Here’s the dealio. There are 25 bloggers doing this thing. We each get one day to accumulate as many comments where people link to their photos on Facebook as possible. Today is my day. (Although it doesn’t officially start until 9am Central time).The winner? Will have $5,000 donated to their local foodbank from Quaker Oats.

Is there a downside to this project? NO. There is not. Oatmeal. Comments. Photos. Charity. It gets no better than this! Unless, of course, you add unicorns. Which I couldn’t do. BUT I TRIED.

Here is what you have to do:

1. Visit Start With Substance to get to the Quaker Facebook fan page and to read the official rules.
2. You need a Facebook page. I’m sorry in advance if you do not have one, but once you sign up? You will realize how big of an addicting time suck it is. Here is mine.
3. Go to the Quaker Oats Facebook page. Download and print off the picture of the Quaker Oats man on the sidebar of that page.
4. Take a picture (or video of you’re feeling adventurous) of yourself and/or your family with the Quaker Oats man.
5. Click the “Add Photos” link on the Quaker Oats Facebook Page and upload your photo. Once it’s uploaded, get the link to that photo (which is on the bottom of the photo’s page) and leave it in the comments section here.
6. Feel good about yourself for participating in such an awesome charity oatmeal event.

Now, Quaker Oats is sending me two Quaker Oats coupons to give away as well as sending a case of Quaker Oats oatmeal to my local foodbank as a “Thank You.” If that’s not awesome, I don’t know what is. If I get the most comments with valid links to Facebook photos, they’ll donate $5,000 to my local foodbank as well. So Quaker Oats? Doing their part. Now, for my part:

For every qualifying comment I get on this entry before midnight tonight, I’ll donate one can of food to my local foodbank.

So…go do your thing! And help me help my local food bank! Pretty Please with brown sugar on top…?

Get it? Brown Sugar? Because it’s OATMEAL! I’m funny!

To get you started…here’s my picture. And here’s the link to my photo on facebook.

If you want to know more, visit the Official Web Page of the Quaker Oats event. In the meantime? Get to snapping pictures of yourself with that handsome man. If you dont leave a link in my comments to your photo on Facebook before 9am Central tomorrow morning? It won’t count and I might lose and then I would cry.

The End.

(Sidenote: The blog that posted yesterday? Has the most amazing recipe using Quaker Oatmeal I think I’ve ever seen. YOU MUST CHECK IT OUT. And then make it for me because I think it’s too complicated for my novice skills.)

I cooked our big family dinner on Saturday night since that’s the day we celebrated LilZ’s Christmas. We had my family and MrZ’s over for dinner. This picture above? Was my pre-meal photograph to demonstrate the effort I put forward in making the meal for my loved ones.

I mean – nothing says love like boxed food, right?

However, even with this ease, I still managed to screw things up. I let the water/milk for the fake potatoes overflow all over my stove. Since I was cooking other things on the other eyes, the milk foam immediately started burning and the smoke detector started going off. I hollered at LilZ to go get the broom to wave in front of the smoke detector, while I tried my best to save the potatoes by just dumping the flakes and seasoning in the overflowing boil. Unfortunately, most of the water and milk had boiled out so I ended up adding more milk to get the mixture kinda right which made for the most drab and milky potatoes ever made.

But still…Easy! Breezy!

For the main course we bought a ham with a gift certificate. You know, to add to the difficulty value of the meal.

Now, I did actually cook rolls and green bean casserole as well. And neither of those came from boxes. They came from cans. So, you know, that should count for something. And in my defense, the same group had eaten a real Christmas dinner with yummy homemade goodies at my mother-in-law’s on Christmas day. I figured, there’s no way I could compete with her food in quality (I’m telling you, I dream about that meal it was so good) so I might as well not even bother. I went for SPEED instead. And I tell you, I had all of the food ready to feed all 11 people in under an hour. That’s damn fast, if I do say so myself.

Especially if you subtract the time it took to keep the house from burning down.

Okay – self-deprecating portion of this entry is NOW DONE. Now, Go Vote! I’ll be harrassing you every day to vote for me since you can do it daily. Voting ends November 23rd, so be patient with me until then. I don’t even mind if you don’t vote for me! Here are the other competitors in case you forgot:
Confessions of An Apron Queen
Livin’ With Me!
Suburban Bliss
My Wooden Spoon

These other woman have amazingly yummy recipes too, so I have a tough competition. And by “tough” I mean – *drooooool*. If you see something you like more, vote for that one. Honestly? I totally voted for this one today because it looks SO DAMN GOOD. Just make sure you vote.

(Hee. I’m totally going to copy and paste that portion of the entry and change the names for November 2nd.)

Without Further Ado – Burrito Casserole

INGREDIENTS:

2 Cans of refried beans
1 5.4oz Bag of Taco/Mexican Style Rice
1 Can of Black Olives
1 Medium tomato diced
1 12 oz Bag of Vegetarian Ground Beef
(Or replace with 1lb of Ground Beef)
8oz Velveeta Mexican Cheese
8 10in Tortilla Shells
1 16oz jar of salsa

Preheat oven to 350.

Dice tomato and black olives and set aside. Cut Velveeta into small cubes and set aside.

Cook the bag of rice according to the instructions. While cooking, heat both cans of refried beans in a pot. Pour about one spoon full of the salsa into the beans to make them a little bit more fluid. Heat the vegetarian ground beef substitute in a frying pan. Pour the taco seasoning in while heating.

After the rice is cook but still warm, and the beans and vegetarian ground beef are also warm, you can start layering.

First, lay 2 tortilla shells along the bottom of your large casserole dish. Then scoop half of the beans onto those shells. Then sprinkle about half of your diced tomatoes and about 1/3rd of your black olives on top of the beans. Spread about half of your vegetarian ground beef and then half of your rice to finish off the layer.

Place 3 tortilla shells and then do the entire layer again: Beans, tomatoes, black olives (another 1/3rd), vegetarian ground beef and rice. Put one final layer of three shells on the top.

Now spread out your cubes of cheese on the top of the tortilla shells. Sprinkle the last bit of black olives over the top as well.

Place casserole in oven and cook for 30 minutes. At 30 minutes, take the casserole dish out of the oven and pour some salsa (to taste) on the top of the now-melted cheese. Put the dish back in the oven for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, take the dish out and serve!

Now – Go vote for my recipe. (If you like it!) And I also have 25+ FREE! Velveeta Coupons to give away if you want to try a recipe, shoot me an email (misszoot@gmail.com) with your address and I’ll drop yours in the mail this weekend! Who can say No to free Velveeta? Sorry! They’ve all been claimed! I hope you’ll still vote!

So…I give to you…The Ingredients!

Now – keep in mind that this was my first time EVER building a recipe of my own. There are several things I’ve learned in this process that I’ll keep in mind if someone asks me to create a recipe from scratch again. And honestly – if I could resubmit the recipe with these new revelations in mind – I would. It’s still tasty! Don’t get me wrong, but next time I’ll take these things into consideration.

(Ha! Like there will be a next time…)

• Color! Color! Color! I was so preoccupied with making sure that the casserole was yummy to me and the rest of my family, I didn’t spend my time considering presentation. Now that the recipe is turned in and I’ve had time to think about it more…I wish I had used more color. The final result is a bit drab. But yummy!
• Branding. I wish I had tried to be more generic in my ingredients. I was concerned with keeping the recipe vegetarian since I’ve not been eating meat for awhile now, but I really should have tried to do so without relying so heavily on one specific ingredient. If people can’t find that, I’m not sure there are variations of it. I should have looked into that more.
• From scratch anyone? Do you know it never even occurred to me to include making the refried beans from scratch as part of the recipe? Why am I so quit to pick the can opener route when buying ingredients? I mean – the recipe is wonderful – but it would have probably been better if I had tried to make my OWN refried beans. (Ha!)

When they first mentioned the challenge to me they said I was going to come up with a casserole that used Velveeta, could be done under $20 and feed 8-12 people. I said “Sure!” on instinct because if there’s anything I know: it’s Velveeta. I have several dips I do in the crockpot on gamedays using Velveeta in one form or another. I have one that would be the closest I have to a “token recipe” I take places, so I felt like I could create a recipe using Velveeta pretty easily. I also said, “Sure!” because I’m a big fan of affordable recipes. Most of my meals are inexpensive and EASY. I think the last reason why I said, “Sure!” was because I was simply honored that they asked. I don’t get asked about that stuff often, and I can honestly tell you my ego may have had a lot to do with how easily I accepted this challenge. “Me? You want ME? REALLY? SURE!”

I decided to start with the only casserole I have made from my own head before…and just kinda edit it to make it better and more recipe friendly. Before, with the family, I always called it Mexican Lasagna. But – by the time I turned in the recipe to the challenge people organizers – I had changed the name as “Mexican Lasagna” no longer seemed to describe it accurately. I don’t want to do my BIG REVEAL of the name until later in the month because I need you guys to vote for me and I want it to be fresh on your mind. But – I will tell you a few things I’ve learned:

1. When you’re cooking with Velveeta (and you’re ME), make sure you buy MORE than you need to allow for the snacking you’ll do while you prepare the casserole. Otherwise, when you realize you’re low, you may used sliced cheese as well and THIS IS A MISTAKE.
2. Refriend beans do not alway want to come out of their can. Sometimes you have to squeeze the can a little and this will cause your daughter to say, “Wow! You’re STRONG!”
3. You know you go to a small grocery store when the cashier starts noticing you come in often to buy the same list of similar ingredients. She may finally ask you, “Um. Do you do this EVERY week?”
4. I do not own good knives for cutting tomatoes. I do not know whether good tomato-cutting knives exist outside the 3am infomercials, but if they do, I do not own them.
5. It’s really nice when you’re testing a recipe on your family and they all agree what needs to change about certain variations. However, when they all say, “This kinda sucks,” you may suddenly have to fight the urge to throw the crappy tomato knives at their heads.

But it’s not. It’s totally the food.

I know fall is around the corner because all of my favorite Pumpkin flavored items are popping up around my favorite food locations. Panera Bread has their Pumpkin muffins sitting out on the warming platter. Starbucks is finally selling their Pumpkin Spice Latte – which I think may be one of the tastiest coffee drinks I’ve ever had. And the best of all – Blue Moon is selling their fall Harvest Moon Pumpkin ale which is my favorite beer OF ALL TIME.

(Sidenote: I was trying to link to the actual beer at the Blue Moon site but they ask for your age TWICE before getting to that section. Are pr0n sites protected? Probably not.)

And let’s not forget the items people cook this time of year that have Pumpkin in them. Pumpkin bread, Pumpkin pie (my favorite made by MrZ’s grandfather) and that Pumpkin dip stuff that you use Ginger snaps in. One of MrZ’s aunts makes that stuff and it is like CRACK it is so addictive. I don’t even ever want to SEE the recipe because if I learn how to make it – all hope that I get back to my pre-AndyZ weight would be lost.

(Ha. Like the only thing holding me back is not knowing the recipe. The whole “I don’t cook” wouldn’t be an issue at all.)

So – the leaves will be changing soon and cooler weather is already here. If you need me, I’ll be in the corner eating enough pumkin goods that I’ll surely be gaining 15lbs a week until Christmas.

Hand me a napkin.

Good.

What if they also have a turkey/swiss wrap (sans condiments). Still healthy?

Good.

But – they might have splurged a little on some organic chips. Could that still be considered healthy?

Great!

Well…What if, at the last minute, they grabbed a giant-ass cinnamon roll? And by “giant-ass” they mean that it is – quite honestly – bigger than their head? And – quite literally – covered in 32 ounces of icing? And what if they opted to eat that instead of any of the above mentioned items? Where is that on the “healthy” scale?

Oh well. It’s the thought that counts. Right?

Here is my article. I am so incredibly proud to have my name on a real article I almost cried when I read it. I hope you’ll stop over and read it and maybe even try out some of the awesome smoothie recipes I discovered.

My kids really liked this assignment as well. Can you tell?

I’ve been trying to come up with a good list of items so I won’t have to go back again this week. As I’m making out the list I notice that while I’m pregnant, the items I come home with never match the list. Even if I’m carrying it in front of my face the entire time. The pregnant side of my brain takes over and starts throwing random items in that I’ve never purchased in my life. Like stew meat. I made beef stew last week because I saw the stew meat and went, “Yum.” I am not a red meat kind of gal. It never looks appealing to me, but I have to refrain from buying steaks every week. Mainly because I don’t know how to cook them. And don’t even get me started on the pickles. I hate being a cliché, but every week I try a different kind of pickle. I guess I’m okay as long as I don’t start dipping them in ice cream.

Of course – a lot of my pregnancy choices are not healthy. I have never been one to buy Little Debbie’s, but I’ve been working my way through the varieties of them on the shelf the last few weeks. Before I was pregnant, I don’t even think I knew where they were in the store. Now, it’s one of my standard weekly stops. And muffin and cake mixes? I don’t even like to bake, why do I have cupcake and muffin mixes in my pantry? And the marshmallow cereals…I obsessed over those with NikkiZ as well. This pregnancy is doing the same thing to my breakfast cravings.

My husband and son – who can’t resist the treats in the pantry when I bring them home – would really like me to stop this. As they keep reminding me, they are not pregnant and would rather not gain the weight along with me. NikkiZ, however, is not complaining one bit.

At meals I always tried to get her to try the new foods, but never insisted. I would put the food in front of her, and if she didn’t want it I’d willingly let her put it on my plate. Every meal I tried.

A few weeks ago, I made a roast. As usual, I put bits of everything on a plate for her to try. Oddly – she took a bite of roast and put it in her mouth. Which it shocked the hell out of me that she even tried, it was even more insane when she dove in for her second bite. She never even tries the food, much less finishes the bite. Which she did. SEVERAL TIMES. She kept asking for more! more! more! Then she went for the potatoes and loved those as well. She avoided the carrots like the plague, but I happily took those off her plate and traded her for my potatoes. It was like a dream come true. My child ate real food.

Ever since that night – it’s like a new kid has entered our house. She tries foods. And likes a lot of them. It’s like she suddenly realized that some of the food was good. Really, really good. And maybe she should at least test it out sometimes. She has eaten (and loved) baked beans, steak, chicken (in various forms), and POTATO CHIPS. She suddenly likes chips. And you know what else she likes to do with them? Dip them in the Swiss Laughing Cow cheese wedges. So – not only is she trying foods, but she’s also inventing her own combinations.

The best was last night. We had some fresh fruit to make parfaits after dinner. She took a bite of blueberry, decided she didn’t like it, and tried a blackberry instead. She ate a few blackberries, with a suspicious look on her face, and then went back and tried another blueberry. And then decided she liked them and just kept eating them. So, she went back to a food after an initial rejection. I think she decided that while the initial tastes were a little strong, both berries were pretty good after awhile. She loved them.

Of course, then she ruined it all by trying her hot dog dipped in whip cream. And I threw up everywhere. The End.