I have actually posted this recipe before, but it is soooo good, that I wanted to post it again with my modifications for Share a Spoon! With !  Head over, check out some fab PASTA recipes and link up to add your own.  I can’t wait to get more pasta ideas.  It’s become my new favorite obsession!  Aside from chocolate of course.  I got the original idea for this dish from when she made Sesame and Cilantro Vermicelli Salad.  I have changed it up a bit to suit my taste buds!

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons sesame oil

1 teaspoon crushed dried red pepper flakes

2 tablespoons soy sauce

Salad:

8 ounces vermicelli or pasta of choice – I use a whole wheat or high protein pasta

1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions

1/2 cup sliced and chopped red bell pepper

2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds – I love toasted sesame seeds!

You can also add chicken to this salad, to make a complete meal!

-Cook the pasta in a large pot of salted boiling water, according to package directions. Drain but do not rinse.
-While the pasta is cooking, prepare the dressing. In a microwave-safe dish, heat the canola oil, sesame oil, and red pepper flakes, in the microwave on high heat for 1-2 minutes. Add the honey and soy sauce and mix well.

This is currently my favorite pasta dish!  My second favorite is to take the drained pasta, with just a little of the liquid and saute it in a pan with a little olive oil.  Then add fresh Parmesan cheese, basil, red pepper flakes, and black pepper.  So easy and so good!

What about you? What’s your favorite way to eat pasta?

I’m also linking this up with for ingredient spotlight – honey, and – ingredient spotlight: bell peppers!

There are so many awesome recipes calling for peanut butter.  And peanut butter and chocolate go together like peas and carrots.  Ugh – bad example.  I hate peas.  How about…like Oreos and milk?!  Anyway, I’m getting off subject.  My point is – peanut butter is awesome, but I’m allergic.  Not severely, but enough that I avoid it.  And my son, my little Terrible Two – is allergic to not only peanuts, but tree nuts as well.  So he can’t even have a spoonful of my beloved Dark Chocolate Almond Butter.  (this stuff is the bomb!)  But due to his allergies, he has missed out on a common childhood staple.  My other 2 children eat peanut butter on a very regular basis.  Isn’t genetics weird?

I have avoided making a lot of stuff with nuts in it b/c I feel bad when Mr. Two can’t have any.  BUT, the other day, I was reading a blog post over at  and she reminded me about soynut butter.  I’ve tried it before, along with sunflower butter, but my little man wasn’t crazy about it.  I did not however, think about baking with it.  So, after reading her post I thought, hmmmm, I should make Mr. Two some soynut butter cookies!  Let him have a taste of how the other half live.  So, the other night after dinner I told my girls we were going to bake some cookies…I wanted something super quick and easy (it was a school night you know), and I remember seeing somewhere that you could make cookies with a cup of peanut butter, a cup of sugar and an egg.  I was skeptical, but thought I’d give it a try….

I used –

• 1 cup soynut butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup NuNaturals Stevia Baking Blend
• 1 T. ground flax seed with 3 T. water to replace the egg (yes, he’s allergic to those too!)

I baked these at 350 degrees for about 7 minutes I think.  Next time, however, I will not use the Stevia.  I think I’ll just try to reduce the amount of sugar a little.  These cookies, aside from having that artificial sweetener taste to them, were pretty good.  They are crumbly until they cool, but then they hold together fine.  It’s definitely a recipe I’m going to try again, and I am going to use soynut butter in more recipes!

This was the view out my back door last evening.  I wish I was skilled enough to actually capture the true beauty of it!

Growing up, I was never a big fan of mac & cheese.  Say What?!  I know, what kid doesn’t like macaroni and cheese.  Well, I didn’t.  However, that’s because all I ever had was from the blue box with the powdered cheese.  (which 2 out of 3 of my children love).  Once I discovered homemade mac & cheese, I realized what all the fuss was about, but have not had good luck making it myself.  My first experience, quite a while back, was filled with all kinds of delicious cheeses, making a roux, spending lots of time preparing….just for it to taste like….like….well, nothing.  It was the blandest mess I had ever eaten.  I still don’t know what I did wrong.  But anyway, needless to say, I haven’t been too eager to try it again.  Until I found this recipe from .  It looked too simple.  The picture looked delicious.  I decided to give it a try.  SCORE!  It was yummy and super easy!!!

Ingredients:

2 TBS butter or margarine  I used Smart Balance Light

2 1/2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni  I used whole wheat penne pasta (I couldn’t find elbow mac in ww)

1/4-1/2 tsp salt to taste

1/4 tsp dry mustard powder

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese  I used sharp, it would be good with a mixture of cheeses

3 oz precooked andouille or turkey sausage, diced (1 cup) (optional)  I omitted

3 1/2 cups skim milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put the butter in a 2-quart casserole dish and let it melt in the oven. Remove it and then add the macaroni to the dish and stir and coat. Stir in the salt, mustard, nutmeg, cheese and sausage (optional). Pour the milk over everything and stir gently.

Bake it for an hour, uncovered (don’t stir while cooking). Let the casserole cook for 5 to 10 minutes before serving it.
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See?!  I told you it was super easy.  We had ‘Sloppy Joes’, salad and mandarin oranges to go with it.  We were supposed to have the sloppy joes for dinner Sunday night, but the power went out, so we had sandwiches and chips!  That’s what happens when I try to meal plan.  Something always messes it up!  But anyway, my kids didn’t like the sloppy joe….shocker, I know.

So I decided on Apple Scones.  Sounds sophisticated doesn’t it?  Yeah, a scone is basically a biscuit in my book, but whatever, I’m sure there is a difference, I’m just too lazy to look it up.  Scone sounds better, and they were very good.  In fact I may go eat another, I’ve only had like four a couple.  The original recipe was found at , and I, of course, made a few changes.

Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Score each top into 6 or 8 pie shaped wedges. Bake in 425 F oven for 15 minutes until browned and risen. Serve warm with butter.

Because the dough was so sticky and I felt like I had to work it so much, I was expecting my scones to be little bricks.  I was also concerned with them being dry with the addition of whole wheat flour.  HOWEVER, to my pleasant surprise, they were moist and soft and yummy!  I would recommend increasing the amount of apple and cinnamon.  My shredded apple ended up being abt 3/4th cup, so it just depends on how big yo’ apple is.  I will definitely plan on making these again! 

Now, I’m planning my next apple recipe….apple butter?  egg-free apple cookies?  Not sure yet…

Linking up over at  and  for Ingredient Spotlight – Apples!

I did make these last night

 And speaking of Ms. – I won a giveaway she was hosting for from Mabel’s labels.  How cool are they?  I’ll be that mom, who appears super organized and everyone hates envies.  Except for the hair that needs highlighting, the lack of make-up, the really-needs-a-pedicure…okay, so maybe they won’t be that envious, but I’ll have cool cards to pass out to the few people I actually deem worthy of association.  haha.  (I’m only sort of kidding).  If you want your own Mama Cards, you can head over to   – she’s hosting a giveaway, but you have to hurry – THE GIVEAWAY ENDS TOMORROW!!!  I don’t mean to scream, but I wanted to make sure I had your attention.  And, you don’t have to be a mom – you can have whatever you want put on your cards!

Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend.  I’m going to go try out my pumpkin spice ale!

When I started this blog I had in mind that it would be my “happy place”. No talk of cancer, bone marrow transplants and all the other serious issues that have been a part of my life for the past year. However, if you’ve been reading, you know that my Dad has been battling Leukemia, had a bone marrow transplant, etc. What I have found is that a blog is a place where people are probably more themselves than anywhere else! It’s a place where you can say whatever you want, without editing yourself (too much) b/c of the anonymity a blog affords. So, my “real life” has definitely seeped into my posts, b/c it’s a part of who I am. With all that being said, I was debating about whether or not I wanted to share this weeks “experience”…and obviously, since you don’t see pictures of something chocolate, I have decided that I would – b/c who knows, it may help someone.

Because of my family history (we have lots of cancer and GI issues on my dad’s side), and b/c of what my dad has been going through, I have tried to be very diligent in staying on top of my health. All I have been able to think of is…anything that could be wrong would be better if caught early. I do not want my children to have to watch me go through all the things I’ve seen my dad face. So, cancer screenings have become very important to me. Hence, I give you – the good, the bad, and the ugly!

Well, Saturday I spent the day with my mom and dad.  We “celebrated” my dad’s 100th day post transplant, as it is a milestone for transplant patients.  To help celebrate, I made a cake.  Because you can’t have a celebration without CAKE!  After much deliberating, I decided on a lemon pound cake.  to be specific.  I know, yum!  I even made the cake as written – no changes or substitutions.  Yes, I’m shocked too.  However, I didn’t quite follow ALL the directions.  Such as “spray budnt pan with nonstick baking spray with flour”.  Apparently, WITH FLOUR is key here.

•2-1/2 cups flour

•1-1/2 cups sugar

•2-1/2 tsp. baking powder

•1/2 tsp. baking soda

•1/4 tsp. salt

•1/2 cup orange juice

•1/4 cup lemon juice

•3/4 cup canola or safflower oil     I used canola

•2 tsp. vanilla

•4 eggs        I only used 3 eggs b/c the hubs bought HUGE jumbo eggs – they had to be from a mutant chicken

•1-3/4 cups powdered sugar

•1/2 cup lemon juice

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray 12 cup bundt pan with nonstick baking spray with flour. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, salt, orange juice, 1/4 cup lemon juice, oil, vanilla, and eggs. Beat well until combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake at 325 degrees F for 40-50 minutes until dark golden brown. While cake is in oven, combine powdered sugar and 1/2 cup lemon juice and whisk to blend.

Remove cake from oven, beat powdered sugar mixture again, and carefully spoon 1/2 of the lemon and powdered sugar mixture over cake. Loosen edges of cake and turn out onto serving plate. Slowly drizzle remaining lemon mixture over cake. Let cool.
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It was very good.  I don’t know if I would call it a pound cake, b/c it wasn’t as dense as normal pound cake, but definitely a good cake.  Next time, I will play around with the ingredients just to see if I can make it with less fat, and I will add blueberries!  B/c I love lemon and blueberries.  The glaze is very sweet and very tart at the same time.  I think some lemon zest would be a good addition to the cake as well as adding some orange juice to the glaze.  Damn, now I want to make another cake.  Guess me and Mr. T. Two will be heading to the grocery store.  Always fun with a 2 yr. old.  Hope everyone had a FABU weekend!