Baked Pasta

A big bowl of pasta smothered in sauce and cheese is what this woman who was feeling cold, with a cold needed last night. So that is exactly what I made. I forgot to get a picture of the deliciousness so I snagged one off of Google images that looked like what I made! I'll try and remember not to deconstruct my food before taking a picture next time! So you say you'd like the recipe? I just so happen to have that right here:

12oz pasta (I used whole wheat rotini)
4 cups of your favorite pasta sauce (I used left over all day sauce)
1 cup mozzarella cheese, divided

1)Preheat oven 350.
2)Boil pasta according to package directions, drain.
3)Add pasta sauce and 1/2 cup of the cheese. Mix well and place in an 8x11 baking pan (that is what I had on hand)
4) top with remaining cheese. Cover with foil.
5) bake for 20 min. Remove the foil and bake for another 10 min or until cheese is lightly browned.
6) Let stand 10 min, then cut, serve and enjoy!

This can be doubled with one pan frozen and cooked later! Do steps 2-4. When you plan on baking it, preheat oven to 350 and bake for 50 min then remove the foil and bake for an additional 10. Let stand for 10 min before serving.

Pets

I love animals. We saved a bunch of kittens (5 of them!) early this year and are down to 2 brothers. Diagonally and Princess Buttercup (don't laugh, we thought he was a girl!) are both orange and white cats. Buttercup was chosen to be ours when he was able to put up with Drake picking him up and carrying him around like a baby. Diagonally is just so pretty, that we couldn't say no. Plus they have each other to play with when we are asleep at night. Boy do they ever play when we are asleep at night!

Over the weekend we acquired a male Beta Fish thanks to my Mother in Law. The Hubs is stoked about this! He's a beautiful shade of red and I instantly thought "I need a nail polish to match him!"... anyway I ended up getting an email from The Hubs on how to care for a Beta. I thought they were just kept in covered containers because they are jumping fish and said containers were cleaned about once a week. Boy was I wrong! These little fish are much higher maintenance! So, that is the job of The Hubs. I take care of the cats, he takes care of the fish.

When we move to a place with a yard I would love to get a Labradoodle for Drake. I think a dog would be a great companion for a little boy (and his momma and daddy hehe) and would teach him a little responsibility. I hope to accomplish this by his 7th birthday. We'll see :)

Overall, pets are great to have around. They provide hours of entertainment and company. Now, if only I could keep Diagonally from plotting against the fish....

Holidays!

Starting around Halloween I get the itch to start baking and cooking for others. The weather cools (finally!) and I find myself just daydreaming about seeing happy faces and sharing my talent with others. So far I have made a Greek Pasta Salad for my husband's Halloween potluck at work, a dinner of beef stroganoff and fresh green beans with roasted red peppers for my in-laws and 2 butterfinger ice cream pies. This phase doesn't end until Easter.

I love the holidays! 

Brandyisms: Vacation Planning

I love to go out of town on mini-vacations. I reeeeaaaallly love it. I also love to plan the vacation. So much so, that I over plan. I like to get the most out of each trip and often forget that just relaxing can be a very important part of said vacation.

The hubby and I have a mini-vacation planned for this weekend in Las Vegas to celebrate our anniversary. The plan started out looking a little something like this:

7:30am Leave home
10am: Drop Drake off @ Auntie's
12pm: Lunch
3pm: Arrive @ Hotel
4pm: Early dinner via Room Service (which takes an hour to deliver)
6pm: Get ready for Clubbing
8pm: Drive to Club
12am: Leave club
12:30am: Gamble @ Hotel
2am: Back to room for sleep
7am: Buffet at the hotel for brunch
etc etc
Every second was planned out. Hubby looks at the list and asks if I plan on scheduling in the time for restroom breaks and just plain old fun.  Oops! So now, we have loose plans. We might go to the club and order room service, then again we might not. Who cares. It's a vacation!

Brandyisms: Ironing

I love ironing. I love it so much that even though I do not have to, I do it almost every day. I even do it on vacation.

I have a ritual when it comes to ironing. I pull out my board and smooth down the fabric. I then untwist the cord for the iron, fill it with fresh filtered water and a splash of linen spray then plug it in and set it for the proper temperature. Then the fun part: I iron the clothing for the day. Most often it is just my husband's work clothing and maybe a shirt of mine and my son's. It takes a mere 5-10 minutes of my day but it's enough to center myself for the rest of that day.

You see, I use the time I spend ironing to meditate. With each pass of the iron over the clothing I envision any anger, frustration and doubt coming out with the wrinkles. I breathe deeply and concentrate on nothing but the wrinkles in the clothing and in my head and heart coming out.Sometimes I can work out only one issue. Other times it seems as though I am working out as many issues as I am wrinkles.

As I lay out the clothing for the day, I usually find myself smiling and feeling much better. As I put away my iron and board, I also put away negative feelings for the day. They can be worked out tomorrow, just like the wrinkles in the clothes.

New Segment!

I've decided to start a new segment on my blog. I am going to call it Brandyisms. Every Wednesday, I'm going to make a point to post one of my random thoughts on life.  They are often quirky and sometimes utterly ridiculous; mostly optimistic with a dose of realistic and a smidgen idealistic. Letting people step inside my head for a little bit should be fun. Just don't be too loud while you're in there, I don't want to start complaining about the voices in my head!

The Gym: The Wonder Drug

Since I started working out on Friday, I've noticed a few things. I've had more energy, I'm sleeping better, I'm in a better mood and I've not noticed some stuff too.

You may be asking yourself, what does that mean?

Here is what that means: In the short amount of time since I've started working out and the small amount of time I put in (30 min a day 6 days a week)  I've managed to do away with most of the symptoms of PMDD. For those of you who do not know what that is, it's an extreme version of PMS. The only "cure" for it is birth control pills and I happen to be allergic. So nearly every month I would get extreme hunger that caused binge eating, migraines, digestion issues, fatigue, mood swings, and flu like symptoms that includes a fever and body aches. I had 10 days of dealing with that before my period even started and that is a whole different issue on it's own.

This month however, I was surprised by my period. I had almost no symptoms. I craved chocolate over the weekend and had a mild headache 2 days before. That was it. That was all. I wasn't crawling into bed the day before with what felt like the flu. I wasn't eating so much the week before that my stomach would become hard to the touch, I didn't cry and then get angry at the drop of a hat and I wasn't falling asleep whenever I sat still. This is amazing to me. This makes getting up at 4:45 am completely worth it on it's own.

It's like my body is thanking me. I like that feeling. I'm going to keep that feeling going as long as I can. Weightless takes a back seat to this. Now, it's just a side effect and that my friends is something worth writing about.