Friday, July 29, 2011

Recipe Friday!

I've been a total slacker...I promise to get better at posting these!
This post is not only a Friday's Recipes post but a cooking with Heather and Tiffany Post as well. This is WAY over due but we cooked together all week in June on our vacation! It was a blast! Here are some of the yummy things we ate on vacation at the cabin!



Baked Ziti

Ingredients

  • 1 pound dry ziti pasta
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 pound lean ground beef
  • 2 (26 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce
  • 6 ounces provolone cheese, sliced
  • 1 1/2 cups sour cream
  • 6 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
  • 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

  1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add ziti pasta, and cook until al dente, about 8 minutes; drain.
  2. In a large skillet, brown onion and ground beef over medium heat. Add spaghetti sauce, and simmer 15 minutes.
  3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter a 9x13 inch baking dish. Layer as follows: 1/2 of the ziti, Provolone cheese, sour cream, 1/2 sauce mixture, remaining ziti, mozzarella cheese and remaining sauce mixture. Top with grated Parmesan cheese.
  4. Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cheeses are melted.                                                                                             The best dessert EVER. Inspiration: Pinterest!






Cookie Dough
Oreos
Brownie Mix

Directions: Mix brownie mixture according to box. 1st layer: cookie dough. 2nd layer: Oreos. 3rd layer: brownie batter. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes (check, if done...you know what to do, if not, give it about 5 more minutes)





Oven Baked Blueberry Strawberry French Toast
 Ingredients:
2 (8 oz.) packages of cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 c. Sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 Large Eggs
1 1/2 c. milk
10 slices of french bread (we improvised)
2 c. blueberries (we used strawberries)
Maple syrup, for serving

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 F, and lightly grease a 9x13 in baking dish
Beat the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon in a large bowl, with a stand mixer on medium speed, until well blended. (We just had to do it by hand because there wasn't one in the cabin.)
Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the milk, and mix well.
Arrange the bread in the prepared baking dish, and spread the blueberries (strawberries) on top of the bread. Pour the cream cheese mixture over the bread. Let stand for at least 15 minutes before baking (or cover pan and place it in the refrigerator overnight, that's what we did). Bake for 40-45 minutes, until golden brown.

This was interesting. I think we needed to cook ours a little longer but it's definitely worth making again!

We made lots of other things like, chicken fried rice, chicken quesadillas, hot dogs and burgers, steak, potatoes and sauteed onions and peppers and of course S'MORES!


Happy FRIDAY!!!

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Our Master Bedroom

The long wait is over, my friends! I come to you with our before and after pictures. (Well at least what we've done so far.)

This is what it looked like before I lived here. Derek's Master Bedroom. The queen sized bed that was terrible for our first few months of marriage. (He slept in the middle before we were married, therefore there was a big slope which we both would fall into every night.)

Then we got a king sized memory foam bed. No box springs, just the mattress. We were hoping to get a platform bed. Well I don't have any pics of that because we slept on the floor for well over a year. We wanted to save for the bed and we had other things that we needed more. 

Well we got our bed this spring. FINALLY! (After begging for a long time) 
AND what you've all be waiting for.....

Our queen size duvet cover works great without the comforter in it for our bed. I love the blue wall and my new curtains. We use to just have an ugly white roll room darkening shade. Now it looks more like a nice bedroom!

What is still left to be done: Hang wedding pictures above the bed (need frames and to print 8x10's), Lamps (have the lamp shades), need a chest of drawers and night stands, would like to put a full length mirror to the right of the window on the wall and some wall art on the wall left of the bed that you can't see. But for now, I'm totally content and happy!

Happy Thursday...I'm off to a follow up at my doc for my face (getting much better), working on a school standards project with best teacher friend :), and then off to the dermatologist so they can fix my poor broken out face!

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

WILW and Oh how Pinteresting :)

Hey Ya'll! First off, my face is getting better! I go for a follow up with my doc and then to a dermatologist tomorrow. The ginormous knot on my face is shrinking!! HOORAY! And it doesn't hurt as bad, guess those strong 4 pills a day antibiotics are doing the trick! I'm linking up with Jamie again to share what I'm loving!!

I'm LOVING..that my face is getting better...I'm not loving that I've had to wear my glasses since Sunday because my eye was swollen...at least they are pretty cute glasses, I just prefer contacts.

I'm LOVING that I've been finding some great deals lately! I got these cute boots from Goodwill for $1.99.
I also went to the Lebanon outlets with Lindsey and Addy. I got some nike running dri fit tight capris, which I've been needing forever...had a giftcard with 8 bucks left on it and only paid $13 for the capris. I also scored a cute 3 quarter length sleeve dress from Banana Republic Factory store for 5 DOLLARS!!

I'm Loving that our room is painted and our curtins are hung! I PROMISE to post pics tomorrow. I only have crappy iphone pics, I need to take some with my schweet camera!

I'm LOVING that I got to bake with a little girl from my class and her mom last week! We made homemade auntie anne's pretzels and 'smores bars..courtesy of my pinterest obession..

I'm LOVING that me and my girls are taking a day road trip down to ATLANTA on Saturday! We are hitting up IKEA (which I've never been before) and Trader Joe's and out to dinner.

I'm LOVING my sweet husband, family and friends!


On to PINTEREST!

I'm linking up with Michelle for Pinterest Wednesdays!

Two weeks ago I featured some of my favorites in my Teaching Board. Last week, I featured fav's from my Running Board. It would only be fitting to post some from my LOVE board this week! So here ya go: LOVE
I'm originally from WV, so I loved this necklace!
I love this idea and want to do this in my closet someday when I have a HUGE closet!
I love the show, The Big Bang Theory. I can't wait until it comes back on!
I LOVE fun fingernails and toe nails! 
I LOVE living in Nashville, TN :)
I love this bathing suit and hat!

Follow Me on Pinterest

Monday, July 25, 2011

Another giveaway...Back to School Bonanza!

Check out Erica Bohrer's giveaway! This is what you could win:

1. Deanna Jump's Back to School Math and Literacy Fun
2. Donna of Kinderglynn's Amazing Complete Word Work Centers and Small Group Instruction



3. Anna Brantley of Crazy for First's Back to School Math and Literacy Centers



 

5. Amanda of One Extra Degree's Sub Tub



6. Miss Kindergarten's Calendar Pack

7. A Teacher's Plan Pre-Made Lesson Template from Ms. M.

8.  Yvonne of Sassy in Second's Football Number Bonds Tiered Math Tub
9. Melissa Freshwater's Monster Mash Math and Literacy Fun


10. Barbara Kilburn's Back to School Math and Literacy Activities
11. Cheryl of Primary Graffiti's Celebrating Yummy Birthdays


12. Michelle of Fabulous in First's Back to School Beginning Sound Sort and Back to School Word Work
WOW, all this might get me back into school mode! Go on over to Erica's Blog and enter her giveaway!

An awesome giveaway at Fun in First Grade

Hey Ya'll, Jodi is having an awesome giveaway because she made it to 1,000 followers! You get 11 units from different teachers from their Teachers pay Teachers stores. It is going to be awesome and I hope I win but in case you would like to enter...hop on over to Fun in First Grade and enter to win!

Fun in First


Sunday, July 24, 2011

It's been quite a day...

Well instead of going to church...we visited the ER. I noticed on Friday that I had a place on my face. I thought it might have been an under the skin pimple (gross I know, but the kind that really hurts), Well it kept swelling Saturday and was VERY painful! I told hubs that if it swells any more, that we were going to go to the walk in clinic in the morning. Well I woke up and my eye was swollen. We made the trip to the ER, waited an hour in the waiting room, was taken back, the doc looked at it and poked at it (I almost CRIED it hurt so bad), they hooked me up to IV antibiotics, and I waited....I had a CT scan done in case they needed to release some gross stuff and let me tell you...CT scans are so bizarre. They had to shoot up this die into my IV so that they could see the veins and blood vessels in my face. The die felt so strange. It was the weirdest feeling ever. Well we waited some more and about 5 hours total, they determined that it was just an infected place. Treated it with antibiotics 4 times a day and warm compresses every so often. We came home and I rested for a bit.


My plans were suppose to be: go to church and then come home to paint our bedroom with my friend Lindsey. Well I decided that I wasn't going to let this face issue stop me from painting, so Linds came down and we painted one wall of my bedroom! I'm so excited to reveal my new room soon to all of you! Hopefully the swelling in my face will go down soon!

For now, I'm signing off and watching the last Harry Potter with hubby so we can be ready to see the newest one in theaters on Tuesday!



Wednesday, July 20, 2011

What I'm Loving Wednesday/ Oh, How Pinteresting!

Hey Ya'll! I'm linking up again with Jamie or WILW and Michelle from The Vintage Apple for Oh, How Pinteresting Wednesdays.

I'm loving...that Kim is having a target gift card giveaway!  Go check her blog out!

I'm loving....that I had a huge success with my SIL's neighborhood garage sale this past Saturday in my findings!

I'm loving.....that I won a giveaway from Sarah over at Moske Monkey Business!


I'm loving....getting up and running/ working to my half marathon schedule! Even though it's been hot, I've really been feeling better that I'm making the effort and time to make sure I get my runs in.

I'm loving my sweet hubby, of course :)

On to PINTERESTING :)
This week I'm going to be featuring some favorites from my "Run" board! My inspiration/my fav products! I'm currently training for my 4th half marathon and some days, I need lots of motivation!

I have the hot pink one and I LOVE IT!
I love my ifitness belt as well! I use my iphone for my runkeeper app instead of a garmin and for my music when I run and I keep it in there instead of wearing an arm band. It doesn't bounce what so ever! 
Enough said.
I love my Asics Kayano 16's :)

All of my pins come from Pinterest and you can find them, here!