Mm-mmm Good!

I've been a cooking mama-jama lately (no worries, this is sure not to last much longer)and I've got a few more recipes to share.  Last night I made a meatloaf, (without following a recipe!!) an onion casserole, red skin potatoes and corn on the cob. I made this because Austin loves meatloaf and is aaaalways wanting me to make one.  When we were eating this I asked, "you really love meatloaf that much?" He replied with, "Basically it was my birthday meal request from ages 4-9." I guess he really does love meatloaf.

Meatloaf

What you will need: 

1.5 pounds ground beef

1 large onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 eggs

1 cup (about 3/4 sleeve) Ritz crackers, crumbled

1 cup tomato sauce (1/2 into meat loaf and another 1/2 for sauce on top) 
1 tbsp garlic powder

1 tbsp minced onion
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp brown sugar

salt and pepper to taste

In a large bowl combine all above ingredients except for brown sugar, worcestershire sauce and 1/2 cup tomato sauce.  Mix everything well and place in meat loaf pan.  Then mix tomato sauce, brown sugar and worcestershire sauce in small bowl and set aside.  Bake at 350 for about an hour then add sauce and bake another 15 minutes.  Delish!

Vidalia Onion Pie

What you will need:

1 1/2 cups Ritz crackers (about 1 sleeve)

6 tbsp butter, unsalted

2 eggs

3 cups Vidalia Onions, (about one onion) *I read this wrong and thought it said 3 onions, ha, oops.

3/4 cup milk

3/4 cup sharp cheddar cheese

3/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Crush Ritz while in sleeve. Mix crackers and 4 tbsp. butter in a bowl until well blended.  Press the mixture on the bottom of a pie plate. (I used a casserole dish and I don't think it worked so well.)

Melt remaining 2 tbsp. butter in a skillet over medium heat.  Add onions and saute until tender.  Add onions on top of Ritz crust.

Beat milk, eggs, and salt and pepper. Pour over onions then sprinkle cheese on top. Bake 30-35 minutes.

*This is suppose to be a pie, not so much a casserole.  Mine didn't turn out so well (although it tasted delish)

For the potatoes I just chopped 3-4 red skin potatoes and brushed olive oil and various seasonings on them and into the oven at 350 for about 40 minutes. Bon appetite!

Wonderful Wednesday--blogging just to blog.

 Random tid bits going on in the Green house--

• We have an appointment for Molly to be spayed August 4th.  She spends the first night at the vet and then I'm taking the next day off from work to be at home with her. I'll get to play nurse with my pooch! :)

• I'm still liking my job at WakeMed a lot. I'll still say it is very different than Duke, in good and bad ways. I like the excitement of coming into work and not knowing which unit I'll work in.  It's kind of like, who cares how awful this day and these patients have been I won't be back tomorrow!  I've been all over this hospital - from the PACU (Post Anesthesia Care Unit "recovery room" after surgery- and personal fav) to all the ICU's (Neuro, Cardiovascular, Surgical, Medical and Cardiothoracic) to the Observation units (patients coming in with minor issues) and even sometimes I'm on the telemetry floors (rare and NOT a fan).

• UNC hospital called me back about the job (Documentation Specialist) I interviewed for back in February. They called to offer me the job - which was exciting at the time but given how I'm feeling about my job at WakeMed and the salary I have now I had to decline. It's nice to be wanted, tho.

• We are headed to the OBX with my family for a week in 23 days!! Counting down!

• All is well in Windy Peak world.  Aus is pretty much running our business from his current job and it's working out great for us.  Fingers crossed we stay this fortunate!  

• Speaking of Windy Peak, we are about to hit our huge wedding season.  Starting August 13th we have 6 weddings in 7 weeks.  I'm super excited - but pray for us. 

• My sister-in-law Leila turned me onto this blog and I'm completely obsessed. This woman is HILARIOUS hil-ar-i-ous!  Please start by reading this post, and then this, and let me know watcha think! 

Chicken Florentine Lasagna

I got this recipe from my mother-in-law and it was sooo yummy. Again, super easy and delicious! I made it ahead of time so Aus could pop it in the oven while I was at work.

What you need:

2-3 cups chopped cooked chicken, I used 1.6 lbs chicken breasts but you can use thighs, chicken pieces etc.

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 10oz pack frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (I used sharp)

1 6oz jar sliced mushrooms, drained

1/4 tsp (or more) pepper

1 8oz container sour cream

6 lasagna noodles, cooked and drained

1 cup parmesan cheese

3/4 cup pecan pieces (I'm not a fan so I skipped out on these)

In a large bowl, combine cooked chicken, soup, spinach, cheese, mushrooms, pepper and sour cream - stir all together. After cooking and draining noodles, lay 3 noodles down in 9x13 or 11x7 dish. Layer half of mixture on top of noodles then repeat with 3 more noodles and second half of mixture. Sprinkle parmesan and pecan pieces (I put a little cheddar too) on top. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes, then uncover and bake another 15 minutes or until bubbly. If you let it sit a while it will be easier to cut.  Makes about 6 servings.

HAHAHA this happened when I was defrosting the spinach. I guess I let it go a little too long :)

good little wife! :)

Last nights Dinner

I know it's been a while since you've seen any of these posts but yesterday while I was cooking I had a little extra time to snap a few pics.


I made these Baked Turkey and Cheese Chimichangas and they were delicious and so easy. The recipe is actually from weight watchers but I didn't follow it exactly so I'm not sure how healthy ours turned out to be. :/

What you will need:

1/2 lb ground turkey

1 16oz can fat-free refried beans

4.5oz canned green chili peppers, drained and diced

1 tsp chili powder (I used 2 tsp plus a big dash of taco seasoning)

3 tbsp scallions (I chopped up half a yellow onion- we are onion freaks remember)

1 3/4 cup salsa (I used mild Rotel because I'm obsessed)

1 cup reduced-fat shredded cheese (recipe says monterey jack - I used cheddar because that's what I had)

8 large tortillas (I only used 6) WW says use wheat

fat free sour cream to top

tomato/salsa to top

• Preheat oven to 350. Coat a 9x13 dish with cooking spray - chimichangas will stick. 

• Cook turkey in skillet and drain any excess, then add in beans, onions, chili power/taco seasoning, salsa, chili's and cook until heated through, then stir in cheese. 

• While cooking all that together, place tortillas in tin foil, warm in oven for about 10 minutes.

• Remove tortillas and fill with about 1/2 cup turkey mixture, fold ends and wrap up and lay in 9x13 dish.  

• Place chimichangas in dish and bake covered until tortillas are crisp and brown, about 20 minutes.  

• I put a little extra cheese on top the last 5 minutes, then topped with sour cream and tomatoes.  

For all you weight watchers peeps this recipe said these chimichangas are 6 points each. 

(...and yes, those are Barker tomatoes) :)

Totally forgot...

I totally forgot to tell all my blogger friends/family about Austin and mys little vacay!  We are headed to BARBADOS for a week of fun in the sun Oct 26-Nov 3. We planned this trip to celebrate our one year anniversary but aren't able to actually ago until about 2 months later.  We will be in the OBX with my family on our actual wedding anniversary (August 21s - counting down the days) then awaiting the arrival of Peyt and Liss's baby girl who's due Oct 5th.  We couldn't leave a few weeks before or after her due date just in case. So anyway, we leave Wednesday the 26th and fly to Miami, where we are staying a night at the Marriott (thank you wedding guest room points) and then leaving early Thursday morning for Barbados where we will stay until the next Thursday, Nov 3rd. 

We are doing our trip a little differently this time - instead of staying in a hotel/resort we rented our own private house.  We are thinking this will be a less expensive way to go by having a full kitchen and being able to cook ourselves. Although, who are we kidding - we are definitely going to want to go out to dinner most nights to check out all the local restaurants.  If we can do breakfast and lunch in our little house that's savings enough for me! :)  We do have the option of having a cook some over and made meals for us - we might try that out one night.

Check out our house here! We are so so so excited.  How awesome does that pool look? We google earthed it and we are super close to the beach, just about a 3 minute walk. I'm getting so excited just typing this!!!

The Greenbrier Family Vacay

We had so much fun this past weekend at the Greenbrier with all of Austins family. We arrived Friday around noon and Peyt, Peyton and Aus headed to the links to play 18. While they were busy swinging their clubs all the girls headed to lunch at Drapers restaurant then walked around the hotel shops a bit and headed to the pool for a few cocktails.

Friday night we all went to dinner at Sam Snead's restaurant and boy was it good! I had the most amazing chicken rotisserie I've ever put in my mouth and Aus said his steak was in his top 5. 

Saturday we played around the resort, shopped, swam, ate lunch by the pool, went to the tea part and ate a yummy spaghetti dinner + fresh mojitos in our cottage.

We headed to the new casino Saturday night and had a super fun time! I played roulette, per the norm, and walked away with over $400 in the black. (insert huge smiley face)

Our fam turned in early so we made a few new friends. They were fun...at the time...

Cha Ching!

Sunday morning we woke up, much too early for our late night, and went on the infamous Bunker tour. I don't have any pictures because you aren't allowed to take cameras on the tour but I'll sum it for you. Basically, for about 30 years The Greenbrier had one of the worlds best kept secrets. There was an underground "Bunker" carved right out of the side of a mountain. This would be the hide out for the president and his cabinet members as well as the senators and congressmen should the US be under attack. This place was kept a total secret from all US citizens until it leaked in 1994, 30+ years after it was built. The bunker had a full hospital, dental office, food for 42 days, hundreds of beds and even a news reporting room so the president could still deliver the news and it appear as though he was right in the white house. It was pretty fascinating to learn about. You can learn more about it here.

A las...

...we are headed to The Greenbrier with Aus' family! Today is our Friday and we will be on our way bright and early tomorrow. We're dropping Molly off with her favorite new sitters for the weekend and then we're hitting the road.  We have had this trip planned since October so we're super pumped it's finally here.  I've never been, and of course I've only heard amazing things so I can hardly wait to check it out.  I'm sure I'll have lots and lots of pictures to post when we return.  Happy weekend y'all!