Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Tuesday morning, rain is falling!

Good morning! Hope you all had a fantastic Monday! Other than all the rain, my day went pretty well. I found a recipe while I was sitting at work that looked simple and easy. I decided that I was going to try it out last night and see how it went. I am trying to save money and am not the one to go spend $50 trying to make a meal. I can go get some yummy Pho for less than that. We have this store around my area called "Deals". It's kind of a mix between dollar tree, five below, and dollar general. I love the place. They even have a freezer/grocery section.

So I set out for deal last night in the pour raining to get some stuff to make for dinner.
Here are the ingredients you will need and how much I paid for them.

24 oz of ziti -$1.00  ( this was actually too much, 16 oz box will work just fine)
1 24oz jar of marinara sauce - $2.00
1 16oz jar of alfredo sauce - $2.00
Shredded Mozzarella cheese - $ 2.00
Shredded Parmesan cheese- Already had at home

I also bought garlic bread for $1 and threw some mozzarella cheese on it to make it cheesy garlic bread.
So for a whole $8 I made an amazing meal that was dinner last night and enough for 3 lunches left over.

Here's how simple it is!

Cook pasta according to directions on package. ( I used ziti, recipe called for penne... use whatever you want) While the pasta is cooking, you are going to go ahead and get your sauce mix ready. In a big bowl combine the marinara and alfredo sauces. Mix them all up, then add in about 2 cups of the shredded mozzarella cheese. Once all that is mixed together and the pasta is done, pour the pasta into the mixture. Toss the pasta to make sure it all gets coated in the sauce. Next you want to get out your 9 x 13 baking dish and pour the pasta and sauce into the dish.  Now you want to bake it for 20 to 25 minutes at 350. At about 15 minutes, you want to pull it out of the oven and sprinkle about 1 cup of shredded parmesan cheese over the top. Then let it finish baking.
Doesn't it look amazing!

It was a SUPER SIMPLE meal that tasted amazing. It will definitely be on the menu again at my house.

Hope you guys try it out and enjoy it!

Monday, October 8, 2012

Recipe FINALLY!



Alright... I know... It's taken a week to put up the recipe blog.
I am so sorry! 

I made a wonderful Baked Balsamic Chicken and Balsamic Roasted Asparagus.
It was absolutely delicious. I went by the recipe I had found on both. 
However, next time I will do things a little different on the chicken.

For the original chicken recipe you can look here.

I used boneless, skinless chicken breast for this instead of chicken breast halves.

I will definitely be making this again. 
Except next time I will add the balsamic, olive oil, oregano, and chicken in a zip lock bag. 
I think if it gets to marinate a little bit, the chicken will have a more balsamic flavor.

Baked Balsamic Chicken. Photo by Sammy Mae
This is the picture from the recipe here

The asparagus that went along with this were so simple and delicious.

Ingredients:
1 lb. asparagus
2 TB olive oil
2 TB balsamic vinegar
Black Pepper
Kosher Salt
Parmesan Cheese (grated)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Wash and trim asparagus. Arrange in a single layer in a shallow baking dish. (I used a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil for more room.)
Drizzle oil and balsamic vinegar over asparagus. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and cheese.
Bake, uncovered, at 375 degrees until tender and fragrant, approximately 15-20 minutes.


I had left overs on both and they were still delicious when heated up for lunch the next day. 
It's definitely worth a try!!! And seeing as they both use some of the same ingredients, it's cost saving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

That's right! 
If you didn't know... today is Thanksgiving in Canada.

This weekend was quite eventful to say the least.
But we won't be getting into all those details.

However, one thing I must share is my attempt at painting my dresser.
At first I attempted to spray paint the thing... 
And that just turned out to be a bad idea. 
I have learned that spray paint and me are not friends.
So I got a little ticked off and went to Lowe's to get regular paint.

Legit.. Lowe's was a scary place for me by myself.
I usually go with my father and I'm fine.
But I was a bit intimidated.
I kept walking in circles, til a nice lady helped me.
I ended up getting what I needed,
And headed on home to finish the job.

As I start painting the frame around the mirror,
All the birds start screeching so loud.
And then I heard what sounded like rain drops.
...Well it wasn't rain... it was bird poop!

They were getting it all over the dresser,
Luckily I don't think any got on me.
Either way, to be safe, I went inside and showered.
So now I have a tiny bit painted, 
But we moved it on to the porch.
No more bird poop now!

This evening it's looking like...
Painting the dresser, doing laundry, 
Making returns, and cooking dinner. 

WOOOO what an awesome sounding night!

Oh and of course watching the O's game.
Since we lost last night!!!

How was everyone's weekend?

Friday, October 5, 2012

It's time for the weekend!

I know I know.. I still haven't gotten the recipe blog up.
I'd do it at work, but the pictures are on my camera at the house. 
And seeing as how this week, I haven't been home much.
I haven't gotten the blog up.
It will happen.


But on to happier things.


IT'S FRIDAY!

And you know what that means, it's time to have some fun. 
Tonight is an important night for a lot of teams. 
So good luck to all of those, who I support!

My kickball team is looking to go 4-1 tonight!

After our 5-4 win last week to make us 3-1.

The Virginia Destroyers have their season opener and are looking for their first win of the season.



The Baltimore Orioles HAVE TO win tonight if they want to stay in the playoffs.



&& The Oscar Smith High School's football team has it's home coming tonight.



Good luck to the four of us! 


Tomorrow shall be a busy day of cleaning, rearranging, and redoing.
Going to be a nice day and I need to get stuff done at the house.

And tomorrow night is when the REAL fun begins!
The Norfolk Admirals has their first exhibition game. 
Hockey is back in Norfolk baby!
After the game it's off to pick up my season tickets and meet all the new players on the team.
Seeing as how the team is COMPLETELY different from last season.



Sunday is the Admirals second exhibition game.
As well as the Eagles play the Steelers.
Very busy weekend,
But I'm ready to get it started!



If you haven't figured out by now...
Sports are my main passion!

What are your plans this weekend???
Anything fun/cool going on?

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Fur Baby Love!

Ok so... I couldn't get the recipe post up last night.
I promise I will tonight. 
If not, I quit! haha.
Journey consumed my night last night.
Making me not have time to do anything.
But that's beside the point.


Today I'm going to share about my lovely fur babies.


 First off is Tucker. He is about 6 years old. And he is a tuxedo cat. Don't let his pretty little face fool you, he is mean. Granted his parents were both wild cats, I've raised him since he was like 3 weeks old. I have so many scars on my body from him. He wouldn't even be in the room... then out of know where he would be on your arm or leg with his claws dug in you and biting you. So when it was time to get fixed... he got declawed. I know some people think that's harsh, but I wanna see you live with him. We only did his front claws, and that helped with some of the scratching. Soon he realized he still had back claws!!! And he bites at random times. He also steals money and is a satanist. He will take all of the dog toys and set them in a perfect circle and put one in the middle like it's being sacrificed. He likes to set toys in the middle of the steps so I trip over them and kill myself. Or at the front door so I can't open the door. I don't have many pictures on this computer of him... cause I'm usually trying to stay away from him. 
Cat In A Bag

One of the few times he's nice to me.


  Then we have my wonderful little dog. His name is Jonas and NO!... It's not after the Jonas Brothers. He was actually named after the song from Weezer..."My Name is Jonas". He has severe separation anxiety, which I take full responsibility. He really is like my child and I don't think he fully understands that he isn't a human. He is my life line. I don't know what I'd do without him. There's so much I could say.. But I'm just going to let you aww over his pictures! :) 

He loves the Flyers! :)

At the Admirals / Phantoms game.

Watching the hockey game!

He's got a hard job.

He had enough of Bark in the Park. 



Bath time.

Jonas with his birthday ice cream.

My copilot is asleep.

How handsome!

Family picture with Santa.

Sorry Girls, I only date models!

Santa reading him a bedtime story.
As you can tell, he is treated like a child. :) And yes I show favoritism. Maybe if the cat didn't sit on my face when I'm sleeping and try to kill me... I'd like him just as much. But he's psycho, so things are the way they are. Don't get me wrong I love my cat... he's just crazy and you never know what he's capable of. You guys are probably laughing at me right now... But ask my family... They know I'm not lying!

I wanna see pictures of your fur babies... So post and share!!! :) 

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Oh Rainy Days

There's only one thing that rainy days are good for. And that's staying in bed and cuddling. Too bad the pup and me had to come to work though. This will be one of two blogs today. Because guess what... I have a recipe blog for you! 

All I'm saying... it was super yummy! Minus the one dish that ended up getting thrown in the garbage! On the menu last night was Baked Balsamic & Oregano Chicken and Oven Roasted Balsamic Asparagus. I also made Cauliflower Mash. But that was definitely not for me! I will stick to my Sweet Potato Mash Potatoes. 


I will show you guys pictures from my cooking adventures, share where I found the recipes, and tell you what I would do differently next time! So be sure to check back. 

Now I need you guys' help! I found this dresser on the side of the road a couple months ago and had to snag it. First of all it's in really good condition, and second it was free! I am going to be spray painting it and such this weekend to get it ready to be moved in the house. I'm trying to decide what color(s) I want to paint it! I'm thinking silver, but you tell me what would look cool.

I know that I'm going to get some new handles for it. I also need to make little doors for the slots up top which use to have drawers in them. it's in perfect condition though. I think it was a total steal! Thanks to the neighbors down the street from my job. So this weekend she gets a nice paint job and maybe some stencil work done on it! 

IDEAS!!! HELP ME OUT! 

I will get the recipe blog posted tonight before I head to the Journey concert with my Mother.
Don't Stop Believing!

Monday, October 1, 2012

Sports filled weekend. :)

Happy Monday!!

Sorry for the lack of posting on the weekends,
but they are usually so jam packed I really don't get any time!

Friday night was kickball night.
Actually for about 7 months out of the year,
Every Friday is kickball night..

Anyways.
My team name is SchweatyBallz and we are awesome.
Basically we are one big family.
And because we are so awesome... we won Friday!!!!

SchweatyBallz kickball baby!

We may not look like much,
But trust me we can hang with the best of them!
That win took us to 3-1 for this season!
I love my team to death and am so proud of them.
Honestly being a coach is tiring and takes some of the fun out of it.
But I wouldn't change it. :)

Well Saturday my dad and I traveled up the good ole I-95.
Can you guess how many cops we saw in our 2 1/2 hour journey?
Try about 16!!! WHAT!
VA Tech was playing Cincinnati at the Redskins stadium,
So unfortunately we were in that traffic the whole way.
We made it safe and sound though, no speeding tickets.

After all the initial hellos and such,
it was off to Baltimore we went.
I hadn't been to Baltimore in 3 years, so I wanted to site see.
As we were about 30 minutes outside of Baltimore,
Dad realizes he forgot the tickets. !?!?!?!?!
Thankfully my brother in law is a computer nerd,
Cause he told us not to worry... we will just go to FedEx Kinkos to print them off.
Dad and I would have NEVER thought of that.

After our pit stop we made our way on into the city...
And into the National Aquarium.
Dad says I've been there...
But I don't remember it at all!

My favorite part was the dolphin show!
YES!!! They have a dolphin show.
Dolphins!!

After fun times in the Inner Harbor we headed over to Camden Yards.
Oh what a beautiful park!
Of course the game was amazing...seeing as how we won.
The best part.. Dad and me are O's fans...Beth and Josh are Red Sox fans.
And go figure, the O's were playing the Red Sox!

Yesterday we went to this awesome little fair in Occoquan, Va.
They had all kinds of crafts and foods and anything you can imagine!
I absolutely loved it!
I bought the dog an Eagles fleece jacket!
(Which he wore for the game last night)
I got an amazing Flyers christmas ornament.
Found a lady with some amazing dip mixes and such,
So I bought a few things off of her.

To end my awesome weekend,
I got some skype time in with the boyfriend...
AND WATCHED MY EAGLES BEAT THE GIANTS!
WOOO HOOOO!

Oh that was definitely the icing on the cake!

Well now it's off to make this an awesome Monday!
Shopping, Cleaning, & Cooking.
Oh the joys!

This guy's car was completely wrapped in Ravens!
Inner Harbor!
Old Submarine.
My Dad and I !
I look like poo! But sister and me!
The 4 of us!
Batting Practice!
This was too cute!
Dad photo bombed!
Dad and Beth. This is right after Dad legit almost fell out his chair!
I need this for my house!
Jonas and I watching the Eagles, with his new fleece jacket!
This man made all kinds of figures! Too freaking cute!
Picked up this beauty for $5!