Mexican Lasagna

Mexican Lasagna (this is what my family calls it, the original name is Soft Tortilla Bake or something)

8 soft taco size flour tortillas, cut into 1-1.5" squares
1 can tomato soup
1/2 cup milk
1 cup salsa
1.5 cups grated cheese
1 lb ground beef, browned with onion & bell pepper, if desired

Combine cooked ground beef, salsa, milk, tomato soup, and about half the cheese. Heat and stir until combined. Add in tortilla squares and stir to coat. Pour into baking dish and bake for 30 minutes at 350, covered. Take out of the oven and top with additional cheese then put back in the oven for another 5-10 minutes.

Mexican Tortilla Casserole

Mexican Tortilla Casserole

1 lb of ground beef or turkey
some chopped onion of you want
16 oz of tomato sauce
8 oz of cream cheese (light is fine)
12 tortillas
1.5 cups of grated cheese
2 tsp taco seasoning (to taste)

Cook ground beef with onion until brown. Drain beef. Add in tomato sauce and taco seasoning.
Meanwhile, spread a thin layer of cream cheese over each tortilla and then roll very tightly and put into a 9x13 casserole. Put the ground beef mixture on top and then top with grated cheese. Bake in a 375 oven for about 25 minutes, or until bubbling and cheese is nice and melty!

Rolls

Update to the update: I have gone back to making the recipe typed below and not the allrecipes.com one. They are both good though, can't go wrong either way!

Update: I don't really make this recipe anymore. Instead my go-to white roll recipe is:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Sweet-Dinner-Rolls/Detail.aspx The only thing I do differently is I don't use the 1/4 cup butter when shaping the rolls.

Dinner Rolls
1 1/3 cups warm water
1/4 cup sugar
2 T instant yeast
1 tsp salt (although I think it could use more but I don't know what that would do to the recipe)
2 eggs
4+ cups of flour (all purpose or bread flour, or you can sub in some whole wheat flour to make it more healthy. Luke says it tastes too healthy with the wheat!)

Mix water, sugar, and yeast and let sit for about 5 minutes. Mix in salt, eggs, and 3 cups of flour. Continue adding flour until it is smooth and dough pulls away from the sides of the mixer (but still sticks just a little bit to the bottom). Remove mixer attachment and let rise in mixer bowl covered for 30 minutes. Knead with a little more flour and shape and let rise for 30 more minutes. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

Asian Peanut Butter Pork

This was sooo good! The sauce was great with rice. It came from http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

1.5-2lbs pork tenderloin
1 onion, sliced in rings
1/4 cup soy sauce (I used La Choy; it's gluten free)
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
3 tablespoons water
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 cup creamy natural peanut butter
2 tablespoons chopped peanuts (garnish; optional)
1 lime, cut in wedges (garnish; optional)

The Directions.

Use a 4-6 quart crockpot. Put onion slices into the bottom of your crockpot. Put the pork on top. Add brown sugar, soy sauce, vinegar, water, garlic, and peanut butter. No need to stir--the peanut butter needs to melt before you can do so. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or on high for 4-6. The pork will be more tender the longer you cook it. 1 hour before serving, flip the meat over in the crockpot to allow the other side to soak up the peanutbuttery goodness. Garnish with chopped peanuts, and serve with lime wedges. The lime juice mixed with the peanut butter is delicious.

Dare I say we are close?

I better not! But, yesterday, no pee accidents! Today, so far so good! I have not reminded him to go potty constantly and he has kept his pants dry! We even went out to the park, were gone about 1.5 hours and no accidents!

I really wanted to give up that first day, but I'm glad we didn't! Now we will have to tackle the eventual pottying on a public potty, pooping, and eventually naps and bedtime.

Day 3 - Better Still!

The trip out of the house went well. He didn't pee in his underwear. We ran to the post office and then drove over to Grandma's house. He successfully used Grandma's potty seat over there. He had a nap then I let him have a snack while still in a diaper (hoping he would go #2). He did in the diaper. Then he ran around naked and peed on the carpet a little. So, I had him go sit on the potty. He was there for a while and started going poop again! He freaked out and got off and told me. I had him sit back down and then we wiped and cheered! He got a hershey kiss and then put a bigger sticker on the potty chart! He was pretty excited. I know we still have a long way to go, but we have significantly reduced the amount of wet clothes, so that is good. It is hard to get him to stop doing something to go sit on the potty though!

The kids have to go with me to the ob/gyn today and I think I will definitely put some pull ups on John for that. I know he won't go without his potty seat(just the adapter for the big potty, we are not doing the little seat that you have to constantly clean with him) and I don't really want to carry that around!

Day 2 - Maybe better?

Well, once I started making him sit on the potty every 30 minutes! Ugh! I'm hoping that will inspire confidence! I think we only went through 4 pairs of underwear and pants. I did buy him a potty watch (based on Frances' review). Maybe it will get here later this week/early next week. Maybe me ordering it will mean that he will potty train before we get it? Kind of like insurance? I doubt it, I'm just not good at the potty training thing!

Today, we have to go somewhere (the post office) and then we are going to play at Grandma's. I hope he likes Grandma's potty seat! I'm not sure what I will take him in, pull-up or underwear? Don't worry Grandma, I won't let him on your furniture and he is wearing sweat pants, so it never even makes it on the carpet! Wish me luck!

Day 1 - Not so hot!

We went through five pairs of underwear (and five pairs of pants). I did not make him sit on the potty much (and he didn't want to). He did pee a couple of times in the potty.

I tried to get him to run around naked today but he didn't like that much. We've already been through 1 pair of underwear and pants. I think I'm going to have him sit on the potty every hour today. Anyone have some good tried and true tips to share?

I HATE POTTY TRAINING!

John has on underwear

Wish me luck! I think he will do ok in the pee department, since he has done that frequently on the potty. I told him if he needs to poop he has two choices, 1-go on the potty or 2-ask for a diaper. That is going to be our struggle I think.

So, he is not allowed to sit on the couch (until he can prove himself somewhat trustworthy). I don't think we are going anywhere today or tomorrow necessarily so he will be near a potty. I guess I should buy some pullups so we can go somewhere and I won't have a mess on my hands!

Finally!

I'm a blog bum! I'm finally going to post some pics of our Disney trip! The kids have been driving me crazy lately! I'm blaming it all on the trip to Disney World! I really didn't take that many pictures at Disney World. I'm going to say that we were just having a fun time enjoying everything, and didn't stress about getting the perfect picture everywhere!

Day 1: Magic Kingdom

Cinderella's Carousel

After the Dumbo ride. I was too chicken to use my camera on the Dumbo ride (afraid it would fall and be gone forever!).
Before the Haunted Mansion. Lets just say that John was not nearly so happy during the ride! My tip for Disney goers, don't take your toddler on Snow White's Scary ride first thing!
Watching the parade!

Day 2 - Animal Kingdom
Ruthanne with Pocahontas

The kids with Safari Minnie Mouse (right before we saw the Lion King show)
Brushing the goats at the Conservation area.
With Rafiki.
Day 3 - Magic Kingdom again!

At the Tomorrowland Speedway. Ruthanne is "driving" because Luke couldn't fit behind the wheel! John is in there too (in the middle). I couldn't ride this one but got to take a picture by hanging out in the smoking area!

This was the day of characters. We happened on lines that weren't too long, so the kids got to meet some people! Sleeping Beauty.
Cinderella
Belle
Mickey & Minnie Mouse
This is on the Barnstormer roller coaster. Again, I couldn't ride. We sent Ruthanne in a seat by herself. She was not a fan. Hint, if you can't ride, make your spouse go multiple times with the young children!
After lunch this day, John had had it. He was tired and out of whack. So, he and I went off by ourselves and let Luke & Ruthanne do some more adventurous rides! We rode the train all the way around and just walked around. We had told them we would get ice cream, so I went ahead and got John his Mickey Mouse ice cream. He LOVED it, and pretty much ate it ALL! Ruthanne got some later, ate the ears off and was done, seriously what is wrong with her?
Buzz Lightyear.
It was a fun trip and I'm glad we decided to go ahead and go while the kids were still young and we didn't have a baby to worry about. If you are military, they have a really awesome deal this year, and you should definitely try to go (military employee gets a free 5 day pass and can get 5 additional 5 day passes for $99 each).

Hopefully I'll be blogging more, but who knows! I have lots of little projects I want to get done before we have this baby (who may have a name but we are still a little unsure).