Crunch Wraps

I found this recipe on pinterest, and I am not sure of the link...
We all love tacos or anything that resembles tacos around here! Thankful the new additions love them as well! Thankful they eat everything I put in front of them! :)

Pretty simple ingredients and pretty easy assemble. I don't have measurements, and I've also used black beans... Will explain that way at the bottom so it makes sense! :)

Here's how I made these and they loved them!!!

I used the large size of the Mission brand tacos for this.

Place a taco on counter and add a layer of ground beef or turkey or black beans that have been seasoned with taco seasoning.
Then add some shredded cheddar cheese, or liquid cheese... Like the salsa queso (sp?) stuff. :)
Next you are going to add some crunched up tortilla chips, some sour cream and lettuce.
I didn't have any tomatoes or I would've added those. :)
Next you will fold a little of each side up over the goodies in the middle and go all the way around.
Heat up some coconut oil in the skillet and fry til golden brown on each side. I did folded side down first. Then flipped over.
They are sooooo good and so much healthier than the ones you buy at Taco Bell!! ;) it doesn't take too much work to put together either! ;)

Ingredients needed to make crunch wraps:

Big size flour tortillas
Seasoned beef, turkey or black beans
Cheese of your choice
Crunched tortilla chips
Chopped lettuce
Sour cream
Chopped tomatoes

It all depends on how many you want to make for how much meat, etc you will need. :)

Enjoy and let me know how you like them!!! :)

ps I think my pictures are out of order, again... Sorry... I make them in order and BAM, they are out of order.... :/

Sloppy Lentils

If you are following my other blog you know I'm all about monthly menus and saving money!
I tried something new. We had a little extra money so I asked my hubs if he cared if I tried something new. Buying extra for the end of the month and doing some freezer meals.
Before we brought home 2 extra kids I would spend right at or under $100 a week on groceries which included toiletries. Now we are spending a bit more because well, they are kids and eat more than a younger child would! ;)
I tried to plan out a few meals but it was kinda hard and wasn't fully recovered from jet lag yet. So it didn't fully work... ;)
So this month I actually got going and planned everything out and was ready! I spent right about $350 for all the food and toiletries we needed. Now, almost 2 weeks later we are still fine with food and I still have extra stuff! I did buy about $25 worth of food bc I was low on eggs, bread, tortillas, etc...
I still have meat and food in my freezer for meals and I'm still preparing food for the freezer! Woot!!!
I didn't have time to prepare everything in one day, there just isn't time for me to do that yet. But hoping next time I can get my kids involved and helping bc I know they would LOVE to do that!

Ok, onto the recipe... I made a big recipe of this, I bought 2 bags of lentils and cooked them. I wanted to make sure I could get atleast 3 meals out of this! I was able to get 2 sloppy lentil meals and one where I'll take the lentils and reheat and add over rice!

I spent maybe $6 on all ingredients and will get 3 meals out of it for a family of eight! How sa-weeet is that??? I will need to buy 2 packs of buns for the one that is in the freezer, and will make sweet potato fries again.

Here's how I made it, but just remember, this is using 2 bags of lentils! ;)

Sloppy Lentils

2 bags of dried lentils (cooked, will explain how I did it)
7 8oz cans tomato sauce
1 can tomato paste
10 cloves garlic minced
1 green pepper finely chopped
Worcestershire sauce
Pure maple syrup
Pink Himalayan sea salt (you can use regular sea salt or salt..)
Pepper

Cover 2 bags of rinsed lentils with water and bring to boil. Once it reaches boil, turn heat down and simmer 45 minutes.
Drain and sauté the garlic and pepper in a little bit of coconut oil. Then dump the sauce and paste in pot and stir really good. Add Worcestershire sauce, maple syrup, salt and pepper to taste... Add lentils and stir to combine. Simmer for 30-45 minutes.
Serve on bun, in a tortilla or over rice.
I made roasted veggies and sweet potato fries to go with this!

I wanted to add an onion to this but I miscalculated how many onions I would need... ;)

Super healthy and soooo easy to make!!! :)

Vegan CHEEZZEE Sauce

I have this REALLY awesome friend who is letting me borrow a REALLY COOL cookbook!  She is vegan and we've talked a bit...   She sent me a message asking if I would like to look at it and I was like uh yeah!  :)  I LOOOOVE this book!

Its called Vegan, on the Cheap by Robin Robertson

I'm not sold on soy, infact, we don't do any soy products, just b/c of everything with Skylar.  She wasn't able to eat or drink any milk products, so being the mom that I was, didn't do much research, and went ahead and did what my doc told me to do...  Give her soy...  Gave me all kinds of papers how it was safe and no cause of estrogen, etc...  Well...  After a year of reading and research, I switched to Rice milk and took soy out completely!  Now, to each his own and decisions...  This is my decision and if you are ok with soy, then that's fine.  I'm not judging, just my personal preference.  After doing some different reading on the topic, and talking to friends on both sides of the fence on this topic, this is what I decided.  :)  Seriously, not judging anyone!  :) 

So...  I wanted to make this the other night but didn't have any nutritional yeast, which I did have some and it was all gone!  :(  So the kids and I made a trip to Whole Foods and got some, along with some different rice and black quinoa!  :)

I'm not goona lie, the night I wanted to make it, I was PUMPED and ready to try it...  The next night, not so much...  I was thinking, this is going to be disgusting, I can't do it.  Even though all 4 of my kids were WOLFING it down like nobodies business!  Then my oldest said, hey mom, this cheese tastes different..  I said oh yeah?  Well, ok guys, it's isn't the "REAL" cheese you are used too..  This is a more healthy cheese, it's safe for people who can't have milk stuff to eat this.  But it is good right?  So then I took bite and swallowed  and thought, wow, this is good!  Of course I made sure I added the EXACT amount of salt and garlic, I don't normally measure my ingredients, but that, I made sure it was exact!  ;)

I don't think I could eat it by the spoonful, but mixed with some homemade salsa, it would be REALLY good with chips...  or over top rice and beans...  ;)

I don't know if I will win my hubs with this, but in moderation I bet he will be ok with it and eat it with other stuff, like in tacos, etc.... ;)

Super easy to make...

I'm still learning on what is vegan and what's not, I think I am getting it confused with gluten, etc... ;)  I'm also to tired to remember much right now!  Been a CRAZY 3 weeks!  ;)

But I made this cheese, and then used our new volcano rice, and had already mix up mashed pinto beans with olives, onions, cumin, and salt together, then had spinach and the cheezzee.
So it was hard taco shell, volcano rice (which I am so buying more!!!  :)))  The kids LOVED it and plus its fun to say, I had volcano rice! ;)), then the bean mixture, spinach and cheezzee!  SOOO good!  The kids all ate 3 tacos, well, except my little one...  ;)

Ok, enough blabbering, here's the recipe....

Cheezzee Sauce


2/3 cup nutritional yeast
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/4 teaspoons salt (I used my pink sea salt)
1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 cups plain unsweetened soy milk or water
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon yellow mustard


In medium saucepan, combine the yeast, cornstarch, salt, and garlic powder.  Turn heat to medium and whisk in milk or water. Cook, sitrring until the sauce thickens.
Remove from heat and add, oil, vinegar, lemon juice and mustard. It's now ready to use. If not using right away, refrigerate sauce in a container with tight-fitting lid, where it will keep for several days.

*I didn't measure my cornstarch, so it was much thicker after it cooled!  Looked more like pudding!  haha!!  :)
I didn't have fresh lemon juice so I used my stuff from frig...
Also used my homemade apple cider vinegar...
And I used water...  I thought about getting hemp milk or almond, but wasn't sure how that would taste with the cheezzee...  I prob will get almond milk to try it next time!

I do have left overs and plan on using it today for lunch!  With some veggies I think!  :)  Maybe mix in some salsa to go with some pretzels or chips?  ;)  Or on top of a rice cake!
The possibilities are endless!  :)

I got my nutritional yeast for $8.99 a pound, but I only got 2 bucks worth, which was WAY more than the container sold for the same price!  Um, let me do the math here folks!  ;)
Let me know if you try it and how you like it, or what you eat it with!  :)
I also recommend the volcano rice!  ;)

Seriously though, get over the fact that it isn't real cheese, it really is good!  And if you never had ever tasted cheese, you will never know!  But really, I do like it!  :)  Again, prob not by itself...  but def will be eating those leftovers!  :)

Mandy's Lazy Ratatouille

I was roasting some veggies for supper, and they are all what you would use for ratatouille. 

I wanted to add something to these roasted veggies, mainly for the kids.  They love veggies, but not a huge fan of eggplant.  I was trying to think of a way to make it yummy for them!

So, I created...  Mandy's Lazy Ratatouille!  :)

You roast the veggie at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, until soft.  Then just add some spaghetti sauce over the top and then some cheese.  Place back in oven til cheese is melted!  See, SUPER easy! :)

I got all but the eggplant at Farmer's Market.  I haven't seen eggplant quite yet there, I expect it to show up soon!  :)

This is what I cut up, I just sliced it up, not too thick or thin.  But it really depends on you, how thick or thin you want it!  :)

1 green zucchini
1 yellow squash/zucchini
1 medium sized eggplant
4-5 green onions
1 box mushrooms (I had gotten baby bellas at FM, it's about the same size as you would get in store)

Placed in a 9x13 pan and pour some garlic infused olive oil over the top, stirred it a bit, then place in oven at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes.

Again, it's up to you how "crunchy" you want your veggies for this!  And how thick or thin you cut them!

Once they were done, I stirred it again, and just poured some spaghetti sauce over the top and grated some cheese for the top.  Place back in oven for 5 minutes, or until cheese is melted.

Serve!

I roasted some green beans and poured some Italian dressing over the top.  That was our supper.  It was enough to feed me and the kids since hubs was away for the night.  If I were to make this again, I would probably add one more green zucchini...

Try it!  Let me know how you like it!
Or if you do anything different!  :)
ENJOY!!!!

Egg and Bacon Bagel Sandwiches

Yummy!!!  :)

I had a friend who was moving and so I was supposed to raid their freezer and they had these small skinny bagels...  I knew immediately what I was going to fix with them!  THIS!!  :)

I had leftover blueberry breakfast cookies and fixed these yummy breakfast sandwiches to go with it!  :)

I fried up some bacon and then fried up some eggs in the bacon grease...  yummy...

I just put the egg in the skillet and then took a fork to scramble it a bit, but not too much.  Fried it til it was done, and put it on the bagel that had ketchup on both side!  ;)

Pretty easy!

Toast bagel
Put ketchup on bagel
Fry bacon
Put bacon slices on bagel
Fry egg
Put egg on bagel on top of bacon
EAT!

I'm thinking you can use avocado instead of ketchup...  MMMmmm...

You could make these the night before and wrap in saran wrap and then pop in microwave to heat really fast if you are in a hurry in the morning!

Keep it wrapped in saran wrap and you can even eat it in the car! :)

Enjoy!!!

Black Bean Tortilla Pizza

I made this for lunch, and it was YUMMY!!!  I wanted to add some frozen corn to it and totally forgot, next time!  ;)

This was SUPER easy!!

I took a can of black beans, drained and rinsed them off, threw them in my small Pampered Chef batter bowl...  I then added one tomato, half a green pepper, 2 minced garlic cloves, and then sprinkled on some lemon juice, and a little bit of our favorite hot sauce.  Since it was mainly for the kids, I didn't add too much hot sauce.  ;)

I didn't measure the lemon juice either, but it was just a tiny bit...

I mixed it all up and put on a tortilla and threw in oven at 350 degrees for no more than 15 minutes!  It made the tortilla nice and crispy!

Like I said, I wanted to add corn, and I think jalapeno pepper and onions would be a good mix to add to it as well!

Oh, I shredded some Monterrey jack cheese on top too...  not a ton, just enough to give off a bit of flavor.

The kids wolfed it down and I must admit, it was pretty yummy!

So give it a try, super easy, could work for supper or lunch!  just add a few things to make it more filling for supper, or make sure you make enough!  I only made enough for one for each of my kids...  next time I'll make sure to make 2 for each!!!  :)  Easy and cheap, what more do you want?  ;)  Oh, and tasty!  :)

A Different Kind of Recipe

I haven't posted any recipes quite like this, other than laundry soap, but really want to share this...  It WORKS!!!  :)  Here's what I posted it my other blog, I just copied and pasted it!  ;)
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I've been searching ways to make things, or make things cheaper. NOTHING against people who coupon, but I just don't have time for that. I don't have time to search papers, and cut coupons and go to 5 different stores to get that deal. But if it works for you, AWESOME!! Just with 4 kids and 2 more coming, I need basically one stop shopping... So, I've been shopping at Aldis! LOVE that place! Been buying most everything from them... And so far, I've been spending an average of $80-100 a week in groceries, which is WAY better than the normal $150-200 I was before.

We got rid of our BJ's membership, we just didn't get much there. I don't need diapers anymore, and that was a MAJOR reason we would go there... Plus some bulk things, but I actually found that Aldis is cheaper and tastes WAY better than those items I used to get at BJ's, so really it's a win win situation!

Plus, I do a monthly menu, which can be a pain at times because I try soooo hard not to do the same thing over and over... But lunches can be a pain... I dislike buying "poison" meat and pb and j, well, let's face it, can't do that EVERYDAY, can you? I don't want my kids growing up hating it! :)

I also have to think of cold things for Curt to take for the days he is gone so he doesn't have to heat it up... And I know he's sick of pb and j and cold ham sandwiches! :)

So I drank the kool-aid, I've been making my own dishwasher soap for dishwasher, AND I've been making my own laundry soap! It's saved me SOOOOO much it's unbelievable! PLUS with shopping at Aldis for pretty much everything, it's awesome!!!

I saw a recipe to make your own deodorant... I was like, there is NO way I'm making my own deodorant... But the more I think about how much I spend on it, and what exactly is in there... I've been so careful about the food and things we eat, why shouldn't I watch what I put on my skin, I mean, let's face it, it does seep in, right? So really, it still gets in me... So yes... i thought, ok, I can make it SUPER cheap because I have all the ingredients, and if it doesn't work, it doesn't work, right?

It works!!! :) Not to gross anyone out, but people say girl perspire, me, no, I sweat. Let's face it, my dad cursed, no, he blessed me with so many things, and sweating like a pig in the SHADE is one of them! :) So I really was a little hesitate to use/try this, just because I buy the $11 stuff, and it's a SUPER small bottle!! No fair.. Anywho..

Yes, 3 simple ingredients, I made 2 bottles for uh lets say 3 bucks? So, yeah, I'd say its worth it!

I tested it by walking 7 miles in DC the other day and I didn't smell! ;) So that's a plus, right?

I've been using it for about a month now, maybe 3 weeks and have had no break outs and like I said, I don't stink at the end of the day, so it's a win win! :)

Here's how I made it! Let me know if you try it and how you like it! I want to make Curt a bottle of it and will add tree tea oil to his... He still has some store bought stuff, so will save those bottles and then fill em up! :)

I "think" I used about 1/3 cup coconut oil.. I really didn't measure.. I know, bad me! But really, what do you expect from me??? :)

I DID measure the cornstarch and baking soda, I used 1/4 cup... But then it was still really liquidy (is that a word?) and so I added a few more spoonfuls of baking soda and cornstarch (equal amounts of both) til i had a more solid consistency.. I then added about 6 drops of 100% pure essential lavender oil.

You can also use tree tea oil.

I then made sure my empty containers were clean and I then dumped in my homemade stuff. I set it in the frig to set up. ;)

It was SUPER hot in my bathroom a few days ago and it just melted a bit, so... In the summer if your bathroom or house is HOT, you are gonna wanna keep it in frig or someplace thats cool....

So there ya go... Super easy and CHEAP!!!! Really, it's easy and it WORKS! Plus, you know all the ingredients that you are putting in it, so it's safe! Another plus! :)

Let me know if you try it and how you like it... Come on, drink the kool aid with me, it really isn't so bad... Plus it didn't take that long to make! :)

Oh, one more plus, it doesn't stain your clothes!!! :D

Cabbage and Rice

 Saute the onion and garlic for about 5 minutes...

 Then add the shredded cabbage and sliced carrots....

 Cook til desired doneness...

 Yummy!  I made a sauce to pour over the top...

 Serve on top of rice...  :)

I tried for the whole month of December to do no meat and no milk products for any meals.  I wanted to see how I felt and how the kids were acting by not giving them the meat and milk products.  Ok, they got milk in the morning, but I stayed away completely!  I am pretty proud of myself too!

We don't normally eat a lot of meat anyways, so it wasn't a huge deal, but wanted to omit it completely! 

Yea, December what not the greatest month to do that "diet"!  haha!!  So I am trying to continue that for this month!  :)

This is really easy and very few ingredients, which makes it cheap, but tasty!  :)


Cabbage and Rice

Heat 2 TBSP coconut oil in skillet...  add chopped onions and garlic, stir and cook about 5 minutes.

Add 4 cups finely sliced cabbage and 1/2 cup chopped or sliced carrots.

Stir fry for about 5 minutes or until veggies are your desired doneness.

Add:
1/8 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
dash of pepper
2 t soy sauce
Stir thoroughly until well blended and pour over the cabbage. 
Serve immediately over rice.

Enjoy!  :)

Granola Apple Slices

I like to do snack lunches for my kids.  It's easy, healthy and fast.  :)  I am not sure about you, but I like quick, easy and healthy, and if you can do all three at the same time, SCORE!  :)

Most days I don't eat lunch, so if it's a snack lunch, I'll munch on things as I make it for the kids.  The kids also like to help make their lunches!

I had made some granola this morning, then just put some natural peanut butter on some apple slices, then dipped the apple in the granola!  The kids LOVED this!  A different way to eat an apple and granola!

As you can see, I just added some fruit and the rest of the apple plus some leftover chicken. 

Easy Peasy!  :)