Make Ahead Meals

A coworker of mine is going in for surgery tomorrow to remove some cancerous growths. I can only imagine what he is going through and I’m sure he is a mix of emotions. He is a single guy and doesn’t have much help from his family. A few of us at work have pitched in to make some meals for him since he will be off his feet for a few weeks. I thought I would share my freeze ahead meals.

Four Cheese Tortellini

• 2 (10 oz.) pkgs. refrigerated or frozen cheese tortellini, uncooked
• 28 oz. jar spaghetti sauce
• 1 cup water
• 1-1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In 3 quart glass baking dish, mix tortellini, spaghetti sauce, and water. Make sure all tortellini is coated with sauce. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Cover tightly with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Uncover and bake 10 minutes longer, until tortellini is tender. Once pasta has cooled, place in container to freeze.

Last minute preparation:

Remove pasta from the freezer. Unwrap, place into casserole dish, cover and allow to thaw overnight in the refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 350. Cook for 30 minutes. Top with the Parmesan and Mozzarella and continue to cook for another 15 minutes or until cheese is melted and pasta is heated through.

Breakfast Burritos

• 12 eggs
• 2 cups cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
• 1 cup chopped veggie trio (red, peppers, green peppers, onions)
• 1/2 cup milk
• salt & pepper to taste
• 24 medium flour tortillas OR 10 large flour tortillas
• salsa

Make-Ahead Preparation:

In a large bowl, lightly beat the eggs with the milk and salt and pepper.

Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add the egg mixture and cook, stirring constantly, being careful not to brown the eggs, until cooked through.

While the eggs are cooking, place your tortillas on a microwave-safe dish and cover with plastic wrap. Heat for 30 to 45 seconds or until tortillas are just slightly warm. (Warming the tortillas makes them more pliable. If your tortillas are already soft enough to roll, you can omit this step.)

When the eggs are cooked through, stir veggies.

Place ½ cup egg mixture into each tortilla (more if using larger tortillas); sprinkle with cheese and top with some salsa. Roll them up burrito-style.

Wrap each tortilla in tin foil, place on a large baking sheet and freeze. Once frozen through, transfer the burritos in batches to ziploc bags. Freeze for up to one month.

Last Minute Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove burritos from Ziploc bags and heat in the tin foil for 10 to 15 minutes or until heated through.

I can't take complete credit for these.  I believe I found them here.  I did adjust the pasta dish, it calls for alfredo cheese sauce, but I don't care for that and I bought four cheese tortellini, I thought there was plenty of cheese.  :)  I also thought about adding sausage or bacon to the burritos, but decided against it, maybe next time!

Photography Challenge: Orange

Orange has always been my favorite color!  When I was 2 years old, my mom wanted to have two year old pictures taken.  I insisted on an orange dress, and I have been hooked on the color ever since.  I promise I did not choose my college based on color, I'm just lucky!  I love wearing orange, my room at home is yellow and orange, I decorate my home with hues of orange and red.  I try to mix things up and I am still drawn to those colors.  One of the hardest though was my wedding.  I really wanted a fall wedding, because the colors would be perfect, but I ended up getting married in the winter.  Still that did not deter me, I was dead set on orange bridesmaid dresses!  I think the bridesmaid dresses took the cake, they were difficult to find.  But I love how they turned out.  So this week's challenge is easy!  Although I did not take some of these photos, they are some of my favorites!

Photography Challenge: Week #10

This week's challenge is hands.  I had the exact same thought LB did, since I don't have a child, I was going to use Miles as my subject.  But, since I have used Miles as my subject in most of the other challenges, I thought it would be best to choose someone else.  Check out how great LB's hand's picture turned out here.

I used my grandmother's hands for a previous post so I thought it would be best to use again. 



Pintest Inspired Diner Recipe

I pinned a recipe on Pinterest not too long ago for this soup...

1 can of Rotel

1 can of corn

1 can of black beans (drained and rinsed)

2 frozen chicken breasts

8 oz cream cheese

1 packet of dry ranch dressing

1 tablespoon cumin

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon chili powder

Put all ingredients in a crock pot and cook for 6-8 hours.

Shred chicken

I had been anxious to try it and also excited about the idea of cold enough weather to warrant making a soup.  Well, this week has definitely been cooler and I just couldn't wait any longer.  Plus, it's a crockpot meal, which are so easy!!

I ended up changing up the recipe.  I didn't have black beans, but had chili beans on hand.  I didn't have a packet of dry ranch, which I don't like much anyway.  And I didn't have a full 8 oz of cream cheese.  But, I went with what I had and I was plesently surprised with how it turned out.

Here are my ingredients:

1 can of Rotel (I used a Cilantro Lime Rotel, it's what I had)

1 can of corn

1 can of chili beans

2 frozen chicken breasts

a chuck of cream cheese (next time I would probably add a little more)

1 tablespoon garlic powder (roughly, I didn't measure)

1 tablespoon chili powder (roughly, again, I didn't measure)

Packet of Tequila Lime marinade (I used about half)

Put all ingredients in crock pot, I cooked on low for about 9 hours

Shred chicken

Mine did not come out as a soup, it was more of a stew.  I made some chicken fajita rice to go with it.  I served the stew over the rice in a bowl, it's a little less messy.  Plus I enjoyed mixing it all together.  Unfortunately I didn't take any picutres, but did take a picture of the finished dish. 

Ryan loved it and it was so easy, I will definitely be making this again.  He is even willing to eat as left overs (he hates left overs!!) it's that good!! 

Photography Challenge: Week # 9

This week's challenge is to photograph a mess.  Well, welcome to my life.  I feel like my house is constantly messy.  Even when I clean like crazy, its only a matter of time before it's cluttered again.  Coming back from vacation, it's been especially cluttered.  I really didn't want to admit it, so I chose a picture that wouldn't embarrass me the most. 

I didn't want to have to show my whole bathroom, I thought my jewelry was messy enough. It should be hanging on the stand just to the left, however I can't seem to make that happen. 

When I walked out to get on my computer I realized my dining room table is the true definition of a mess. 

Unfortunately, it has really become a catchall.  

Right now sitting on the table:

Medicine because Ryan is sick

Pots w/lids because I'm getting new pots

Cards, koozies and such from our beach trip

Bags of yarn, Halloween goodies, candy, and other random stuff from the store tonight

Binders, magazines and books

Scissors

Mason jars

Frames that I'm considering hanging

And underneath it all are place mats, napkins and candle holders that are supposed to be there. 

Needless to say, I will be cleaning my dining room table off and organizing my jewelry 

(really the whole bathroom) this weekend.

Fantasy Football

Hi my name is Katie, and I play fantasy football. There I admit it. Last year my husband so lovingly “forced” me to play fantasy football. I use the term forced, loosely. I dragged my feet, put up quite the fit and still ended up drafting a team. I was so reluctant to play that he even named my team, War Damn Eagles. I had no idea what I was doing. Really, he had two teams, mine and his to control. Maybe that was his overall goal. Well, much to my surprise, and probably everyone in the league, I WON! Shocking right!?

Well, that brings us to this year. I swore I would only play one season, there was no way I would like fantasy football. I mean, people become so intense about it. For example, last night Ryan and I were grocery shopping in Kroger. Yes, I swore I was not going to go back to Kroger again because the service was so terrible several times in a row, but there we were in the checkout line. Ryan pointed to a guy on his cell phone. We could overhear his conversation and he was getting pretty heated about someone wanting to trade Peyton Manning for one of his players. There was no way he was going to trade a QB that was fresh out of surgery for one of his starting running backs. But, as I stood there in the checkout line listening to this, I realized, I’m completely invested. I told myself that I was only playing this year because I had to defend my title. To some extent that is true. However, I have found that it is actually fun to watch your point total go up as your players do well (however, extremely frustrating when one of your players does not do well). Plus, it gives me something to do with my husband on Sunday afternoons. Right now my team is 2-0!!

My team:

QB Tom Brady, NE QB
RB Adrian Peterson, Min RB
RB/WR Peyton Hillis, Cle RB
RB/WR Percy Harvin, Min WR
RB/WR Fred Jackson, Buf RB
WR Devery Henderson, NO WR
TE Jason Witten, Dal TE
D/ST Ravens D/ST D/ST
K Josh Brown, StL K

Bench Dez Bryant, Dal WR
Bench Knowshon Moreno, Den RB
Bench LaDainian Tomlinson, NYJ RB
Bench Cam Newton, Car QB

Few things about my team, first off, I drafted Tom Brady as my QB. I think I was very lucky, last year I got stuck with Tony Romo. I didn't want him to begin with and then he got hurt. I wasn't happy, so I drafted a QB early! I also drafted Cam as my back up QB. I got a lot of grief about this one, but honestly I don't regret it a bit!! I believed in him at Auburn and I knew he would do well in the NFL.

So there you have it, I'm a fantasy football junkie. Do you play fantasy football?

Photography Challenge: Week #8

This week, with so much time on my hands, I am on time for the photo challenge.  Do you ever feel like you have so much time that you can get it done any time you want, then end up not doing it at all?  I feel like that often, maybe I'm just lazy.  But anyways, on to the challenge!

This week the challenge was Black and White.  One of the best things about the beach is waking up early to enjoy a cup of coffee on the patio while the sun comes up.  There is something so wonderful about this time over looking the water.  Everything is so calm, it recharges the soul.  So my black and white picture is my delicious cup of coffee.

And just for good measure, I took a picture of the beach, but edited it on the computer to be black and white.  

I have really enjoyed the quality time spent with my family and my husband. 

It's good for the soul to be close with family.  Plus, things will be different in a few months, my sister is pregnant and is due in April.  We will have a new baby to add to the bunch!  

Beach Vacation

We have just a few days left of our beach vacation.  The boys are off golfing this morning, so the ladies are just lounging around.  The week started off great with an Auburn win!  Ryan and I then had a very long, quiet ride down to the beach to meet my family.  We have done nothing but lounge around on the beach and it has been wonderful.  Throw in a few games of boccie ball, some snorkeling, a little reading, beautiful sunsets and that creates a little bit of heaven.

Yesterday morning we ventured out to our favorite breakfast spot, The Donut Hole.  Ryan and Wade proceed to order the "Diet" Plate.  Needless to say, nothing about it was diet, scrambled eggs, cheese, gravy, biscuits, sausage, hash browns.  They didn't eat until dinner.  We also visited our favorite dinner spot, The Back Porch, which is in Destin, right on the beach.  Wade and Ryan took to The Track after dinner.  I'm not big on go carts, so I sat this one out.

Just a few shots from our trip!

Now, I'm going to go enjoy a little more sun and sand before we have to pack up to head home.

Photography Challenge: Late Again

 Photography Challenge Week 7: What I Wore Today

So the purpose of the photography challenge is to participate EVERY Thursday, well I can't seem to make that happen.  I had every intention of blogging on Thursday, but when my recipes went terribly wrong, I was in no mood to blog.  

Thursday, I wore one of my favorite outfits to work, a cute purple and cream shirt that my mom bought me for my birthday about a year ago (she has better fashion taste than I do).  But when I got home I was so focused on making my meals to take to the beach that I changed before I took any pictures.  I did happen to put on my Auburn shirt in preparation for the big game on Saturday.  Unintentionally, Ryan put his on too!  So of course, Miles had to wear his as well (I'm lame, I'm sorry)!  Naturally Ryan had his Mississippi State shorts on and had to show his true feelings for Auburn. 

Thankfully, my Auburn Tigers pulled out a close win on Saturday!  Unfortunately, that also means I have a very unhappy husband.  We are spending the week at the beach though, so hopefully that will soften the blow!

War Eagle!!