It's time for another edition of "It's Ok Thursdays..."

This week:
It's ok...that I successfully only wore "real" pants 3 days this week.  I LOVE leggings.

It's ok...to make a big dinner that only you end up eating.

It's ok...to go a little crazy stocking up on new clothes.

It's ok...that I could crawl into bed and go to sleep.  RIGHT.  NOW.

It's ok...that a 5 day work week feels like eternity.  (Although, there is a possibility of a delay tomorrow.  But it would actually totally screw up my whole day.)

It's ok...to celebrate the 100th day of school a day early (tomorrow) because having a celebration on a Monday is similar to cruel and unusual punishment for a teacher.

It's ok...to ask for help.  I had 5 Celebrating Home parties scheduled for February, and because of people rescheduling, I only have 2 right now.  Come check out my site: http://www.celebratinghome.com/parties/RebeccaDougherty443618 .

It's ok...to self promote!  Have you checked out my ad shop?  I'm looking for my first blog sponsor!  You can follow me on Twitter!  OR you can come like my Facebook page!

Pizza Casserole

Today, I'm moving another recipe over from my WordPress blog.  This dish is entirely of my own creation. NOT that it hasn't been done before. It has. But it's SOOOOOOOOO easy, and it's pretty quick, too. (Oh yeah, and it's also really good.)

Pizza Casserole

Ingredients

• pasta
• spaghetti sauce
• mozzerella cheese
• pepperoni

Boil pasta according to package directions.

 

I used this kind:

BUT penne, bowtie, rotini, or whatever pasta suits your fancy would certainly be fine!

 

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400 degrees, and shred the cheese.

By the way, I did not use THAT much cheese.  I would say you will probaby need 2 cups.  (It all depends on how cheesy you want your pizza casserole!

 

While the pasta continues to boil, select your sauce.

We love this sauce. Three cheese is my favorite flavor, and I thought it went well with pizza casserole. Use whatever sauce is your favorite. Francesco Rinaldi has a variety of flavors and can be found at Martin's (Giant) or Weis. We like to stock up when they have them on sale 10 for $10, which means we tend to have A LOT of sauce on hand. By the way, I didn't use 2 full jars. I used one whole jar and a little less than half of the second. I love sauce, so does Hubby. You may want less. Just be warned that not using enough sauce could cause your pizza casserole to dry out!

 

Put pasta into the baking dish and mix with the sauce and cheese. I then added pepperoni, more sauce, and more shredded cheese and mixed it up. Before putting it in the oven, I covered the top layer with cheese.

 

Bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees.

And this is your pizza casserole.

Delicious.

You can thank me later.

Dinner Time Tuesday 2/5

Here we are again.  It's time for Dinner Time Tuesday.  Today, I made Chicken Parmesan. I bake the chicken strips we buy at Sam's Club, throw it on top of some sort of pasta (which was spaghetti today), and sprinkle it with Parmesan cheese. 

This is super easy, and it's sort of quick.  The chicken strips bake for 40 minutes.  Other than that, it's just about throwing it together. 

Anything good on your dinner table today?

(OOOhhhh...and do you like my signature??  I learned how to make one, thanks to Ashley!)

It's time for another Fashion Edition of "MY Harry Potter Fix".  Ashley, Tarole, Kim, Erinn, & Logan are doing a great job with this link-up!

Professor McGonagall by rebeckann featuring leather boots

 

Bellatrix by rebeckann featuring an orly nail polish

 

I had a lot of fun making these outfits!  Professor McGonagall is one of my favorite characters, and Bellatrix is one of the ones I like to hate the most, after Umbridge, of course.

This week's Sunday Social questions are in the form of twos. 

1. If you were stuck on an island what are the two material items you would want to have?
    I would need my phone and a book.

2. What are two TV shows you’d watch over and over?
     There are a lot.  But to just name two....I can watch NCIS over and over.  This is convenient because USA usually has a marathon running.  I find this strange because I don't like to watch many of my crime dramas repeatedly, but this one, I can't resist.  Glee is my other repetitive watching show.  I can literally finish an episode and watch it again.  LOVE it.

 

 

 

 

3. If your house was on fire what two things aside from family, pets, etc would you grab?



    I would grab my blankie (my baby blanket that I still sleep with) and as many photo albums as I could get my hands on!

 

4. What are your two most favorite articles of clothing?

     Currently my leggings and this sweater from Old Navy that my friend Kim also has.  (She has such great taste! ;) )

    

 5. What two movies that you saw in the past year would you recommend to us? Oh wow.  Um.  We don't GO to the movies a lot.  It's just too expensive.  We wait for them to come out on DVD or on a rare occasion we rent them On Demand.  ANYWAY...we went to see Ted in the theaters, and it's pretty hilarious.  Hmmm...I guess The Hunger Games is still within the past year.  We went to see that in April.  I definitely recommend seeing it.  I DON'T recommend seeing it immediately after reading the book.  Because you will pick it apart.  That was the mistake that we made.  After the movie we discussed that there were a lot of things that were left out simply because it would be a pretty dull movie if it was like the book with just Katniss thinking.  That translates better in book form than in movie form.

 

6. What are your two biggest guilty pleasures? Chocolate & peanut butter and TV.  The first one doesn't count as two because I eat them together.  They belong together.  They are one.  :)  I just love TV.  I could watch TV all day, every day.  Even when I'm not watching TV...like as I write this post, it's still on.

Delicious No-Bakes!

Mmmm...these sound so good right now.  So I thought I'd move this recipe over from my old blog today.

So I am possibly a little bit too excited about this recipe, but for a couple of good reasons. #1 In total, making these cookies probably took me 15 minutes. (And I really don't even think it took that long!) #2 D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S!!! I'm really happy with how they turned out. Granted, cooling takes about 45 minutes, but it's not like you have to stand in the kitchen and watch them cool. Therefore, I am all about this quick and yummy recipe! Here goes:

I found this recipe online. This is the link http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/no-bake-cookies-i/Detail.aspx, but I provide the recipe and my notes below.

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups white sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter
• 4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
• 3 cups quick-cooking oats
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, milk, butter, and cocoa.

Bring to a boil, and cook for 1 1/2 minutes. (There was a tip at the beginning of the recipe to make sure you start timing when the mixture has reached a full rolling boil. This will help you avoid over or under cooking. Over-cooking will make the cookies crumble and fall apart. Undercooking will not allow them to form correctly. The recipe didn't say whether or not to stir the mixture while it's boiling, but I was a little afraid to just let it sit! So I stirred a few times throughout the 1 1/2 min. boiling time.)

Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter, oats, and vanilla. (I added one cup of oats at a time and stirred well each time.)

 Drop by teaspoonfuls onto wax paper. Let cool until hardened.

South-of-the-Border Chicken & Pasta Skillet

Before I share today's recipe....have you liked my Facebook page yet??  How about you hop on over there and give it a quick click!  :)

This is another one of my recipes from my WordPress blog.  I actually made this for dinner yesterday, but I didn't use any chicken for a couple reasons.  1) I didn't have any chicken to use.  2) I have decided that I don't actually like the chicken in this.  I think it's just the way that I cook the chicken.  If you know how to make juicy, flavorful chicken pieces, definitely use the chicken.  If not, just skip all the stuff about chicken here. 

This recipe has a long name, but it doesn't take long to make.  It comes from a ccookbook that they were handing out at Sam's Club.  The cookbook was sponsored by Kraft. 

Ingredients

• 2 cups medium-size pasta, uncooked (I use rotini.)
• 2 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (about 1 lb.)
• 16 oz. salsa (about 2 cups)
• 10 oz. frozen corn, unthawed (about 2 cups)
• 4 oz. (1/2 8-oz pkg) cream cheese, cubed
• 1/4 tsp. ground cumin
• 1 cup Mexican style shredded cheese, divided*

*I don't measure the cheese. I just added cheese until I felt like it was enough.

1. Cook pasta as directed on package.
2. Meanwhile, cook and stir chicken in large nonstick skillet sprayed with cooking spray on medium-high heat for 6 minutes or until done.
3. Add salsa, corn, cream cheese, and cumin; simmer on medium-lo heat for 6 minutes or until corn is heated through and cream cheese in melted, stirring occasionally.
4. Drain pasta; add to skillet with half the shredded cheese. Simmer 3 minutes or until heated through.
5. Top with remaining shredded cheese; cover. Remove from heat; let stand 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

You could make this slightly healthier by using wheat pasta and low-fat or fat free cream cheese.