Family Taco Night (Giveaway)

I don't know about everyone but in our family we have a lot of taco's. I am not sure if it is the area we live in, the southwest, or if it's just because it is an easy meal. It's just one of those things that are easy and fast to throw together and always yummy. I love to get a lot of toppings together too. It's more fun to build your own food for kids. :)

To encourage "Family Taco Nights" Old El Paso (and MyBlogSpark) is giving away a lovely little prize package! Should you win, your package includes these two plastic serving containers, a package of Old El Paso Taco Seasoning Mix AND a $10.00 gift card to buy the rest of your taco fixings!

They graciously provided one for my family as well! Here is the taco seasoning at work. It has all the seasoning you need right in the package and makes taco nights even faster! (Yes, I made it in a wok. Shhh it's ok) :)

Here are a couple fun recipes to try with your Old El Paso products.

Double Layer Taco's

Chicken Ranch Taco's I love chicken taco's!

You could really go crazy with this. Here is a fun game to play that goes along with the theme.

El Tacodor

Depending on your kids ages you could do a craft. I know mine love crafts.

Crafts

What about dessert??? Mexican Wedding Cookies

Okay now for your chance to win this prize from Old El Paso and MyBlogSpark.

You have two options to enter. Do one or do both.

#1 Become a follower of this blog. Post a comment letting me know you are a follower.

#2 Let me know what your favorite taco recipe or other Mexican food recipe is, or your favorite taco topping, maybe share the recipe or a link to it? :)

Now go! and Good Luck!

Mixing Bowl Academy

My friend Ami over at Walking By The Way is having a giveaway. Actually two. You can enter to win one class with Mixing Bowl Academy and you can also enter to win a month of classes! These look like so much fun. I know Meghan would love them as she loves to cook anyways. Head on over and check it out and enter to win!

Apple Pie Giveaway Winner!

The winner of the Pillsbury Love the Pie Giveaway is ...... Katie Hagopian! Congrats to you, I will email you.

Thank you to everyone that entered. A new giveaway will be posted soon!

Christmas; A Time to Give Back

Christmas is a great time to give back and a great time to teach our kids about helping others. I believe that if we all helped each other more we wouldn't have so many issues. There are so many charities and causes; these are just a few that I like.

Something we have always done is the Christmas Angel Tree. These are set up everywhere, the mall, grocery stores and we have them at our church.

Operation Christmas Child is another I like. This is something you can plan for all year as well. Back to school time is a great time to get a lot of the items for the boxes and of course save those boxes all year. :)

Now this one is one that has really been on my heart this year, Hope Kids. They are local, in Arizona. I donate cakes to their special occasions when they need one. They plan and create events and parties for the kids and families of kids with major illness. When children are that sick it is really hard for their parents to plan outings just for fun. They spend a lot of time at the hospital or doctors offices having tests and treatments and just don't have the time and I would assume the energy for those things. There are also often other children in the family too and they all need that time to just try to relax and have a good time. That is where Hope Kids comes in and they do an amazing job. I love working with them. You can donate on the website.

Another awesome cause is http://reecesrainbow.org/. They are there to help children who need to be adopted. Most are from other countries and are in orphanages and institutions. The children need homes! So they get the word out and if you aren't called to adopt you can donate towards a child's adoption fees. It is so expensive to take all the trips there and then going through the process. Everything helps.

What is your favorite charity this year? What other things are you doing with your kids?

Have a Merry and Blessed Christmas!

Working Mommy Wednesday- Top Ten

Joining in for Working Mommy Wednesday over at Work, Wife Mom...Life! with my friend Julia! So today I list my TOP TEN Christmas LOVES.

1 I love THE Reason for the Season! Without Him... well why celebrate?

2. I love the baking. Those things that only get made at this time of year, that you wonder why don't I make this some other time, but never do.

3. Decorating! I love decorating my house and hassling my husband to do the outside stuff. :)

4. Movies! My secret, I watch them whenever I feel like it throughout the year. At this time of year though no one is teasing me about it.

5. Caroling! When I was a kid we went with our Christian School and we caroled at night, stopping at a predetermined house for hot chocolate and candy canes. Loved it! I have been able to take the kids a few times to carol at a local nursing home with our homeschoool group.

6. Traditions; all those little things that each family has. I know we all do some of the same things and I am sure we all have little things that are all our own too. We get new pajama's on Christmas Eve, lots of people do that. We have cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Christmas morning, drive around at least one evening looking at pretty decorated houses and do lots of holiday crafts; just to name a few.

7. Music! I start listening to it as soon as they start playing it on the radio, which is usually the day after Thanksgiving although it has been earlier.

8. Shopping... I don't always do a ton of shopping but I do like to. I almost always go out on Black Friday. I am not crazy about it or anything. I don't get up super early, or wait in lines over night, but I do go out for a couple hours and just shop around. if there is something I need great; if not that's fine too. I just really like the whole "holiday spirit" of being out there.

9. Crafting, I love to make my own gifts. I usually make edible gifts as well but I also love to scrapbook and craft. So when I get to make gifts I have a blast.

10. My Kids! Kids are just so innocent and happy. I love to watch them have Christmas and the excitement and wonder.


So much fun! Let me know what your favorite thing about Christmas is and join in on WMW. :)

Apple Pie and a Giveaway!

Everyone knows I LOVE to bake. It's my favorite, my "thing", my job, my gift... One of my favorite things about the holidays are all the pies, (baking them and eating them)! It seems like that is really the only time we have pie except maybe an occasional one through out the year. Why is that anyway? We need pie more often!
There are so many different types we have this time of year too but one of my favorites, and I think a favorite of many people, is the apple pie. So when Pillsbury (through MyBlogSpark) offered me a chance to blog about their pie crusts I was excited!

They sent me this "Love the Pie" kit. Love it! It came with a pie plate, set of measuring cups, apple shaped timer, trivet, potholder, apple corer and of course, a coupon for free pie crusts!

Now I normally make all my pie crusts from scratch so I was very interested to see how the store bought ones work and taste.
Meghan wanted to help me make the pie. She loves to help me cook and bake. So she washed the apples and helped to peel them.

I had the crust sitting out so it could warm up to room temperature. It is in a roll and all you have to do is unroll it and stick it in the pie pan! So easy. No flour or trying to roll a circle. It is very easy to work with.

Pretty!

And here is the finished pie! YUM!

It was actually very good! I love how easy the crust is to work with. It will definitely help me throw together a quick pie in the future. I might even make pies more often! I highly recommend trying it out for yourself and you can! Pillsbury is letting me give away a Love the Pie kit to one lucky reader!!

Please leave a comment telling me what your favorite pie is and how often you make pies.

For a 2nd entry you can blog about this giveaway and your own pie baking experiences. Leave another comment here with a link to your blog post.

The winner will be chosen randomly and posted on December 10th. Good luck and enjoy some pie!