New Recipe: Number 15 ~ Zesty Italian Potatoes

I saw a picture of these Potatoes on Pinterest (no surprise) and decided I needed to try them. It just so happened that I had every thing on hand to make them and so I did.

Cast of Character:
-Red Potatoes
-Italian dressing packet
-Salt & Pepper (to taste)
-Extra Virgin Olive Oil
-Parmesan Cheese (Garnish)

Preheat oven to 400˚F. Cube the potatoes (leaving the skins on the potatoes). Toss with olive oil, salt, pepper and seasoning packet. Place on a baking sheet and pop in the oven for about 45 minutes or until potatoes are soft. Garnish with Parmesan and serve.

These turned out great and the family loved them. Super easy and I think pretty fool proof.

Donations: Day 7 ~ Girls Clothing Size 6-10

I have about two kitchen sized trash bags of clothing from purging Kiddo #3's closet.

We got rid of clothing between girls size 6-10 most of it being in the 6-8 size category.

If there is anyone in need, let me know. First dibs to the local blog readers and then it will be sent off to a local charity.

Let me know if you need anything. There is a little of everything in this pile: shirts, pants, shorts, skirts, dresses, sweats, swim suits, leotard, pjs...and much more!

Organizing: Day 8 ~ Purging clothing

The one thing that has been the most difficult about blending a large family is laundry. There is always laundry to be done and we just have far too much! Three preteen/teen girls and of course me equals way too many clothes.

This has to change.

This week we decided to do a room swap. We moved the two youngest girls upstairs to share a room and moved our son downstairs. The big problem with this is the room downstairs is much larger, which was why we had the girls sharing it.

Now, my preteen girls have to share a smaller room with a smaller closet. Though it makes sense to have them upstairs for many reasons, the closet alone made the decision seem rather...well to say is simply: stupid!

We needed a new approach to the closet. After spending time with one of my closest friends, who lives in a house with NO clutter (and I really do mean no clutter), I decided to use some of her suggestions to make this work for me.

She never has more than one week of clothes for her boys but for preteen girls, that's a bit extreme. I thought about it for a while and assessed the space and decided on two weeks of clothes and two weeks of uniforms for school. That essentially equals about one load of laundry for uniforms and just over one load of laundry for other clothes.

Not a small job

Living in Colorado Springs, we have experienced seeing around 400 families that have lost everything to the Waldo Canyon Fire. I think it's a great time to go through what we have, purge and donating the unneeded items to the Fire Victims.

I sat down with kiddo #3 (deciding to take it one kid at a time) and talked through how we were going to do this. She brought all her clothes to the living room and then exclaimed, "I'm a little embarrassed at how much I have." Wow! That's a great way to start purging. I think the fire victims having nothing is in the back of all of our minds.

Huge pile 

This is what we did:

1. Folded all the clothing into like items piles
2. Made a list of the items
• Tank Tops
• Short Sleeve Shirts
• Long Sleeve Shirts
• Shorts
• Capris
• Pants
• Sweats
• PJs
• Leggings
• Hoodies
• Underwear
• Socks
• Dresses
3. Came up with a reasonable number for each item without looking at the piles, letting her know that no item could exceed 14 (she came up with the number not me...and was really reasonable)
4. Sorted through all the clothing and only kept the number of items on our list
5. Filled one laundry basket with the keep items

Donation Pile

Viola! I have a kiddo with only one basket of clothes to keep. She has some laundry to do and will have to purge from the those clothes too, but so far so good. One girl down...two more to go.

One basket of keep items

Side by side keep and donate

Hopefully someday, I'll win the laundry wars by getting what we own to a reasonable amount.

Organizing: Day 7 ~ Pantry part 2

I actually have a really large completely useless kitchen. I have cabinets everywhere but not many of them are very functional. I have an entire wall of home-made cabinets. These may be the dumbest cabinets I have every seen. They are all different sizes but only slightly. The drawers are just stuck in a hole. Because of all of that, some things only fit in the cupboard if I put it in on the left side and twists till it's in half way and then twist it again to get it in the space. Then I have to put other things in front of it in the strange leftover space. I am constantly taking things out to get things out or in the cupboards.

Then there's the pantry. It is also completely dumb. Thanks 1983 for your dumb cupboards that make you think you have lots of space but really you just used an entire wall for a tiny little shelf! Welcome to the world of owning a home 30 years old. For some stupid reason, the 80's came up with really great ways to waste space.

Okay, all the ranting to say that I actually have an entire wall of small cabinets for a pantry. I have to reorganized this space on a regular basis. It seems every time I go to the grocery, there isn't room to put what I just purchased and yet I really don't have anything in the cupboards.

If you remember, a few months ago, cleaning the top cupboards of the pantry is what got this whole blog going. Now I've moved to the bottom (one side of the bottom). I think it looks really great now but then again, my kids haven't touched it yet. I may have to reorganize this space again. I didn't get rid of anything (except the trash the kiddos left behind) but I cleaned and reorganized and I feel good about it!

Yuck!

Feels so much better.

Green/Clean: Day 3 ~ Shaving Cream Cleaner

I hate to even show the pictures on this project...mostly because I'm showing the world my dirty tub. I will say that hubby is a mechanic, so my tub pretty much looks this dirty within days of cleaning it. With that said, I found a cleaner that is WAY cheap and super easy to use. When I told a friend this, she asked if it was the Magic Eraser (by Mr. Clean) and I laughed and said, "No, I said cheap." I know most people may think the Magic Eraser isn't that expensive, but when you have to scrub "Mechanic Slime" off of your tub every week, it's certainly not cheap anymore.

My new saving grace in the bathroom: Shaving Cream.

Okay, I just have to say, this came from a bit of a discussion in the bathroom during a deep clean one night. I was telling hubby it would be nice if there was some sort of bleach foam that would get into all the cracks and crevices that didn't cost an arm and a leg. I was using vinegar and baking soda and was making some headway, but certainly not the kind I needed to make. I'm really on a natural/cheap cleaning supply kick. I've discovered about 1,000 ways to clean with vinegar and/or baking soda and it has been AMAZING. Somehow, this miracle concoction was just not cutting through the slime and oil that hubby brings to my tub every day. I was using all the elbow grease I had and then hubby started to jump in and help and believe me when I say he has far more elbow grease than I and still wasn't making the dent I was wanting.

All of a sudden, in a stroke of genius (not sure if it was hubby or I) but we remembered using shaving cream as a kid on our desks at the end of the year and how much dirt it cleaned off of the desks (that we cleaned most everyday). It was just what we needed to get into all the corners and crevices in the tub.

We sprayed some cheap shaving cream that I think I get for a dollar a can for hubby and used way less elbow grease and produced a sparkly, clean tub!

Dirty Shower...yes, I see that grime.

This was after trying to clean it with vinegar & baking soda.

Shaving Cream

Hubby's Elbow Grease. 

Rinse.

AMAZINGLY CLEAN SHOWER!!!

It's certainly not perfect and living with a mechanic I have resigned myself to every having a perfectly white tub again, but it is so much better and made little birdies sing in my head the next morning when I showered...and that is PRICELESS.

Donations: Day 6 ~ American Girl Doll Bed

My donating heart has spread...a mother could never be so pleased.

My eldest daughter has been cleaning her room for the past year. I'm really not exaggerating here. She is a "stuff" kiddo and has a room full of stuff. She is constantly cleaning her room. Every day I walk by and can't imagine how she cleaned her room for hours the day before and needs to clean it again.

On one of her recently hour long cleaning sessions, she decided to let a large item go. She's a teen now, so somethings are just not as important to her anymore. She decided to donate her American Girl Doll bed. I set it out in the living room for a couple a days to see if she still felt that way as time passed. Then about two weeks after we put the bed in the living room, the girls had a friend spend the night and she brought her American Girl doll.

Within hours of the friend being over, my eldest daughter asked if she could give the bed to her friend. My heart swooned. I asked her if she was sure she was ready to give it away. She said yes with a huge smile and said she would rather someone use it and love it then it just sit in her room taking up space. That afternoon when the friend's mom came to get her, I made sure she was okay with this transaction being it isn't a small item. Mom said yes and the friend had a wonderful new bed for her doll.

Life is good. We experienced the joys of giving and letting go and freeing up space and purging and cleaning and I'm SO HAPPY for my daughter. She still has a lot of stuff and still always needs to clean...but one thing is gone. Every little step counts!

Organizing: Day 6 ~ Nail Polish Stash

Having three daughters has created quite a nail polish stash. Years ago, I put up a cute little shelf in their bathroom that had three shelves (one for each). They lined all their nail polished on it and wow was there quite a collection.

Recently I went to paint their nails and discovered a few things about the collection. Some where junky little kid nail polishes that rub off in a few hours and where really too young for my pre-teen and teen girls. Then there were ones that were so old they separated or were so crusty you couldn't get the lids off of them.

We went through each nail polish and cleaned out the old. I think we got rid of about 20 nail polishes. Then we did nails (just another thing to do when you have a kid laid up with a broken leg).

I'm hoping that after all of this, my girls will just throw away the ones that are no longer good as they come to them. We'll see...

New Recipe: Number 14 ~ Frozen Yogurt Drops

It was Spring Break and having one kiddo with a broken leg, I tried to find a few things to make our days a little fun. This was a simple thing I found on Pinterest. It's not exactly cooking but it was a new thing so here it is. I know...we did this on Spring Break. If you haven't noticed, I haven't really found the time to blog. I'm back (I think).

I used a yogurt drink but any flavored yogurt would work.

I put some yogurt drink in a zip baggie and snipped on corner (very small snip). Then I just pipped some yogurt on a baking pan lined with wax paper. I stuck it in our deep freezer for about 15 minutes.

Viola, a wonderful frozen snack and the kids thought it was fun. We discovered the smaller drops are better. You can just suck on them. The big ones are like taking a huge bite of ice cream and can be very cold and very overwhelming. We'll definitely be doing this again. It was just too easy!

Random Acts of Kindness: Day 3 ~ Compliments to the Server

With one kiddo in a full leg cast, Spring Break looked a little glum around here. Hubby and I decided to take the kiddos out to eat at BJ's Brewery to kick off what would be a low key Spring Break.

I had been but the family had not. Well...I must just say, it was an amazing time! I cannot begin to brag enough about our evening. The food was great, the timing was excellent, and the service was a 10 out of 10! I'm really not exaggerating. The first dozen jobs I had, were in full service restaurants. It is not brain surgery but I will say our town is really laking on great service.

It was so amazing that I asked our server to get her manager and come back with the manager. She looked really scared. When we first sat down I ordered a drink I dislike and sent it back to get something different. I think she thought I was going to raise hell about it.

When the manager came over, I seriously just gushed on our service. I told the manager I was really impressed and though I had brought my family to try their wonderful pizza, it was our server that would have us coming again and again. They just created regular customers and I could not think of one single thing our sever could have done differently to make it any better. I watched our server's face go from complete worry to absolutely beaming.

He thanked me for sharing the praise. I said I'm sure he was used to only talking to customers when things go wrong and people were unhappy. He asked that I never stop doing that because it really made their night and he planned on bragging about our server at the close of shift.

My kiddos and hubby were really excited to see how happy it made them. It made our night too. It's expensive to go out to eat and we've almost given up going out to eat because it's such as waste of money to get mediocre food and poor service. This night was amazing and I hope it was an encouragement to them.

We'll definitely be going back and we'll be asking to sit in Christina's section!

New Recipe: Number 13 ~ Corn Beef & Cabbage Egg Rolls

We celebrated St. Patty's day at my parents' house, therefore I had a corn beef brisket in my fridge and needed a fun recipe to make it. When I asked my hubby if I should throw it in the freezer or make it (so we would have corn beef twice in one week) the Irish in him leapt out and said, "Make it."

Corn Beef & Cabbage Rolls

Ingredients Roll:
-Corn Beef
-Cabbage
-Onions
-Egg Roll Wrappers
-Egg (beaten for egg wash, can substitute water).

If you've never purchased Egg Roll Wrappers before, you can find them in a couple different places in the store, but always in a cooler section. They will either be near the produce or the yogurt but is almost always be the tofu. Most Egg Roll Wrappers are made of tofu.

Cook Corn Beef:
Cook the corn beef in the crock pot on low for about 6 hours. Pull the corn beef from the crock pot and let is rest on a cutting board for about 15 minutes. Shred corn beef and put into a dish and refrigerate (for about an hour till the meat is cool).

Sautee Onions & Cabbage:
Sautee about one sliced white onion in a frying pan with a little butter (butter not oil...very important). After the onion becomes clear, add in sliced cabbage (try to make the onion and cabbage slices about the same width). Add some more butter (at this point I think I used a total of 4 tbsp). Saute onions and cabbage until cabbage shrinks down stirring to make sure all the cabbage gets cooked evenly. When the cabbage is all withered down, stop stirring regularly and allow the onions and cabbage to caramelize. Allow the onions and cabbage to remain in the same place in the pan for 5-10 minutes before moving things around and letting it sit for 5-10 minutes. Continue to do this until the cabbage and the onions brown and may even blacken in some areas (though you do not want it all black). Remove from heat and place in a dish and refrigerate for at least one hour (I try to put it in around the same time as the corn beef so they will both be ready to use at the same time.)

After both the cabbage and onion mixture and the corn beef have cooled, it's time to roll.

Rolling egg rolls may seem hard, but it's really quite easy. Lay down an egg roll like a diamond with points up and down and side to side.

Place Corn Beef in the bottom 1/3 of the Roll. 

Place Cabbage on top of beef.

Fold up bottom corner.

Roll part way.

Fold in one side to the center.

Fold other side to the center.

Egg wash the top and fold over the middle.

Viola...beautiful rolls.

 After the rolls are complete, I used my deep fryer set at 375˚ and fried until golden brown (or fry them in a frying pan turning them often to ensure every side gets crispy). They can also be baked in the oven at 350˚ for about 15 minutes with egg wash on the entire roll but they do not get very crispy this way.

Served over sauteed cabbage & onions...and believe it or not ~ soy sauce.

Reading: Book 4 ~ Water for Elephants

Water for Elephants

By Sara Gruen

I loved this book and would recommend it but with caution. This is not a book for young readers. There are some very adult scenes in this book (of sexual and explicit nature). 

The main character in this book is an elderly man (in his 90s) and goes back and forth from him in present in the nursing home in which he now resides and back to his youth when he unknowingly became part of a traveling circus.

This book definitely kept my interest and was not only easy to read but I could set it down to get things done around the house (unlike "Hunger Games"). This book was made into a movie that came out just about a year ago and I have yet to see the movie. In the notes from the author, it seems this book was semi based on several different recorded circus stories from this time period. Throughout the book there are several pictures of circuses from this time period. It was definitely a different world.

I enjoyed this and recommend it (to adult readers).

Knitting: Project 3 ~ Hemp Hat

I used The Rikke Hat (free pattern available here) as inspiration for this hat. I used another Ravelry user's notes (link here) to make the decrease for my hat, being I did not like the star like swirl the original creates. I wanted this hat to be for a guy and the star, swirl decrease look girlie to me.

This is a garter stitch hat (which in the flat is knit every row) but being it was knit in the round, it is actually knit one row, purl one row. It's a great slouchy hat and super comfy. I was looking for a hat to make from hemp yarn because of a request from a friend. Hemp yarn can be difficult with which to work being it works more like cotton and can be stiff. I was able to get a nice slouchy, soft hat from hemp with this pattern.

Front view

Back View

Side View

Close up.

Materials:
-US size 4 16" circular needle
-US size 8 16" circular needle
-US size 8 DPN
-Stitch Marker
-Darning needle
-2 Skeins Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy (153 yards each), held together. I used contrasting green yarn.

Directions:
-With larger needles (I used two sets of US 4 needles, to make sure the cast on is nice and loose) CO 85 sts using the German Twist Cast-on Method (holding both strands of yarn together for entire pattern) *There are some great youtube videos on the German Twist Cast-on Method. I linked the one I used at the bottom of this post.
-PM to indicate end/beginning of round

Brim
Using smaller needles
-Round 1: Knit
-Round 2: Purl
-Repeat 14 more times for a total of 15 garter stitch ridges

Body
-Change to larger needles
-Round 1: Knit
-Round 2: Purl
-Repeat until hat measures 6" from cast-on edge

Decrease (switch to DPNs as needed)
-Round 1: [k2tog, k3] repeat to the end of the round
-Round 2: P
-Round 3: K
-Round 4: P
-Round 5: K
-Round 6: P
-Round 7: [k2tog, k2] repeat to the end of the round
-Round 8: P
-Round 9: K
-Round 10: P
-Round 11: K
-Round 12: P
-Round 13: [k2tog, k1] repeat to the end of the round
-Round 14: P
-Round 15: K
-Round 16: P
-Round 17: [k2tog] repeat to the end of the round (16 sts remain)
-Round 18: P
-Round 19: K
-Round 20: P
-Round 21: [k2tog] repeat to the end of the round (8 sts remain)
-Cut Yarn and use darning needle to thread through the remaining live sts, pull and close the hole
-Weave ends into the hat

Enjoy!

German Cast-on Method

Random Acts of Kindness: Day 2 ~ Out and About

I've been seeing and hearing a lot of amazing ideas for doing Random Acts of Kindness (RAOK) or ways to Pay it Forward. I've been wanting to have my family participate in this for quite some time so while we were running errands, we just decided to start.

When we pulled into the Target parking lot, I saw a gentleman sitting with his dog and a sign by the parking lot entrance. I've seen him many times before today. I really only remember him because of his dog, which is a very sweet looking Pitty.

I decided to tell the kiddos we were going to start the RAOK today by getting a few things for that man and his dog. They loved the idea. It took us a bit longer than expected to get what we needed and by the time we came out of the parking lot, he was gone.

My kiddos were so sad. I wasn't going to let that stop us. As we pulled out, there was a gentleman with one of the signs for a "Buy your Gold" store. You know the sign guys, waving and dancing on the side of the road. Well, we just pulled back into the parking lot and I told my eldest to take a bottle of water to him and tell him, "This is a Random Act of Kindness. Have a nice day." and then just walk back to the car. She did it and had a blast!

Water for the Sign Guy

Well we still had a Dr. Pepper, some Goldfish crackers, some protein bars and dog treats. I just kept driving. I realized we were right next to the library so I gave the Goldfish crackers to my youngest. She went in (I walked with her) and decided to pick the security guard and told him the very same thing and handed him the crackers. She was giggling when we walked away. Her response was, "I love being random!"

Goldfish for the security guard at the public library.

Next we had a Dr. Pepper and I wanted my kiddo in the cast to just hand it to a kid walking. She didn't feel comfortable doing it, so my eldest jumped out of the car and ran up to a kid walking down the street and handed him the Dr. Pepper. I think the shock on his face was priceless. As we pulled away, my youngest said, "It's so nice to just randomly pick someone. Usually you only get little presents if you do something good or you get hurt and not just because." It made my heart melt to hear that.

Dr. Pepper for the kid walking

As we pulled on our street, we saw a family playing on the tennis courts at the apartments up the street from us. The kiddos decided it was my turn. I pulled into a parking spot and jumped out with the box of protein bars, went into the courts and announced the same thing and walked away. As I got into my car, I heard one of the kids yell, "Thanks so much!" When I got in my car, the kiddos said they were doing sound effects as I did the RAOK. I asked what that sounded like and they started narrating the entire event. I just had to laugh.

Protein bars for the kids at the tennis courts.

We had only the dog treats left. There is a path back by a creek in our neighborhood where many people walk their dogs. Of course, this would be the only day I didn't see a single soul. It was even a nice day out. As we pulled away from the path, we saw the neighbors that live behind us going into their house. I had my eldest jump out and give them the treats being we know they have a dog. Apparently, the dog was at the door when she ran up. They seemed really thankful. (I didn't get a picture of the dog treats...use your imagination.)

We didn't get to give to the guy at the side of the parking lot but that turned into 5 separate RAOK. In some ways that was really nice because it was far more random. We'll put together another bag for the next time we see that guy at Target. I still want to do something for him. My heart breaks when I think about how many months I've seen him at the same spot...so that will be another RAOK (only it's not too random since I'm targeting him).

All in all, it was super fun. It was a great way to kick off this idea. I saw many blogs of people that did it over one day for their birthday or spent one week. I think I want my family to do it throughout the year or for at least 30 times!

Random Acts of Kindness: Day 1 ~ World Water Day

This post was going to be on Saturday after tomorrow's post about our family doing Random Acts of Kindness (RAOK)...but today is World Water Day and I really want people to join the cause! All donations today are being matched, so a $5 donation turns into $10!

Our family made a donation to a wonderful cause featured on a friend's blog. My friend Mandy, is fundraising donations to hire well mechanics in India. It takes $550 to train a mechanic. One mechanic with care for 50 wells and that will bring water to 5,000 people. This is an amazing adventure and I pray they meet their goal.

Check out Mandy's blog: Houle House
She has already raised enough money to train 3 mechanics and is going for 4!
Give here.

Right now she is doing a raffle and the prizes are amazing. Some are local to Colorado Springs to receive the items and others can be nation wide. A small donation can make a world of difference. Please consider donating today. I am donating a hat I created to the raffle as another part of this RAOK.
The raffle is here and just message her the item on which you want to bid!

Today's Random Act of Kindness was also Paying it Forward. This blessing will keep on going. There are many ways as a family we want to do our RAOK and sometimes, like today, I didn't even leave my bedroom. A couple clicks today will help change tomorrow.

How to: Do a Dinner Co-op

60 Dinners on my Table!

I joined a dinner co-op created by a friend of mine. This is just the information on how we operate our co-op. There are many ways to do it but this seems to work for us.

• We have 2 groups 
• a large family group (servings are 6-8 people) 
• a small family group (servings are 4-6 people)
• There are 12 participants, 6 in each group
• Our group meets once a month for 3 months
• A small commitment works well so people are not overwhelmed if they discover it doesn't work for their family
• We meet one time before the rotations begin to fill out likes/dislikes/allergy information to be shared
• We have three rotations: Beef, Chicken & Vegetarian (or non-meat)
• We only make the main dish
• Each month, each participant is assigned one of the rotations 
• by the end of the 3 months they will have prepared one beef, one chicken and one non-meat dish
• Each participant, each month makes 5 meals & comes home with 5 different meal
• Participants can make 5 identical meals to share or not just as long as they follow their meal assignment (meat, chicken, non-meat)
• Our group decided to purchase Glad Ovenware large sized pans (just smaller than an 9x13)
• They are technically disposable but can be used over and over
• This saves the hassle of returning dishes to the correct person
• It also makes it easier than having to store or purchase 5 baking pans
• These are more reusable than the thin tin pans used for catering (which are truly disposable)
• Because we come home with 5 meals, most of the participants freeze their meals to bring
• Each month we have someone volunteer to host at their home for exchange
• We plan to meet for an hour if you'd like to hang out (a bit of a social time as well)
• You can just drop off your meals if you don't have time
• The people assigned to the Vegetarian meal that month, bring a dessert to share at the exchange
• Normally that would be 4 desserts to share with 12 women
• We only ended up with 2 at the first one and that was plenty
• The host provides coffee/tea 
• I volunteered to host the 1st month
• It was amazing to see my dinning table full of dinners!

Ladies chatting & visiting with coffee around the table.

At the last minute our group was short two people. We corrected this by having two of the participants be in both groups. I was one of them and the other is my friend that has a family of 10, half of them are adults! Therefore, I make 10 meals each month and come home with 10 meals! I love it!

I have a family of 6 and my hubby eats more than most because he works physically hard for a living 10-12 hours a day 6 days a week. Some of the "small family" meals need to be stretched but a salad, some pasta or potatoes seems to make them work for us.

This is my first time participating in this dinner co-op. I used to belong to one that we assembled meals together and all pitched the same amount of money. It took far more coordinating. This seems much easier and I hope it works for us over the next few months because I would love to do it again. It definitely saves me time and we thought it many not save us money, but cooking in bulk is a money saver!

Pros:

• I don't have to cook every evening
• I don't have to plan a meal
• Cooking in bulk does save money
• Making 10 meals in an assembly line was far easier than if I was making 10 different dishes for my family
• Right after this, we needed to save a lot of money quickly and having 10 meals in my freezer reduced the stress of the need to save

Cons:

• I did invest in the Glad Ovenware which was about $2.50 a piece
• Though it's not a lot of money, it wouldn't have been something I would have purchased
• I do prefer it this way because I don't have to worry about my dishes getting back to me
• One has already cracked to the point that it will need to be replaced
• I do not get to choose dinner
• I don't usually cook for an entire day
• Not everything is fitting for my family's tastes
• My family has been very gracious and though there have been a few they didn't love, they knew it was a huge blessing to me and finished everything on their plates
• I don't think this would work for a family that is terribly picky or has lots of allergies

New Recipe: Number 12 ~ Taco Bread Bake

I joined a co-op dinner group. It makes my life so much easier. I made this recipe for the group & for us. I found it at this Fabulessly Frugal blog when I was searching for good freezer meals. I'll share how we do our co-op tomorrow.


I, of course, tweaked the original recipe to my likes. We made ours a little different then the 10 meals I made for the co-op. This is the recipe to make just one dinner. I simply multiplied it by 10 to do for the co-op.

Taco Bread Bake

Ingredients for the Family:

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 white onion
• 1 tbsp Garlic Garlic (Tastefully Simple)
• Spices: onion powder, chili powder, cumin & Fiesta Mix (Tastefully Simple)
• 1 can of Rotel 
• Cheese (for this Irish broad, we can only agree on a nice Irish cheddar which may not make sense in a Mexican dish...but that's us!)
• Loaf of bread dough
• Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
• Egg (beaten for an egg wash)
• Cookie Sheet

Directions:

Brown ground beef with onions, Garlic Garlic & spice mixture (I use spice to taste). Mix can of Rotel into the meat. Roll out bread dough and spread meat mixture in the middle third.

Roll out dough...use flour to keep it from sticking.

Meat mixed with Rotel

Cover with cheese. Cut each side into 8-10 strips and then fold them over each other (best to just look at the picture). 

Sides sliced to be braided on top.

Braided on top,

Sprinkle with Crushed Red Pepper Flakes and Egg wash. 

Red pepper flakes & egg wash.

Bake 350˚ for 25-30 minutes (just long enough to cook the dough being the meat is cooked.

Beautifully baked!

To Freeze:

After assembling (omitting egg wash until right before cooking), wrap in plastic wrap and then tin foil and freeze. To prepare after freezing, allow it to thaw completely, apply egg wash and then cook as directed above at 350˚ for 25-30 minute.

When I made this for our co-op, I altered the ingredients a bit. Our co-op rules are no spice and we also fill out sheets for allergies, likes & dislikes.

Ingredients for the co-op (10 dinners):

• 5 cans of refried beans
• 9 lbs ground beef
• Taco Seasoning (used my big container from Sam's Club & followed directions for the amount of meat)
• 10 can of Mexican Tomatoes
• 2 large bags of Mexican Shredded Cheese from Sam's Club
• 10 Loaves of bread dough
• Glad Ovenware large container

Refried Beans

Ground Beef

Mexican tomatoes (forgot the cheese picture)

Wrapped ready for freezing.

I did not do the braid for this large amount. I assembled by spreading about 1/2 a can of bean on the bottom, then meat and tomatoes and then covered with cheese (sorry, no picture of the cheese). I folded the sides over, wrapped in plastic wrap, flipped it so the seam was on the bottom and then put them in Glad Ovenware large sized dishes. I froze these prior to bringing them to co-op. 

The instructions included: thaw completely, remove plastic wrap, brush with an egg wash or melted butter and bake at 350˚ for 25-30 minutes (or until golden brown).