Old El Paso "family taco night" Review and Giveaway

I was so excited to receive a gift pack from Old El Paso through MyBlogSpark to do a review and giveaway. I had never had Tacos before and this was a great opportunity for me to try them.
Needless to say I loved them. It is so important to gather the Family together at dinner time. A family taco night can be a lot of fun for the whole family, try it, the kids might actually sit down for dinner!

This giveaway includes everything you see here plus a $10.00 gift card to buy the rest of the items you will need to make delicious Tacos.

To Enter: Do any of the following, you can enter as many times as you wish, just leave a separate comment for each entry.

1. Leave a comment as why you would like this gift packet
2. Follow me on Twitter (http://twitter.com/gramscooking) and tweet about the giveaway: come back and leave a comment.
3. Follow me on Facebook, come back and leave a comment.
4. Tell your friends about the giveaway and send me a copy of your emails to your friends.

Be sure to include your e-mail address in your comment so that I may notify you if you are a winner. Good Luck!

Details: this giveaway is open to US residents only and will end January 25, 2011 at 11:59pm EST. The winner will randomly be picked and announced shortly after. You will have 24 hours to contact me after you receive the e-mail. If I don't hear from you within that time frame, I will choose another name.

Disclosure: I received this gift pack from Old El Paso through MyBlogSpark for my review. However my words and opinions are my own and were not influenced by this.

Hot Artichoke Dip

Here is a perfect Dip to bring to a party on New Years Eve or New Years Day....
I got this recipe from The Pampered Chef. I am now a Consultant so I have access to quite a few recipes. This particular one caught my eye and thought of sharing it with my readers.
Ingredients:
2 jars (6.5 ounces each) marinated artichoke hearts, drained and coarsely chopped
1 package (10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained (here's a trick to draining spinach....place it in a cotton dish towel, roll it up and twist it. It will get all the excess fluids out of the spinach.)
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
3/4 cup (3 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan Cheese
1 garlic clove, pressed
Fresh vegetable dippers (optional)
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375F. combine artichokes, spinach, sour cream and mayonnaise in Classic Batter Bowl (a Pampered Chef item). Add Parmesan cheese and garlic: mix well and spoon into Mini-Baker (another Pampered Chef item).
2. Bake 20-25 minutes or until heated through. Serve with fresh vegetable dippers, if desired.
Yield: 3 cups (24 servings)
Nutrients per serving: (w tablespoons dip): Calories 70, total Fat 6 g, Saturated Fat 2 g, Cholesterol 5 mg, Carbohydrate 2 g, Protein 2 g, Sodium 140 mg, Fiber less than 1 g.
I hope you like this!!

Disclosure: This is not my recipe....it belongs to The Pampered Chef, Ltd.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!!!! Thank you to all my readers and sponsors. Stay safe through the Holidays and we will see you in "2011".

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What to get your children when they purchase a new home???

I think I found the answer for this dilemma. I believe I have found the perfect gift for their new home. Everyone likes to make changes in their decor when purchasing a new home. So, I decided to get them a gift certificate from modern rugs. These are examples of what type of rugs you can get; Contemporary, Transitional, Children, Shag & Flokati, Solid, Novelty, Striped and Outdoor rugs. One cannot go wrong with such a large selection of modern rugs.

Yoplait Coupon - for Susan G. Komen for the Cure

Help support the breast cancer cause through Yoplait Save Lids to Save Lives until the end of the year. For every pink lid sent in through December 31, 2010, Yoplait will donate 10 cents to Susan G. Komen for the Cure® for up to $1.6 million, with a minimum donation of $500,000. Visit YourLidMatters.com for lid collection tips and tools!
The good people from MyBlogSpark.com and General Mills want to share a special Yoplait coupon - click on link below - to help you enjoy a delicious product while supporting a worthwhile cause. Feel free to share the coupon link with your readers and friends but hurry -supply is limited!

http://www.mygettogetherpage.com/uc/main/3943/

(disclosure) The information in this post was sent to me via email by MyBlogSpark.com.

Veal Stew and Veal & Peas

My mother always told me not to go food shopping when you are HUNGRY. Very bad thing to do. Well, I never listened when it came to food shopping. So, yesterday I decided to go to a food warehouse. I went there because they were having a sale on ground sirloin. Guess what? They were out of it. So instead I bought chicken tenders (20 lbs.) frozen cod fish, and frozen chunks of Veal among many other items. I should have listened to my Mother’s advise. Anyhow the Veal was frozen ( all 5 lbs of it) so I thawed it out overnight. I could not wait to cook it, I could taste it…..

This morning I decided to make Veal & Peas and Veal Stew. Here is how I make it.

a. First sauté a large onion in a large skillet. Add the Veal hunks, salt, pepper and let is simmer. Add a cup of wine, any flavor, and let it simmer about 5 more minutes.

I separated the Veal so that I could make both dishes.

Veal & Peas

In a large Crock Pot place the amount of Veal chunks desired

Add at least one can of small peas (frozen or canned)

1 can of Pastene Kitchen Ready tomatoes

3 cans of Hunt’s Tomatoes Sauce

1 can of Chicken Broth

Salt and pepper to taste.

Cook on High for 4 ½ hrs.

Veal Stew

Place the Veal chunks in another large Crock Pot

Add one can of Pastene Kitchen Ready tomatoes

One can of chicken broth

One can of sliced carrots

One can of string beans

Sautéed celery chopped

Sautéed onions chopped

4 medium potatoes cut into small chunks.

Salt & Pepper to taste.

Cook on High for 4 ½ hrs.

Yummy…..

We had it for dinner, of course I had to have both with some nice Italian bread to dunk in the sauce.

Oh by the way, they are getting their order tomorrow for Ground Sirloin....guess who's going back to the food warehouse?