My best friends and I are in a book club that we have labeled Bottles and Bestsellers. It's a pretty stellar group and I always look forward to the time spent with them drinking wine and talking about books. This week my roommate and I hosted B&B at our apartment. This time we had the pleasure of reading Bossypants by Tina Fey. It was a delightfully funny book with a lot of great discussion topics. It had been a while since each of us had read it though, due to summer being crazy, so the discussion didn't last as long as our discussion of vacations and weddings. lol.
Typically at book club we just have dessert and wine but I enjoy cooking for this group so much that I decided to make some Baked Ziti for them. We started with some caesar salad, at the ziti with some delicious rosemary garlic bread that you can get in the freezer section at HEB and finished it off with an amazing creme brulee cheesecake that was an impulse buy at Costco one Saturday. A perfect meal. :)
Here's the recipe:
Ingredients:
1 lb penne pasta
medium container of ricotta cheese
2 cups mozzarella cheese
1 jar of tomato sauce
6 links of mild sweet italian sausage (or whatever kind you prefer)
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Boil the pasta and stick the sausage in the oven on 350 until fully cooked. While you are waiting on the pasta and the sausage mix up the rest of the ingredients in a bowl. When the sausage is ready cut it up in small links so that it is spread throughout the casserole. Mix the sausage and the pasta in with the cheese and sauce mixture. Take out a 8"x16" casserole dish and spray with PAM. Spread the mixture into the dish. Place the casserole in the oven and bake for 45 minutes.
As you wait for the ziti to be done prep whatever else is involved in your meal. Once finished pair with your drink of choice and ENJOY!
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Lemon Oregano Chicken with Veggie Rice
Happy Wednesday y'all! I hope your week is going great so far and that you're relaxing with a great glass of wine (or chocolate milk like I am) and regaining some energy for the rest of the week.
So last night Michelle (my roomie) and I had our great high school friend Gerrie over for dinner to celebrate her ENGAGEMENT!! I offered to cook for them for the sole purpose of having something to post for y'all! This meal is delicious and summery and really great with a glass of champagne for a little celebration. I adapted the chicken recipe from recipegirl.com and the rice recipe from myrecipes.com
What to take our of your pantry/get at the grocery store:
1 lemon
oregano
chicken
dry rice
grape tomatoes
mushrooms
frozen corn
zucchini
olive oil
minced garlic
salt & pepper
Marinade and Chicken:
Grate the lemon rind. The recipe called for 1 Tbsp but i just grated the entire rind of 1 lemon.
To the lemon zest add a swig (about 1 Tbsp) of olive oil, a sprinkle of salt and pepper, the juice from the lemon and about 2 Tbsp oregano (I used dried). Mix that all together and coat the chicken in it. You can either do this in a bowl, on a plate or in ziploc bags. Let sit for 30 minutes. (I apologize for the lack of pictures of this step - I'm still getting the hang of this.
As you get to end of the rice-making process stick your chicken on your George Foreman and cook until no longer pink.
Rice:
Cook 2 cups of rice (I used brown) according to the directions on the box. Slice a handful of grape tomatoes in half and cut up the zucchini. If you didn't buy already sliced mushrooms go ahead and cut those up too.
Heat about 2 Tbsp olive oil in a pan on the stove. Add 3/4 cup frozen corn, the zucchini, the mushrooms and 2 Tbsp garlic to the pan. Saute for 2 minutes.
Add grape tomatoes and saute until tomatoes are slightly wilted.
...and you're done! Now you can put some chicken and rice on a plate, pour yourself a glass of your beverage of choice and enjoy!
So last night Michelle (my roomie) and I had our great high school friend Gerrie over for dinner to celebrate her ENGAGEMENT!! I offered to cook for them for the sole purpose of having something to post for y'all! This meal is delicious and summery and really great with a glass of champagne for a little celebration. I adapted the chicken recipe from recipegirl.com and the rice recipe from myrecipes.com
What to take our of your pantry/get at the grocery store:
1 lemon
oregano
chicken
dry rice
grape tomatoes
mushrooms
frozen corn
zucchini
olive oil
minced garlic
salt & pepper
Marinade and Chicken:
Grate the lemon rind. The recipe called for 1 Tbsp but i just grated the entire rind of 1 lemon.
To the lemon zest add a swig (about 1 Tbsp) of olive oil, a sprinkle of salt and pepper, the juice from the lemon and about 2 Tbsp oregano (I used dried). Mix that all together and coat the chicken in it. You can either do this in a bowl, on a plate or in ziploc bags. Let sit for 30 minutes. (I apologize for the lack of pictures of this step - I'm still getting the hang of this.
As you get to end of the rice-making process stick your chicken on your George Foreman and cook until no longer pink.
Rice:
Cook 2 cups of rice (I used brown) according to the directions on the box. Slice a handful of grape tomatoes in half and cut up the zucchini. If you didn't buy already sliced mushrooms go ahead and cut those up too.
Heat about 2 Tbsp olive oil in a pan on the stove. Add 3/4 cup frozen corn, the zucchini, the mushrooms and 2 Tbsp garlic to the pan. Saute for 2 minutes.
Add grape tomatoes and saute until tomatoes are slightly wilted.
Add rice to the veggies and stir adding salt and pepper to taste.
...and you're done! Now you can put some chicken and rice on a plate, pour yourself a glass of your beverage of choice and enjoy!
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
First Post + South Africa!!
Hey guys! Welcome to my blog. I have been thinking about doing this for a while and thought that since I just got back from South Africa there has never been a better time! The title of my blog is "The Heart of Life is Good" like one of my favorite John Mayer songs. I truly believe this phrase. The heart of my life is the Lord, travel, food and friends and plan to share all of that with you through this blog!!
For my first post, I am going to share with you about South Africa! I went for about a week and a half with my mom and my sister to celebrate my sister's graduation from Ole Miss (Hotty Toddy!). We toured Johannesburg and spent six days at two of the Ezulwini lodges near Krueger National Park. It was truly an incredibly unique experience.
Each Game Drive we went on was like an exciting scavenger hunt looking for amazing animals to watch and take pictures of. It was spectacular to see all of the animals in their natural habitat. The whole time we were there we were searching for "The Big Five" which includes leopard, lion, elephant, rhino and water buffalo. They are called this because they are the most dangerous hunted animals. As you can see in the pictures to follow...we found all of them!
We saw a ton of animals, ate some interesting food and had a really great time just relaxing and spending time together. I hope that each of y'all get to have an experience like this at least once in your life! If you want to see more pictures feel free to check out my album on facebook or just come over and hang out with me and i'll show you all 500+!
For my first post, I am going to share with you about South Africa! I went for about a week and a half with my mom and my sister to celebrate my sister's graduation from Ole Miss (Hotty Toddy!). We toured Johannesburg and spent six days at two of the Ezulwini lodges near Krueger National Park. It was truly an incredibly unique experience.
Each Game Drive we went on was like an exciting scavenger hunt looking for amazing animals to watch and take pictures of. It was spectacular to see all of the animals in their natural habitat. The whole time we were there we were searching for "The Big Five" which includes leopard, lion, elephant, rhino and water buffalo. They are called this because they are the most dangerous hunted animals. As you can see in the pictures to follow...we found all of them!
We saw a ton of animals, ate some interesting food and had a really great time just relaxing and spending time together. I hope that each of y'all get to have an experience like this at least once in your life! If you want to see more pictures feel free to check out my album on facebook or just come over and hang out with me and i'll show you all 500+!
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