CWK: Sunday cooking - Mexican stuffed shells

Cooking with Kristen (CWK) Episode 2~! PHOTOS BY TYLER!

Sundays are a great day to cook for the week! In about 1 hours time this morning i made Stuffed Mexican Shells for tonight, had Monday nights dinner 90% complete and Tuesdays started. All because of planning ahead~

For tonight I made Mexican Stuffed Shells. I found the idea in my cooking light cookbook but I of course changed it to fit me!!

You will need:
1lb Lean ground beef
24 jumbo Shells
1 1/2 Cups of Roasted Red pepper sauce
1/2 cup of corn
1/2 can of black beans
sliced black olives
sliced green onions
Fat Free shredded Cheddar cheese
Sour Cream (optional)

I made my Roasted red pepper sauce (find the directions here). Start by browning the ground beef and cooking the noodles. I drained the beef and returned it to the pan. Then added about 1 1/2 cups of the red pepper sauce, 1/2 of a bag of corn, and 1/2 can of black beans (drained and rinsed twice).

Cook the mixture for about 3-5 minutes. Then I scooped the mixture into the shells, its very hot, you may want to wait a minute or two!.

I lightly sprinkled green onions, black olives and the low fat cheese over the shells.
Once dinner time rolled around, I heated dinner in 350 oven. Based on taste pour the remaining sauce over the shells and added sour cream.

So I am bad at measuring food, these are my best estimates. I just cook, a little of this a little of that! As for the corn each summer we freeze corn (See here) so i used a 1/2 bag for this.

Time saving tips: I only used 1/2 the corn and beans, I saved them for the shrimp tacos i will be making later this week. Also, while I was cutting green onion I cut up a few more and saved them for the Ham Pasta and shrimp tacos!

Mondays are a difficult for everyone. So while the hamburg was cooking I sliced up the veggies for my Ham Pasta. I threw them in a pan to cook while I stuffed my shells. I also had some Chicken stock left from my roasted red pepper sauce so I made a Parmesan sauce for the pasta. Now all that is left for tomorrow night is for us to cook the pasta and assemble the meal...that will be episode 3!

Everything ready for the week!

Getting caught up!

Hello everyone!! sorry we have been lost .... I have honestly been too lazy to download the photos from my camera to the computer!

Here is a run down...i can not type too much i need to go to bed!
This weekend was full of birthdays. Today was Tylers, but we are not having his party till next Sunday. That is really hard for a 4year old to understand. So we tried to make the day about him. If you scroll down 2 entries from this morning you will see that he first picked to go hunting with daddy...but only stayed out for 5 minutes. I also took him along with Logan to Rough N Tumble! they had lots of fun. Later i picked up tyler a small cake from walmart so he could blow out candles. I am such a bad mom...i didnt know that all my candles were MIA. So he only could blow out 3 instead of 4. Insert guilty mom here.






For his birthday, tyler got his very own digital camera!! i would post the photos he took but i am not allowed to touch his camera!!
Little Ms. Emma has discovered the Jolly jumper! I have a video in the entry below!
Its hunting time in NY! We have seen 3 successful trips this season between dad and David. This was one my dad got. We have more photos on the "BUCKSHOTS" page (See the green bar on the right for the link)
Some where in there time passed by and I turned 30. David took me to Red Lobster and then a crunch game! In the middle of the 2nd my was scared out of my wits when Al the ice gorilla grabbed my shoulder and handed me flowers. My former BFFs that moved to Texas sent them for me. That is the last time i tell them where we are sitting! Did i mention my fear of monkeys? I am still kinda freaked out in this photo 20 mins later.
With all the birthdays we have done a lot of baking and will be doing more soon! These are the cupcakes we made for tylers school. Tyler had to take snack this week on tuesdy he took choc chip cookies. But Thursday he wanted to take cupcakes with sprinkles. I think they came out really cute!
Christmas is near! We have starting crafting for them! can you guess what I was working on at Girls night Tuesday?
Last week David and I's Birthday/Christmas gift arrived! Our new King Size bed that matched our armor. I love it, we painted the room and of course needed new bedding. I need to make curtains...i hope to have more on that this week!
Okay off to bed! I am old now i can not stay up as late!

Am I really on the Naughty list?

Tonight tyler is watching cartoons when he looks at david and says: Daddy am i really on the naughty list?

Poor kid, he was so concerned. David told him not yet, he had to be good because santa is always watching. I don't think we had to talk to him once tonight about being bad!

Tyler is kind of confused this week, he knows halloween is over but we still have our fall decoration up. I tried to explain that we are going to keep them up till his birthday party but he is still ready for Christmas deco.

Yesterday, we had fun at Carters 1st Bday:

Photos by Tyler:

tyler payments

Let me recap the last 24hrs.

When we arrived home last night David was paying his bills he asked
about the daycare amount and Tyler interrupted that he had the "taken
care of it". Great we don't need to pay Stephanie.

Later that night I see Tyler take David's wallet from the counter. I
finish hooking Emma in her chair and I take the wallet from him. He
tells me he needs money for his wallet. I tell he needs to earn it and
go back to what I was doing.

This morning we were getting ready to leave for the day, Tyler was
eating breakfast and watching cartoons. I ask David if the check for
Stephanie is in the bag. Before David could answer, Tyler replies "I
took care of it"!! He is set on paying Stephanie. We just laugh it
off.

At about 830am David calls me to ask if I have his Debit card. While on
the phone with he also realizes his Credit card is missing. I check
online and nothing has been charged to the accounts. We call
Stephanie's house and Tyler says he didn't take them. Stephanie does
not see them in his book bag. So we put a hold on his accounts.

At lunchtime David goes home and looks for them. Sure enough they were
in Tyler's wallet. Stored just like Daddy does. I am hoping he ordered
me a nice Christmas gift!! These kids they don't even want cash these
days, they just want the plastic. He is just too smart for his own
good! I fear when Emma does this.

Here are some photos by Tyler!

Photos by Tyler!

Well Tyler was at it again! He stole my camera and snapped a few photos!
He is very artistic!

Photos by Tyler!

Tyler took some photos at Jennas party!
Here you go!


Mommy and ME!! Yeah this looks good!!

Logan's Close up

Not sure whats going on here

Logan and I took each others photo!!

Happy Mothers Days

Here is a mothers day project that tyler and I worked on this weekend. My foot is feeling better but i think i did too much yesterday. I did manage to get the mudroom closet cleaned out - I was too embarrassed to take a before photo! We worked in the garden a bit, planted potatoes. David and tyler put the plastic down but the wind from last nights storm did some damage. We are getting ready for Baby Emma i have sorted thru tons and tons of bins of clothes and baby items. I have lots of laundry to do...but its Mothers day!!

Looks like room for more shoes!! i actually disposed of 4 pair and put 5 more in the garage sale pile....so i think i can do more shopping!!

24 Potato plants

This morning my darling son gave me a card he made while i napped on the couch yesterday!! Then i also got a gift certificate to time for me Spa. David not only made me French Toast (my favorite that I only get on mothers day or when we go out to breakfast) but he also vac and mopped the floors!

Tyler is going to finish the rest of this blog for me. These are photos he took!

Look close and you will see the beans that are coming up from 2 weeks ago, we planted another row yesterday.

Pappys Lemon aid stand!!

The world from tylers view!