Fish Tacos

6 tilapia filet
2 cups italian bread crumbs
4 Tbsp butter (or 1egg)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup Ranch dressing or to taste
10-15 flour tortillas

Additional Taco Toppings:
diced tomato & onion
shredded lettuce
shredded cheese

• Melt butter in a shallow dish that is large enough to dip in tilapia filets . 
• In another shallow dish, pour in bread crumb seasoning.
• Heat olive oil in a non-stick electric skillet or pan.
• Dip tilapia in melted butter first (coating both sides well), and then in the bread crumb seasoning (coating both sides well).
• Place into the heated oil for 5-7 minutes per side.  It does not take long for fish to cook through, but you want to wait until the bread crumb coating is a nice golden brown color.  Avoid flipping tilapia more than once.  It will disturb the crumb coating, and look disgusting.  And frankly, who wants to eat food that looks disgusting?
• Remove from skillet or pan when both sides are that pretty golden brown color.  Cut fish into 1/2 inch strips.  Avoid handling the fish too much, or it will flake out on you.  Anybody like a flake?
• Serve on warm flour tortillas with the above listed toppings.  Don't forget to pour on the Ranch.  That's the spark that have you saying, "Mo' pease!"  You know, like 'more please', only your mouth is full.

Happy Cooking!

I'm Bored

The Summer Reading Program in my area has already kicked off.  It's always a good idea to enroll your kids early in the summer for many reasons.  Here goes my list...

1. Your child's future teacher will thank you for it.  Nearly 3 months of no reading sets your child back further than you think.  Reading is a skill that needs to be maintained.  Your child may be reluctant at first, but help them find the right book.  It's not hard, but will take some work on your part.  You might have to actually pre-read books, or ask the librarian their favorites. 
2. You get a free coupon booklet of things to do for the summer.  What kids doesn't want a free ice cream cone, free Happy Meal, free bowling, or free pass to the zoo?
3. Your child will have something to do. Reading cures the 'I'm Bored!' disease.
4. Your child will get a prize at the end!!!

Reading was one of my favorite subjects to teach.  I also loved teaching Writing...and Math...and Social Studies...and Science...okay, so I just loved to teach.  If your child really, really cannot find a genre of literature they like, send me an email and I will help you out.  Matching a kid up with a good series of books is my specialty.  I love it!  Nothing is more rewarding than finding a kid who loathes reading, and changing their mind after reading one good book.

Here are some of my favorites that are on a fourth and fifth grade level, and were always HUGE hits in my classroom...

Next week, I'll post more good reads for younger readers and older readers.

Just remember, there's always a good book out there!

Happy Reading!

I'm Expecting!!!

...tomatoes and peppers that is!  Gotcha!  Okay, I realize that's probably not funny to you, but I'm still laughing.  Take a look at these beauts...

{My adorably cute cherokee purple tomato}

{The radically radiant roma tomato}

{The perfectly perfected peppers}

My FIL and husband have been making fun of me for quite some time now.  Each time it storms, I move them to a quite non-destructible location, and reassure them that the storm will pass.  Even if the wind blows too hard, I shelter them, and love them, and kiss them.  They are my babies.  I'm fairly certain once the FIL and hubby get a taste of my first fruits, they won't be laughing anymore.

Chalk Car Track

Little Man l-o-v-e-s playing with cars. Playing cars inside.  Playing cars outside.  Playing cars in the bathtub. Playing cars at church.  Playing cars at dinner. Playing cars in the car.  He even sleeps with cars on some nights. 

Yesterday, we were playing cars outside and we decided we needed our own car city.  So we pulled out the chalk and made one.  Little Man was glued to the thing for a straight hour.  Running his cars up and down the street from parking lot to parking lot.  So focused!

{Chalk Track}

{All the cars safe in their space}

You may be wondering what on Earth the Little Miss and Chunky Monkey were doing all this time Little Man was playing.  Well, they weren't too excited with the Chalk Track, but they did have their part in making this a successful playtime.  I think they filled their positions well.

Chunk Monkey, the Chalk Track Observer. 

His main job is to make sure there are no traffic violations. 

He did a good job.

Little Miss, the Chalk Organizer.

Her main job was to make sure each piece was stored neatly in the box.

She did a good job.

Organizing Recipes

If you've got yourself a good stash of recipes, you might be wondering what to do with them.  My old method was to throw them in a drawer store them ever so neatly in a drawer.  That method didn't work out too well.  You see, the pile grew and grew and grew.  I became afraid to open The Drawer.  So I didn't.  Unless there was a new recipe I wanted to add to The Drawer.  You see it's this vicious cycle that left me using the same old, same old recipes week after week.  All because of my fear.

Thank goodness for mothers though.  She saved me.  After having dinner at her house one night, I began to confess my habitual 'recipe drawer stuffing'.  It was difficult to share, but it needed to be done.  She cried with me, and reassured me that there was hope for The Drawer.  She walked over to her pantry and pulled out a binder that changed my life.  I pretty sure I heard angels singing when the binder opened and I saw all of her beautiful recipes stored neatly in sections.  There was hope for me.  I could do this.  I drove my sorry butt to Walmart and purchased a binder along with sheet protectors. 

I worked tirelessly for 3 straight hours tearing up cooking magazines, straightening out crumpled papers, and wiping off food splatters.  I was weary, but I pressed on.  Keeping on until every section was complete and every recipe protected.  When I was finished, I cried.  My nightmares were over.  No more repeat cooking.  No more scary drawer.  No more messy recipes.  Just a beautifully organized binder...

{Binder in the Main Dish section}

{Example of Section Tab}

I hope this post brings you a ray of hope; a beacon of light shining unto your dark drawer of recipes.

Happy Organizing!

Tight Budget?

Before becoming a Stay At Home Mom (SAHM), it was really difficult to see how we would live off one income.  I've always been a pretty frugal person, so cutting out even more money from our budget was incomprehensible at the time.  However, we sat down and wrote out all of our expenses and credits.  Most people get to this point and stop.  I have to admit, I was one of those people.  But, I also had a strong desire to be home with the kids.  I labored over that piece of paper, and then I began doing.  What exactly you ask?  Well, I did this...

• Couponing - I looked at our monthly expenditures on food, home, and tolietry purchases.  This included groceries and eating out.  Very quickly I noticed how much was going out to restaurants.  Ten dollars here, twenty dollars there...it added up.  We decided that once a week, we would eat out.  Then, I looked at our grocery bill.  It was around $550-600/month.  It seemed natural to me that I could work this one down.  At first, I took baby steps.  The first month I tried couponing, I wanted to shave $50/month off my bill.  That averaged out to a little more than $12/week.  Once I mastered that, then I upped it to saving $100/month and so on.
• Reducing- I looked at how much money was going out on service type expenses (i.e. cell phone, cable, internet services.  Steven and I went through and decided what wasn't used very often.  Come to find out, we had a ton of movie channels we never watched.  I used to rationalize that it was only $10/month, so it was worth it.  Well, you know what? I wouldn't just take a ten dollar bill and throw it away every month, so out it went.  So did some other non-necessities. 
• Bargaining- We weren't willing to completely get rid of cable and some services on our phones, so I called the companies to bargain.  I figured we were long time, good standing customers.  It worked.  Promos that were being offered to new customers, suddenly were available to us.  I just had to call and ask what they could do for me (being nice helped).

What are some steps you take to save $$$?  I'm always looking for some new ones ;)

Husband Bragging

Many of you read previously of my goal to run a half marathon this year.  Originally, I was going to run one on May 15th, but I didn't push myself or train as well as I needed to in order to complete the race.  I want to be able to run it start to finish without stopping (no walking). 

Steven, however, did complete the race.  Not only did he complete his first half marathon, but he placed 69th out of 588 runners, ran an 8:08 pace, and placed 11th in his age group.  I cannot tell you how proud the kids and I were to see him cross the finish line.  He finished super strong.  The man looked like he was completing a little one mile fun run.  Seriously.  Not kidding.  Just check out these pics from the end of the race.  He was about 50 yards from the finish line.

If any of you know Steven personally, you know he is super competitive.  When he looked at the results he saw that he could have made the Top 10 in his age group had he kicked it up by 42 seconds.  He was mad the rest of the evening.  I found it beyond amusing!