Taco Pasta Salad

My favorite meals to prepare are the ones that come together quickly, that can be served simply without a lot of fuss, and of course the ones that offer leftovers. My family loves leftovers so I consider myself fortunate! We all love pasta and who doesn't like a great taco? Combining them creates a meal that can be made ahead of time, that can be served without any prep work after a long day, and that will have your family asking for leftovers guaranteed! My favorite thing about this dish is that it is served cold. We have this at least once a month in the summer!

Taco Pasta Salad

Ingredients

1- 16 ounce box of garden rotini cooked al dente and chilled

1 pound of lean ground beef, browned, drained and chilled

1 12 ounce bottle of Catalina Salad Dressing

1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese

1 envelope of mild taco seasoning

1/2 cup of black olives

1 cup of cherry tomatoes

1 medium sweet onion, sliced or diced {your preference}

1 bell pepper, sliced or diced

salsa

sour cream

Nacho Cheese Doritos

Directions

Prepare ground beef with taco seasoning, allow to cool to room temperature then chill

Prepare rotini al dente style, allow to come to room temperature

After the first two steps have been completed, combine the pasta and Catalina Salad Dressing.

Mix well until all pasta has been coated. 

Add cheese

Add the taco meat and stir well, evenly distributing the cheese and meat.

Prepare the fresh vegetables, but place them in individual sealable containers or baggies.

When it is time to serve, start with a bed of Doritos, then spoon the pasta mixture over them.

Top with vegetables, salsa and sour cream to your liking.

This makes a generous amount of Taco Pasta Salad. My family of 2 adults and 2 children will usually have this for 3 meals. I love to add lettuce to mine with lots of onions and olives. My husband loves the peppers and tomatoes, so offering the toppings on the side allows us the opportunity to make it to taste with our veggies. The kids are just thrilled to have a meal with chips in it! Ha! To be honest, that appeals to me too sometimes!

Another favorite recipe that we sometimes serve with this Taco Pasta Salad that is light and crowd pleasing is my Veggie Pizza. Again this is a cold serve recipe and I love how we can get even more fresh veggies into our meal in such a yummy way!

S'mores Cookie Recipe

Last week I had the urge to bake. I browsed through my favorite recipes and had that feeling that I have made all of this stuff a hundred times... I promised Roo I would have cookies for him when he came home from school, so I started browsing recipes I hadn't tried before. I stumbled across this recipe for S'mores Cookies and decided to give it a whirl. I am so glad I did!

These cookies are addictive. They are sweet, have gooey spots and are sure to please even the toughest cookie critic!

So yummy I had to sneak a bite before photographing!

Ingredients

1 ½ cup flour
1 ½ cup finely crushed graham crackers
¼ tsp baking powder
½ lb butter
¾ cup brown sugar
¾ cup white sugar
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups chocolate chips
1¼ cup mini marshmallows

Directions

Put marshmallows and 1/2 of the chocolate chips on a plate and set aside.

Cream the butter and sugars until well combined.

Add eggs and vanilla extract and beat well. 

Stir in  half of the chocolate chips.

Add dry ingredients mix until combined.

Drop two ounce cookies onto ungreased baking sheet and bake in 350 degree oven for seven minutes.

Take cookie sheet out of oven and press three marshmallows and three chocolate chips into each cookie.

Return to oven and bake for an additional two minutes or until marshmallows are melty.

Remove from oven and allow to cool.

These S'mores Cookies were a big hit with my family! My son said "Mommy? You made these?" Like he couldn't believe I tried a new cookie recipe! It was so cute!

These are now going into the group of favorite recipes to bake! I know we will whip up another batch of these very soon! They were incredibly easy to make; the hardest part was pressing the marshmallows and chocolate chips into the cookies during the baking process!

What is your favorite kind of cookie to bake? I would love to hear about it!

DIY Sorting Toy {Fine Motor Activity}

One of the things I love about being a mom is that somehow, my kids think I am magical when I come up with a fun way to play out of the blue. No matter how simple the activity, they are always interested and amazed. I know I complain sometimes about how hard parenting is, but you know, the tough moments are so worth it. Little kids are so fun and so sweetly simple in what it takes to get them interested in learning new skills and practicing their existing ones.

One of our favorite upcycled activities was completely simple to create and both of my kids played with it for hours! If you have toddlers or preschoolers in your home, this DIY Sorting Toy is a must make. It offers kids a simple fine motor activity as well as a chance to practice sorting, counting, differentiating between sizes and identifying  colors.

You will need:

a clean an empty egg carton

assorted pom poms {use different colors and sizes for additional sorting challenges}

Tongs or Tweezers for Children 

As you can see all I did was dump a handful of pom poms into a clean and dry egg carton. I laid a pair of rubber tongs for kids down and let Roo explore this option on his own. 

He sorted and sorted! He worked on his fine motor skills, his colors and sorting by size. 

This was an upcycle project that was super easy to put together and that my kids had a lot of fun learning and playing with!