Crunch_Wraps- our version

This recipe makes 2 dozen, but divides by 3 pretty easily if you are working with an 8 pack of tortillas.

Funny thing: I had NEVER in my life eaten at a Taco_Bell until this past year. Our teenagers have gotten into going with their friends after youth group or anytime they are hungry (which as most of us know is as frequent as a hobbit).

We've seen a few video tutorials for homemade Crunch_Wraps, but came up with our own special combination of ingredients that help avoid the "seam gap" when you fold all of the edges over. This mostly happens if you use a tostada shell in the center layer and your flour tortillas aren't big enough.  The biggest flour tortillas we can find are the burrito size.

Recipe:

24 large, burrito-sized soft tortillas
3 # lean ground beef or turkey: cooked into very small pieces, season with taco seasoning
1# Mexican cheese blend (fine shredded)
4-6 chopped roma tomatoes
1 finely chopped heart of romaine lettuce
1 bag D.oritos Cool_Ranch (the standard size bag is fine, you won't use them all)
1 16 oz. carton sour cream (I use light). Have a second carton on hand in case you run out. Dump the sour cream into a quart freezer bag and snip a corner off.

Layering:

Takes up my whole kitchen table

1. lay out all soft tortillas on the table and sprinkle about 3 T of cheese in each in the center- about 10 cm circle)

2. Layer meat (divide evenly, you'll use just shy of 1/4 cup of meat), then 4-5 D.oritos (try not to have the pointy sides sticking out)

3. Squeeze a swirl of sour cream over the chips, then top with a sprinkling of tomatoes, lettuce shreds and more cheese.

4. Fold over all sides so edges overlap on top, turn upside down on a plate or large cookie sheet and bring over to the cooktop area.

How it looks folded (this one is already grilled)

Cooking:

1. Heat a large griddle to medium heat, spray with cooking spray.

2. Grill folded side first, spray back side with cooking spray.

3. Flip when it is golden as the picture here shows.

4. Serve warm, typically these crank out like pancakes, which means Mom doesn't really get to eat until everyone else is done. You know the drill.

Leftovers:
They are okay leftover, but naturally they will not be crunchy inside anymore. We like to reheat them in the toaster oven so they are crispy again on the outside.

time to roll

It's pretty cool to see how God puts different things on our hearts and different abilities in our hands. I, for one, very much dislike hooking up new tech equipment. Thankfully, my husband quite enjoys it (most of the time). Since we had to replace our computer recently, that was a big relief to me!


I can't make a pie crust to save my life, but I don't really care for pie crust anyway. I've decided to let that one go- except that I can make a mean graham cracker crust or cheesecake crust (those are truly essential, after all).

Some folks do not go near yeast baking. I've always enjoyed it, even back in 4-H and in Mom's kitchen smelling all the wonderful dough rising and baking in the farm kitchen. The week before our wedding, I went to my Mother-in-law to learn her farmer's market cinnamon roll recipe. I will never forget walking through that process with her, seeing what ease she moved through each batch and how she had to tell me everything from memory while I took notes down in a notebook. "Add one more cup, then another cup..." and the whole assembly line with at least 4 large Tupp_erware bowls going.

The recipe makes very light and fluffy rolls, and a little goes a long way. The rolls rise overnight after several sessions of knocking it down in the afternoon. I'll never forget, "You'll need to get up at about 3:30 am to bake these", she told me as I carted my little batch home. WOW. That's what you call 'rising while it's still night to give food to your family' Proverbs 31 kinda moves.

Funny how I still typically follow that schedule when I make them. There is a reason for that 3:30 baking time, after all! We want our rolls as fresh as possible, and we also can only fit 4 round pans in the oven at a time (or 1 large sheet pan).

Today I got up at 3am since I had 4 recipes of rolls to make for our Goodies for Grandparents breakfast at school. This is my 2nd year of doing large baking projects for theses PTO school breakfasts, and I'm hoping to get it down to a science. ☺

I also adopted my own Momma's kitchen saavy and mixed all my icing for large plastic baggies that could be squeezed on the rolls after I brought them to school. NOT a fan of getting gooey sugar all over the car and my arms and stuck to the plastic wrap on the rolls, so it seems that putting the icing on after getting to school works best. I also baked 4 coffee cakes yesterday, and I'll use some of the icing on those when I cut them at school.

Sis came along with me this morning to help serve. I'm so proud of her for getting up at 5:30 to ride along and help. (5:30 is a BIG jump for her lately as an almost-teenager who needs LOTS of sleep!)

It was a relief that we had close to 50 leftover rolls. As most of you know, it's VERY frustrating to run out of stuff like this since buying premade baked goods cost at least an arm, if not the leg also. Those extra rolls are resting nicely in the teacher's lounge and I have 2 unfrosted packs for my deep freeze to pull out another day!

Ok- now I need a nap.

at the ranch

Well, the kids are still raving (escpecially Xanman) about our new homemade ranch dressing...so we thought we'd pass along the recipe.

As many of you know, Xanman is and has always been allergic to milk/dairy products. More specifically, he's allergic to the protein in milk-casein. So, even when we buy a product like soy or rice cheese, they're almost always still made with a little casein in them...and his body reacts.

We are thankful that he's never had a life threatening episode with his allergies. The worst that has happened was that he threw up lots and lots after he was accidentally fed a monster cookie at church one evening (he's allergic to peanuts and tree nuts, too). Well, that and accidentally eating Sis's Ch.eerios one morning that had cow milk on them when he thought it was his bowl with rice milk on it. His face got REALLY puffy, splotchy and itchy...but a little B.enadryl and an hour later he was fine. Same type of thing happened once at V.alentino's when he ate a breadstick.

Nowadays, we are really careful to avoid nut ingestion for him. In this day and age, it's pretty easy because most places (including church) are really good about keeping nut free environments. I do have raw almonds around the house, but this is primarily due to the fact that of all the nut testing, almonds did not show up positive on him, and the health benefits they provide the rest of the family is something I do not wish to deny them. (Xanman does not eat almonds because of possible cross contamination in shelling and sorting machines, but he regularly enjoys sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds with us)

Back to the dairy front...he got a puffy lip a week or so ago from eating something that had a little cheese on part of it, but again, it was noting a little B.enadryl and an hour didn't take care of. We're still hopeful that he will outgrow more of his allergies, and we're really thankful that his soy allergy is down to a very minimal level (according to skin tests) and that he is not allergic to wheat, corn or oranges anymore like he was as a baby.

I was excited to taste a dairy free ranch dressing this past week when Rayzer and I had lunch at a vegan cafe in NC. I asked for the recipe, but it was "classified". Nice thing, however, that they had the ingredient list posted on the sign at the salad bar...so I jotted down the list and came home to start experimenting!

Here's what we came up with, and the results passed with flying colors!

(sorry the amounts are not exact...I like to mix and taste test as I go)

-1 cup Veganaise with grapeseed oil (can be found at natural foods stores in refrige section)

-a few shakes/pinches of garlic powder and onion powder

-about 2 Tbsp. raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar (spectrum or braggs are good choices)

-pinch of dried dill, chives, and italian seasoning (all to taste)

-about 2 teaspoons. raw, unfiltered honey

-purified water to thin to desired consistency

whisk up or shake in a jar to blend. I also add a couple Tbsp. of Udo's perfected blend oil, as it's an easy way to get omega efa's into our diet, too.

more smoothie recipes

We've really been making it a priority (and a fun goal) to find snacks for the kids that do not include unhealthy fats and sugars. I've picked up nutritional study again, this time with a goal to get back to Genesis 1:29-how God originally created food for humans. Wouldn't that really be the best diet for us, after all? Fresh, raw plant based foods-that's the focus.

Here are a few more that are a hit in our house that we thought we'd share:

Sis's Berry Blend Smoothie:
*Caroline loves the dark purple color and intense flavor of this one-
1 T. flaxseeds (freshly ground in the dry blender before adding fruit)
1 cup frozen blueberry, strawberry, blackberry blend (I get a frozen bag for a great price at a local market)
1/2 banana (or sometimes a peeled and seeded tangerine)
100% grape juice to keep the mixture blending. Serves 1 hungry 4th grader

Process in the blender to desired consistency.
--
Wilsonator & Xanman's Tropical Smoothie:
1 T. flaxseeds (freshly ground in the dry blender before adding fruit)
2 c. frozen strawberry, pineapple & mango (I get a bag of this frozen blend here also)
2 peeled and seeded tangerines (membranes left on)
1 banana (optional)
0range juice as needed to keep the mixture blending.

Process in the blender to desired consistency. Serves 2

yummy goodness

Wanted to share a really yummy and quick blender smoothie recipe that a friend gave me. PERFECT for kids as a breakfast or snack (or a mom with a sweet tooth!) and perfectly healthy! Big handful of fresh grapes (8 oz)
1 peeled avocado (pitted, of course!)
4 frozen strawberries
1 Tbsp. raw honey

Toss it all in the blender and process until it's as smooth as you like. Add water if needed to keep it running. Our 2 youngest, and especially XanMan, think this creation is quite heavenly. Little do they know it has avocado in it (which they vow they DO NOT LIKE!)

We're working on it, and this one makes 1 beautiful success acheived!

project: pie

Yes, I took the challenge this morning. You see, this is perfect motivation for me. We have some new neighbors who's house just got completed a couple of weeks ago and I've yet to bring over "something" and introduce myself. Adam and some of the kids have met them, but I'm definitely long overdue! I'm starting to wonder how I chose to make them dislike me by baking a pie...but that's the confidence I have in this crust recipe that Cheryl tells me is fail-proof!!
I printed her recipe from the blog and got all set up while Ray kept busy singin' on the p.otty seat and playing w/ his new car/bd present from his friend Miss P over the weekend.
Here we are at the "pea stage"...looking ok so far?
Now we've got ourselves some cauliflower balls. This is a part I typically struggle with: how much cold water?? I think I sprinkled in about 3 1/2 tablespoons, and it seemed if I went beyond that, it would get "mushy".
Here we are at the roll out. I start freaking about this point also, because I'm not too great at getting the dough from this point to getting it into the pie pan.
"Folding"?? Hmmm. I ended up going around all the edges carefully and working my way in with my flattest pancake turner to "lift" the crust from the counter. It was floured, but the dough still managed to stick to it. The pancake turner thing worked pretty well for me. I also have a pastry mat, but since we're goin' verbatim on the instructions today, I went with countertop!!

Alright. Made it into the pie plate w/ minor damage.
In goes the good stuff-I took the tips from B.ettyCrocker on the filling (and what I could remember from Mama's apple pie instructions)
Ready for the oven. I'm all for that "diamond weave" top! You know, even if I could succesfully make 2 full crusts, I just find that a lattice or diamond layer top is WAY prettier-showing off all that gorgeous fruit inside. It's the way to go!