World's Easiest Stuffed Green Peppers

I'm always on the lookout for quick and easy meals, especially since I don't like to cook particularly and my children are inevitably picky eaters. One meal that I can get them to eat is Stuffed Green Peppers. I inherited this gem of a recipe from my mom but I'm not sure where she got the original.

What You'll Need:
2 large green peppers, sliced in half horizontally to form "cups" and seeded
1 lb. ground beef
1 cup rice (you can even use the microwave variety or the boil in bag variety if you want)
1 can Sloppy Joe sauce
1/4 log of Velveeta, dice (you can use more or less depending on how cheesy you like it)

What You'll Do:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (or 175 celcius).

2. In a medium or large saucepan, place cut and seeded green peppers. Cover the peppers with water, and bring to a boil. Boil for about 10 minutes (just until the peppers are no longer firm, but have a little give when you poke them with a fork). Remove cooked green peppers from the water and place in a 8 or 9 inch square glass baking dish.

3. Meanwhile, make your rice according to the directions, especially if you need to boil water for them and they take awhile.

4. Also, start cooking your meat in a skillet on the stove. Be sure to thoroughly cook the meat, and then drain the fat away. Then add in the can of Sloppy Joe, making sure to stir well.

5. Dice the velveeta into small squares. Stir into the Sloppy Joe/ground beef mixture (it doesn't have to melt now; it will in the oven).

6. Fill each green pepper half with cooked rice and the meat mixture (you can do half of each mixture or more of one or the other, depending on your preferences). You can even thinly slice more Velveeta and top each pepper with it. Bake for approximately 30-45 minutes. Enjoy!

Look Who's 5!

So look what happened around here lately (okay, not lately, in November past, but still...): My baby boy, my sweet little guy, is now five. I know I say it every year, and I probably will for every year that follows, but where does the time go?

 

 



Here's years past:

 

 

Wow, where did my baby go?



Cards that Care

So a good friend of mine, Erin, of A Bird and a Bean recently collaborated with a friend of hers for Cards that Care.  I LOVE this idea.  She explains it way better than I ever could, but it's a great way to give back in a small, meaningful way. 

Cards that Care

Apparently there are many heart and stroke patients out there in hospitals who have no family or friends. Can you imagine? You've just suffered a horrible ordeal, all alone. No letters, no cards, no visits. So here's where we step in. Every month create 5 handmade cards that can be delivered to a patient that has no one else to care for them. Show them that someone out there is thinking of them in some small way. It might be the only ray of sunshine that they have that day.

Like Erin says, it's also a great way to teach my children about giving back. They live spoiled, entitled lives (my fault, not theirs) and I want them to be selfless, gracious, and generous. Unfortunately, these are qualities that we have to teach. They aren't innate. With my children being 3 and 5, it's hard to find volunteer opportunities for them, and especially ones that are fun (who said volunteering had to be boring?). But this 5 Card Challenge fits right in. Every month we'll be making 5 handmade cards that can be delivered to patients. Join us in this challenge! You can find more information on where to drop off the cards and contact information over HERE.

Again with the Crickets

So the only action that my blog lately has seen is the random spammer with their, "Wow! Really great thoughtful post, here's my blog {insert hyperlink here}" spam. That's really very sad. I'm sorry for the absence and really hope to write more soon.

One of the many reasons I'm too distracted to write most days :)

At my husband's suggestion, I've created an excel spreadsheet of my day which details what I should be doing at any given time. It's kind of absurd to think that I need it, but so far it's been invaluable. That being said, you can find me mostly over at the wonderful Erin's blog, A Bird and a Bean.

You'll find some clever crafting tips, neat giveaways and of course, my free printables. There's some cute clover leaf St. Patrick's printables over there now. Go check it out.

Flyswatter Painting

So the boys have been into arts and crafts lately. With the lack of crafts stores in Germany, it's sometimes hard to find things for them to do. I went to the German equivalent of the Dollar Tree (woefully inadequate replacement) and picked up some flyswatters. I'd seen this idea on (where else?!) Pinterest where you put paint daubs on a canvas and gave the kiddos a flyswatter and let them have at it. My boys are a: fans of paint and anything messy, b: really big fans of smacking/hitting things, so I knew they'd have a blast.

 

It turns out, though, that it's really really really messy. I would have tried it outside instead, which is probably a much better idea, but it was raining. Because it's Germany. And it's always raining.

 

If you look closely you can see the pain on his ear, cheek, eyebrows, hair...

 

It was like instant-gratification art. You get to smack the crap out of the paper and you get beautiful results. Link was a huge fan.

 

I was not a huge fan of the mess. We obviously got a little wild with our smacks, and by we, I mean them. But the fun was worth it. Nothing a little magic eraser can't help!

 

Here's our final results:

 

 

Link used a three color approach, while Drake wanted just red and blue.

 

I sealed the canvases with some glossy fixative and they now hang proudly in my foyer. Beautiful artwork with sentimental meaning at the price of fun. Win-win-win!

 

Photo-a-Day days 4, 5 and 6

So I'm way behind on posting this, we've been really busy lately and then we've had some issues arise (which I'm being vague about on purpose)... so anyway, here's days 4, 5 and 6 now.

Day 4: joyous (totally cheated and took a photo of a canvas on my wall as both boys are sick now and aren't in the best joyous moods)

Day 5: the temp today (34 degrees)

Day 6: shopping (a package bought for a friend's son's birthday)

Photo Days 2 & 3

So I meant to post this yesterday but ran out of time somehow. Day 2 of the Photo-A-Day Challenge is Your Favorite Holiday Movie. I don't really have one. I LOVE all holiday movies. Some of my favorites are: Elf, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (animated version), Charlie Brown's version of course, and National Lampoon's. I do still love Home Alone, Jingle all the Way, and Santa Clause. But my favorite movie of all is the experience: just sharing it with my boys:

Focused on the Grinch

 

 

Day 3 of the Challenge is red. We decorated our house for Christmas this past weekend so we have lots of reds and greens, but I went outside for my inspiration. There's these red berries on a bush next to where I park my car and they make a wonderful contrast to the snow we're getting today.

 

Yes, I know it says a photo a day, but I couldn't decide between the two of the "red" photos, so you get both.