Parmesan Knots

I am a lover of bread and always have been, so when a soon to be in law posted on facebook that she had just made parmesan knots and they were delicious... I was very intrigued. I looked the recipe up and when I saw they were made with canned biscuits I was very excited. I had not-so-recently bought a TON of canned biscuits because they were on sale plus coupon. The only problem was they were in cans of 8... and there is only two of us. So I had been saving them for recipes... recipes which I had not tried looking for because I have so many other things going on.

The original recipe is on allrecipes.com and makes 60 knots. I scaled it down quite a bit, but it did say they freeze/reheat wonderfully if you want to go ahead and make 60.

Parmesan Knots
allrecipes.com - with slight changes

one 16.something oz can of Grands Buttermilk biscuits (8 biscuits)
3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon evoo
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons parmesan (shaker parm)
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
pepper

preheat oven to 450*

cut each biscuit in half, roll each half out into a 6-8 inch rope, tie in a knot, set on baking sheet/stone. mix the rest of the ingredients.

here is where my recipe differs from theirs - theirs says to bake the biscuits and THEN brush on the mix. i brushed on the mix, baked and then made another batch of mix and brushed on again. do which ever you like. I can only attest to my method and I was very pleased with my results.

Either way, they bake for about 10 minutes, watch for browning around 8 minutes and take them out a little early if necessary.

~~~~~

These were SO good. You could of never guessed that they were made from biscuits. This recipe is one of those that transforms something everyday into something totally different. It's also very easy and very addicting. I made 16, planned on freezing the leftovers and there were only 6 left over!


Camera phone picture - sorry!! I'm pretty certain I accidentally threw my camera battery charger away....

Spin Off

My go to beer bread recipe is wonderful. But like everything else, it gets old after a while. Its just so darn easy to whip up though, so I thought I would put a spin on it and create something new.

I was inspired by this recipe, but just did not have the time or ingredients to make biscuit dough from scratch.

Bacon Cheddar Beer Muffins
recipe by me, inspired by TPW

2 and 2/3 a cup self rising flour
one 12 oz beer (i always use michelob ultra when making bread)
half pound bacon, fried and roughly chopped
1 and 1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar

preheat the oven to 375*

spray 12 muffin wells with non stick cooking spray

mix all ingredients with a rubber spatula, being sure to scrape the bottom so there isn't any dry flour. divide the mixture evenly into the 12 muffin wells. bake for 25 minutes. let them cool a little in the muffin wells, and then "flip" them onto their side in the well to cool a little longer. best eaten warm.

~~~~~

These were really good! A great spin off!

Be Prepared!

Always makes me think of the Lion King song. Where Scar is singing with the laughing hyenas. Tee he he.

Anyway - Now that I have a baby on the way quick and easy dinners have been at the top of my list. Not only in the here and now when I am too tired to cook my usual over the top dinners, but for when we bring home our son. Something that can be made in minutes and is easy enough that Bradley won't freak out when I ask him to make it.

When I was little, mom use to make me "philly cheese and noodles". (I was actually in college before I was told that cream cheese was not called "philly cheese") Well these days there are tons of flavored cream cheeses out there. From sweet to savory. Two new kinds were introduced this summer, one of those being spinach and artichoke.

Bradley loves spinach and artichoke dip. So I bought it. I actually bought it when I was still battling nausea and I was nauseous when I bought it so just looking at the tub made me feel nauseous again. The pregnancy brain is an odd creature. But today I decided to bite the bullet, open the tub and make philly cheese and noodles.

Talk about quick AND easy!! This takes all of ten minutes. I boiled three servings of small sea shells in salty water, drained them and returned them to the warm pot. Then I scooped out a little less than half the tub, and stirred the pasta until the cheese melted and covered the noodles. I then stirred in a splash of milk to keep it from setting back up. There were actually big pieces of spinach and artichokes in the cheese, not just tiny specks.

Next time you're at the store pick up a savory blend that catches your eye and try it out. I promise you won't be disappointed!

diet pizza

gross, right? wrong!! :D by far one of the best pizzas i've ever eaten, i can't wait to eat the other slice for lunch tomorrow!!

i got the inspiration from this recipe

Caramelized Veggie and Goat Cheese Pizza
recipe by me, inspired by above

one precooked 4 serving whole wheat thin pizza crust (mama mary, buitoni)
1 & 1/2 cup sliced baby bella mushrooms
1 teaspoon sugar + pinch of salt
1 teaspoon evoo
2 cups thinly sliced onion (about one medium onion)
1 "cup" fresh spinach leaves - its hard to measure spinach, just get a nice handful
4 ounces reduced fat feta
1/2 to 1 whole roma tomato, thinly sliced

preheat the oven to 450*
heat a skillet and brown the mushrooms
drizzle the pizza crust with a little evoo and rub it in
crumble the feta evenly over the crust
once the mushrooms are browned, remove them from the pan and heat the oil, sugar and salt
add the onions and cook until they're see through and starting to brown, remove
add the spinach and toss around in the hot pan until it wilts
top the feta with the slices of tomato and then the rest of the veggies
be sure to cover the feta with the veggies, exposing it will make it harden
lower the heat of the oven to 425* and put the pizza in for 10 minutes
let cool and enjoy!

~~~~~

this pizza serves 4 at 400 calories a slice. that may seem like a high number for a single slice of pizza, but you are eating a quarter of the pizza and it is very filling. also verrrrrry good! the saltiness of the cheese goes perfectly with the sweetness of the veggies.

i only made half a pizza, but posted the recipe to feed 4. the other half was "meat lovers" and im sure not nearly as healthy, or good in my opinion! but bradley loved it.

Recipe Review

I have several low cal recipes book marked, and I plan to try them all and see which ones fool my husband and which ones will be filed under the "never make again it tastes like cardboard" tab. I don't wanna use the word diet here...

I eat whatever I want. Nothing is off limits. However, I only allow myself a set number of calories a day, so I have to budget them. Kinda like a bank account. Now, say I have $100 dollars to spend at the galleria. As soon as I walk in I see a shirt in the window at express and swoon and go try it on. It's $48 (and you know that's true!). As I'm walking out of the dressing room I notice the clearance rack and realize that I can get two shirts and a pair of jeans for $35. Why on earth would I blow half my money on one shirt when I could get one shirt plus an entire outfit for $13 less??? It works the same way with calories. At the end of the day, I want to come in on budget, and not overdrawn :D Sure I could have a coke, but for the same amount of calories I could have a string cheese and 16 wheat thins, with calories (money?) leftover!!

So when I saw a recipe on eatingwell.com entitled No-Bake Macaroni and Cheese, I wanted to give it a shot.

picture borrowed from foodnetwork.com who borrowed it from eatingwell.com

First of all, it should be titled Broccoli Alfredo. It in no way tastes like macaroni and cheese and if you dive in expecting it to then you might be turned off. With that aside, this is a great recipe! The recipe feeds four at 412 calories per serving, which is a little on the high side but it makes a TON and the serving size is really big. I think they intended it to be the main course, serving it as a side, you can lessen the portion and have fewer calories.

When I saw the calorie count I made one change and used fat free cheese instead, which lowered the count to 327.

Also - We tried whole wheat pasta for the first time. It has slightly fewer calories but extra good for you stuff. Well worth it. I couldn't tell a difference, and once you boil it the dark brown color fades a little. Covered in the white sauce, it looked like regular pasta.

This recipe will be tucked away for future use, filed under "Alfredo".

more, more for less

Tuna salad is one of my comfort foods. Especially the way my mom use to make it, with noodles that were still kinda warm and diced cheese and pickles. Yum! The cheese would get just slightly melty. So good. I try to re-create it but Bradley is a "no noodle in my tuna" person.

While Bradley had traditional tuna salad, on wheat bread with cheese and bacon (ugh!!) I turned mine into "Tuna Noodle Salad... Salad...". This is a dish that you can play with to taste how you want. I used fat free ranch instead of mayo thinking not only would it get rid of all the calories in the mayo, but add a nice taste to the salad. Wrong. You definitely need to add spice/seasoning. I usually add dill to my tuna salad, but got in a hurry last night and forgot. So my dinner was a little bland but still worth it! Next time I'll just have to remember to add the dill!

Tuna Noodle Salad Salad
recipe by me

one serving size your choice pasta, boiled, drained, slightly cooled
1/2 cup tuna
hard boiled egg
1/4 cup fat free shredded cheese
2 tablespoons fat free ranch
add ins of your choice - dill, relish, chopped onion, chopped tomato, dash hot sauce, etc...
bed of lettuce

fork up the tuna and the egg to about the same consistency, stir in the cheese, stir in the ranch, stir in the noodles and add ins. serve atop a bed of lettuce.

~~~~~

Without any "add ins" the calorie count was 470. I ate mine with 10 saltines for an additional 120 calories. Lots of protein!! Big serving!! Also - please excuse my shabby pictures, hopefully my digital camera will turn up soon! Maybe its hiding where my coastas are hiding!!

more for less: lunch edition

With the economy the way it is, gas the way it is and fast food the way it is..... it only makes sense for me to eat lunch at home. I can control the portion, I can control the calories and I get to see my puppies mid day :D

Most of the time you want lunch to be your biggest meal, because you are going back to work and using those calories for fuel, unlike dinner where you're going to sit on the couch afterwards and do a little channel surfing. But today I already knew what I was making for dinner and wanted to save my calories for that.

Last week I did a major grocery haul and cooked/prepped everything I could to make coming home for lunch quick! I bought a "family pack" of yellow squash for $4 that I sliced and browned on the nonstick griddle and stored in the fridge. I also cooked two bags of brown rice that I keep in the fridge until I need it. That way lunch is as easy as measure heat and enjoy!

So today when I stopped by the house to eat lunch and see the swearing in of America's new president, I reached in the fridge for starch and veg and to the freezer for protein. Gorton's seasoned fillets are so great and cook quickly in the toaster oven.

Brown rice really isn't that appealing to me all by itself, but I love to eat it because it keeps me full for hours. So today I added two low calorie condiments and it really impressed me! I now am a brown rice lover.

So lets count it up:

Cajun Blackened Fish Fillet - 100 calories
1 cup yellow squash - 40 calories
1/2 cup brown rice - 75 calories (mixed with the following 2 ingredients)
1 teaspoon margarine - 17 calories
1 tablespoon parmesan (the powdery stuff) - 25 calories

Now obviously the calories are slightly different depending on which brands you buy, but I'm sure this is a good estimate. That comes to a grand total of 257 calories! That is less than most lean cuisines people!! And just look at the amount of food it was:











Still hungry? Add some lettuce and low cal dressing for ~50 more calories. Still hungry? Add a clementine for dessert for 35 calories - and you're still under 350 calories for lunch. Now I know I have seen lean cuisines with a higher calorie count than that!

intervention

Well its a new year.... and you know what that means! Everyone is back on their diet. This year I decided I didn't want to make a diet resolution, I wanted to make a healthy resolution. I want to be healthy. I want to be fit. I want to weigh what I weighed when I got married..... 2 and a half years ago. It was NOT that long ago, how have I gained this much weight?!?! Oh... I know how, I was eating bite for bite with my stick figure husband. Damn his metabolism!!!! So while he went to work every day and performed manual labor to sweat off what he ate last night, I set on my butt answering phones and typing binders. When I went out into the PR world last summer I thought, "Here's my chance, I can move around all day, I can resist snacking by not eating in the car, I can get up and walk around the neighborhood in the mornings since I no longer have a 45 minute commute to work." And I did all of those things..... and I gained weight. GAINED WEIGHT!!!!!!! OHHHH MYYYYY GOSHHHHH!!!

I was mad and I gave up, convincing myself that this is who I am and I'm happy. But the truth is this is not me, and I'm not happy. I mean I have never been that girl who could eat whatever she wanted and still be thin, actually I've never been "thin" but I have been healthy and a decent size before. That is all I want.

So it started small, cut out cokes and tea. Only water and lowcal milk. Easy enough. Then step two, portion control, no more second helpings!!! Little harder. Step three, actually start counting calories. Which is where the sneaky part came in. Making a little bit of food into a lot of food by adding fruits and veggies. That was easy.

In between all of this I was reading, reading and reading about what all my body needs and how many calories I need a day to lose a pound a week. I found lots of inspiration on youtube, seeing ACTUAL people with an actual need to lose weight, actually lose it. That helped a lot. Not seeing some skinny ho on the nutrisystem commercials with before pics that may or may not of been her telling me that I'm a fatty.

Now I've lost 6 pounds and I'm really starting to get excited about it. Almost instantly my face cleared up, as I had been a victim of dietary rosacea for a while. I knew exactly what was wrong with my face, but when people would ask why my cheeks were so red I would blame it on me being hot or sunburned. It was embarrassing to say, "I'm all flushed looking cause I eat pure crap".

One of my main reasons for not eating healthy was, "It's hard to be on a diet and feed your husband too, he isn't satisfied with a lean cuisine and a salad for dinner." Which is true, but this time I wasn't going to let that stop me. Now there have been nights when I had a grilled chicken salad and he dined on a chicken quesadilla AND chicken nuggets, but those are few and far between. He has been very supportive and even joked with me that, "Just because you're on a diet doesn't mean I am" as he tried my new slim version of a once calorie laden dinner.

I said all of this to say, I know I am not alone. So I am going to put this culinary brain to work and come up with some man pleasing dinners that are easy on the waistline.

The first being, taco salad. BIG on taste, BIG on portion, small on calories! And the best part, you stay full for hours, and I mean HOURS, like eat for dinner and go to sleep and wake up still full. That's what I'm talking about!!!

Taco Salad
recipe by me

cook a pound of ground turkey and then season it with taco seasoning like normal.

lay out a bed of lettuce

mix 1/2 cup of each of the following: turkey taco meat, fat free refried beans, brown rice - and kinda spread it out over the lettuce.

top with 1/4 cup of kraft fat free cheese

top with 1/4 cup rotel

top with 2 tablespoons light sour cream

sprinkle 1/2 of an avocado, diced over that

~~~~~

Now I forgot to take a picture, but this took up an entire plate and was mounded way up high. So so so good! All for 585 calories!!! It is full of protein, which keeps you fuller longer. Don't be afraid of the ground turkey, once it is seasoned and mixed with all of this, you can't tell a difference.

Now I'm off to step four.... THE GYM!! :D

Put a smile on your plate

I know I saw this on some one's blog.... who saw it in some one's magazine..... but that is all I remember.

Breakfast quesadilla! It was easy to make and fun to eat, a great spin on the ordinary breakfast burrito.

I cooked bacon in the microwave, scrambled 3 eggs, and stuffed the two into flour tortillas and sprinkled the inside with cheese before folding it over and browning it in the toaster oven.

I dunked mine in homemade ranch from our local Italian dive... it was awesome! That is coming from someone who isn't really a breakfast fan much less a scrambled egg fan.

Fall Dinner

The ultimate fall dinner to me is a great soup with an equally great something to dip in it. Usually that is my cream of mushroom soup, but on a week night.... that doesn't work for me. Although I did use to do it while Bradley and I were dating. But I was trying to impress him and there were a lot of things I did while we were dating. Things that are now biting me in the butt. "Oh I love to clean" "No, don't you move a muscle!" "I will cook, serve you, refill your drink, take your plate away, clean the kitchen, make your lunch for tomorrow. I AM super girl"

Right.

I'm off track as usual. Back to the point. This week some weird things have been happening to me. Right when I am cooking dinner, I start feeling bad. By the time it is ready, I can't even eat. I tried to eat last night and all of it tasted really weird to me. Bradley ate all his and the other half of mine, so it was definitely just me. I thought long and hard about what I was doing different and I have been drinking a LOT of coffee now that its chilly outside and not so much water, if any. So today I am going to change that and hopefully be able to enjoy dinner tonight.

The soup was campbell's tomato - once again, wanted to make my own, time was not on my side - and the sandwich (which is really why I'm blogging this dinner) was a ham and cheese on rosemary focaccia. But the cheese was something the two of us had never eaten, it was havarti. It was really good, the package said to pair it with something sweet. The tomato soup was a little sweet but I think they meant apples or grapes. Either way it was pretty good and I'm glad I have some for sandwiches now.

I made them with just meat and cheese, I forgot to add mustard, and popped them into the toaster oven. Very easy dinner!

Baptist versus Presbyterian

I have always considered myself to be a covered dish baptist. Meaning that my church is a tiny church where everybody knows everybody and we look for any excuse to have everyone bring a covered dish and stay after the sermon for some good fellowship. We also don't care if you wear jeans and cowboy boots to church.

So when Bradley and I got serious and he asked me to go to his church with him.... I was a little apprehensive. What is a presbyterian? Will my church be mad? Will it un-do all my covered dish teachings?!?!

He explained to me that there were two things that made them different from my church - 1. they have chairs instead of pews. 2. there is a band in the choir loft.

So I went and he was right it was pretty much the same thing. There were bulletins, people singing hymns off key, prayer, the occasional old man nodding off and his equally old wife jabbing him in the ribs. Church is church people, I think naming them should be done away with.

But the longer we've been together and the more I've met people from his church and visited his church, I found out that there were an additional two differences he left out.

1. they don't bring covered dishes, they caravan down the road to guadalahara

2. a lot of the guys.... make their own beer. they even meet up every so often to taste each others creations.

Now I'm not implying they're meeting up and getting sloshed for Jesus. They're just good guys fellow shipping around a common hobby. What's wrong with that? Nothing.

Bradley's first attempt at making his own beer ended up as an alcohol free beer that tasted like apple juice. His second attempt worked just fine and we now are the proud owners of two cases of a "sam adams" knock off. The whole process is very interesting and it's fun to drink something that you actually brewed.

When I saw a recipe for Cheddar Ale Spread I thought of his latest creation and how neat it would be to make an appetizer that included it. This stuff is really good, addictingly good. I used spicy brown mustard instead of dijon, and actually think it could use a little more than just 2 teaspoons.



So, Jason - give Anne Marie this recipe and tell her to make it for your next get together of "sips and sermons" or "pale ales and parables"..... I could go on all night :D

Run for your thighs!! Its.... GRILLZILLA!

Bradley's newest bob the builder escapade lead him to assist a friend in building what I like to refer to as "the biggest flippin' grill I ever did see", more affectionately known as..... GRILLZILLA.

Yes it is obnoxiously huge and yes he did have to build a new deck specifically for housing the flavor injecting beast. But that's ok because now my covered deck is going to be turned into a "tropical getaway".

I'm always trying to turn places into tropical getaways, seriously, can one of y'all just move me to the beach and call it good?? Please? My birthday is soon!!

This tropical get away isn't going to happen overnight, as patio furniture is DANG EXPENSIVE even in the off season when it is on clearance. Not to mention no where has it in the store anymore so I'm having to order it offline and pay for shipping and cross my fingers that nothing is damaged in the process. So I'm saving my pennies and if you would like to donate yours... please see me after the show. (ahem birthday soon ahem)

Where was I? Oh yeah, the big black thing in my backyard....

Anyway it came to us late Thursday night and we left a football party early on Saturday because Bradley was itching to go to the grocery store and buy large pieces of various animals to throw into its big steel belly. FEED THE BEAST! FEED THE BEAST!

Let the marination process commence!

And it was good. Sunday was spent "smoking" and not the wacky tabacky kind. (can you tell its past my bedtime?) He cooked a slab of ribs that looked like they were from a rhino.... or maybe an elephant, pork chops (that I rubbed with a new spice mix a friend told me about, don't worry I'll show you later) and an entire chicken. En......tire.....chicken. Remember Magda from There's Something About Mary? hehe That's what Mr Chicken looked like when he checked out of Hotel Grill-ifornia.

Of course we couldn't eat all that Sunday night, so we've spent this week finding new ways to enjoy smoky food. All jokes aside that thing makes some great food! The chicken was turned into chicken tacos last night and chicken nachos tonight. Both equally amazing.

Nothing special, just chips, chicken, rotel, corn, cheese and a spicy sour cream sauce I made up.


Take sour cream, mix in taco seasoning (to taste), mix in juice from rotel until it is a little runny and you are able to "drizzle" it on things like tacos and nachos.

YUM!

My "Presto Pasta Nights" Entry

When I saw this fun little blog-test I didn't scour my arsenal looking for the best recipe. I didn't stay up late thinking about ingredients. I didn't do any of the weird obsessive things I usually do when I am submitting a recipe for the world to see.

Why?

Because this summer I accidentally created my new comfort food recipe. It's nothing fancy. It's not gourmet. It is simply a way to use up all those awesome veggies from the farmer's market. There are no measurements, because you can make it for one or for one hundred and one (Dalmatians).

But it is something that you need to try, and therefore, I'm sending it in.



Presto Pasta Nights was the idea of Ruth over at Once Upon a Feast. It started in March of 07 and now here I am, over a year later, entering a dish.








Summer Pasta
recipe by me

ready cut macaroni - or whichever pasta you are currently in love with
butter
parmesan
evoo
zucchini - cut into half moons
yellow squash - cut into whole moons
vidalia onions - i cut mine into rings
minced garlic

boil the pasta in salted water. drain. while it's still hot toss with butter and parmesan.
heat evoo in a large skillet. add veggies. saute until they reach your favorite stage of done-ness.
add garlic and cook for an additional 30 seconds to a minute.
toss with pasta.
sprinkle top with parmesan.

~~~~~

So there you go. A very simple, very versatile, but still very delicious summer pasta dish.

(sauteed onions not pictured. please refer to the "chick food" post)

po'kchop po'kchop greasay greasay.......

we think yo (fill in the blank)'s E-ZZZY E-ZZZY


The above chant is all the more reason why children should be home schooled. I learned that in first grade.... and we put "mama" in the blank.

But for real I just figured out WHY a first grader should not be singing it. Innocent mind...... hmm hm hmm...... where's that halo....

No really, I'm just blonde.

Now.... much, much later.... I sing it every time we have pork chops. Bradley even quit looking at me weird, he is use to it.

This is a very easy yet VERY scrumptious Giada recipe that I discovered a while back and we have it a lot for dinner. Might I add, you want to shallow fry in evoo. Your canola oils and veggie oils collect under the crust and that is just no fun at all. Evoo gives you a drier fry.

I made that up, but it's true!

Giada's pork chop recipe can be found HERE and it is tried and true! I usually buy butterflied pork chops and then finish splitting them, but any ol' chop will do!

What I really wanted to talk to you about was my new favorite side dish. Grits! They're not just for breakfast people. You can mix anything in there. Treat them like you would mashed potatoes. Wanna mix in corn, cumin, cilantro and a lil lime juice? You can. Wanna mix in cheese and bacon? You can. Wanna mix in sardines and anchovies? You can, I won't judge you.

I won't come near you..... but I won't judge you.

For this meal, I added in mozzarella cheese. Some halved cherry tomatoes and parsley would of been great mixed in, but you know what? I'm married and that's chick food. So... there you go.

My other side dish was canned asparagus (love!) tossed with lemon juice, minced garlic, salt and fresh ground black pepper. This, apparently, is not chick food.

Take note.

"but I hate dill!"

That's what Bradley said when I told him I was making mini cheddar dill muffins to go along with Saturday night's dinner. Little does he know that every time we have my version of tuna "sandwiches" there is a dill mayo to accompany it, and he loves the stuff. It's all in what you tell them.



Even though he hates dill, he loved these muffins. What's not to love? Bread - GOOD! Dill - GOOD! Sharp Cheddar - GOOOOOD!!!











This recipe was originally from Better Homes & Gardens, New Cook Book, Limited Breast Cancer Edition, modified by Amber from Amber's Delectable Delights and further modified by - me! The batter was thick and lumpy, which gave the muffins a real rustic appeal. It also made exactly 18, which worked out great since that is how many wells are in the mini muffin pan.

Cheddar Dill Mini Muffins

1 & 3/4 cups self rising flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 & 1/2 teaspoons dried dill
1 beaten egg
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup cooking oil
1/2 to 3/4 cup sharp cheddar

Grease 18 mini muffin wells or line with paper baking cups; set aside. Preheat your oven to 400*
In a medium bowl combine flour, dill and salt; set aside.
In another bowl combine egg, milk, oil and cheese. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy).
Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each two-thirds full. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden and a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in muffin cups on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove from muffin cups; serve warm.

Date Night <3

Our date night this week consisted of quite a few things. I washed the sheets and some clothes, we worked on finishing the downstairs room, we wandered outside where we had an impromptu weed pulling session, we saw someone we knew and stopped to talk, we met someone new, we wandered back into the house and finally at 8 pm decided to start dinner and watch a movie. The movie - Ocean's 11. The dinner - easily an 11 out of 10.

This was by far one of the easiest dinners I have ever made and probably one of the best tasting. If you time it just right and don't count the time it takes your oven to preheat, this dinner takes about 15 minutes - 5 minutes prep time and 10 minutes cooking time.


First up, let me introduce you to someone I met at the beach, who is now one of my new best friends. It is basil garlic fedelini pasta and can be found at Harry and David's. Well worth ordering online and paying S&H if there is not a Harry and David's near you. Which is what I will be doing when this 12 ounce well runs dry. But what to put on it?? My first idea was a simple infused olive oil, since the pasta is already flavored. But that would be kind of plain. This pasta deserved a nice sauce. So I though on it all week and remembered something I saw a while back when I was trying to do weight watchers.....



Laughing Cow cheese sauce. It is supposed to be a lighter and healthier mock alfredo sauce. I modified my recipe a little bit, because I was out of parmesan.
3 wedges LC creamy swiss
2 tblspn butter
a soup spoon of roasted garlic sauce OR real garlic
1/2 cup milk
heat the butter, cheese and garlic sauce together until the cheese breaks down. whisk in the milk and heat until it starts to thicken.


For the protein of the meal, I chose tilapia. I wanted a simple and quick way to prepare it, so I chose to bake it.
***TIP***did you know that when you bake fish you should always preheat your pan? I did not until just recently. If you pan is preheated then it will sear the fish when you set it on the pan, keeping the juices from running out while you bake it. it really works, too!
For the topping, I melted 2 tblspns butter with 1 tblspn lemon juice and mixed it with 1/3 cup italian bread crumbs. Spoon it onto the fish and lightly press it into the flesh. Bake at 425* for 10 minutes.



It plated up so beautifully and tasted equally amazing. It was an absolute perfect dinner. Nothing needed tweaking at all. The swiss sauce complimented the pasta perfectly. The addition of lemon in the breading gave the fish exactly what it needed.

And then it happened...

I have an intense fear of moths. Pretty much any insect that flies, and some that don't, I am completely terrified of. So imagine my horror when I looked up at our big living room window and saw THIS -


Thank goodness it was on the other side of the window! This thing was massive, bigger than my hand! And that tail..... ughhhh that tail! It was two leaf like pieces and it moved them separately. I feel confident in saying that if I had of been outside and that evil thing had of flown up to me I would of died right there on the spot.

Best Macaroni and Cheese.... EVER

For evah-evah, for real, bar none, that fat lady has sang, say good night barn "goodnight barn" - in other words, stop trying because I have mastered it!

There is an on-going joke in this house that if something is really good, then you better enjoy it because chances are if it just came out of my head I will never be able to make it again. I just get so excited and start throwing things into the mix and at the end I'm left wondering what the actual ingredients were.

So I have made a conscious effort to start writing while I cook, and boy am I glad I did. I will be the first one to say "I hate home made mac and cheese". Blame it on the fact that growing up mama always cooked velveeta cheesey shells so that was just what I was use to. With home made mac, you don't have that great drippy melty over processed cheese flavored sauce, and that was my favorite part!! I knew there had to be a way to bring creamy and cheesey (through and through, not just on top) to the home made mac and cheese, and I found it. For this certain recipe I used cheddar and gouda. But that is just because we had cheddar and gouda in the fridge. Today there is colby, monterrey jack and butterkase in the fridge and I would also recommend those cheeses, it is really just whatever you have on hand.

So here it is.... without further adieu..... the world's best macaroni and cheese, cross my heart and hope to die.

World's Best Macaroni and Cheese
recipe by me

3/4 cup elbow mac - season your boiling water with 1/4 tspn salt
1 tblspn butter
2 eggs
1 & 1/2 cup milk
1/2 tspn salt
1 tblspn flour
1 cup shredded cheddar
1/2 cup shredded gouda (if you use smoked gouda, the end result will have a "bacon-y" taste)
3 triangles laughing cow, swiss - sliced (i would stick to always using swiss)

boil your noodles in the salted water. preheat your oven to 350* and use it to melt the butter in a medium casserole dish. whisk together the eggs, milk, salt and flour in a large mixing bowl. stir in the cheeses. when the noodles are finished, drain them and put them into the mixing bowl with the cheese mixture, stir around until the heat starts to melt the cheeses a little. pour it all into the dish with the melted butter, and sprinkle a little extra cheddar on top. bake uncovered for 35-40 minutes, or until the center is no longer liquid.

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Be prepared to get the urge to cry, sing, laugh, moan with pleasure, and possibly even the desire to slap yo mama! IT'S THAT GOOD!