One of Nboy’s latest Sonic the Hedgehog drawings :)
All posts by Melissa
Texas Hash Recipe-My Favorite!!
Oh, man! Texas Hash is one of my all time favorites! It is awesome, and a wonderful comfort food for me :) I really wish my husband loved it too, but, he doesn’t (gasp! but….more for me…hehe). He’s pretty picky, so I can only make this on nights that he has designated for himself to get fast food, or I can make it other nights too, but I’d have to make him something else to eat. (too much work! lol) The kids love Texas Hash though! So anyway, I got this Texas Hash recipe from my mom who used to make it now and then. Not sure where she got it from. Texas Hash is pretty simple and inexpensive to make, so it works great if you have a really tight budget.
Ok, so here you go!
Ingredients:
Texas Hash Recipe
- 2 large onions (I just use whatever size I have)
- 2 green peppers
- 3 tablespoons of shortening (or butter)
- 1lb hamburger
- 2 cups canned or fresh tomatoes(diced or stewed)
- 1/2 cup rice uncooked
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
In a large pan, cook onion and peppers until yellow. Add hamburger. Cook until it falls apart. Add tomatoes, rice and seasonings and stir. Transfer to a casserole dish. Cook 45 minutes in a covered casserole dish at 375 degrees.
I hope you try this wonderful Texas Hash recipe! I know you’ll love it! Be sure to comment back and let me know how it turned out for you :) Good night
Life goes on…even when you’re sick…
So I have to say I was doing pretty well the last couple weeks. Keeping up with homeschooling, getting the house cleaner and more organized each day, and this week I’ve actually been getting back to doing my routines and zone cleaning with the Flylady.
Then I started feeling sick Wednesday….and it escalated to a full on head cold. Stuffy nose, headache, runny nose, sneezing, slightly dizzy…..you get the picture. But I have 3 kids to take care of…..soooooo……life has to go on. We had taken a day off from school on Wednesday anyway because I had some pressing things that needed to get done that day, but now we’ve had 2 days off because today I just was not going to be able to function dragging out of bed at 7 or even 8am. I felt horrible…and still do, though since I took some childrens Sudafed(that’s all we had in the house for cold medicine) and Ibuprofen a couple times today, I can tell the difference, so it must be working.
So thankfully, since I was on a pretty short fuse today(or should I say yesterday, since it is after 1am), my husband took all 3 boys to Nboy’s 2nd flag football practice. It was nice to have some quiet time. I wish I could say that I relaxed, but I had to pick up the mess in the livingroom, and then work on getting some candles ready to ship, and by the time I was done with that, it was almost time for them to be home. Then I wish I could say that the kids all went to bed at a decent hour and I was able to relax for awhile before heading to bed, but that didn’t happen either. First of all, they all got into bed late since I had to run to the store to get some necessities after the football practice. Then, Ekid and Nboy were playing with a plastic sword on their bed, and Nboy got poked right in the eye. So it was bleeding a little, and it hurt pretty bad, so I had Nboy stay out on the couch while I put Baby and Ekid to sleep. Ekid went to sleep fairly quickly(this is now around 10:45pm) but Baby was not going to go down so easily. I tried working on my computer right by their door where he can see me, but eventually he starts saying “mommy, sit. Mommy sit” and then starts crying because he wants me to sit by his bed. So finally, after also getting him some more water, I sit next to his bed, but heaven forbid I bring my laptop with me! (he starts crying if I try to sit by his bed and work on my laptop at the same time) Eventually he did go to sleep right at about Midnight. Nboy had also come in to go to bed just before that. Then Nboy starts complaining about a stuffy nose! Great….here we go again!
So that was my day today. I guess you just have to wrestle your way through when you’re sick and everyone else is still depending on you. It kinda stinks, but I guess it will pass, and hopefully next week will be smooth sailing again :)
Easy Chili Recipe-Homemade Chili
Thought I’d share this wonderful, easy chili recipe with you!
I love homemade chili. It is so much better than chili in the can, and I’m sure it is better for you too since you have control over the ingredients. Serve it with cheese and sour cream and maybe even some green onions on top for a wonderfully delicious flavor!
I got this easy chili recipe from allrecipes.com, but I did make a couple small changes to it to add more flavor.
Easy Chili Recipe Homemade
Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 (14.5 ounce) can stewed tomatoes
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (15 ounce) can kidney beans
1 1/2 cups water
1 pinch chili powder (I think it tastes much better with about a tablespoon)
1 pinch garlic powder (I use about 1/2 teaspoon)
1 pinch of cummin seed(I added this one)
1 tiny pinch of ground cayenne red pepper(I also added this one)
salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
1. In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine the beef and onion and saute until meat is browned and onion is tender. Add the stewed tomatoes with juice, tomato sauce, beans and water.
2. Season with chili powder, garlic powder, cummin, salt/pepper, and red pepper.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover the chili and let simmer for 15 minutes. You can also let it simmer longer if you want to let the spices blend even more. I’ve simmered for up to an hour and the chili tastes great!
So that’s it! I hope you enjoy this wonderful, tasty, homemade easy chili recipe. Try it out and let me know what you think :)
Good night!
Baby’s 2 year birthday!
My baby turned 2 on Sunday. It’s hard to believe. Doesn’t it always seem like it was just yesterday that they were born? Why do we always remember things as if they had just happened? “It seems like just yesterday……”
We didn’t have a birthday party for him today, but I am up half the night tonight trying to get my house in shape, so we can have a few family members over tomorrow night for cake and icecream. Tomorrow I will be making his Thomas the Tank Engine cake from scratch. I always love making the boys their cakes for their birthdays. I always ask them what kind of cake they want and this year both Nboy and Ekid want Sonic the Hedgehog cakes, so that will be interesting!
But, last night Baby’s grandma and great grandma on my husbands side, stopped by and brought him a present. A little washable marker set with lots of little coloring pictures! Now that was the perfect gift for Baby because he LOVES markers and pens! He will not color with crayons. I don’t know what is wrong with crayons or why kids tend to think that markers are more sophisticated, but they all do at some point in their little lives…..Baby just started early. Problem is, he likes to draw on EVERYTHING. Himself, mostly, but other things will do too, like the wall occasionally, or his clothes, toys, floor, brothers….you name it lol.
So anyway, my littlest guy is growing up, just like the others! I just hope he never grows out of his willingness to give tons of kisses and hugs. He is such a little cuddle bug, and just so stinkin’ cute!
Back to Homeschool, Schedule and an Awesome Desk!!
I’m back!! I’m up late working on a website for my brother so I thought I might as well write a little and tell you all what’s been going on lately. :)
So we started back to homeschooling this week! Being a disorganized mom of 3, plus trying to run a home business…or several….and take care of the house, hubby and so on…. I have my work cut out for me trying to stay on a schedule this year. We are going on day 4 of homeschooling and so far I have been able to stick to the schooling schedule at least. Everything else has been in disarray , but hopefully things will smooth out in another week or so…hopefully(sigh).
So this is what our schedule looks like this week. Nboy is homeschooling 2nd grade this year. Ekid is doing preschool/kindergarten and Baby(who is having his 2nd birthday this Sunday on 9/11 ) will be working on keeping out of trouble, and potty training :) hehe
So back to the schedule!
7am I wake up, get dressed, do some Flylady routines, study my Bible, prayer, and then maybe work on a website or get a batch of candles started.
8am wake the boys up, get them breakfast.
8:30 start school time. Nboy starts with math, then reading/writing/spelling,
then exercise time around 10am-10:30, then at
10:30 we work on his website(he wanted me to teach him how to make a website!)
Ekid works in his workbooks doing whatever his little heart desires, so he skips around to different pages and does ones that catch his eye LOL.
Then usually around 9am I do one lesson out of the “Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons” So far I’m very impressed with the method used in the book! I have to be careful, though, because Ekid does become bored easily, so sometimes we’ve had to kind of hurry through the lesson and not go over things as many times as it says to. But he seems to be doing fine with it so far nonetheless.
So for now, we are getting done with school around 11am. I plan on adding some Science a couple times a week, and History too. We’ll probably do those in the afternoon, so that will fill in some down time when they are normally getting bored.
I’m excited for this year, but this week has been frustrating because I haven’t been able to do much else but schooling and trying to clean the house. I have candle orders that need to get done and shipped, and a couple websites that need to be worked on and finished! Hoping next week will go more smoothly.
2:32 am and I need to get up at 7! Oye!
P.S. The picture below is of our new-to-us wall desk thingy(?). It is absolutely wonderful!! We got it from the church my uncle is a pastor of. I love it and the kids do too! Love that it can fold up too :D