::Italian Pasta & Beef Bake::

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups uncooked penne pasta (6 oz) – Any shape is fine

½ lb lean (at least 80%) ground beef

1 can (15 oz) Italian-style tomato sauce

1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregano, undrained

1 jar (4.5 oz) sliced mushrooms, drained

½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese (2 oz)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350ºF. Spray 8-inch square (2-quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray. Cook and drain pasta as directed on package.

2. Meanwhile, in 12-inch nonstick skillet, cook beef over medium-high heat 5 to 7 minutes, stirring frequently, until thoroughly cooked; drain. Stir in tomato sauce, tomatoes and mushrooms. Heat to boiling. Remove from heat; pour into baking dish.

3. Add cooked pasta; stir gently to mix. Spray sheet of foil with cooking spray; place sprayed side down on baking dish, and seal tightly.

4. Bake 15 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle with cheese. Bake uncovered 5 to 10 minutes longer or until casserole is bubbly and cheese is melted.

I serve this with a side salad (usually Caesar) and some garlic bread. It makes a pretty rounded meal. Just another way to satisfy the spaghetti craving without the rut of plain old spaghetti each time. On occasion, I use bulk sausage instead of hamburger. It kind of depends on what’s on sale.

=Water Colors=

McKayla loves to paint...with any type of paint. The downfall, is that she can use up an entire strip of watercolors in less than a week. This can get pretty costly. I buy a few during "back to school" season, and put a few in her craft bin. We also save a few to give as gifts with some paper and brushes to friends. Since it's starting to get a little cooler and outside time is getting limited, I started coming up with ways for her to play indoors and not drive me crazy. This is quick, easy, and cost effective enough for her to use for hours.

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp whiet vinegar

1 Tbsp baking soda

4 Tbsp corn starch

1 Tbsp corn syrup

Food Coloring

Directions:

Mix together the vinegar and baking soda. When it stops foaming, add enough food coloring to make it as dark as you want. Add the corn starch and corn syrup and mix well. Store in small containers.

::Chocolate Chip Cookies::

I'm pretty sure I've tried just about every chocolate chip cookie recipe I've ever come across and none of them have ever really worked for me! I don't know what it is. I can bake almost anything else with minimal failure. However, chocolate chip cookies (which should be the simplest things) seem to elude me. Until...I came across this AMAZING recipe. The cookies come out incredibly soft and have a lot of give. Pretty much, it takes a lot of effort (even for me) to screw these up!

Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 cups butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 (3.4 oz) pkgs instant pudding mix*
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips*
2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)*

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Sift together flour and baking soda, set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until well blended. Stir in eggs & vanilla. Blend in flour mixture. Finally, stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by rounded spoonfuls* onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Edges should be golden brown.

Using the 1 Tbsp cookie scoop this yeilds about 10 dozen cookies! Great for parties or cookie exchanges.

*My Hints*
*You can use any flavor of pudding mix for the recipe. Try changing it up, but I almost always use sugar-free vanilla. Some have suggested chocolate, which sounds fine to me!
*Not many people I know like the taste of semi-sweet chocolate chips. I like them fine in this recipe, however, to switch up the pace a little, I will sometimes substitute with M&Ms.
*Also, I think 4 cups is a little excessive. I add my desired chocolate pieces in 1/2 cup increments to the batter until it looks right to me. Usually about 3 cups for M&Ms and maybe 3 1/2 if I use chocolate chips.
*I am not a fan of nuts in cookies, I know it says "optional" but, ick.
*I almost always use a 1 Tbsp cookie scoop to make these cookies. You can use larger if you'd like or even a teaspoon, I'm not so great at that.

Oops

Yet again, I have fallen off the blogging train... I'm SO sorry! This is horrid of me. In all defense, the only time this happens is when I have an over-load of school work (just a hint to any of my professors!). I P.R.O.M.I.S.E. to post at least a few recipes tonight. I'm also taking this time to apologize that I rarely post pictures of the items. Really, I just forget to take pictures while I'm actually making a recipe. Oops. I'll try to do better, however, it does leave a certain sense of mystery as to what the finished product should look like. Ha, those cook book photos always disappoint when my item doesn't come out as stunning. HA!

PS...Welcome to any new readers that may come my way from Jessica's super adorable blog!

::Overnight Taco Fiesta Chicken Lasagna::

Ingredients:
2 cans (14 1/2 oz each) diced tomatoes with green chiles, undrained
1/2 cup thick/chunky salsa
3 cups cubed cooked chicken
1 can (16 oz) refried beans
1/2 cup sour cream
12 uncooked lasagna noodles
3 cups shredded Colby-Monterey Jack cheese (12 oz)
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/2 cup sliced ripe olives, if desired
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:
1. Spray 15x12-inch sheet of foil and 13x9-inch (3 quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray. In large bowl, mix tomatoes, salsa and chicken. In medium bowl, mix refried beans and sour cream.
2. Spread about 1 1/4 cups chicken mixture in bottom of baking dish. Top with 4 uncooked noodles, breaking to fit if necessary. Spread with half of bean mixture and 1 1/2 cups chicken mixture. Sprinkle with 1 cup of the cheese, and half each of the onions and olives.
3. Repeat noodle, bean, chicken and cheese layers once. Top with remaining 4 noodles, chicken, onions, olives and cheese, and half each of the onions and olives. (Be sure top noodles are covered.) Cover with foil; refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight.
4. Heat oven to 350ºF. Bake covered lasagna 50 minutes. Uncover baking dish; bake 18 to 22 minutes longer or until bubbly and hot. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Sprinkle with cilantro. If desired, garnish each serving with sour cream, chopped tomato and shredded lettuce.

**If you don't have cans of tomatoes with green chiles, you can substitute a 4.5 oz can of chopped green chiles and plain canned diced tomatoes.

::Chicken-Tortellini Soup::

Ingredients:
6 1/2 cups water
3 cans (10 1/2 oz each) condensed chicken broth
1 can (10 3/4 oz) condensed cream of chicken soup
2 cups cubed cooked chicken
1 cup chopped onions (2 medium)
1 cup sliced carrots (2 medium)
1/2 tsp dried basil leaves
1/2 tsp dried oregano leaves
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 pkg (7 oz) dry cheese tortellini
1 bag (9 oz) frozen cut broccoli, thawed
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, if desired

Directions:
1. In 5-quart saucepan or Dutch oven, heat all ingredients except tortellini, broccoli and cheese to boiling. Stir in tortellini. Reduce heat; simmer uncovered 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Stir in broccoli; simmer 5 to 10 minutes longer or until broccoli is crisp-tender. Sprinkle individual servings with cheese.

Pudding Paint

I love doing this, even though it drives my OCD crazy and makes me want to keep washing my child...lol. I found this idea on a pre-school site a while ago. Cleaning out our cupboards, I noticed that we had a few boxes of cook and serve pudding left over from a recipe we made. I HATE this pudding. McKayla is not much of a milk drinker, so we're always scrambling to finish a gallon of milk before it goes bad every week, this helps a little.

Prepare pudding according to package directions.

I'm not sure if instant pudding works as well, I do know that the cook and serve types actually set up a little thicker.

After the pudding has cooled, place into bowls. (Pudding is pretty cheap if you buy a store brand, about 88 cents or less-different flavors give a few different color options.)

Spread out some waxed paper and let the kids go crazy. They love it, and they can even sneak a few bites in! I usually do this after lunch.

**To keep myself a little less stressed, I look for discounts in the party section with the plastic table cloths or even plastic shower curtains or liners. I keep these stocked with the art supplies and spread them out over the floor around and under the table and chairs. This allows for the easiest clean up, I can spray it off or when it's totally trashed, I can just roll it up and throw it away. I'd rather be replacing a shower curtain liner from the dollar store than scrub my floors and carpet.

"Sand" Art

Alright, McKayla really likes being able to do sand art projects. She saw some kids this summer using spoons to funnel layers of colored sand into cute bottles. She wanted to do this soon after we got home. I looked at craft stores and found that buying colored sand can be a little ridiculous. I did a little research and figured out a great way to make "sand".

Ingredients:

Table Salt

Colored Chalk

Directions:

Take a small amount of salt and pour it onto a paper plate. Using your desired color of chalk, "color" over the salt. This will break down the chalk and start adding color into the salt. If you find that you've gotten a little carried away with the chalk, you can mix in a little more salt.

You can adjust the amounts of salt and chalk to your liking, there's no real recipe so much.

After mixing salt to your desired amount, you can store in either squeeze bottles (such as the picnic table mustard or ketchup bottles) or, I use small plastic containers with lids.

Kids can now use their "sand" to fill small plastic or glass jars using a funnel and spooning in the salt (be sure to squeeze in a little hot glue to stabilize and take up some room in the bottle, then super glue the lid on-this will prevent mixing). Using the small containers also allows for the kids to sprinkle the sand over glue for art projects.

Have fun! This has a very long shelf life and can be stored for quite a while.

**Since no one is eating this salt, it is fine to use the cheapest salt in your grocery store. I buy the bigger containers and mix about 1/4 cup of salt for each color.

**Watch your dollar stores, you can frequently get a package of 12 pieces of sidewalk chalk for a dollar. If you're at WalMart - it's 88 cents! I raid our box of sidewalk chalk and use up all the broken and small pieces first.

Our Next Project - PLEASE Participate

I love to be able to help out whenever I'm able to. I know that with rough times it can be a little hard to give. Here is a really great cause. I've never experienced the tragedy of having a still born baby or even spending time in the NICU, but several people I know have. This is a quick and easy project and great for teaching kids about providing for others. Spread the word, just a couple of blankets from each person could make a huge difference.

http://kari-youcanmakeit.blogspot.com/2009/09/calling-all-crafters-i-need-your-help.html

(She has a link on this page to the original project page.)

Recipe Break

Alright, so as much as I love baking and cooking up new recipes, I decided everyone (mostly myself) is probably sick of the random recipe postings I've been doing. I think, starting next week, I will post 2-3 recipes by "theme". This may vary depending on my moods, I'm sure. There are a few blogs/websites that I seem to read religiously. These have given me the brilliant idea to share a few tips that we use around our house to make things a little easier and stress-free. I learned a long time ago that you need to pick your battles, especially with children. These tricks help A LOT with keeping my sanity mostly...especially since I'm pretty OCD about certain things. I'll try to keep each "Tip Posting" to a minimum. I can't keep coming up with tricks that often!

::TIPS::

1. If you use the foam hand soaps, save the pumps and reuse them for things like children's body wash. Do this by refilling the pump a third of the way full with your favorite body wash and fill the remaining with water. Shake it up a little and you have foam soap. You can also do this wish your favorite hand soap or dish soap.

2. Hair detangler is a MUST around our house, to cut down on the cost, you can fill your own bottle with 1 part conditioner to 10 parts water. Mix well and pour into your spray bottle. This is great and you can use the same conditioner that you wash their hair with, so you don't get that mix of "smell" in their hair from using 2 different products - yes, I hate that.

3. Use a mesh laundry bag to store bath toys. It can be hung in the tub and the holes in the mesh allow for drainage. I purchased 3 lingerie mesh bags (the ones with zippers) at a local dollar store. Keeping different toys in each one allows McKayla to sort as well as making it easy for me to switch out every now and then.

4. It sounds stupid, but WASH your shower curtain liner and any bath toys together. I put them in my dishwasher on a low cycle. This will increase the lifespan of your liner and toys as well as eliminating bacteria.

5. Also, put brushes and combs in side of a pillow case-after removing any excess hair (I purchased a separate pillow case just for this purpose on a clearance rack for 25 cents) and wash in your washing machine. Wash on a delicate cycle-I found this out the hard way, without soap. This removes a lot of things that can build up on your hair accessories. Headbands, non metal hair clips, etc can be treated the same way. This is great if someone in your household has had lice and you don't want to purchase all new items. Just wash on warm to hot water.

6. Right now, we have linoleum flooring in our bathroom. Now that McKayla is older, she likes to be a little more independent about getting herself out of the tub. To reduce mess, I place a towel on the floor for her to stand on, we plan on putting in tile soon, so I realized that slippage may be an issue. I found that either a piece of the foamy-time shelf liner or a tub mat (the kind you put on the bottom of the tub as to not slip) underneath the towel does wonders!

So, 6 tips today sounds pretty good. I'll try to keep them all pretty "theme" related as well. That way, it doesn't seem like I'm random all the time. Sorry, I just put things down as they come to my mind...which can be a little weird for others to justify. If you have any tips, I'd be glad to hear them! You can keep to topic or post anything you like, I'd be glad to also mention any tips in future posts as well!

Happy Bathing!

::Peanut Butter 'n' Jelly Muffins::

Often, we are running behind schedule with getting out the door in the morning...for those of you that know me, this is no real surprise. McKayla's preschool does serve breakfast, however, my child thinks she needs to eat about once every hour. Mind you, she's 4 and only weighs in at about 32lbs. Doctors are not concerned about her weight, and tell me to feed her as often as she is hungry. Apparently, they have no idea that she may eat meals like a bird, but she can eat snacks ALL day! I ran across this recipe quite a while ago, and it's great for her to grab on her own for breakfast or as a quick snack when she gets home from school or after playing outside. They travel great and we often take them to parks or the zoo. Feel free to switch up the filling with anything your child might really love. Plain strawberry usually does the trick for us though.

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup thawed apple juice concentrate
1/2 cup reduced-fat chunky peanut butter
1/4 cup fat free milk
3 tbsp butter, melted
1/3 cup 100% strawberry spreadable fruit

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Combine the eggs, apple juice concentrate, peanut butter, milk and butter; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.
Coat 12 muffin cups with cooking spray (we use cupcake liners). Spoon half of the batter into cups. Spoon about 1 1/4 tsp spreadable fruit into the center of each; top with remaining batter.
Bake at 350ºF for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into muffin comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

Yields 1 dozen.

::Chocolate Chip Cookies::

I have been on a quest for a while to come up with a really great chocolate chip cookie recipe. I know, this should be one of the first things I was ever allowed to bake. Here's the thing, I can get almost any other thing to turn out, but chocolate chip cookies continue to elude me. No matter what I do, something always goes wrong with them. Just as I was about to give up for good, I decided to try one more time...here's the recipe I used, which, in case you're wondering, turned out AMAZING! My ultimate aim to have cookies turn out like the type from Subway (best way for me to explain it).

Ingredients:
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 cups butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 (3.4 oz) packages instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until well blended. Stir in eggs and vanilla. Blend in flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by rounded spoonfulls (I use a 1 tbsp cookie scoop) onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in preheated oven. Edges should be golden brown.

These will look a little pale when you take them out. Touching them lightly should make an indent, but should slightly puff back out. The note from the author of the recipe states that you can use any flavor of pudding. I tried this with a regular vanilla, but sugar free. They turned out amazing for me. They stayed soft for over a week in a Tupperware container. They were great with semi-sweet chocolate chips, I didn't try them with anything else. Of course, I'm not a huge fan of nuts, so I left them out. We plan on making this recipe again with half M & Ms and chocolate chips...sounds yummy to me! These are pale enough that you could actually add food coloring to them.

::Chicken Cordon Bleu Bake::

I absolutely LOVE this recipe. McKayla will eat everything on her plate whenever this is on the menu.
The recipe does seem pretty large, that's because it actually makes 2 full casserole pans. This is the BEST part. I usually make this at least once a month. First, some great ideas to do with the extra pan of food!
-Freeze the second pan to use on a day you might not have time for a healthy dinner.
-For a smaller family (this makes a LOT), you can actually divide this between 4 square pans.
-I make one full 13x9 pan and 2 square pans, this way, we can use the small ones and have a large one anytime there's extra people around.
-Give the second one away. We take meals to people that have recently had a baby or some sort of illness that may be keeping them from spending time in the kitchen and eating meals.
-Also great if you're having a large family get together, one recipe will feed quite a crowd.


Ingredients:
2 packages (6 oz each) reduced-sodium stuffing mix
1 can (10-3/4 oz) condensed cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1 cup milk
8 cups cubed cooked chicken
1/2 tsp pepper
3/4 lb sliced deli ham, cut into 1-inch strips (to save time, I use the pre-packaged cubed ham from the deli section)
1 cup (4 oz) shredded Swiss cheese
3 cups (12 oz) shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:
Prepare stuffing mixes according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine soup and milk; set aside. Divide chicken between between 2 greased 13x9 baking dishes. Sprinkle with pepper. Layer with ham, Swiss cheese, 1 cup cheddar cheese, soup mixture, and stuffing. Sprinkle with remaining cheddar cheese.
Cover and freeze one one casserole for up to 3 months. Cover and bake the remaining casserole at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes. Uncover; bake 10-15 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.

To Use Frozen Casserole:
Thaw in the refrigerator overnight. Remove from refrigerator 30 minutes before baking. Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes. Uncover; bake 10-15 longer until heating through and cheese is melted.

Recipes!

I know...I promised to do some major blogging with some great recipes, I bet most of you thought I totally forgot! Well, I didn't. I just had to find enough quiet time to get them on the blog and it took a while to sort through my hundreds upon hundreds of recipes to pick the ones I'll share this time. Hope you're ready cuz here. we. go...