Layered Beef Casserole

I am on my fifth pregnancy and for the first time in all my life, all I think about is food! I am by no means a foodie, but I do enjoy a good meal. I just have never had my thoughts consumed by what I may consume until now. Accompanying this pregnancy have also come very strong cravings, so I have been busy in my kitchen throwing together things that sound good and calling it dinner. Each time my creation has been what I call at first bite, "heaven in my mouth."  Here is one of my recipes I came up with (at least I think I did since I have never had it or come across it before). I hope you enjoy it as much as my family and I did.

Layered Beef Casserole

Ingredients:
Ground beef
Onion
Salt
Pepper
Ground cumin
Roasted garlic and herb Grill Mates McCormick seasoning
Fire roasted diced green chiles (2 cans)
Cream of Mushroom soup (2 cans)
2 cups Sourcream
3 TBS. Milk
Grated sharp cheddar cheese
Tortilla chips
Avocado (optional)
Tomato (optional)
Shredded iceberg lettuce (optional)

Instructions:
In frying pan saute onions with ground beef as it browns. Season the beef, onion mixture, before it browns, with the following spices to your taste and preference; salt, pepper, ground cumin and the Grill Mates seasoning.
When the beef is brown and the onions are soft, turn stove down to simmer and add one can of the Cream of Mushroom soup. Then add one can of the fire roasted green chiles and mix well together.
In a baking dish layer in the following ingredients, repeating the layers. First layer the beef mixture, top with tortilla chips, top with cheese and repeat.
In a separate bowl mix one can of Cream of Mushroom soup, sour cream and milk, until the mixture is a thick sauce consistency. Then mix in one can of the fire roasted diced green chiles. Pour the sauce over the top and then top with cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minuets.
Serve and top with the optional ingredients: avocado, tomatoes and or shredded lettuce.

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Thankful Thanksgiving

A great deal has changed for me personally since the last time we all met here. I entered my previous post, left for vacation and then returned home with the knowledge that another precious baby is to born to our family. Exciting news indeed, just very unexpected and took me by complete surprise, leaving me in shock for days! I have now entered my second trimester and life around my Created Home seems to be resuming back to order.

I would like to share with you some of the things I have been up to. Let us begin with Thanksgiving. I was a little behind the rest of the world in getting ready to receive dinner guests into our home for Thanksgiving. I found this out when I ventured into the stores in search of festive fall table decorations, only to find, Christmas was all around me. Thankfully, my thrifty finds did not break the bank, since the only things in stores were the clearance items. Maybe not what I had originally envisioned for my table scape, but I do have to say all turned out beautiful and festive.

Bought these sunflowers on clearance for $3.49! 

 

I did not have enough napkin rings so I tied them up with sparkle ribbon.

The table runners I bought on clearance, but the two different colors worked for my tables. 

 

 

The hanging plate shelf was one of my thrifty garage sale finds!

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Beyond Peanut Butter

As a homeschooling mom I take whatever help I can get when it comes to easy lunch ideas. I love peanut butter, but you can only eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for so many days, before boredom sets in and the kids are saying "not peanut butter again!" So anything that is as easy as slapping peanut butter on bread is going to be a great alternative for me. I am not a "foodie" so I do not think in food. When it comes to being creative in the kitchen, it is a stretch for me. I do enjoy a good challenge, so I am setting out to think beyond peanut butter and see what fun, easy lunch ideas I can come up with. Not that we eat
PB and J every day, I am of course exaggerating, for those who gasped and thought, oh my, those poor kids!
On yesterday's menu: frozen California Pizza Kitchen Thin Crust White Pizza! Cooks in only 8 minuets and then YUM! I topped it with fresh tomatoes to make an easy meal even better! Since this type of pizza is not a favorite among three of my four girls, I also made bean and cheese burritos. A matter of minuets as well! Since the oven was on and I like to be as economical as I can, I decided to make banana chocolate chip muffins. I had some ripe bananas on hand that I planned for banana bread, but the time involved in bread from scratch, I just did not have. So instead I used the assistance of  a box mix, added some ripe bananas, extra milk chocolate chips and a splash of pure vanilla extract. Some muffins were then topped with chocolate frosting and sprinkles for an extra fun treat.
Part of creating home is creating fun memories! Sometimes memories touch our taste buds. To eliminate stress for me as mom, with so much on my "plate" between being teacher and meal provider, means easy things to eat. Easy does not have to lack in communicating "you are special and we are having fun through food."  So a day like yesterday accomplished that fun, excited feeling for my girls and it was all done in minuets!
I hope this has encouraged you, as it has me to keep being creative in our homes. Even when it comes to meals. Keeping the stress low and the fun experience high means creating a home you and your family want to be a part of.

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Unfinished Basement Turned Home

I write this with mixed emotions of sadness and excitement. For the past seven months we have had some of our very dear friends living with us. They now are "spreading their wings" and flying away to their own apartment. I am so excited for them to have their own place... a place where quiet days off exist and silent moments reside. Something a young married couple has the blessing of experiencing. As for our home with four little girls those times are few and far between. I am sad because we love them so very much and they truly are like and aunt and uncle to our girls. We have greatly enjoyed having them in our home and in our lives on a regular basis. Thankfully they are staying close by so seeing them often will still be possible.
I shared with you in a previous post (The Classy Classroom), how my classroom was in the basement and then needed to move due to friends moving in. I now would like to share with you how an unfinished basement can be transformed into a cozy and inviting living space. At the age I am and the stage in life I am, living in an unfinished basement just is not something I would do. However for a twenty something trying to save money, it could not be a more perfect place. What a great blessing for them this arrangement has been.
My sweet friend allowed me to set up her new home. The pictures below reveal what I came up with while using her things (minus the antique table that is my treasure waiting for some TLC). Living out The Created Home! Enjoy!

 

 

Cement walls means very challenging to hang anything. My solution, heavy duty Velcro. Nothing ever fell off the walls!

 My friend and running partner. Picture taken after a race... what fun we have living out life! Can not wait to witness and or help her decorate her new place. That is if she will have me! Smile, smile!

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Living Room Update

A friend of ours came over the other night for Bible Study and his comment to me, "a blind man could not live in your house." He was making reference to the fact that my living room has changed once again! The furniture is rearranged and curtains have been hung! Finally! The hold up has been the ridiculous cost involved in curtain rods for five windows! I just could not nor would not spend a fortune on a "stick" that attaches to the wall!
I found all the curtain rods I needed for the windows you see here, as well as the adjacent dinning room window for the wonderfuly cheap sum of $23.00 at Ross.  I hung every rod by myself, so that is a great sense of accomplishment for me. It also explains the lack of perfection too!
What a difference curtains make in a room! I love the cozy, warm feel fabric framing a window does for my senses! I just feel more relaxed in my living room simply by hanging curtains! The other great benefit is, the curtains help to break up the paint color that surrounds me in the vast majority of my home. I find my eye needs what I call "color breaks". I need different colors for my eye to fall upon as I scan a room. When unable to paint, curtains are a great color break for the senses!
A little information: The curtains I have had since my husband and I were first married nine years ago. They are in perfect condition and I still love them so I just had to use them once more in this home. The original throw pillows have since been laid to rest! I made the current ones myself. The matching pillows were made from napkins my mom gave me when I originally purchased the curtains.The lamp shade and other throw pillows match because they also were created by me. These pillows were my first attempt at sewing a zipper and I do have to say to my shock, it works! Not to be closely examined by my mom who is an amazing sewer! Oh and last but not least, the flower arrangement hanging on the antique door... yes all me! I know there is no limit to my talent! Okay I am cracking myself up. See if I can fumble my way through creating a home I enjoy you can too! After all it is your home, a place for you to be yourself!

Notice all my terrific yard sale treasures around the room?

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Dollar Frame Gets New Purpose

I found this frame at a yard sale for $1.00. What to do with a picture frame that is missing the glass? Well what I did with this particular one is, turn it into a flannel board or felt board by using burlap fabric. Flannel and felt are not the most attractive fabrics that is for sure, but they are pretty fabulous in conveying a story to a young child. I have many flannel board stories and learning tools for my classroom. I wanted a permanent fixture in my classroom that I did not hate looking at. My solution was burlap because I like the texture. Also with burlap versus flannel, at a later date I can re purpose this burlap covered frame for a message or display board by adding ribbon or some sort of clip hanging system to the fabric. 
All I did was cut the fabric, leaving enough to overlap to the back of the board. Then I  hot glued the fabric edges to the back edges of the picture frame back board. Simple as that for a really great and fun result!

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Hunting for Treasure

Here are the treasures I found on my last yard sale adventure... expedition is more like it really. One of the yard sales I went to was 40 minuets away from my house, one of those tricky addresses even for a GPS to find. We turned and U-turned, drove up and down streets and then at long last found our hidden location. A true treasure hunt!
The yard sale was put on at an adorable farm house by three friends joining forces. I got to meet two of the three ladies, only to find we are all from Southern California. We all grew up just towns apart from one another. They grew up in the same town unaware until meeting in Colorado! How crazy is that? What a great blessing it is to also find the treasure of people at these yard sales I am visiting.
The other yard sale I set out for, I spent over an hour there. Not shopping, but chatting with the sister of the yard sale hostess. She also is a mom who has four daughters my girls ages, but to top it off she has a three month old baby boy! She too is a homeschooling mom, so needless to say we did not lack for things to talk about!
 I am thankful for each treasure I found, as they will forever remind me to pray for the fabulous ladies I had the blessing to meet while treasure hunting. Friendship is a much greater joy and treasure than any material thing this world has to offer. I look forward to whom else I may meet on my next hunt!

The glass bottles they gave me for free... just to bless me! They did just that! These were the treasures from yard sale "chat a lot"!

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