A Day Off

I work every Saturday and Sunday. The NewlyHusband works Mon-Fri. So we never have a full day off together. Well, we are going to a wedding tonight, so we actually have a Saturday off together. I'm so excited! Now I feel like there is pressure to make sure we do something with the day. Choices:

-Go to Home Depot to look at carpet and tile for the house

-Go to Total Wine (we've never been and I hear it's huge with any kind of beer and wine and liquor you could want). If we go there, we will probably eat at one of the restaurants in the Town Center that Total Wine is in.

-Spend our gift cards that we got for the wedding.

-Go to a museum that we have a BOGO coupon for.

-Mini golf

-Go see a movie

No matter what we do, I don't want to spend the day in the house. Sometimes I wish we lived in a city where there was more to do. We don't have like a "downtown" area where people go to hang out. Our downtown is somewhat scary and there is one area called The Landing that is on the river, but it's basically a couple shops and a few restaurants. Really not much there.

This will be the first wedding we've gone to since we got married, so it should be interesting. Oh and the inlaws are here!

I realize this post is random nothingness. I seem to come up with good blog ideas in the shower or in bed and then forget them by the time I get around to writing. So, to at least give you something good, I did finally make the banana bread I've been talking (writing) about. It freaking rocked.

We have eaten it for breakfast and dessert every day since I made it. Here's the recipe- and as always it's super easy. I'll make you a deal right now that I won't put any recipe on here that is not dummy proof.

Banana Bread

Taken from Cooks.com Never Fail Easy Banana Bread

Ingredients:

1 cup crushed bananas (this amounts to 3 bananas)

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour

3 tablespoons milk

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together, adding bananas and melted butter last. Put in a greased loaf pan that has been sprinkled with sugar. Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

I Cooked Yesterday!

I've said it before on this blog...cooking has never been my thing. However, it is my goal to learn to cook different meals now that I am married. My family will tell you that if it comes in a box with directions on the back I can make it. Past that, uhh...get the number for Pizza Hut ready.

Well last night, I cooked without a recipe. I mean I looked around the internet to figure out how long and on what temp I needed to cook, but this was a big deal for me. And if any of you "foodies" out there are reading, yes I realize I am not a gourmet cook. But I don't blog these recipes for gourmet cooks. I blog them for kitchen newbies like me, who may have no clue what they are doing. So if that's you, enjoy! We sure did.

Oh and I forgot to take a picture. Oops!

Tasty Baked Chicken

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Melt about three tablespoons of butter (I used margarine cuz we never have butter in our house.)

Coat boneless skinless chicken breasts in melted butter ( I had 3 chicken breasts.)

Place on cookie sheet and cover the side that is facing up in salt, pepper, and all purpose seasoning.

Cook for 15 min.

Turn chicken over and cover that side with salt, pepper, and all purpose seasoning.

Cook another 15 min.

And there ya go- super easy and it was so flavorful. I served it with low fat Velveeta Shells and Cheese (not recommended- the shells were not flavorful at all.)

It's...Recipe Time!

If you read my first post, you know that my specialty in the chicken before getting married was chicken nuggets and tator tots. And yes I mean the kind that is frozen in a bag, you stick in the oven, and wallah! yummy dinner. A close second was hot dogs and macaroni, made so special by the extra slice of cheese I always put in.

Well, one of my goals after becoming a wife was learning to cook for my husband (and myself of course). I knew we needed to eat better and I knew we needed to eat at home more. Also, when we have kids, I want them to know what a home cooked meal is. Because when I was a kid...hot dogs and macaroni was a home cooked meal.

So I have decided to share with you all when I try to make something new. I will let you know what it was, how it turned out, any freak outs I had in the kitchen, and of course share the recipe. I will even include a picture of the final product (if you promise not to laugh-ha who am I kidding?)

Today, I am going to start off with the one thing I learned to cook before getting married. It is my go to recipe when we have people over for dinner, because it's easy and it's tasty every time. I figured I'd start you off with something that actually turned out good, so maybe you'll stick around to see the ones that didn't.

Baked Ziti

This recipe came from the "Best of the Best 500 Fast and Fabulous Five Star 5 Ingredient Recipes" book by Gwen McKee and Barbara Moseley. They call it S'ghetti Bake, but I call it Baked Ziti cuz that's pretty much what it is.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef

1 (8oz) pkg mostaccioli pasta, cooked

1 (26 oz) jar spaghetti sauce

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 (8oz) pkg shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Brown ground beef. Then drain. Stir in cooked pasta, spaghetti sauce, and parmesan cheese. Pour into a 9x13 in casserole dish. Top with mozzarella. Bake at 375 for 20 min. Serves 8.

FYI's:

-Putting more mozzarella cheese on never hurt anybody. I say the more cheese the better.

-I always use the store brand original spaghetti sauce. Obviously, you can use whatever you want.

-They say it serves 8. I say it serves 6.

-I always serve it with garlic bread.

This is so so good. It's great to make when you have people over, cuz you can do all the pre-cooking before they get there, stick it in the oven, and then you can hang out with them while you wait for it to cook. Plus for a newbie cook like me, the only things you have to do at the same time are cook the pasta and the ground beef, which is wonderful for lessening the kitchen break downs.

Enjoy!

*Edit- I am so not blog savvy yet. I tried to put spaces between each section underneath Baked Ziti, but for some reason it is making it one big block. I apologize for that- I like everything broken up.