Tri-Tip Fajitas

We had a delicious dinner at my parents the other night, which my mom sent us home with a bag full of leftover tri-tip.  If you don't know what tri-tip is...I'm sorry!  I'm not really gonna go into it, but ri-tip is a certain cut of beef that was started in a town not too far from where we live.  Its good.  Anyway, I had this leftover tri-tip.  I've never made fajitas before (well I have, but only from a bag of Trader Joe's frozen fajita mix), so I thought I'd have a try at it.  They turned out YUM-MEE!  I totally made it up, so any of you die-hard fajita fans, please don't judge me!  

• Leftover tri-tip (or steak or pork or whatever), sliced into strips (about 1/2" wide, 2-3 inches long, doesn't really matter so much the size)
• Onion, sliced
• Bell peppers (I like a variety of different colors), julienned
• 1/4 cup Taco Seasoning
• 3/4 cup Water
• Cheese, shredded (cheddar or Jack are good)
• About 1 tsp sugar
• Olive oil
• 1-2 Tbsp butter
• Tortillas (corn or flour)
• Sour cream (for garnish)

Heat about 1 Tbsp olive oil and 1-2 Tbsp butter in a medium to large skillet on medium heat.  When butter has melted, throw in your sliced onions.  Toss a little to disperse the oil/butter on all the onions.  Let cook down, stirring occasionally.  Make sure they don't burn!  When the onions are about 1/2 done (when they're starting to get flimsy & somewhat translucent), sprinkle them with about a teaspoon of sugar (unless you're using sweet onions or don't want sweet caramelized onions).  This gives them a little sweetness.  Also add the bell peppers (I used frozen julienned peppers from Trader Joes).  Let cook down until just right (I like them nice and soft...if you like them harder, then stop cooking soonder!).

Meanwhile in another pan, heat a little oil and heat up your sliced leftover meat.  When its heated through, sprinkle with 1/4 cup Taco Seasoning (more or less depending on how much meat you have) and 3/4 cup water.  Stir thoroughly.  Bring to a boil.  Simmer for 10-20 minutes until the water has gone down and the seasoning has soaked into your meat.

When everything is cooked, heat up your tortillas - if you're lucky enough to have a gas grill, warm 'em on a burner.  Otherwise through 'em in the oven real quick or in the microwave for 20-30 seconds until they're just warm enough and are more flimsy.

Top tortillas with onion/pepper mixture, meat, shredded cheese, and sour cream (in whatever order you wish!).

Enjoy!

This year

This year will be our 2nd year of homeschooling.  I can't say our first was all bells & whistles.  In fact I'd say it was kind of a disaster.

We got off to a rough start.

I started too quickly without doing my research.  I tried to create my own curriculum as we went, which was NOT a good idea seeing as I had a 3-year old AND a 4-month old baby, not to mention we were living at my parents house while our home was being renovated.  Not quite the ideal setting.  There were some pluses, like the one-on-one attention my son needed for reading and we focused on things that interested him, like Earth Science (the kid is OBSESSED with rocks & crystals!) & Chemistry.  He spent 2 years in public school, which was mostly a wonderful experience (we had a really good school), but he had some struggles academically, which put him behind.  In turn, he began hating school (the academic side anyway...he LOVED the social aspect), which was really sad to watch, seeing as he has always been one who loves learning.  The most productive part of this last year has been watching my son regain his love for learning through things that HE was interested in.  Other than that and the 1-on-1 he got for reading, the year pretty much was a flop.

So this year I decided things HAD to change!  Around February I started a mission to make our homeschool classroom a better environment for learning.  Step number 1 was moving out of my parents house and into our new home, where we established a room dedicated to learning.  Then I researched like I'd never researched before.  I checked out my library, ordered some books, borrowed some books, scored the internet over and over.  I finally got homeschooling!  Of course there is SO much room for growth, but I'm getting it.  And the best part is I've made things easier for me and my son!  

First off we enrolled in a hybrid charter, which is modeled under the Classical method/style.  Since its a public school, its free and they provide us with free curriculum (we get to choose from their list of okayed material, which most of it I would have gotten regardless).  They meet 2 days a week, in which they teach History, Science, Geography, Art, & Music, with a little of everything else in between (math, reading, writing, etc).  I'm still the primary teacher, but this takes a huge load of work off of my shoulders, plus he gets the socialness he wants.  

Second, for our home studies, we decided to implement the workbox system.  In my research I came across Sue Patrick's workbox system.  Everything I read about it was positive and it just sounded like something that would work good for our kids.  We're still in the process of refining it, but after only a couple days I could see such a major change already!

Third, I admitted I don't have the time or energy to create my own curriculum, so I've turned to the ready made stuff.  I'm still not real down with curriculum packages - you know the ones that come from the same company for ALL of the subjects.  I kinda like the idea that someone specializes in Math or Language Arts or Science, etc.  So far I'm very happy with my curriculum choices, but then again we're not even through the first month!

Fourth,  I take my daily dose of chill pill every day.  I'm slowly but surely changing my mind set from public school thought to classical thought.  Deadlines shouldn't dictate our education, learning should dictate our education.  If my son is getting a subject and is ready to move on, why bore him by repeating it over and over and over again?  He gets it, he's practiced it, now move on.  On the flip side, if he's made his way through a lesson and is absolutely lost, we don't have to move on until he DOES get it.  Isn't that beautiful?  

PW's Chicken Tortilla Soup

I've been wanting to try a good tortilla soup recipe for a while now, but never have gotten around to it.  The other day I came across this recipe on the Pioneer Women.  Remember what I said about the PW NEVER letting me down?  Well she lives up to the reputation yet again!  This soup was fantastic!  It took some time to make (mainly sitting time while it simmered), but it was super easy.  I have a confession to make, though, I totally skipped the "4 cups hot water" step...um, ya I just noticed that JUST NOW!  So I guess I'm gonna have to try this again the right way and see if I love it as much! :-) I think my 1-year-old loved it the most.  He saw the leftovers in the fridge this morning and begged and begged until I made him a bowl.  This is definitely going into our list of our family favorite recipes!

• 2 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts (I actually used 5 boneless, skinless chicken tenderloins, since that is all I had on hand)
• 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
• 1-1/2 teaspoon Cumin
• 1 teaspoon Chili Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder (I was out of this, so I eliminated the salt and used 1 tsp of garlic salt)
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
• 1 cup Diced Onion
• 1/4 cup Diced Green Bell Pepper
• 1/4 cup Red Bell Pepper
• 3 cloves Garlic, Minced
• 1 can (10 Oz. Can) Rotel Tomatoes And Green Chilies
• 32 ounces, fluid Low Sodium Chicken Stock
• 3 Tablespoons Tomato Paste
• 4 cups Hot Water
• 2 cans (15 Oz. Can) Black Beans, Drained
• 3 Tablespoons Cornmeal Or Masa
• 5 whole Corn Tortillas, Cut Into Uniform Strips Around 2 To 3 Inches

FOR THE GARNISHES:

• Sour Cream
• Diced Avocado
• Diced Red Onion
• Salsa Or Pico De Gallo
• Grated Monterey Jack Cheese
• Cilantro

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix cumin, chili pepper, garlic powder, and salt. Drizzle 1 tablespoon olive oil on chicken breasts, then sprinkle a small amount of spice mix on both sides. Set aside the rest of the spice mix.

Place chicken breasts on a baking sheet. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until chicken is done. Use two forks to shred chicken. Set aside.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a pot over medium high heat. Add onions, red pepper, green pepper, and minced garlic. Stir and begin cooking, then add the rest of the spice mix. Stir to combine, then add shredded chicken and stir.

Pour in Rotel, chicken stock, tomato paste, water, and black beans. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 45 minutes, uncovered.

Mix cornmeal with a small amount of water. Pour into the soup, then simmer for an additional 30 minutes. Check seasonings, adding more if needed---add more chili powder if it needs more spice, and be sure not to undersalt. Turn off heat and allow to sit for 15 to 20 minutes before serving. Five minutes before serving, gently stir in tortilla strips.

Ladle into bowls, then top with sour cream, diced red onion, diced avocado, pico de gallo, and grated cheese, if you have it! (The garnishes really make the soup delicious.)

Our Workbox System

This year we've decided to implement the workbox system.  In my research I came across Sue Patrick's workbox system.  Everything I read about it was positive and it just sounded like something that would work good for our kids.  We're still in the process of refining it, but after only 3 days I have seen such a major change already.

What do I like about it?

1. My children can be more independent.  They have all of their work & the tools to do their work right there in front of them, so they can independently do their work.
2. Gives me more freedom.   I don't have to stand there next to them telling them what they need to do and what comes next.  My son is still struggling with reading, which means he still needs help reading directions for many of his assignments, but this way we both know ahead of time what he can do on his own and what he needs my help with.  
3. Makes planning the week quicker and easier.  I plan once a week what is going inside the boxes.  It takes about an hour (give or take).  I know what things he needs to accomplish each day and the things that I want to add in between.  
4. Takes the stress of the unknown out of the day.  There's no more asking "When are we gonna be done?" or "How much more do I have left?" or "when do we get to do [fill in the blank]?"  He knows what he's done and what he has left.  My son gets overwhelmed very fast.  If I ask him to clean his room and there are toys everywhere, he doesn't see that they're all legos and all you have to do is put them in the lego bin.  He sees there are way too many toys for him to pick up, so why even try, because he'll never be able to do it all himself.  But if someone comes and does it with him, even if it means I only pick up 1 lego, he'll do all the rest just knowing someone is there to take part of the load off.  Thats kind of how school work is with him.  If I tell him he has Group Time, History, Science, Math, Reading, Phonics, Grammar, Spelling, Vocab, Life Skills, Art, Music...to do today, or he sees a tall stack of books, he wigs out.  I might as well have thrown him into a pit of starving crocodiles.  But having all of his work separated, yet right there in front of him, he doesn't feel so overwhelmed.  He can see that it isn't as much work as it sounds.  
5. The day goes by so much quicker!  My son doesn't complain as much and he's actually already figured out that the sooner he gets through his work, the sooner he'll get to have free time.  

Here's our workbox system so far.  It's not quite as I want it to be yet, but its all I could pull together before school started (I'm an over achiever, I know).

The boys clock in/clock out cards.  Each day they clock in and clock out so they have the visual of starting and finishing school.  My 4-year-old especially likes this!

(I totally snaked the idea for the look from Spell Outloud.)

Their workbox grids/schedules.

As the boys finish their work, they take the tag from their workbox and place it on their grid.

If you don't want to make your own activity cards, you can download them from Homeschool Creations.  One of these days I'll upload mine for download as well.

Their grid shows them the order in which they get things done.  We start off with Group Time, then we move on to workboxes.  Once they've gotten their first 2 workboxes complete, they get to have a snack and take a 10 minute break.  So they can see on the grid what they need to do in order to take a break and have a snack.

Here are are my oldest son's workboxes thus far.  I love these bins (found in discount section at Target for $2.50/each), but I could only find a total of 7, so he gets 4 & my younger son gets 3.  We just double up and some times triple up on assignments per box.  Eventually I'd like to get more and build a rolling library cart to put them on.

When he's all done with his assignments, he places them into the "Finished Work" bin above his workboxes.

Here's what his whole workbox system looks like (you can see my preschoolers workboxes in the background).  We're using an old antique school desk to place it all on.

We've definitely changed Sue's system a bit to fit our needs and style, but its been great so far!

If you want to learn more about Sue Patrick's Workbox System or would like to order her book, visit her site here.  If you're looking for cool ideas others have done with their workboxes, search "sue patrick workboxes" in google images.  

PW's French Onion Soup

You'll soon come to find that I am an avid Pioneer Woman follower.  I love her.  I love the life she portrays (can't say she lives, because everyone knows that as real as you may be on a blog, really, come on, we know life isn't always happy times and perfection...well maybe for the Pioneer Woman, I don't know heehee :-) ) My dream is to live out in the open with a beautiful house and property that I really don't have to leave unless I want to, to raise cattle & have wild horses running through my yard.  And I wouldn't mind seeing my husband in Wranglers & chaps, riding a horse, roundin' up cattle, either.  I LOVE it!  I'm quite envious in a way.  My boys would love it too.  They all think they're cowboys anyway.  My oldest is VERY upset that he grew out of his cowboy boots & clothes & I haven't gotten him new ones yet.  Shame on me! 

Anyway, the Pioneer Woman is wonderful.  When it comes to food, I know I can ALWAYS count on her.  She NEVER lets me down.  There is NOTHING she has ever posted that I have tried that has been anything other than pure bliss.  This recipe being one of them.  Its SO good!  I do have to admit that I forgot to get Gruyere cheese, so I used the Mozzarella I had on hand...tasted great, but definitely needed a little bit saltier of a cheese (hence the reason why Gruyere is perfect).  For some reason I've always been scared of making onion soup.  Don't really know why, I guess I just always figured it would take too long to make, but it was WAY easy.  And it gets better as the days go by.  We ate it a couple days in a row and each day it just got better and better!  Mmm, makes my mouth water just thinking about it!

• 1 stick Butter
• 4 whole Large (or 6 Medium) Yellow Onions, Halved Root To Tip, And Sliced Thin
• 1 cup (generous) Dry White Wine (I used chicken broth)
• 4 cups Low Sodium Chicken Broth
• 4 cups Beef Broth
• 2 cloves Minced Garlic
• Worcestershire Sauce
• Several Thick Slices Of French Bread Or Baguette
• 5 ounces (to 7 Ounces) Gruyere Cheese, Grated

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Melt butter in a heavy soup pot or Dutch oven over medium-low heat. Add onions and cook, covered, for 20 minutes. Place soup pot into the oven with the lid slightly ajar to ensure the onions will brown. Allow onions to cook in the oven for 1 hour, stirring at least once during the cooking process so onions won’t stick and burn.

Remove pot from oven and place back on stovetop over medium heat. Stir, scraping off all the brown, flavorful bits. Turn off heat and pour in wine. Turn heat back to medium. Cook wine for five minutes, allowing it to reduce. Add broths, Worcestershire Sauce and minced garlic and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 30 to 45 minutes.

Butter one side of the bread slices and broil over low heat, allowing bread to brown and become crispy.

When soup is ready, ladle into bowl or ramekin. Place crispy bread on top, and then sprinkle generously with grated cheese. Broil until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Serve immediately.

Borders Deals

One of our favorite family non-outdoors activities is going to Borders.  They have the best Bargain section!  My sister informed me that no one actually ever gets anything good from the Bargains section because all they have are cookbooks and history and children's books.  Um, aren't those the best ones?  We decided my family is probably the only ones who benefit from these bargains, which I have absolutely no problem with.  More for us, right?  

Borders is going out of business...I'm SO sad!  Somewhere in the midst of my pity party I found my way down to our local store and found some incredible deals.  I spent an hour and 1/2 with my poor baby who had just visited the doctor for his 15 mos shots, digging through what was left of the store.  When my baby was finally at his wits end, and I was at my wits end with him, I made my way to the long check out line, waited for 15 minutes, only to find out when I got to the front that they don't take checks.  Uh, SO frustrating!  Normally I wouldn't care.  I'm SO not a check writer (don't worry, I'm not one of THOSE people that holds up the line), but our debit card was hacked into, so we had to cancel it and wait for another to come in the mail and of course that had to happen the week I went into to Borders.  So I had to let all of my good deals go and walk out of the store empty handed.  

The next day I visited the bank and got cash before I headed back to the store.  To my shock, amazement, and wonder, ALL of my books were still there (guess my sisters right, maybe people really don't want my books...yay!), plus a few new ones.  So here's what I got (there's 2 books missing from the picture-couldn't pry them away from my kids to take the picture):

So sad Borders is closing, but so happy for my fabulous finds!  I just got an email saying they only have 10 more days left, so I'll be heading down there at least once more...make sure you do too!

Butternut Squash Soup

One night for a women's church activity they served the most delicious butternut squash soup.  It was to die for!  I hunted down the recipe and as it turns out, they girl who had made it, originally made 1 recipe, but thought it was too gingery, so she made another recipe.  She didn't want to waste the first batch, so she mixed the two pots together and created a masterpiece!  Sounds cheez-whiz, but really, it was SO good!  I haven't made the 2 together yet, I just made the 2nd recipe she used and it was really good too (but not quite like the one with both recipes!).  I'm including both recipes, so just know the 1st is the one I used, the 2nd was the one my friend thought was too gingery, and if you mix the both together, it creates perfection.

Recipe #1 (the one I used): Butternut Squash Soup

Serves 6-8

• 1/2 T olive oil
• 1 T butter
• 1/2 C sliced carrots (abt 1 med carrot or 12 baby ones)
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 1 C diced onion
• 4 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1 medium butternut squash, (abt 4 cups peeled and diced)
• 1 medium potato, diced (about 2 C diced)
• 32 oz chicken broth (that’s one box/carton)
• 1 T brown sugar
• 1 1/2 t kosher salt
• 3/4 t dried sage
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper or a douse of hot sauce

In a large stock pot, heat olive oil and butter. When butter is melted add onions, carrots, celery, and garlic.

Saute for 2-3 minutes or until onion is tender. Add the squash.

Then add potato, sage, salt, red pepper, and chicken broth. Bring to a boil and then turn down to a simmer. Simmer with the lid on for 30-40 minutes or until everything is tender. Check a piece of squash and also a piece of celery and potato to make sure they area fork tender. Stir in 1 T brown sugar.

Use an immersion blender, or transfer soup to a regular blender and puree until smooth.

A small drizzle of heavy cream or sour cream is good on top.

Recipe #2 (the one my friend thought was too gingery): Curried Butternut Squash Soup with Coconut & Lime

Serves 4

• 1 1/2 Tbs. olive oil  
• 3/4 cup sliced shallots  
• 1 Tbs. minced or grated fresh ginger  (this is WAY too much…just a tiny bit goes a long ways
• 1 garlic clove, minced  
• 9 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash (about 3 lb.)   
• 3 cups chicken or vegetable broth  
• 1/2 tsp. salt, plus more, to taste  
• 1 tsp. Thai red curry paste  
• 3/4 cup light coconut milk  
• 2 tsp. fresh lime juice  

In a large pot over medium heat, warm the olive oil. Add the shallots and cook until softened, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the ginger and garlic and cook until fragrant but not browned, about 1 minute more. Add the squash, broth and the 1/2 tsp. salt, increase the heat to high and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to maintain a simmer, cover and cook until the squash is tender when pierced with a fork, about 20 minutes. Let cool slightly. 

Put the curry paste in a small bowl and stir in the coconut milk until well blended.

In a blender or food processor, puree the soup, in batches if necessary, until smooth. Return the soup to the pot and stir in the coconut milk mixture. Heat the soup until just hot, then stir in the lime juice and adjust the seasoning with salt. Ladle the soup into warm bowls and serve immediately.