ManicMonday

Mondays are always crazy. I do not care who you are, what you do, or where you do it....they are always the loooooooooongest day, but by the time you get to bed, you have no idea where the time went....

So after a busy day of shopping and preparation for Bear's 3rd birthday, we arrived home at 5:00pm with one kid screaming in hunger and the other one, ready for a nap....so we needed dinner. Fast.

Enter this recipe I found on Pinterest

Tomato Cream Sauce

I had some tortellini in the freezer (no, I do NOT make my own pasta, yet) and some italian sausage, so decided to give this sauce a try. The previous pinner mentions that her husband really enjoys it, so I figured I could try it....maybe it would work some magic on my husband....and it did.

This sauce was soooooooo good! Very easy (you will notice a pattern here, I only try 'easy' recipes) with not a lot of major prep to go with it....which means you could literally make this sauce and pasta as a quick one, on a ManicMonday, or whatever day of the week is your crazy day!

Recipe Notes; I left out salt and pepper for the most part....as my husband and I have VERY different opinions on how much salt is appropriate in different meals....so if ever possible, I try to allow each person to put their salt/pepper on when they get their individual portion....saves the drama.

So what goes good with Pasta for dinner? Salad with homemade Balsamic vinaigrette and some fresh veggies as an appy with homemade Chipotle Ranch dip.

Balsamic

Ranch  --with this one, I used mostly just the spice list, as I wasn't sure what all went into Ranch dressing....and I also added a few drops of Chipotle sauce, as per my husband's request, and it was delicious.

You would think that we slaved over the stove for hours....but realistically, we were all sitting down, around the table by 6:00pm....and everything was homemade....except the pasta ;)

Alli.

Weekend Update.

Ok....so it's been a little while since I wrote...but I assure you, that it was for good reason!

I promised to give you a recipe for my friend Krista's delicious grilled cheese sammy's with avocado, bacon and cheese....but then I thought...umm...everyone knows how to make grilled cheese.  It's all about getting creative with the classic!  So next time you have extra 'fancy' cheese from your wine tray the night before, add it to your lunch the next day! A nice hearty grain bread with a delicious cheese and maybe some fruit (love me some Brie and Apple--with a little bit of mustard--grilled cheese) will make a great lunch!!

So let's see...this weekend was such a blur! Saturday was a beautiful day! I packed up the boys and we headed to my sister's place for a visit and a stop at Target! After that, we stopped at Algoma Orchards to check out their market! Yum!! There was delicious baked goods (breads, cookies/treats), lots of fresh produce and some great jams and jellies (my sister bought Jalapeño/Cranberry Jelly, yum!).  My son had to get a cupcake from the bakery and that meant I had to have a turtle brownie....and they were both amazing.

So we had a low key meal for dinner, Adam's famous Chicken, veggie, rice plate (basically it reminds me of a 'student meal' but it is pretty good....while we watched the hockey game and had a few beers and junk food.

Sunday included Kite flying, bike riding and visits with family....I would go into more detail, but I really can't....since it was soooooo nice out, we were really just, taking it all in....it's been a while since we all got out!! haha

Alli.

Ladies who Lunch.

Had this beauty today for lunch....it had bacon in it. That is all you need to know.

Ok, I'll tell you more....this is a delicious bacon & avocado grilled cheese Sammy on multigrain fresh bread! Made by my lovely friend Krista! The salad (half gone in the picture, I couldn't wait) was prepared by the lovely Christine! Both delicious recipes will be shared later today.... Homemade guac and homemade salad dressing must be shared.... They were so good! So while mommies were eating, the babies were enjoying a super fun play date! Crazy how much fun the18 week, 10 week and 5 week old kids can have! It's so important for them to be social!!! Haha.

MasseyMakesIt-Yeah. I made that.

Ok, so I've tried a bunch of Pins already....so I'm trying to 'link' my MasseyMakesIt Board from Pinterest.

Click this baby, and see what it can do for you!!

MasseyMakesIt

Let me know if you have questions about any of them...I'll be adding some of my new ones directly on this blog...but these are past ones that shouldn't get missed!

Alli.

MasseyMakesIt-Super Easy Bread

So I love trying new things from Pinterest....So here's the awesome quick bread recipe I made yesterday....I'm still trying to figure this out....

Super Easy Bread

There were no eggs, no oil, no yeast....super simple....my only adjustments; added some garlic and rosemary in place of the tbsp of Sugar (writer mentions she only adds sugar to make it sweet bread).

Doesn't rise too much, but we loved it...

Alli.

FIRST MINUTE.

Decided to get this blog going as I can’t seem to write in my diary….but I’m on my laptop all the time….so why not share the story of my life….

Currently, I’m on maternity leave with a ton of time on my hands (i love sarcasm, you’ll get used to it) and trying to do as many things as I can that involve my husband, my two boys (currently 3yrs & 3mos), my family and friends, to ensure that I maximize my time off.  

Here's a few things you can expect for me to write about....

MEETINGS—I'll call our scheduled events, meetings. Not appointments as those sound very doctor-y and scary. Meetings are very exciting to me….as long as I don’t have to do a presentation!! haha. So we have meetings with friends and with the arena and with yoga (which I’m starting to do with the babe next week). So in the evenings, my husband and I go over our schedules for the next day….and I feel so official when I say I have meetings….

PINTEREST—Part of this includes becoming addicted to Pinterest. I was pretty addicted before, but now, I actually DO some of the pins that I’m pinning!! So, I decided to share that info with you….what works, what doesn’t…what was worth it….what sucked.  I’ll try to be a bit more descriptive, rather than just having a Pinterest FAILS note on my pins.

LIFE-it happens...i won't lie. sometimes it's not pretty....so i'll probably vent about it here.

MISCELLANEOUS-everything else.

I’ll continue to add randomness to life and to this blog. My hope is that at the end of this mat leave, I’ll actually have some recollection of what happened and where the time went….(that baby brain thing is NOT a myth and I know I had a severe case of it, with baby number one) and I will prove to myself that all of these MINUTES MATTER. 

Alli. xo