the whole top of the cake with chocolate jimmies.

bon appetit!!!