Thanksgiving Leftover Recipe

Hey,
So Steve and I did our usual pre-Thanksgiving turkey this weekend. We got a small one because we are going to go enjoy our REAL Thanksgiving dinner with my family in Idaho. YAY! Anyway, We came up with the idea after that dinner to try a new recipe. Its chimichangas turkey style. Not greatly original but SO good! Here's the recipe as far as I can remember:

2 cups ground up or shredded turkey(we used both white and dark, deboned once you've decided that it is a leftover)
1 cup turkey juice (ours had gellified because we used it the next day. you can use gravy too)
2 cups rice
1 can refried beans
1 cup grated cheese
1/2 cup salsa (or to taste)
1/4 cup green onions
tortilla shells

Because the turkey juices were gellified(new word), we put it on medium heat on the stove until it melted back into juices. We then added the rice, beans, salsa, cheese and turkey. Heat it through until its all warm and then add the green onions. While this is heating, turn your skillet on to medium.

Scoop some of the filling into the middle (about 1/2 cup or so) and the fold the top and bottom of the tortilla and then the two sides. Warm on the skillet until brown and then flip and brown the other side. If you're making a lot, you can keep them warm in the oven. The amount we used ended up making about 12 chimichangas. You can serve it with more salsa, sour cream, or whatever you'd like. We ran out of sour cream, so we had to use salsa.

Anyway, just wanted to share our tasty leftover ideas! Hope you enjoy!

My Baby is 6 Months Old!!

Ok, has anyone seen the last 6 months because I'm looking for them!!! I know time goes fast but this is insane.

Ethan's getting so big and doing all sorts of new little firsts all the time. He rolls over, smiles, laughs, grabs and plays with his binky - or anything near him, spits out food I try to feed him, and I'd like to say he sleeps through the night but that's just not happening. :) He's getting close though!

So on this momentous occasion of my little one turning 6 months, I decided to look back and past pictures - to actually prove that time did exist between May 22, 2008 and now - November 22, 2008!

Here is my sweet little boy only a few hours old. I didn't want to put him down! He reminded me so much of Ashley and Gavin when he was born.

Here is Ethan when he was 1 month old. He's so tiny but still has nice, chubby legs. :)

Again in the bouncer, he is now 2 months old. He is the best little stretcher! He apparently decided that was the most comfy position for sleep at the time.


Ethan was having fun at Grandpa and Grandma Weist's house when he was 3 months old. He was a good little boy all weekend while we were there visiting! He got to meet his cousins from California and all kinds of other fun things while we were there!

Daddy and Ethan (and I) had fun at the BYU football game against Wyoming. We enjoyed watching Wyoming get stomped... kinda like Utah did to BYU today... but we won't go there... I might cry!

Ethan is now 5 months old in this picture. Maybe I should find another place for him to hang out. But he loves the bouncer and I sure love having somewhere he enjoys laying down in so I can get stuff done!

And here is my chubby little Ethan at 6 months old. The game (sniff) and 4 wild siblings tired him out. Actually, sitting on my lap watching me type this tired him out. :) But I'm sure the rest of the excitement of the day helped! What happy sweet little boy he is! We are so blessed to have him in our lives and I can't wait to see all the other milestones he goes through as he gets bigger! I know he will enjoy playing with Gavin as he gets older - he already laughs hysterically at Gavin no matter what he's doing!!

Halloween

We did all kinds of fun things this year for Halloween. We skipped Steve's work Halloween party as I figured something bad might happen to his boss if I were to enter into that building. But that's a whole different story we won't get into!

We woke up and dyed Andy's hair green with kool-aid. Don't worry, it was out by Sunday. Or at least it was a fluorescent yellow instead of green... We got everyone else ready, took a picture and headed for school.

Aren't we cute! Steve was taking the picture... He was Space Ghost for the night

Here's my dear Stitch - I mean Jakob. It was a looooong parade but it was fun to see all the different costumes.

No, that's not moldy mac and cheese. But it is dyed mac and cheese! I put some blue food coloring in and had yummy "brains" for lunch. The kids giggled and then ate it all up!


Here are our pumpkins... mabye we should have taken the picture inside first...

We were going to go to the Trunk or Treat but I was making last minute touches for each of the costumes. Steve's belt needed fixed, Ashley and I needed headbands, etc. So we got there when there were only four people left. Steve went trick-or-treating with the boys down a couple streets before coming home so I could take them the rest of the way. My kids were AWESOME! Ethan stayed home with Daddy and helped with candy. I took my kids down several blocks and got TONS of candy. We're talking a gallon ziploc bag for each of them - plus an overflow bag for Steve and I to share! It was rainy but warm so we had a lot of fun!!


After a rather disastrous church volleyball tournament, I wanted to blow off some steam. And what better way to do that than go - to a volleyball game...? We went to Provo for a trick-or-treat with Cosmo. It was so much fun! We met athletes from every sport(except football since they were playing at the time in Colorado...) and the kids got to do different activities. Gavin and Ashley were waiting in line to play tennis.

Andy threw the ball and hit the cups every time! This was with the Men's baseball team. They were pretty impressed!


Jakob and many of the other kids were enjoying watching Cosmo (aka Batman) shoot some hoops!

Andy's trying his hand at tennis.

Ashley enjoyed attempting to bounce the ball on the tennis racquet. She had a harder time but the guy was very patient with her.


Jakob hit the ball as hard as he could at the net. It went really high before coming down!

Between the trick or treating and game we decided to go to dinner. We went to the Brick Oven(a rule if you're going to a volleyball game at BYU I think...) and enjoyed yummy pizza. There was a balloon guy there that made amazing balloons figures! Ashley got a pink elephant with purple husks, Andy got a two sided light saber(Darth Maul's), Jakob got a monkey and Gavin got a twisty sword. He wanted a pink parrot... I said no!

And to end our Halloween weekend, here is the Volleyball game. Unfortunately, they lost to New Mexico but it was still a really fun game to watch. The kids had fun climbing the chairs and watching the scoreboard make funny pictures. And using the restroom about 3 times each. Next time maybe we won't get them refills at dinner... Steve and I enjoyed some good volleyball - well, except that they lost... If you look closely, you'll see that Cosmo is riding a unicycle in the picture... He did all kinds of fun things. Gavin kept calling him Baby Jaguar(from Diego) and at one point when he couldn't see him, he announced that Baby Jaguar is going to the potty.... What a great Halloween week we had! And now we're zooming ahead to a great Thanksgiving...

Halloween Party '08

On October 25th, we had a Halloween Party at our house. After cleaning, watching football, running to Smiths for groceries, enjoying a delicious raspberry cheesecake shake and enjoying time with Mom and Dad at Arctic Circle, we zoomed home to make the food and get ready for the party. We invited as many as we could and wanted to spread the word. And Steve was a little worried that our house would burst at the seams...

People started arriving and helped us out with the food. I think the food was a HUGE success which I was thrilled about. There were a few other things I wanted to make but didn't get a chance to. As it was, I think we had plenty! Steve made mini burgers with waffle fries, mini burgers, cheese and a tomato. YUM. I made mummy dogs where I wrapped hot dogs with breadsticks. And then there were candy corn crackers which were triangle crackers with cream cheese dip and three different colors of cheese on top. Other people brought apples, caramels, chips, salsa and other yummy things!! Steve made homemade rootbeer to top it all off. The dry ice froze to the spigot so we had to ladle it from the top. :)

The costumes were GREAT!!! We had a friend dressed as the Papparazzi and she took pictures. Can't wait to get those! There were princesses, gypsies, pirates, Mother Nature(me), Bees, ninjas, workmen, etc. SO here are a few of the pictures. I may change them once I get the better ones. :)

Somehow at the party, the women managed to stay in the living room while the men hung out in the kitchen... :)

Gavin the pirate had had no nap and wasn't too thrilled about pretty much anything. Have his home invaded probably didn't help much either. But he was sure cute!



Everyone enjoyed the yummy food. Has anyone else noticed I dwell on the food subject a little too much?


The guys had a donut eating contest. The donuts were on string and the guys couldn't touch them with their hands. I would have loved to do it too but I felt blah. Otherwise I would have won. ;) As it was, Steve Weist was the winner! YAY!

We decided to let the younger girls have a go at it. I think they had more fun than anything. If anyone knows who won, could you tell me?!

We had so much fun and from what I've heard everyone else did too. Thanks everyone for coming! I'm very glad we were able to have family and friends come and share with us!