Taco Bake- A great kid-friendly recipe!

I have to share this Taco Bake recipe.  My family LOVES this stuff!  The recipe will make one 9 x 13 in. pan.  We love casseroles in this house.  Not only are they pretty easy and quick to whip up but it’s a great way to use up our left-overs.  If you have left-over Taco’s in your fridge, this recipe will be your best friend!  If you don’t have left-over taco’s, you can still make this from scratch in about 30 minutes.

Here is what you will need:

1. 1 lb of Burger

2. Taco Seasoning

3. Salsa (I used mild for the kids, use what ever your family likes best)

4. 1 roll of Crescent Rolls

5. 1 Bag of cheese.  I just used up the left over bag of cheese I had.. the amount of cheese depends on your taste buds 🙂

6. 1 can of refried beans

7. 3-4 cups of Nacho Cheese Doritos. (Again the amount depends on your liking, but you will need enough to layer the top)

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1. Start by browning your burger in a skillet.  While burger is cooking, warm up the refried beans in a small sauce pan on low.

2. While those are both cooking you can crush up your Doritos.  Open the bag.. Eat 1 or 2.. or 10 lol.. then grab a small bowl and a cup to smash them up, Like this:

Crush them up into crumb size pieces.

3. Preheat oven to 400.  Drain the burger and place back into skillet.  Sprinkle about half the bag of taco seasoning over top of the burger.  Then spoon the salsa on top of seasoning.  Try to drain the salsa so it is not runny just chunky.  You will be putting this mixture on top of the crescent rolls and you do not want them soggy.  Mix this all together and turn the heat back on low and simmer this for about 7 minutes..  Basically until its a thick mixture almost like sloppy joes.. Like this:

4. Once the beans and burger are done turn them off and start lining your 9 x 13 in. pan with the crescent rolls.  Unroll the crescents together by sticking it to the side of the pan.  Continue to unroll the crescents together to the other side of the pan.  Press any gaps together with your fingers.  Your pan should now look like this:

5. Now scoop your burger mixture on top of this making it a flat layer like you would with lasagna.

6.  Do the same with your refried beans.  Sprinkle a layer of cheese on top of the beans. Like this:

7.  Now add the crushed Doritos to the top and sprinkle some more cheese over the Doritos.  It should look like this now:

8.  Now pop the pan in the oven for 10-13 minutes or until the crescent starts turning a golden brown color and the cheese is melted.

9.  Pull it out.. wait about 5-10 minutes to cool..then dig in!!

Yummmmmmm!

10 Housekeeping Tips- From a real Housekeeper!

10 Housekeeping Tips and Tricks from a real Housekeeper!

I don’t know about you but I just love a clean and organized house… probably because I’m a professional Housekeeper lol. In my years of experience, I have developed some great Housekeeping routines and tricks that work in my home. It also helps me clean other people’s homes more efficiently. I wanted to share some of these tips and tricks for all the busy moms and dads out there who are trying to juggle housework, kids, school, after school activities, work, and everything else along the way! I hope some of these tips help save you precious time that you could be spending with your family.

1. Clean room-to-room. This is the most important tip. Do not start in one room and stop and move into another room before finishing the first. This WILL drive you crazy!! And it isn’t always easy to remember what you’ve already done in each room either. Focusing on one room at a time from start to finish is always best. The one exception to this is vacuuming, and/or mopping. I usually save this for the very last thing I do and I vacuum all the rooms together then mop the hard surfaces.
2. How to clean a room. Always start with the dusting and go from top to bottom dusting the ceilings, then the wall décor, then furniture, then baseboards. Once you finish dusting, wipe and disinfect every surface in that room. (Don’t forget wiping/disinfecting your walls, door knobs, and light switches) Again, I like to save my vacuuming until the very end. Once you have all of the rooms done on one floor, vacuum and mop that floor. Move on to the next floor.
3. Sort your mail when you get it. This may not seem very important but it really is! Look around your house right now… Do you have piles of unopened mail sitting around?? Sorting your mail when you get it out of the mailbox and tossing the junk mail really helps eliminate those piles! If you don’t have the 2 minutes it takes to sort it daily, then at least sort through the piles and toss the junk weekly. Keep a file folder for all of your important mail and keep it close to your trash basket (I have mine on the wall in my utility room) this makes sorting your mail daily easier.
4. Keep a laundry basket in every room. I have 2 laundry baskets in my laundry room, and one in all 3 bedrooms, and a small one in my bathroom. This helps keep the pile of clothes off of your floors and it makes your rooms look tidy. Before bed each night I usually round up all the laundry in each basket and put it by the washing machine for the morning.
5. Do your dishes after you finish eating each meal. If you have a dishwasher, this will be a lot easier! I hate hate hate dirty dishes piled up in my sink! After every meal, I rinse all of the dishes and load my dishwasher. Even when we didn’t have a dishwasher, I would at least start soaking my dishes right after dinner and wash them before I went to bed for the night. Once the dishes are taken care of, wipe your counters down. Take the 5-10 minutes to do this after every meal and your kitchen wont turn into a daunting disaster!
6. Label your kids toy bins. I have a few 3 drawer dressers and a bookshelf filled with different baskets and closable bins that my kids use to store their toys. I label each basket/bin with things like “baby doll clothes” or “coloring books” or “markers and crayons” so my kids know where their toys belong. I can’t say they ALWAYS put them in the right spots but it does really help! Once or twice a month I go in their drawers and bins and reorganize things that they put in the wrong spots. This also helps lessen the “MOM, Where’s my…..” questions!
7. Make a deep cleaning schedule. Setting up a deep cleaning routine for your household to fit your needs is great! I like to do mine based on the days of the week. Mondays I deep clean the bathroom. Tuesdays I deep clean the kitchen. Wednesdays I deep clean the laundry/utility room. You get the idea. Even if that is the only cleaning task you complete that day… at least you have a really clean part of your house for the day!
8. Pick a block of uninterrupted time to clean your house. I like to clean my house when I have a good hour or two block of time that I know I can clean uninterrupted. Such as nap time, when the kids are in school, ect. It is much easier to clean your home and stay focused when you don’t have constant interruptions.
9. Save cleaning your bathroom and/or kitchen for last. It is much easier to focus on the daunting task of cleaning a bathroom or kitchen when the rest of your house is already clean. If you have the entire house cleaned already… will the half hour on the kitchen or bathroom really seem so bad?? If the answer is yes… it still seems really bad… then just push through it and know in the end that the rest of the house is already clean so you can relax! 😉
10. Spend 20 minutes every night before you go to bed picking up. Whether it’s cleaning up the kitchen, the play room, or the living room… Spending 20 minutes before going to bed each night cleaning, will jump start your mornings! I know I personally love waking up to a semi-clean house! You can then spend the next morning on tasks you didn’t finish the night before.

If you use all of these tips and tricks combined you will have a well running clean household! I hope you like these tips and tricks! If you have any questions just ask me! 🙂

DIY Sugar Hand Scrub

Today I wanted to share how to make this Sugar Hand Scrub.  Its a great gift idea for anyone! Teachers, Moms, Neighbors, Co-workers.. Anyone who likes soft hands, will love this sugar scrub!  I know there are a lot of different DIY sugar scrubs out there right now but this is the most simple and most effective one I have found 🙂

Here is what you will need:

1. Sugar (can be granulated)

2. Dawn with Olay hand renewal dish soap

3. Mason Jars (or an air-tight container)

Start by filling the jar 3/4 of the way up with sugar.

Next, slowly squeeze in the dish soap.  I filled mine up to the first rim and let it set/soak for about 3 minutes.  Then stir up the mixture really good (I used a knife to stir it so I could get the sugar on the bottom).  Once it is mixed up, it should be a fluffy, almost sand-like mixture.  You may need to add more sugar or more soap to get desired consistancy.  If you are making this for yourself you can enjoy it now!

If you are making this as a gift you can decorate your jar now.  Here is what I used:

1. Strip of Card stock

2. Scrap booking scissors

3. Ribbon

4. Gift bows

5. Pen

I started by cutting the card stock to fit as a tag.  Then I made the paper hole punch in the corner of the tag. 

On one side of the tag, I wrote “Homemade Sugar Scrub” and on the other side I wrote out the instructions for use.  I wrote “Stir before every use. Apply 1 tbsp to hand.  Scrub and lather onto hands for 2 minutes.  Rinse.  Follow up with your favorite lotion.”

Once the tag was made I tied the ribbon around the jar,  added the tag, tied a bow, stuck the gift bow on top and Done!! That easy! 🙂

A very simple Do It Yourself gift that doesn’t cost much to make and everyone you give it to will love it! Enjoy!

Organizing Printables for bloggers!

Here are some Printables I’ve made to help you stay organized!  I know working at home I HAVE to write things down.  I always have so many ideas floating around in my head that I needed a list that would help me organize those ideas. I searched and searched for lists that would work for me but none of the printables I came across was really what I was looking for.  Now,  my printables aren’t very fancy like some of the ones I have seen on Pinterest but they are very helpful.  I made them myself in Microsoft Word.   They are simple, but they help me get things accomplished every day and I hope they will help you as well.  I personally have a binder that I keep all of my work at home stuff in that has page protectors and tabs for organization.  I will post a tutorial soon on how to make your own WAH binder with suggestions and printables  to fill it with.  I will also add more printables as I develop them so be sure to check back!  🙂

User ID List

Goals

Product Reviews Printable

Blogger To-Do List

blog ideas printable

Enjoy!

Butterfly cup puppets

Hmmm.. Another rainy day in Michigan..So we decided to get crafty today! We are sharing how to make your own butterfly cup puppets!  These are super cute, fun to make, and fun to play with 🙂

Here is what you will need:

1. Plastic cups

2. Glue

3. White paper (we used printer paper, you can also use construction paper)

4. Scissors

5. Pipe cleaners

6. Paint, markers, or crayons

7. Black construction paper

*I started by laying the cup down on the white paper and making a line along the top and bottom of the cup so you know how big to make the wings.

*With the lines in place draw a “B” on each side so it looks like butterfly wings.  Cut the wings out and hand them to the kids to decorate.

*While they are decorating the wings (let them paint or color the wings how ever they want to) Make the slits in the top of the cup with scissors for the butterfly antennas.

*Cut one full pipe cleaner into 4’s so you have short pipe cleaners.  Stick two in each cup for the antennas. **Note: Bend/twist the pipe cleaners together inside the top of the cup to keep them from falling out while they fly around.

*I then let the kids cut out the eyes (On the black construction paper) for the butterfly and let them to glue the eyes on and they drew the mouth on with a black marker.

*If your kids painted the butterfly wings, let the wings dry a little, then glue the wings on the back of the cup.

*Your butterflies should now look like this:

That is what the back should look like..

There you have it! Butterfly cup puppets!! Once the glue drys these butterflies are ready to fly around the house! Here is a picture of my girls enjoying their butterflies 🙂

And here’s a close-up:

Have fun creating these cute butterfly cup puppets!!

DIY Sunshine paper plate crafts

Today we are sharing how to make a Sunshine paper plate craft. Perfect craft for Toddlers and Preschoolers.

 Here is what you need:

1. Paper plates

2. Glue

3. Scissors

4. Markers and paint

5. Googly eyes

6. Tape (if you don’t have glue)

7. Yellow Construction paper

*Start by letting the kids color or paint the back of the paper plate yellow.  Cover the whole plate in yellow.

*While the kids were coloring their plates I took that time to cut out the Sunshine Rays.  Cut the construction paper into 1 inch wide strips.  I needed 6 long strips and 3 long strips cut in half for each Sunshine (paper plate). Your construction paper should look like this when finished:

*Once the kids are done decorating the paper plate its time to glue the Sunshine Rays on.

*Flip the paper plate over (so now its right side up) and begin gluing (or taping) the 6 long strips to the paper plate. We placed the strips so they were touching the inside circle of the plate.

*Do the same for the shorter strips.  Do this in the pattern of long strip, short strip, long strip, short strip, ect. Like this:

*Once that is done let the glue dry a bit and flip it over to make the Sunshine’s face.  Glue the googly eyes in place and let the kids paint on the smile.

*My girls wanted to hang their Sunshine’s up so I found this white ribbon:

*To make a good looking loop hole you should use a paper hole puncher.  I couldn’t find mine at the moment so I just used the scissors and cut a hole in the top of the plate.  Then placed the ribbon through the hole and tied a knot in it.

*Now you can hang your beautiful Sunshines!

 

I hope you and your little ones enjoy creating Sunshine! 🙂

DIY Clown Faces

My girls love our “Craft Hour” each morning.  Today we wanted to share how to make a paper plate clown face.

Here is what you will need:

1. Paper plates

2. Pom Poms

3. Paint or markers

4. Glue

5. A craft stick (or Popsicle stick)

6. Tape (optional)

*Start by letting the kids choose if they want pom pom eyes and nose or just painted eyes and a pom pom nose. My girls had to do the opposite of each other today so I’ll show you both lol.

*If you are doing pom pom eyes, help them glue the pom poms in place first.  If you are doing painted eyes let the kids paint their eyes on first.

*Once the eyes are in place glue a larger pom pom in the middle for a nose.

*Once the eyes and nose are in place, let the kids paint on the mouth.

My girls agreed on one thing today and that was a painted red mouth (Makayla still had to be different and add teeth).

*You can also use the pom poms to make hair for the clown like Makayla did on hers:

*Or you can leave your clowns hair alone like Kyleigh did:

But Kyleigh had to add pom pom ears and feet to hers 🙂

*Once their clown faces are complete, glue the craft stick to the back of the plate.  I noticed this wasn’t very sturdy so I also put a strip of tape over the stick to keep it from moving around.

There you have it! Clown Face paper plates! The girls loved this craft so much they each made about 6 of them and decorated each one differently.  I loved this craft as well because it was made with stuff we already had laying around the house!  If you don’t have an endless supply of craft stuff laying around.. I have some you can purchase in bulk on my amazon store.

Have fun making your own clown faces!

DIY Pen Holder

My girls decided they wanted to share a room.  I didn’t put up a fight because I have been secretly waiting for them to share a room so I can finally have my own office 😉   I discovered after I moved into the office that I needed a place to put all my pens and pencils.  I’m more of a DIYer than a “go out and buy it” type of person so I decided to make my own pen/pencil holder and get the kids involved in the project to! I keep all of our used tin cans (whether its from canned veggies or spaghetti O’s) I wash them out and store them in a box in the garage for ideas, such as this, that pop in my head.  So here’s a tutorial on how to make your own pen/pencil holder or have your kids design you one.

Here is everything you will need:

*Cleaned and dried tin can

*Blank printer paper (you can also use scrapbook paper with designs on it or fabric)

*Scissors

*Hot glue gun

*If you are letting your kids create one for you, you will need their crayons, markers, and/or stickers.

1. Start by laying the tin can on its side.  I used a black crayon and drew a line where the can opens on one end and a line where the can ends at the bottom.  Then wrap the paper around the can.  Draw another line where the paper meets together on the other side of the can.  Cut on the guide lines you just drew so the paper will wrap around the can perfectly with no overhang.

It should look like this when finished cutting.

2.  If you are letting the kids design your pen holder, take the paper off now and let them design away.  My girls colored pictures of our family on their papers and decorated them with stickers.  You can also use scrap-book paper with cute designs to match the colors of your office if you want a more sophisticated holder.

3.  Once the kids are happy with their pictures you can plug in the glue gun!  Once its heated up, apply a strip of glue from the top of the can to the bottom of the can where the paper will meet.  Then make strips of glue around the entire can.  Try doing that as quick as possible so the glue doesn’t dry.

4. Grab your paper the kids created and wrap it around the can.  Try to smooth out the glue with the paper.  Once I had the paper placed the way I wanted it, I used a strip of clear tape and put it over the meeting point for the paper in the back.  This is optional, The paper will stay in place with the glue but the tape gives it more of a smooth finished look on the back. If you used scrap-book paper, finish it by attaching a ribbon around the can.  That’s it! Now put it on your desk, add some pens and pencils and Enjoy! 🙂

I wanted to show you how you can make these cut pen holders with fabric as well.  You follow the same steps as above just using fabric instead.  I didn’t have any cute fabric patterns left so I used an old Onesie I found in the girls old baby clothes box in the garage!