Recipe Swap

WELCOME to those who have linked over from Lysa's blog.

For my 4 regular readers (Hi Ma!) you should check out all the yummy recipes people have posted on Lysa's site. Many of the recipes look delish!

Here is my contribution to the Recipe Exchange. Everyone in my house (except one un-named picky child - Hi, honey!) loves this Taco Soup, made in the crockpot. My second contribution is another family favorite that even the afore mentioned picky child loves. It's called Swiss Chicken and is quite tasty. I hope you enjoy. Please LMK if they are hits for your family!

Taco Soup

1 pound ground beef, browned and drained

28 ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained

15 ounce can corn, undrained

15 ounce can black beans, undrained

15 ounce can kidney beans, undrained

1 envelope Hidden Valley ranch dressing mix, dry

1 envelope taco seasoning, dry

1 small onion, chopped

tortilla chips

cheddar cheese, shredded

sour cream

Combine the first 8 ingredients in crockpot. Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours. Serve with chips, cheese and sour cream.

Note: for our family of 6, I double this recipe and usually only have a little bit left.

Swiss Chicken

4 chicken breasts

swiss cheese slices, enough to cover each chicken breast

1 can cream of chicken soup (I used reduced fat)

1/2 can milk

2 cups stuffing mix, dry (I use more)

1/2 cup margarine or butter, melted (I use less)

Preheat oven to 350*. Spray baking dish and place chicken inside. Top chicken pieces with swiss cheese. Combine soup and milk; pour over chicken. Sprinkle dry stuffing mix over chicken and drizzle with melted butter. Bake uncovered for 1 hour.

No pictures of these meals, sorry. That woulda been a good idea but I've not yet started photographing my dinners. LOL - maybe I'll start!

Misc January Happenings

We went to VB the beginning of the month and were able to be there for Hannah's 4th birthday party. Danielle did an incredible job, making Hannah's birthday top-notch with a Littlest PetShop theme. Here's the pretty birthday girl: Hannah Rose

Candy dropping from the piñata

Rachel with Juliette (who's SO big and growing way too fast for her far-away Aunt Jen!) More January fun: Emily and her buddy, Sarah got together a few times this month and had a great time together.

Goofy faces

We're very excited about an upcoming trip to see our friends, The Nams, in Phoenix, AZ. I found this in Em's room today - a dry erase board with a "countdown 'til the Nams". I thought it was sweet! It's been a while since we've seen them. Since August 24th @ 4am. But who's keeping track?! (miss you, Ashley!)

And I think I totally whiffed on posting December events. We had fun family gatherings, gingerbread houses with friends, etc.... I'll post that next. I think.

from the white sand to the white snow

We were invited tubing with our dear friends, the Schuchs, Cooks and Hendricks. The girls were thrilled to actually get a snow-day! (homeschooled kids still have school when it's too snowy/icy for public schools!). We drove to Ski Liberty and went tubing for 2 hours. The girls had a great time!

Don't even THINK about it, chickie!

with the Cook boys

Emily

Photo credit: Tim Cook

The girl van - Kim, Em, Rach, Alyssa, Michaela, Di

Last port of call - Nassau, Bahamas

Our last port was Nassau.

We docked next to a Disney cruiseline and it was much bigger than ours!

I thought this was a fun view our our ship.

We went through this very cool Pirate museum which was very appropriate b/c Rachel's big research paper is about Pirates. It had tons of neat info.

Here are the girls during the YMCA song at dinner. They are with our very fun tablemates, Kristin and Sarah from Michigan.

Sunburned

Emily and Brian got the most sun. Rachel and I, not as much but we're still a tiny bit pink.

G57 ~ B I N G O!!!

As a family, we played jackpot bingo last night. The big jackpot is divided among all the winners. OUR FAMILY was the ONLY winner – can you tell from this picture how much we won?? (sign language)

another day at sea

Pillow fight!

Don't feel sorry for Emily. Brian gets ganged up on a ton!!

This is a picture in the "lobby" area looking at all the different levels.

I can't post many pictures from yesterday at Grand Turk b/c they are all in a cheapo-underwater-camera that will get developed when we get home. But it was beautiful.

I have included a picture of the boat at the dock at Grand Turk just so you can see how BIG the boat really is. See all the tiny people on the dock? (our boat is on the left)

And TODAY we went to Half Moon Cay (pronounced 'key'). It was *exactly* how I pictured a Carribean Island! White sands, blue water, "beachy" trees... This is the first view after getting to the island. We had to take a tender from the ship to Half Moon b/c there's not a big pier. That's our boat out in the water. This island is owned by Carnival and other than the 35 residents (not kidding) it is used only by their guests. Pretty neat.