A girl and her horsey...

This little lady sure does love her animals!

Stuffed Shells

We love Italian food in our house as some of you may already know. I'm a pasta fanatic and my mini me is following right behind me. The girl loves her some spaghetti! My Mom requested stuffed shells for dinner a couple of weeks ago and I figured how hard can it be to throw together a recipe? Throw together is exactly what I did and I was actually pretty surprised on how well the meal turned out. In the past I had never been a big stuffed pasta fan usually because it would involved some sort of meat. This time I stuck with cheese and boy was it a winner.



This recipe produces enough to make two 9x13 baking pans. This would be great for serving a crowd, freezing for later, or my favorite idea...sharing with a friend who just had a baby or someone who has a family to feed who may be sick and unable to cook. There's one pan for your family and one for theirs and you don't have double the work! I made mine tonight to celebrate Daniel's 33rd birthday with family. Happy Birthday Sweetie...the girls and I love you dearly!!!

(Sorry for the poor quality of the photo. This was taken by my phone the first time I made them. Last nights batch got a little to brown on top because we were busy playing cards and someone wasn't paying attention.)

Stuffed Shells~


Ingredients:
2 boxes jumbo shells (I only use about a box and a half of the shells)
1- 46 oz. container ricotta cheese
4 eggs
1 tsp. black pepper
2 tsp. garlic salt
3 tbsp. minced dried onion
1 tbsp. dried parsley flakes
16 oz. bag shredded cheddar cheese
16 oz. bag shredded mozzarella cheese
6 oz. bad shredded Parmesan cheese
67 oz. container Prego sauce


Directions:
1.) In a large pot bring water to a boil, salt water, add jumbo shells. Cook until soft on the outside but still hard on the inside. Drain and allow to cool enough to handle. (Have no clue why that's highlighted.)


2.) In a medium mixing bowl add ricotta cheese, pepper, garlic salt, parsley, dried onion, 4 eggs, 1 cup sauce, 1 cup cheddar cheese, 1 cup mozzarella cheese, and 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese. Mix until well blended.


3.) In baking pan add around 1 cup of sauce to the bottom of the pan. Stuff each shell with about one tablespoon of cheese mixture. Layer shells in one layer to the pan until full.


4.) Top each pan with the remaining sauce, around three cups each.


5.) Top shells with the remaining shredded cheeses starting with the mozzarella.


6.) Cover pan with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for fifty minutes or until heated through. Uncover and bake an additional ten minutes to lightly brown cheese on top.


I served this meal with a side of corn and a nice tossed garden salad topped off with a nice loaf of french bread. Of course since it's Daniel's birthday we had birthday cake for dessert.

One Month

Happy One Month Birthday Cadence Leah!

So, what are you up to? Yeah that's right, not sleeping, that's what you're up to. Oh and crying, lots of crying. Do you seriously have to cry so much?? And can we please discuss why you insist on being held ALL.OF.THE.TIME??? I know you don't really care but I do need to sleep some time and this holding you while trying to sleep just isn't working for me. It keeps me on Mommy alert on night long...must not roll over...must not roll over...DON'T MOVE FROM CURRENT POSITION. And why do you turn your built in furnace on when I am holding you? You make my arm so hot it stings! Please stop crying, start sleeping, and dear God, please start sleeping in your own bed...I'm begging you!

But please do Mommy one big favor! Please don't stop being so adorable. As crazy as you are making me right now I love watching you. I absolutely love hearing you start to talk to us and those gummy grins melt my heart each and every time! I love you baby girl and I know someday you'll let me sleep again!

I could have sworn it's March!

Well it's almost the middle of March and can you guess what it's currently doing outside? SNOWING...come on weather get with the program. We are tired of the snow and we are most definitely done with the rain. It's rained so much here lately that our back pastures are under water as well as the roads near our house. Living next to a river can be good but during heavy rains its bad. You have to drive out of your way to get home when the roads are shut down.

This Momma is ready for spring so we can get out of this house and do stuff...any stuff would work as I am spending entirely way too much time on facebook!

We were fortunate for one day this week where I was able to take Addison out for about ten minutes before the next round of rain hit. She loves being outside and she loves swinging in her new swing.

Everyone...think spring!!

If only I had known...

I knew having two babies so close in age was going to be challenging at times but I had no clue that it was going to be so difficult right out of the starting gate. Cadence was born three weeks ago today and it was exactly three weeks and one day ago that I have gotten an actual nights sleep. I'm realizing now that we were spoiled with Addison. She had her moments of course, but Cadence...Cadence has moments twenty four hours a day...every single day! If she isn't being held she's crying and half the time she's crying even when she's being held. To say I'm on the verge of a complete meltdown would be an understatement.

I don't think it would be so bad if Addison were older but we're talking about a one year old here who is completely clueless to what's going on other than the fact that some little person is hogging her Mother and Grandmothers attention. I pick up Cadence to try to soothe her and Addison wants picked up. I lay Cadence's bottle or pacifier down and Addison snatches them and takes off for the hills. Have you ever tried getting up out of a chair/couch while holding a sleeping baby who you don't want to wake up all so that you can chase after a toddler who apparently runs faster than you do even though her run is more of a waddle? Then there is the whole let's try to snatch sissy's blanket that she's swaddled in while she's laying in the recliner. Thank god Daddy moves quickly or someone would have ended up on the floor of the playroom. Of course there is always Addison who purposefully stops the baby swing from swinging. Did I mention this is after I have struggled to get Cadence to actually fall asleep so that I could put her in the swing? And that Addison stopping it usually always wakes her up?

My all time favorite issue with the girls right now is the fact they are tag teaming me...BIG TIME! One needs a bottle and you get them situated back into bed after what seems like an eternity and then boom...the other kid wakes up and needs a bottle. One needs a diaper change and sure enough you get settled back on the couch when the other needs a diaper change. Is it to much to ask for them to poop at the same time?

This Momma is so tired. I can't find time to shower and half the time don't even get dressed for the day. I'm pretty confident that baby number three won't be coming for awhile as I am going to need about a year or two worth of sleep before I even dream of adding to this chaos...lol. I love my girls though and I am so blessed that I have them in my life. While I was crying alongside Cadence and Addison last night I made sure to remember that in about eighteen years I would welcome the lack of sleep for just another night of holding my little babies!

Long time no post. You'll have to excuse my absence...that last few months of my pregnancy were rough. Trying to take care of an active toddler and be eight and nine months pregnant at the same time is very tiresome. I've actually thought about getting rid of the blog because of my neglect but I figure I will leave it up for anyone that has a favorite recipe on here and I know I will randomly post here and there.

For anyone wanting to see the latest addition to our little family head on over to my baby blog and you can meet Cadence Leah. The link is on the right hand side of this blog.

Anywho...

I haven't done much cooking for the last few months and I am so tired of eating out or eating easily made items like sloppy joes and such that I whipped this meal up earlier this week and I was really impressed with it. Both the hubby and I ate two pieces of chicken a piece and even Addison enjoyed the meal.

Bruschetta Chicken:

6 medium chicken breasts

2 large eggs

1 cup flour

1/2 cup italian bread crumbs

1/2 cup saltine crackers, finely crumbled

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

2 tsp. black pepper

1 tbsp. garlic salt

6 pieces of mozzarella cheese

1 cup bruschetta...our favorite is from Trader Joe's

Directions:

1.) In a large skillet add a few tablespoons of oil along with two tablespoons of butter and set to medium heat. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2.) In three small bowls/containers add your eggs to one, flour to another, and bread crumb and saltine crackers to a third. Add your pepper and garlic salt to the flour mixture and add the Parmesan cheese to the bread crumb/saltine cracker mixture. You can also add a dash or two of milk to your egg mixture.

3.) Dredge each piece of chicken into the flour mix, then into the egg bath, and lastly into the breadcrumb and cracker mix. Make sure each piece is thoroughly coated.

4.) Add chicken to skillet and brown on each side. On a baking sheet add chicken and stick in the oven for twenty to thirty minutes.

5.) During last ten minutes take chicken out to add cheese and bruschetta. Fold each piece of cheese in half and top each piece of chicken. Add one to two tablespoons of the bruschetta on top of the cheese. Put back in the oven for the last ten minutes or until cheese is completely melted.

I served our chicken alongside of some fettuccine alfredo and some fresh italian bread. This meal was great that night and was just as yummy for lunch the next day.

I apologize in advance if there are some words spelled incorrectly or some sentences that don't make any sense. I have a baby who hasn't allowed me to get a decent nights sleep since her birth three weeks ago.