Taco Stuffed Pasta Shells

I got this recipe from SAOrganics.com.  You can make this as mild or as flavourful (read: spicy) as you like.  We tend to like things on the milder side, so I reduced the amount of the dry taco seasoning, and used mild salsa and taco sauce).  My guys are picky eaters, and both (especially Mini-Moo!) really liked this dish.  

I'm definitely making this one again!  I promised some friends the recipe, so without further ado, here it is.  My notes are in Italics.

I forgot to take a picture of the dish, so I used the photo from momsownwords.com

1 lb. ground beef or turkey (I used ground chicken – because I’m a rebel like that)
1/4 cup taco seasoning, 1 envelope (we’re sissies, so I just used a bit of the seasoning – this is really according to taste)
4 oz. cream cheese, cubed (or scooped or whatever...who has time to cube?)
12 Jumbo Pasta shells, cooked according to package instructions (I just used the entire box of jumbo shells. It effectively more than doubles the recipe, but I think there was just too much filling for just 12 shells)
1 cup salsa
1 cup taco sauce*
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup shredded Jack cheese (I didn’t have any Jack cheese.  Just use whatever the heck cheese you want; we used marble.  You can make this recipe over and over again – and depending on what cheeses you use, it can really change the dish.)

1 can tomato sauce.  (I added this because I wanted it to be a pasta dish with a Tex-Mex flavour, not a Tex-Mex made with pasta)

Optional Toppings: ( I totally didn’t see this!!)

1 1/2 cup crushed tortilla chips
1 cup sour cream
3 green onions, chopped
sliced olives
guacamole
sliced avocados
tomatoes

Directions

1. In a skillet brown meat over medium heat. Add taco seasoning (* I added the taco sauce in this step) and mix to combine. Add cubed cream cheese, cover and simmer so cream cheese can melt. Remove from heat and cool.

2. Fill cooked shells with about 1-2 T. of meat mixture (I used about ¾ tbsp per shell). In a 9×13 glass baking dish pour salsa to coat the bottom of dish. Place filled taco shells on top then add taco sauce tomato sauce. Cover and bake @ 350 for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, uncover, and sprinkle cheese on top, return to oven for another 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly. Serve with sour cream, and toppings of your choice.

3. Enjoy!

Why Torts will be awesome for Vancouver

Last week, the Vancouver Canucks announced former Rangers' head coach John Tortorella is to be the new head coach.  I should have made a blog post about this the day after we got swept out of the first round; I told my husband, "How awesome would it be - if AV gets canned - if they hire Torts as the new head coach?  I would never be happier to see a post game wrap up!"

Those of you who are avid hockey fans know of Tortorella's, um, tenuous relationship with reporters... or fans... or his players (see here, or here, or here, or here).  He's not known for subscribing to Thumper's mother's philosophy of, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." and this leads me to the three reasons why I think he'll be great for the Vancouver organization.  Despite these reasons being numbered, they are listed in no particular order.

#1.  He's going to keep the Vancouver sports reporters in line.

For years now, I think our local reports have received some special treatment (or think they're entitled to special treatment) by the players, the coaching staff, and the franchise as a whole.  Recently, the hubs came up with a phrase: "Can you get this knife out of my back?  I need it for something else." This seems to sum up the relationship the Vancouver organization has with the reporters here.  As a fan, it seems as though the franchise gives the reporters far more access than any other franchise gives their local reporters.  Now, I don't think this entitles the franchise to receive rose-coloured reporting, but Botchford and the like often seem to forget that they have it pretty easy with the Vancouver Canucks organization.  I imagine it wouldn't be that way in any other market.
Tortorella will probably have a lot of fun reminding our reporters what it's like in most other markets, and I will have a lot more fun watching this happen.  He'll have them whipped in shape in no time.

#2. He's going to keep the Vancouver fans in line.

Vancouver NHL fans are known for being band wagon fans. If you google "vancouver bandwagoners" you'll see blog entry after blog entry, and news article after news article detailing just how notorious we are for hopping on and off the bandwagon.  Remember that phrase the hubs came up with? Yeah, that applies to Vancouver Canucks and their relationship with us fans.  When we're winning, all we can holler about is how this year is our year (2013/14 season is TOTALLY our year.  I can feel it!).  The minutes we lose a game... scratch that, the second we miss a shot, we all scream from the mountain tops (and we have a lot here) about how we knew that was a bogus trade deal; how he's not won a face off in 10 games; how, if we'd kept the last guy with the softest hands in the league, that puck most definitely would have found the back of the net.
Torts won't put up with that mess.  He will call us out on that, and have fun doing it. He'll have us whipped into shape in no time.

#3.  He's going to keep the Vancouver players in line.

As with every franchise, we have some prima donnas on our team. We have The Twins who can only pass to each other (amazing passes though they sometimes are), Kesler who seems to be made of glass, and Bieska who talks too much (I adore him, but seriously, the man jaws himself into the sin bin far too many time) to name a few players who have probably been treated with kid gloves (especially The Twins, I bet).  Bieska stating that they don't need someone to crack the whip tells me that that's exactly what the team needs.  GM Mike Gillis probably recognized this as well I bet is the very reason he courted Torts. 
Vancouver players are treated well.  They have some ground breaking fitness and training philosophies; they really get down to the science of fitness and nutrition with the players, and tailor a regimen to suit each individual players needs.  They have a support staff that I doubt can be rivaled by any other team in the league (save perhaps some of the Original Six teams... but even then, I'm not too sure).  They live in the most beautiful city in the world.  Life is good, if you're in the NHL and you're playing for Vancouver.  Sure, you'll get swept out of the playoffs one season, and then get frustratingly close to the Cup in subsequent seasons, but you're living the good life here. With that, however, comes complacency.  This is where Torts comes in. He's going to make some players very non-complacent.  He'll have them whipped into shape in no time.

I know there are a number of sport journalists, fans, and players who aren't too comfortable with this new development, but I know one player and one fan who can't wait.   

 
 









This is going to be an awesome season.

Oh em gee, another contest!

Happy Sunday, folks!

I know I've been beating you over the head with my support of the Mario Marathon, but I'm going to continue to do this today (you'll get a break soon, don't worry *wink*).

For the remainder of the day, every donation to the Mario Marathon through my blog gets you an entry to win a set of six Mario themed pot holders, handmade by my friend @missindyjones!  Not only that, but if you donate a minimum $5 you'll also get entered to win a Wii U in the grand prize drawing from the folks at Mario Marathon!

Five dollars for a chance to win six handmade potholder AND a WiiU?? That's a pretty fantastic deal, if you ask me!

Send a screen grab of your donation (should look something like the pic below) to runningwithdithers@outlook.com and you'll be entered to win!

 
Good luck everyone! 

Contest Time!

Hello friends!

So I'm going to be running at least one or two contests over the next few days to promote the Mario Marathon.

The first contest is Perler Portrait!

Every $10 donated via my blog (using the donate button to the right) before June 21, 2013, 9:00 PM (PST) gets you one entry to win a custom made Perler portrait. Email a screen grab of your donation to runningwithdithers@outlook.com and you'll be added to the draw.

The winner will be announced on this blog and will need to email their photo so that I can pixelate it and turn it into Perler awesomeness.  It will take a couple of weeks to make it (need to make sure I have the right amount of the right coloured beads), but I'll get it out to you ASAP.

So start donating, and look as awesome as Mr. Jackson up there!

Grey Mode

As I mentioned in my last post, my family on occasion goes into Grey Mode.  My partner was awesome enough to ghost write another post that explains what that is all about.  Enjoy!

Simply put, grey mode is the low power mode from Star Trek: Voyager. Now, I’m not one to quote or refer to Voyager so this must be a pretty serviceable metaphor for me to call back to that train wreck of a show.

For my family grey mode refers to a different way of approaching spending, resources, and entertainment.

On the spending front we don’t buy anything frivolous and are efficient with every penny we spend. This means if there’s an essential we need we get the best per unit price – sometimes this means buying half a decade’s worth of bar soap at once resulting in a high short term expenditure that saves money in the long term and sometimes it means just getting the no name brand. For things like food that we will need eventually we use what we call trigger prices. For example we won’t buy a certain size bag of chips for more than $2.50 but if we see it below that price we buy it regardless of whether we need it now or not, we’ll use it eventually and a good price may be a long time away from returning.

Family resources are used in a similarly pragmatic way – we avoid waste and use things into the ground.
Squeeze every last drop of dish soap from the bottle, use that towel until it has a hole in it even if the colour is faded, that kind of thing.

Thus far, this probably just sounds like simple austerity measures and that’s true but you’d be surprised how many people find this hard to do whether in the short or long term.

The third category, entertainment, is where you really see some benefits during the process that don’t just involve your bank account. Entertainment during grey mode focuses on one thing: enjoying what we already have. Never finished that video game? Well now you have the time. How about that blu-ray you bought years ago, watched once, and forgot most of? What about that book you really enjoyed? That board game that was fun but you only played once? The list goes on. If you’re anything like my family your house contains untold entertainment treasures waiting to be enjoyed more fully than before. Sure, you could spend $10 on another new blu-ray but will you ever fully get all the enjoyment or value out of that if you watch it once and forget about it? Your entertainment collection was built by you, you’re going to enjoy it and you’ll very likely be quite surprised by how much.

And then once that injury is healed, new job found, or debt paid off and grey mode ends you’ll more fully appreciate it when you can spend money more freely again and you’ll still realize further savings from those bulk purchases. And maybe if you’re very lucky you’ll be able to experience the opposite of grey mode – gopher mode.


Blogger's Note: The Mario Marathon starts in just over two days.  Please consider donating through my blog to raise money for children's hospitals around the globe.
 

Summer Fun (without breaking the bank)

"Summertime is finally here
That old ballpark, man, is back in gear
Out on 49
Man I can see the lights

School's out and the nights roll in
Man, just like a long lost friend
You ain't seen in a while
And can't help but smile..." - Summertime, Kenny Chesney

In my last post, I asked readers to provide me with some suggestions on what to write about next.  While the requests didn't exactly come flooding in (I got all of one, haha!), the request I did get is well in my list of interests that I didn't waste any time getting to it.

The requested topic is <drum roll> (pause for dramatic emphasis) </drum roll>:

Free or cost effective activities to do with your kids during the summer.

With my kiddo (who will be referred to as Mini Moo from here on out) starting summer vacation soon, and my family currently in grey mode* I'm all about having a fun, skint season.  Mini Moo has a 9 week summer break, so I figured I'd list off 45 things (5 activities per week for 9 weeks) that we'll have fun attempting to do over the next couple of months. Here goes:

1. Pack a picnic.  Take it with you to the park, have it in your backyard, or suprise a loved one during their lunch break and bring the picnic to them.
2. Teach your kiddos to ride a bike (if they don't already know how to ride a bike.  If/when they know how, go bike riding)
3. Camp in your backyard, or inside on rainy days.
4. Create a treasure hunt for the kiddos. Do it on your own property or around town.
5. Water fight!!  Who doesn't love a great water fight?  I've been wanted to make sponge bombs for ages, so this is happening this year.  If you don't have these, or want to make them, bring out your water guns, water balloons, or simply grap some empty, cleaned out plastic containers and use those.  
6. Board games are big deal in our house.  This is an ideal way to play on those rainy days.
7. Go swimming.  See if there's a free outdoor pool nearby, and go there.  If there isn't a free one, there's bound to be one that's not too expensive, or just fill up the kiddie pool (if you have one) early in the morning so that the water's not too cold by mid morning, early afternoon.
8. Make your own tie dye tshirt.  Or, if you're not into the tie dye look, design a tshirt however you want to.  Again, a good indoor, rainy day activity.
9. Learn a new word every day. Open a children's dictionary, then have your kiddo close their eyes and point to a word. That word becomes the word of the day. Encourage her to use the word as many times as she can.
10. Have a dance party.  Turn on the tunes, and dance to your hearts content.  This is something that can be both indoors or outdoors.  If you decide to have an outdoor dance party, I would recommend making a cool-off necklace to ward off the summer heat.
11. Visit a fire department.  Most fire hourses will have an open house at least once throughout the summer.  Your kiddos will love being able to climb all over the engines and talking to real live heroes.
12. Build a fort.  Indoor or outdoor, this is a classic kid friendly activity.
13. Take an  "alphabet tour".  With camera(s) and journals in hand, go to the park, local attraction, or mall and begin with the letter A(Apple store), B (bakery), C (City Hall), etc.  When you're done your kiddo has a personal and creative alphabet memory book.
14. Take a nature walk. take along a journal, bring a camera, then go home, identify everything your photographed, create a nature book.
15. Go hiking (tie this in with a nature walk if you want, or do this seperate to the walk)
16. Check out free days at your local museums.
17. Go to the beach.
18. Check out your local hardware store - they offer free kids club building projects.
19. Cook with your kids, but let them plan it, be a part of the shopping, table setting - make dessert!
20. Go fly a kite.
21. Play jacks.  
22. Go to a neighbourhood festival.
23. Blow up Diet coke with mentos.
24. Make sillouettes.
25. Gather friends and have a "clean" the park day - celebrate your good deed with a picnic and play time.
26. Make school related activities fun - create your own matching cards. Use maccaroni for math reinforcement, make a clock with a paper plate, help with geometry by giving building tasks, etc.
27. Have a pajama day, enjoy movies and popcorn (great for a rainy day).
28. Play tennis, soccer, kickball, football, etc.
29. Write a short novel with your child, taking turns writing a chapter (for the older kids).
30. Master the jump rope.  My kidlet is not proficient with the jump rope, I think we'll be working on that a bit this summer.
31. Pick your own fruit (berries, cherries, apples, etc).  We live close to a very rural area where we canpick our own fruit for very little money.  Locally sourced food, ftw!
32. Have a puzzle race. Use 100-piece puzzles and see who finishes first.  I can tell you right now, my kidlet is winning this race.
33. Host the kids' friends for a sleepover. And the maybe your kids will be invited next, giving you a free evening
34. Take road trip to a nearby city. Spend the night if you can or just make it a day trip.
35. Go to the drive-in. If there isn't one nearby, look for one near your vacation spot. Every kid should go to the drive-in at least once!
36. Find a free concert near you.
37. Make paper airplanes. See whose goes the farthest.
38. Climb trees together. Of course, only if the kids are big enough, and you are brave enough.
39. Play croquet on the lawn. And try bocci too.
40. Go to a matinee. Find a bargain movie houses and pay less.
41. Make a lemonade stand (some cities have by-laws about this, so investigate this idea before you present it to your kid(s))
42. Race your Hotwheels
43. Blow bubbles.  Have some creative bubble play outside, like making rainbow bubble snakes
44. Make some sidewalk chalk paint, and go paint your sidewalk.  Mix equal parts cornstarch and water, and add generous amounts of food colouring.  This is dirty play, so make sure your kiddos aren't wearing their Sunday bests.
45. Go to a parade.  No matter where you live in the world, there's bound to be a parade of some sort during the summer months.  See what's happening around town, and talk to your kiddos about what they want to go to.

I'm going to make it my mission to check off at least a dozen things off this list before school starts in fall.  I know, mom of the year award won't be going to me for aspiring for such an uninspiring goal, but hey, at least I'm talking to my kid, right?

I'll report back to you in September to let you know which activities we did, and what I'll be adding to/removing from the list.  If you have any ideas, please do let me know.  If you want me to write about something else, shoot a comment my way, and I'll see about writing it as soon as I get the chance.

Have a great summer everyone, and don't forget, the Mario Marathon starts June 21st at 11 am (EST).  Tune in, donate, and support the chil'ns! 

 * For those who don't know us personally, you're probably unaware of this phrase.  My partner will be writing another post explaining this paradigm at some point.  Stay tuned!

Road Trip Travel Tips

 My family and I love traveling and between us have driven across most of Canada and America.  It's been a long time since I've posted anything (sorry!  It's been a hectic 5 months or so) but my partner has been amazing enough to write something for me.  He's basically a young Rick Steves when it comes to traveling, so pay attention.

These days advice about how to have a good roadtrip seems to revolve around what apps you have on your phone, I would like to provide something a bit more substantial to those of you planning to hit the road...

In-car Entertainment: Don't rely on a cell phone app that may require data coverage or drain your battery, bring a broad selection of mp3s and give everyone unlimited vetos - peace and enjoyment restored reliably. Bring a video game for the kid but just one game so it can be used as needed but not be a focus for the entire trip.

Shotgun Responsibilities: The person riding shotgun should operate and interpret the GPS and provide snacks to the driver upon request, also helping out with changing music and finding sunglasses and whatnot - this makes for a safer, happier drive.

Don't Fear The Stop: Don't hate on the guy who needs a bathroom break, this is a chance to dump garbage, refuel, clean the windows, stretch your legs, resupply, etc. It's an opportunity for all or a frustration for most depending on how you look at it.

Be Flexible: Unexpected stops, missed exits, and things spotted along the way can lead to great discoveries and experiences - keep your itinerary flexible and don't fall in love with an idea to the exclusion of others.

Be Prepared: Don't plan every meal but bring information on major restaurants near every hotel stay. Provide everyone options and give everyone a chance to express their opinion. Superior information makes for a superior experience.

If you want more posts like this, or more posts "ghost written" by my partner, please comment on this post and I will accommodate as best as I can.

Over the next week or so I will have some more content on here as the Mario Marathon is starting again on June 21st. My donation widget is on the right; it would be awesome if you could donate.  Those of you who know me and my blog know that I'm a huge supporter of Mario Marathon and Child's Play Charity.  Those of you who aren't familiar with me and my blog, there are a number of posts explaining what both are all about and why I go on and on about them.  The labels associated with this post will direct you to those posts. 

See you all soon!