Saturday, February 27, 2010

Yummy Dinner Recipes (and really easy too)!

So I decided to start making some different stuff for dinner recently, since it seems like I've been making the same things lately. Here are two new recipes I tried, both easy and they turned out really well!

Butter Chicken:
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup crushed buttery round crackers (I used Club crackers)
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
ground black pepper to taste
4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1/2 cup butter, cut into pieces

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 375. Place eggs and cracker crumbs in two separate bowls.
-Mix cracker crumbs with garlic salt and pepper.
-Dip chicken in eggs, and then dredge in crumb mixture to coat.
-Arrange chicken in a 9x13 baking dish.
-Place pieces of butter around chicken.
-Cook about 40 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink and juice runs clear.


Baked Ziti:
1 pound dry ziti pasta
1 onion, chopped
1 lb of ground beef
1.5 jars of spaghetti sauce
6 slices of provolone cheese
1.5 cups of sour cream
6 oz of mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 Tablespoons of parmesan cheese (grated)

Directions:
-Cook pasta following instructions of box.
-In a large skillet, brown beef and onion over medium heat.
-Add spaghetti sauce and simmer for 15 minutes.
-Preheat oven to 350. Butter 9x13in baking dish.
-Layer as follows: 1/2 ziti, provolone cheese, sour cream, 1/2 of sauce mixture, remaining ziti, mozzarella cheese, and remaining sauce mixture.
-Top with parmesan cheese
-Bake for 30 minutes, or until all cheeses are melted.

Hope you enjoy!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Mother's Day ~ May 9, 2010

I realize more every day how truly blessed we really are. Chris and I both have full time jobs, our puppy is pretty funny, his parents live very close, and my parents don't live too far away either. Both of our families are healthy, and our parents are all very sweet and kind. We have great friends and we are getting to spend time both growing individually and as a couple. And the weather has been B-E-A-UTIFUL these past few days.

Recently, I have been wanting to give back, but I wasn't sure how, and I hadn't really found anything that tugged at my heart. Well, today I did. While sitting at work, I was hitting the "next blog" button, and came across a very sweet family. Her daughter passed awy last year at the tender age of 2, but the blog talked a lot about the first 4 months of Maddie's life, where she lived in the NICU.

For some reason, this story really tugged at my heart. Someone brought "Care bags" and she said it was incredibly generous and helped ease some of her stress about things. This is amazing since she needed to put all of her time and focus on Maddie.

So, I have decided I am going to make some "Care bags" for one of the local NICUs. I know it will take me awhile to get all of the items, so I figure these would be GREAT mother's day gifts for these families. I would like to make 10 bags, and any help would be greatly appreciated. I pulled the instructions that Maddie's mom used when she "paid it forward" and made bags.

"Ways to Help -
1. You can donate money to be used to purchase products for the bags. I will be going and getting stuff for these bags over the next few weeks.
2. You can donate products. I've put together a list of ideas, and most of the products are pretty inexpensive. Here's the list:

-hand lotion (extreme care)
-chap stick
-kleenex
-antibacterial lotion
-energy bars
-gum, mints, and mouthwash
-toothbrush and toothpaste
-hairbrush
-wetwipes
-oatmeal cookies (oatmeal is good for breast milk production)
-a notebook and pen to journal thoughts, procedures, etc.
-Disposable cameras (so other people can take pictures when the parent's are not there)
-trail mix
-bottle for water
-crossword puzzle or sudoku (anything to help the time pass)

3. You can donate food. As you might have noticed, there are a few food items on the list above, but I'm sure any food would be appreciated. If you live close and want to make something homemade, I'll get it from you the day before Mother's day (May 8).

4. Time. For anyone who lives close, I think it would be fun to have someone to go shopping with, decorating the bags, and delivering the bags.

I know Mother's Day is over two months away, however, if I'm going to do this I want to do it right, and I think taking time to make sure they are perfect will make them even more special. ANY help would be great. Like I said, I would like to make 10 bags, so I need at least 10 of the above items. Thanks again guys and God Bless.

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

p.s. I will keep updating on how its going as time goes on.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

I started another blog...

I have recently gotten back into scrapbooking! I love taking pictures and memorabilia and preserving it in a visually appealing way. I'm really proud of my recent projects (scrapbooks for mom and Kim(Chris's Mom) for Christmas), and my recent endeavor of my Europe trip. I'll keep it updated with pictures and such of my projects and pages.

The new blog is melissa-lovetoscrap.blogspot.com. Enjoy!

Monday, February 8, 2010

New Job

I started my new job today. It's with a company named PerfectServe. It's a hospital/doctor network and I will be doing service calls for them. I'm making good money, get good benefits, and it's great experience! Today was a little boring because all I did was shadow people, but I'm excited about learning more in the next few weeks.

Thanks for all the prayers and I'll put up new pictures of the new apartment soon!