Mexican Mac and Cheese

Made this tonight as a last hurrah before going back on my diet Saturday. Yep, it's time. Need to go down 20 more pounds for my man's 50th birthday! Yeah, I know I'm not supposed to do it for him but for me~~~ but that's my goal and I'm sticking to it!!  So that means probably no new recipes for awhile. Back to cereal and soup nights around here! They'll survive......we're busy busy anyway! :)



Mexican Mac and Cheese

1 box prepared kradft mac and cheese
1 pound browned ground hamburger meat
1 can drained rotel

Mix and serve!!! I think you could add some extra cheese, too. I would try velveeta if I had any in the house !

Baked Pasta and JoGail's brownies

I ran across this recipe on a blog the other day and decided to reamp it to make it easier. Well actually it started the other day when grace wanted me to get a pan of pasta from Pizza Hut. I looke dit up and the internet and it was cheap enough....then I went to the mutrition guide and nearly died! She did, too!!! So we stuck with hamburger helper that night and I decided to try a close recipe. Yeas this has fat in it from the cheese, but not near as much as the one I was going to buy! She and decided this might be something I make when Coy has board meeting. I like, too that I can get fiber rich pasta and the girls never know! JoGail like it for the cheese.....but we will actually eat the pasta mixed with the sauce. (She usually likes naked spahetti). Plus I had a coupon for a free jar of Ragu (thank you, Brookshire's)!!! I think you couls add eat some browned hamburger meat to give it more protein, too. So here what I did.

Makes a 13x9 pan!
Baked pasta

1 box rotini pasta (I used 14.5 oz box)
1 jar pasta sauce (26 oz)
mushrooms (I had fresh already sauted up so I used that, but canned would also work. Just drain them)
1 package shredded Italian cheese blend

Prepare pasta as directed on box. Drain pasta then mix with sauce and mushrooms. Add in about 1 cup cheese blend. Pour into sprayed 13x9 pan. Spread remaining pasta on top and bake till cheese melts! (about 10 mins)

Then I decide dto give the girls a new recipe for brownies.....not sure what to call them, but I took some recipes for rocky road brownies and smores brownies and kind mixed them up. I wasn't sure if Grace would like them but I KNEW JoGail would, so they are JoGail's brownies!

JoGail's brownies
1 package brownie mix, prepared as directed and baked. As soon as you take the brownies out of the oven spread 2 cups chocolate chips on them. They should start to melt. Spread 2 cups marshmallows on top. Broil until marshmallows begin to brown.

I hae a couple mroe recipes to try this weekend while Coy is out of pocket.....if they are good I'll post them!  One is  recipe my sister found for me to try!   :)

JoGail's hat!

Add caption

JoGail had some freetime this week at school after taking a benchmark test....this is what she made....I love it! God has truly blessed her with creativity!

Finally... a new recipe

Finally! I haven't forgotten about this blog.....just been really busy with back to school stuff! Everyone's back in school and trying to get back in a routine. We're back to the so mething every night of the week routine! Grace has been so busy we haven't gotten her hair trimmed.....got is scheduled though! (Yeah it's driving her mother CRAZIER than crazy! ) We've been eating basic stuff....soup, sandwiches and (gasp) cereal. The girls are now into Honey Nut Cheerios.....adios Rice Krispies....Coy makes a concoction of about 3 cereals.....yeah....they are all healthy cereals, too! We 're going through about 2 gallons of milk a week at this point. Thank goodness I am back at work and can stop by store on my way home! So I had some chicken breasts in the fridge that I needed to cook. I decided to try honey lime chicken. Don't say ew just yet! I found alot of recipes for it on the internet. Like a ton. I didn't want all the soy sauce, etc. so I cut out some of, ok most of the stuff. I baked the whole pan hoping they would good to take in my lunch. Then I took out my deli thin bread and made a sandwich at lunch....I though I had died and gone to heaven. It was sooo good! It soo good I made another sandwich (on rye bread) for supper!

Honey Lime Chicken

1/4 c honey
3 Tablespoons Lime juice

Mix together.

1 package chicken breat

Poke holes in chicken with a fork.
Pour half honey/lime mixture.

Bake 350 25 minutes. Turn chicken and pour remaining mixture over chicken. Bake another 20 minutes or until center is no longer pink.

* Some recipes called for marinating it in the mixture for a couple hours but I didn't have time!


~Laurie

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Happpy Birthday, Daddy! Let's see if I can count some  ways I am thankful for you!

1. You love the Lord.
2. You take care of Mama.
3. You taught us that nothing is impossible....especially at midnight with a chain saw.
4. You taught us how to 'hold it' form Victoria Tx all the way to groesbeck, Tx.
5. You encouraged us to try new things, suchas restaurants we had never been in before.
6. You kept us laughing as kids and adults.
7. You accepted all our husbands, weird as they are.
8. You taught us kids its ok to be the person who hand sthe nail to the person hammering.
9. You taught us to keep in touch with our friends.
10. You encouraged us to read.....magazines and then later books.
11. You taught us how to make homemade pancakes with BAM !
12. You taught us there's always room in the budget for cookies at the store.
13. You love Mama.
14. You encouraged me to do things NOONE had ever done before. Even when it involved being around teenage boys!
15. You let me write. And provided many notebooks while I was growing up.
16. You give me the space I need to deal with things.
17. You sacrificed many unknown things for me to go to track meets, basketball games and othe rhigh shcool activities.
18. You took us swimming in a lake when we lived in Dawson.
19. You taught me how to properly mow a yard.
20. You helped me earn my own money.
21.  You went driving with me, in a cemetary, whikle I was learning to drive.
22. You bought me the brown bomb to drive.......although the way to Dry Creek one summer! (Withou ta cell phone, too)
23. You drove practically all night to come see me graduate from college.
24. You had your red bana on at my wedding....
25. You always love me, no matter what!!

I love you!!! May you have many many more!

Awesome Lemon Refrigerator Pie

OK folks, this recipe was super easy. I mean from start to finish super easy! And it's not that expensive, either! Kind of reind sme of a banana pudding!

Lemon Refrigerator Pie completely copied from
http://allaboutkaylittle.blogspot.com/2010/04/lemon-ice-box-pie.html

4 eggs
2 cans sweetened consdensed milk
1/2 c lemon juice

1 box vanilla wafers

Line  some vanilla wafers in the bottom of a pie pan. Miz the first three ingredients together in a bowl until thick. ( It will happen, keep whisking). Pour 1/2 filling on top of vanilla wafers in the pie pan. Make another layer of vanilla wafers. Pour remaining filling on top of this. Take some vanilla wafers and push half way down around the edges of the pie. Refrigerate at least one hour before serving.

~Laurie

Linked up at http://www.blessedwithgrace.net/     Tempt My tummy Tuesday

Baked sweet potatoes

While we were on vacation we ate alot of great steaks! One of the side I got was usually the baked sweet potato! Oh my they were good!!!  I got home and got to craving one, so I figured out my version of how to bake them!

2-4 sweet potatoes
pam
foil
cookie sheet

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Clean sweet potato. Spray potato with pam and wrap in foil. Bake under fork tender, about an hour to an hour and a half. Yummy!!!!

Coy loves them with real butter and a littl ebrown sugar on them.

~Laurie