Slow Cooker Nachos

So anyone who knows hubs and me pretty well know there are a few staples that much be present in our home at all times, or we believe we can't function.  Those include, but are not limited to,

1. corn chips
2. salsa

NOW I know its not super healthy, and I am okay with this, as it is super delicious.  We love burritos, and tacos (in most forms) when you use the McCormick taco mix packs (that are literally like 80 cents at the grocery store...) it takes you no time to make tacos.  Got a crazy night that you don't really feel like cook much?  Tacos.   Want a meal with a basic ingredient everyone will eat? Tacos.  Got a husband who loves Mexican food?  Tacos.  Tacos will always be the answer.

We have tried making them with ground turkey, chopped chicken, ground beef, skirt steak, you name it, we've probably tried it.

Recently we had a day that we knew we would be home all day and I could use my crock pot (my favorite lazy day tool) and I went, "HONEY! We're having tacos tonight!" and used my crock pot to make the food because then I could do all the cleaning and packing I needed to for that day and not worry about browning meat in a pan, or mixing ingredients right.  Also, THERES NO WAY TO GET THIS WRONG!  You can literally do whatever you want with additional ingredients and it will probably still taste good even if it looks absolutely disgusting (my husband told me our mixture looked like dog food, and guess what? he ate all of it so he must love dog food...)

So! Here is one of the easiest recipes you are ever going to make for one of those busy "I'm stuck home all day" days.

This recipe will feed about 3-4 people if everyone has no serving.  It also makes a really good party dip with just chips scooping individually.

Ingredients:

1lb ground meat (we used beef)

1 can of chopped tomatoes (you may also chop and toss in your own if you are anti canned goods...)

1 package of chopped peppers (that "sauteed vegetables" package in the veggie aisle, or you can chop your own)

1 packet of McCormicks taco seasoning.

   Use packet for water amount instructions, do not add additional water.

Whatever else you enjoy in your tacos!

Plus one or all of the following depending on your tastes.

Nacho chips

Tortilla Wraps

Taco Shells

(these can all be homemade or pre-packaged, on a lazy day I encourage packaged...)

Slow cooker times: Low heat will take about 6 hours.  Or you can cook it at high heat for 3 hours and switch to low heat for the last hour and then it takes 4 hours.  I should have done the 6 hours, because it was on warm for about an hour after it was done as it was finished cooking at like 430 and we don't generally eat at our house until 6...

Easiest instructions ever, ready?

Prep:

Chop the peppers

4 hour cooking

Set slow cooker to high and add peppers, tomatoes and meat.  I placed the tomatoes on and around the meat.

Wait an hour.  Stir, because it will start to brown in places, and this will allow all ingredients to mix together nicely.

Add the taco seasoning and water.  Stir.

Wait 2 more hours (you can occasionally stir during this, I did because I enjoy stirring food...)

After 3 hours, switch to low and give it another stir.  If you have anything else you'd like to add to the mixture, do it now.  I added about a quarter cup of cheese, just to get it cheesy, but hubs and I like tacos with cheese so...

pre-seasoning tomatoes and meat!

finished product! Yum!!

If you are ready to eat after 4 hours, SERVE THAT UP!!  if not, switch your crockpot to warm, and wait until you're ready to eat.  Give it a good stir before serving and eat it however you want.

With Chips: Put some chips in a bowl, put the mixture on top, add any other toppings you like

Burrito, lay it out flat, stick it in, add other stuff, fold it up.

Nachos!

THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS!!

For 6 hours, add the water and seasoning at hour 5, or simply add about 10 minutes before you plan to serve, so the seasoning and juices can blend together or it might not taste the same...

If you do feel like making your own chips, you can slice up some tortilla wraps, add some drizzles of oil, and all purpose seasoning, bake at 350 for about 10 minutes (or until your chips are kind of crunch, but not burnt...) and eat with those!

Happy Cooking!

taxikab.

Adulting Level: Home Owner

Good Morning Everyone!!! 

(because apparently theres people actually reading this now... I'm still shocked.  Leave some comments people!)

**If you just want the home buying tips and general care tips, you can just scroll down I won't be insulted :) **

So, #adulting is a thing currently, and how much "adulting" people are doing is measured by how many adult things you do in your life.  Hubs and I pretty much say that we're getting pretty good at this "#adulting" thing seeing as we 

     A. continue to be happily married (not an exaggeration, we're pretty freaking happy with our lives right now...)
     B. after many long months (almost a year) have FINALLY bought a house.  *cue golf clap*

We are currently in that stage of "ew these carpets are gross" and "when can we move in?" and are slowly taking over things that can be moved for the new carpets.  We purchased a home that we can grow into, and is slightly older, so we've come across some general home maintenance issues but we are slowly fixing them one step at a time.

When we bought the house we had a long list of things that needed to get done before we moved in

• replace oil tank to above ground
• new carpets
• paint the random crummy paint job spots
• clean the kitchen
• switch the cable/internet to new house
• fix the shed
• purchase lawn care items
• Fix the dryer

Currently the list now looks like this

• replace oil tank to above ground
• install new carpets
• paint the random crummy paint job spots
• clean the kitchen
• switch the cable/internet to new house
• fix the shed
• purchase lawn care items
• fix the dryer

We currently are just waiting on the carpet people to install the new carpets (next weekend, WHAT WHAT!) and my dad has offered to see if he can fix my shed door as currently it does not hang right and I'd like to not keep my lawn care items in my living room...

This whole home buying experience has been one heck of a journey and a MAJOR learning experience, AND I HAVEN'T EVEN MOVED IN YET.

STOP! ITS TIPS TIME!!

These are tips for before closing.

1. Talk to your friends and Family.  If you have friends or family who have recently purchased a house, TALK TO THEM.  I have a couple who hubs and me are friends with who I told them I would suggest a realtor and mortgage company, and they didn't take my advice.  Their pitfall? their mortgage rate is NO WHERE near ours, because they weren't aware of all the benefits of being a first time home buyer and having an amazing realtor and mortgage broker like we did.  They went to a random bank they saw an ad for and frankly have expressed they aren't really happy with their mortgage... I'm not surprised.  SO lesson to take from this, shop around before picking one person.  Ask friends, ask family, search the internet, DO YOUR RESEARCH.  This is a major expense you will have for the next 15-30 years.
2. Be honest with the mortgage broker.  Another individual I knew got all the way to the closing table, was about to sign the exceedingly large amount of documentation you are required to sign, and THEN everyone found out the individual had a student loan they failed to tell ANYONE about, thus causing them to lose their financing amount and in the end losing their beautiful dream home.
3. Read the sellers disclosure THOROUGHLY and ask questions.  Hubs and I bought a house that the seller listed they were unsure of the condition of the underground oil tank.  Well this became a huge problem because if the soil around the tank was contaminated, then you have to keep checking the soil to see how deep the contamination went, and if it hits the rock bed, you're looking at 40k or more in fines from the EPA.
4. Check your county's taxes and policies for homeowners.  I was so excited that I didn't have to buy trash cans, then my best friend explained to me that the trash cans are assigned to each home and how the trash collection works in the area as she grew up not far from the house we purchased.  (Friends are a fountain of knowledge!)  I also learned that the township I purchased my home in did not require a check of the oil tank before selling.  GUESS WHAT we did it anyway and learned that there were issues with the tank and it would be beneficial for us to replace it and had to negotiate with the sellers to figure out how to do it because it was still their house, not ours, so not our problem.
5. Do a pre-closing table walk through I was very lucky and had the best realtor I could ask for who was honestly looking out for us every step of the way (thats what I get for choosing someone I've know my whole life!).  We were able to walk through the house one last time before closing, with our realtor and the sellers to check for any changes to the house and be sure that no one trashed the place before closing that we would then have to deal with.

ONTO AFTER CLOSING TIPS!!

These are tips for after closing:

1. Trust no one! I can not stress enough the importance of changing your locks after you close on a house.  I got lucky and my father had an old door handle and key from when my brother lost his keys and he felt the need to change all the locks at our house.  I did however go out and buy a lock set because I was not comfortable with the bolt lock being the same still and my dad did not have one of those...
2. Replace the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors this, and replacing the locks was the best advice we got from our inspector.  He told us you never know how old the detectors are, even if they look new.  Yes, you are spending money to replace them, but you'll spend a heck of a lot more if your house burns down from faulty detectors.
3. Check the electric  and ask questions.  My husband and I have this one light switch in our kitchen that we had NO CLUE what it went to.  Finally figured it out yesterday, its the switch for an outside light over the driveway (not sure what possessed them to put it next to the oven but whatever...)
4. Make a spare set of keys and give them to trusted individuals.  I told Hubs I didn't want EVERYONE having a key to my house so we picked a small select few to have spares to our house incase we ever lock ourselves out.  I'm not a fan of keeping keys under the mat or in the garden so its beneficial someone else have keys that are close by.
5. Check your hot water we had no clue our oil was off when we moved in, and the installers had to turn it on for me... made me look very dumb.  Run the water in the house and check everything.
6. Paint.  You do not want to get brand new beautiful soft carpets, then go paint your bedroom.  If you are not in the rush to move in, paint the places that need touch ups and THEN get new carpet, then you don't have to lay down tarps and everything and it won't matter that you got paint on the rug.  You're tossing it out anyway.
7. Clean up the floors.   No use cleaning the floors before you paint if its a carpet you plan on replacing, but if you have tiles that seem slightly dirty and you plan on changing the color schemes, clean that floor, you never know what dirt may be hiding!

List always make me feel better, how about you guys?  Simple and to the point, right?

Also, for crafting Ideas (because I know this was all about home renovations and care today) check out The Right Brain Bunch.  Theres many new recipes and crafting with your kids videos posted.

Finally, if you are moving, and looking for a slow cooker recipe that you can use while you are painting, waiting for your carpets to be installed, etc, check out Slow Cooker Nachos (the next post).  People have told me I basically made chili, but its nacho stuff :)

Happy Crafting!

taxikab

Good morning, good morning....its coupon clipping time...

Good Morning readers!  Its Saturday, its before noon, it looks like the weather is going to be nice today, so here I sit typing to all of you, with my coffee in my new mug.   I went to the Poconos over the summer and they had out all there Halloween stuff in September, and I got this super cute Halloween mug.
This is the link for the Mug and Coffee set but I just bought the little blue mug.

ARENT THEY CUTE!

I'm big on Halloween and have been waiting and waiting to use this mug because it was September when I got it and was like, "way to early for spooky Halloween mug... must wait until after my birthday..." SO I DID.

I half miss getting up super early and getting things done... I've actually tried getting my groceries done this early because theres sometimes less people at my store.  This thought inspired todays post because, I've decided my next "life project" is going to be couponing.  I like cutting coupons, I just end up not using them or go, "well thats a waste of money!" when I do use some... BUT my tiny stock pile of items has dwindled on certain everyday items and I want to get more!  I don't know about you guys, but I HATE having to constantly go to the grocery store and buy things like toothpaste, shampoo, soap, stuff like that.  So I usually check the sales during my regular grocery trip and if its a good sale, I stock up!  I do the same thing with yogurt, but end up having to really clear my fridge for that one because I have to clear a whole shelf.

Anyway OFF TO PINTEREST I WENT and found a nice blog talking about coupons, and a reader commented saying there was a website you can BUY the coupon ads they put in your newspaper each week.  So you can spend like $1.00-$17.00 and get all these different ads and coupons, and they tell you what coupons are in there.

Here is the original website, its a craft blog too apparently, which is awesome.  Its Katie's Crochet Goodies and Crafts.

The coupon purchasing website i had to search "whole coupon inserts" and its literally "wholecouponinserts.com"

This should be a fun new venture, and hopefully will save me money.  Hubs and me are trying to eat healthier and since fruits and vegetables don't keep very long, I see myself shopping more often, or buying more frozen foods... which I'm not too excited about.  I'm also not very excited about having to clean out some closet space for the stuff... but! ADVENTURE!

Pumpkin and Apple picking today! Yay!  Seriously, I love fall.  Best time of the year.

til next time! Happy Crafting! Happy fall!

taxikab

p.s. working on another Right Brain Bunch article, so check here soon for a new update there too!

I'm not good at this posting thing...

...and because of that, this blog will never be crazy popular, but thats ok, because then I can post obnoxious crazy comments on here and no one will criticize!

I ALWAYS say "I'm going to update my blog today" and then everything goes nuts (or I get lazy...) and I don't.  So update!  here goes!

Although I've been saying for what like a year... "I'm going to get out of bed at 5am and exercise!" I still have yet to do that, and have decided that is never going to happen, so I'm done with it.  But i'm still exercising at the gym atleast 2x a week, and I'm lifting weights at work with my clients (its the only way I can get them to do it...) and I'm eating healthy, like for me, crazy healthy.  Due to our conflicting schedules, the fiance and I have een going out like once a week, rather than before when it was like once every other day...  I'm one pound away from 10 pounds and I'm barely trying now, I gave up on "GOTTA EAT ALL THIS AND NOT THIS!" and once I did, the pounds started coming off.  Still eating smoothies.  I stopped with the yogurt though.  It was too much.  But now I'm eating like greens and protein shakes with fruit in it and I keep cheetos in my car for those days where I REALLY want something fattening and crunchy and has tons of stuff I probably shouldn't eat in it...  BUT I have the snack bags, so once I'm done that snack bag, I'M DONE and no more Cheetos, until you know, the next day that I'm like DAMN I WANT SOME CHEETOS! lol.

Since eating healthier foods, my stomach is more sensitive to like, cheese-steaks...  this is a problem people,  I LOVE cheese steaks.  I grew up in Philly, if you can't in cheese steaks, you need to move to Jersey or like right outside the city, because it just sucks.  Everyone has them.  My fiance and I went with some friends to the bar and afterwards were like, LETS GET AUTHENTIC CHEESE STEAKS!!! Got them, paid an arm and a leg for them... weren't that great... I was like, "this is what we feed to people visiting Philly?  Is this a joke? I've had better ones at *insert multiple places here...*"  I was slightly ashamed of my city for putting this place on a pedestal... just saying.  But since eating like, lettuce, and spinach... (which I LOVE, just saying) I can't eat like, chicken wings, and beef with fake orange cheese on it... whats that about?

I've slowly started throwing spinach into my smoothies too.  I clean it real good, and just toss it in the blender with my strawberries.  Everyone I work with is like, "ew..." but you can't taste it, seriously.  Especially if you have the fruit flavors crazy overpowering it.

Current Favorite smoothie?  I'm back to the strawberry banana thing... BUT I'm mixing it up with vanilla protein powder, or chocolate protein powder.  If its just berries, I do vanilla, if its a banana, I do chocolate.  Can't have a vanilla banana, thats just weird, you need the chocolaty goodness.

This is how I prepare for all of last week and this week.

You need
  - 2 pounds of strawberries (now remember, this is 2 WEEKS and my berries were on sale at giant when I went shopping...)
  - 2 bananas
  - protein powder (chocolate is my preference)
  - Almond Milk (my mom out of no where bought it, and now we have no more dairy milk... its all almond, and I forced myself to like it...)

and a blender.

Section off the berries into little baggies, I did like a cup and a half of strawberries, and then cut my banana (I only had one...) into 2 of the bags.  I put everything in the freezer and made them the next day.  Thats it.  Stick those suckers (one bag a day people...) in the blender, add your almond milk, and protein powder, or heck just the milk... blend, and drink up!

 I bought a little single cup blender, because I didn't feel like cleaning this HUGE blender to make one smoothie, it was dumb, and I know consumer wise "why buy a blender when you have one?" time and energy wise for ME makes sense, AND! I have the same one at work... So if my strawberries aren't blending because they're TOO frozen, or I'm running late, I have the same blender at work, and the cups are interchangeable WHAT!?  So I've actually gotten up a couple times this week and made them at work before clocking in, because everything is still cold by the time I get there, BUT! its softer and blends quicker.  Yea.  Theres your once in a blue moon update.  ENJOY!!

Taxikab

PS!  Head over to Right Brain Bunch its a website my sister my mom and me put together (actually my sister put it together and we're pretty much just writing stuff to put on there...).  If you want to hear my lovely voice, and watch me knit, go to the Textiles section, but check out everything!  We're working hard!  That websites one reason I haven't updated in a while, I've been writing for that too! (and working ALOT! and planning my wedding...)