Sweet Pork Street Tacos

 Ingredients-

Sweet pork:

Pork shoulder-S

Salt & pepper2

2T chili powder

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter

1 cup brown sugar

Tortillas:

Street taco white corn tortillas

Pork juice from the crock pot

Hot pan (like a cast iron pan)

Oil (just enough to brush on the pan)

Salsa:

1 jar Green salsa verde

1/2 cup sugar

3 cloves garlic

1 T red pepper flakes

1/4 cup cilantro (optional)

Directions-

Sweet pork:

Place pork in crock pot

Rub with chili pepper, salt & pepper

Cook on low 6-8 hours until easily pulls apart

Shred pork as finely as you can (the smaller shreds the better!!)

Lay out evenly on a baking sheet

Set oven to broil

In a sauce pan, melt butter

Add brown sugar and stir continuously until butter is no longer separated from the sugar and small bubbles are starting to form

Pour brown sugar/butter mixture over the pork and toss together

Set pan of pork in the oven and let the brown sugar caramelize. Pork will turn a brown color and has a caramelized "crystal" coating. Don't panic and take them out to early. Give them time but keep checking on them. Pork will not be "wet" but not dry either. I don't know how.

Tortillas:

Heat a pan on the stove and get it nice and hot

Brush with just a bit of oil

Dip a tortilla into the juice that's sitting in the crock pot

Place on hot pan. You don't need to leave it on very long! Just hold it there with some tongs and flip it over to heat the other side until both sides are less "wet" from the juice and have a bit of golden specs to them

Salsa:

Just toss all the ingredients in a blender and voila! Do not skip putting this salsa on the taco. Trust the process.

Homemade Dinner Rolls

It's been a while since I've documented a new recipe. I've been looking for some new go-to dinner rolls! These were actually really easy and very straight forward. The recipe looked huge so I halved it with no problem and ended up with exactly one sheet pan full. 

Ingredients:

• 4 c warm water (I try to aim for around 110*)
• 3 T yeast ( I used Fleischmans active dry)
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1/4 c oil
• 1 T salt
• 10 c flour

Directions:

• Add warm water and yeast to the bowl of a stand mixer, let sit until it's nice and foamy
• Add in the sugar and mix
• Add in the oil and salt, mix
• Add in the flour a cup at a time, mixing after each
• Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl and let rise until double in size (about 30 minutes)
• Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and section off into balls you can mold into rolls
• Place the rolls into a sheet pan and cover, let rise until doubled again (another 30 minutes or so)
• Preheat oven to 350*
• Cook rolls for 12-15 minutes and immediately roll butter over the tops when they come out of the oven

Roasted Vegetable Soup

This is absolutely perfect for Fall! My girls and I created our own holiday years ago. It's on October 1st and we make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, decorate the house for Halloween with Halloween music, go shopping for Halloween costumes, have soup for dinner and watch a Halloween movie with hot chocolate. Since we're in Idaho we get all 4 seasons and it is GORGEOUS here! We soak it up like you would not believe. The girls get more excited for this holiday than Christmas. It's absolutely hilarious.

Anyways, this soup just might be a strong possibility for soup of choice on our holiday! That's saying something, because they take it seriously and everything has to be perfect.

The original recipe doesn't call for tortellini pasta, but my kids have bottomless stomachs so I threw in a little more substance.

Recipe adapted from: Roasted Vegetable Soup- Pioneer Woman

What you will need:

• 1 large zucchini, sliced in half and then cut in half moons
• 1 yellow squash, sliced in half and then cut in half moons
• 1 yellow onion, sliced
• 1 red and yellow Bell pepper, cut in strips
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 c Olive oil
• 1 T Italian seasoning
• 1/2 T salt
• 1/2 T pepper
• 4 c chicken stock (or vegetable stock)
• 14 oz can stewed tomatoes
• 1 Bay leaf
• 1 c heavy cream

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 475*
• Spray baking sheet with nonstick spray
• Combine all veggies into a large bowl with olive oil and seasonings to toss to chat
• Arrange vegetables on baking sheet in an even layer and roast for 15 minutes
• Add vegetables into crock pot with stewed tomatoes, chicken stock, heavy cream and Bay leaf
• Cook on low for 3 hours
• Remove Bay leaf and blend soup until it's reached desired texture

12 Mommy Daughter Dates

Last year I was trying to think of a good gift for my girls for Christmas. They really love quality time so when I found Shopkins Live tickets for a few months later I thought it would be awesome! A few months prior, though, I'd taken them each on a fun Mommy Daughter date to soak in the time together before their baby sister made her arrival. We had SO MUCH FUN and they talked about it for weeks. So I came up with giving them a years worth of Mommy Daughter Dates!

This picture should really start with a January envelope, but...I didn't take one of them before I gave them to my girls so...

I really loved the idea of giving this to them at Christmas time, because after you've done all your Christmas activities, Santa shopping, regular shopping and funding all the goodies, it feels like your money is in your hands for approximately 2 seconds before it's flying away again! I didn't have to pay for all of these dates up front! HA!

My goal was to spend around $10 on each date, but many of them are free. The real goal was to just spend time together one on one. I learned very fast that they didn't mind that at all! They didn't think about not "getting things" because they were just thrilled as heck to be hanging out with me (something that won't be usual in just a few short years). Since they each got a date every month, that put it to around $20 a month, which I felt was highly worth it, but you can customize however you want!

I kept the Shopkins Live idea for Febuary and decided to do a combined Girls Night Out twice in the year where we all do something together as girls. They just opened their 2nd Girls Night Out date which was our date for August.

As far as putting these together, it's incredibly simple! I found some fun multi-colored envelopes at Walmart...

And I designed each date on the computer to print off on cardstock to stick in the envelopes. You can honestly just chop papers up into squares and write the dates with a Sharpie if you want! The effect will be the same. They open theirs on the Sunday before a new month starts and we plan when we'll do it. They usually get excited and want it right at the first of the month. But for things like this one in September, it's best to wait until the end of the month!

Here is the list of dates I made for the year. A lot of the dates I did the same each month for both girls. But sometimes I'd use the same date idea, but put them in different months for them because their personalities called for it. And some are different for each girl that month because the other girl wouldn't be interested in the other date. Does that make sense?

Basically, just look at your months and what your girls like to do during those months and what they like to do in general and just go for it. Things like Starbucks I wouldn't put in the dead of summer and I wouldn't take one of my girls to Bath & Body Works because she doesn't care for it like the other does. They both like Great Harvest but one would love it in the winter more.

$10 at Deseret Book +
Pick out Florences Chocolates

Girls Night Out!: Shopkins Live!

Movie Night 
(Kick the family out for an at-home movie night with treats or go out to the theatre with a few treats smuggled it heh-heh..)

Lunch at Great Harvest

$10 to Claires+
Cookie Place

$10 to Bath and Body Works
(Try on all the fun scrubs and lotions!)

$10 to Ulta
(Try on all the fun makeup!)

$10 to Hobby Lobby +
Lemonade
(We love Chick-fil-A lemonade and use our app to get it curbside! Not gonna lie we also ordered a chocolate chunk cookie)

Prepared Pantry & Baking the goods we picked out

Soda Tsunami
(Or any fun soda shop)

Scooter date!
(We scootered to our local Icy shack but you can go anywhere!)

Girls Night Out!: Dress up and go out to dinner with an at-home spa night afterwards

Fall bike ride & picnic

Starbucks date & Christmas Shopping

$10 to Barnes & Noble

Turkey Meatballs

We usually make these meatballs to add to minestrone soup, but they are so good you can use them for anything! They're extremely flavorful and the texture is unreal! Very easy to make, too. Just pulse, shape and cook! If you're looking for a gluten-free option, dredging each meatball in flour isn't absolutely necessary (we've done it without and they've turned out just great!).


What you will need:

• 1 lb. ground turkey
• 1 oz. parmesan
• 1/4 C parsley
• 1 yellow onion diced
• 2 cloves garlic, diced
• 1 egg
• 2 T oil
• Flour for dredging

Directions:

• 
  
• Combine parmesan, parsley, diced onion and diced garlic to food processor.
• Add ground turkey, egg and salt & pepper to combine
• Shape into 1" meatballs
• In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium high heat
• Coat each meatball in the flour and add to the oil in the skillet
• Cook for about 10-15 minutes, turning to brown all sides

Caramel Sauce

This caramel sauce is perfect! For ice cream, for dipping, pretzels, whatever! It sets up really nice and reheats to a beautiful drizzle.  Just 3 ingredients and about five minutes tops to make!

What you will need:

• 1 stick (1/2 c) butter
• 1/2 c brown sugar
• 1/3 c heavy cream

Directions:

• Melt the butter
• Whisk in brown sugar and heavy cream
• Bring to a boil and boil for exactly 3 minutes
• Remove from heat and allow to cool at room temperature (I dropped a little vanilla in at this point, too)
• Store in the fridge and microwave for 60 seconds if you want it back to being drizzly

Spatchcock Chicken and Veggies

This recipe is something we do SO OFTEN. It's simple and all the kids love it. Not to mention, it gives you a ton left to save and make some chicken broth with. We have made this several different ways over time, but this is our favorite! You want a nice crispy skin with a juicy and tender chicken. Enjoy!

What you will need:

• 1 whole chicken
• 4 T olive oil (divided)
• Any seasonings you like
• Veggies if you like

Directions:

• Prepare your oven by placing the rack in the center and preheating the oven to 475*
• Prepare your pan by using a baking sheet that's been sprayed with cooking spray and drizzled with a couple tablespoons of olive oil
• Rinse your chicken and pat it dry on a towel covered cutting board
• Reach inside the neck and remove any giblets and bits there may be in there.
• Lay the chicken breast side down and find the backbone
• Cut alone both sides of the backbone with some kitchen scissors
• Flip the chicken back over and lay it breast side up on the prepared baking sheet
• Press down firmly on the middle of the chicken and the breastbone will break, allowing the chicken to lay more flat on the pan
• Rub with the remaining olive oil and sprinkle with seasonings
• Cook chicken at 475* for 30 minutes
• Decrease temperature to 400*. If potatoes are part of your preferred veggies, add them to the pan at this point. Cook for another 25 minutes
• If you have any other veggies, at them to the pan at this point and cook for another ten minutes, or until center of the chicken breast has reached at least 160*