So… I turned 40 last week and oh what a week it was! I spent a week away, part with friends, part with my husband and had a lot of time to think and reflect and plan. I couldn’t imagine a better way to spend my birthday! With the thinking came a few regrets. One of those being that I really, really miss doing the Project 365 photo project and sharing it on Dine & Dish with you all. They were never my most popular posts… I know you all come here for the food… but they were one of my favorites.

I’ve decided to start a new daily photo project called #ThisIs40 and I plan on documenting the next 365 days of my life through photos. Today is the first installment. As always I’d love for you to follow me on Instagram…my favorite social media platform. I’m going to try to take most of my pictures for this project with my DSLR Camera (so they won’t be on IG), but there are always some fun things I might share on Instagram with the hashtag #ThisIs40 that I won’t share here.

So with all that said, here we go! Thanks for coming along for my 40th year! …

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And no, I don’t mean the NFL. In this house, we’re all about College Football! College football season starts this weekend and I’ve got a few excited guys here, ready to hunker down and spend the day cheering on their favorite college football teams. (Go K-State!)

While my boys were immersed in football, I thought I’d play a dirty but delicious trick on them. I told them we’d be eating burgers at half time and to be ready because they were so good! Instead of bringing down the burgers they were used to, I switched things up and made Black Bean Veggie Burgers using Bush’s Black Beans. …

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I’ll admit it… I don’t watch football. Before my husband and I were married, I pretended like I liked football and would lay around on the couch with him all weekend during the fall and winter acting insanely fascinated by the college and NFL football games. To be honest with you… I could have cared less about the football. The laying around on the couch with him, all cozied up was nice, but the football? Snoozerama. I think now that we’ve been married for 11 years, he looks back and sees right through my “marry me” scheming ways. Oh well… I’ve got him now and he’s a keeper!…

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Sometimes it is the most simple of ideas that makes you slap your forehead and say, “Duh… why didn’t I think of that?” That is how I feel about this recipe for Walking Tacos. Such a simple idea, inspired by a day at the county fair.

School will be starting again in just a short few weeks, which means that our schedules go from just slightly hectic to crazy always rushing around and hurrying out the door hectic. This holds true for dinnertime during the school year too, which usually has to be eaten around the table really late at night or snatched to eat on the go in the car. I will be 100% honest when I say I value family meal time more than just about any other ritual in our home, but as my kids get older and more involved in extracurricular activities, I recognize that a sit down dinner with all 6 of us together just isn’t going to happen every night. The next best thing is a home cooked meal that can be eaten on the go.

No, these walking tacos aren’t the healthiest of options, but I bet they are better than what you can get when you make a visit to your friendly neighborhood drive through. Plus, you can add beans, corn, veggies… you can add all kids of things to sneak some healthy into your bag.

The next time you are tempted to just give your kid another sandwich as you walk out the door to the next event, think again and think inside the bag… Walking Tacos. A delicious and hearty dinner that is about as super simple as you can get!

Walking Tacos

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Super Simple Supper (Recipe: Walking Tacos)

Author Dine & Dish

Ingredients

• 1 pound lean ground beef crumbled, browned and fat drained
• 1 package taco seasoning or I make my own with this recipe here
• 3 Tbs water
• 1 can Bush's Black Beans drained
• 6 individual sized bags of Doritos or Fritos chips
• Shredded Lettuce
• Shredded Cheese
• Diced Tomatoes
• Diced Avocados
• Sour Cream
• Basically whatever you like to put on top of tacos or taco salad

Instructions

• Directions:
• With your browned grown beef still in the skillet, add the Bush's black beans, 3 Tbs of water and your taco seasoning. Heat through.
• Gently take each individual bag of chips and crush the chips. Once the chips are crushed, cut open the top of the bag.
• Scoop your taco meat/bean mixture into the bag. Top with your favorite toppings...tomatoes, cheese, lettuce, avocados, sour cream...whatever your heart desires.
• Take a spoon and stir your chips / taco meat creation together
• Head out the door with your walking taco bag in your hand and a spoon and enjoy a hearty dinner on the run!

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Thanks to you all for the suggestions for sharing some of your tried and true family friendly recipes (and for listening to my pity party of a vent!). If you haven’t had the chance to submit a recipe, head over to this post to do so. You could win one of five Amazon.com gift certificates!

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One day, the company I worked for offered me tickets to a Kansas City Chiefs game. I had been to a Chiefs game several times, but I knew that Nick, who loved football, had never been. I had three extra tickets and decided to see if my parents wanted to come up for the game and then I called Nick to see if he wanted to join us. He said yes and a few weeks later we were all heading to the game. It was that night, watching Nick interact with my parents… he treated them so well… that I got over my need for someone wild and crazy in my life and fell in love with Nick. We immediately started dating and the rest is history.

While dating, we would spend many a Saturday curled up on the couch watching college football. After we got married and bought a house, we still continued to watch football together, but eventually I began finding other things to do around the house to occupy my time. I began losing interest in “wasting” time watching football and found other things to do.

Now, Nick still watches football while I don’t. I like to sit in on the end of a game, but spending several hours in front of the TV is beyond something my attention span can handle these days. I know Nick feels the same way about some of the shows I watch too. Watching TV together is not something we do a whole lot of together anymore.

That is why I was so excited a few years ago when Nick introduced me to the TV show Friday Night Lights. It was one of his favorite books, and we both really enjoyed the movie. The TV show was something that we both really liked and we looked forward to our date nights of catching up on the most recent episodes. Then, in typical NBC fashion (meaning this always happens to us when we both get into a show we like that is on NBC) rumors began to swirl that they were not going to renew Friday Night Lights.  I was so disappointed. In fact, I was one of those crazy people who actually sent in $5 to the “Keep the Lights On” club to have mini footballs sent to NBC execs.

Well, the attempt to save Friday Night Lights and the TV date nights hubby and I were having worked, and Friday Night Lights returned this past week. To commemorate the occasion, I decided to make Martha Stewart’s Grasshopper Cake featured in the January 2009 edition of Martha Stewart Living. With a rich chocolate base and a creamy whipped Creme de Menthe frosting, this cake was worthy of such a special night. OK – well maybe not so special to you, but when you are married with three kids, anything that can get you back snuggling on the couch is worthy of special accolades!

Grasshopper Cake (from Martha Stewart Living Magazine)

Serves 8.

• FOR THE CAKE
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for pan
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 3/4 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted, plus more for pan
• 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• FOR THE FROSTING
• 2 large egg whites
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 6 ounces (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened and cut into tablespoons
• 2 1/2 tablespoons creme de menthe
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 12 Andes Creme de Menthe candies
• 36 white sprinkles (which let me tell you… big pain in the rear if you have to dig through a jar of multi colored sprinkles!)

1. Make the cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-by-12-inch cake pan. Line bottom with parchment, then butter parchment, and dust with cocoa powder. Tap out excess.
2. Whisk cocoa powder, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Stir in eggs, warm water, milk, sour cream, butter, and vanilla, mixing until smooth.
3. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Let cake cool in pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Invert cake onto rack, and let cool. Cake will keep, unfrosted and covered, overnight.
4. Make the frosting: Mix whites and sugar in a mixer bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Heat, whisking constantly, until sugar dissolves and mixture is warm, 2 to 3 minutes.
5. Remove from heat. Whisk on high speed until stiff peaks form, about 5 minutes. Add butter, several tablespoons at a time, whisking after each addition. Add creme de menthe and vanilla, and beat for 2 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.
6. Using a paring knife, cut corners off mint candies to shape each into a football. Press 3 sprinkles onto each, using frosting as glue. Frost cooled cake. Arrange footballs on cake in 4 rows of 3. Cake will keep, covered, for up to 4 days. Slice just before serving.

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