What to Make for Dinner: Chunky Meat Sauce and Pasta

What is everyone doing today?  It's raining and boring here.  Perfect day for some comfort food.  The following recipe is a favorite at our house (it is known as Cyndi Spaghetti).  The beauty of it is that it can be made quick for a weekend night dinner, or it can be simmered for awhile to make the kitchen smell wonderful, and it makes a great Sunday afternoon dinner.  I promise it is totally easy to make.

What you Need:

1 lb of lean ground beef (I use 93% to 95%)
1/2 cup of diced white onion
2 cloves of garlic, minced (I used 3 - but we really love garlic)
2 (15 oz) cans of diced tomatoes (with juice)
1 (15oz) can of tomato sauce
1 (15 oz) jar of whole mushrooms, quartered
1/2 Tablespoon of Italian seasoning
1 lb of pasta, cooked

Yep, the lighting in my kitchen totally sucks

Here's How to Do It:

Start by browning your ground beef and cooking your onions together in a large skillet.

Once they are browned, you will add your tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, garlic, and seasonings.

Stir those in and then add your mushrooms.

Bring this to a boil (start the water for your pasta).  Once this boils, bring the heat down to a level where this will simmer and put a lid on your pan.  This can simmer now until your pasta is ready.

Other Possible Add-Ins:

I always thought that green pepper would go great in this sauce, thoughts?

What goes great with it:

Simply garden salad, french bread and butter.

I would love to hear how you like it, please leave me a note below if you try it!  Thanks!

~Cyn

Friday Night Wrap-Up on a Saturday Morning

Good Morning Everyone!  You know when you have a busy Sunday and you are completely exhausted on Sunday night, how it kinda sets the tone for the whole week?  I didn't get a thing done this week, but catching up on Season 3 of Criminal Minds (why is this show so addictive?)  But I got a really good night sleep last night and I'm ready to go today.  So let's catch up on the last week.

Dessert

I was so honored when my Mother-in-Law asked me to the dessert for my Sister-In-Law's rehearsal dinner.  So I did some cupcakes and a cookie/brownie platter combo.

Her colors were lime green, hot pink, and orange.  So I made these little 'signs' for the cupcakes.

And, the cookies were done in colored sprinkles.

Just an FYI, lime green sprinkles suck, you can barely see them.

So, other than that I got something really cool in the mail.

My Cake Girls t-shirt!  You remember the Cake Girls right?  They owned a cake shop in Chicago, and they were on Food Network Challenges, and WE's Amazing Wedding Cakes.  They are back.  They have some awesome pieces in their new collection (please see below for my favorite)

Check them out on Facebook (while you are there, like Cynfully Wonderful) or on there at there website, TheCakeGirls.  There marketing plan is working, I wore my shirt to work yesterday and most have told 20 people about the after they asked about it.

One more thing before I go, wasn't it tacky that Taylor Swift and her boyfriend crashed his cousins wedding?  Come on you are a Kennedy - return the RSVP!

Have a Great Weekend!!

~Cyn

Why We Should Stop Wasting Food

Did you know that Americans waste 40% of the food produced in this country?  I know, shocking, right?  I heard this one the news this morning, and I couldn't believe it, so I did some digging.  What I found was a very well written & informative blog by Dana Gunders for the Natural Resources Defense Council.  What I didn't realize until I read her blog was that the problem is so far reaching.  Not only does this effect your family budget, it effects the environment, and nutrition.  I really encourage you to take five minutes, visit the Natural Resources Defense Council and read her blog.

What can we do in our everyday lives?  Gunders suggest that we can can reduce waste, by storing food correctly, and learning the limits of our food.

How can we do this?

Plan Your Grocery Shopping:

By sitting down once a week and planning the next 7 days meals, this will help you plan your shopping, which help you buy the things that you need, thus reducing your waste and your budget.  It seems overwhelming at first, but after a couple of weeks it will be a piece of cake. I do mine on Thursday nights, when the grocery ads are in the paper, helps me match the sales with our meals.

Bring the Extreme Couponing Down a Couple of Notches:

I'm not saying don't take advantage of a deal, I'm saying maybe you don't need 10 of something that you only use 2 of over a couple of months. 

Know How Long What you Buy will  be Good:

I found this handy reference guide, on the Ziploc website.  I buy alot of meat from the clearance section, most of this goes right into the freezer.  I also found some great tips on making your groceries last here, on Circle of Moms, easy tips too.

Make Better Use of your Leftovers:

Get Creative, leftover bananas?  Make some banana bread.  We don't need the ends of loaves of bread.  I save these up in the freezer and when I have enough, I make breadcrumbs.  Leftover french bread?  Make Croutons.  Have little bit of each of alot of veggies?  Make a veggie pizza. 


Again, I encourage you to take a couple of minutes and educate yourself on why this is important that we take this issue seriously, and help ourselves while serving the greater good.

~Cyn

Friday Night Wrap Up

Happy Friday!!

So lots of fun stuff this week...

Julia Child's 100th Birthday would have been on Wednesday.  How awesome was she?  She started cooking before microwaves, and toaster ovens.  People had to peel there own carrots, everything was from scratch.  Learn more about her here.

I've been doing alot of baking, and freezing, more to come on that in the next couple of days.

I restocked my office with back to school sales, this is a great time of year to do that.

So I need to go and do some more baking...

Enjoy my posts from the past week.

What to Make for Dinner, 1 chicken, 3 dishes, many, many meals

Things that do not belong at your Wedding

Have a Great Weekend!

~Cyn

What to Make for Dinner: 1 Chicken, 3 Dishes, Many, Many Meals

After much practice, and much consultation with my Mom, I have finally perfected my chicken roasting skills.  Some of my earlier attempts were really bad, some ended in us having pizza for dinner, while I was having a melt down.  I think that I finally beat the bird.

It was really good, some roasted potatoes, and fresh steamed green beans and we were in business.

There were so many leftovers.  So I decided maybe some chicken salad would be good for lunches.

Still, there were leftovers.  I had the chicken salad, where Hubby went straight up chicken and mayo. 

Still, there were leftovers.

So I made one of favorites growing up, chicken, rice and broccoli casserole.  This was a staple growing up at my house.

Here's what you need:

2 cups of cooked chicken (you can also use 2 cans of cooked chicken)
2 cups of rice, half cooked (ie: it will say to cook it for 4 mins, cook for 2)
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
Milk to fill the empty can
1 cup of chopped broccoli (you can use frozen, cook it first)
1/2 cup of cheese, it can be shredded (you can also use cheese whiz, or Velveeta, cubed)

Here is how to do it:

Preheat the oven to 350 degree.  Cook your rice.  Add everything above and mix together well.  Bake for 20 minutes.

Dinner was great and I'm sure lunch will be tomorrow!

Enjoy!

~Cyn

Things That do not belong at your Wedding

There are so many things that belong at your wedding.  Family, friends, cake, the list goes on and on.  But, there are however, things that do not belong at your wedding.

Exes (wives, husbands, boyfriend, girlfriend, friends)  - I  don't care how well you get along, whether or not you share children, it will be awkward.  It will be, for you for them, for your family and friends.  They will not be expecting an invitation, and if they are shame on them, they should know better and grow up.

Costumes - you know that I am all about carrying out a theme.  Costumes are not appropriate, for the wedding party or guests.

Babies (under 6 months) - they should not be in the ceremony nor should they attend it.  They can be there for pictures, I understand that, but there needs to be sitter (in separate area of the venue) to attend to them. 

Dollar Dance/Money Tree/Wishing Well - your guest have already given you a gift, please don't ask them to give more cash during the reception.

Can you think of anything that I've missed?  Anything you think shouldn't belong at a wedding?  Please let me know I would love to hear what I missed!

~Cyn

Friday Night Wrap-Up

Who is glad it's Friday Night?  I know that I am.  Even though it was a pretty uneventful week, I'm still exhausted. 

So some interesting things happened this week.

On Sunday, a fan was killed a Pocono Raceway by a lighting strike.  It had to happen around the same time that Hubby and I were high fiving that Dale Jr. was still in the points lead even after a 18 lap 'pit stop' to replace his transmission.  As fans, were leaving the raceway in a severe thunderstorm, a man sitting in his car was killed.  No words for how scary that is.  Hubby and I go to alot of races, and last year we sat in our car of almost a whole day at Chicagoland Speedway, luckily there wasn't any lightening that day.  It just made me think, how many times have we all pushed our luck during severe storms at sporting events, driving to work, for that matter running errands?  Any way there is a really good article here from the Pocono Review that tells the stories of fans that raced (no pen intended) to help others, plus links to other articles on this story.

Something else happened on Sunday that was tragic.  A pediatric doctor that dedicated his left to saving children's lives, died trying to save 2 children from drowning.  It was big story her in Chicago, because this is where is wife and he practiced.  It is very sad that he worked his whole life to save children so that they could grow with their families, yet his own children will not have the pleasure of growing with him.  The world has lost a great healer.  Learn more about him here.

So, now I will brighten the mood.  Look at this very cool pool.  Who wants to go on vacation there with me?  How awesome!

Finally, here are the my posts from the week, if you like, please do me a favor and share them on your favorite social media outlet.  Thanks in advance for that..

Freedom of Speech (to say I do)

What to Get the Bride and Groom

Wordless Wednesday...Messy Pizza, Breadsticks

Go out and enjoy your weekend!

~Cyn

Wordless Wednesday.....Messy Pizza, Breadsticks

***disclaimer - I made a mess making dinner tonight, and my kitchen reflects that***

Hungry?

~Cyn

What to get the Bride and Groom

Have a wedding coming up?  Not sure what to get the new Mr. and Mrs.?  Well, hopefully I can help with that.


Cash is King.

Honestly, this is what most new couples would like for you to give them.  A couple of tips to giving cash.  You will want to pick an amount that at least going to pay for your dinner, so you should at least plan for $15-$20 per person, depending on the venue.

I would also suggest that you write a check.  That way you will know when it's cashed that they have received their gift.  Also, if there are any issues, you can stop payment (say if someone runs off with the card box.)

Gift Cards are Nice.

You know what I like best about giving gift cards for weddings?  You can buy that the supermarkets (you know when you stop en route to the church to get a card?)   Since most stores that offer registries give the Bride and Groom a discount when they go to close their registries, try and target (no pun intended) stores they are registered at, they will get more for their (or your) money. 

Other fun ideas are gift cards (or certificates) to restaurants (maybe the one they had there first date at?)that you know the happy couple frequents.  The same rule on amount applies here as it does with cash. 

Picking Off the Registry.

This is another popular way to go.  It is also the best place to try and save some money on a gift.  By checking the registry you can monitor when items go on sale (I suggest checking every Sunday or at least once a week).  You will want to buy this present early, because the registry usually gets raid before Bridal Showers which are typically held anywhere from 2 months to 2 weeks prior to the Big Day.

Not sure where the Bride and Groom are registered?  The Internet has made this so easy, most stores will let you search by the Bride and Groom's names and state.  Below is a list of stores that are good bets:

• Target
• Bed, Bath and Beyond
• Macy's
• Kohl's
• Crate and Barrel

Going Rogue.

Going off on your own is risky.  If you know the couple well, this is probably not a bad idea.  Think about what they like?  Do they enjoy wine?  How about a bottle of something somewhat expensive that they would never buy for themselves?  Golfers?  Get them a round at their favorite course.  Just think for a minute and I'm sure that you will come up with something wonderful.

Good Luck and Happy Shopping!

~Cyn

PS - Since you are heading to a wedding anyhow,  check my post on Being a Good Wedding Guest.

Freedom of Speech (to say I do)

I was amazed during the news last night.  The reporter was standing outside a Chik fil a and there had to be a 1,000 people in and outside the restaurant.

Then they started talking to people.  There were people.  people were there protesting for and against gay marriage, also in support of the freedom of speech.

Then they spoke to this one lady.  She initally said that she was there in support  freedom of speech, then they asked her about what she thought of gay marriage.  Her response?  'Oh, I am totally against it'
So that got me thinking, you support the right for someone to say whatever they want (trust me I totally support that as well) but you are against someone's right to marry whoever they want? 

I just don't understand this.  Why is it your business who someone chooses to marry?  Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that you have the freedom to express your beliefs, but if you are so willing to wait in line for 2 hours to buy chicken (I know, 2 hours for a fried chicken sandwhich with a pickle?) to support that right, aren't you all about freedoms?  Shouldn't that include the freedom to marry whoever and enjoy the benefits of that marriage that all Americans should be entitled to?

I will be honest.  I don't care who anyone marries (as long as they send Thank you notes), I really don't.  What bothers me is the fact that some choose to pick and choose WHAT freedoms people should be entitled to.  That just doesn't seem right to me.

Climbing down off my soapbox now...just had to say that....

~Cyn