A-MAZ-ING!

I love sharing and receiving great recipe ideas from co-workers! It's always nice to try something new that you know another family really enjoyed. We tried this chimichanga recipe Monday night and LOVED it. It is super easy as well as super yummy. This recipe definitely gets a five out of five stars. Thanks, Jenn!

Shredded Beef Chimichangas

2 pounds boneless beef chuck roast, trimmed of fat
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups beef broth
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
4 (8 inch) flour tortilla (I ended up using more than that)
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 1/2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 cup sour cream
1 cup salsa

DIRECTIONS:
1. Place beef in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Pour in water. Cover, and cook for 30 minutes. Remove cover, and cook until liquid has evaporated, and beef is well browned, about 10 minutes. In a medium bowl, combine beef broth, red wine vinegar, chili powder and cumin. Pour over beef. Cover, and cook until meat is very tender, and pulls apart easily, about two hours. Allow to cool, then shred and mix with pan juices.
- What I did: I browned the meat, then added some broth and let everything simmer while I cooked super, cleaned up and gave Anthony a bath. The next morning I added all of the ingredients and the beef (I ended up using stew meat) to a crock pot and set it on low for the day. The meat was PERFECT and shredded easily with great flavor.

2. Preheat oven to 500 degrees

3. Brush both sides of each tortilla with melted butter. (A 1/2 cup was a perfect amount of butter.) Spoon shredded beef filling down the center of each tortilla. (Try using refried beans and cheese too.) Fold ends over filling, then fold sides to center to make a packet. Place chimichangas, seam side down, in a 9 x 13-inch baking pan.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve with shredded cheese, sour cream, salsa and the rest of the Mexican fixings.

This is SERIOUSLY good.
You will fall in love with the crunchy shell and a-maz-ing meat.
Try it and be impressed.

Mr. Personality

Our life is always interesting with Anthony around. Things can get especially crazy and fun when we have weekends as wonderful as this one when we stay home and find random things to do. All day yesterday Anthony wore last year's Halloween costume (even to the store to get a paper and donuts with daddy) and kept it on most of the day. Even though he was a big sweat ball he didn't want to take it off. Today clearly is a football day. That means once again he's wearing his way too big, but totally loved Vikings jersey. (Thanks, MOM!) To add a little spice to his outfit he brought out the Halloween mask. He loves wearing it so much that he even insisted on wearing it for his nap time. Oh well! Along with all of the outfits he's had a fort or "cage" as he likes to call it built in the middle of the living room all weekend too. It's amazing how entertaining a laundry basket and a few blankets can be for him.
Throw in some beautiful weather and time spent outside, play-doh fun at the table, finding new reasons for needing another band-aid, reading lots of books, watching a movie and eating popcorn last night and you have a great, relaxing weekend at home.

Five and a half months

My little nephew keeps getting bigger and bigger, which makes it even more exciting for him to make his arrival into this world in January! Manda better watch out because I don't think I'll be able to resist touching the tummy anymore! Look on her blog to get the latest baby bump photo update.

Team Batman

Let me introduce you to the fabulous and indestructible duo called Batman and Batboy. They are my personal team of superheroes! Anthony wanted daddy to match him so this was a logical birthday gift for Mark. They have worn their matching shirts a couple of times this week and have been saving all of Balsam Boulevard from the evils of The Joker.

A's Popcorn Girl

Ever since Clara and Anthony sat and watched a movie eating popcorn at a July get together he refers to her as his Popcorn Girl. It's never Clara - just Popcorn Girl. It's amazing how he remembers this and will ask about her periodically. As I was going through my camera tonight I realized I had captured a cute moment of the two of them together at the Sellheim's back-to-school BBQ.

Kicking off the Year

2 Michaels
2 Bens
2 Logans
2 Emmas
2 Samanthas
2 Adams
2 Sydneys (in the same class)
2 Erics
2 Colins
2 Adams
2 Makaylas (also in the same class)
2 Brittanys
2 Katies
2 Rebeccas
etc, etc, etc
Not to be out done there are 3 Tylers, 4 Lindseys (Three of the Lindseys are in the same class just for fun!) and one set of twins (A few years ago we experienced a first and had two sets of triplets on the seventh grade team). After nine years of working with middle schoolers it is always fun to come across names you've never had such as Justice, Savannah, Bhavin, Adina, Cheyenne and Raven just to name a few.
Whew!

The first week of school has already come and gone, but I still feel totally exhausted. Just the mental power it takes to connect with students, learn all of their names and start creating a meaningful relationship takes a lot of energy. All of which is important and something I always strive to do my best at.
In spite of being tired, starting a new school year feels really good. It has been nice to get back into the swing of a more concrete schedule. Anthony, as always, loves going to Renae's house and rarely wants to leave her house when I pick him up in the afternoon. We are so lucky to have a great day care provider who is caring, thoughtful and works so well with A.
On Friday night we ended the first week by going to the first home football game of the year. Anthony has become in love with everything football. So much so that he insists on only wearing Vikings/football apparel. (Clearly I need to do some shopping to satisfy this football lover!) He did awesome at the game and was totally into it until we got multiple visits from last year's seventh graders. Then he was busy eating their food (every time I turned around he was eating something different) and entertaining them. It was a great family fun night and something we'll do more of this fall.
The weekend was spent celebrating Mark's 33rd birthday. That, too, has become even more fun now that A is older. He was so excited about everything that he told Mark about all of our secrets before the cake was served or presents were open. Oh well! It was fun to see him so excited for his daddy.
The best news of all? Anthony really has all this potty training business totally down. He does awesome; it's like he just flipped a switch and completely gets it. The only thing we are working on is nap and nighttime. He still wears a diaper and wakes up wet. Any suggestions that might work? Diaper? Pull-up? Just go cold turkey? What worked for your little one?
Until next time...

Drum Roll Please...

It's official!
After having their ultra sound on Friday, Manda and Damon found out they are having a BOY! The first photos of the cutie pie are posted on Team Tuttle's blog and ready for the world to view. Be sure to check out my adorable nephew!