Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite Holidays. One for obvious reasons, all that time spent in the kitchen and eating. Two, because there is nothing in this world better to me than spending time with family! I have so much in my life to be thankful for- health, being able to be an Aunt, job doing what I love, family who supports me, Mikey who blows me away with the love he has for me, really really great girlfriends, a place to call home, an amazing man who took on the role as my grandfather and changed my life forever, having the freedom to decide what I do with my life, Jesus for being the ultimate sacrifice, Eric, Mark, and Chuck for being the best brothers a girl could ask for, my moms recovery, food on the table every night, Jetza (my car), and the list could go on but I'm sure you are starting to get bored:)

My Thanksgiving was a little scattered this year, but it brought us closer together. We had planned on doing thanksgiving with Mikey's family this year, at his sister's house. Wendy had organized what everyone was bringing and we were all set with our grocery list, checked off and ready to go. I am in love with Mikey's family, I really enjoy all of them especially his nieces and nephew. I am telling you they are some of the cutest kids (my nieces and nephews lead up this cutest kids group) and I seriously couldn't even begin to describe how cute they are, here is a pic....

Okay so you get the picture now, too cute! Well the day before Thanksgiving lil Landon (16 months) had to be admitted to the hospital, he had pneumonia in both lungs and had to be put on oxygen since he was having trouble getting enough on his own. So the thanksgiving feast was postponed till further notice. Our main concern was landon not our food. Mikey and I took over watching Emersyn, and even with the circumstances we enjoyed being able to spend some quality time with her.

He's gonna make a great daddy one day:)

Thanksgiving day I got to enjoy a thanksgiving meal twice at Cracker barrel!! The first one was with my brother up in Chattanooga. Since everyone wasn't getting together at Wendy's I joined my brother to go and see our mom who is in assistant living doing intensive therapy. She was hit by a car back in August and it has and will continue to be a very long recovery. I enjoyed spending the time with my brother, and we were both so shocked at how many people were out at Cracker Barrel! The place was packed, they did a really good job though of getting people in and out. You couldn't beat the deal- Turkey, Ham, Dressing, 2 veggie choices, biscuit or cornbread, and dessert~ All for $9! It was really good and I was happy to get a traditional meal. I had the meal again with Mikey later that night once I got back, and we both found out that we were purty smart leaving only 2 pins in their table game:)

We ended up making the things we bought for the Thanksgiving meal saturday. I made collard greens for the first time by myself. They were good but they have a long way to go before they meet the standard of my moms! I got rave reviews on my squash casserole, which is a simple recipe from Paula Deen (get the recipe here). It calls for squash and zucchini, I left the zucchini out of mine. Mikey made a delicious ham to go with the turkey.

 I don't normally care for ham much, but I couldn't stop eating it! The glaze he made for it was right on point. We finished making up the rest of the sides for Wendy so she could have a good meal before returning to the hospital.

Mmmmmmmm

Yes this years Thanksgiving meal may have been sporadic, and not have gone as planned. At the end of the day though, Family is whats important and I have to say we were so THANKFUL that after 5 days of being in the hospital lil Landon came home that Sunday morning.

too cute right!?

ttyl~Misty

Spaghetti Squash

Mikey introduced me to spaghetti squash about 3 years ago and ever since then I have been hooked! So happily I made some the other night and it was as always delicious. I got the recipe from Mikey, who learned how to make it from his mother. His mom told me that she use to make it for diet purposes but her kids loved it, and she would just do hers with butter and Parmesan. There are all different ways of making it but this is how Mikey first made it for me, and since then it is the only way that I want it. It is very simple and an inexpensive meal:)

List:
Spaghetti Squash
Spaghetti Sauce
Shredded mozzarella
Butter
Pepper
Garlic Salt
Salt

1) Cut the squash in half, long ways. Remove pulp and seeds.

2) Cover a pan in tin foil (for easy clean up, not mandatory though) Place squash on pan and season with Garlic salt, salt, and pepper. Put about 3 pats of butter onto each side.

3) Bake at 375 for 45-55min. It should be easy to shred when its done.

4)Next shred both pieces using a fork....

5) Then re season and mix in spaghetti sauce and top with mozzarella.

 

6) Place the squash back into the oven and bake until the cheese browns. Once browned, dish up or eat it straight out of the shell! I always eat it right out of the shell, makes it funner:)

Enjoy!!!!!!!

 

 

ttyl~Misty

Eat Your Veggies Pasta!

Hey Yall! If you are a follower of my blog you know that I LOVE my veggies. I want to share with you an easy pasta creation that I made the other night. No store bought spaghetti sauce in this dish! Mainly because I wanted it to be more of an olive oil base, I am not a snob when it comes to store bought spaghetti sauce, I use it all the time:)

Things you need:
1 Zucchini, sliced and halved
1 yellow squash, sliced and halved
half of an onion, diced
2 handfuls of spinach
1 can of diced tomatoes, drained (preferably the herb flavored ones like basil, etc)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Ground turkey
Whole wheat pasta noodles (I like thin)
Garlic (however you wish, minced garlic clove, garlic salt, garlic powder, just get some garlic!)
Salt

I never really measure out things when I cook, which most people don't unless you are baking. Everything is to taste, so add a lil here and a lil there, when it comes to your seasonings:)

1) Brown up your ground turkey, use how ever much you think you will need. Throw in your onion and some garlic salt to cook up with the turkey.

2) Bring some water to a boil for the noodles

3) In another skillet spray with olive oil, and turn on medium. Arrange the zucchini and squash so that it can brown up a little bit on each side. Once lightly browned on each side turn the eye down to medium low, and throw in the can of diced tomatoes. (if you don't want it to be so tedious you can throw everything in all at once and just cook all together, I'm just a little OCD and I like things a specific way) Season your sauce with the salt, garlic, and whatever else you like to taste.

4) Once the water for the pot of noodles is boiling, and your meat and sauce is good to go, start your noodles. This way you don't have cold noodles while you waiting on everthing else to cook.

5) Once the noodles are in, take your spinach and chop it up. Turn the sauce on low, and mix in the spinach. The spinach doesn't take long, this is why you wait till the end to throw it in, plus I like it to be fresh tasting and not overcooked.

Once you stir it in, the heat will wilt it a little and its good to go.

6) When the noodles are done drain them. Then stir the noodles and the ground turkey into the sauce to combine, and let the noodles soak up the flavor while they are warm.

7) Dish up! Pour a little bit of extra virgin olive oil on top and sprinkle with parmesan:)

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

ttyl~Misty