Fast Dinner: Tostadas (or Chalupas if you're Hispanic like me)

Ingredients:

• however many corn tortillas you want
• 1 can of refried beans
• shredded cheddar cheese
• lettuce
• jalapenos (optional unless again, you're Hispanic like me and my pseudo-Hispanic husband)
• taco seasoned ground beef or turkey or chopped up chicken breasts cooked to your liking (we usually just go meatless but they can be great with meat!)
• sour cream

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place corn tortillas on cookie sheets spread apart so they aren't touching. Cook in oven for about 15-20 minutes (just until they look almost a dark brown or burned). This part is not an exact science, you just kind of keep an eye on them. You want them crispy, not chewy. So if you're first run is chewy, leave them in for a few more minutes next time. Heat refried beans in pot for a few minutes (sometimes we add a little water to the beans to make them more spreadable). Next layer a thin layer of refried beans on each shell. Sprinkle some cheese on top, lettuce, meat (if desired), jalapeños, and garnish with sour cream.

This is a great meal to get in some protein and it's fast! I ate these all the time growing up when my mom was in a rush and needed to get dinner on the table. Adding meat makes them more hearty but they're great without it! I will say that if we go meat-less I eat about 5-6 of them (I don't know if that's normal, but hey they're good!)

Delicious and Easy Cajun Oven Fries

These are absolutely one of my favorite sides. Sorry the picture has some corn in the picture, but that was another fabulous side I'll post later! We have these with ribs, hamburgers, steaks, you name it! Because I've found this fast recipe we no longer buy frozen fries. So good and they pack a little heat so try them! If you're not a fan of the heat, just skip the cayenne pepper. Here's what you'll need:

Ingredients

• 2-4 medium thin-skinned Russet potatoes
• 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil (I just pour it from an oil thingy and guess)
• 2 tablespoons cayenne pepper sauce (I just sprinkle cayenne pepper powder)
• 1 teaspoon paprika (again I just sprinkle)
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• salt and pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Cut potatoes into wedges. The easiest way to do this is to cut a potato in half length-wise and then cut each half into thirds. Place potato wedges on a large cookie sheet (with edges that lip up to keep liquid from draining into oven). Sprinkle all ingredients over the potatoes and then toss the potatoes to cover all sides. Cook in the oven turning them once after ten minutes.

These are my favorite! I hope you enjoy!

Quick Catch Up Post

It's raining today in the Austin area and I'm THRILLED! There's nothing like dark clouds and thunder rolling in to a hot, steamy Texas day. I'm a big rain fan and I love how it just calms everything with its presence.

Life in our house has been very busy to say the least. Tony is busy at work designing roads and managing a pretty big project until all hours of the night. My morning sickness knew exactly when to say goodbye to our house, because Tony is not around so much right now to run the house and take care of me. Yay God for timing!

School is just around the corner and I've been busy unpacking, organizing, and editing my room. I'm staying away from the heavy things but still managing to get stuff done. This year will be a big change to the three previous ones and I know God will provide me with the energy, attitude, and endurance to face it like a champ.

Einstein is recovering nicely from a surgery he had last week. He went in for a routine teeth cleaning and we had the doctor look at a spot on his cheek that wasn't healing like it should. The doctor thought it could have been a number of not so good things, cancer being one of them, so he removed it and this left Einstein out of commission for a few days. Poor little guy was a trooper though! He's now back to his lively, neighborhood running, dog chasing self! We had quite a scare there for a second because he means the world to us!

We go for our 20 week check up on Friday to see Baby E. We always just pray for a healthy, happy baby but we may find out what we're having that day. We shall see!!

In the next few weeks I'm hoping to get back to trying out new recipes and posting them on here so stay tuned!

Yummy Chicken Spaghetti!

My first food post in a loooong time!

This recipe was given to me by our good friends Jon and Amy. They had us over for dinner one night when we first moved to the Austin area and wow'd me with this dish. Tony loves it and I've shared it with a few people at work who have worked it into their monthly rotation. It is really easy and can be tweaked to your liking. Here's what you'll need.

Ingredients

• 3-4 chicken breasts, cooked on grill or your way of preference (you can use frozen ones you buy chopped up already or a can of chicken breasts). They need to be chopped into small pieces.
• 1 can Rotel (we go for the extra hot stuff but up to you)
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup
• 1/2 block of the small Velveeta, diced
• 1 package of spaghetti noodles

Directions

Cook noodles and drain. Combine cooked chicken and noodles with Rotel, both soups, and diced cheese. Bake at 350 degrees until bubbly.

We usually serve this with a salad, corn, and yummy garlic bread. I've found this is a great make ahead meal to take in a tin casserole dish to someone who just had a baby or surgery. If you make it, let me know how it goes! =)

An Entirely Too Long Break

I'm alive!

After many, many, many weeks of absence I'm here. Our world has drastically changed since my last post. We found out in early May that we're expecting a little one at the end of the year (if Tony has his way) or the first few days of January. We were beyond surprised, beyond excited, and I have been beyond sick. I'm hoping I'm nearing the end of my sick time because MAN have I had my fair share.

I haven't wanted to be on here much because all of the blogs I love to read have one thing in common....FOOD!! I have had a disastrous relationship with food these past 3+ months and it has been the last thing I've wanted to look at. I'm so thankful for Tony because he has taken over like a champ, making me breakfast every morning before work, coming home late and cooking large meals for leftovers, and doing all the grocery shopping for strange requests. He has been the bread winner, the bread shopper, and the bread maker the past 3 months and has done it all with a smile and a whistle. Our family is beyond blessed to have him in our lives!

Here is a shot of our little one at 13 weeks. Prayers are welcome and much appreciated!

I love Thursday Nights!

In our house we love us some Thursday nights. They're always a little hectic, but we work hard to make sure that during the weekend we can relax!

This weekend we'll be doing all the things I love. We're having some friends over for dinner and we'll be making some yummy ribs with lots of other great food!

We'll also be celebrating the end of another week with 25 cent blizzards! I love me some DQ and great deals! My boo and I have had some great summer nights with blizzards involved!

Along with this we hope to get some gardening done and Tony's promised some long, uninterrupted time of catching up on my DVR'd shows. This week I was a very good wife and when we were around a TV it was on the Rangers. There were quite a few games on this week!

I'm excited about a relaxing weekend. Tony's been working hard on a huge design project he's been blessed to oversee. This is a really important time in his career and I know God has great things in store for my wonderful guy! With the end of the year approaching, I've been very busy during school hours and after (who am I kidding?).

Happy Weekend everyone!

Help a Great Cause

A few weeks ago at church we noticed a little ad in the bulletin for the Williamson County Animal Shelter. The children's group at our church was raising money and supplies for them and of course I was very excited about this! As many of you may know, I'm a huge animal lover. Any sappy or sad commercial on TV and I'm in tears. We try to donate every chance we get to help the animals in need and this is something I hope we continue for the rest of our lives.

I went online to the Williamson County Animal Shelter's website and learned more about volunteering. This is something I hope to do in the summer. I feel like it's time to put my beliefs into action. Again, this is a small personal choice, but one that I feel is needed. I also saw that there is a place to make monetary donations online. I was so excited to see that it is that easy! They also have a list of items they are needing to keep the shelter running and the animals there taken care of. The items needed range from things as small as paper bags and tennis balls, to any metal animal crates you are no longer using and special beds you can help them purchase online. We have a large crate that is just sitting upstairs that I'm going to try and convince Tony we no longer need it for Einstein. At church we learned that they are also in need of small plastic kiddie pools to help the dogs stay cool this summer. Last Saturday we saw a sign at Petco saying they were almost out of a particular kind of dog food. So many ways we can help!

If you're an animal lover like we are I'm sure you can think of something you can give or do to help this cause. We pray that every animal in need of a loving home will find one. Einstein brings us so much joy and I hope that each of these animals will find homes that will provide the comfort, safety, well being and love that we strive to give Einstein.

If you want to donate you can go here.

If you read this, I hope you feel compelled to give however you can.