DIY: Receiving Blanket and Burp Cloths

It seems like everyone is having a baby and that's only a little bit of an exaggeration.  A little while ago it also seemed like every sewing place had flannel on sale, so I bought some and that's only a little bit of an understatement.

One of my fabric fabrics was a dinosaur fabric.  The store where I got it didn't have any of the dinosaur paw print fabric left so I went with a plain green fabric for my second fabric.  This is what I made:

1 receiving blanket, 3 regular burp cloths, and 4 burp cloths made from cloth diapers.  The steps for all were really simple (I don't do complicated things . . . yet).

After the fabric was cut, for anything I wanted to add an applique to, I added that next.  I probably would have done more but I didn't have enough fabric for more.  I chose a gray thread for this project because there are some gray rocks on the dinosaur printed fabric and I thought gray thread would bring the color of the rocks out nicely.

Receiving Blanket

Regular Burp Cloths

Next, for the receiving blanket and the regular burp cloths, I sewed the front sides of the fabric together leaving a small unsewn section.  Then I turned it right side out, ironed the sides flat, and sewed around the edges one more time.  Easy.  Each has dinosaurs on one side and plain green fabric on the other side.

Cloth Diaper Burp Cloths

For the other burp cloths I ended up being really glad that I bought the diapers that didn't have the three defined sections.  Without those sections, I could cut the fabric any size I wanted and wouldn't have to worry about it fitting perfectly into that middle section.  I simply cut the fabric, pinned it to the burp cloth while folding the edges under, then sewed around the edges.  Couldn't be easier.



Now all I need is a friend or family member to have a baby boy (is everyone having girls this year? really?) so I can gift these fabulous dinosaur products to him.

DIY: Placemats & Napkins

As part of my kitchen beautification I made double sided placemats & napkins.  They were both pretty simple; I used the same basic steps for both.

1. Iron Fabric.
2. Cut Fabric to length.  I did the napkins 14 x 14 and the placemats 16 x 8.  I decided on the size of the napkins based on how much fabric I had; I'd read that 16 x 16 or 18 x 18 were good sizes for napkins.  I decided on the size of the placemats by taking one of my plates and putting in on my rotary cutting mat to see what size felt right.



3. Fold over opposite edges and iron flat. (This could have been done by folding and pinning but I didn't have pins at the time.)
4. Sew folded edges.  I chose pink thread because I thought it would stand out nicely against the green napkins.

5. Fold over remaining opposite edges and iron flat.
6. Sew folded edges.

At this point we have a completed napkin.  It isn't a great quality napkin but it is complete.  I think next time I'll make the napkins bigger (maybe 18 x 18) and also fold the edges over at least twice to give the napkin a more finished look and to prevent the fabric from freying in the wash.

Also at this point we have the two separate sides of the double sided placemats.  The next steps are to sew the sides together.

7. Place the backsides of the two sides of the placemats together.  At this point I would have loved to have had some pins, but I did not, so I had to wing it.
8. Sew the two sides together.  In the picture you might be able to see two lines of thread on the place mats.  One is from steps #4 & #6 and the other is from step #8.  I liked the added detail of having both.

Voila.  Double sided placemats.  I did have some trouble with these.  Apparently I don't cut and/or sew straight so the two sides of my placemats didn't line up really well with each other.  Next time I think I'll start by sewing the outside sides together, then turn the place mat right side out, then sew along the edges.  Lesson learned.

Once my placemats and napkins were made all I needed was a center piece for the table and the kitchen beautification would be complete.  I originally wanted a white candlabra with maybe pink candles but I ended up finding a vase, green candles, and white pebbles for pretty cheap (thanks in part to some coupons) at Jo-Ann, so I went with that.

Bonding Rabbits

Locke (picture on the left) and Samus (picture on the right) are officially bonded!  This is a huge relief to CJ and I because we wondered if Samus would take to Locke since she has an aggressive side and it is also a relief because now we can keep them in the same cage which means we only ever have one cage to clean.

Even though everything seems peachy now, we didn't get off to a great start.

Day 1: The first time Samus and Locke met at Locke's previous owner's apartment he walked right up to her and licked her on the nose.  We thought this was a good sign because he obviously liked her from the beginning and she didn't attack him when he walked up to her.  A few minutes later told a slightly different story.

Locke continued to like Samus and he wanted to be around her and he was very interested in mounted her but it didn't take long for her to realize that she didn't like any of that which is when she started mounting him and growling at him (yes, rabbits kind of growl) and nipping at him.  No long term damage (or even short term damage) was done.  CJ and I knew from all of our bonding research that first meets don't always go well and that is not a sign that the rabbits will never bond so we took Locke home with us.

When we got home that evening we decided to put the rabbits on a "date".  That basically means we put both rabbits in a room that neither are familiar with (so one doesn't feel more territorial than the other) and let them figure each other out.  This first date did not go well.  Hair quickly flew all over the room and we had to quickly separate the two, which ended the date.

That evening we set Locke's cage up in Samus's room but on the complete other side of the room (its the room over the garage, so its a good size room) where she wouldn't be able to see him very well but might be able to start getting used to his sent.

Day 2:  CJ and I went about our normal work day while we left Samus and Locke on their different sides of the room.  I set up vet appointments for both rabbits - Locke needed to be neutered and Samus needed her yearly check-up.  When we got home we let each rabbit out separately to give them some exercise but had to be careful to keep the one that was out away from the other in its cage (Samus tried to nip at Locke when he came close to her cage).


Day 3:  Locke and Samus did not enjoy their car ride to the vet (rabbits notoriously hate car rides, it is one way you can bond them - put them together in a situation they both don't like so that the lean on each other for comfort).  Samus's check-up was quick and Locke spent most of the day at the vet's office having and recovering from his surgery.  Again, for their exercise, we let them out one at a time.

Day 4:  Instead of letting them each out one at a time for their evening exercise we set up the fence in a manner that left a no man's land between the two rabbits.  This way we could let me out at the same time (more exercise for each rabbit) plus they could get close enough to each other to see and smell each other clearly without being able to nip at each other - which was particularly important for Locke because we didn't want him getting hurt while he was still recovering from his neutering.

Day 10:  By this time Samus had progressively gotten used to Locke being on the other side of the fence and Locke was recovered from his surgery, so we moved Locke's cage to be closer to Samus's - right next to Samus's - but just at night.

Our intention was to get them spending more time close at night.  In the morning when I would feed them I'd move Locke's cage back to the other side of the room to give Samus some break time.  We left the no man's land set up up for when both rabbits were out of their cages.

Day 11: This was Samus and Locke's second First Date.  CJ and I were very worried that it would go like their first first date but we were very pleasantly surprised that it went very well.  There was a little trouble at first with Samus still feeling territorial and aggressive for which she got sprayed with water.  She learned pretty quickly and started running away from Locke when he would get close to her for which she received praise (running away is a lot better than being aggressive).

When Locke wasn't annoying Samus they spent a good deal of time ignoring each other, exploring their surroundings and pooping in order to mark their territory.  I think we planned to only have them in the same room as each other for about 20 minutes (which is was we read was recommended) but it went so well I think we were in there for close to 40 minutes.

Spraying with water for discipline was new for all of us when we brought Locke home.  When it was just Samus in the house we would just clap loudly or thump on the floor and say "no" when she did something wrong but we figured with two rabbits in the house, if we did the same thing the one who wasn't being bad might think that they were being bad.  We decided that spraying water at the bad one would keep that distinction for the good rabbit to know that they weren't doing anything wrong.

Day 12: Samus and Locke's second date went even better than their first, I don't think either rabbit was sprayed with water but the territorial pooping continued.  Samus was becoming much more patient with Locke, allowed him to get close to her a few times, and she even laid down and made herself comfortable (a very good sign).  The laying down didn't always last very long though because Locke would come up behind her and start sniffing her butt, which she clearing didn't appreciate (and still doesn't) so she'd get up and move.

She also figured out that there was a box that she could jump on to get away from him because he couldn't quite make it that high.  After a while it seemed like she would jump up there just to say "nanny nanny boo boo I can make it and you can't" which we thought was a good sign that she was being playful with him.

This date was also planned for about 20 minutes but ended up lasted about an hour and 20 minutes.

This was also the night that we decided to keep their cages right next to each other during the day as well as at night.

Day 13:  While I was trying to catch Samus for their third date CJ was teaching Locke that he could jump up on Samus's box.  He's put Locke on the ground, then pick him up and put him on the box then put him on the ground then pick him up and put him on the box.  Locke figured it out quickly and by the time Samus jumped up on the box to tease him, he followed her right up.

The rest of their third date was very similar to their second and they seemed to be doing really well together.

Day 14:  CJ and I decided to stop the official "dates" (which we thought would end up taking a week or two) and just allowed the two rabbits to have their exercise time together in their room while being pretty closely supervised.  They spend a good deal of time in each other's cages eating each other's hay and food but never seemed to both be in the same cage at the same time.  Everything went really well.

Day 16:  We let the rabbits have their exercise time together in their room (and the loft area) with significantly less supervision while CJ and I watched TV.

Day 18:  Samus and Locke spent their first night together.  This was something else that CJ and I were worried about because over the last few days they hadn't spent much time together in the same cage.  We spent the night in the loft area so we could hear if anything went wrong.

This is the best picture I got of their first night together.  When I went in to check on them before I went to bed I found them cuddling but didn't want to take a picture a disturb them.

They only spent the night together, the next morning when we gave them breakfast we put Locke back into his own cage for the day.

Day 22:  Everything was going so well that we decided to leave Locke in Samus's cage with her while we left for work.  When we got home they were both in one piece and didn't appear to have any injuries.  We decided that this would be their regular routine and we considered them officially bonded - about 2 months sooner than we guesstimated.

DIY: Cover For the LoveSac (Happy Birthday to CJ and me!)

We didn't really do anything for CJs birthday many, many months ago, we were in the middle of buying a house and neither of us felt like spending much extra money.  Fast forward a few months later (but still a few months ago) and I decided that I'd get CJ a LoveSac for his birthday so he could comfortably play his video games.  While perusing the site I saw something called a PillowSac - basically a LoveSac but could be more easily shaped into a seat or a bed.  It took some time to figure out how to fit it into the budget but I did figure it out and a few days later we had a PillowSac in our house.

One way I could fit the PillowSac into the budget was to not buy a cover for it; they can be up to an additional $250!  We decided that we'd just buy a set of $20 sheets and put that over the PillowSac.  The sheets worked for a while but . . . rabbits.  The rabbits themselves didn't do anything to destroy (it wasn't at all destroyed, just some snags) the PillowSac's basic cover but the fence that we put up to keep the rabbits in approved locations happens to be right next to where we put the PillowSac in the loft and then when the sheets would fall of (which was often, they weren't a very good fit) the fence would snag the PillowSac (in the picture above you can see the fence between the blue couch and the PillowSac).

Long story just a little bit longer . . . a few weeks ago CJ decided we needed a good, durable cover for the PillowSac.  Problem was, they were still $250 on the LoveSac website and I didn't have a way to make one even though upholstery fabric was 50% off at Jo-Ann (I bought the fabric anyway; can't pass up 50% off on something I know I'm going to need when it is no longer on sale).

Enter my birthday.

It isn't my birthday yet but I've known what I've wanted for a little while - a sewing machine.  I told CJ this but he looked a bit like a deer in headlights so I also told my Mom who had a strange look of her own but that turned out to be because she didn't think I'd ever want a sewing machine.  Ever.

I think Mom got a little excited when she realized I was serious and she realized that Jo-Ann also had sewing machines on sale and also realized that Little Sister was about to graduate college and also asked for a sewing machine for that milestone.  So she bought them before my birthday and before Little Sister was technically graduated (can't blame her, it's hard to pass up a good sale on something you know you are going to need when it is no longer on sale).

Around this same time I also had other sewing projects I've been waiting to work on (those will appear on this blog in the near future) so I decided to take the two days after Labor Day off work so I could go down to Mom's and get these projects going.  Well, turns out I didn't remind Mom of this when I should have (I kept thinking "I should call or send an email" but I never did; my bad) and she ended up going to Big Sister's house to tile with Dad.

When we realized our planning errors Mom decided that she'd just hand over my sewing machine and let me loose on my projects by myself which was terribly frightening at first since I've never in my life sewn without her supervision (yeah, I'm almost 29 and not afraid to say that).  She gave me a quick lesson when giving me the machine (thanks Mom, it's wonderful!) and sent me on my way.  Luckily things turned out pretty well; I didn't even cry.  All the project completed beautifully (or as beautifully as I had planned).

Anyway, Wednesday, my last day off work, I decided to tackle the PillowSac cover.  The fabric was already washed and ready to go so I laid it out and began to figure out where and how much to cut.  To my surprise I learned that I had 3/4 yard less of the fabric than I paid for.  This put a damper in my original plan and I had to completely re-plan how I was going to do the project

For the record, Jo-Ann's refunded the 3/4 yard with just a receipt because I didn't have time to go in with the fabric, get the refund, get back home (it was the Jo-Ann's close to work, not the Jo-Ann's close to home), and finish the project on my last day off work.

Here's the plan I came up with:

The plan is hard to read for a few reasons.  First, it is small here.  Second, I started out using ink in places I should have used pencil.  Third, it looks a bit like how I thought of it - in spurts.  Anyway, we'll get to that in a minute.  First is tools needed and cost.

1. 6 3/4 yard durable fabric (I used outdoor upholstery fabric) @ $9.99/yard on sale = $67.43 before sales tax.
2. 1 250 yard spool of thread @ $1.39/spool on sale = $1.39 before taxes.
3. Sewing machine = priceless.
4. Fabric scissors - previously purchased for another project and turning out to be incredibly useful.
5. Some way to measure - I used the measuring tape out of CJ's tool kit.
6. Pins would have been nice but I didn't have any so I used some safety pins.
7. Fusible Velcro @ $7.79 for 5ft on sale = $7.79 before tax.  I used all 5ft because the PillowSac is just wider than that.

That brings the total cost to $76.61 before taxes, a lot cheaper than buying one from LoveSac.

Ok, here are the steps I took.

1. Cut the Fabric.  The PillowSac's seams are 82" x 70".  I decided to cut the main pieces to 70" because I didn't have enough fabric (it was 54" wide) to cut it to 82" (this is the figure in the top right of the image above).  But even with this I was missing 2" of 70" in long fabric so I ended up cutting the fabric into 5 pieces which I labelled A - E.

A, B, and C = 54" x 70"
D and E = 2" x 35"

To be honest, I didn't really cut to those specifications.  I cut the length of A, B, and C to 71" to leave room for seams and error and I cut D and E to 8" x 36" to leave room for seams and error.

2. Iron the Fabric.  Maybe this is just personal preference but I much prefer to sew ironed fabric than wrinkled fabric.

3. Sew.  This is actually steps 1 - 6 in the image above.  Don't forget to sew outside sides together - like would be done if making a pillow.
     a. Sew A and B together @ 70" sides.
     b. Sew B and C together @ 70" sides.
     c. Sew D and E together @ 2" sides (this makes the combination of those two pieces 70" long).
     d. Sew D+E to A @ 70" sides.
     e. Hem C's open side.
     f.  Hem D+E's open side.
     (Actually, I did f before e because I already had D+E near the sewing machine from step d.)

Now we have a really, really long piece of fabric.

4. Attach Velcro.  (Steps 7 and 8 in the image.)  This was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be.  All I had to do was take the Velcro off it's sticky, attach it on the fabric where I wanted it, turn over the fabric, and iron until the Velcro was bonded to the fabric.  No sewing of the Velcro was needed which was a huge relief to me.  I attached the Velcro on the hemmed sides of C and D+E - you can see these as dark rectangles in the doodle to the far right of the image above.

Here is where I veered from my written plan so I'm just going to write what I did and not what I had planned to do.

5. Sew.  Now that I had a really long piece of fabric I needed to close up the long sides, like a pillow.  I folded the fabric over on itself making sure the two Velcro pieces were lined up right and I sewed both sides together.  This is also where I made my big mistake.

In the image, the doodle to the left shows that I planned on having the Velcro'd section near the middle of the back of the PillowSac.  My mistake was that I didn't line up the Velcro in the middle of the back before sewing the long sides together.  They were at the end, so when I sewed the long sides together, the Velcro section ended up being at the bottom (or top, or right, or left depending on how you look at it) of the PillowSac instead of the middle of the back.

Luckily this isn't a big problem.  While attaching the Velcro I decided that I wanted an over hang so the Velcro would never be seen.  That over hang came in handy with my mistake because now it over hangs over the bottom of the PillowSac keeping it hidden and away from the prying teeth of the rabbits.

6. Turn Inside Out.  Now that all the sides are sewn up, the last thing to do is turn the cover inside out (which is actually turning it outside out because it was sewn with the inside in) and put the PillowSac in the cover which wasn't easy since it is filled with little pieces of foamy stuff and weighs 30 lb.

Here's the finished product:

CJ and I are pretty excited for the new cover.  Unlike the sheets, it actually stays in place and feels durable.

Meet Locke

On Tuesday July 26th CJ and I adopted another rabbit - we call him Locke.

For quite some time CJ has been browsing the Human Society web-site and KSL for rabbits that are available to adopt while I'd been reading up on bonding multiple rabbits - bonding means making them love each other. Neither of us knew what the other was doing until CJ found Peter on KSL and just had to show me, that was Monday the 25th of July. One look at that precious little rabbit (as seen in the picture to the right) and we had to have him even though he looks so much like Samus and I had kept saying that if we got another rabbit I didn't want a black one because I wanted to be able to tell my rabbits apart from each other - I justified it because he is smaller than Samus and would, therefore, be easy to tell apart. We called up his owners and set up a time to meet the next day.

We'd both been thinking about adopting another rabbit because we felt bad for leaving Samus alone all day while we were at work. We knew that rabbits are social animals and like having another rabbit as a companion. I had also read that having a rabbit companion for a pet rabbit can keep each rabbit happier than it would be by itself and therefore less aggressive and prone to bad behavior (unless, of course, they are both evil, evil rabbits and start working together to fulfill their evil plans).

For our meeting we decided to take Samus with us to see how the two interacted together. There were three ways it could go:

1. Love at first site - they instantly fall in love with each other and decide to live happily ever after.
2. They ignore each other - this is a good sign. If they ignore each other it means they don't hate each other.
3. One tries to dominate the other who also wants to be dominate, a fight ensues - this isn't the end of the world. Given time, most rabbits can come to love each other.

As we drove all the way down to Provo we wondered what would happen. We hoped for love at first site but knew the chances of that were low. I guess our most realistic expectation was to hope that they wouldn't fight.

When we got to Peter's place he was already out and about the apartment, running around and hiding in packed boxes (his original owners were getting ready to move to West Virginia to go to medical school). We immediately noticed that he was a lot smaller than we thought he would be. I set Samus's carrier on the couch and Peter immediately got interested. Samus, on the other hand, was reluctant to come out into the open.

She eventually stuck her head out and Peter licked her on her nose then proceeded to try to mount her (could be a sign he wants to be dominant or could be a sign that he's just horny - too soon to tell at this point). We immediately noticed how much smaller Peter was compared to Samus. Samus didn't seem to enjoy being mounted but came out of her carrier anyway, which is when Peter then proceeded to try to mount her again. Samus wasn't going to have any of it so she turned around and mounted him (because she has been spayed, this was a definite sign that she wanted to be dominant).

After a little more of the same behavior we put Samus back in her carrier (she didn't complain, I think she had grown tired of the little boy rabbit) and chatted with Peter's then owners. We decided to take him home and assured the Provo couple that he'd be in good hands.


While driving back home our conversation rested mostly on what to name him because, let's be honest, "Peter" is not a very original name for a rabbit. We didn't come to a conclusion during that car ride or while at home that evening. We came up with a lot of good names but nothing seemed to fit when we actually called him those names. Eventually we settled on "Locke" - a sneaky thief (as rabbits tend to be) from the video game Final Fantasy VI - originally called Final Fantasy III in the US, the nerds know why.

Locke spent his first day and half at our place "squeaking" like a mad man. "Squeaking" equals his horny grunts but since he is so small he just sounded like a little squeak toy. On the second morning we had him I took him to the vet to be neutered - he doesn't squeak as much anymore and he doesn't try to mount Samus as much either.

While at the vet we learned that Locke was 2.1 pounds and Samus, who was at the vet for her yearly check-up, was 5.1 pounds, 2.2 pounds more than she was on her visit last year. We've concluded that Locke needs to put on some weight.


Locke has proven to be a very social rabbit. He likes being around people and Samus (more about how he and Samus have bonded is coming in a later blog post), he doesn't bite or nip, he rarely thumps, he's an excellent jumper and runner, and he enjoys just laying around people and being touched.

He's also turned out to be quite the eater. I think he consumed his body weight in hay every day for the first two weeks we had him, plus eating his vegetables and rabbit food pellets plus he'll steal Samus's vegetables at any chance he gets. Unfortunately he doesn't seem to have gained any weight.

Right now his only downside is that he's having a hard time consistently using his litter box. He'll leave poop almost everywhere in his cage and he tends to pee half in his litter box, half out of his litter box leaving a mess for us to clean up daily. To the right is a picture of Locke just laying around his litter box. He'll also sit in it while he eats which is probably for the best because he often poops while he eats.

Overall, we are very excited to have Locke. Samus is happier and less aggressive and they keep each other entertained. But don't worry, two is enough for us.

Book Review: The Lovely Bones

I just finished reading The Lovely Bones. It took me well over a month to finish it - not because it was long but because every time I picked it up, I never felt like I had to keep reading.

That sounds like a negative but in this case it really wasn't a bad thing. It was nice to be able to read a book for just a few hours once a week and never feel like when I picked it up again I might be lost or I might have forgotten what had happened since the last time I read.

The back of the book reads:

"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973." So begins the story of Susie Salmon, who is adjusting to her new home in heaven, a place that is not at all what she expected, even as she is watching life on earth continue without her - her friends trading rumors about her disappearance, her killer trying to cover his tracks, her grief-stricken family unraveling. Out of unspeakable tragedy and loss, The Lovely Bones succeeds, miraculously, in building a tale filled with hope, humor, suspense, even joy.

With the above description I figured it would be some kind of murder mystery type book but we find out who killed Susie on the second page. That's when I thought that maybe it isn't a mystery to the reader but it will be a murder mystery to the characters in the book who are still living. It wasn't that either. The whole book is written from Susie's point of view - which was a little different (in a good way) considering she was dead the whole time - and was basically just Susie watching the lives of her family and friends from heaven.

You'd think that a big climax of the book would be the fate of her murdering, but it was really anti-climatic, just a little blurb toward the end - it was written in a way that made it hardly seem important. Any maybe, given everything else that happens, it wasn't important - I still thought it was strange that so little emphasis was put on it when a good chunk of the beginning and middle of the book focuses on the murderer.

The back of the book also indicates that the story might contain some humor, but to be honest, I don't recall thinking anything in the story was funny at all. It is actually a quite disturbing story at times and it was on the sixth or seventh page when I went "Oh, that's why the movie was rated R."

Overall I'd say The Lovely Bones was good. Not great, but good.

Recipe: Mission Casserole

As mentioned in a previous post, CJ really likes chips. One day he was sitting at the kitchen counter eating chips and salsa. The bag of chips was sitting on the counter and CJ proceeded to read the recipes on the bag. He came across one he though sounded interesting: Mexican Beef Casserole. I wasn't immediately convinced but I decided that it wouldn't hurt to try, so we tried it, and I was surprised how much I liked it.

This happened the next few times we had Mission Casserole - CJ wanted to put in on the menu, I wasn't excited about but did it anyway and was always surprised how much I liked it once it was cooked up and being eaten. We've now had it enough times that I'm no longer surprised at how good it is.

As I'm sure you noticed, the bag called the recipe Mexican Beef Casserole but I'm referring to it as Mission Casserole - that is because it was on a bag of Mission brand chips. The first few times CJ and I had it we couldn't remember what it was really called so we just called it Mission Casserole and it kind of stuck with us.

If you want to see the recipe for yourself it is on the Mission brand triangle chips - not the circles or the strips, just the triangles. I think we used the triangles the first time but we get our chips at Costco in a 3lb bag that costs a lot less per ounce than buying the same brand at Walmart (technically the bag says they are Kirkland brand but the bag also says they are made by Mission, so basically the same thing). We did, however, have to go to Walmart to get the recipe off a bag of triangles once because we lost it where we had written it down before. I didn't write all the actual cooking instructions down so what I have below is paraphrased.

Ingredients:
1 pound beef
1 onion
1 tomato
1 can cream of mushroom soup
8 - 10 ounces Velveeta
1 7 ounce can green chilis
1 12 ounce can evaporated milk
tortilla chips

To Make:
1. Saute meat, onions, and tomatoes until meat is cooked through.
2. Combine soup, cheese, chilies, and milk. Heat until cheese is melted.


3. Layer chips then meat mix then cheese mix in a greased 9 x 13 pan.









4. Cook at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.


My Tips:
- CJ doesn't like tomatoes and I don't like cooked tomatoes so we don't add the tomato to the meat and onion. Instead I just cut up the tomato and put it on top when the casserole is done.

- The recipe just does one layer of everything but CJ likes to do multiple layers: 1/2 the chips then 1/2 the meat then 1/2 the cheese then 1/2 the chips then 1/2 the meat then 1/2 the cheese. It works out fine either way.

- After it is cooked we'll also add different toppings: tomatoes, bell peppers, salsa, extra cheese, jalapenos, etc. It's nice that CJ can put what he likes on his while I can put what I like on mine.






Nutritional Information:
These Nutritional Facts assume that each casserole has 8 servings, that 6 ounces of chips, lean beef, 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup, and Velveeta made from 2% milk (as opposed the whole milk in the original kind of Velveeta) is used.