Turkey Burger Sliders

My dad LOVES making Turkey burgers. It has pretty much replaced regular burgers in our home and I'm okay with it. I think they are just as delicious! Luke on the other hand is a red meat lover and a skeptic regarding turkey burgers. Grocery shopping this weekend, we were trying to figure out what we should have for dinner on Saturday. Luke received a grill for his birthday this summer so we had to make sure we used it this weekend. I don't know how I did it...but I convinced him we needed to make turkey burgers! You know what? He LOVED them!

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground turkey meat
• Salt, pepper, chili powder, garlic powder
• 1 tomato
• 1 onion
• 1/2 avocado
• 2 tbsp mayo
• cheddar cheese
• 4 mini-ciabatta rolls (or any kind of slider roll)

Directions:

1. Add seasoning to turkey meat...season to taste
2. Form ground turkey into slider-sized patties
3. Slice 1/2 onion and saute until tender and brown
4. Dice 1/2 tomato and onion for pico-style topping
5. Combine 1/2 avocado and mayo and mix together
6. Have boyfriend grill up sliders and add cheese when almost finished
7. Toast ciabatta rolls until warm
8. Spread avocado mixture on bottom bun
9. Add tomato-onion mixture on top
10. Add burger and top with sautéed onions

I think we definitely underestimated how delicious these sliders were going to be. I had a 3rd one but we ran out of sautéed onions and it just wasn't the same without them. These were seriously so good! Move over Dad, we can make turkey burgers too!

Chicken Corn Tortilla Soup

Second week of Soup Sunday is underway! This week Luke and I decided to try something with a Mexican flair! We decided on chicken corn tortilla! The thing we are discovering about soup is that it is SO EASY! It is really hard to mess up, and really easy to make. We both agreed that this week's soup beat the chowder from last week... and that was delicious!

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken breasts
• 1 diced onion
• 1 chopped green pepper
• 1 can whole kernel corn, drained
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 cans chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups medium thick and chunky salsa
• 1/2 tbsp minced garlic
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp butter
• 3 corn tortillas cut into strips

Directions:

1. Bake chicken breasts
2. Fry tortilla strips in hot vegetable oil until crispy...add salt!
3. Cook onion, garlic, green pepper, and cumin in butter until tender
4. Add broth, beans, corn, and salsa and bring mixture to boil
5. Add chicken when ready and simmer a little longer

Notes:

• We topped our soup with cheddar cheese, sour cream, pico, avocado, and tortilla strips...definitely a must!!
• We didn't really keep track of cook time because it didn't take long at all! Once the onions and green peppers are tender the rest is all about warming everything else up!

Again...so simple and so delicious!

Chicken Corn Chowder

Luke and I are starting a new tradition....Soup Sunday!! We are going to try to find and create a new soup recipe each weekend. The first we tried was chicken corn chowder!

Ingredients:

• 5 small potatoes peeled and diced
• 1 can cream corn
• 4 ears of fresh corn cut off the cob
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 diced onion
• 3 chicken breasts
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 cups half and half

Directions:

1. Bake chicken breast
2. Add potatoes, corn, broth, chicken, and onion in a large pot
3. Cook on low for about an hour
4. Add butter and half and half
5. Simmer for an additional 30 minutes
6. Add salt and pepper to taste

This turned out delicious! We served it up with some toasted and buttered Italian bread...yummy! Next time we will definitely add BACON! It needed an extra salty element. But honestly, bacon just makes everything better. This can also easily be done in a crock pot, but we were so hungry we wanted to to be done sooner!

Classroom Tour

Front of my classroom with self made "Welcome to Sixth Grade!" pendant sign!

Classroom Library...books are organized by Lexile levels. My wonderful classroom librarian (classroom economy job) has been keeping this organized!

This is my guided reading level where I meet with small groups.

 One of the very first concepts we study in reading is genre. My genre posters are up and ready to go!

  Our district uses the Learning Focused model for curriculum and lesson planning. This is my Math unit map ready to go! On the reverse side of the yellow cards are each lesson essential question.

 I spotted a homework corner on Pinterest that looked a lot like this. I wanted to recreate one for my classroom as well. Space is a little limited, but it makes me more aware if the amount of work I am assigning my kiddos each night! It's also nice to see the whole week at a glance.

 This is my Learning map for our first Reading unit. Again, behind each white card is our lesson essential questions.

  One of my favorite additions to our classroom this year is the student center! Each mailbox is labeled with student names. I have also posted our daily specials rotations to the left for students. The bulletin board is home to our monthly calendar and special announcements.

  I am loving our motivational and inspiring posters in the back of our classroom. Can you tell I was going for a black background/colorful words theme?

I had a lot more time this summer to make my classroom exactly how I wanted it. There is a lot more room for improvement and growth, but that will all fall into place when the students add to it throughout the year. After all, this classroom is for them...not me!

Paper Towel Curls

So I'm kind of a Pinterest junkie...but who isn't? I love to find fun crafts, yummy recipes, hair styling tips, and of course creative classroom ideas! I pin and pin and pin and sometimes forget to go back to my boards and rediscover the awesome things I've already seen! Since it is the summer, summer school is over, and I had a couple weeks of relaxation and nothing to do I decided to go back to my boards. Recently frustrated with my hair, I wanted to find something fun to do with my stubborn, flat tresses.

Paper Towel Curls Tutorial was something I saw on Pinterest and knew one day I wanted to try. Having a lot of free time on my hands (and I mean A LOT) I decided to give it a go. It was extremely easy to do and in the end I had the tight curls that are usually hard for my hair to hold. 

What to do...

1. Wash hair and comb (I allowed my hair to towel dry/air dry until it was damp but not dry)
2. Cut paper towels in 2 inch strips
3. With the end of your hair, roll small sections of your hair into the paper towels to the root
4. Tie the paper towels in one simple knot
5. When hair is completely dry, take out paper towels
6. Run your fingers through your hair and show off your curls!

What I discovered...

• I wasn't able to tie the towels as close to my head as I would have liked
• When in the towels, the curls were more loose than I anticipated
• Smaller the section, the tighter the curl

 **Also, this tutorial suggests putting the curls in overnight, but I had a day of nothing to do. I set my curls in the morning and took them out about 6 hours later. The thicker sections were not as dry as I would have liked but they still turned out alright. I want to try this again to see how the paper towels and curls hold up overnight.

Next time I'll try to get these curls a little tighter!

Holding up pretty well, though!

My new messy curls :)

Going strong hours later! I think I like them even more now...

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

One of my favorite summer veggies is zucchini because you can use zucchini in so many different ways! the best way to use it is with zucchini bread. It's delicious and I don't feel as guilty eating zucchini bread and I do with other sweet treats! I had a craving for it this week and decided to hit Pinterest for some inspiring recipes. I found this one and I just had to try it! I think it was the chocolate chips that convinced me...

I made a couple adaptations for myself, but followed the original recipe pretty closely. This recipe made two large loaves.

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup vegetable or canola oil
• 2 heaping cups of grated raw zucchini (1 large zucchini)
• **NOTE: Original recipe called for finely grated, but I found that it made it very watery. Also, you will want to peel the zucchini of it's skin before grating.
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon double-acting baking powder
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• Chocolate chips

Recipe:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
2. Grease and lightly flour 2 9x5 loaf pans
3. Beat eggs until light and foamy
4. Combine wet ingredients: sugar, oil, vanilla, zucchini...mix lightly but well
5. In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients: flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon
6. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix well
7. Divide batter into 2 pans filling pans evenly
8. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top. (I would recommend lightly pushing chocolate chips into batter...they did not sink as much as I anticipated. Although they made a lovely chocolatey crust!)
9. Bake for 1 hour or until a knife comes out clean. (Mine took about and hour and 10 minutes.)
10. Cool and enjoy!

This seriously turned out so well! It was moist and yummy and the best part...chocolatey! Super easy to make and well worth it! I hope you enjoy!

Back to School

In just a few short weeks I will be starting my second year of teaching. Acquiring my job is the classic story of being in the right place at the right time. During the 2011-2012 school year I began my student teaching experience. I was truly blessed to be paired with a wonderful mentor teacher in the most amazing Kindergarten classroom. I learned so much that year and it reassured me that I had chosen the right career path. That summer, a position in the same school district opened up and I applied for it.

Unfortunately I did not get that job...I soon realized that I was meant for something else! The remainder of my summer was dedicated to applying to schools and sending out my name anywhere and everywhere! At the end of August I received a phone call from the district where I did my student teaching. They wanted me to come in and interview for a sixth grade position...that's right...SIXTH GRADE! I almost said no! But I went and just one hour after my interview I was offered the job. A few short days later I packed up all of my things and moved from my hometown of Glenside, PA back to my second home in State College.

I only had one week to prepare my classroom (and my mind) before those 11 and 12 year olds entered my classroom. Despite the short time frame, I was ready! This year, I am taking advantage of the summer I have to prepare for my new class. This year, I plan to do everything bigger and better!

I have probably invested a little too much time into the decorations and design of my classroom this year but...I am the one who has to look at it all day everyday. This is the space where I spend 99% of my time. I should love it, right? Instead of downloading the beautiful posters from TPT or finding anything in a store, I attempted to make my own creations. (Thanks to the wonderful tips and suggestions from my friend, Laura!) This allowed me to stay in the color scheme that I wanted and make sure everything was personalized for our classroom. I will put a tutorial to make your own posters soon!