Baked Ziti

Tonight for supper, I made a meatless meal. It is called Baked Ziti and it is DELICIOUS!!!!
Here is the recipe and picture.

I actually made two, and when this picture was taken, the first one was already gone...lol. The kids loved it.

Ingredients:

Sauce:
2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

3 gloves garlic, sliced

1 can (28 ounces) whole tomatoes

1 can (15 ounces) tomato sauce ( I used manwich sloppy joe sauce)

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 teaspoons sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

1 can (14.5) ounces basil and oregano diced tomatoes, drained

½ cup fresh basil leaves, chopped

Ziti and Cheese:
1 box (16 ounces) ziti

1 bag (8 ounces) shredded part skim mozzarella cheese

½ cup grated Parmesan or cheddar cheese.

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375F. Coat a 13 X 9 X 2 inch dish with nonstick cooking spray.

2.SAUCE: Heat oil in a 3- quart saucepan over medium heat. Add onions and cook 4 minutes. Add garlic and cook another minute. Stir in whole tomatoes and their juice, breaking tomatoes apart with hands or wooden spoon. Stir in tomato sauce, tomato paste, sugar, salt, and pepper. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes.

3. Remove pan from heat. Stir in diced tomatoes and basil.

4. ZITI AND CHEESE: Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to boiling. Add ziti, boil, drain after 10 minutes, stirring. Drain and transfer to a large bowl. Add half of the sauce to bowl with ziti. Stir to coat. Pour ziti mixture into prepared dish. Top with remaining sauce and then sprinkle with the cheese.

5. Bake at 375F for 20-25 minutes, until bubbly and lightly browned. Cool 10 minutes.

Groundhog Day

I have always been a fan of Groundhog Day. I remember watching Viva La Bam, and they celebrating Groundhog Day and Bam's marriage on Groundhog day....lol. Punxsatawny Phil didn't see his shadow today, so we are going to have an early spring.

Today is also my niece Jayden's birthday. She is 1. I haven't seen her since the NICU days and I miss her and wish that she could play with Adalyn and grow up with her, since they were together since birth.
Aunt Kelly and Uncle Cayce love you Jayden.
I miss my groundhog baby.

Happy February!

I'm so happy to see February. There are alot of things going on this week. Tomorrow, Cayce is going to go to Yogi Bear's Jellystone Camp and get Adalyn's free birthday present. He is also going to go help his supervisor fix up his house for him and his fiance. Tomorrow is our niece's 1st birthday. She was born 6 weeks early and was in the NICU with Addy. I call Jayden my little groundhog baby.

On Tuesday, we are going to go to walmart before Cayce heads to work to get some food. On Wednesday, will be Addy's birthday. We are going to go to bi-lo and get her little bunny birthday cake. I have no idea what I am going to feed her. She ate some potatoes today. She LOVED it.

I have been talking to a friend that I met 3 years ago online. His name is John. There are some feelings there for him, and he is really really REALLY sexy. He lives in California, which sucks. One day we will meet.

I have to go finish the alphabet and start on the numbers for the binder. I'm on the letter Z.

Homeschool Preparations

My senior year of high school, I was pregnant with Samantha. I started thinking of her future and schooling. I wanted her to go to public school, but I also wanted resources at home to help her learn. I had a computer class, and one day we had a substitute teacher. I ditched my work and started browsing the internet for learning resources and found coloring pages that were useful. Letters, numbers, states, countries. I printed off every page I saw and took them back to our apartment, and started working on binders that would help our child grow.

I worked on the states first, and finished within 2 months. I was so proud of myself. After Samantha arrived, I got way behind on the alphabet, and never got back to it until 2 days ago. I have done so much. I am almost done with the alphabet and going to start on the numbers right away. The next one I'll be working on is the countries.

Adalyn will be 1 next Wednesday, and I have to get her tot school ready. Homeschool preparations are so tough and time consuming. It's hard to do when there are 3 little ones are running around.

I'll post pictures at a later date. I will be getting the ABC and number binder done this weekend.

Master Closet Nightmare

I CANNOT look into my master closet because it is a disater. Everything is just thrown in there, and now since I have possession over the whole thing, I know I'm going to have the tedious task of cleaning it up. UGH!!! I need to get in it, so I can organize my clothes and see what I can buy with my half of our tax refund. We still haven't filed yet because our tax accountant is slacking and being downright lazy.

I will upload a before picture of my closet when I finish organizing and cleaning it with an after pic. I just have so many projects on my plate as is, and I'm having panic attacks everyday that goes by and we haven't got our taxes done.

I am going to go to bed now. Hoping I'll have a better day, a more productive day tomorrow.

Prep. Curriculum: Week 20

This week's lesson was about balloons. The vocabulary word was helium.

On Monday, she colored two pictures of balloons and loved the zebra striped ones.

She doesn't understand the difference between regular balloons and hot air balloons just yet. I would like for her to see one in person one day.
On Tuesday, we didn't do any paper or sit down work. We went around pointing out everything orange.
On Wednesday, she did the letter T. When I told her the letter, she held out her sippy cup and asked for some "tea". It was so funny, and I had to explain to her that there was a letter T. Now, she knows the letter.

She did these two pages all on her own, and it made me so proud that I didn't have to help.
Since, she did so well on Wednesday, I gave her Thursday off.
On Friday, we did the number 20. Before we even started the lesson, she pointed out the number 2 right away. It made me even more proud. She is still having trouble counting the teen numbers, but she did 19 and 20 perfectly.

This week, she has it off. I am going to be reviewing numbers with her, and help her with number 13 and up.

Samantha's School Schedule

Samantha has 6 more weeks of this curriculum and I had to revise it again this morning. Her last day of this curriculum will be March 22.

Here is the rest of her schedule:

Week 21: February 4
Week 22: February 11
Week 23: February 18
Week 24: February 25
WEEK OFF: March 4
Week 25: March 11
Week 26: March 18

After this curriculum, I'm going to review with her for a week or 2. Then I will start her letter of the week curriculum, so she can learn the alphabet better.

When Samantha starts her letter of the week curriculum, I am going to start Ariana on the prepatory curriculum. I'm going to take it real slow with her. During taxes, I'm going to buy some of the books that the curriculum lists.