Bringing Out My Italian Side! :)

I am 100% not Italian and I don't claim to be... but my sauce and meatballs are pretty rockin' thanks to a family recipe.  Tonight's dinner however had nothing to do with my sauce and meatballs (That's next Sunday's project - unfortunately I will have pics, but ya'll aren't getting the secret recipe!!!).  I found a recipe on Pinterest from Paula Deen's sons for "Lightened Baked Spaghetti".  I loosely followed it, so I cannot call this recipe 100% mine.  You can find the original recipe here, but my version of it will be at the bottom of this post. 

I first started out by boiling some water because you'll need it to cook the angel hair pasta.  As that was boiling, I chopped up half of a white onion and half of a green pepper.  I desperately need the chopper thingy from Pampered Chef because chopping by hand it an accident waiting to happen.  Luckily all of my fingers are still in tact! :) I multi-tasked by getting the pasta ready (I used 1/4 of a box of angel hair spaghetti, whole wheat of course!) and then threw it in the pot of boiling water.  

 I always break the noodles in half... I hate twirling!

After I drained the pasta, I drizzled a little 

olive oil over it so the noodles wouldn't stick as

I was making the rest of the meal! :)

After everything was chopped, I threw olive oil into a pan and let it heat up before I added the chopped onion and green pepper.  I let them saute for about 3 minutes and then I added a little less than 1/4 cup of water and I stirred occasionally for about 7 minutes, until they were nice and soft! 

I love the smell of sauteing peppers & onions!

I then put 1/2 pound of lean ground beef into the pan and browned it.  I then drained it (there was hardly anything to drain, but I can't have juices in the bottom of the pan, ew!!!).  

Lookin' good! :)

After I drained it, I threw in 1/2 of a 29-oz can of crushed tomatoes and a whole bunch of spices and stirred it all up!

 I did NOT end up using the tomato paste -

 it wasn't necessary!

Yummy!!!!!!

After it was all stirred up, I let it come to a boil and then covered it!  It simmered for about 15 minutes! When the 15 minutes was up, I threw in the pasta and tossed it so that the noodles and the sauce became a happy family! :)

Oh yes, at this point I wanted to take my fork

and just dig in!  Patience my friend, patience! :)

I then sprayed a casserole dish with olive oil cooking spray and poured in 1/2 of the pasta.  I then covered it with 1/4 cup of reduced-fat mozzarella cheese.  Then I poured the rest of the pasta and topped it with the remaining 1/4 cup of cheese!  I covered it with aluminum foil and stuck it in a 375 degree oven for 20 minutes.  After the 20 minutes was up, I took the foil off and put it back inside so the cheese would get even more melty! :)

 Before it went into the oven...

And after!!!

After it's done baking, let it sit for about 5 minutes.  It'll be hard not to dig in, but it's worth the wait because the finished product looks like this...

 I had already started to stir it up BEFORE I took

this picture... oops! haha! 

The baked spaghetti was paired with a salad full of veggies! Yummy! Check it out!

So yummy! And don't you love my 

St. Patrick's Day table!?!? :)

Dinner got two thumbs up from Shaun, with the only recommendation of nixing the crushed red pepper flakes.  I agree with him on that.... too much spice! LOL!  Enjoy this recipe!  

Baked Spaghetti - Lightened Up! (adapted from this recipe)

*This recipe makes 3 servings!*

3 oz whole wheat angel hair pasta (1/4 of a box)

1 tsp olive oil

1/2 onion, chopped

1/2 green bell pepper, chopped

1/8 cup of water

1/2 pound lean ground beef (or ground turkey, ground sausage, etc...)

1/2 28oz. can of crushed tomatoes (I used the no-salt added one)

1/2 tsp parsley

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp oregano

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

fresh ground black pepper (I always use a lot)

1/2 cup reduced-fat mozzarella cheese

1. Cook pasta according to directions on box.  Toss with olive oil after you drain it to prevent the noodles from sticking.

2. Heat oil in pan.  Add onion and green peppers, sauteing for about 2-3 minutes.  Add the water, stirring until the veggies are nice and soft (about 7 minutes).

3.  Add ground beef, brown, and then drain.

4. Add the crushed tomatoes and spices and then bring to a boil.  Cover and let simmer for about 15 minutes.

5. Add the pasta to the pan, stirring to mix everything together.

6. Pour 1/2 of the pasta/sauce mixture into a greased casserole dish.  Add 1/4 cup of the mozzarella cheese.  Add the rest of the pasta and top with another 1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese.

7. Cover with aluminum foil and bake in a 375 degree oven for 20 minutes.  Remove foil and put back in oven for 5 minutes.

8. After you take the casserole out of the oven, let it sit for 5 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!!! 

Now I'm off to do some relaxing!  :)  I hope you all had a nice weekend! 

Sweet Hugs,

Lauren

I'm Back, I Promise!

Wow, I am terrible! I haven't posted in a WEEK!  I have been so wrapped up with work responsibilities that I have barely had a moment to breathe the past week!  To make things short and sweet, I'm testing the "leadership" waters by taking on additional responsibilities to see if going back for a second Master's degree (Educational Leadership) is for me.  So far I've enjoyed all the extra work and I'm learning how much planning and time goes into activities outside of the classroom!  Don't get me wrong, teaching is a TON of work, but so is the other side of things!  My next couple of responsibilities are quite interesting and I'm looking forward to working closely with administration!  If only someone would pay for my second Master's.....  I'd go back in a heartbeat! I miss school! :)

Since my last post, I haven't done a whole lot of cooking since I've pretty much had to come home and continue schoolwork!  But, Valentine's Day was on Tuesday and I wanted to share some of the deliciousness Shaun and I devoured!

Takeout from Iavarone's! :)  I got the grilled chicken,

with asparagus and a side salad.  

Shaun got lasagna with a Caesar salad! :)

It was a scrumptious meal!

I told Shaun he was in charge of dessert and 

he knows me too well - he had stopped by

the same restaurant, earlier in the day to get one of 

our most favorite desserts - the layered chocolate cake! :)

This was pretty much the only meal this week worthy of capturing on camera!  I do want to share my students' cupcake parfaits from our Valentine's Day cooking activity though.... they turned out PRECIOUS!

This was one of them! :) Too cute!  

Moving on to other things...  I'm so excited that we don't have any plans this weekend.  I'm looking forward to relaxing all weekend long!  I did promise Shaun that I would whip up some new recipes this weekend and I figured why wait until Saturday to start!  

Dinner tonight was created my just mixing together some ingredients, letting chicken cutlets marinade for about 40 minutes, and then sauteing them in a pan!  :)  It took about 20 minutes and boy, let me tell you how amazing it was! :)  I used about 1/4 cup of white wine, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, 1/4 tsp of thyme and onion powder, crushed red pepper flakes, freshly ground black pepper, and a few dashes of kosher salt.

As a side, I was craving sweet potatoes (nothing new right!?!?) but didn't want a baked one...  So after googling and pinteresting, I combined some recipes I found and whipped up my own...

I started by washing and cutting up a sweet potato.  I bought an organic one to see if I can taste a difference and you soooo can! Who knew!?!? :)  

 Ha, there were some ugly brown spots I had to get

rid of... that's why it looks so strange!

Then I melted 1 tablespoon of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter with about 1/2 teaspoon of crushed rosemary and poured it over the wedges of sweet potatoes.

yummy!!!

Then spread the wedges out on a covered cookie sheet and bake at 450 degrees for 20 minutes, turning over the wedges halfway through!  

Dinner tonight looked like this!

 

A yummy chicken dinner in 20 minutes?

Yes please! :)

For dessert I had the last of the strawberry whoopie pie cookies that a fabulous coworker gave me for Valentine's Day.  I promised the guys I'd share them, but I ended up eating all of them myself! Haaa!!! :)

Now I'm off to watch some television.... which I plan on doing a lot of this weekend, especially tomorrow when I'll be catching up on all my DVR'd shows! 

Have a great night!  I'll be back ALL weekend long with new recipes! :)

Sweet Hugs,

Lauren

Relaxed and Ready to Go! :)

After relaxing pretty much all day today, I'm ready for the rest of the weekend!  I really enjoyed having today off - I was able to veg out this morning, enjoy a couple cups of Timmy Ho's coffee (thanks so so so much mommy & daddy!!!) and catch up on some of my favorite shows!  I also met a friend for lunch and did some shopping!  

The reason I went shopping was to get some stuff for my students' Valentine's Day treat bags.  We're doing a fun cupcake activity too, but I wanted to give them a bag of goodies too! :)  So this evening, I gathered the supplies and got working! 

Conversation hearts, starbursts, pixie sticks, bouncy balls, 

cute heart rings (you bet I saved the extra rings for myself

and my intern!), and fruit snacks! :)

All tied with a pretty pink ribbon! :)

Amongst my shopping today for all those supplies, I came across this jar of deliciousness at Marshall's. We were planning on having grilled chicken anyways, so I was pretty excited when I found it!

I love the gourmet aisle at Marshall's... 

They always have good finds! :)

I also added a few dashes of paprika and nutmeg and let the chicken marinade for about an hour before firing up the grill! Here's how it looked on the grill! 

I've turned into quite the grill master! :)

Our chicken was paired with some sweet potato french fries and a salad full of veggies! 

:) So yummy! 

Well, now that I feel accomplished that the Valentine's Day treat bags are put together, I plan on spending the rest of the night relaxing.  I know I'll end up in bed early, which is fine because I have a ton to do tomorrow since we have big plans for Sunday! :)

Goodnight! 

Sweet Hugs,

Lauren

Hello Long Weekend!

Although this was a pretty amazing week, I'm quite ready for a long weekend!  :)  I'm super excited to have tomorrow off!  Not having to get up tomorrow at 4:30am is a wonderful thing!  My internal alarm clock will probably start going off around 6am, but that's okay because I can just roll out of bed and head on over to the comfy couch with a cup of coffee and the DVR remote!  I specifically DVR'd ALL of my shows this week so I could spend Friday morning relaxing!  Knowing me, there will also be some "pinning" on Pinterest and I will most likely also do some school work.  

Did you know that Starbucks has cute Valentine's Day cups?

So cute! :) Made me smile this morning!

On the way to work this morning, I stopped there and opted for a Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte and it was amazing!  It was flavored perfectly and wasn't too sweet!  Unfortunately, it's like $4, so getting this perfection in a cup will not happen very often! :(

Tonight I'm doing a bunch of nothing....  I had Subway for dinner since Shaun is at school working on his final project and my brother is at work!  I'm kind of enjoying the quiet house! :)  I'm tempted to catch up on my DVR'd shows, but I'm trying to have some self-control and wait until tomorrow!  I have some good shows to watch - The Real Housewives of Orange County, Dance Moms, and Smash!!!  I can't wait! :)

Have a fabulous night everyone!  I'll be back tomorrow with a new recipe - it'll be some sort of grilled chicken deliciousness! :)

Oh yeah, before I go...  a big shout-out to my mom and dad for this amazing package that came in the mail this afternoon! 

 Valentine's Day care package! 

 Timmy Ho's coffee!!!! Delish! :)

 Woohoo, Valentine's jelly beans! 

And Antionette's Dark Chocolate....  no words for this! :)

Goodnight!

Sweet Hugs,

Lauren

Baked Dijon Glazed Pork Tenderloin

As I teased you all with yesterday, for dinner last night I whipped up a baked pork tenderloin.  I rarely buy pork tenderloin because Publix usually only carries the flavored ones and to me, they taste way too artificial.  Luckily, I came across a "plain" one, so I snagged it while grocery shopping on Saturday.  

I looked online to find a good glaze for it because baking it plain is boring.  I came across a few ideas, but settled on kinda creating my own by modifying a few different recipes.  

The first thing I did was gather my ingredients - dijon mustard, brown sugar, paprika, and ground ginger.  I mixed them up in a bowl and set it aside. 

I then grabbed a baking pan and some aluminum foil... you'll want to cover the pan because if not, you'll have a burnt, sticky sugary mess at the bottom of the pan!  I sprayed it with olive oil cooking spray and placed the pork tenderloin inside.  

Next, I took a brush and coated the pork tenderloin (top and sides) with 1/2 of the mixture.  I put it in a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes.  It will quickly make your house smell delicious!  When the timer went off, I took it out, brushed more of the mixture on it, and threw it back in for 20 minutes.  When it reached 165 degrees, I knew it was done! 

Deliciousness.... but I will say that the pork tenderloin 

went from being huge to completely shrinking! 

Luckily it was enough for the three of us!

I paired it with a side of steamed brown rice and some steamed veggies ~ quite yummy and such a simple weeknight meal! :)

Baked Dijon Glazed Pork Tenderloin

1 1/2 TBSP brown sugar

2 TBSP dijon mustard

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1.25lbs lean pork tenderloin

Mix ingredients and coat pork tenderloin with half of the mixture.  Bake in a 425 degree oven, uncovered for 15 minutes.  After baking for 15 minutes, take the pork tenderloin out and cover with the remaining mixture.  Bake for an additional 20 minutes, or until the pork reaches 165 degrees! 

Serve with rice or mashed potatoes!

Enjoy!

My dinner tonight was leftover chili, which is perfect because it's a cool and rainy day here!  Apparently I'm digging leftovers lately!!!

Perfect comfort food! :)

I'm off to do more school work ~ My workload the past few weeks has been insane! :)  What can I say - we work mighty hard in room 408! :)

Have a great night!

Superbowl Festivities & More!

Whoops, I totally forgot to post last night!  Must have been the chili-induced coma I was in after watching that amazing game!  For the Superbowl, we invited over Matty's friend and his friend's wife for some game time deliciousness!  

Check out the goods!

 Football-shaped brownies! :)

 Love my tablecloth! :)

 Veggie tray - so yummy!

 Cheese, crackers, & summer sausage! 

 Toppings for the chili! 

 Football brownies & sugar cookies!

We had a great time partying it up! :)  The commercials were great - especially the M&M one! :)  I also loved the one with Matthew Broderick.  Did anyone else notice that he doesn't appear to be aging at all!?!? 

Now it's time to talk CHILI! :)  I love my recipe for chili!  It is just so delicious and easy!  Rather than post pictures of the steps, I'm just going to share the recipe!

Crockpot Chili

*This can also be made ontop of the stove... instead of cooking on low for 8 hours, just let it simmer for about an hour!

1 - 29 oz can of tomato puree (I used no-salt added)

1 - 29 oz can of crushed tomatoes (I used no-salt added)

1.25lbs lean ground beef

1 can of chili beans (I used mild, but I've used medium before.  I drained SOME of the juice)

1 can of kidney beans (low-sodium, I drained ALL of the juice)

1 small onion, chopped

1 small green pepper, diced

2 tsp chili powder

garlic powder

salt & pepper

frozen corn, optional

**For the big game, I also added 1 1/2 cups of frozen corn when there was 30 minutes left.  

Brown meat, onion, and pepper.  Drain the excess fat and then place in crock pot.  Add the rest of your ingredients and stir!  Cook on low for 8 hours.  

Enjoy!!!

 Such a simple and delicious meal!

I topped it off with some mozz. cheese (We didn't have any cheddar) and a dollop of light sour cream! :)

Hope you enjoyed your Superbowl Sunday! :)

I'm off to do some school work!  I'll be back later tonight or tomorrow with tonight's dinner recipe, which was Dijon Glazed Baked Pork Tenderloin!  Here's a tease!

Another easy meal for the work week! :)

Have a great night!

Sweet Hugs,

Lauren

Hopped up on Sugar!!!!

Wow, I never knew how sugar affected me until tonight!  I baked brownies tonight for tomorrow's Superbowl party and I had to make sure the brownies were good.  Success - they are quite yummy.  Then I made the rest of the sugar cookies from the dough that I had leftover from Friday's cooking activity with my first graders.  I iced a cookie and it looked ridiculous, so naturally I had to get rid of it.  So I ate it.  I am ready to bounce off the walls! LOL!  This is so not good because it's almost midnight and I have to be up at 7:30am to be a the gym by 8!  

Yes my friends, gym at 8am on Superbowl Sunday!  If I have any intention of getting ALL my work done before tomorrow evening's festivities, I have to get crackin' on my to-do list early!  Up first tomorrow is the gym and then church!  After that it's back here to whip up a batch of chili - Schoonmaker Family style! :)  If you're lucky, I just *may* share the recipe!  

Here's a sneak peek at the yummy brownies we'll be having tomorrow! :)

So cute!!! :) 

No, that isn't the entire batch of brownies, but what was left was random shapes because I used a cookie cutter.  I used my mom's advice which was the freeze the tiny bits of leftover brownies in small bags so I can have the occasional brownie sundae!  She is a genius! :) Thanks mommy! :)

Now I'm off to do who knows what.... I certainly have far too much energy to even attempt to go to sleep! Zoikes!!!

Sweet Hugs,

Lauren

Busy Saturday

I hope you're all having a great Saturday! I don't know what the weather is like by you today, but here in Tampa, it's AMAZING! It's about 80 degrees, blue skies, and bright sunshine! :) Perfect!  It's wonderful how the weather is warming up so quickly - I'm guessing Sunday Funday at the beach will be here before we know it!

I've been busy running errands and working on all the things on my to-do list all day!  To fuel a busy day, I started off the morning with a bowl of Rice Krispies with Almond Milk, a bowl of blueberries and the last of the cantaloupe, and 2 cups of coffee.  Mom - if you're reading this, we are in desperate need of Timmy Ho's coffee!!!!  This mornings coffee was a pathetic excuse! ha! 

So simple, so yummy!

After breakfast, I headed to JoAnn's to find a football shaped cookie cutter for tomorrow's Superbowl Party dessert!  I found one, but it came in a pack with 99 other cookie cutters.  Um, I don't think so.  Luckily, I made a quick detour to Michael's and was successful!  Wait til you see the yumminess I have in store for tomorrow!  After I was finally successful, I braved it and went to Publix to do our grocery shopping.  Usually Shaun comes with, but he was at school.  So, I was on my own.  With my list in hand, I did the world's fastest Superbowl Party grocery shopping!  I was in and out of there in 20 minutes! Go me!  We have lots of goodies in store for tomorrow - including my scrumptious chili! :)  

For lunch today, it was a repeat of the usual, but I mixed up my side of fruit this time!  Fruit salad was on sale this week, so I definitely took advantage of that! 

I love my lunch! :)

After lunch I worked on some fun stuff for the 100th day of school:

I'll talk more about those in tonight's post!  I'm off to the gym to do a light cardio session! :)

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Sweet Hugs,

Lauren

Well Earned! :)

After a successfully smooth, but long week in room 408, I declared tonight date night.  We had a gift card for Bonefish that we got from my brother, so earlier this week, our decision was made.  

We headed to Bonefish and I already knew what I wanted - a filet mignon.  I don't eat seafood, so a filet is one of the only things on the menu that I'll eat.  I've never gotten it wrong by ordering a filet.... it's always so delicious.  Tonight though, I was slightly disappointed.  I always order my filet medium because there's nothing worse than getting it well-done.  But tonight, it was too rare.  I ate around the "rareness", but it got the point where I simply couldn't eat anymore.  I only ate like 1/3 of it.  Boo.  But I thoroughly enjoyed the veggies that came on the side.  Not to mention I had a very unhealthy share of the breadbasket and dipping oil that came before our entrees arrived at the table!

The veggies were excellent, the steak was meh.  

It would have been perfect for my dad who loves it medium-rare.

After we ate, we headed to Yogurt Mountain because in honor of National Wear Red Day, they were offering 20% off.  Now that we're getting close to Valentine's Day, they added some new flavors and we were totally digging it! I opted for Strawberry Frozen Yogurt with some chopped peanuts and mini chocolate chips.  Amazing.  Totally made up for tonight's not-so-awesome steak.  

It tasted like a chocolate-covered strawberry! Amazing! :)

Shaun has a bunch of work to do on his final project tonight, so right now I'm watching Horrible Bosses.  So far it's pretty funny! :)

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that today my kiddos made our "Polar Bear Cookies".... look at how cute they turned out!

They *LOVED* it!!! :) So cute!!!

I hope you're off to a great start to the weekend! Catch ya in the morning! :)

Sweet Hugs,

Lauren