Taco Twist Bake

I like pasta.  Too much.  I pretty much subscribe to the theory that nothing can be bad if it involves pasta.  So when I came across this recipe for a "Taco Twist Bake" involving rotini noodles I knew I'd give it a try sometime.  Fast forward to a rainy day stuck at home with three kiddos.  What's for lunch?  Checked the cabinets and decided I had pretty much everything I needed to make this.  The original called for sour cream and did not involve Doritos.  I subbed cream cheese (I also subscribe to the theory that nothing involving cream cheese can be bad.) in the place of sour cream and added a Doritos crust.  I also used way less meat and threw on some taco sauce upon serving my portion.
What you need:
*1lb hamburger meat (I actually used about a quarter pound because I'm not a huge meat person)
*1/2 green pepper diced
*packet of taco seasoning
*water per the taco seasoning directions (I actually use way less, just the actual packet filled up, which makes the seasoning more concentrated.)
*box of rotini (spiral) noodles, cooked al dente and drained
*8oz sour cream OR cream cheese
*1c (I used two) shredded cheddar cheese (I used the fiesta blend Wal-Mart cheese)
*1can (15oz) tomato sauce
*Doritos nacho cheese tortilla chips

What you do:
Cook hamburger meat until done, drain if needed, add seasoning and water, cook until liquid is absorbed.
Add chopped green pepper and tomato sauce, bring to a simmering boil (if that's a phrase, oh well it is now).
In a bowl toss cooked rotini with the cream cheese (or sour cream, or actually you know what you could use a good plain Greek yogurt which would bump up the protein) and half the shredded cheese (going by the original recipe that'd be half a cup, going by the Shannon-loves-cheese-ipe it'd be a whole cup).
Crush a couple handfulls of Doritos into the bottom of a pan (I used an 8x8 glass baking pan and it was FULL so you may wanna go 9x13 on this one it's up to you).
Pour cheese/noodle mix on top of chips, then top with the meat/sauce mix and top that with remaining shredded cheese.
Bake at 350 about 20 minutes or until cheese is melted.
Eat it.
Say YUM.


It was seriously more difficult to type that ^^ out than it was to make this.
The result was YUMMY and both my food-eating age children ate it with no complaints, which is rare.
I think you could really expand on this to make it suit any taste, adding jalapenos is something I think I'd like.  I also considered adding a layer of taco sauce on top of the meat sauce mixture (before the final cheese layer) just because I love taco sauce.  I mean love it like I should have a shirt that says I heart Taco Sauce.

D-I-Y Coasters

I saw this idea on Pinterest a couple months back and thought it'd be a neat gift for those people that you have a hard time buying gifts for, teachers, grannies that have everything, distant family that you don't see enough to know anything personal to gift.  I made about 5-6 sets, and just sent three to school today as teacher gifts.  (Even though my 9 yr old says "But what if these don't match their living rooms?"...she got a lesson on all the various places one could use a coaster - I even surprised myself with the list haha!)  

This is super cheap.  I hit up Hobby Lobby (HL) during a 50% off sale on scrapbook paper and scored the sheets for around twenty-five cents each!  Each sheet made 4-6 coasters.  I purchased several tiles at Lowe's for around twenty cents each.  

Craft recipe:

4x4 Tiles (I did sets of 4)

Scrapbook paper cut into 4x4 squares

Mod Podge (MP)

Clear acrylic spray to seal

Felt circles

Glue the felt circles (I cheated and used the peel and stick felt) to each corner of the tiles, this is to prevent scuffing furniture.  

Apply MP to the back of the paper, smooth it onto the tiles.  Wait about 5-10 minutes (ya'll know I only waited like 2-3, right?) for it to set, then apply a layer of MP over the top of the paper.  

When MP is totally dry (about 30 minutes) spray with acrylic spray to seal and give a nice professional shine.  

Negatives - that clear spray STINKS.  For DAYS.  Do not under any circumstances spray this in your house unless you a. want to get high, and b. want to smell it for days.  Also -smoothing the paper out took some trial and error and I think out of 24 or so coasters I only had one bubble up.  

Additional ideas - my SSIL (Step-sis-in-law) suggested doing this with 4x4 squares of paper that have the kid's art, hand or foot prints (depending on their age obviously) as gifts for grandparents.  Really the possibilities are endless.  

I guarantee you these do not look like you "just glued some paper to some tiles".  The photo above is one of my more whimsical sets and was the first one I finished.  You can see on the plaid designs where it wasn't totally dry.  They did dry evenly and the darker "splotches" are no longer there.  

Photo to Canvas

So, I have kids.  This means I have TONS of pictures and my house is more than cluttered with traditional framed displays.  This also means that my small hall wall is smeared with so many mystery stains that I'd be afraid to even learn what they are.  So, I see this idea on Pinterest to create large "canvas photos" using actual photos and Mod Podge.  Sold.  I picked up several 8x10 and 11x14 canvases at Hobby Lobby.  Roughly $6 for a pack of 2 (depending on size).  They often have these on sale 50% off too.  Anywho....

Scored my enlargements in the mail and after a day or so of weighing them down to get the curve out (the came in a canister, not that you care, but I felt like I needed to add this fact for some reason), I began.
The pin I saw involved three pictures "canvased", then attached with and hung by ribbon with the edges covered in scrapbook paper.  Call me minimalist, but the paper was too busy for me so I decided to paint the edges.  I painted them black, and trimmed my picture.

Here's the first negative.  I don't scrap/scrapbook/paper craft/whatever so I own the cheapest trimmer HL sold.  It was nowhere near big enough to cut these 11x14's.  So I trimmed by hand...with my kitchen scissors b/c I was too impatient to wait for my craft ones to turn up (again, see "have kids" above).

Picture "trimmed", I Mod Podged the back with a thick coat, and also MP'd the canvas itself.  Once I placed the picture onto the canvas (I don't need to say MP side down do I?) I used wax paper (it's the first thing I thought of for whatever reason) to put on top and use to smooth it out without fingerprinting the picture up.
At this point I'd "say" wait 5-10 minutes for the MP to set but I probably actually waited more like 1-2 minutes (again, impatient).  Then I applied a coat of MP over the top of the photo (in case you've never MP'd, it's milky at first but dries clear).  I used gloss finish because it's what I had b/c I traditionally will always choose gloss when it's an option.  I would say matte would probably look more natural with the canvas though.  After this dried I did one more coat of MP, let it dry, then painted in around the edges of the picture where white canvas showed through.  Another negative here is that the glossy MP shone glossy over the black painted areas when dry.  I probably should have MP'd over all the black edges but I didn't.
The second canvas was a much lighter photo overall, and I didn't mean to not paint the edges, I was just holding off until I finished MP'ing as to prevent the gloss problem mentioned above.  When I was done with this one I decided not to paint it.  I plan to do a display of four 11x14s total, one of each kid and one of all three of them.  Figure I'll do 2 painted, 2 not and alternate in the display.  :-)

I have two of four finished (again, see "have kids").  May have all four hung before the littlest (9months) gets to Kindergarten.

Overall I'd give this pin two thumbs up.  Easy, fairly inexpensive, and looks great.

Voici!