end of the week

It's been busy, although I am not sure with what.  I subbed a lot.  Upper grades this week, which was mostly okay.  Today was the best of the days.  Yesterday the worst.

Wednesday was mutual.  The laurels came over for a "cooking for college" class.  The girls did a great job.  We made 3 delicious recipes!

Turkey Taco Lettuce Wraps

Yield: About 6 tacos

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 3/4 cup chopped yellow onion
• 1 lb 95% lean ground turkey
• 2 cloves garlic
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 Tbsp chili powder (preferably 2 tsp regular chili powder and 1 tsp ancho chili powder)
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• Iceberg or Romain lettuce leaves, doubled up, for serving
• Shredded Mexican cheese, diced Roma tomatoes, diced red onion, diced avocado, chopped cilantro, light sour cream, for serving

Directions

• Heat olive oil in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and saute 2 minutes. Add turkey and garlic, season with salt and pepper, and cook, tossing and breaking up turkey occasionally, until cooked through, about 5 minutes. Add chili powder, cumin, paprika, tomato sauce and chicken broth. Reduce to a simmer and cook about 5 minutes until sauce has reduced. Serve mixture over lettuce leaves with desired toppings.
• Peanut Butter Cupcakes

  For the Chocolate Cupcakes*

  1. 1 box chocolate cake mix
  2. 4 eggs
  3. 1 cup milk
  4. 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  5. 2 heaping Tbsp Greek yogurt
  6. 30 mini Reese's cups, divided
  For the Peanut Butter Frosting

  1. 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
  2. 1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter
  3. 2 cups powdered sugar
  4. 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
  5. 1/2 cup evaporated milk or cream
  Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 regular muffin tins with cupcake liners. Mix together the cake mix, milk, eggs, oil and Greek yogurt until smooth. Spoon batter into cupcake pans, filling the liners 1/2 full. Place a Reese's PB cup into the center of the batter in each cup and gently press it down a little (the tops of the Reese's can still be showing, like photo above). Bake cupcakes for 16-20 minutes or until done. Allow to cool completely before frosting.
  For the Peanut Butter Frosting

  1. Beat together butter, and peanut butter until smooth. Add powdered sugar and vanilla and beat again until combined. Add cream or milk, beating well until light and fluffy. (Add more milk or powdered sugar if needed to make the frosting thicker or thinner). Frost cupcakes (I used a wilton 1M tip in the photos above). Chop up the remaining pieces of Reese's and sprinkle on top of the frosting.

  
  

  Coconut Pineapple Chicken

  1 can of pineapple chunks

  1 can coconut milk

  3 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed

  1 T lemon juice

  1t salt

  2T sugar

  1 medium green pepper diced

  1 medium onion diced

  1 T corn starch

  
  

  Saute onion and pepper in some olive oil until soft.  Add pineapple with juice, coconut milk, lemon juice, salt and sugar.  Bring to a boil and simmer for a few minutes.  Mix corn starch with 2T water then add to mixture.  Stir until well blended.  Add chicken and cook for another 5 minutes.  Serve over rice.  

  We didn't do this but I would add cashews next time, it would taste better.

  
  

  The Mia Maids made home made pizza at the Sherwoods and the Beehives met at the Evans and planned a years worth of class activities.

  
  Ethan had tennis practice every day.  He likes it, which I am glad about.  He also had soccer practice and an appointment with the orthodontist. I forgot to say earlier that last week or maybe two weeks ago I got an email from Ethan's Algebra2/Trig teacher.  She said I should be very proud of Ethan because he was the only kid in the class to score 100% of the logarithm test..and that most of the kids didn't pass.  Ironic because he and Sam were doing homework together and I didn't know if he understood it and kept asking him if he was okay with it.  Which is also funny in itself because I have never used a logarithm in my life....nor do I know what one is.  

  
  

  It was ground hog day this week.  We didn't celebrate but Penny did!  Also that darn rodent saw his shadow so more winter for us :(

  

  
  

  I guess that's about it.