::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.