July 29, 2013

instafriday 3

Back for week 3. Here's my weekly instafriday photo dump that's hosted by Life Rearranged


I'm growingto4 on Instagram if you wanna follow me.

Weekly splash pad visit. Marley didn't do much splashing.
Another Sonic stop while in Indy. 

Got to see the sunrise while on my way to Southern Indiana.

Picking flowers at the park. 

July 24, 2013

Quesadilla Casserole

I had this recipe on my menu plan for a while. I finally got around to making it the other night and I'm so glad I did. It was so good!  I bet it would taste even better with shredded chicken instead of ground beef.



1 lb ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp oregano
16 oz tomato sauce
1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (8 3/4 oz) whole kernel corn, undrained
1 can (4 1/2 oz) green chilies, undrained
6 flour tortillas (8 inch size)
2 cups shredded Cheddar Cheese



Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brown ground beef and onion. Drain. Add tomato sauce, beans, corn and green chilies. Mix well. Stir in all of the spices. Bring to a boil, reduce heat low and simmer 5 minutes.

Spread 1/2 cup of the beef mixture on bottom of 9X13 pan. Top with 3 of the tortillas, overlapping as needed.

Layer with 1/2 of the remaining beef mixture and 1/2 of the cheese. Repeat with remaining tortillas, beef and cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until heated through. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.




July 21, 2013

Instafriday 2

Back for week 2. Here's my weekly instafriday photo dump that's hosted by Life Rearranged

I'm growingto4 on Instagram if you wanna follow me


Lounging pool side 

Sonic dinner date after taking my niece home 

Jumping and playing in the sprinkler

 Strawberry, banana, mango smoothies (recipe coming soon) 





July 18, 2013

Instafriday

I came across a local mom's blog. I read every one of her blog posts in 2 days. On her page she linked to Life Rearranged where she hosts InstaFriday. I've seen other blogs participating in these, but never really got it until now. I am almost a week late, but I had my pictures ready to post last week, that still counts right?! 

If you are on instagram I'm growingto4  


My niece came and stayed the night last week. I painted her 20 nails 20 different colors, which meant Marley also needed hers done, so there's 20 more nails 20 different colors. 

This is what the car looks like when we have a showing on our house, except usually I have Marley in there too (she was at grandmas) 

Jumping at Fair Oaks Diary Farm 

Visiting the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago 

Drive in to see Monsters University and Despicable Me 2



Crock Pot Pizza Burgers

I made these a few months ago and thought I had deleted the pictures (which aren't great, but better than nothing) But the other day I found them and since these were AMAZING I had to share them. 


1 lb ground beef, browned and drained
8 oz can pizza sauce
10 3/4 oz can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup chopped onions
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
cheddar or mozzarella cheese


Mix all ingredients in the crock pot. Cover and cook on low for 1-2 hours. You could also cook the ground beef in the crock pot on low until no longer pink, drain, and then mix in the remaining ingredients.  

I sprinkled mozzarella cheese on top of mine before eating to make it more "pizza like" 





July 8, 2013

Chicken Taco Chili Crock Pot Freezer Meal

I'm finally back with another one of my freezer meals.  When I assembled all my meals I ran out of chicken, so I just froze it without and made a note on the bag to add chicken before cooking.

1 can black beans
1 can kidney beans
1 can corn
16 oz tomato sauce
28 oz diced tomatoes
1 packet taco seasoning
1 tbsp chili powder
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts

Toss it all in the crock pot. Cover and cook on high for 8 hours or low for 12 hours.

Shred chicken before serving.








July 5, 2013

Deer Forest

Up in Coloma, Michigan about an hour from us is a place called Deer Forest. It's been open for a long time, and I've seen pictures of us all there when we were younger, but I don't remember going.  My mom, Mike, Marley and I went in 2011 for my birthday and Marley has talked about it since. The other day we decided to head up there again. It was a rainy day and I'm pretty sure we were the only ones there, but we still had fun and will definitely be back before they close for the winter. 


I don't remember it at all from when I was younger, but now it's mostly a petting zoo and some rides. Since it was raining Marley only went on one ride, but we walked around twice feeding all the animals. I'm sure they loved us because we fed them a lot!   They are recently under new management and it looks like they're fixing things up pretty nicely. 





These mini horses were so cute! Mike kept thinking the mom was going to bite him but they were adorable! 






Hanging out in the jail house. 



Obviously Deer Forest has deer,  however, they are a new herd of deer so when they saw us coming they all ran into their "houses" so we didn't get to pet or feed a single deer. We were told that they will take about a season to get used to the people. Last time we came we could hardly keep the deer away from us so we can't wait to come back and feed them! 



I loved these huge horses, they were so beautiful!





The kids crashed out on the way home. 




We had a really nice time. If you live close to Coloma and haven't been to Deer Forest, you should definitely check it out!

July 2, 2013

California Day 7

Saturday was our final day in California.  Our flight wasn't scheduled to leave until late afternoon so we had some time to kill before we headed to the airport.  We headed up to Los Angeles and then over to Santa Monica Beach.  It was pretty crowded there so we headed down Wilshire Blvd. into Beverly Hills.  We went down Rodeo Drive up to the Beverly Hills hotel and just drove around for a while. After a few hours it was time to head to the airport =(  Our flight home went really smoothly and got us home right around midnight. We had a great time on our trip, but it's so nice to sleep in my own bed again!

The Hotel California 






Not sure who's car this is, but there were a ton of people taking pictures, so I did too.

The Beverly Hills Hotel



The Colorado fires