Owen's Copycat Taco Bell Beefy 5 Layer Burrito

Well, here's another Taco Bell treat, and this turned out so well.  Everyone felt like these tasted just like Taco Bell's Beefy Five Layer Burrito, but with a better tortilla and a little more flavor, so all good things :).  Owen loves this burrito, and so we decided to recreate it at home, and hooray, everyone but Owen gave it a perfect 10, he only gave it a 9 because he doesn't like the spice in the nacho cheese (he gets his without nacho cheese at TB :)).  This isn't really that difficult, the only thing that is in any way difficult is the nacho cheese, and it is important to note that it uses some Velveeta, because nacho cheese isn't the same without processed plastic cheese ;).  Anyway, each serving is around 450 calories and here's what to do:

home made nacho cheese sauce 
1/2 c of 1 lb velveeta melted with 1 can Rotel or Rotel dip
1 lb hamburger
1 T chili powder
1 t cumin
1/2 t coriander
1/2 t onion powder
1/2 t garlic salt
salt and pepper to taste
1 can refried beans (canned is better than homemade because of trying to taste like TB, homemade is better if you like food to taste delicious :))
tortillas
grated cheese
sour cream

Mix together the Rotel dip with the homemade nacho cheese, stirring well, and keeping warm.
Brown the hamburger in a skillet and drain the fat from the pan.  Add in the spices to taste, and set aside.  Cook/warm the tortillas, then layer the tortillas with nacho cheese, hamburger meat, refried beans, grated cheese, then sour cream.  Roll and serve.

Thanks Owen for a fun dinner idea :)!

Owen's Baked Mug Root Beer Donuts

So making baked donuts is similar to making muffins, you just get to use a fun pan :).  Anyway, these donuts Owen came up with were a hit with the boys, and they worked well.  I wanted my glaze to harden more, so I used the idea from Peabody for her glaze.  This will give you a nice frosting rather than the syrup we got :).  The calories are 311 per donut, and the boys gave them a perfect 10, and I gave them an 8.  We didn't have any root beer flavoring, this would be better with a root beer flavoring, but if you just like a sweet, semi-root beer donut, use vanilla extract like we did :).  Anyway, Owen loves root beer, so we made these donuts for him.  Here's what to do:

2 cans root beer, cooked to concentrate it  (it takes at least 20 minutes to cook it down to 1 1/3 cup)

2 1/4 c flour
1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 c sugar
1 T vanilla (or vanilla and root beer extracts)
1 c concentrated root beer
2 T butter melted
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1/2 c yogurt

1/3 c concentrated root beer
8 T butter
2 1/2 c powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350.  Grease a donut pan or line a muffin tin.
In one bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
In another bowl, mix together the vanilla (root beer extract), concentrated root beer, melted butter, egg yolk, egg, and yogurt.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stir until just coming together, then place in the greased donut pan (or place in paper muffin cups) and cook for 10-12 minutes for the donuts.  Remove from the donut pan, let cool a few minutes, the dip in the glaze.

Cook the concentrated root beer and butter until the butter is melted, then stir in the powdered sugar.  Let cool a little then dip the donuts in it and let them cool.

Owen's Cherry Daiquiris

So, we didn't get a picture of this, but this is a fun smoothie to make together with kids :).  Owen loves the strawberry daiquiris in the freezer section, the Bacardi mixers, and we add Sprite to them so the kids can have virgin drinks.  Owen wanted to try to reproduce this using cherries, and it turned out really well.  We all gave this a 9, we felt like it needed more grenadine.  Here's what to do:

1 lb frozen, pitted sweet cherries
Juice of 2 limes
1/2 c sugar (more or less)
1/4 c grenadine
ice

Blend together and serve.