Platform 9 3/4

My son's tenth birthday is this summer. It's hard to track down school friends in the summer, so we plan his birthday early. This year, he read the Harry Potter books and was excited to celebrate his 9 3/4 birthday at "Hogwarts".

We sent out invitations that looked official, complete with a red seal marked with an H.

I pulled out my calligraphy pen, left over from 6th grade art class eons ago, and wrote out the names.

The invitation is available through Google Drive:
Word document
PDF document

I downloaded Lumos, Scriptina, and Aquiline for the fonts. You can find them for free on the internet--just be careful!

We decorated the front of the house with a brick entrance and a sign for platform 9 3/4. The bricks are made from a sponge dipped in acrylic paint and pressed on a piece of drop cloth. I mixed dark brown, red, and tan paint to get the variety of colors.

The sign is made from poster board (69 cents at Dollar Tree), a printable sign, and lettering written with a gold acrylic paint pen.





The entrance to our house looked like this:

The guests ducked under the bricks to enter.

More to come!

Some Pinteresting Meals

My friend J introduced me to Pinterest a few months ago. It's a very handy website.

I have fabulous boards filled with projects and recipes. Most of which I DO plan to use. Especially the freezer recipes. And the classroom ideas.

I've been searching for new recipes to add to my repetoire--especially some fresh takes on dinners. I am trying to limit the number of my recipes that use canned cream soups (have you read the ingredients lists on those?) or other processed foods.

Also, I'm always looking for new recipes to dump straight into the crockpot. I love my crockpot, er, crockpots. They make life so much easier.

It's Official...

I have finally finished my Bachelor's degree.

I have my teaching certificate.

I have a summer with NO homework!

It has been so nice to spend time with my family--relaxing, visiting relatives, and enjoying the not-so-sunny summer weather of the Pacific Northwest (though the recent thunderstorms have been amazing!).

I've enjoyed cooking fresh meals, though I do miss the convenience of plopping a frozen meal into the crockpot. I've missed my freezer meals so much that I have decided to keep up my semiannual tradition of freezer cooking insanity. I think it will help my first year as a teacher to go smoothly. If student teaching is any clue to how "employed" teaching works, every freezer meal will be worth it's weight in gold come fall!

Easy Salsa Chicken

This is my variation of this crockpot favorite! This was a perfect Friday night dinner. After a long day student teaching, it was so nice to come home to a meal that was hot and ready to go. I used the chicken as a nacho topping for my kids, while I ate it in a pita pocket with some shredded cheese and sour cream. It was very tasty!

Easy Salsa Chicken
4 chicken breasts
1 1/2 c. salsa
4oz. green chilies
2 Tbs. taco seasoning

Place the chicken breasts in the crockpot (mine were frozen). Dump the remaining ingredients on top. Cover and cook on low 9-11 hours. About halfway through, use two forks to shred the chicken.

**I used the frozen chicken breasts because I know my crockpot heats them through within a safe amount of time. If you don't know that your crockpot can heat the frozen chicken quickly (within 2 hours) to a safe temperature, use fresh or defrosted chicken breasts and reduce the cooking time by 3-4 hours.

Frozen Pre-Cooked Ground Beef

When I purchase ground beef for my massive cook-off, I try to buy a few extra pounds. Since I buy the gigantic 10 pound chubs from Costco, I always have some left.

There are a few ways to prepare this "spare" ground beef:

**Plain: Cook it, drain the fat, cool it, freeze it on a cookie sheet, and transfer the frozen crumbles to a prepared ziptop bag.

**Italian: Cook it with onions, garlic, and celery. Drain the fat. Stir in Italian seasoning. Cool it, freeze it on a cookie sheet, and transfer the crumbles to a prepared ziptop bag.

**Mexican: Cook it with onions and garlic. Drain the fat. Stir in Taco seasoning (or your own blend of spices. I like cumin, chili powder, oregano, salt, and pepper.) Cool it, freeze it on a cookie sheet, and transfer the crumbles to a prepared ziptop bag.

On cooking day, toss the desired amount of ground beef into a frying pan. Plain ground beef will require seasoning on cooking day, the flavored beef mixtures only need to be heated up.

**For spaghetti: Add jarred spaghetti sauce and diced tomatoes; simmer until the noodles are ready.
**For tacos/burritos/nachos: Heat through. Serve with your favorite toppings.

I usually end up with two gallon ziptop bags of frozen ground beef crumbles. Freezing the ground beef on a cookie sheet before putting it into a freezer bag is essential for easy use. If you put the warm ground beef into the bag and straight into the freezer, it will freeze in a big lump.

The flash frozen crumbles prevent the lump situation. If the bag of crumbles is solid when I take it out of the freezer (because I wasn't patient enough to wait for it to cool all the way after three days of freezer cooking) I drop it on the floor or smack it against the counter to loosen up the crumbles. My kids usually jump and the dog stares at me like I'm crazy. Whatever.

Dinner is ready in 10-15 minutes with my prepared ground beef. That's not crazy at all.

English Muffin Breakfast Pizzas

Easy to make, easy to reheat, an easy breakfast on the go!

English Muffin Breakfast Pizzas
From Kate at Our Best Bites

6 whole wheat English muffins, at room temperature
4 eggs, at room temperature
2 Tbs. milk
1/3 tsp. kosher salt (regular works fine)
About 10 dashes Tabasco sauce (I used Tapatio)
12 thin slices of deli ham or 10-12 slices of bacon (I used bacon)
1 c. shredded cheese
Extras: chopped green or red peppers, diced green onions, diced tomatoes, sliced mushrooms, etc.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Coat the foil with non-stick spray or brush with oil.

Gently separate or use a knife to cut apart the halves of the English muffins.

In a flat dish or pie plate, whisk together the eggs, milk, salt, and Tabasco/ Tapatio sauce until well blended. Dip both sides of the English muffins in the egg mixture (similar to french toast) and place on the prepared cookie sheet.


Top each muffin half with some cheese, meat, and veggies. Finish with another layer of cheese (the cheese helps it all stay together).


**These are in the process of being topped.**

Bake for 12-15 minutes. Immediately loosen from the cookie sheet and allow to cool. Once cooled, place the cookie sheet in the freezer. When frozen solid, place the pizzas in labeled ziptop bag.

To serve, heat in the microwave 1-2 minutes.

Mini Pizza Muffins

These had mixed reviews. They smell yummy, but were a little bland. I'm willing to give them another try, though--maybe adding more cheese or a tablespoon of Italian seasoning to the batter.

Mini Pizza Muffins
Adapted from Mommy Makes at food.com


1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. fine cornmeal
1 Tbs. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 1/4 c. milk
1/4 c. oil
1/2 pizza or marinara sauce (I used spaghetti sauce)
1/3 c. Parmesan cheese, grated
1/3 c. pepperoni, finely chopped (or 1/3 c. cooked sausage or 1/3 c. veggies)

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease 36 mini muffins tins.

In a large bowl stir the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt together. In a separate smaller bowl, blend the egg, milk, and oil together. Make a well in the center and add the liquid mixture, stirring until combined.

In another small bowl, combine the pizza sauce and cheese.

Fill the muffin tins halfway. Evenly divide the sauce mixture among the muffins. Top with the pepperoni/sausage/veggies. Cover the toppings with the remaining batter.


Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to a wire rack to cool. When cooled, place on a cookie sheet in the freezer. When frozen solid, place in a labeled ziptop bag.

To serve, place the desired number of muffins in a container in a lunch box (they will defrost by lunchtime). Or, heat in the microwave for 30 seconds.