Jalapeno Dinner

January 29 was National Corn Chip Day. We don't fill the stock pot to the top any more with a seven times batch of taco soup. This year we made a double batch, though. 

The recipe calls for a can of pinto beans with jalapenos. We never do that. This year, however, we had some cans of diced tomatoes with jalapenos. I put in one of those cans and three regular cans.

I asked Jr. Jr. to pick out a bag of Fritos from the pantry to go with the taco soup. He picked Spicy Jalapeno Fritos.

Jeremy stopped by the grocery store on his way home from work to pick up some sale items and picked up a loaf of jalapeno French bread while he was there.

Ha Ha Ha Ha. So we had a jalapeno dinner.

Opportunities to Serve

There is a song that says, "Because I have been given much I too must give." I've always loved that song. I feel like I have so many blessings in my life. Even when things are hard, I still can count my blessings ("Count Your Blessings," incidentally, is another song I like). I feel like lately we've been given the opportunity to serve others and we've been taking those opportunities.

 

Sometimes it's serving in our own home. On Blueberry Pancake Day, January 28, I not only made blueberry pancakes but I also made chocolate chip pancakes and plain pancakes since there are different likes among my family members.

 

I planned to make a normal sized batch of taco soup this year for National Corn Chip Day, January 29, instead of filling the stockpot to the top with 7 times the recipe. I couldn't find any regular sized cans of hominy, though (which is how it all got started all those years ago), so I got a can to make a double batch. Making a double batch turned out to be the right thing since some neighbors were going through a great trial and we were able to offer them dinner. We had enough soup to share and we had french bread in the freezer so I was able to make garlic bread to go with it. I was able to give them a casserole and a loaf of homemade bread another day. It was the least we could do along with prayers for them during their trial.

 

Lucky's Activity Days group was split because of the number of boys they had so he got some new leaders. He wanted to do something for them and the boys at their first activity together, so he made cookies to take.

 

Jet and I were able to help an injured neighbor collect eggs from her chickens because it was hard for her. She was nice and let us keep the eggs we collected. Jr. Jr. and Lucky helped me collect eggs another time. They all enjoyed it.

Nichole and Jr. had an orchestra recital and got there early enough to help set up then helped clean up afterward.

I was able to use what I've been learning about shelf cooking and freezer meals to make some on the road food for Nichole and Jr. that night. They had to leave orchestra rehearsal early at a neighboring high school in order for me to drive them over to the orchestra recital at their high school.

 

Sometimes it's simple acts of service that are easy for us but make a big difference for someone else. I have been given much so it is a blessing for me to give to others.

I Survived Shelftember!

I survived Shelftember! 

We ended up saving quite a bit of money on groceries for September thanks to this challenge. Yay! Here are a few other things I didn't talk about it before:

 

I mentioned this before but I found a recipe I like and it bears repeating because I'm going to make it a lot. Mexican rice from shelfcooking.com. It's another of those easy recipes that makes for a quick side dish. 

One day, I threw together homemade refried beans (because I'm not a fan of the taste of store bought refried beans so I always make my own from pinto beans with seasonings) on corn tortillas with corn and Mexican rice on the side (or wrapped up in the tortillas with the beans). Quick shelf cooking meal perfect for Shelftember. And it made for good leftovers.

 

We had taco soup in the freezer that needed to be eaten up. Shelftember is a great excuse for that.

 

And of course free food/snacks is always a great way to save money. Nichole got some of The Food Nanny's Kracklin' Kamut from one of her teachers. She was nice to share with us.

Since it's Fall now, I made apple crisp. So good. The only things I picked up at the store for this in September were apples. The rest of the ingredients I had on hand, including the ice cream on top.

Sometimes Spanish Rice and shredded pork or chicken on corn tortillas make a great quick lunch.

I finished off the month with a quick trip to the store where I spent only a few dollars on apples. The dinner I tried to make that night was failing tragically until I threw everything into a casserole dish and finished it up in the oven. While waiting for it, I had a tortilla with peanut butter. Sigh.

But that's okay. Not every meal turns out perfectly.

Duck Days

I knew the kids had another day off of school coming up so I put together some ideas of expeditions we could go on like when we went to Dripping Rock but before presenting any ideas I asked the kids if they had anything they wanted to do in particular. Two of them wanted to go to a duck pond and the others didn't have an opinion. Duck pond it was.

Unfortunately when we finally got out, it was closer to evening so we weren't able to stay too long. We got great lighting for Nichole and Jr. to take some pictures while Jr. Jr. and Lucky fed the ducks.

 

You can tell where Lucky is in the back of this picture because of all the ducks headed in his direction.

Jr.: I'm surrounded. 

Among all the mallards/park ducks there was a wood duck. That was fun to see.

It got later so with the promise of coming back the next day we headed home.

 

February 4 was Homemade Soup Day so I heated up leftover taco soup and said the kids could have whatever other leftovers they could find.

 

When Jeremy got home we had a date night. The kids watched a movie in our room while Jeremy and I watched the new Ghostbusters movie that we've been waiting years for. It was supposed to come to theaters in 2020 then everything shut down so it finally was released late last year and Jeremy and I watched it on DVD for date night.

I also made ghost shaped rice crispy treats (made with marshmallows of course). Tee Hee. 

 

The next day we headed back to Paul Ream Wilderness Park where the kids fed the ducks and Jet ran around. February 5 was National Play Outside Day.

 

This is how Jet feeds the ducks. Oats all over his hair and coat.

 

Earlier in the day, Nichole showed us a watercolor picture she did of the wood duck from the park. Fun. She's getting good use of new watercolors she got for Christmas.

 

Also earlier in the day, I celebrated Ice Cream for Breakfast Day. I did not feel guilty about it. When the kids saw me, they all asked and got permission for ice cream, too.

 

So those were our duck days. Then on February 6, I celebrated the anniversary of when Alan Shepard hit golf balls on the moon by playing a golf game on the internet.

By the way, February 6 is also Lame Duck Day but we didn't go back to the park to look for lame ducks.

Fill the Stockpot to the Top Day

It's been years but I was determined this year. Since we have more freezer space, I was determined to make the huge batch of taco soup for National Corn Chip Day, January 29. And I did it.

The funny thing is... originally when we started doing the huge batches of taco soup it was because the hominy came in huge cans. This year when I wanted to find the big cans of hominy, I had to go to three different stores before I finally found what I was looking for. But I was determined so I found it and I made that huge batch of taco soup. Yay.

Pictures and Not Pictures

Sometimes you feel like taking pictures of your celebrating, of the food you eat. Sometimes you don't. So often I have pictures of food because a lot of celebrating revolves around the menu plan. I didn't feel like taking a lot of pictures of food this last week so I didn't. So here you go- pictures and not pictures.

 

Thursday, January 28, was National Blueberry Pancake Day. We celebrated it "observed" and had blueberry pancakes the day before. Yumm. One response from Jr. Jr. was, "You should definitely make these again, Mom." Thanks, Jr. Jr., there are plenty of blueberries in the freezer. I think I shall. I made both blueberry and plain pancakes as some of the family members weren't as enthusiastic about the blueberries (I love berries myself).

I shouldn't be surprised that Jr. Jr. loved the pancakes. In years past, he's loved picking and eating blueberries at my parents' house.

 

Friday, January 29, was National Corn Chip Day. Since we have a bigger family now than way back when we first started making taco soup for this holiday, we don't celebrate "Fill the Stock Pot to the Top" holiday anymore. We have to make a smaller batch since we don't have enough freezer space for the extra. When talking about preparing for the holiday, Jeremy was mentioning other things we could fill the stock pot with instead of taco soup. I had to let him know the holiday was actually National Corn Chip Day not Fill the Stock Pot to the Top Day. Ohhhhhh. So this year I tried a new taco soup recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. It was good.

Since January 29 is also National Puzzle Day, Jr. put on music from video games that have puzzles, especially "Puzzle Plank Galaxy" music from Super Mario Galaxy 2.

 

Saturday, we picked up prizes for doing Provo Library's Winter Reading Program. The completion prize for the teens and adults was a cocoa mug that says, "book. cocoa. sweater. repeat." Love it. 

Now I have two Provo City Library mugs. Jeremy and I each got one almost 20 years ago (whoa that's a long time) as a thank you when we did a show there. One of our many shows we've done over the years. It was probably a juggling show. We only have one of those left so it's fun to have new mugs from the library.

Anyway... we also earned packets of hot cocoa as another prize so we were able to celebrate National Hot Chocolate Day on Sunday, January 31,trying out our new mugs and cocoa.

The younger boys had fun with their prizes as well. Jr. Jr. and Lucky both got marshmallows that they were able to put in their hot chocolate- correction, they got marshmallows their marshmallow/snowball(?) plushies were able to throw in their hot chocolate.

 

 

By the way, I have to mention the sweetness of Lucky. When we went out to the van to go to the library on Saturday, he grabbed the scraper and wiped snow off the windshield for us. What a sweetie and what nice service.

Annual Taco Soup Day

Here we go again.  The day that used to be known as Fill the Stock Pot to the Top Day has come upon us again.  However, now we only do a double batch of taco soup instead of a seven times batch.  We've gone back to the original name of the holiday, National Corn Chip Day.

January 29 is also National Puzzle Day.  We didn't start on our new Eric Dowdle puzzle.  Instead the kids and I played Go Fish with Jr. Jr.'s spelling words.

Fill the Stock Pot to the Top Day

January 29 was National Corn Chip Day.  We used to fill our huge stock pot to the top with taco soup to eat with corn chips on that day.  Then we'd have plenty to freeze and eat later.  Yumm.  We nicknamed the holiday "Fill the Stock Pot to the Top Day."
The last few years, however, we haven't been making enough to fill the stock pot all the way to the top. There's definitely not enough room in the freezer as we have a bigger family now and we keep more items in the freezer since we use more with more people.  A couple years ago we only made the amount of the regular recipe instead of 7 times that like we used to.
This year we did 4 times the recipe.  It didn't fill the stock pot completely so that we had to hold to the very end of the spoon to stir it.  It filled quite a bit of it, though. 

I was mentioning to Jeremy about how it was actually National Corn Chip Day so it didn't matter that we didn't fill the stock pot all the way to the top and he told me he didn't realize Fill the Stock Pot to the Top Day wasn't an actual holiday.  We always call it that.  Ha Ha Ha Ha.  He's cute.
He's also cute because he got silly while labeling the freezer bags of taco soup.  Here are some of the names:
El Taco Soupo, Fill My Stomach to the Top Day Soup, An Excuse to Eat Fritos Soup.

January 29 was also National Puzzle Day so we got out our puzzle box and all the kids all took some time to do puzzles.

Pleasant activity.
None of the kids complained about the soup, either.  Well, once they tasted it anyway.  Lucky was upset at first because he just wanted corn chips but he was happy to eat soup when he knew he could have sour cream in it.  One of our children suffered in silence and the other two expressed how tasty it was.  After most of us ate our fill, there was still plenty left over to freeze and some to put in the fridge for leftovers to be eaten up probably soon.  It's yummy.

Eat Taco Soup

January 29 is National Corn Chip Day.  It's also National Puzzle Day.
So make a big pot of taco soup,

grab a puzzle to play with your family, and look at this picture of wood ducks.

I'm going to continue to take care of a sick child... and eat taco soup.

It Just Seems Wrong

Well, January 29 is usually our Fill the Stock Pot to the Top Day.  However this year, our freezer is too full to fit bags and bags of taco soup in it.  Hooray for the blessing of having a full freezer.  Instead of our big pot, we made a normal sized batch of taco soup. 

It felt weird to only put in so many cans of beans and tomatoes (only 2 cans of tomatoes, for example, instead of 14).  And to have it in the normal pot instead of the big stock pot.  I kept having to ask Jeremy if it would all fit in such a small pot.  It did.
Oh well.  It was still yummy and we still have enough ingredients that I can make another pot in a few days.
And besides January 29 being National Corn Chip Day (which is why we make taco soup on this day), it is also National Puzzle Day. 

Lucky had his first introduction to puzzles and at the end of the day, I managed to find all the pieces to all the board puzzles except one.  Why is it the elephant is the one that always goes missing?

Fill the Stock Pot to the Top Day 2014

It's that time of year again.  Time to make our gigantic pot of taco soup to eat and freeze.  And January 29 is a great day to do it since it's National Corn Chip Day.  We do like our taco soup with corn chips.

Jeremy mentioned how we often get pictures of the soup from the top, but we don't often get pictures that show the size of the stock pot.  So I'm putting a side picture on the blog this year so you can see what we're actually filling up.  Really filling up.

Jr. Jr. was a big helper throwing away the empty cans every time Jeremy dumped the contents into the pot.

Then while he was waiting, Jr. Jr. played with a puzzle since January 29 is also Puzzle Day.

Our annual Fill the Stock Pot to the Top Day is another great tradition.  And some day our kids won't even be as picky about eating taco soup.  This year, Nichole was at least willing to try some.  Woohoo.  I love traditions.

Annual Fill the Stock Pot to the Top Day

Originally we were going to make our huge pot of taco soup on National Corn Chip Day (because we eat our taco soup with corn chips), Tuesday, but I didn't want to drive in the snow to the stores just to pick up a few missing ingredients.  So instead of celebrating National Corn Chip Day, we celebrated National Puzzle Day.

Yesterday and today we were able to pick up the last few ingredients, so today was the day.

Some people can peaches.  We make a huge batch of taco soup then divide it up and freeze it.  It lasts us about a year until the next January when we can celebrate National Corn Chip Day (or near it) again.

Today, January 31, is also Backwards Day.  Jr. wanted to show before and after pictures of his shirt.

The first picture represents how he looked when he went to school.  The second picture represents how he looked when he came home from school.  Yes, his shirt got turned around sometime during the school day.

The kids helped make brownies so they got to eat dessert first at dinnertime (I don't often make dessert with dinner, but it fit in with the holiday).

And for those of us who like taco soup, it was yummy.