Baked Spaghetti Dinner

With school winding down, I haven't been blogging a lot. I read plenty of blogs, but mine seems to get pushed aside. Whoops! I'm caught up with end of the year stuff, and preparing for college next year. Which, I will tell you guys more about later in a special post=)

This dish was easy, though I didn't think some of the instructions were that clear. The good thing is that it is so flexible. So do it how you want=) I didn't use real pesto leaves, but like a squeeze tube bottle my mom bought. I was still very good with this substitution.

I liked eating spaghetti like this. The sauce and meat are distributed nice and it was quite tasty. It was a hit in my family=)

Interesting tidbit, I took these photos with my phone. I think they turned out pretty well. Then again, most of my pictures are pretty mediocre so it doesn't really make that big of a different haha.

Baked Spaghetti Dinner
found at How Sweet It Is

serves 4-6
3/4 pound whole wheat spaghetti
1/2 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/4 pounds ground beef
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
10-12 fresh basil leaves, chopped
2 cups of your favorite pasta sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep water to boil for pasta. I cooked a spaghetti with a 10-minute cooking time for 7 minutes since it was going in the oven.

Heat a skillet on medium heat and add olive oil. Add onions with a sprinkle of salt and pepper and saute until soft, about 5-6 minutes. Add garlic and stir for another minute. Season ground beef with the teaspoon of salt and pepper and add to skillet. Break apart with a wooden spoon and brown on both sides. This should only take about 5-6 minutes.

Stir in one cup of pasta sauce and half of the chopped fresh basil. Mix to combine. Spray a 9×13 baking dish (or baking dish of your choice, I used an 8-inch round, 4-inch deep dish) with non-stick spray. Add half of the spaghetti mixture to the dish, then top with 1/2 cup tomato sauce and half of each cheese. Add the remaining spaghetti and top with the rest of the sauce and cheese. Bake for 20 minutes, or until cheese is golden brown and bubbly.

Dinner Updates

I have been making some fabulous dinners. I may sound a little full of myself, but that's because I am. I'm full in my stomach from all these incredible dinners! Get it?! Me neither... But seriously, I need to give some shout outs to where I've been getting my dinner inspirations from. Now, I'm not very skilled at the whole photography thing, so I decided not to take pictures of most of the meals. But I captured a few for you=)

Pizza Mac N' Cheese- This in in my family's top 5 favorite meals I've made! Cassie Craves is such a great dinner resource whenever I don't know that to make. She has never steered me wrong and I love this recipe. It sounds like a heavy dish, but there's a ton of veggies in there surprisingly. I definitely will be making this again.

Chicken with Pesto Mushrrom Cream Sauce- One of the comments we kept saying about this dish was how juicy the chicken was! I don't know if that was more due to the recipe or me, but we loved that. The pesto mushroom cream suace was great and great for dipping breadsticks into. This meal packed so much taste and it reminded me of something you would get at Olive Garden. Thanks again Cassie!

Garlic Breadsticks- I was so excited to make these! I've never thaought about making something like this from scratch and it always seemed impossible. But really, these were incredibly easy. I loved adding butter, garlic, italian seasoning, and tons of parmesan cheese on top. We really personalized them to our tastes. I made them really huge, but that didn't stop me from having seconds=)

Mexican Sour Cream Rice- This was from quite awhile ago but I remember we defnitely enjoyed it!

Salsa Verde Turkey Burgers- These were some fantastic looking burgers! They were so fun to make and I loved the avocado aioli sauce that came with it. I went a little crazy with the red onion, so don't do that. Overall, these were a disappointement. They looked great and had some great components, but the taste just wasn't there. No amount of salt could fix it either, though ketchup helped.='(

Cowboy Quesadillas- These were very easy to put together and since we haven't had quesadillas in awhile, they were much welcomed. I especially loved the bbq ranch dipping sauce, but I am a lover of all dips=) So this gets a thumbs up!

Well these are some of the meals I have been cooking up for my family! It's a little strange for an 18 year old girl to be cooking dinner for her family most nights, but I love it! Hopefully I post up our dinners sooner so I can remember what we thought of them while it's still fresh in my mind. It was one of my New Years Resolutions to cook more homemade dinners for my family, and so far  I think I'm doing fabulously=)

Weekly Dinners #2

So I have been up to a lot lately. That makes having regular dinners difficult=/ I have two major papers I'm trying to start early so I am not overwhelmed, but the deadlines are still coming up on me. And, I'm trying to still choose between two colleges. It's sooo difficult=( I'm staying over night at one of them in 2 weeks so hopefully that will help my decision.


Then, throw in musical rehearsals after school most days. I love musical so much but it does eat away at my time. I have a really nice role this year so I can't complain too much=) We're doing Little Shop of Horrors this year. If you know anything about the show you probably know there's a blood thirsty plant in it. We have rubber bloody body parts and everything. My role is one of the Ronettes. We're a group of doo-wap style singers that narrate the show basically. I'm on stage a ton dancing and singing, I have a solo, and we get some really fun costume changes! I'm so excited=)




Indian Butter Chicken with Basmati Rice:
As soon as I saw this dish, I knew I was going to make it no matter what. I am SOOO glad I made this. This is the best dinner I have ever made. The basmati rice was so easy I might even make it more often. The chicken and the sauce. I am speechless. Utterly speechless. I loved this beyond belief. Ok. Done talking about it now.


Lemon Dressing Drizzled Chickpea and Sweet Pepper Arugula Salad:
I wanted to have some lighter and refreshing options for dinner. This was good for an evening when we wanted a lighter side to some leftovers. And, I ended up having it for lunch for the rest of the week. I might try adding some mustard to the dressing (which was good already) for more flavor. Pretty good salad. I love chickpeas and peppers and the arugula has a citrus bite to it.

Chicken Lasagna:
Not photographed, due to its sloppy and unphotogenic manner, but oh so delicious. We can't actually have lasagna at my house because my dad and my sister don't like red sauce. If you've been reading my blog for any length of time you may have realized what kind of picky eaters I have to deal with on a day to day basis. Not cool. But, I decided to appeal to them for this meal. This is lasagna with a white sauce and a ton of flavor. Definitely 5 stars.


Winning recipe of Weekly Dinners #2? Indian Butter Chicken with Basmati Rice. I must make this again!

Weekly Dinners

I mentioned in a previous post that I am hoping to start making more regular dinners for my family. It's difficult to do so when I get home from musical practice most days by 5:30, but I do my best. I have kept with it pretty well and I want to share some of the meals I've made. My dinner posts will be brief and probably not that descriptive. It's just important for me to log the meals and then be able to look back on them and see if we enjoyed them or not.

Sweet and Sour Chicken from Cassie Craves

I choose to use legs for this recipe because we rarely have them. My dad doesn't like them (dumbbbb) so I had to force it. But, he said he loved this dish; as did the rest of our family. The extra sauce from the chicken is great poured over rice. The ingredients were so simple and I made this in 5 minutes flat. Then it just put in the oven until ready. I'm sure we'll try it again.

Ranch Macaroni and Cheese from Cassie Craves

This was the first of my structured dinners that I made for my family, and what a way to start off! This was incredible! I have never made homemade mac n' cheese, but the idea was so enticing! It's sad that in today's world most people hear mac n' cheese and think of the blue box. But really, the best stuff is homemade from scratch. Nothing out there beats it. Nothing! Everyone in my family loved it and we are dying to try more homemade macaroni and cheese recipes soon!

Roasted Vegetable Sandwiches from Cassie Craves

I don't think there was anyway to pick a favorite recipe from the week. But I must say, we loved these roasted vegetables. The colors were phenomenal and I couldn't believe how easy it was to make. We definitely want to try this roasting method again and see what creative things we can do with them. I used a french baguette to make buns, but they were a little difficult to eat like that so I'd probably pick a different bun for next time.

White Chicken Enchiladas with Green Chile Sour Cream Sauce from Cassie Craves

I have made this recipe before, but I was dying to make it again! I mistakenly used cheddar cheese instead of the monterey jack cheese, which tasted just fine, but I do prefer the monterey jack. The green chiles in the sour cream sauce are subtle, but very necessary. They really tie the dish together I think. Another unanimous favorite in our house.

Not pictured but some things we have also made recently:

Cheesy Broccoli and Rice
-This was very tasty, but I think we though it wasn't cheesy enough and needed a tad more moisture, but I'm pretty sure that can all be blamed on my cooking skills and not the recipe. We are interested in trying it again, though.

Pepperoni Pizza Puffs
-These were a disappointment. We weren't big fans of it because they tasted flavorless. However, we think it was due to the fact that we did not have pizza seasoning like the recipe required, and tried to make up our own. So we aren't exactly sure what went wrong, but I don't think we'll be trying them again anytime soon.

Chipotle Cheddar Meatloaf Muffins
-These were fabulous! They were quick and easy and were a great kicked up version of meatloaf. They kept well and were easily microwaved for lunches or day after dinners. But trust me, they'll be gone fast!

And we also made some home made chicken and dumplings from an often used cookbook in our house: Betty Crocker's Cooking Basics. It's our go-to for Thanksgiving every year. It's so fabulous and such an easy fall back recipe!


This was kind of a different post for me to write, so hopefully you all accept it! My plan is to continue making these regular dinners and then posting a big round up of them so you guys can see. I hope this post inspires you to cook more home meals, or just try some new dinner recipes!

Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells

I made this recipe a while ago, but it has a lot to do with what I've been doing recently! For this new year, I'm really working on planning dinners for the week for my family. Both of my parents arrive home pretty late from work (6 o'clock if I'm lucky), and they don't have time to get dinner on the table at a reasonable hour. So, being the self-proclaimed foodie that I am, I feel it is my duty to help out.


One of my favorite reliable blogs, Cassie Craves, has been helping me through this resolution. And though this recipe wasn't from there since I made it way before this resolution, all the dinner recipes you'll see coming are. So be sure to check back!


Now, onto this dinner. There isn't too much to this recipe, which is great. I loved it! My big mistake, as always, is that I forget to thaw my spinach, so that did add some time onto it=/ I also have a hard time judging how much filling to put in each shell so that they are all even and I don't have left overs or not enough to finish. But I have to realize, things don't have to be perfect. It'll taste fine anyways. And it did. Unfortunately, certain members of my family don't like red sauce, so only half of us enjoyed this meal. (I'll let you guess who)


Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells
from Cooking Light

Ingredients
2 cups Basic Marinara, divided
2 1/2 cups part-skim ricotta cheese
1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained, and squeezed dry
1 large egg yolk
1 garlic clove, minced
24 cooked jumbo pasta shells

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350°.

Spread 1/2 cup Basic Marinara over bottom of a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.

Combine ricotta and next 8 ingredients (through garlic) in a large bowl, stirring well. Spoon about 1 1/2 tablespoons filling into each pasta shell. Arrange stuffed shells in prepared dish; spread with remaining 1 1/2 cups Basic Marinara. Cover and bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Cheesy Cauliflower Gratin

This is about a month old, but I think you'll forgive me once you see what it is. Possibly my favorite dish on our Thanksgiving table? Well, besides the homemade gravy made by moi. Okay, our immaculate stuffing is pretty top notch too... but I really did love this dish! I have decided that cauliflower has been so underrated. It's such an amazing vegetable and maybe my favorite one out there. I use to be all about the broccoli, but I think cauliflower is better because it's much softer and doesn't get stuck in your teeth.


I loved making the rue and cheese sauce for this dish. I don't get to do that often, but it was soo fun! The recipe made a ton, which was great. Please please please try this. I know I will be making this again very soon!


Cauliflower Gratin
found Tracey's Culinary Adventures

Ingredients:
1 (3-lb) head of cauliflower, cut into large florets
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, divided
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups hot milk
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
3/4 cup grated Gruyere, divided
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1/4 cup bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 375 F. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the cauliflower until tender but still firm, about 5-6 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Add 2 tablespoons of the butter to a medium saucepan set over low heat. Once it melts, add the flour and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Slowly add the hot milk to the pan (to avoid dirtying another pot, I microwaved the milk in a 4-cup measuring cup for 2 minutes). Bring the mixture to a boil, whisking often. Once the milk begins to boil, whisk constantly for about 1 more minute, or until thickened. Remove the pot from the heat and add 1 teaspoon of coarse salt, the pepper, nutmeg, 1/2 cup of the Gruyere, and the Parmesan. Whisk together until you have a smooth sauce.

Pour about 1/3 of the sauce over the bottom of a 9-inch round pie plate (an 8x11 baking dish would work too). Spread the drained cauliflower evenly in the pan then pour the remaining sauce over the top. In a small bowl combine the bread crumbs and the remaining 1/4-cup of Gruyere. Sprinkle the mixture evenly over the top of the gratin. Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and drizzle them over the gratin. Finally, sprinkle the gratin with salt and pepper. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the top is browned.

Pumpkin Soup

As much as I love endlessly searching for recipes on blogs across the internet, I always feel slightly guilty. I worry about food magazines and cookbooks feelings. Do they get jealous? I mean I wouldn't say the are obsolete, but with the blog world out there to give instant feedback about a recipe and include pictures that show a real result, it's hard not to go there first for a recipe. It's a sad situation.

When my mom and I are at the grocery store, we don't mind getting stuck behind a line of people when checking out. Why? We get to read food magazines. Duhh. Rachael Ray, Fine Cooking, Taste of Home, Bon Appetit, and all the greats. Every once in a while, there's one magazine that really sticks out to us and we just have to get it. This past time: Fine Cooking. There were some great desserts and main dishes and we said we would force ourselves to make them!

One recipe I knew I wanted to try was the pumpkin soup. I make so many sweet pumpkin recipes that I need to balance them out a bit with some savory ones. If I only stuck to desserts, I would be disrespecting pumpkin. I mean, pumpkin has so many diverse uses that I have to give them all a chance! Yes. I love pumpkin that much.

This recipe was super easy. Piece-o-cake. I really enjoyed the end result. Warm nummy (yummy) pumpkin soup is just perfect for a cold Fall day. It was suggested to make homemade croutons with it, and I had every intention to. But, I enjoyed the ciabatta bread as is, so I just ate it plain hehe. My mom was slightly sad since she wanted to try the croutons, but maybe another time.


Pumpkin Soup
from Fine Cooking Magazine

2 Tbs. unsalted butter
1 medium yellow onion, sliced
6 cups 1-inch-diced peeled, seeded pumpkin
2 medium cloves garlic, sliced
1/2 cup dry white wine
8 medium fresh sage leaves
4 to 6 cups lower-salt chicken broth
1/4 cup packed grated Gruyère
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Melt the butter in a heavy-duty 4- to 5-quart pot over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Stir in the pumpkin and garlic and cook, stirring, 1 minute more. Add the wine and the sage leaves and cook, stirring, until the wine evaporates, about 5 minutes. Stir in 4 cups of broth, cover, and simmer, adjusting the heat as needed, until the pumpkin is very tender, about 25 minutes.

Add 1/4 cup of the Gruyère and using a handheld or standard blender, purée the soup (in batches, if necessary). Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Return to a gentle simmer, stirring constantly and adding more broth as necessary to achieve a thin soup with the consistency of heavy cream.

Zucchini and Tomato (Crustless) Quiche

This is such a summer dish. My apologies. I am so ready to head into Fall myself, but I need to clear out some old recipes. Plus, I'm saving up a bunch of the things I've made to hold a Pumpkin Week! That's right. A pumpkin recipe everyday for a week. I know it's not too original (everyone and their mother does it), but I think it's great. I love it when other blogs do it, so now I will too!


In the meantime, you'll have to deal with some end of summer recipes I have left. I am excited for fall baking, though, so I don't feel like writing too much about summer, teehee.


This quiche was all I ever could have hoped for. I, personally, prefer crust-less quiches. The crust completely throws off the whole quiche experience for me and I want none of that. Also, I got to use up zucchini, a ton of tomatoes (the love of my life), and a bunch of good cheese. The product was amazing. I am never able to wait for it to be cool, so I did end up burning my mouth a bit. I have a very sensitive mouth.

The juiciness from the tomatoes and zucchini really came through and made the quiche totally fresh tasting. It held up beautifully and was cooked to perfection. This was my first attempt at a quiche and I was not disappointed!


Sometimes I really frustrated myself. I cannot for the life of me find where I got this recipe from. This kills me. I do this way too often, and even after taking the time to try and hunt it down again, I just can't seem to find it. Grrrrrrr! Here are some things I remember being in the recipe, however. This is very lame of me to do, so please don't hold it against me!

Crust-less Zucchini and Tomato Quiche

3 cups zucchini
1 cup chopped tomato
1/2 chopped onion
2 cups shredded cheese
eggs
salt
milk

Ugh. That's all I got=( I'll be back soon hopefully!

Cauliflower Pizza

In trying to keep with making more home cooked dinners, my mom and I bought a head of cauliflower and told ourselves we'd make something with it. A cauliflower casserole pie thing was planning, but then laziness set in. The usual. But, after it sat in our fridge for a week, I did some major cleaning out of our fridge and managed to come up with something pretty neat!


I had a ton of leftover dough from when I made pretzels. I didn't nearly use the whole batch and I didn't plan on making anymore, if you can remember. So I had some dough to pitch, or find some use for. Then, I had a whole head of cauliflower and a block of Swiss cheese. Ok, at this point you can see where my mind went. PIZZA. When I told my mom I was interested in making cauliflower pizza see thought it was wacky but was definitely willing to try. I believe I've heard of cauliflower pizza before so I didn't think it was too crazy. And, since we were planning to not have a red sauce, my dad would actually eat it! Yay!


The first step was to wash and roast the cauliflower. I just did a simple drizzle of EVOO and some salt and pepper over top. Maybe for 15 mins at 350? It could vary. Whenever it looks slightly roasted and not burnt, take it out. Then, I spread my dough in a round cake pan. I have been wanting to try pan pizzas for a long time now, so this was my attempt=) I then spread garlic over the dough and added my cauliflower to it. Add tomatoes and cheeses, and you're done! This was so easy and extremely delish.


The taste was great. It made it even more satisfying knowing I did it myself. I loved the pan pizza effect. Fluffy, but tasty and still enough of a cooked outside and middle. The cauliflower acted like the meat of the pizza. It was a real star. And I love tomatoes so I was glad they made an appearance. The Swiss cheese as well was an interesting piece and it definitely added some fun taste to the pizza. This recipe is definitely a keeper in my family!


Cauliflower Pan Pizza
by: Me!

(The amounts for these components can all really vary. Just be creative and use your own judgment. Don't like tomatoes? Leave them out! Want more cauliflower? Go for it! Just have fun with it!)

Cauliflower pieces
Garlic
Swiss cheese
Parmesan cheese
Diced tomatoes
Pizza dough (or leftover bagel dough hehe)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Press pizza dough into the bottom of a round pan. Spread some garlic over the dough. Sprinkle and lightly press in the cauliflower. Sprinkle diced tomatoes over the cauliflower layer. Add Swiss and Parmesan to the top to your liking.

Cook for 18 minutes, or whenever it looks ready! Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes and enjoy!

White Chicken Enchiladas & Spinach and Artichoke Macaroni and Cheese

As part of a new initiative to try to have more home cooked meals, my mom and I picked out three meals to make for one week. We gathered our ingredients at the store and put ourselves in the mindset that, yes, we were going to do the dang thing.

When looking for great dinner ideas, I recommend Cassie Craves. She promptly posts daily and has the most amazing breakfast, lunch, and dinner recipes. They are all doable and nothing too elaborate. Perfect for anyone's family! I admire her great dishes all the time (and drool a little), but now it was time I finally tried one! I did attempt her stick chicken drumsticks a long while back, and they were a HIT! So I knew I could trust in her other recipes;)

We actually made two of her recipes. First: White Chicken Enchiladas with Green Chile Sour Cream Sauce.

The ingredients for this recipe are so simple, but you're still creating a masterpiece of a dish. Cassie has signature enchiladas she makes from time to time and they are just adorable. I liked the looks of this one especially. It all was so easy to make and the results we amazing! I just loved this dish so much. I can't wait to try the other varieties of enchiladas she has on her blog. Check her out!

White Chicken Enchiladas with Green Chile Sour Cream Sauce
from Cassie Craves

8-10 soft taco size flour tortillas

2 cups shredded Monterey jack cheese, divided

2 cups shredded cooked chicken
3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons flour

1 can chicken broth
1 cup sour cream

1 7-ounce can diced green chiles
Cilantro for garnish, if desired

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix together 1 cup of the cheese and the chicken. Place an equal amount of the mixture into each tortilla, roll up and place seam side down into a 9 x 13-inch pan.

2. In a skillet or saucepan, melt the butter. Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Add the chicken broth, whisking until smooth. Cook over medium heat until thick and bubbly. Stir in sour cream and green chiles. Pour over the top of the enchiladas; sprinkle with remaining shredded cheese.

3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Sprinkle with cilantro, if desired.

Second: Spinach and Artichoke Macaroni and Cheese

This looked too good not to try. I love spinach and artichoke dip and this turns it into a main course. And, like Cassie mentions, it's a great way to sneak in veggies! My dad and sister actually ate this. And that's saying something. I loved the cheesey goodness and also have healthy veggies tucked.

Please excuse my lack of photos=(

Spinach and Artichoke Macaroni and Cheese
from Cassie Craves

1 pound short-cut pasta
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 cups milk
1 10-ounce box frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and drained
1 can chopped artichoke hearts in water, drained
2 cups shredded Italian cheese blend, plus additional for sprinkling on top
1 cup grated parmesan cheese, plus additional for sprinkling on top

1. Place a large pot of water over high heat to cook the pasta. When the water is boiling, salt it well and drop in the pasta. Cook to al dente, according to the package directions. Drain the pasta and reserve.

2. While the pasta is cooking, place a medium pot over medium-low heat with the olive oil and the butter. Add the onion and garlic to the pan and cook the veggies until very soft, about 10 minutes.

3. Turn the heat up to medium-high and sprinkle the flour into the pan. Cook for about 1 minute, then whisk the chicken stock into the pan, cooking for another minute. Whisk the milk into the pan and bring up to a bubble. Add the vegetables and salt and pepper to taste to the sauce and simmer until thickened, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the cheeses to the sauce and stir until melted.

4. Toss the prepared sauce with the cooked pasta and transfer to a casserole dish. Sprinkle more of the cheeses over the top and broil under low heat until the cheese has melted and the top is golden brown.

I will definitely be making more of her recipes in the future!!

Garden Zucchini Bisque

I'm so behind on my blog posting, which saddens me as I'm sure it saddens you. Lots of things are happening and I'm slowly settling into a new summer routine.

At the beginning of summer, the month of June, I kept an uber-lazy schedule. Wake up whenever (which usually was still early-ish since I'm not much of a late sleeper), watch the Ellen Degeneres Show, check Facebook, read food blogs, blog, eat (and eat and eat), bake (some days), attempt my summer reading, ... and other lazy activities followed by possible plans with friends for the evening. Nothing real structured here people.

So after the crazy spurt of vacationing in early July, I've come back with somewhat of a scheduled summer.

6:45- Wake up and sleepily get ready for volleyball
7:05- Leave house for YMCA
7:30- Volleyball practice starts
9:30- Leave YMCA for home
OR (most days as of late)
9:30- Leave YMCA to go babysit at my aunt's
10:00- If at home, watch Ellen and eat breakfast
-If babysitting, watch shows on Hulu and eat breakfast
11:00- 3:00- Blog, read blogs, Facebook, settle disputes among little cousins and their neighborhood friends, BAKE
3:00 or 4:00- Return home and relax for a bit. Read.
6:00- Plans with friends or nap time.
9:00- Read a bit and SLEEP. Waking up super early makes me especially tired.

Then throw in college visits, random Student Ambassador events (a society which I am the president of), and other stufffff.

So in spite of all this free time or lack there of, here are some unappetizing photos I took of a soup that was actually rather delicious. I would liken it to that mushroom soup you get at the beginning of your 50 course meal you receive at any Japanese steak house or place where they cook your food in front of you. However, this isn't that. It is zucchini, with a good deal of mushrooms mind you, and flavorful onions, that isn't anything over the top, but simply delicious if you happen to have extra zucchini lying around. It can be made in a snap to. It's mostly all ingredients you should have on hand anyway.


Garden Zucchini Bisque
from Land O Lakes: Treasury of Country Recipes

Ingredients:2 tbsp butter
2 c sliced zucchini (1/8' thick)
1 c mushroom (1/4' thick)
1/2 c onion chopped
1/4 c chopped parsley
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
10 3/4 oz chicken broth3/4 c whipping cream
pinch of pepper

In a 3 quart saucepan, melt 2 tbsp butter; add zucchini, mushrooms, onion, and parsley. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are crisply tender (6 to 8 mins). Meanwhile, in a 2 quart saucepan melt 3 tbsp butter over medium heat; stir in flour until smooth and bubbly (1 min). Add chicken broth; continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until soup is thickened (5 to 7 min). Stir in cream, pepper and zucchini mixture. Continue cooking until heated through (5 to 6 mins, I let mine go a little longer).

Zucchini & Onions with Mozzarella

So I'm back from vacation with a new lease on life. I've been doing some thinking and I realized I want to try to get back to cooking. At least cooking more. I have pretty much completely stopped cooking and it's pretty sad. I am obsessed with baking but it can't replace having nice home cooked meals. I need to eat a bit healthier instead of loading up on the sweets basically.

Where is this coming from? The wisest woman there is: Oprah. Haha I'm actually serious. While on vacation I read "O's Guide to Life". There were some pretty interesting stories and overall I really liked it. It is a sort of compilation of stories and articles from her magazine, with Dr. Phil and Howie Mandel making guest appearances. But there was one story I liked in particular and I wish I could find it online. It talks about this "Power of Three Technique". I know these things are really cheesy and it seems like anyone can come up with these things, but I really liked the idea of this one.

Basically, at the beginning of every month you make three changes. If you can do something for 28 days, it becomes habit. So in this way, you can develop good habits. This does seem like a tricky thing since it can even be hard to do something for a week, but it's worth a try. So I began to think of three things I would like to change for this month of July (It could probably be considered cheating since it's halfway through the month now.) So what did I decide? Keep in mind, this is kind of a personal project. I might not reveal what I change each month but I'll try and stay open with you guys.

1) Make my bed everyday- It's pretty sad that I don't do this already, but it's something simple that I can start with.

2) Eat a piece of fruit everyday- I'm really happy about this one. It's been great trying to keep this one and it has allowed me to try a ton of fruit I never had before. Like peaches. I also have been eating raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, and i just recently bought a mango which I can't wait to try. This is huge for me.

3) Make dinner during the week- This is kind of a vague one, but I didn't wan to give myself too many restrictions; that would only make it harder for me keep to it. So, whenever I can, I will make dinner more. Then I'll be able to post those recipes for you guys.

So I hoping to give this a try and see how it goes. So far so good, but I would really like to keep it going for many months and see what kinds of changes I can make to better myself. Anyway, now for my first "dinner" recipe. (Read the note at the bottom to see why dinner is in quotes)

When making this, I thought bread crumbs would be a good addition to the top to give it a bit of a crunch. I added them right at the end with a tinsy drizzle of butter over them. After having a bite, I found this was a GREAT idea and went back and added even more all over! So I put this addition into the recipe below. Also, if you'd like, bacon would be a good addition. I don't actually like bacon, but the rest of my family said they could see it in there.

Zucchini & Onions with Mozzarella

from Land O Lakes: Treasury of Country Cooking

Ingredients:

3 tbsp butter
3 c sliced zucchini (1/8 inch thick)
1 c sliced onions (1/8 inch)
1/2 tsp basil leaves
1/4 tsp oregano
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp minced fresh garlic
2 med ripe tomatoes cut into thin wedges
1 c shredded mozzarella

Handful, or four, of bread crumbs

Directions:

In a skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add remaining ingredients except tomato and cheese. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until zucchini is crisply tender (7 to 10 min). Add tomato wedges; sprinkle with cheese and bread crumbs. Cover; let stand 2 min. or until cheese is melted.

It's really that easy. This took no time to make and was really great.

Note: We had this as a main dish because no one was too hungry, but this is in no way a good main dish. It would be best served as a side, a delicious side that is.

So overall I really liked this dish and remembered why I love zucchini so much)

Pioneer Woman Pizza

I had first had this pizza at a family party at my aunt's house. I scarfed it down immediately and was in love. She told me all about her pioneer woman cookbook and that she used her recipe. So it inspired me to do it myself; make homemade pizza!

I wasn't able to work in the olive as well as I hoped, but it didn't matter in the end.

This honestly was the best homemade pizza dough ever! So so so so so so easy! I don't even have a stand mixer. All this was done by hand. I am so excited about this new recipe and will be using it all the day. It was a huge hit!

I am now a huge Pioneer Woman Fan! Anyone try her cinnamon roll recipe? It looks incredible, especially the glaze with the coffee!!!

Pioneer Woman Pizza Dough
From The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Ingredients:
4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon yeast
1/3 cup olive oil

TO MAKE THE CRUST:

Sprinkle yeast over 1 1/2 cups warm (not lukewarm) water.
In a mixer, combine flour and salt. With the mixer running on low speed (with paddle attachment), drizzle in olive oil until combined with flour. Next, pour in yeast/water mixture and mix until just combined.

Coat a separate mixing bowl with a light drizzle of olive oil, and form the dough into a ball. Toss to coat dough in olive oil, then cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and store in the fridge until you need it. ***It’s best to make the dough at least 24 hours in advance, and 3 or 4 days is even better.


For my toppings:
I had store bought pesto and smothered it all over. Maybe a little too much because it leaked over the sides, but amazingly the dough didn't get all soggy! Then slices of mozzarella cheese and tomato slices. DELISH! Also, I probably could have cooked it another minute or so, but it was still good!