These are a few of my favorite things

No time for blogging, no time for working out, no time to do basic things like fold my laundry. 

So instead I’m going to share with you quickly some of my favorite things to cook! And some of them are serious timesavers.

 

 

Prosciutto stuffed chicken

 

 

 

Cheesy Veggie Casserole

 

Mama’s Meatloaf

 

 

 

Pasta with Spinach and Diced Tomatoes

 

 

French Ham, Cheese, and Egg Fondue Casserole

Happy cooking!! Try something new for someone you love this weekend

Turkey Fitness Blast 2012

My R.I.P.P.E.D. and Zumba instructor teaches a lot of exercise classes. She is amazing. 

Well for Thanksgiving, she and several other instructors from the area taught a huge free workout class.  It started at 8am and didn’t end until 9:45.  They did a couple of songs of each of the workouts that they offer: R.I.P.P.E.D., Zumba, Kickboxing, Pilates, and hip hop dance.  I had an amazing time and felt so good going into Thanksgiving dinner.

I think part of the purpose of the class was to introduce you to the other workouts that most don’t generally do.  I did like the pilates, but honestly people I’m about as white as it gets and hip hop dance just isn’t my class. But it was fun to do it.  The thing I didn’t love was that there were over 100 people at the class! We were packed in there and it was like one of those huge zumba classes that you see advertised on TV.  That is totally not my thing.  I like my normal class of 15 ish people.

Anywhooo I just hopped onto Facebook only to see that they posted pictures of the class.  Can you find me?  I’ll jump on Photoshop tonight and circle my head but until then here they are.  I’m in the front right of the pictures, gray tank and black capri pants.

p.s. see the lady in the last picture here in the Ravens shirt.  The entire class she kept yelling, “woop, woop!”.  OMG I was not a fan of that! Ha  but she was excited.  For the longest time I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from and then when I realized it was her I almost died laughing.

Wow. Now that was a weekend

Soooo much fun from Wednesday night to Saturday night.   Thanksgiving turned out to be absolutely fantastic. We had awesome friends in town, waaay too much food (I cooked my turkey upside down, oops!), and waaay to much wine.  Friday we left home and traveled North to the Catskills for some relaxation and fun times with friends.  I have some pictures but not too many. I’ll have to gather them all up to share!

Yesterday wasn’t all that awesome for me.  I’m sick and that paired with a 5 hour car ride turned 6.5 hours due to traffic was miserable.  I don’t remember the last time I had a cold.  But the friends we were with, they have 2 small children and both of the kids and parents had this darn head cold.  I thought Ben had gotten lucky though and wasn’t going to get hit but this morning he woke up sooo sick, worse than me. 

But I’m back at my normal schedule and I can’t wait to get home to start decorating my house for Christmas!!!  My husband isn’t going to be interested in helping get the decorations out of the attic I’m sure…but oh well!

I hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend:)

OMGosh how is it Tuesday?

Seriously. I think yesterday flew by and I’m sure today and tomorrow are going to do the exact same thing!  This weekend was amazing, relaxing, full of cleaning and reading.  My house is ready for guests and the first one arrives tonight!  It’s my husband’s best friend, the guy that introduced us, and I haven’t seen him in over a year.  I know my husband is super excited for his arrival.

And me, I just want to be at home. Cuddled up with the dogs and husband, waiting on the holiday to arrive! But I’m not. And I won’t be because I work full time.  But that’s OK because I’m going to take Friday off and we’re going to go to upstate New York for the weekend.

On Thanksgiving day I’m going to be a busy beaver.  We’re not having everyone over to our house, we’re going to the in-law’s, but I am helping my mother in law make quite a bit of food. 

The dishes I’m bringing are: (recipes included, clicky below)

Turkey – one of two. Mother in law is making the other one

Cheesy veggie casserole – quantity 2. They’re already made and in the freezer I’ll just need to pop em in the oven!

Mashed Potatoes – 10lbs. I actually even bought crockpot liners so that we won’t have to even clean the crockpot! I’m really making things as easy as possible for myself this year.

Stuffing – yummy my mouth is currently watering

one of the apps – brie and onion puff

And I’m certain it’s all going to be delicious!! Can’t you tell I’m a little bit of a control freak?  I mean I’m sure Mother in-law could have taken care of like the stuffing…but then I’m sure it would end up with like mandarin oranges in it. And while I’m not opposed to that, I like traditional food on thanksgiving not all mucked up with fruit.  If I’m going to eat stuffing instead of my midday apple I don’t want fruit in my stuffing. Know what I mean?

Something else I’m excited for on Thursday, a FREE workout class at 8am. And the class is 90 minutes long….for FREE!  That means I’ll wake up, throw the turkey in the oven, and get my sweat on….and then I’ll feel guilt free as I drink and eat the day away!

I hope to be back by tomorrow but If I’m not I hope everyone has a very happy holiday!

Cheesy Veggie Casserole

I think most everyone has that one thing they associate with a particular holiday.  For me that is cheesy veggie casserole at Thanksgiving.  I grew up eating it, and hoarding all the leftovers for myself:) and now I’ve made it every year we’ve been in Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving!  The first year I made it we went to my husband’s aunts house outside of DC and I wasn’t supposed to bring a dish, but I just can’t help myself sometimes….and honestly by bringing something I knew that there would be that one thing at the meal that reminded me of home.   The entire family raved about it.  The next year Ben’s mom told me that it was requested that I make it again.

And the only time I make it is at thanksgiving.  It’s not really good for you, I mean it has a pound of cheese in it! But OMG my mouth waters just thinking about it.

This year for Thanksgiving we’re staying home, er maybe going to the IL’s. the location hasn’t actually been finalized.  My mother in-law and sister in-law and I are all splitting the cooking.  I of course am making side dishes because those are really the most important part of the meal, and if left to my mother in-law everything would have mandarin oranges and cranberries in them!

So on my list is: Stuffing, cheesy veggie casserole, mashed potatoes…and I think rolls.  I need to look over my list again.

We’re going to have friends in town for Thanksgiving so in order to minimize the amount of time I’m in the kitchen I’ve started cooking already! Sounds weird, but honestly Thanksgiving is one of the easiest holidays to cook for because you can do so much ahead of time.

This past weekend I made French toast casserole and two pans of the cheesy veggie casserole and threw them in the freezer.  All I’ll need to do on Thanksgiving is throw them into the oven and do the finishing touches.

If you have been asked to bring a side dish, bring this cheesy veggie casserole. Its easy to make and honestly people will love it!  So here is my recipe. I have photos up to the last step because I put mine in the freezer.  I post pictures of the last step and of it complete after Thanksgiving.

Cheesy Veggie Casserole

2 ½ cups of chopped carrots

2 ½ cups of chopped broccoli

2 ½ cups of chopped cauliflower

1 pound of cheddar cheese

½ pint of heavy whipping cream

1 tsp. dry mustard

1 cup milk

Dash of Salt and pepper

1 stick of butter (I use unsalted)

Crushed cornflakes

This recipe is so easy. You literally cut the veggies, steam them, put them in an 9x13 pan and then mix everything else in a saucepan and dump it over the veggies!  But here are some photos that show you how I put it all together.

cut veggies, put into a pan and steam.  Only need to steam for 5-10ish minutes.  They don’t need to be super soft at this point because you’re going to cook them in the oven.  Really just steamed enough to start the softening process and get some bright color.

Please ignore my disposable pan.  #1 I’m freezing these so I can’t store them in something nice, #2 its Thanksgiving.  I thought we already established I’ll be drinking instead of cooking, so let me also ad that I’d like to be drinking instead of washing dishes too!

Next we made the sauce!  Put heavy cream, milk, dry mustard, salt and pepper into a sauce pan. make sure the dry mustard is wisked into the sauce nicely. You don’t want weird clumps.  Also, here is a photo of the whipping cream.  My mom listed it as whipping cream in my cookbook and for the longest time I couldn’t find it! I had no idea whipping cream and heavy cream were the same thing:) its OK. you can make fun of me.

Warm up on medium heat, then add the cheese to the mix.  I do a little at a time but I don’t think it really matters.  You just want all the cheese to melt.  And make sure you’re stirring so that the cheese doesn’t get burned on the bottom of the pan!  Once this is all added through pour over the veggies.

Looks yummy, right?!

The next steps I don’t have pictures of yet, as mentioned above. But you melt the butter in a sauce pan, mix in the crushed cornflakes, and put on top of the veggies.  For the crushed cornflakes you can get regular cornflakes and crush them yourself if you want, but they actually have them already crushed at the supermarket!  In my supermarket they are on the top shelf of the bread aisle next to the stuffing mixes.

Put in oven covered at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes, and the last 15 minutes leave uncovered so your cornflakes get crispy!

If you want to make this dish ahead of time stop before this last step. Cover in foil, and put in the freezer. 

I also put mine in one of those huge ziplock bags…don’t know if you really need to do this but I do just to make sure nothing gets freezer burned.

Enjoy! You are going to love this dish.

 

Also, the leftovers are amazeballs.