Santa Fe Stew {recipe}

Saturday morning was FREEZING.  Our weather dropped about 20 degrees from Friday morning to Saturday morning and I had to put on pants and a hoodie.  {Low 70's is super cold when you've been used to 90 degree weather.}  It was cra-zy. Since it was feeling like Fall I pulled out an old recipe for Santa Fe Stew. It's been a few years since I last made and it and I forgot just how good and easy it is to make.  It's super filling and has a great little kick to it.  Want to try it?  Here's the recipe.

Santa Fe Stew
8 servings

1-1/2 pounds ground beef

1 onion, chopped
1 tablespoons taco seasoning
1-1/2 tablespoons ranch dressing mix
1 15 oz can whole kernel corn (undrained)
1 15.5 oz can pinto beans (or kidney beans), drained
2 10 oz cans Rotel tomatoes*
1 10 oz can diced tomatoes
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
2 cups water
2 cups noodles

Directions:
Brown ground beef with chopped onion and drain well.

Stir in taco seasoning and ranch dressing powder and mix well.

Add remaining ingredients, stir and cook 10 minutes (or how long the box of noodles says to cook).

Serve with sour cream and tortilla chips.


*note - Regular Rotel tomatoes can be hot.  If you prefer, you can purchase mild ones or sub out one of the cans of Rotel for another can of plain diced tomatoes.  I made this with regular Rotel Tomatoes, and although the kids kept saying "Ohhh this is spicy!", they kept on eating it! Ha!

Updated 12.22.17

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Linking up at: Momfessionals

Week #37 {2015}

Sunday - This kid CRACKS me up!

We spent the day unloading the truck and getting the garage situated so we could get 1 car in there. It's tight {and not pretty} but at least it fits!

Payton loves her new {to her} bed and rug from Sasha.

And thanks to Target's clearance section, she got a beautiful new bed set.

Monday we had an awesome Labor Day.

Tuesday Ry got to go to the Splash Pad with his friend Josiah.  There was hardly anyone there and it was perfect.

It was a beautiful day as well.

Since it is officially Fall {bye-bye Summer!}, I made Chicken Pot Pie with a fall flair.

Wednesday I found a note from Rylan on my phone.

And we got to watch an amazing storm roll in.

I had the best workout buddies who lasted the entire 25 minutes!

Then when Dyl got home from taekwondo, he gave Rylan a private lesson.

Thursday the boys helped daddy dig trenches in the backyard. {As you can see we've had some flooding and they had to remove our grass and regrade our yard. With this last storm we discovered some output drains in the middle of the yard. We decided to move them to the back of the yard before they reinstall the sod.}

Friday Ry was cracking my up...again.

And then he wanted to be RIGHT NEXT to his daddy while he worked.

Payton's school had Spirit Week this week. Superhero day, sports day and Hawaiian day!

Saturday morning I slept

in until 6:30am. It was amazing. We made waffles for breakfast.

And I did a double batch so I could freeze a bunch for school

mornings.

Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates made an {adorable} appearance.

 We dropped almost 20° this morning and we had to bundle up. Miss cutie-patootie modeled her pull over from her cousin.

And then the saddest/funniest thing happened. We were out front with the kids riding their bikes/scooters. Payton mouthed off to Dylan saying she was a better bike rider than he was, she jumped on her bike, took off and within seconds crashed {and crashed hard}.

I was a good time to learn the lesson about "pride comes before the fall". Literally. So sad she was hurt, but the timing of it was funny/ironic.

Labor Day {2015}

We've had a lot of stress lately and I we haven't been sleeping well at all. I've been waking up at 4am for no very good reason and I was SO hoping that I was going to sleep in today....but I was up bright and early. While laying in bed trying to go back to sleep, I heard a familiar sound and jumped out of bed to catch this beautiful balloon flying over the sky {when it's close, you can hear it fire}. I absolutely LOVE hot air balloons, so it made being awake worth it!

Breakfast time with these crazies!

Dylan headed out with his buddies to play in the construction area. It's a boy's dream place.

We planted some mums,

and moved around some of the plants that the builder put in.

We had the typical burgers and fries. And I made some Secret Sauce for the burger and to dip my fries into. Yum!

These dirt mongers were hot, sweaty and COVERED in dirt. But that's what you get when you play outside for 6+ hours straight. They had an absolute BLAST.