2 Top Recipes

 My friend, Kerri, asked me for this recipe, so I thought I'd go ahead and pass it along to everyone.  Sorry I have no picture, whenever I make it, we always dig right into it and gobble it all up.  I must brag on my sweet husband...last time we had this he made it all by himself!!

Spinach-Stuffed Jumbo Shells:

• 1 box frozen chopped spinach
• 20 jumbo pasta shells (comes out to be about 1/2 box)
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups ricotta cheese
• 2/3 cup parmesan cheese
• 1 jar spaghetti sauce
• mozzarella cheese (just enough to sprinkle on top, can also just use more of the parm)

Preheat to 350.  Cook the frozen spinach for 5 minutes and drain well.  Squeeze out all excess moisture.  (I dab with paper towels then scoop the spinach into a ziploc bag, snip the corner of the bag and then squeeze more of the water out.)  Cook the pasta shells as directed on the box (be sure not to overcook).  While the shells are cooking, mix up the stuffing.  Beat 2 eggs and combine with the ricotta cheese and parmesan cheese.  In a 9x13 backing dish, spread a small amount of spaghetti sauce on the bottom. After the shells cook, drain, and then stuff the shells with the spinach stuffing.  Arrange the stuffed shells in the baking dish and then cover with the remainder of the spaghetti sauce.  Top the shells with mozzarella cheese (or parm) and bake for 45 minutes. 

The recipe and the next one are from my Made in the Shade cookbook that I've mentioned before.  Awesome goodness type of recipes. 

I'm making one of Andrew's favorites, Pizza Casserole tonight.  He's loves the other one, but he's obsessed with this one.

Pizza Casserole:

• 1 lb of ground beef or turkey
• 1 pkg of taco seasoning (yes, trust me...)
• 1 can of tomato sauce
• 1 cup of swiss cheese*
• 1 cup of american cheese**
• pepperoni slices
• 2 cans of crescent rolls 

*I just use 2 cups of mozzarella cheese most of the time.

Preheat to 350.  Brown the ground beef/turkey, drain, then spread in the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.  Sprinkle the taco seasoning over the meat.  Let this sit for 5 minutes.  Then top with the can of tomato sauce and 2 cups of cheese (whatever you choose).  Next, layer the pepperoni slices over the cheese, placed so they don't touch.  Then layer the crescent rolls over the top.  (I usually wait til this last step to pull the cans out of the fridge so they don't get too tacky.  I also just keep them in their "sheets" instead of separating the little triangles.)  Bake until the crescent rolls are golden brown.

Mmmmm. I just got excited writing about it.  So good.  Hope you enjoy these as much as we do!!

Mmmm Good

Pure bliss.  An Italian Creme cupcake from Gigi's.  I am so in love!  I honestly have no idea how my friend Jocelyn works there and stays so skinny.  Props to her! 

I got this beauty yesterday with my mom while we were out running errands with our friends Jayne and Kelsey.  Jayne is my mom's best friend from pharmacy school at Ole Miss and her daughter, Kelsey, is getting ready to go off to college at Delta State.  We went all out shopping for bedding and dorm room necessities and accessories!  So much fun and we all reminisced about dorm life and college days :-)

I wish I had some crazy-fun weekend to tell you about, but it's been pretty laid back and nice.  I cleaned house (womp womp) mostly, but did get around to hanging up some pictures around the house, moving around some furniture, and hanging up my new shower curtain that my mom MADE me. 

Which reminds me that I still need to take pictures of the study/office/guest room redo so I can show off the changes!  Consider it officially on the to-do list....

Brace yourselves...

I got braces today!  Yes, I'm relieving elementary school and junior high days.

One of my classmates put braces on my top teeth this morning, so I'm excited to see how they will look when my ortho treatment is finished.
I'm already starting to feel it working...

Here is a "before" picture:

and here is an "after" picture:

I was a little (and let's be honest, still am a little) self-conscious at first but I talked myself into it a little more, reminding myself I AM in dental school, remember.  And if my 70 year old patient can rock the braces, so can I.

And then I remembered all my friends' weddings coming up...

Go ahead...I know what you're thinking, "metal-mouth," right?!

Sweet Surprise

Sweet Andrew surprised me with these last week: 

A much better surprise than what I found right outside of my car door when I pulled in the garage:

WHAT is this thing?  I'm guessing a spider since it has 8 legs, but what a weird body...creepy

July 4th Weekend

I know I'm about a week behind on all of my posts, but I'm working on it, I promise!

We spent last weekend in Oxford.  We celebrated Peter's 30th Birthday (twice) and 4th of July.  Friday when we got in, we ate at Papitos, the usual but always good!  Saturday we ate at Proud Larry's and it was a good treat, too.  As much as we are in Oxford, we hardly ever go to or eat on the Square it seems, so it was nice!  Sunday for the 4th, we went to church and the preacher asked everyone who was born in the US to raise their hand and then asked everyone who was not born in the US to raise their hand, and it was really special to see my husband and in-laws raise their hands.  They were all born in Egypt, but have all become American citizens which is really neat.  We ate a delicious dinner at Darcy and Peter's that night and then went to watch the fireworks at the baseball field - always a good show!

Darcy's amazing trifle :-)

Enjoying the fireworks:

Thankfully, I had Monday off.  I spent the entire day cleaning the house and doing "chores" haha.  BUT, I also did another FREE room-redo in the back bedroom which we've been using as an office/study.  So stay tuned...

Sun & Sand

My mom and dad took us all to Orange Beach the weekend before last, and even though the oil had beat us there, it was still a LOT of fun!  The sand on the majority of the beach was still pristine white.  Right up next to the water, it was brown from the oil, but from our chairs, it still looked pretty :)

I guess my feelings go both ways - I still think it is very worthwhile to head down there and go to the beach and support all of those people down there and still enjoy yourself and enjoy the beach, but it is also very sad to see the oil and although I know there are a lot of people working hard and around the clock, a lot of it seems inefficient.

Some of the skimmer boats with boom:

Work crews on the beach nearby but not in the way of still enjoying the beach:

Still enjoying the break from everything!

Two of a kind...

It was Andrew's first time to Orange Beach so it was fun showing him around, too!  We used to go to Gulf Shores every year, so it was fun to be back in the area.

This past weekend we, celebrated Peter's 30th birthday and 4th of July in Oxford, so I'll post on it soon...

Handy-man Husband

I am supposed to be studying for my test tomorrow.  [Seriously? I still have tests?!]  However, I have to take some time away from studying [or time before I study] to BRAG on how awesome my husband is at building little projects for me us and our house!

His latest project was a new coffee table for our tiny cozy little living room.  The first/previous coffee table we had is still our fav, but it's just too big for our space.  After hours and multiple attempts at re-arranging to make the space better, we decided a new and smaller coffee table would be best.  Of course we didn't really want to break the bank or budget for one either....so....Andrew built one!  I think it cost about $50 total. And, it's just what we needed!

I wish I had a before picture and some "during" pictures.  Sorry :-(  but here it is the final product:

He built it and I stained it!  It was a fun project for both of us!


It has a hinged top so you can hide the remotes and coasters inside.  It will even fit a laptop computer.  I didn't have anything to hold the top up, so ignore my foot...

We're thinking of getting some baskets for underneath...what do you think? plain or baskets?

I was so impressed with his handy-man skills! 


Sorry the postings have been sooo scarce lately.  And I'm sorry if I haven't participated in any of your tags -  I promise it's nothing personal - I just have been so unbelievably busy lately!  I promise I will try to do better :-)


Some upcoming posts: Hogan family beach trip last weekend and Fourth of July in Oxford this weekend.

My brother in law turned 30 today!!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PETER!!!