Must or Bust: Baked Tacos and List Making (with a random picture just for fun)

A Must or Bust-- can you believe it?! I know. Check your pulse. This is intense stuff.


Baked Tacos : MUST


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These. Are. Amazing!

Thank you, One Good Thing By Jillee, thank you. I found her recipe HERE and my family will never be the same. I thought Chuck was going to die from pleasure. . . pretty sure he ate five in one sitting.

One thing I noticed, though, is that I'm horrible at cleaning my oven. . .  and so when I was baking up the taco shells, they tended to create smoke. Which, in turn, set off my ultra-sensitive fire alarm. Soooo, I should try fixing that. Maybe.

So, uh, yeah. If you have an ultra-sensitive smoke alarm and a dirty oven, be aware that you may have to kick open a window or two and fan your alarm until it zips its trap. But it's worth it. You can totally give the firefighters some when they come to save you. They'll tell you to set your house on fire anytime. 

And just one more thing-- they don't reheat all too well. So if by some random chance you have some left over after dinner, then you might want to just stuff them in your face anyway. The shells get a little chewy when reheated (even if you use the oven).

. . .

• 2 lbs ground beef
• 1 can refried beans
• 15 ounce tomato sauce
• 1 pkg taco seasoning or 2 – 3 Tablespoons of homemade taco seasoning)
• 1 – 2 cups shredded cheese (I didn’t measure)
• 18-20 hard taco shells (I think I used 15, but I crammed them pretty full)
• Your favorite taco toppings.

Brown ground beef. Drain off any fat and add refried beans, tomato sauce, and seasoning.
Spoon mixture into taco shells.
Place filled shells into a 9×13 pan, standing up. Sprinkle with cheese.
Bake at 400 for 10-12 minutes or until heated through.

Baked Taco Shells : Working with 6 tortillas at a time, wrap in a barely damp cloth or paper towel and microwave on High until steamed, about 30 seconds. Lay the tortillas on a clean work surface and coat both sides with cooking spray. Then carefully drape each tortilla over two bars of the oven rack. Bake at 375°F until crispy, 7 to 10 minutes.

. . . . .

30 Things My Kids Should Know About Me : Must


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Once upon a time, I got a wild hair and wanted to try this list found HERE over at Baby Making Machine. I knew it was going to take some time, but I didn't quite realize how MUCH time. I'm still working on writing down the list and I started on January 1st, but maybe I'm just slow.

I do tend to talk a lot. . . so maybe that's my problem. I can't just write a simple answer. It has to be a paragraph.

But the list was well-rounded and got me to thinking back on my life. It should be pretty fun for the kidlits to look back on this list and say, "Wow! No wonder mom is as weird as she is! It all makes sense now."

I would highly recommend every mom and dad give this list a shot. It doesn't matter how long it takes you-- just do it a little bit at a time! Write it down for yourself AND your posterity. It'll be fun. . . I promise. It gets the wheels of your memory turning again and you'll be surprised just how much you remember!

. . . .

This has absolutely nothing to do with the Must or Bust, but I just thought I'd let you know that the construction workers of our house must read my blog. Why else would they show me up the very next day after I posted about the progress made on the framework?! ;) hahaha!

After I posted THESE pictures, I took a drive out the next morning and found this:




Show offs. . .

;)