Baked Spaghetti Casserole

This is one of our favorite meals. It's an easy twist on spaghetti with just an extra ingredient or two. It's quick, easy, inexpensive, and delicious! And most likely, you have all the necessary ingredients right in your kitchen.

You need about 3/4 lb. spaghetti, 1 jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce, 1 lb. sage sausage, 1/4 C chopped green pepper, 1/4 C chopped onion, 8 oz. block cream cheese, 1/4 C milk, 2 C shredded mozzarella cheese, and Italian seasoning.Boil 3/4 lb. spaghetti according to package directions.
Meanwhile, brown the sausage with the onion, green pepper, and Italian seasoning. You might wonder why I don't just use Italian sausage. And I will tell you. Italian sausage is gross. The sage sausage with some Italian seasoning is delish. Trust me.

Once the sausage is brown, drain. (This sausage was very lean so I didn't need to.) Then add the cream cheese and 1/4 C milk.

Cook over medium-low heat until combined.

I may or may not have gotten to this step only to eat all the sausage/cream cheese mixture. If that happens, just serve the spaghetti with the sauce. No one will be the wiser.

Reserve 1/3 C of spaghetti sauce. Pour the remaining sauce into an 8X8 baking dish.
Gradually add the cooked spaghetti. You don't want it soupy, but you want plenty of sauce so that it doesn't dry out when baking. It will probably take 1/2-3/4 lb. spaghetti. I inevitably make too much, so I always add it slowly until I have just the right amount.
Then spread the sausage/cream cheese mixture on top.
Pour the reserve spaghetti sauce on top of this.

Top it with the mozzarella cheese and a dash of Italian seasoning.
Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake an additional 15 minutes until hot and bubbly.
Can you smell it? It's so good!

Serve with garlic bread, a side salad, and a glass of wine and you have yourself a wonderful, inexpensive Italian meal.

Interested in a printable recipe? Let me know and I can email it to you!

Saturday Silliness

So many of the blogs I read have families going through tremendous hardships and tragedies. People losing jobs, caring for sick children and spouses, people fighting cancer, losing spouses, and just today I read about the passing of little Tuesday.

Each time that I post something, it seems trivial and unmeaningful. But for that, I am thankful. I am thankful that my biggest problem is being snowed in for 5 days. That a messy living room is cause for a post. Because that means that my life is blessed. My children are happy and healthy. We have secure jobs. We have money for food and clothes. We are safe and warm.

This is my attempt at brightening your day. Whether you are happy and healthy or dealing with something bigger than one can imagine...I hope one of these pictures makes you smile.

Whether you're feeling sad

or ashamed...
confused
or overwhelmed...keep smiling.

If you are running late

or having a bad hair day, keep smiling.

If you're feeling bloated
or a little pooped, keep smiling.

If your child's school calls


or your insurance rates go up again, keep smiling.

If someone has hurt you
or made you mad, keep smiling.
If you're under the weather
or a little scatterbrained, keep smiling.

Remember, no matter what you're going through...it could be worse.


So...

Yet ANOTHER Snow Day

Kids-OneMom-Zero

Send alcohol help immediately.

This post is rated R

Merrie at Sleepless Mornings did a cute post with some of her favorite things starting with a certain letter. I thought it looked like fun, so she gave me the letter R.
So all of you perverts looking for something trashy, you may go now. (Mom, that means you.) Tee hee.

Here are some of my favorite R things...in no particular order.

1. Reading-I love reading. I read each night before going to bed. Some nights it's only a few pages. Other nights, I get a few chapters read. Here are some of my favorite authors. 2. Raspberry Mocha from Starbucks. Yum-O. I like all varieties of the raspberry mocha. Hot, iced, frap...it's all good.
3. Rum. I enjoy rum, particularly when it's in a peach daiquiri...the perfect summer drink. AND it just so happens to be the first alcoholic drink I had at a restaurant when I was 21. The same night I met my husband. Memories.4. Red toenails. My favorite red? Cha-Ching Cherry by OPI. I had a picture of my toes, but I know feet creep some people out. I decided to play it safe. You're welcome.
5. Run DMC. I like to kick it old school on occasion which is why I love my old school hip hop channel on the Sirius radio. Walk this Way with Aerosmith and Run DMC? Best.song.ever. Youtube was being mean and wouldn't let me add the video of the song, but here's the link if you want to check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8A0rhVG91U

6. Rice. I love all kinds of rice...steamed, fried, Rice-a-Roni. My favorite rice dish when I need some comfort food is to add a can of cream of mushroom soup to some cooked rice. It's delish.
7. Romantic comedies. I don't see movies very often these days, but I still love watching some of my favorites now and then. I really only like comedies, especially romantic comedies. I know...I'm a sap. These are some of my favorites that I could (and do) watch over and over.

I may or may not have a girl crush on Meg Ryan.

8. Rings. I have several rings but usually wear the same 3 each day. My wedding, engagement, and a ring from my mom. They are in desperate need of a cleaning. And my hands? So dry and scaly. Must get lotion.

9. Redesigning my blog. I love using Scrapblog to make new headers. And I've learned enough HTML to know how to add a background to match. And now I am experimenting with borders. It's been fun learning just by trial and error. Lots of error!!

10. Running errands by myself. There's something about a 3 and 5 year old that can make even the simplest of tasks difficult. Running to Target, the post office, even the gas station used to be so simple. Unbuckle seat belt, open door, walk in. With the 2 kids? Even now that they are in booster seats...it's just more difficult. And no matter where we are going or what we are doing, it takes 2 hours. By the time they are done arguing, fighting, taking their coats off, putting their coats back on, deciding where to sit in the cart, getting back out of the cart, grabbing bags of chips, Fruit Roll-ups, knocking displays over...it makes for a long day. So on the rare occasions when I run errands after school, before I pick the kids up...HEAVEN.

Want to play along? Email me and I will assign you a letter!

Snow Day, part deux

Yesterday was our first snow day of the week. We are off again today and the snow is still coming down!

Yesterday we ventured out to play, but not for long. The wind chill was so cold, our cheeks couldn't take much! We did get a few minutes of playing in...although I think it took longer to prepare to go out to play than we actually played. Oh well...that's the fun of a snow day, right?

The dogs love to run and get crazy in the snow. They bury their snouts, then run and jump on anything nearby. Mostly that was Little Miss, who kept getting knocked down. But she didn't seem to mind.In this first picture, she had walked up the "steps" to the porch. But the steps were completely covered in snow. She forgot there were steps on the way down and slid right down on her tummy. Luckily it was soft and fun...so no tears!

Thankfully there are tractors around here that can clear a driveway in no time flat. Cole thought he would get a head start using his little snow shovel. After about 2 scoops he decided the task was a bit more than he could handle.
What's better than curling up on a cold snowy day and taking a nap?! Nothing, if you ask me. Most of the creatures around here decided that sounded like JUST the thing to do. Look, even Barbie and her friend Alexa decided to take a nap.

Did you notice any children napping? Um, no. No, you did not. Because naps are SO boring. The kids spent the majority of their day skydiving from the furniture.

I would like to take this moment to thank Blogger, YouTube, and Vimeo for not only taking 4 hours to try to upload a 2 minute video of my children jumping from the furniture, but then failing to upload. Good times.

When we weren't jumping from the furniture, playing in the snow, building castles out of blocks, or eating popcorn while watching Tom and Jerry, we were making (and eating) cookies.

Who knows what tomorrow has in store for us. A regular day? 2 hour delay? Snow day? It's rather exciting not knowing what the day will bring!

Edited to add: Snow day AGAIN tomorrow! Okay, part of me is excited to sleep in and stay in jammies all day. But the other part of me is not looking forward to yet another day stuck in the house. I'm pretty tapped out on all my creative mommy ideas. And I really need to get out of the house! Ack!