Cheeseburger Pasta

I love pasta. All kinds of pasta dishes. Especially delicious cheesy ones. This one is no exception.

I was a bit wary of using Velveeta since I had never cooked with it before. But since I always follow new recipes to a tee I trusted that it would be fine.

I found this recipe on Lauren's blog. Her blog is one of my go to blogs when I'm looking for some inspiration and I am so glad that I came across this recipe. It was mmm...mmm...good!

I did try to make this dish a bit healthier by using multi-grain pasta and ground turkey breast. This is the perfect comfort food dish to make on cold nights and snow days. And the very best part is that its a one pot dish!



Cheeseburger Pasta

• 1 lb ground turkey breast
  
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 3/4 cups water
  
• 1/3 cup ketchup
  
• 1T mustard
• 2 cups elbow mac, uncooked
  
• 4 oz reduced fat Velveeta, cubed
• salt and pepper to taste
  

Saute onions until translucent in a large skillet.

Add ground turkey breast and brown meat, drain.

Add water, ketchup, mustard, S&P and mix well.

Bring to a boil and add pasta. Simmer on med-low heat, covered, for 8-10 minutes (until pasta tender).

Stir in Velveeta and cook until melted, stirring occasionally.

Halloween Party

Yesterday my girls and I went to a Halloween party at the school where Stephanie goes to open gym and Eva and I go to Mommy and Me. The party was for the kids in the pre-k program but the teachers are fond of my girls so they were invited to join in on the festivities.

Cute pumpkin


Pretty Fairy


As usual my kids ignored me when I tried to take a picture of them together : /


A rare picture of me with my babies

Took the plunge...sort of

I needed a new cell phone since Eva banged mine on the table a couple of weeks ago and since then it's been freezing up and turning itself off. I've always wanted a smart phone but didn't need one. It seemed like a waste of money and couldn't justify the extra cost.

I was browsing through Verizon's website checking out the cell phones when I saw this.



It screamed out to me and I caved. It's the Blackberry Curve 3G9330 smartphone in fuchsia. Is it the latest and greatest model? Probably not considering the promotional price. Does it have a fancy shmancy touch screen? Absolutely not. I hate touch screens. Is it the fastest? Who the heck knows? But it's pink and I love it!

And it's mine.

My 100th Post!

For my 100th post I thought that I'd share an email that my mother sent me with some interesting facts and helpful hints.

Do you do any of the following?

DID YOU KNOW?

Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to
pick the little 'stringy things' off of it. That's how the primates do it.

Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store.
If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil.
It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!

Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating.
Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef.
It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.

To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of
spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.

For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints
in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.

Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste
of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

Leftover snickers bars from Halloween make a delicious dessert. Simply
chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them
in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350
for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream. Yummm!

Reheat Pizza
Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low
and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on
the cooking channel and it really works.

Easy Deviled Eggs
Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.

Expanding Frosting
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer
for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes
with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.

Reheating refrigerated bread
To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in
a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food
moist and help it reheat faster.

Newspaper weeds away
Start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers,
put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and for-
get about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not
get through wet newspapers.

Broken Glass
Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.

No More Mosquitoes
Place a dryer sheet in your pocket.
It will keep the mosquitoes away.

Squirrel Away!
To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper.
The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.

Flexible vacuum
To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel
roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in nar-
row openings.

Reducing Static Cling
Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt
or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose.
Place pin in seam of slacks and ... ta da! ... static is gone.

Measuring Cups
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water.
Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such
as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

Foggy Windshield?
Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of
your car . When the window s fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!

Reopening envelope
If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside,
just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals
easily.

Conditioner
Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and
leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you
bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair.

Goodbye Fruit Flies
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2' with Apple Cider Vinegar
and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the
cup and gone forever!

Get Rid of Ants
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' can't
digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works
and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS
The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around the
house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the
dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. (I always clean the lint from the fil-
ter after every load clothes.) He told us that he wanted to show us something; he
took the filter over to the sink and ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a
mesh material ... I'm sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like. Well ...
the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn't go through it at all! He told us
that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh that's what burns out the heating unit.
You can't SEE the film, but it's there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your
clothes soft and static free ... that nice fragrance too. You know how they can feel
waxy when you take them out of the box . well this stuff builds up on your clothes
and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to potentially burn your
house down with it! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very long
time (and to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out and wash it with
hot soapy water and an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months.
He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long! How about that!?!
Learn something new everyday! I certainly didn't know dryer sheets would do that.

Banana Bread

I have finally found a recipe for banana bread that I love!!!

I have made quite a few versions in the past and they were ok but never blog worthy. Until now.

This is the perfect thing to have for breakfast or as a snack and let me tell you that it will make your house smell AMAZING. I even went outside a couple of time just so that I could open up the door to smell the bread baking in the oven.

I was browsing on allrecipes.com for a way to use up the bananas that were going to go bad if I didn't use them soon. I found this recipe for Banana Bread that had a lot of excellent reviews so I decided to give it a shot.

Oh I am so glad that I did. My rear end is not happy because I've eaten half of the loaf myself. My daughter helped me and we followed the recipe exactly as written. We all liked it so much that I don't think that I will alter the recipe at all the next time that I make it.




Banana Bread

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 5 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup margarine
• 1 cup mashed bananas
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
2. In a large bowl, cream sugar and butter or margarine. Beat the egg slightly, and mix into the creamed mixture with the bananas. Mix in sifted ingredients until just combined. Stir in milk and nuts. Spread batter into one greased and floured 9x5 inch loaf pan.
3. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) until top is brown and cracks along the top.

Fridays = Coupons!

Click here for 20% Friends & Family at JC Penney or use promo code R20PERKS. This is good for 2 days online and 1 day in store.

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Click here for coupons to Babies R Us. Click here for coupons exclusively for Rewards R Us members. Click here to save 30% on your clothing purchase.

Click here to receive 20% off of your purchase of $40 or more at OshKosh B'Gosh. Buy a jacket get a free hat!

Click here to receive 20% off of your next purchase of $40 or more at Carter's.

Enter promo code 39279 for 20% off at Payless.

As always go through Ebates to earn cash back when shopping online!

Happy Shopping!!

Sausage Tortellini Soup

I saw this recipe a few days ago on Running Mama Cooks. Kelly is a fellow Nestie who also likes to blog about simple but yummy foods.

As soon as I saw this recipe I knew that I wanted to make it. I love soups. I especially love hearty soups that are almost like a stew. This was a HUGE hit in our house and I think it will be making it again very soon and very often.

I ended up using all 6 links that came in my package and used 32 oz of chicken broth. My supermarket had a sale on apple cider this week so they were completely sold out. I used apple juice and it was fine. I also used a larger package of tortellini. I think it was 12 oz. The next time that I make this I will use more chicken broth or maybe vegetable broth.

I can't begin to tell you how AWESOME this soup was. So so good. The next time I go shopping I think I'm going to stock up on tortellini to always have it on hand to make this soup.



Sausage Tortellini Soup

• 4 links of Italian sausage
• 4 cloves of pressed garlic
• 1 onion, diced
• 1/2 cup of water
• 3 cups of chicken broth
• 1/2 cup of apple cider
• 1 can diced tomatoes, 16 oz
• 1 can tomato sauce, 8 oz
• 1 cup sliced carrots
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 2 medium zucchini, grated
• 8 - 10 oz pkg cheese tortellini
• 2 tsp dried parsley

Remove sausage from casings and crumble into a large soup pot. To remove the casings, you can use a sharp knife to cut a slit down one side of the sausage and then peel back the casing.

Brown sausage over medium heat, stirring frequently. I use a potato masher to break up the sausage quicker. Drain fat if necessary. Meanwhile, chop onions and garlic and add to the sausage. Continue cooking until onions are translucent and your sausage is cooked.

Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, juice, water, chicken broth, carrots, oregano, and basil. Cover and simmer for 1/2 hour. Add parsley and zucchini and simmer for another 15 minutes or so.

Add the tortellini and cook until tender, and then serve with grated Asiago or Parmesan.