My first attempt at red sauce

There is a first time for everything!!!

I was at Costco and had a craving for tomatoes. I think because they looked so delicious. We never really have tomatoes in the house since no one else eats them. And of course at Costco you get like 8!!! No way I could eat all those before they spoiled.  So I figured I would find a use for them. 

A few days later they were getting soft......already! Ugh I had only eaten two and couldn't get the rest eaten. In came my creative mind. I had all the ingredients for a red sauce, so red sauce it was!

The quantity of ingredients was eyeballed to taste then I added more. 

INGREDIENTS:

- tomato

- fresh garlic

- one onion ( your choice of white or yellow)

- fresh basil

- fresh ground pepper

- fresh ground sea salt

PREP TIME:

10 mins

I washed and roughly chopped the ingredients. Then I put them in the food processor and added the salt and pepper. 

I blended for a bit then pulsed it before tasting.  After tasting I realized I needed more garlic and basil. Pulsed for a bit again.  Once it was to the consistency I wanted I put it on the stove on low for about 30-40 minutes. This helped for the flavors to mix together to make a "sauce" rather than a basil salsa. 

And here you have it!! After I let it cool I put it in the fridge to use another day. 

A couple nights later I used the red sauce to make a meat sauce pasta dish. I added fresh spinach to the sauce and boiled my pasta before mixing in. By the way, this pasta is a quinoa and brown rice blend from Trader Joe's. I HIGHLY recommend it. It is not as heavy as a regular starchy pasta....it's a house favorite over here. 

You can obviously use the sauce for what you want ;)

P.S. This sauce was enough for a pound of ground meat and a pound of pasta. 

Yet another quinoa recipe

In following suite with Chris' birthday party on yesterday's post I wanted to share a delicious recipe with you all!

So for the party my stepmom made a chilled quinoa salad. It was SO amazing that I tried to replicate it for myself. Well I was able to successfully replicate it. Probably because my stepmom told me what she did ;)

It's very easy and super quick. I'm going to give you the ingredients and it is your choice to use them and how much of them. It also depends on the amount of quinoa salad you want to use. So pretty much eyeball everything to your like. 

Ingredients:

- quinoa (obviously!)

- corn

- red & yellow bell pepper

- edamame

- black beans

- scallions

- garbanzo beans (chick peas)

- fresh chopped basil

All of the ingredients were cooked and ready to eat. Many items were warm from being cooked or room temp. I mixed everything together and added the dressing. Again, here are the ingredients and use to your desired taste. 

Ingredients:

- lemon juice 

- olive oil

- balsamic vinegar (I used a very small amount because I didn't want the taste to overpower the salad)

Toss everything together and set it in the fridge to chill!  We ate it for dinner just by itself and one time I added some chopped cooked sausage for Chris and shrimp for myself. You can't go wrong with this salad!

P.S.- cooking quinoa in a rice cooker makes things even easier. So if you have one make it just like you would rice and VOILA!! No babysitting on the stovetop. 

Someone turned Thir-TEE

My loving, funny, handsome guy turned 30 a few weeks ago! Oh and did I mention he is one hell of a dad too?  This post is all about us celebrating him!  After he thought long and hard about how he wanted to celebrate his birthday he decided on a family party. You only turn 30 once right?! I know you're thinking just a boring old family party.......not when your family guest list is 60 people!! And the party planning begun!

I came across the most appropriate theme, since Chris has been holding a golf club since before he could walk. 

Chris is turning Thir-TEE

Of course Pinterest was my BFF while trying to put this party together. I have to give all the lovely pinners out there the credit for how the party turned out!

So here are pictures of the before, decor and party in a nutshell.....

This was pre-party shopping at Costco all alone. I have to say the cart won! And this wasn't even for the main course! I had a really delicious barbeque restaurant cater the meats and some family members made a few sides and I made the rest. 

Selfie time on the way to the party!!

I was extemely pleased with the way all the decor and colors came together. Here is a list of the places I shopped online for some things. 

The golf themed customized printables: http://www.chickabug.com

The customized "Chris is Thir-TEE" golf balls: http://www.golfballs.com

The green and white paper lanterns: http://www.paperlanternstore.com

The girls also had a blast playing with all of their little cousins and friends. 

Our best attempt at a family photo. I will take it. Love my crazy bunch!  We didn't get many pictures because we were busy having a great time!!

The birthday boy cheering on as he was serenaded Happy Birthday!!  

And of course I get a photo of the cake once it had been cut into. Hey, we aren't perfect but we had a great time!  I think it's safe to say he will always remember his 30th birthday with the people who love him most!

Since his actual birthday fell on a Sunday and we had the party Saturday he had more of a birthday weekend. 

Enjoying his birthday brunch in true fashion with a big cup of coffee!

We had his parents over for a quiet barbeque, we figured it was a good time to put the new backyard to use. 

He ended his birthday with some Sunday night football and having his favorite peanut butter pie from his aunt. 

I've always heard turning 30 is depressing, since I'm not there yet. Haha!  But I think it's safe to say he turned 30 in style. Plus......30 is the new 20 right?!?

Bring on the soup

In continuing with my crockpot challenge I figured this "cool" fall weather we are experiencing deserved a soup post. And by "cool" I mean 75 in the morning and 80s for the day's high.......the joys of living in South Florida. 

Cheese Tortellini Soup

PSA: this is NOT a lower calorie meal. But hey we all need a little cheat for something tasty. And it's a crockpot quickie. #WINNING

So I totally doubled the recipe. Hence ALL the food. I wanted leftover and enough to feed the family for dinner. 

I will give you the ingredients for a single recipe serving. You can certainlydouble if you would like. 

Ingredients: 

- Bag of cheese tortellini 

- 2 cans of diced tomatoes 

- 3 cups raw spinach ( or amount to preference)

- one package of cream cheese

- one cup fresh basil

- 3 to 4 gloves of garlic

- 10 to 12 ounces vegetable broth (add more or less for desired consistency)

- fresh salt and pepper to taste

Add tortellini, broth, cream cheese, diced tomatoes, garlic, basil, salt and pepper to crockpot and put it on low for 5 hours. With about 2-1.5 hours left add spinach. This way it stays a little fresher and not mushy. 

  

Then I drizzle a little grated pecorino cheese and fresh ground pepper on top. Add your favorite toasted bread or croutons and you have the perfect comfort soup to keep you snuggly! 

A quick bookshelf

I've been holding onto this bookshelf, from when I was a child, because I just knew it would have a purpose. When we moved into this house we used it as a bookcase in the playroom for the girls. Once I "did" the playroom it got the boot. Since then it has been collecting dust in the garage. 

And I forgot about it.....until......

Last weekend Chris cleaned out the garage and asked me if it was for the garage sale pile. Ummmm no sir it's not! At that moment I thought it would be a great bookshelf for Chris' books in our room. All it needed was some paint. 

Insert light bleached wood bookshelf.

I wanted to paint it chocolate brown. This way it would match the same color as the legs of our bench at the end of the bed. Off I went to Home Depot. And went with my trusty Rustoleum with primer added spray paint. 

The color could not have been anymore of a match!

It literally took me about 15 minutes to make sure the bookshelf was fully and evenly covered with the paint. And it only took one full can! The joys of spray paint. 

It dried, enough for me to move it, pretty quickly. I then brought it inside to finish drying so it would not get discolored or any flying objects stuck to it. The next day I moved it to its new home and it's safe to say the bookshelf and myself are quite happy!

So now my sweet husband has a home for all of his books.....with a place to sit and read them :)

Just keeping up my wife of the year status ;) Kidding, only kidding!

Playtime outside

Finally........here is the debut of our backyard renovation. It has come along nicely and I will definitely keep you updated as things happen. Ok no more chatter and his is what we did!

When we purchased the house it only had the two foot slab for the patio and that's it! So we were trying to figure out what we wanted to do. Pavers it was. We are sooo happy with the way it came out. It only took two days and the workers were great! This was one project we are not capable of fully DiYing......yet ;)

Here is our little model with a progress update!

They had to use cement blocks to make the patio level. Which took longer than actually laying the pavers. 

And voila we have a patio!! So of course we had to run out and get some furniture. I wanted something natural looking and neutral toned. I found this table and seating at Ikea. I fell in LOVE!!! Chris and I ran out and bought it the day after the patio was finished. So this was our DIY portion of the patio because of course we had to put it together. I picked up those ceramic lanterns and starry string lights at target. They were on clearance so it made them an even better purchase. 

The first week we had the patio it was of course the RAINIEST week in about a month. This picture was before we put the umbrella up as I was searching long and hard for a base. Apparently, since it was September all outdoor furniture and accessories were removed from stores. Not cool people it's still 100° out!

Oh yeah then we had this "little" visitor. There are about 4-5 iguanas that live in my neighbors palms and sometimes they venture into my yard for a little lunch. I guess this guy needed some sunning after his feast......

We are only about 75% complete. There are still things that need to be competed:

- stain the original slab between the house and pavers

  (we are thinking the tan neutral color similar to the pavers)

- stain the cement blocks under the pavers

  (same color as slab)

- add shrubs to the edge of the pavers closest to the water and along the fence you see above

- change outdoor light fixtures

- add a nice barbecue section for our grill outs

- add a seating/lounge area with a firepit 

These things are coming soon so we can move on from the backyard project and on to the other thousands of things we have on our list. You know the never ending homeowner's list!

I think it's safe to say we are all loving this new added living space.  And it's exciting because we will be able to enjoy it all year long!

Oh to be little again ;)

Crockpot challenge with a bonus

I'm back!!!! Did not want you to think I forgot about you! Last week was a crazy week......so the blog got a one week vacation. Lots has been going on around here. I had party planning and prepping to do for the big Chris is thir-TEE party, one of my best friends came to visit and then actual party. I'm getting tired just being reminded of it. But I'm back now :)

Last month I did a crockpot challenge. For one week our meals needed to come from the crockpot. I really liked doing that because the prep time is really nothing! 

My one of my favorites from the challenge is........

MOJO SHREDDED PORK

Super easy, yet very flavorful. 

Ingredients:

1-2lbs. Pork ( I used boneless pork ribs)

2 yellow onions roughly chopped

3 bell pepper (whichever color you prefer...I loved how it added color to the dish)

5-6 garlic cloves smashed to release flavor

1 1/2 cups of Mojo marinade

I placed the pork in the crockpot along with my smashed garlic, chopped peppers and onion. I then poured the Mojo over the ribs and made sure they were all covered with marinade. The Mojo is so flavorful with seasonings and spices, I decided not to add anything else. Then I put the crockpot on low for 7 hours and let it do it's thing. 

The pork came out very tender. I shredded any large chunks that hadn't already in the Mojo. Then I poured the meat, veggies and marinade on top of Jasmine rice I made in the rice cooker. 

And dinner is served! This meal was nice because I only had two dishes to clean (crockpot and rice cooker) and it took me about 10 minutes of prep work. This recipe is a keeper!

I made enough meat to have leftovers. When it came time to eat dinner the next day I did not want the pork on top of rice again. So I decided to make pork sandwiches. 

And conveniently I had some sub rolls I needed to use up. I set the over to 350° and prepped my sandwich. After slicing the bread in half I added light mayo to moisten the bread, pork with veggies and then added some aged Swiss cheese. Then I cooked them in the oven for about 15-20 minutes. The bread got nice and toasted, the meat warmed up and cheese melted. Another meal that took less than 10 minute prep time and one dish!!

I paired the sandwich with some fruit to balance it out. And healthy too!

Perfecto!

Stay tuned for the rest of my challenge recipes :)