Happy Birthday!

Happy Third Birthday to my special Small Person. We celebrated with my folks at Incredible Pizza Company and then had cake at home. Note: This was the best pic I could get on his birthday.

This was his cake. He requested a dinosaur and I delivered. I only had 30 minutes to tint the icing and decorate the cake, so it looks a little sloppy. It tasted delicious, even so!



Alex and my Dad waiting for some cake.



Eric and Alex at the Train Park in Ferguson. Playing with the train set at the Whistle Stop Depot in Ferguson.

Recipes

I have had a couple of requests for a recipe, so I am posting it here. This is my fabulous Taco Skillet. The first recipe is for the Pampered Chef Rice Cooker and the second one is the regular skillet version. Both of these recipes are original and not published elsewhere.

Taco Skillet-© Sarah Hopf

1 lb ground beef or cut up chicken-Can substitute a can of Black Beans
1 medium onion chopped
2 or 3 garlic cloves, minced finely
1 or 2 Bell peppers, chopped, any color.
1 16 ounce can tomatoes
1 small can of diced chilies
1 pkg. taco seasoning mix
1 c uncooked brown rice
1 c shredded Mexican blend or Montere Jack cheese
2 c shredded lettuce


Drain tomatoes reserving juice. Add water to juice to make 2 cup of liquid. Add tomatoes, liquid, chilies, taco seasoning, garlic, peppers, and rice to rice cooker; stir. Put lid on and microwave on high for 30-45 minutes, depending on your microwave. Brown beef or chicken with onion in skillet, drain off fat. Add mixture from the rice cooker and stir. Top with shredded lettuce and cheese before serving. I serve blue corn tortilla chips on the side.
*Black beans can be used as the protein, just add to rice mixture before microwaving
*Great for leftover chicken or beef.
*White rice can be used, just reduced cooking time by 5 minutes.

Here is the regular skillet version.
Taco Skillet--© Sarah Hopf

1 lb ground beef or cut up chicken-Can substitute a can of Black Beans
1 medium onion chopped
2 or 3 garlic cloves, minced finely
1 or 2 Bell peppers, chopped, any color.
1 16 ounce can tomatoes
1 small can of diced chilies
1 pkg. taco seasoning mix
1 c uncooked brown rice
1 c shredded Mexican blend or Monterey Jack cheese
2 c shredded lettuce

Brown beef or chicken with onion in skillet, drain off fat. Drain tomatoes reserving juice. Add water to juice to make 2 cup of liquid. Add tomatoes, liquid, chilies, taco seasoning, garlic, peppers, and rice to skillet; stir. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until liquid is absorbed, roughly 45 minutes. Stir occasionally. Top with shredded lettuce and cheese before serving.

Clean MRI

Yep, a "clean" MRI. Dad is off the hook until the end of July/first of August. His tumor has not grown or metastasized. This does not mean he is cancer free, just in a holding pattern for now. He said it was the best birthday present ever!

Now that he is home, he would love to talk to folks on the phone. Either leave a comment here, or send me an email @ spow79@yahoo.com, and I will get you their phone number. We appreciate all the good thoughts and prayers. Special thanks to Janice for all the cards.

MRI

Dad has another MRI on the 3rd. 25% of Floyd was left last time, this time we are hoping for a much smaller percentage. Dad did not tolerate the chemo as well this time. He was in a lot of pain and had digestive issues which bought him an ER trip. He has been really tried and run down. He ended up receiving almost double the chemo from last time, so the side effects were to be expected. Send good thoughts his way, the 4th is his birthday and he is wanting good news for his birthday :)

Adventures in Ground Beef

I don't like to use ground beef, other than in hamburgers. Why you ask? My Mom used used to make a macaroni dish with ground beef that never did appeal to me and really turned me off to ground beef. Also it tends to be costly here in St. Louis, so I don't purchase it often. I had a pound and some Yukon Gold potatoes and stuck those two terms into Google and this is what came up. Peruvian Beef and Potato Soup. Seems kind of odd and deceptively easy, so I had to make it. I used onion powder instead of onion because I do not allow onions in my house,(I DON'T LIKE ONIONS!), I added three cut up carrots, and a handful of spinach. Can I say this is one of the best soups I have ever had. It really is quick and easy. With prep time, I think I spent 45 minutes total on this dish. It says it serves, but I think it ended up making 5 or 6 servings. The recipe is as follows.


Peruvian Beef and Potato Soup-click on the link for a beautiful picture of the dish


Courtesy of Whole Foods

Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped -I used frozen "stoplight" peppers(mixture of green, red, and yellow)
2-4 Chopped carrots
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 1/2 cups beef broth, preferably low-sodium*
1 cup water
2 medium yukon gold potatoes, peeled and finely chopped
1 tablespoon ground cumin*
1 bay leaf
1/4 pound dried capellini pasta*-I used regular Whole Wheat spaghetti
2 Handfuls of fresh spinich, roughly a cup
Salt and pepper to taste

Method
Cook beef in a large pot over medium heat until browned and cooked through. Remove from pot, set it aside and pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the fat. Add onion, bell pepper,carrots and garlic and cook over moderately high heat until softened, about 4 minutes. Add broth, water, potatoes, cumin and bay leaf. Bring to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes. Add pasta and spinach and simmer until al dente, about 5 minutes. Return browned meat and cook until warmed through, about 1 minute. Discard bay leaf, taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, and serve.



I recommend serving this with a nice crusty bread, such as French.

Well, that was FAST!

So, Dad's MRI got changed to the 29th, (without his permission, I might add). That was fairly uneventful, in fact it took less time then the previous one. Got the phone call Wednesday at lunch that 'Floyd' was 75% dead and that more chemo would be administered Thursday. However there was a small glitch; his creatine levels were high and if they didn't come down there would be no chemo. Back to my house to spend the rest of the day flushing out the kidneys. He went in this morning for blood work and his levels were one point high, but they chose to do the chemo anyway. Now he is out of surgery and in a room resting. We are praying that there won't be a repeat of last time and NOT HAVE ANOTHER TIA!!!

Green Green, It's Green They Say

Anyone who gets the song reference gets MAD props from me!!!

We have been 'greening' our home somewhat. While Dad was having all of his issues, we were getting new HVAC and blown insulation. We did an energy audit through Home Green Home, which is affiliated with the Missouri Botanical Gardens, and have been making some of the changes they suggested. We completely replaced the HVAC system and put in a zonal system with heat pump. Now we can control the upstairs and downstairs separately and account for what rooms we use the most. The excitement occurred when one of the workers fell through the ceiling outside of Alex's room, while working in the attic. He ended up being all right, and we now have a brand new attic access in the hallway.

It was quite the hole!


In addition to that, we got blown cellulose insulation in the basement and attic. This all will help with the draftiness of the house and bring down our energy bills. It doesn't hurt either that will be get tax breaks and potentially money back from the state of MO. The next step is the windows, which will likely be from Serious Windows in Bloomington, IL. So far, we are happy with what has been done. It is nice to wake up to a warm house for once :)