Emma's in the kitchen

  It's only the 2nd week of school and I've had at least one of my kids home at some point all week!   Gracie was tested for Strep and it was positive.  So she was home for a couple days recovering.  About the time that she was starting to feel better, the other two started to complain about having sore throats.  So thankfully the Doctor called in prescriptions for the other two to start on as well.  Yuck!  I guess the school year has officially begun.  Jesse is the last one who is still at home.  I'm hoping he will be going back this afternoon at lunch time.

  Emma helped me make dinner a couple of nights ago.  She LOVES to cook or bake almost more than anyone I know.  So her and I made a Mexican Lasagna that we had found off of allrecipes.com a couple years ago.  It's an easy one for kids to help with and I think it tastes great once it's all dressed up with toppings.

 You fry up a pound of hamburger meat, drain the grease out.  Add in 2 cans of refried beans, and a packet of taco seasoning.  Mix it all together.  Then in a small casserole dish (I use a square on so it fits the flour shells easier)  you put a layer of the meat and bean mixture down, sprinkle graded cheese, layer with a flour tortilla shell and repeat the layers again. 

 We like to put tomatoes, chopped green onions, sour cream, sliced olives... whatever it is you might like on top.  Dan can't eat sour cream so he likes to put ketchup on his. 

Here is our easy dish on a fancy paper plate.  Haha!  With kids being sick and the ones not sick being shuttled to soccer practice I didn't want to deal with extra dishes.  :)

Here's to hoping that all the kids get well soon and that Dan and I don't catch anything that's going around.  I'm ready to get into my new routine of all the kids actually going to school everyday!  :)