{Embrace the Camera} Meeska Mooska

It was a typical Tuesday evening.  Taylor was washing the dishes, I was sweeping up the remnants of dinner, Ave was bouncing in the jumperoo, and Seth was contentedly playing with the fridge phonics - you know, "M!" says mmmm! "M!" says mmmm! Every letter makes a sound! "M!" says mmmm!  

I hadn't noticed the annoying yet educational chanting wasn't blaring in the background fighting over the staccato nursery rhymes of the jumperoo  until I heard Seth dramatically exclaim, "oh no!"  It was in that voice he uses for playing pretend, so I nudged Taylor to make sure he wasn't missing this, and quietly we watched Seth play out his pretend scenario.

"Goofy, I can't reach the Chocolate Buttons!"  Seth exclaimed pointing to the shiny purple packet of sweets on top of our refrigerator - stored where little hands couldn't help themselves whenever the desire for chocolate arose (I'm talking about Seth here not me...just to clarify).  He hadn't satisfactorily fulfilled the vegetable quota at dinner, and so no dessert was on the menu that night.

Oblivious to the nosy parents eavesdropping at the other end of the kitchen, his one-sided dialogue continued,  "How bout a Mouse-ca-tool?"

"Oh TOODLES!  I need some (pause, finger to chin)... bouncy shoes!"

At that point Mom and Dad stepped in - forget the bouncy shoes, Dad is plenty tall enough.  You're getting a Chocolate Button for being so stinking cute.

My Junior Mouseketeer and me

{Meal Plan Monday} Edition I bet Beatrix Potter would've loved Chicken Tacos

Last weekend we went to the Lake District with some of our favorite families in Edinburgh.  All 12 of us crammed into a quaint farmhouse outside of Bowness-on-Windermere super close to Beatrix Potter's house. (I took zero pictures - so lame, I know.)  Ironically Avery's nickname changed on this trip from Hunca Munca to Thumper due to her nocturnal leg motion that kept us up from 2-4 am.  I'm still incredulous that she can sleep through that.  Thank you iPhone sound machine app for saving the rest of our trip.

Since we were staying 3 nights, each family was in charge of one dinner.  Lisa made inside out lasagna - a healthy hit.  Seth actually ate cooked spinach. Wait a minute, that means I actually ate cooked spinach.  I haven't gotten the recipe yet, but it entails, chopped tomatoes, diced onion, spinach, minced garlic, sliced mushrooms, pastoff, and ricotta. So good.  Sarah made the ever popular chili.  I'm pretty sure I ate 3 helpings on my baked potato - it was perfect autumn comfort food. And so I decided to make the crock pot chicken tacos that we're obsessed with these days.  I poured in a whole bag of Costco boneless skinless chicken breasts, taco seasoning to cover the top of the chicken, and 3 cans of chopped tomatoes in Sarah's gigantor crock pot (read: American sized).  The leftover chicken ended up stretching to 24 meals total over the week, so I thought I'd post some more ways to use this deliciously easy crock pot recipe.

So you have Chicken Tacos/Chalupas

Chicken Enchiladas - this is not the usual recipe I use, but it's pretty close.  Sub your crock pot chicken for the cooked chicken

Cowboy Chicken Casserole - this is one of Taylor's favorite meals, but it takes a ridiculous amount of time to make it, so I fix it about once a year.  Can we say wife of the year?
This week I made it with the crock pot chicken and used a can of cream of mushroom soup instead of making it from scratch like the recipe has you do, and it was so simple.  This recipe now has the potential of becoming a regular in the Ince household.

Chicken Enchilada Soup - this tastes really similar to Chili's Chicken Enchilada soup - it's especially good with salsa in it.

And recently I found this recipe for Chicken Taquitos which I going to try next.

Enjoy!



What we've been up to lately in iPhone photos:

Avery working on her moves for So You Think You Can Dance

This boy is in constant motion - it's hard to get a photo of him even when he's sitting down.
He requisitioned this community bowl of guac for himself - he is definitely from Texas y'all.

Laid back Avery Girl crammed in the middle of two other car seats for  a trip to our second home (also know n as Costco )

Seth's first taste of Ants on a Log - he loved it contrary to his facial expression in the photo

Holdy-Holdy still happens on a regular basis 

Making Pumpkin Nutella bread

I'm in need of some new crock pot recipes since we're getting sick of Mexican food (I can't believe I just typed that) so send them my way!