Labeling Leftovers

Have you ever felt when you looked in your fridge that you had no idea which leftover corn was from yesterday and which was from last week?  Or went to grab lunch and have to dig through the containers to find what you are looking for?

When we remodeled our kitchen, the plan was to have one section of cabinet painted with chalkboard paint.  Then plan fell through since we had 2 different painters, and it slipped through the cracks.  My mom, however, bought me some chalkboard pens, which I've found a different use for:  labeling containers of leftover good!

I just write right on the lids.  When they go through the dishwasher after the food is gone, it comes right off!  It's worked great for us!  Much less food wasted due to unknown cook date.  :)

Mostaccioli Bake

I've been taking pictures of dinner lately and realized I am not good at taking appetizing looking pictures of food.  I'm sorry about that!

Monday night, we were going to have our small group over, but Lucy was sick so we cancelled.  That left a ton of yummy casserole ready to bake.  Here is a picture of our favorite pasta casserole (and Lucy's FAVORITE food!  She will eat more of this than me!)

Mostaccioli Bake

(makes about 18 servings- 3 meals for our family)

2 lbs ground pork (beef works too...)

1 box (16 oz) Mostaccioli noodles

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 jars spaghetti sauce (we like the kind with mushrooms)

2-3 cups of shredded Mozzarella cheese

Boil noodles until just barely tender (for freezer meals make sure you don't overcook the noodles) and drain.

Brown ground pork and drain

Stir together spaghetti sauce and brown sugar.

Add pork and noodles to sauce mix and combine

Divide into 3 gallon size Ziploc bags and label. 

Divide cheese into 3 bags and attach to gallon size bags.

Freeze.

To Serve:

Thaw in the fridge for 24+ hours

Pour noodle mixture into 8x8 pan

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes

Remove, add cheese to top

Bake for another 10 minutes

So yummy! 

Let me know if you have any good pasta recipes.  I'm always looking for new good recipes!



Sick Lucy

We have been so blessed over the last two years that Lucy has been quite healthy.  She is in day care 4 days per week and goes to nursery at church almost every Sunday so she has her share of exposure to germs.  Thankfully, in the last 2 years, I have only had to stay home from work 2-3 days including yesterday.

Unfortunately, yesterday morning Lucy woke early and seemed off.  I got her back to sleep but an hour later she was up again and had to go potty.  She was not feeling well.  A few minutes later she puked.  This is the second time in her life that she has puked. 

Monday was a good day at home.  We watched a ton of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and did a lot of cuddling.  I got to do some other things at home too since I was home.

Today, she still had a fever when she woke up, but shortly after that it went away.  She went to my mom today and was a little crabby.  When she got home she was feeling much more normal.  It's good to have my normal Lucy back.

Here are some pictures of our sick day.

Lucy was feeling okay first thing in the morning.  She ate a little toast which Dilbert ate most of.

After we ate lunch, Lucy and Dilbert took a nap.  So cute!



Laundry Basket Fun

For my birthday, I got a new sweet laundry cart from Matt which frees up laundry baskets for Lucy to play with.  It is always fun to see what she comes up with.  Her favorites are pretending it's the Dumbo Ride at Disney where she straps all her dolls/stuffties in, pretending it's a bed for her to sleep in ("Mommy!  Cover me!"), or pretending to do her doll's laundry.  I love this little girl!

Lucy in her "bed"

"My leg is wet! Lucy..."

For some reason, Lucy looses her sense of needing to use the potty when Matt is around.  Tonight, Lucy was on Matt's lab when suddenly he said "My leg is wet!  Lucy..."  Lucy was just a little wet.

I was in the middle of something, so I just got a new pair of panties.  3 minutes later she was a little wet again.  This time I made her go potty.  Good grief! 

Lucy has not had an accident in over a month when I'm paying attention to what she is doing.  For some reason, she must get in the zone when she is playing with Daddy.

Here are some pictures of the aftermath of the second wet underwear:

***Posting this TOTALLY jinxed me.  Lucy just got out of bed just barely wet through.  She has only been in bed for 20 minutes!  Oh well.  She drank a lot of water at dinner and after dinner.  Bummer.

Cake Pops

These cake pops are so amazing, I thought I'd show you the play by play on how to make the kind I made for my birthday.

Ingredients:

1 box of cake

1 can of frosting

1-2 bags of candy melts/chocolate

6 inch sucker sticks

Styrofoam

To start, you need any box cake.  I used Rainbow Chip which is my FAVORITE cake by far.  I just love the colors!  Bake it in a 9x13" pan.  Let it cool.  Then break it up in a bowl: 

It should look like this when you're done:

Next add half a can of frosting.  I used Rainbow Chip because it's my FAVORITE!!!  I love the little candies.  You can use any.

Combine the cake and frosting with your hands.  It should look like this when it's done:

If it is still really dry, add a little more frosting.  I ended up using about 3/4 of the can.  The first time I made them I added the whole can and they were WAY too sticky and fell all apart when I tried to make balls.

The next step is to roll them into one inch balls.  Then chill them for a little while to get them firm.  (I did about 15 minutes in the freezer.)  It makes about 48 balls.

Next melt one bag of white candy melts according to package directions. 

Take your sucker sticks and dip them in the chocolate and then stick them in the balls like this:

Next dip the cake ball right into the chocolate.  Yum!!

Tap off the excess chocolate into the bowl and stick the pops into styrofoam.  (You could buy some flower foam thing.  I just grabbed some out of the box of some electronic thing of some sort.)

I put some sprinkles on them too.  Here is what they look like:

My little girls likes them!  Yum!