Monday Food Storage Meal - Shredded Pork Enchiladas

A friend of mine told me that for her food storage she wrote down 30 dinners she made for her family (or 15 and doubled it, or 10 and tripled it) and bought the pantry items she needed for those dinners. Then, when she went shopping she would replace any items she used the week before and buy the fresh ingredients she needed that week. I've been trying to do that but on a smaller scale since I'm not as organized as she was - when I am at the store and I see something on sale and I know I can use it in a meal I will buy a few to have on hand. I love Mexican food so in my pantry I try and keep things like salsa, enchilada sauce, Spanish rice, refried beans, taco seasoning, etc. Tonight I decided to make Shredded Pork Enchiladas. I had it all in my pantry or fridge (check the expiration date when you buy tortillas - you might be able to keep them in the pantry for a week or 2) and this is the easiest recipe ever. I bought my pork roast last week since it was on sale - a 4.65 lb roast for $5.99. Do you know how many dinners I can get out of that one thing? I never buy roasts unless they are on sale and when they are I will buy a huge one to cut in half or buy 2 or more. It's great to have them in the freezer to use for dinners like this.

Shredded Pork Enchiladas

Pork Roast (you can make this with a Pot Roast as well)

1 can cream of mushroom soup (DO NOT ADD WATER)

1 package taco seasoning

Put roast in crockpot (you can use whatever size roast you have - just freeze the leftover meat to use again). In a small bowl mix the cream of mushroom soup and taco seasoning. Spread over roast. Cook in crockpot all day until the meat falls apart. Shred the meat and add sauce from the crockpot until the meat is moist.

Use the meat as a filling in tacos, enchiladas or a layered taco casserole.

It's mmm...mmmm good and so so easy.

Day Trip

When I went to college at SUU I had some great roommates. Some I already knew and some were strangers but they became some of my best friends. I knew Jamie from high school and I met Tricia when I first got to SUU. We were in an apartment of 8 girls and somehow Tricia, Jamie and I just clicked. To this day Jamie and Tricia are two of my closest friends. Tricia lives in Utah so I keep in touch with her through e-mail, and sometimes we will get together when she comes to Vegas to visit her brother. I got the idea to have a girls weekend in the summer, but we never were able to get it together. Then, a couple of weeks ago I told Tricia and Jamie to pick a Saturday in October and we would meet in Cedar and spend the day together. Yesterday was our day and we had a great time. We went to lunch, walked around campus and talked about all of the things we did in college and what we are doing now. It was so fun to have a day off, to be with 2 of my best friends and remember what a good time we all had together. We've already made plans for our next visit and I can't wait! (The pictures from top to bottom: Tricia and me on campus, Jamie and me in front of Old Main where we took all of our Education classes, the library where I spent A LOT of time, me hugging a tree....the trees there were so amazing with all of the fall colors.)

Spooky

Colin is in love with Halloween. The second they had Halloween stuff up at the store he wanted to put our decorations out. Last year Dave got some fun decorations to make the front look like a graveyard and this year he added a few new things at Colin's request when they went shopping together. Not only does Colin love the graveyard in the front of the house but he loves looking to see what other people have up. Luckily we have some pretty festive neighbors who keep my kids happy around the holidays with their fun decorations. I took this picture one day when Colin found his costume from last year and wanted to wear it all day to play in (and he did). The other day, though, I found Trevor's old Ghost costume and Colin wanted to wear that. Now he wants to be a ghost for Halloween (thank goodness since we never went shopping for costumes and Halloween is next week). I can't wait for next week and all of the fun the boys will get to have - parties at school, the ward Trunk-or-Treat and trick or treating around the neighborhood. Happy Halloween!

Monday Food Storage Meal - Spaghetti and Meatballs

One thing I like to do for my food storage is cook things and freeze them to use later. I always have something in the freezer I can pull out and use in a pinch. One thing my boys love are meatballs. Spaghetti is one those things you always have in your pantry but if I don't have meatballs it's just not the same. So when I make meatballs I will always freeze half of them to use another time. You can use meatballs in spaghetti or another pasta dish, use them for meatball subs, make them mini to use in soup, or use them in a sweet n' sour or BBQ sauce. It's always nice to know there is something in the freezer that is already cooked and homemade. Here is my meatball recipe. It makes about 20 regular sized meatballs.

1 pound ground beef (or turkey)

1/2 cup dry bread crumbs (I use the seasoned kind)

1/4 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (I don't always have this so sometimes I don't use it)

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 small onion chopped (I use 2 tablespoons dehydrated onions)

1 large egg

(I also sometimes add a little grated Parm cheese, garlic powder, or chopped garlic if I have it)

Heat oven to 400. Mix all ingredients together. Shape into meatballs - large, mini, regular.... whatever you want. Place in an ungreased baking pan or on a rack in a broiler pan. Bake uncovered for 20 - 25 minutes or until centers are no longer pink. Cook smaller meatballs 5-10 minutes less.

Movies for Grandma and Grandpa (and everyone else too)

Dave's parents and siblings live in Reno (one in Colorado) so they don't get to see the boys very often. Now that we have a camera that can make videos I decided I'd start posting things of the boys so they can see them more often. This time I did interviews with each of the boys. Trevor and Colin both said their best friend at school was Aaron but they are not the same Aaron. Right before I started recording Logan he was talking a ton and kept saying "Hi". I wanted to get him jibber jabbering but everyone knows when you want your kids to do something so other people can see it never works out. So I hope Dave's family enjoys this and anyone else who wants to watch my cute kids.

Monday Food Storage Meal

A few years ago I was asked to be the Food Storage Specialist in my ward. I didn't know a lot about food storage but because of that assignment I learned. I learned why it was important to store food, how to store food and what things I needed to store. I don't have the money or the space to have a year's worth of food storage, but I do little things to stock up my pantry and freezer and try to do my best with what I have. The best food storage advice I've ever heard was, "When you run out of something, go out and buy two." I've been doing that and I have a pretty good supply of things my family likes to eat. Recently I've been wondering if I could go a month, a week, even a couple of days on what I have in my kitchen. Since my grocery day is on Tuesday I plan out my dinners for the week and then go shopping for everything, but I seem to always go to the store on Saturday to "get a couple extra things". I decided that I am not going to plan a meal for Mondays but instead only use what I have in my food storage. This Monday I did just that. I looked around for what I had: egg noodles, cream of mushroom soup, cheese, peas and carrots, chicken (sometimes when I buy meat I will cook it and then freeze it in 2 cup portions. Perfect for casseroles, soups, chili, tacos, etc.). I knew I could make Chicken Noodle casserole, but what about side dishes? I had some corn muffin mix so I made mini corn muffins the kids loved and canned peaches since we were out of everything for salad and the only fresh fruit we had was a brown banana and one apple. It was an easy meal to make, the kids liked it and I did it all with what I had on hand. If you want more food storage recipes, tips and ideas go to one of my favorite websites http://www.everydayfoodstorage.net.

First Video

I got a new camera and it has a feature where I can make videos. I am very excited about this but not too good at using it yet. I made a little video of Logan the other night and this is my first attempt to put a video on my blog. Here goes....