Taco Chili

This is not a usual post about the goings on of my family, but while I was eating dinner tonight, I thought, 'I need to post this recipe.'  We call it Taco Chili and it has a lot of reasons why I feel the need to share
Reason #1 -It's tasty.
Reason #2- It's pretty cheap to make
Reason #3- It's a hearty meal and very filling
Reason #4- I'm not an expert, but I'm fairly certain it's gluten free
Reason #5- It's EASY
Reason #6- My kids eat it.
Reason #7- There are many many ways to mix and match the ingredients

So first I will share the recipe as I learned it, but at the end I'm going to share the different variations I have found work really well.

TACO CHILI
Combine together in crockpot:
        - 1 can tomato sauce
        - 1 can diced tomatoes
        - 1 can corn (drained)
        - 2 cans chili beans
        - 1/2 lb. ground beef cooked
        - 1 envelope of taco seasoning
Cook it on low for 3-4 hours Garnish with sour cream and shredded cheese. Serve with tortilla chips

Variations:
Tomato Sauce and Diced Tomatoes - I have used all sorts of variations of these, depending what I have on hand. I've used only diced tomatoes because I didn't have any sauce, I've used tomato sauce WITH diced tomatoes. But seriously anything works. My favorite way to make it is to use 2 cans of diced tomatoes and 1 can of tomato sauce. We like tomatoes.

Corn- YOU HAVE TO DRAIN THE CORN!!!! I cannot stress this enough. It's horrible if you forget. That being said, if you are a fan of corn by all means double the amount! I have also used frozen corn and it works just as well.

Chili Beans- Make sure it's chili beans and not pinto beans. I have found that beans are the easiest and cheapest way to bulk it up. If you want extras for leftovers or for another meal later on, add more beans! You don't need to double the entire recipe to make a larger amount and it doesn't compromise on the flavor or end result.

Ground Beef- I have made this with ground turkey, chicken, venison, buffalo and elk. I didn't like the elk, but everything else was ok. Turkey and beef are the best. I've also used leftover meat from taco night and dumped it in. And on more than one occasion we've gone vegetarian with no meat at all. We like it both ways.

Taco Seasoning- When I'm making it for Kyle's deer hunting weekends, they like it spicy and I add more seasoning. If I'm making it for the kids I go lighter. If your like me and buy your taco seasoning in bulk from Costco and not in envelopes, I recommend about 1/4 cup unless spicy is your thing, then I'd say 1/3 cup. If McCormick Taco Seasoning is not gluten free, I have seen on pinterest ways to make your own seasoning blends.

I've also left mine in my crock pot for much longer than 4 hours because of time constraints. Really it doesn't matter, everything is already cooked through and the crock pot is to heat it up. Just keep it on low.

And really, don't forget the sour cream and chips! It makes all the difference. I felt obligated to share something that is literally the EASIEST meal I make, my kids eat it (yes, even Kizzy), and it's one of my favorites.

Kizzy's Rainbow Birthday

 Kizzy picked out all of her decorations and food. She looked at pictures on pinterest with me and planned out everything that she wanted. The exception being the rainbow balloons in the picture below. I will take credit for that. I did not see it on pinterest, I just thought it up and surprised her with it.

 The inside of the cake was different colored layers. I forgot to take a picture of the inside.

 Kizzy's Rainbow drinks.

 We surprised her on her birthday morning with a balloon cascade. She loved it.

 She took the opening of presents very seriously. No matter how excited she was for what ever was inside, she just plowed through until they were all open.

 And finally the surprise of her life. She had been begging for a scooter earlier in the summer and I kind of suggested that she wouldn't get one. So she was very very surprised to open this PRINCESS scooter. She was one happy girl. Happy Birthday to my big 5 year old!

Karther's First Birthday Celebration

                                                   Karter with his birthday balloon

                                                              Birthday Cake!

 Just some pictures of my cute baby opening his presents

 His favorite gift by far was this plastic dump truck. He spent the next 3 weeks AT LEAST getting under foot pushing this truck all over the house. He loved it!

 Cake!!!!

 And his best Cheese face!!  Happy Birthday my baby! Time does fly.

Karter's First Year

Karter at Birth 

Karter 3 Months

Karter 6 Months

Karter 9 Months

                                                                     Karter 12 Months

Kendal's Birthday Party

I am super tired, so mostly this post will be the pictures of Kendal's lego party.

 These balloons show the color scheme.

 The "lego" wall hanging.

 Kendal woke up to find ballons all over his bedroom floor.

 The birthday boy in the birthday chair

 The cake table

 Clear vase filled with legos and a lego #3

 The lego candy dish with Kendal's favorite candy- Hershey Kisses

 Kendal's lego name sign

 The lego block cake.

 The lego candy cake

 Both cakes

 Fork and spoon holder

 Lego juice boxes

 One of the only things Kendal asked for was "a big green present"

 Opening his presents.

 Blowing out his candles.

Preschool is over, now on to Kindergarten!

 

Back in May Kizzy graduated from Preschool. She is officially done, and will be a kindergartener this fall.  She is enrolled in Connections Academy, the online public school. We had some major concerns with our school district's schedule and bus system so we researched what our options would be and found Connections Academy. Kizzy will be a very young 5 when the school year starts, so if online school is not a good fit for her, the worst case scenario would be a repeat of her kindergarten year. Most of the children the same age as her within a week or two of her birthday are starting next year anyway, so repeating Kindergarten wouldn't be so bad for her. She is ready for the academic challenge though, and we are excited for all that CA has to offer.

 

 

Kizzy on her first day of Preschool

 

                                                        Kizzy on her last of Preschool

Home

People have requested pictures of our new home, so here they are!

 

 

Dining Area -note my fireplace in the corner

                             From this view you can see our sliding glass door and our patio beyond

 My kitchen as viewed from the dining area. Forgive the mess, I was taking pictures while baking cookies. I love this room! I have so many cupboards, all the cupboards have pullout drawers and organizers. I also love my low bar stool area, it's so nice for kids art projects and lunches.

                                                   View of the kitchen work area.

                                                  The entire kitchen/dining room

 This is the living room. It's too large to catch the whole room in one picture, so this is the front half.

 This is the second half. The wall backs up to the kitchen if you are wondering about the layout.

 View of the entry of the living room. That door you see is the coat closet at the top of the entry stairs.

                                            Basement guest room. (Also being used as an exercise room)

                                                         Downstairs guest bathroom

 1/2 of the family room, with the window seat. We have painters tape up because we are working on painting the trim and eventually the shelves. I plan to cover the window seat with new fabric. And hopefully soon we will have our couch down there and the tv hooked up!

 The other half of the family room. Above the fire place is the cut out for the TV. The room opens up into another area we've named the "library"

 Kids area! I love that it's down in the basement and I'm not tripping over it all the time!

                                                                    Our "library"

                                              Downstairs bedroom turned play room

               Downstairs bedroom turned office space. This room is still a work in progress. So far Kyle does his personal studying down here, It still has a ways to go before it can be used as a home office for either of us. And when the kids get older it will probably be the first to be turned into a bedroom.

                                              Back upstairs this is Kizzy's bedroom

 Directly across the hall is the kids bathroom. The bathtub needs to be replaced and is unusable, but the rest of the room is exactly what the kids need. Behind the door is a linen closet that is huge!

                                                     Karter's side of the boys bedroom.

                                                    Kendal's side of the boys room.

 This is a fraction of the walk in master closet. I couldn't get a good angle of the rest of the closet, but it is enormous! There's a window, built in ironing board and more than double the amount of organizers than you can see.

 Master bathroom. The tub is jetted and there is another sink I just didn't take a picture of it.

                                The master shower. Around the corner is the separate toilet area.

                                           The master bedroom. I love our stained glass window.

 This is currently our only hooked up tv, so this area of the master gets pretty messy from the kids. The door you see leads out to a patio that over looks the swing set. If you look in the ceiling you can see our skylight.  It's hard to see, but Kizzy is sitting in the lovesac watching something.

                                                The other half of the master bedroom.

                                The first patio off of the kitchen through the sliding glass doors.

         The second patio from the other kitchen door, the steps up lead to the area outside the master.

            The view of the swing set. I love that I can see it from the kitchen and the bedroom.

And there is the virtual tour of our home! Now come see it in person! We'll take visitors any time!