The spice of life

Every Monday we eat either black bean taco salad or taco meat with refried beans, not much of a variety but it's a family favourite. That means I always had to keep taco seasoning on hand. Not anymore! Here's a filler free taco seasoning recipe that you can make in a big batch and store in an air tight container 

Taco Seasoning 
1 tbs chili powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp red pepper - use half if you don't like spicy
1/4 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

Mix well and add 2 tbs and 2/3c of water to meat

Being from the north, I ate a tong of chili in my lifetime. It's the perfect comfort food during a blizzard and it lasts forever in the fridge. I got sick of buying that packaged as well so I came up with my own concoction. It's pretty good if I do say so myself!  

Chili seasoning

 1 tsp basil

1 tbs onion powder

4 tsp chili powder

2 tsp cumin

1 tbs red pepper flakes

1 tbs garlic powder

2 tsp sugar

2 tbs flour

mix well and add to chili!

you can make a bunch ahead and store. Use 1/3 c per pot 

BTW this song was going on over and over in my head while I was writing this. 

Blast from the past

Who remembers dunkaroos? If you were alive in the 90's I'm sure you do. I crave them, almost on a daily basis. Especially pregnant, I wanted to take a bath in them. A friend actually found some for our road trip to Texas when I was pregnant with  Lil A. It was amazing.

I set out to buy some on amazon and they were all sold out :( But there were a gillion recipes on Google so I set out to try one. I have no idea who actually created it, if you do lemme know and I'll link them ;)

What you need for cookie goodness is
1 box funfetti cake mix - just the mix
1/2 tub cool whip - low fat, sugar free, chocolate, it really doesn't matter
1 c - 1 1/2 c plain vanilla yogurt - all I had was Greek and it really didn't taste that off
Animal crackers, cinnamon teddy grahams, really any cookie to  dip with

** Use sugar free yogurt and cool whip to make a low cal snack! Really, it's low cal.

Mix everything together in a big old bowl and chill for a few hours or overnight. The DIG IN!

Doesn't that look amazing?!

Beware of sneaky kids while making this

My kids were gone by the time this was ready, so I tested it out on my friends' kids and I think it was a hit. Go whip up a batch for that next pot luck/office party you have to go to. I guarantee you won't have any leftovers. 

She was totally digging it

Pizza night! It must be a Friday

Fridays equal pizza in a lot of households, mine included. Being from New York I love a good pizza and could eat it every night. Buy my wallet did not like it when we ate pizza at least once a week so I had to fix the situation.

After many failed store bought crusts and silly recipes from the interwebs I came up with a fantastic thin crust recipe.
I guarantee this will turn out right every time if you follow the directions, no guess work involved

OM NOM NOM

For super delicious crust you need 

1/4oz packet active dry yeast

1/4 tsp sugar

3/4c water

1 3/4 c flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp basil

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp onion salt/powder

1 tsp garlic salt/powder

*or season to your taste 

Steps 

Preheat oven with pizza stone to 500

Microwave water for 2 minutes 

Dissolve sugar and yeast in water and let rest for 7 minutes or until it look like this 

In a mixer with a dough hook, or bowl combine flour and seasonings

Combine yeast with flour mixture until it sets in a semi formed lump/ball

Roll dough out on a well floured surface until as thin/thick as you like

Then cut into squares/shapes if you so desire. We all like out pizza a little differently so we cut it

Bake the crust for 4 minutes, quickly take it out and add toppings 

* if desired heat up butter with garlic and spread on the crust for crunchy amazingness 

Throw it back in the oven for 6-8 minutes and BAM perfect pizza. Promise 

In case you missed it the first time

For dessert we had graham crackers topped with peanut butter and mini chocolate chips!  I was in love 

OMG

And FYI when working with flour you should really wear an apron. trust me 

Why yes, yes I am a Spartan AROO 

 

Kick butt chicken

Need some pep in your dinner? Getting sick of marinating chicken the same old way because your kids have sensitive taste buds?

Forget the kids (not really) and make you some kick butt chicken with two simple ingredients, aside from the chicken. 

Ready? 

You need 

1/2 c Italian dressing

1/3 - 1/2 c of red hot sauce 

Mix them together and marinate your amazing chicken, while the kids boring chicken is marinating in plain Italian dressing.

Cook like you normally would in the oven or on the grill and watch as a party happens in your mouth

Eggs? Yes please!

Eggs are a standard breakfast food for the T clan. We go through a dozen in about 3 - 4 days, and that's just breakfast foods. 

I was asked by a friend to make eggs in mini muffin pans that her kids could eat for breakfast. Well, challenge accepted. And these are my final results. An egg sandwich with a mini bagel, half a muffin bar, and some grapes. The sandwich was inhaled about 5 seconds after I added dip dip (ketchup) to the plate. That's a win, especially because there are some yummy veggies cooked in the eggs. Wanna know how I did it? Of course you do. 

I didn't get many pictures bc my kids were having a play date when I created this. Actually, I only got pictures of the finished products. Don't hate me. Please?

You need
- mini muffin pan - a regular one will work
- 4 eggs
- splash of milk - you need it so substitute it if you can't use dairy
- cheese! as much shredded as you like. I used 1/2 c
- 1/4 - 1/4 c chopped veggies. I did onions, orange peppers, and a smidge of left over zucchini
- seasonings to taste. I used 1tsp of garlic, salt, pepper
- Bacon crumbles (optional)
- 12 mini bagels

Preheat oven to 350
Mix everything together in a big bowl. Waft the smell ( I love that word) and add more seasonings as needed.
Spray muffin pan with non stick spray and fill 3/4 of the way with egg mixture.
*if using a regular muffin pan fill about 1/4 of the way
Bake for about 15-20 mins or until set

While cooking lightly toast bagels and prepare foil if freezing (which worked out awesomely)

Pop eggs out of the muffin pan and assemble sandwiches! It's that simple.

Now, either my mini bagels are huge, or my mini muffin pan is super tiny, but the eggs didn't fit how I wanted so I kinda squished them until they fit the bagel.

Pancakes and breakfast happiness

It's no surprise that I like to have my freezer stash stocked for breakfast foods, snacks and lunches. This is because I require a stupid amount of coffee to function before I can even think about turning the stove on. I also hate feeding them cereal because they are always starving 2 seconds later and it's not exactly a balanced meal.

So without further ado, here is my not so secret secret pancake recipe. These babies are super fluffy and reheat like a charm

Makes 12-15 medium size pancakes

1 cup flour
2 TBS baking powder
2 TBS sugar
1 TSP salt
2 TBS oil - I use vegetable or canola
1 C milk
1 egg beaten
1 - 2 TSP vanilla
* if you want to go crazy add a dash of nutmeg, you won't regret it

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix the wet in a separate bowl.
Add the wet stuff to the dry, mix well (not too much)
Then let sit while your griddle/pan heats up.
Why let it sit? IDK some magic in that makes the pancakes all fluffy and delicious

I go the extra 2.6 seconds and cut mine into shapes right after the come off the pan. Why? because it's super cute and the kids go bananas for them. I save the scraps and just tear them up when the shapes start to get boring.

I went a little nuts and cut out some fruit leather and plopped them on the pancakes. Maybe he will stop calling trucks "car-cars" and cars "vroom-vrooms" Took me about 3 minutes, mostly bc I had kids climbing up my legs to play with the cutters.

He really really really super liked the shapes and the fruit leather. I'd be shocked if he doesn't want this again tomorrow.