Rigatoni Pasta Pie

I found this delicious and super fun Rigatoni Pasta pie recipe on Pinterest. It sparked my interest, of course, because the pasta is standing up! While the recipe is pretty basic, it is made really fun because of that vertical twist! I mean, really, how cool is this?

First you are going to brown your burger, then add the garlic, red pepper and salt and pepper then sauté for a minute or two. Add your crushed tomatoes. Simmer for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, boil your noodles until they are Al dente. Drain, rinse with cool water and then toss with Parmesan cheese.

Lightly oil your spring form pan and then start packing in your rigatoni vertically. Make sure they are packed in tightly.

Next, pour your meat sauce over the noodles, using a spoon to push the sauce into the noodles as you go.

Lastly, you are going to bake on 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Then take the pie out and cover in mozzarella cheese and slide back in the over for 15 minutes or until the top is melted and nice and brown.  Let stand for 15 minutes before serving. Run a knife around edge and pop off spring form pan.

 

• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 pound ground turkey
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 pinch coarse salt and freshly ground pepper 
• 1 (28 ounce) can Muir Glen organic whole peeled tomatoes, crushed with your hands 
• 1 pound rigatoni pasta 
• 1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese 
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Brown turkey, Add the garlic, crushed red pepper, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Sauté another minute. Then add the crushed tomatoes and simmer on medium until thickened, 20 minutes. 
3. In the meantime, cook the rigatoni until it's slightly underdone. Drain and rinse with cool water. Toss with parmesan cheese. Lightly oil a 9-inch spring form pan. Tightly pack the rigatoni in the pan, standing on their ends. 
4. Pour the meat sauce over the pasta. Push the meat down into the holes as best you can. 
5. Slide into the oven for 15 minutes. Remove, top with mozzarella cheese, and bake another 10 to 15 minutes, or until cheese is browned and bubbly. 
6. Let sit 15 minutes before slicing and serving! 
7. Top with fresh basil if desired

 

                                                                                                                       Uh-Maze-Ing! Doesn't this look delicious? Excuse me while I go dive it!

20 Wishes- July Progress

We are finished with another month now and I am completely finished with 8/20 of the items on my 20 Wishes list. Though I have worked on several more and I am making progress! Check out my list!

1. Decorate our master bedroom
    
2. Save blog money to put towards a blog conference
3. Make my own skirt
    
4. Go huckleberry picking
    
5. Host a dinner party
    
6. Learn to identify 10 constellations
    
7. Make a perfect cheesecake
    
8. Finish Summer’s quilt
    
9. Spend an afternoon reading in the park
    
10. Improve my posture
     
11. Try out Stitch Fix
     
12. Start donating blood again
     
13. Go on a double date
     
14. Take a class (cooking/sewing/dance)
     
15. Massively de-clutter my house
     
16. Don’t spend any money for a week
     
17. Send flowers to someone
     
18. Put change in someone’s expired parking meter
     
19. Get a “little black dress”
     
20. Get to my ideal weight

Last month I made my own skirt and I love it. I hope you'll check it out if you missed it before! And this month I got a few more things checked off.

#4. This past weekend we headed out bright and early to make the 1 1/2 hour drive to a prime huckleberry picking area. We had a really great day, coming home after almost a gallon of huckleberries, sun burns and lots of swimming.

#7. I made my first home made cheesecake. It fell a little in the middle but that didn't hurt the taste in the least! It tasted amazing and I'm looking forward to more cheesecakes in my future! I have so many different kinds saved on Pinterest that I can't decide which kind to make next. Maybe I should just stick to the original for a little while!

#11. I tried Stitch Fix for the first time this month and I have to say, I wasn't overly impressed. Don't get me wrong, the clothes were cute and overall they fit good, but.... I don't know. There is something about the price tags that will keep me from going back again. Head over and take a peek at what I got, and see if I kept anything!

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Lemon Chicken Penne

A couple of weeks ago I came across this Lemon Chicken Penne over at Lil' Luna. It looked absolutely amazing and I put it on my menu plan immediately! It was very quick and easy to make and a hit around the house.
 

• 4 grilled chicken breast sliced
   
• 1 pound cooked penne
   
• 1/2 stick butter
   
• 1-2 whole lemons
   
• 3/4 cups whipping cream
   
• 1/4 cup Half & Half
   
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
   
• salt and pepper to taste
   
• 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
   

1. Cook pasta as directed on box. Reserve one cup water, set pasta aside.
    
2. Melt butter over medium heat. Squeeze in juice of 2 lemons and whisk together.
    
3. Pour half & half and cream together and whisk until hot. Add cheese and whisk until melted. Add salt pepper to taste
    
4. Stir in half of your basil.
    
5. Pour pasta and sauce into a large bowl. Add chicken, sprinkle remaining basil on top.

I got the pasta cooking then made the sauce and Travis cooked the chicken up on the BBQ. It was done super quick and we were eating dinner in no time.


In the end Travis and the kids loved it. So did Travis' sister, who was over to visit that night. Me, however, I didn't love it. I liked it, and thought it was okay, but I just didn't love it like I thought I would considering I was about to lick the screen when I was over at Lil' Luna's looking at the picture!

For more Pasta recipes be sure to try Home made Macaroni and Cheese or Baked Spaghetti in garlic bread

DIY: Easy Envelope Pillows

Every bed needs toss pillows, lots and lots of pillows. So I used an old square pillow that I've had for years and just made a new envelope pillow case so I could toss out the old ugly one.

First I measured my pillow to make sure of it's size. It was a 16 inch pillow. So next I measured out my material.

I need one square for the front that is a 17x17 inch square and two rectangles for the back that measure 10.5 inches x17 inches.

Want to change the measurements to fit your pillow? Whatever size of your pillow, just add 1 inches for the front piece. And for the backs you'll still want two rectangles and the way you are going to measure those is by taking your pillow size, divide by 2 and add 2.5. That will give you the short edge measurement. The long side is the same as your front. So if you have a 14 inch pillow your measurements would be 15x15 inches for the front and 15x9.5 for each rectangle.

Now that you have that figured out, let's move on!

Next you are going to iron down a 1/2 inch seam on one of the long sides on each rectangle. Then you are going to sew down that seam you just ironed.

Now place your front piece on your table, GOOD side up. And place your rectangles down on top of your square GOOD side down. Making sure to match up your corners. Your hemmed edges should meet right in the middle of your pillow to create your opening and they will overlap each other.

Next, you are going to pin all the way around your pillowcase. And then sew!

Now flip your pillow case inside out so that you are looking at the GOOD sides of your pillow case. Iron it if you need to- obviously, I needed to.

And then add your pillow!

Great job! You just finished your Envelope pillow case that you didn't pay a small fortune for!

DIY: Easy bed Pillows

Part of updating our master bedroom was some decorative pillows for our bed. I had one that was old but in great shape and just needed a new cover (coming soon!) but I also needed a couple additional pillows just because I love pillows and didn't have enough! Who really has too many pillows? (Me, if you ask my husband!)

And if you love it, feel free to hover over the picture to pin it to your Pinterest!

These pillows couldn't have gotten any easier because I didn't even have to cut the fabric! I had gone to Joann's in search of a fun fabric or two and came across this "fat quarter" material. Except the cool thing was that these weren't actually fat quarters, but fat eighths.

What is a fat eighth? It's a cut of material that is 9x22 (rather than 18x22 like a fat quarter) which was perfect for my little pillows!

I pinned them together all the way around except one little area for me to pull the material through when I'm finished. Then I sewed them together in a matter of a couple of minutes and then flipped them the right way.

Then I stuffed them full with pillow stuffing that I got at Joann's with a 50% off coupon. And Ta-Da! They are super cute and I made them in about 10 minutes. It doesn't really get any easier, or cheaper than this project.

What do you think about these cute pillows?

Want more fun projects? Check out an easy DIY headboard and these cute coasters!

DIY: Headboard

I found this awesome Headboard over at Young House Love and knew it was the one I wanted to make. It was so simple and even though I changed mine up a tiny bit it gave me a great start on what I needed to do to finish my headboard!

While we were over at Travis' dad's house last fall he used a board he had laying around and cut this out for me. I brought measurements so he knew exactly what I wanted and him and Travis took care of the rest. They also used some other wood he had around and made legs for us to screw onto the headboard once it's finished. That way it can sit at the perfect height for the bed.

Then using a Joann's coupon I purchased enough extra loft batting to cover it twice. So with my staple gun in hand I stapled the batting to the headboard.  (With the coupon it made the batting about $6!)

Then using another Joann's coupon I purchased my fabric. I used 2 yards of fabric to cover the headboard and there was a little left to spare that I kept in my scrap pile. I used the staple gun again and went around the entire board, starting with the sides first to make sure it was nice and tight. Then I went across the bottom and then did the top until everything was pulled nice and tight.

 So here it is, all finished! Next step is to put on the legs to stand it up to the correct height!

It turned out just like I imagined and I am so excited to get it up on the bed and everything set up!

Because Trav's dad already had the wood I didn't have to buy any! So for the headboard I only had to buy the batting which was $6 with my 50% off coupon and the 2 yards of fabric which was $9 with a 50% off coupon! So $14 for my entire headboard! What a super steal!

My first Stitch Fix

I've been super excited to try Stitch Fix and when I saw that box on my front porch I was giddy. Then I remembered that I was going to have to stand in front of my camera to show off these clothes, and boy, do I hope they fit!

I've been pretty reluctant to try this service because you really have no idea what the price is going to be, nor do you know if you are going to like the stuff you get sent. But I love the idea of someone picking out clothes for me and getting to try them on in the comfort of my own home.

When I opened the box I was excited and nervous when I saw the colors, patterns and fabrics! I mostly wear cotton tank tops and yoga pants, basically 7 days a week, unless I need to be wearing something nicer! Date nights typically consist of leggings and a top of some sort. And while I've wanted to try "skinny jeans" I never have.

So here is what I got.

Lannie Striped Maxi Skirt

I love this skirt. I saw it when Mandy from A Sorta Fairytale got it in her box a few weeks ago and I immediately pinned it on my clothes board on Pinterest with a note to the Stitch Fix Gods so they knew I wanted it. So I was very excited. It is so comfortable but I can tell you that I have never spent that much money on a skirt before and that freaked me out a little. But I'm keeping it!

Cranston Cross- Front Racerback Blouse and Adora Ankle Length Colored Skinny Jean

When I first pulled this top out of the box I was in love. I have no idea when I would wear it unless I wore it on every date night that Travis and I have. But then I tried it on and the material felt weird and it was bulky in my belly and believe me, when I already have enough bulk in the belly, I don't want a top to add more! Plus, it had a slit in the front and it made me feel uncomfortable. So, it's going back!

Here is a view of the back- That was my favorite part.

I've wanted to try skinny jeans but the closest I've gotten is a pair of leggings that look like jeans. But I thought these were cute and I was excited to try them on. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I'm not super tall. I'm barely 5'4" and I always have trouble finding jeans that fit my legs. If I get a normal inseam they are too long, and petite length are too short. These were just too long and I don't want to buy a pair of jeans that expensive and then have to hem them! So they are going back!

Marcia Lace Panel Detail Tank

I really love the color of this top. And another thing I really like about it is that I would have never picked it out for myself. That is part of the fun with Stitch Fix is getting clothes you love, that you might not have picked out for yourself in the store. But it was super tight across my chest and then very flowing everywhere else. Not to mention the price tag!!! So it is going back!

Izzie Asymmetrical Button Front Cotton Cardigan

When I pulled this out of the box I immediately loved it. I was thinking of what I could wear it with, and when I would wear it! Here in eastern Washington we have been sitting in the mid 90's for the past week+ and it doesn't appear to be going down anytime soon! (Believe me, I'm not complaining! I love the heat!) But when am I going to wear a cardigan? Then I tried it on and as much as I loved it, and wanted it, it was a little too snug across my belly and the buttons pulled leaving a gap in between buttons.... So unfortunately, it's going back!

So out of my 5 items, the only thing I am keeping is the maxi skirt, which I will probably live in for the rest of the Summer!

Lastly, I have to say this about the price tag. Everything in my Stitch Fix ranged from $38-$78 and I about gasped when I saw that! Especially considering I have my fixes set for the "cheapy cheap" setting. Other than a coat that I bought in high school and the only pair of Nike's I ever bought years ago (and still have!) I've never paid that much per item of clothing and I was a little shocked. While I love seeing peoples fixes, I'm not 100% sold on Stitch Fix unless they come up with a cheaper price range.

Have you tried Stitch Fix? What do you think about my items? And what do you think about the prices?

The Perfect Cheesecake

My, oh My! Do I have the Perfect Cheesecake for you!

I love cheesecake and I've wanted to make a real, home made cheesecake for a long time. They seem so intimidating and I never took the plunge until now! And man, am I glad I did!

This cheesecake really couldn't get any simpler to make and it tastes delicious. This particular recipe came from the Philadelphia cream cheese package and it's clear why it's the perfect cheesecake!  There are so many things you could do to spruce it up too, but I just wanted my first one to be plain. Next time I'm thinking cherries, what do you think?

Also, the middle sunk in a little so I cut the higher parts around the edge to even it up.

You want to make one too? It's easy! Give it a try.

1-3/4 cups Graham Cracker Crumbs
1/3 cup butter, room temperature
1-1/4 cup granulated sugar (divided)
3 - 8 oz. packages Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
2 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Mix graham cracker crumbs, butter and 1/4 cup of the sugar. Press firmly onto bottom and 2-1/2 inches up side of a spring form pan; set aside.
Beat cream cheese and the remaining 1 cup sugar in large bowl until smooth and creamy.
Add ricotta cheese and vanilla; mix well.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating just until blended.
Pour into crust.
Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour, 10 minutes or until center is almost set.
Remove cheesecake from oven; cool completely.
Refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.
Loosen cheesecake from rim of pan; remove rim.
Store leftover cheesecake in refrigerator. Serves 16.

Looking for some other sweet treats to make? Check out this Chocolate Lasagna or these Oatmeal Cream Pies!

How to make your own Maxi Skirt

I love a great Maxi Skirt and have been wanting to make my own for a while.  The tutorials I came across just didn't seem that clear to me so I decided to just try it on my own. I probably should have tried harder on the other tutorials, because I messed up a couple of times, but hey, a seam ripper is my best friend, so why not just go for it!

I first grabbed a yard of this super fun knit fabric from Joann's. Then I very accurately wrapped it around myself and marked where to cut.

Next, I pinned the sides together and used a straight stitch to sew them together.

Next, I took my remaining piece and pinned/sewed the ends together to make my waist band.  Here is where I messed up on mine because my waist band is very thick. The next skirt I make I'll cut it down some. And for the record, when I say thick, it's about 10 inches. So even folding it over is still very long. Then I pinned my waist band to my skirt and sewed it together. (Below)

So here it is, sewn on.

And lastly, here is the finished product! Not too bad for my first skirt! Another thing I will do different next time is angle the skirt. This one is pretty straight and while it's still flowing, it doesn't flow as much as I had hoped for.  But it's still cute, and light weight and I love wearing it around because it keeps me nice and cool. Plus I have lots of color options for shirts that I can pair with it!

The first day I wore it I had a little girl that was walking down the street passed me and she told me I had a pretty skirt. I felt like I did good if a little 7 year old girl liked it.  

Check out for of my projects on Pinterest.

Summer Fun Citrus Coasters

I found these awesome Citrus Coasters online and I knew I needed them! I've been itching to replace the "fishing/hunting" ones that Travis had when I met him for a long time and then when we got our new table a few weeks ago I knew it was time!  Our new table is counter height and having a ceramic coater go off the edge by a certain little girl just doesn't sound like something I want to happen!

So I headed to Joann's Fabric and grabbed some super fun summer colors for these citrus coasters. 

When I got home I first traced the rim of a cup for my outer ring and then I traced the base for the inner ring. Make sure you use a big enough cup so you end up with the right size coasters!

So now I have two sizes. The color for the outside and back and the white for the inner smaller circle.

Next I cut out 8 little triangles and even cut the little "seed" out just like the originals. Then I pinned them all together, leaving off the back piece.

The reason you are going to leave off that back piece is so that after you sew all your triangles on you'll sew on the back piece and it covers all of your thread pieces up.

So now that you've sewn on all of your triangles you are going to sew around the edge of your coaster. Once you get to the end you'll want to tie off the string and make sure your string is tucked neatly inside your coaster, hidden away. And that's it! Well, except now you have to do the rest! I did two of each color, so a total of 10! And anyone can hand sew, so these citrus coasters are the project for you!