Casserole

After a weekend of looking (and feeling) like this:

I decided we needed a warm, yummy, home cooked, kind o' meal. Therefore, it was time for the once a year "Not Your Average Tuna Casserole" recipe.

Yes, it's full of fat, but I did say once a year. And it is so yummy!

1 (8oz) package wide noodles

(I used a 13 oz box of whole grain rotini)

1/2 butter, divided

(Yes, a whole STICK)

1/4 cup plus 1 tbls flour

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

2 1/2 cups milk

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese

1 (6 oz) can tuna, drained and flaked

(I used canned salmon)

1/2 cup slices pimento-stuffed green olives

2 tbls chopped fresh chives

(did not have any)

1 (6 oz) package muenster cheese

(I just had a few slices of swiss to use instead)

1 1/2 cups herb seasoned stuffing mix

Prepare pasta, drain and set aside.

Melt 5 tbl butter in saucepan. Stir in flour, salt, and pepper. Cook, stirring constantly until bubbly.

Add milk to sauce. Cook, stirring constantly, until sauce is thickened. Boil for one minute.

Stir in cream cheese until melted. Add tuna, olives, and chives. Remove from heat.

Pour 3/4 cup tuna mixture into casserole dish. In order listed, layer 1/2 pasta, 1/2 cheese slices, 1/2 tuna mixture, remaining pasta, cheese, and tuna.

Melt remaining butter in saucepan, stir in stuffing mix, and then sprinkle that on top of casserole.

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

Seriously, this is so yummy! So if you're like me and get a craving once a year for tuna noodle casserole, this is the one to try!

And since the little miss is still feeling, and looking and acting like that first picture...I'm thankful we have some leftovers.

Happy Monday!

If you haven't already signed up for The Club to enjoy some benefits at Jordan Creek Mall, ya probably better do it. At least every few months they send out an email, which you print off and bring to their service desk for a free $10 gift card. They recently had one for Valentine's Day, but we were out of town that weekend. AND they sent me another $10 offer one this week for February birthday (which I don't remember them doing last year??). 

There are other malls that participate as well.

So I went yesterday to get my card and went and got  these cute things that I've wanted for a long time:

They're measuring cups. How cute?! I know they sell them at Urban Outfitters too. I ended up getting them for $3 so I was excited. I know, silly things get me excited. 

We also went to another store which I very rarely go into because I'm usually too frumpy looking when I'm running errands with the kids. BUT, I was feeling rather confident that day, so I went in anyways. A young college-ish gal comes up and asks "Oh, do you have a day off?". To which I reply "Uh, yeah, I guess I kind of have every "day off." When really I should have sat the young lady down and explained a thing or two about "days off". 

Oh well, she'll learn soon enough.

Wednesday Randoms

How 'bout them oranges lately? They are fantastic! I buy them by the 8 lbs...and we go through them like craaaaazy.

Along with my birthday came a bit of birthday money came a bit of wanting to redo my bedroom again. I liked it when I redid it last time, but was just not loving it. Then I saw an inspirational room in my latest Better Homes and Gardens and fell in love. I went with some different colors, but painted my walls antique white and the ceiling a light olive. Have you ever painted a ceiling? I actually did it twice. By hand. Because I was too nervous of the spills from using a roller. The first time I chose blue, of course, but then decided I wanted it to be more of a change and maybe not do blue for once, so went and got some greeeeen. Also because I found some gallons of paint at Wal-Mart for 5 DOLLARS that they also tinted for me so I didn't feel so bad changing my mind. 

I kept our previous curtains and added some place mats (from World Market, thanks to my $10 birthday gift card ) and more fabric to make them wide enough. I have to say, being able to sew has been so fun when it come to home decor! I painted all my little mirrors gold and it ended up giving a major 70's retro vibe, but I'm digging it. The rest of the room will have to wait to be shown...I made a headboard and I'm waiting on a certain someone to get it up for me

.A certain someone whom I love very much.

I got spring clothes out yesterday for the kids. Ridiculous, but those warm days last week got me Excited for Spring!

Harper is turning 2 March 23rd. We got rid of her pacifier a couple of night ago. I am losing my baby. She's finally starting to talk more and it cracks us up. Turns out she's a pretty big goof ball. 

I made caramel corn last night for a church function and just had a bit of the leftovers for breakfast. After I drank some really healthy juice. Really dumb idea. I feel disgusting.

Hmmmmm....I think that is all. Happy Wednesday!

Ahhh. We had a great little time away! We got to stay in a hotel and got some great coupons to eat out like crazy and even went to a m-o-v-i-e (True Grit). Of course I got in some Goodwill time and my first Savers experience (fantastic!).  And the best part, naturally, was getting to spend time with my RJ...it had been so long since we had been on a date. And the second best part was the sweet older lady who served us our pie who had the most perfect, stereo-typical Minnesoootan accent I have ever heard. It was just adorable.

I had great plans for a super special Valentine's Day, but not much of it actually worked out. I had some tiny presents to start the day from my stash in the basement. Henry got a snake. ( I know...not very "Valentine's-ish")

Harper got a princess wand. 

Man, she looks way too old in these pictures...

I made my sweetie a big heart cookie and he got his sweetie (that'd be me) some stroopwaffels and an adorable set of measuring spoons. Never heard of stroopwaffels? They are the most amazing little Dutch waffle sandwich cookie with caramel in between.  They probably attributed for 20 of the 40 lbs I gained in the 4 months I was in The Netherlands. (totally worth every single pound)

Our pastor mentioned once to the men in our congregation to not buy your wives kitchen appliances (or something along those lines). Upon hearing that, I tackled RJ to the ground, hit him on the head with the pew hymnal to knock him out, and whispered in his ear, "DO buy your wife kitchen appliances, DO buy your wife kitchen appliances", in hopes to brainwash him. I might be weird, but I Looooove getting any sort of kitchen anything as a gift.

And since Valentine's Day was full of lots of sweets and sugar and candy, I tried to be a little healthier on Tuesday. I was inspired by this lady to use some quinoa. We had bought some up in Rochester and a bulk foods market so I had it all ready to go. I decided I was in a taco mood so I cooked the quinoa and topped it with a black bean, corn, and tomato taco-y mixture. I make my own spice mixture for tacos...I used to use a recipe, but now I just make it up. A mix of chili powder, cumin, oregano, garlic, and a touch of flour to thicken it. It's yummy! With a little slab of sour cream and some fresh tortillas (from Costco), it was really good.

The kids got to eat it with a spoon and dipped with black corn tortilla chips. A few months ago, Harper would have never eaten this so I was floored that she ate the whole thing.

I'm still trying to cancel out all the junk I ate so I got up early enough to juice for RJ and I. We try to do it every week day morning. The first few weeks it was a struggle for me to get it all down...but now I really enjoy it. We've been on a carrot/apple/romaine lettuce/lemon kick for a long time.

If you're considering getting a juicer, I'd say go for it! We really enjoy it. It usually helps me make better food choices all day when I've juiced in the morning. Or it makes me feel less guilty for eating junk food later in the day because I already got all my fruit and veggies in for the day. (Oh wait, did I just say that? Seriously, I am always healthy....) I get all my ingredients at Costco. Have I mentioned how much I love Costco?

And that is all randomness I have for today, but I promise lots more for tomorrow!

Laundry

I don't think I've ever given the impression that I'm a "I've got it all together" type of mom. 

I know I do lots of little crafts and projects, but that means my house is usually a mess. 

Like, 90% of the time it's a mess.

And I hate doing laundry.

Like, I pretty much do it when we are running low on under-roos.

I am opposite of a mom who has the list:

Monday: Laundry

Tuesday: Clean floors

Wednesday: Dust

I think that's incredibly wonderful for moms to do that....it is just so not me. So instead of feeling like a bad mom/wife for not being like that after reading blog after blog of women who are, I'm just going to keep on doing what I'm doing....which means, like I already said, doing laundry when we're running low on under-roos.

And this brings us to TODAY.

I am SO behind on laundry and I've set the goal of getting it all done and *put away before tomorrow.

*put away is the real difficult part for me. Not that it is literally hard, but it feels like it sometimes doesn't it?? 

So, if you've ever felt guilty for not keeping up with the super mom down the street, just compare yourself to me and I can guarantee you will go to bed at night feeling much better about yourself. Believe me, I will gladly give you that satisfaction. It will give me more purpose in my procrastination, messy-ness, NON-LIST, and cluttery-ness self knowing I am giving someone a better night's sleep.

So there. Just in case we weren't clear before, we're clear now. I'm a bad housewife when it comes to, oh you know, keeping up with house work. I'm not too bad when it comes to the decorating, cooking, and crafting, but it's easy to be good at the fun stuff.

And the reason I've set this slightly unrealistic (but I am SERIOUSLY going to do it) goal is 'cuz we're going to Minnesoooooota. Dropping our kiddos off at the in-laws and spending a night and day in the ever so fun town of Rochester. And I can not wait. We've only been out to eat once in the last 3 weeks (very good for us!) and I've been clearing out our cupboards cooking boring meals trying not to buy much food so we can enjoy eating out, shopping, and having fun, fun, fun!

That is all, my friends. Have a lovely Wednesday!!

Chocolate Angel Food Cake

Last week our mom's group had a Chocolate Night full of c-h-o-c-o-l-a-t-e desserts.

Seriously, there was so much chocolate! 

I decided to google "chocolate angel food cake" and was happy to see lots of recipes. I just picked the first one and went with it. I have to say it is my most successful and biggest angel food cake to date. Probably because it called for sixteen egg whites.

Served with strawberries (and fresh whipped whipping cream would be devine) it was lovely and light.

Recipe found here.

Yesterday I enjoyed a lovely surprise visit from my bestie and her two sweet boys. We played at Backyard Adventures and she treated us to Smokey Row for lunch in honor of my upcoming (31st!!!!) birthday. It was better than any present could possibly be. 

And today we're going to try to survive this frigid cold air. Yowzers...IT IS COLD.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Open House and a TOOTH

Our Open House was a success and so much fun! 

We had no idea what to expect and were so excited to see so many of our friends.

It. was. fun.

Here are some photos of the day:

Us and our nervous smiles in Lydia's beautiful home before people arrived.

Our first customers were Leslie and her sweet Hannah.

We were just a bit excited.

We sold a lot of goodies and still have some left to get our Etsy store up and going...hopefully in the next few weeks. Wa-Hoo!! 

Then that afternoon I was upstairs getting ready and RJ was downstairs and all of a sudden Henry lost a tooth...and swallowed it. It must have been loose and we just didn't know? And then maybe he knocked it a bit? We really have no idea, but it's gone and he seems way too young. I didn't get to have the few weeks or so of him wiggling his tooth and anticipating that fun day, but thankfully I had some goodies in the basement (from the 75% off Target toy section) so he woke up in the morning to a Buzz Lightyear flashlight and 5 whole dollars. We figure it could be a long time before he looses his next one so he won't remember that he made out so well with his first tooth.

Oh my baby boy. You are growing up! I'm just not sure I'm ready for it.

Hope you all have a great week!!

Lately

Phew! I've missed blogging...just haven't had time to sit and do it. Our "Holly Bloom" show is tomorrow!! Woo hoo!

Emily made a super amazing banner for our etsy store:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/hollybloom

We obviously have nothing listed yet (and it still might be a few weeks while we get some more things figured out) BUT, isn't it cute?!

So here's a bit of what we've been up to lately.

Sweet Harper girl is starting to really love her babies. About 30 seconds before I got this shot of her, she was laying on top of her babies. Isn't she a good mommy?

And here she is feeding her baby black beans and black olives.

In honor of being stuck inside a lot this week because of the good ol' snow, I was inspired by this friend to make some snowman pancakes.

And I've been making lots and lots of flowers still. I just can't stop!

Here are some of my new favorites:

little flower cluster pins

And I've made nine of these skirts:

And 6 bags:

We've got a crazy amount of stuff done for Saturday and then will be able to put all the leftovers up on Etsy. 

Anyways, here's to a fun Friday! 

Hopefully next week will bring more exciting posts and pictures.