Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Slow-Cooker Taco Soup!

So I tried a new recipe a few weeks back.  I was searching AllRecipes.com  (awesome site by the way) for some slow-cooker recipes.  I absolutely LOVE my crock pot.  I love just throwing everything in in the morning then coming home to dinner being done already.  Not to mention it's particularly nice in the colder months of Fall & Winter.

However, other than chicken and roast, I haven't cooked a whole lot in it.  So during my browsing I came across this recipe for Slow Cooker Taco Soup.  I tweaked it a bit, for our taste (we aren't huge bean fans), and it turned out completely AWESOME.  Definitely will be fixing it again soon!

Here's MY take on the recipe!

You'll need:
  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, with liquid
  • 1 (16 ounce) can seasoned black beans, with liquid
  • 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
  • 2 cups water
  • 2 (14.5 ounce) cans peeled and diced tomatoes
  • 1 (4 ounce) can diced green chile peppers
  • 1 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning mix
Step 1- Brown your ground beef (you could also use ground turkey).  I did this the night before, stuck it in the fridge, then just dumped it in in the morning.

Step 2- Chop your onion.

Step 3- Add cooked beef, onion, canned corn, tomatoes, peppers, beans, and tomato sauce to your slow cooker.  DO NOT drain liquid off first, just dump it all in there!

Step 4- Add packet of taco seasoning and 2 cups of water and stir to mix.

Step 5- Cook on "low" for about 8 hours.

Serve with shredded cheese and sour cream.  I also crumbled up tortilla chips in it. :)

This isn't my photo- it came from the original website.  Looks yummy though, right? :)

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Christmas cards ordered-- check!

Photo Card
View the entire collection of cards.

Friday, November 25, 2011

Thanksgiving, Black Friday, & a house tour!

Well our Thanksgiving dinner at our house went off without a hitch! :)  We had a great time & all stuffed ourselves silly.  I didn't take hardly any pictures-- but I did snap a few of my nieces after dinner :)

Miryan loving on Earl :)

Ornery Miss Makalyn ;)

And Miryan.  She looks so innocent in this one lol



Then last night (Thanksgiving night) I headed out with my mother in law, sister in law, and my husband's aunt & cousin to go black friday shopping!  I didn't like how it all started at midnight-- in the past we've always gone at like 4 or 5am and then when we finished up, all ate breakfast at Golden Corral.  Unfortunately we didn't get to do breakfast this year- but I had fun anyway.  It's seriously worth going just to people watch... some are pretty insane lol.

I came for one deal in particular- a Samsung 40" LCD TV.  Hubby & I are getting it for each other for Christmas!  I got it for $428! :)
Merry Christmas to us!

Now looking forward to tomorrow-- going with my sis in law to get niece's Christmas pics done, then over to mom's for Thanksgiving dinner with my family!


I also managed to get a house tour video recorded!  Yay!


Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving.  What did you do to celebrate?

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Thankful...

Well tomorrow is Thanksgiving!


My husband's family is desending on our house at 1pm (his aunt much earlier due to the fact she's helping me cook!)  so I'm doubting I'll have time for this post tomorrow soooo here goes!

I have so many things to be thankful for-- here's just a few...

  •  My completely awesome, wonderful husband.  He works so hard for us and is truly my best friend.  Couldn't ask for more. <3
  • My family- both my parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc AND all of my inlaws!  They are all so supportive and I love them all!
  • My friends- many of which are inlcuded in the above two bullets ;)  I've been blessed with some wonderful true friends!
  • My pups, Duke & Earl.  Sometimes I'm ready to ship them off somewhere, but truly I love those little mutts & they have brought me so much joy & companionship.
  • Our new house, and the fact we were able to purchase our first home.
  • My job & my husbands job- may not be exactly what we want but it pays the bills!
  • Clogging- without it I'd get NO exercise, and it's just fun!
  • Music- need I say more?
  • Our troops- both past and present
  • Technology- I'm so thankful that I can talk to and even "see" my cousins living in Germany often even though they are miles away.  It's also nice to keep in touch with friends from high school & college I don't see often.

That's just from the top of my head.  But I'm definitely very BLESSED. :)



As for today, I'm going to be finishing up cleaning the house, and baking pumpkin pies & cheesy potatoes for tomorrow.  (Tomorrow I'm cooking sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and green beans!)  Just call me Betty Crocker ;)

Oh and I am also REALLY hoping to record a house tour video (finally)!



Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!!! <3

Thursday, November 17, 2011

September Video + random update

Yep- finally got it up!






I am VOWING to get a house tour video done by Thanksgiving.  I have the week off so hopefully it'll happen.  Granted- there's still not everything done I wanted.  I was hoping to have the guest room set up and all the boxes cleared out of the 3rd bedroom-- but alas, my hubby has yet to make any progress on the first one-- and I haven't gotten rid of the boxes just yet because there are still some things that need moved from our old house.  And we now have a time limit because my dad, aunt, and uncle found a person who would like to rent it now.  So yeah- gotta get a move on.  At any rate, I will do a video before Thanksgiving because I'm hoping to get Christmas decorations out soon after that!

I am getting over a cold-- I started getting sick Sunday morning.  It's now Thursday and all that remains is a bit of chest congestion/coughing and my voice is froggy.  I FEEL much better though-- Monday and Tuesday I felt pretty crummy.  And of course I've been working everyday this week (had it booked for a while so I felt bad canceling at the last minute)

Other than that not much has been going on with us... I'll try and update again soon though  (got a good recipe I wanna share!)

Monday, November 7, 2011

Update Time :)

Ok so quick update on the last few weeks...


{Trick or Treat!} 
Brew and my father in law installed gas logs in our (fake) fireplace!  Then we had a clogging show that evening, and then my nieces came over to Trick or Treat in our development.  We had a TON of trick or treaters-- if my mother in law had not brought candy too, we'd of been handing out poptarts or something LOL. 


{Pups}
So our new puppy Earl is doing great-  ornery as can be-  AND he's going to be a stubborn one to house train.  Did I mention I'm SO tired of cleaning up dog pee???  Anyway, for Halloween this year I made them little bandanas to wear on trick or treat day :)  (And the second & third pics there is just them being cute- begging my husband for food and laying in the sun. ;)





{Football Game}
This last weekend we went to the Mountaineer game.  We lost by a lousy field goal-- to an UNRANKED team of course :-P  Blah.  We still had fun anyway :)

{Niece or Nephew} 
Yeah we still don't know.  Baby was being uncooperative during her ultrasound.  So all we know now is that he or she is very stubborn ;)  Hopefully we'll find out in another 2-4 wks when she goes back!



Ok with that I have to go-- eating then going to the Symphony Chorus rehearsal.  So excited to get to sing in a choir again :)  Adios!