Tackle It Tuesday #15 - Recipe Organization

I'm sure you can probably tell from the title of my blog I like to cook. And as such, I like recipes, lots of recipes, from everywhere. This is my current collection of recipes I printed from the internet, got from people, etc., well at least the ones that were currently in my kitchen, I think I have a whole 3" binder of recipes in my basement.

Well, since one of the things I really want to do this year is to declutter our home, I decided it was time to use this software:

MasterCook to put my recipes in. Then, I can just take the laptop into the kitchen with the recipe open and cook to my heart's content. It will be easier to find the recipes because they will all be in one cookbook, and they have a convenient Search option. It will be easier to share my recipes because I am asked for them a lot and usually what I do is type them into here to share, if they are already there, I just have to export and send. The best part is I get rid of this pile of papers that seems to just get moved from place to place. Now as good as I am at typing, I didn't do all of these this week, I just decided to do them on Saturday. It will be an ongoing project, but it will be tackled!!

This is what I'm tackling this week, tell us what you are tackling and head on over to 5 Minutes for Mom to see what other people are tackling this week.

Apron Giveaway

Ok all you Apron lovers who can sew or know someone who can sew, I found a giveaway for an apron pattern book over on The Apron Goddess. All the styles are adorable, they are vintage styles so no plain, boring styles. The book has a couple of child patterns too. So head on over and see what the giveaway is about and get those sewing machines warmed up.

Tasty Tuesday #1

Ok, so I belong to this wonderful group of local bloggers and we decided to start a recipe share on Tuesdays, hence Tasty Tuesday. I'd love to have a great button for everyone to add, but I'm pretty illiterate when it comes to that stuff, so if anyone wants to help, I'll use it.

Anyway, the first recipe I'd like to share is for a delicious salad, I love salads.

Tortilla Salad

The ingredients for a large salad are:

2 c Lettuce (I use Romaine)

1/2 medium tomato, diced

1/2 medium bell pepper, diced

1/4-1/2 cup Pinto beans (you can also use black beans), drained & rinsed

1 handful of tortilla chips, crumbled (you can use more if you want)

Light Ranch dressing, to taste

I also usually add a couple of green onions chopped, but I didn't have any on hand.

You can also add some shredded cheese.

Just put all the ingredients in a bowl and toss.

This is what it looks like before dressing and tossing, tastes good but not really appetizing looking after tossing. You could probably add some taco meat or chicken, but since I'm a vegetarian, none for me. This is one of my favorite salads. If you are trying to really lose weight, you could use salsa instead of dressing too.

Let us know what you're cooking. Add your name and link to your blog entry, not front page and let's share some yummy recipes.

My Fun Week

So, my son (I really have to come up with a nickname for him & my hubby for on here) got his tonsils and adenoids out last Monday. The surgery went well, the recovery is still going on and I thought it was getting better but he woke up at 3 am last night. We have so far had only 1 night (Saturday) that he slept through the night, and he didn't fall asleep until 9:30 that night, though he was in bed at 7:45. To say I've been tired is an understatement. I've been living on sleep patterns I left behind when my son stopped demanding an overnight feeding at 5 months.

His pain level got better, now it's worse, which we were informed would happen. Apparently the Tylenol with Codeine they prescribed for him tastes awful though so he'd rather be in pain than take his medicine, so it's so much fun for me. He's finally starting to eat solid foods though.

Anyway, that's really my week, I cater to my 5 year old, beg him to take his medicine, when that didn't work we resorted to bribery (he got 2 Lego Star Wars sets for taking his medicine without fighting me), make lots of food that he ate maybe one bite of and ask him every 5 minutes to take a sip of something to drink. Then, when we'd get him to bed between 7:30 and 8, I have been so exhausted I've been in bed shortly after him. I finally got some laundry done on Friday and over the weekend, but I'm so far behind my basement has more clothes than our closets.

I have him home from school again today because he didn't sleep through the night, hopefully by Wednesday he will have a good night's sleep. On top of all of this, my husband leaves Friday evening for a trip with his ski club to Okemo VT. I so hope my son can go to school on Wednesday, just for our sanity...

Tackle It Tuesday #14 - Valentine's candy

I've been doing a lot lately trying to get ready for my son's tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy, so I haven't posted a tackle in two weeks, I promise I've been tackling, just no time for blogging. I haven't even read a blog in close to 2 weeks, so to get back in to things, this is what I've been tackling and will finish today....

I'm making 33 of these lovely chocolate lollipops. 28 students, 4 teachers and 1 office worker. We are also signing lots of Valentine's cards, which next year I'm starting in January. I've finished 24 of them so far. Here's what they look like all wrapped up.

I made little labels that say Happy Valentine's Day from my son (I really use his name), and 100% chocolate, no peanuts (because of a peanut allergy in his class).

I will also be making brownies and big chocolate chip cookies for his class party.

I may not post next week since my son is getting his surgery on Monday, but I will definitely be tackling.

This is what I'm tackling this week, let us know what you are tackling and check out what other Mom's are tackling at 5 Minutes for Mom.