Chicken Ranch Tacos

1 box Old El Paso Stand n Stuff Taco Shells
3 cups cut up deli rotisserie chicken
1 pkg Old El Paso taco seasoning mix
½ cup ranch dressing
1½ cups shredded lettuce
1 medium tomato chopped (¾ cup)
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (4 oz)
¼ cup sliced green oinions
Additional ranch dressing if desired.

Heat taco shells in oven as directed on box
In medium microwave bowl place chicken. Sprinkle with taco seasoning mix; toss gently to coat.
Microwave uncovered on HIGH 2 to 3 minutes or until hot. Stir in ½ cup dressing
Spoon warm chicken mixture into heated taco shells. Top with lettuce, tomato, cheese and onions. Drizzle with additional dressing.

Substitution: instead of rotisserie chicken used any diced cooked chicken.

Lemon Chicken Pasta Salad

1 box Betty Crocker Suddenly Salad ranch & bacon pasta salad mix
1 cup mayonnaise
2 tsp grated lemon peel
2 Tbs fresh lemon juice
2 cups cubed cooked chicken
1½ cups snow pea pods strings removed,c ut diagonally into ½" pieces
½ cup sliced almonds
leaf lettuce if desired

Empty pasta mix into 3 quart saucepan 2/3 full of boiling water. Gently boil uncovered 12 minutes stirring occasionally.
Drain pasta, rinse with cold water shake to drain well
In large bowl stir together seasoning mix mayonnaise lemon peel and lemon juice. Stir in chicken, pea pods and almonds serve on lettuce leaves
serve immediately or refrigerate

High Altitude: Make pasta mix following high altitude directions on box.

Very Berry Parfaits

1cup Berry Burst Cheerios cereal (or any flavor)
½ cup fresh blueberries, raspberries and sliced strawberries
1 container Yoplait Thick & Creamy yogurt (any berry flavor)

Place cereal in resealable food storage plastic bag. Seal bag. Use rolling pin, slightly crush cereal.
In parfait or drinking glasses layer half of the berries and half of the yogurt. Top each parfait with half of the crushed cereal

Makes 2 parfaits

Incredible Family Needs Our Assistance.

The Estes Family needs our help. There is a fundraiser that is going on now until January 29, 2010. You can learn more about it by clicking on the following: homeschool-sale-help-estes-family-in-need

In 2005 we became a home schooling family. Shortly after embarking on this new journey we were left searching for a way to help reinforce the lessons we were covering. We didn't want just rote memorization of facts but a deeper understanding of them. A friend recommend that we go to a site called Hands and Hearts. What a blessing it quickly became for us through their fabulous history kits. Because of the success we experienced with these kits and the other great products they offered, we frequented the site regularly and even began to follow their blog.

We have through Kate's blog followed this family on their amazing journey for awhile now. It's amazing to see how they handle the curve balls that have been thrown their way. I don't think we'd do as well as they have with the string of serious issues they've faced. None of what they have been hit with seems particularly fair. It's almost like they have a particularly large bulls-eye hovering over their heads.

Why would I say that? Here are 3 of the top reasons as to why I say it.

They have a young son named Noah who has a  mitochondrial disease. The future is very uncertain for him because of this rare disease. It will at some point claim his life. There have been numerous hospitalizations in the past and there will always be the potential for more in the future. Unfortunately that is just the nature of life with a mitochondrial disease. His mom quite literally has to drop everything else and rush him to the hospital and then stay with him for unknown lengths of time. The hospital that Noah must use is several miles away from the family home. Which adds another degree of stress to an already overloaded highly stressful moment.

Last spring, they were dealt a very nasty blow to their financial situation. The unreasonable CPSIA regulations temporarily forced them to stop their business. This created a tremendous hardship as their profitability took a major nosedive.

Before the CPSIA blow, Jeff had been out of work for many months because of being downsized. He's been unable to land another job that will give him the flexibility that is needed  in order to care for their other 7 children when Kate is at the hospital with Noah.

This family has a lot to juggle in a given day.Who doesn't you might say? But seriously stop a minute and think of what they face each day. There is  the normal daily living activities of meals, laundry, and keeping the home for a household of 10. That takes a good chunk of time. Then there is the schooling, running a family business that's been crippled by CPSIA, appointments that must be kept with different doctors, clinics, etc. and manage a lot of the medical care that Noah requires on a day to day basis. The last thing they need is the worry that they may lose their home because their savings is exhausted.

Please take a minute and consider what you can do for the Estes Family. If you can help with a donation, or a purchase through the special link. If it's just to pass on this special offer to others, if it's even just to take a minute and say a prayer or two. Please consider doing it.

Take a good look at the links sprinkled above. Contact the organizers of this event for verification if you need to. This is a very real situation that really does need help. So let us unite and ban together to help our neighbor who is in need.

 Again here is the link to how you can help this Incredible and Very special family homeschool-sale-help-estes-family-in-need

Thank You

Chicken Fajita Salad Wraps

Chipotle Lime Dressing
1 cup ranch dressing
1 Tbs lime juice
1 Tbs finely chopped chipotle chiles in adobo sauce (from 7 oz can)
1 tsp grated lime peel

Wraps
3 cups chopped cold deli rotisserie chicken
2 cups thinly sliced iceberg lettuce
1 cup frozen corn niblets cooked cooled
1 small tomato seeded chopped (1/3 cup)
1 cup shredded monterey jack cheese (4 oz)
1 pkg flour tortillas ( 8" size)
Sour Cream

in small bowl mix dressing ingredients; set aside. In large bowl, stir together chicken, lettuce, corn and tomato. Add dressing; toss to coat.
To assemble each wrap, spoon 1/8 of chicken mixture down center of each tortilla. sprinkle with cheese Roll up Serve immediately with salsa and sour cream.

Warm Caramel Apple Cake

Cake
½ cup butter
¼ cup whipping cream
1 cup packed brown sugar
½ cup chopped pecans
2 large cooking apples (Granny Smith) peeled, cored and thinly sliced
1 box Betty Crocker Super Moist yellow cake mix
1¼ cups water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
¼ tsp apple pie spice

Topping
2/3 cup Betty Crocker Whipped fluffy white frosting (from 12 oz container)
½ cup frozen (thawed) whipped topping
Caramel topping

Heat oven to 350°F
In 1 quart heavy saucepan cook butter, whipping cream, and brown sugar over low heat, stirring occasionally just until butter is melted. Pour into 13 x 9" pan. Sprinkle with pecans; top with sliced apples.
In large bowl, beat cake mix, water, oil, eggs and apple pie spice with electric mixer on low speed until moistened. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes. Carefully spoon batter over apple mixture.
Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Loosen sides of cake from pan. Place heatproof serving platter upside down on pan; carefully turn platter and pan over. Let pan remain over cake about 1 minute so caramel can drizzle over cake. Remove pan
In small bowl, mix frosting and whipped topping. Serve warm cake topped with frosting mixture and drizzled with caramel topping

Crunchy Onion Potato Bake

2½ cups milk
1½ cups water
¼ cup butter
1 box homestule creamy butter or roasted garlic mashed potatoes
1 can (15.25 oz) whole kernel corn, drained
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1 can french fried onions

Heat oven to 375°F
Spray 13x9 glass baking dish with cooking spray.
In 3 quart saucepan heat milk, water and margarine to boiling. Stir in contents of both pouches of potatoes (from potatoes box) just until moistened; let stand 1 minute. Stir with fork until smooth. Stir in corn.
Spoon half of potato mixture into dish. Sprinkle with ½ each of cheese and onions. Top with remaining potatoes sprinkle with remaining cheese and onions.
Bake 10 to 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and onions are golden.

High Altitude: Bake 15 to 20 minutes.

Pumpkin Streusel Cheesecake Bars

Cookie Base
1 pouch Betty Crocker oatmeal cookie mix (1lb 1.5 oz)
½ cup crushed gingersnap cookie
½ cup finely chopped pecans
½ cup cold butter

Filling
2 pkgs (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie mix)
2 Tbs all purpose flour
1 Tbs pumpkin pie spice
2 Tbs whipping cream
2 eggs

Topping
1/3 cup chocolate topping
1/3 cup caramel topping

Heat oven to 350°F
In large bowl stir together cookie mix, crushed cookies and pecans. Cut in butter using pastry blender or fork until mixture is crumbly. Reserve 1 cup mixture for topping. Press remaining mixture in bottom of ungreased 13 x 9" pan. Bake 10 minutes. Cool 10 minutes.
In large bowl beat cream cheese and sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add remaining filling ingredients beat until well blended. Pour over warm cookie base. Sprinkle with reserved cookie mix.
Bake 35 to 40 minutes until center is set. Cool 30 minutes. Refrigerate about 2 hours or until chilled.
Before serving, drizzle with chocolate and caramel toppings. For bars cut into 6 rows by 4 rows.
Store covered in refrigerator.

High Altitude: Bake 40 to 45 minutes.

Sausage Cheese Balls

3 cups Bisquick mix
1 lb bulk pork sausage
4 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
½ cup milk
½ tsp dried rosemary leaves crushed
½ tsp parsley flakes
Barbecue sauce or chili sauce, if desired

Heat oven to 350°F
Lightly grease bottom and sides of jelly roll pan
Stir together all ingredients using your hands
Shape mixture into 1" balls
Place in pan
Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until brown.
Immediately remove from pan.
Serve warm with sauce for dipping

High Altitude: heat oven to 375° Decrease Bisquick to 2½ cups stir in ½ cup of all purpose flour bake 25 to 30 minutes.

A New Year: A Reminder to Check Your Life Paperwork.

Ah, we have survived another year. What a blessing it is to be able to enter into another year of life. What will it bring? Will it be filled with joyous occasions or miserable moments? Are you prepared for either?

As I was waiting for a dear friend to join me for lunch at our favorite restaurant I couldn't help but to overhear a conversation of the neighboring table. There were 4 participants at it. Each was observed to be in a highly emotionally charged state. The looks of shock, grief, anger, and uncertainty even fear was very apparent.

As there conversation became more audible it was soon quite clear what the problem was. A family member had died suddenly and the party had met to discuss what to do about it. It was heart wrenching to know that some of their suffering could have been prevented if the deceased's life paperwork had been done and kept up to date. It brought up memories of my own experiences with death. I am no expert but I do understand the importance of clear instructions and legal documentation through life paperwork vs. muddle instructions, fanciful thinking, and no legal documentation or life paperwork.

When my friend showed up she had a large envelope that was rather over stuffed. Because of the natural curiosity such an unusual item in her possession brought out and the continued conversation that we were hearing from our neighboring table. Our topic of conversation turned to life paperwork.

While I won't bore you with the nitty gritty details of our discussion; I will share a few key points from it. See the large envelop was a part of her life's paperwork. Her current husband  has a yearly tradition of reviewing the life paperwork for them and some immediate family. She was a little unnerved by it the first year they did but as they have gone through the process for awhile now. She can really see the benefit of it. She's very zealous in encouraging others to do the same.

It's quite simple to do as she explained it to me. Every January they get out their wills, life insurance, medical information, titles, etc. and they review them together.  This way they make sure that everything is up to date and current. This way they can also make sure that any changes that need to be made are gotten done.

An excellent example she used was about a trust document and finacial guardianship for one of her children. There is a trust document that will have to be dealt with in March. Because of the review they did last week, they are aware that the attorney needs to be contacted and certain things must be done now in order not to miss its deadline. They also became aware that they needed to make a change for one of the children who is now in need of someone to handle their finances should my friend not be able to do it. Now is clearly the time to find someone else that could assist the child so the child doesn't run into horrible financial problems in the future. They need someone they can trust and who can be brought up to speed on the situation.  Again something that would more than likely been off their radar had it not been for the yearly review.

Another example of the yearly review involves my friends elderly mother. Her mom has been seriously ill and has a very complicated medical history. There is now a new doctor in the picture so my friend needs to update the medical contact information to include this new doctor. They also must find a new POA because of her father's ill health. He's no longer the best choice as the main POA. Little things they may appear now. But not so little in the midst of a crisis. Suddenly you could either be frozen with too many decisions to make, kicking yourself for not doing something or for having done something you regret or breathing a sigh of relief.

That is why checking your  life paperwork is so important. Look at your life paperwork as being a smoke detector of sorts. It's got a very important job to do for you. Just like a smoke detector you want it to work properly before and when you need it. So pick a time to do it and repeat it regularly. Maybe it would be helpful to pick a reoccurring event to jog your memory to get it done. Think about how you may use daylight savings to check the batteries in your smoke detector. If the batteries aren't ready to work then the smoke detector can't do it's job. If your life paperwork isn't current or correct then you or someone could have a very nightmarish situation to handle.

 Some people use tax time as they are already dealing with paperwork then to check their life's paperwork which is what my friend's sister does. Some like my friend picks the beginning of the year which happens to be January for the reoccurring reminder to check this paperwork. Or maybe, it would be better to use a birthday or anniversary or another date that is significant to you. 

If you can't bring yourself around to do this, consider what you want for your loved ones. Or consider what you would want someone to have done for you if you were put into x scenario with a, b, c resources? Its far kinder to be prepared even slightly than left adrift in a sea of uncertainity.

So what does your life's paperwork look like? What your Life Paperwork looks like can and should vary greatly from person to person, situation to situation. After all not every situation can be carbon copied or cookie cutter made nor should it be.

Here are somethings to think about including from what my friend and I have done along with the experiences I've had. 


Your Life's Paperwork might contain:


Wills
Guardians Here is something that should be reviewed periodically. Does the need still exist? Is the chosen person still willing and able to do it? 
Life Insurance
Titles or verification of ownership to vehicles, property, accounts, etc.
Location of important documents such as birth certificates, social security cards, passports, wills, policies, etc.


Important medical information to include in your life paperwork can vary greatly and be highly unique per person. Some are obvious like insurance card and doctors phone # and address. Others might not be quite as obvious like vitamins or alternative practices that you use (Acupressure/Acupuncture, Chiropractic, etc.) Here are few that I have seen or have in my life paperwork.


Medical diagnosis
current medications being taken
current supplements being taken
medications that were discontinued between visits to the doctor
same with supplements
medications that have been questionable or uncertain 

ex. I can take a specific allergy medication when my allergies flair up but when I do I become like the Energizer bunny. I tend to be on the move and unable to sit or stay still for periods longer than a minute and I have a very high pulse rate. It's not an allergy but it is something the doctors need to be aware of that happens so they don't think something else is happening if I have taken this particular medication.

Allergies
Situations that could be handled in certain ways.

Don't allow the fear of  embarrassment or being seen as silly to stop you from speaking up. I am not sure if I'm claustrophobic  or if it's something else, but I intensely dislike being in situations where I am trapped. My first MRI was a horrible experience because of it. By mentioning it to the doctor the second time I had one it was a lot better because he was able to give me something to take the edge off. The staff seemed to give me more of a blow by blow and count down as to what was happening and that made all the difference. One staff worker even mentioned how she wished more people would be so frank. Another said it would be beneficial for family members to know because it can make a difference between someone resisting a test because of intoxication or head injury versus someone resisting because of claustrophobia and panic when they are unable to communicate. (the last was very obvious when a rather mild mannered family member who'd had a stroke became a brawler)

List of special words or phrases that might not be commonly or easily recognized that the patient uses


ex. someone who has speech impairment, stroke, or other reason that makes them hard to understand. Here's one from the immediate family the child has a hard time saying the word police. it comes out something like Koplise with a stong K beginning sound and a lot of hissing  s sound at the end. It makes absolutely no sense and is hard to copy. So to those outside the inner circle of family and friends. No one would get that the need for police is what was being requested.

Another example was observed by a family member who had a stroke with dementia. She would say car to indicate her desire to be moved in some way. Turned in bed, pushed closer to a table when in a wheelchair. Once it was figured out there was far less frustration for her, her caretakers and visitors. 

List of medical procedure with dates and locations. 
List of items put in. 
ex. Another family member has had a hernia surgery that required a piece of mesh to be put in to reinforce the body. Now that may not seem like a huge issue but with the advancement and popularity of using a scope to do surgery these days it's an issue. Especially if they want to go near the bellybutton.


Medical testing. List the type, date, location here to.


Next of kin in case of emergency.
Alternate in case of emergency contact. This is in case the 1st person can't be reached immediately.
Advanced Medical Directive form sometimes called 5 Wishes.
Medical POA who has it? where is it located? Does the person listed still able to be in charge? This is very important to review periodically.

Having witnessed or experienced first hand a situation where simply having a will, being aware of a doctors name, having an up to date POA, etc could have made a world of difference. I see the value in what my friend is doing. Suddenly that large envelope seemed as an extremely important, valuable treasure chest and our lunch date less.

So please take a moment and make sure that your life's paperwork is in order. I know it can be a challenge to remember to do this. After all who wants to entertain morbid thoughts of death, dying, illness? But trust me it's far better to take a moment now to do so than to not have done it and deal with a nightmare it can become.