Comfort Food to the Rescue!

On those nights when both my hubs and I had pretty crummy days where nothing seemed to go right and we were so busy at work or with school, I love making comfort food to cheer us up for the rest of the night and hopefully give a positive attitude for the next day! Food always warms my soul! 
 
With this thought in mind after a long and not so great day (especially for my husband), I decided to make Pizza Rolls tweaked from 2 great places, my homemade pizza sauce to iPackLunch recipe to calm the palette with comfort food :)

Getting all the ingredients together

HOMEMADE PIZZA SAUCE!

All ready to go in the oven!

Pizza rolls..... Chow down!

DIP IN SOME EXTRA PIZZA SAUCE FOR A BLAST FROM THE PAST PIZZA ROLL FOR ALL YOUR COMFORTING NEEDS!

Ingredients:

Reduced Fat Crescent Rolls (whichever brand you like)
Italian Style Shredded Cheese or just plain mozarella

Fresh Pizza Sauce (or store bought if you have it on hand)

  2 tablespoons olive oil

1 garlic clove

  1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes

1 teaspoon dried marjoram

1 teaspoon dried basil 

Salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste

To make pizza sauce: In a medium sized pot over medium/low heat, saute the garlic in the olive oil for a couple minutes.  Add the remaining ingredients, stir together, and turn up the heat to medium high until it begins to bubble.  Reduce heat to simmer.  Can use as is or make ahead and store in your refrigerator.

Add Pizza Sauce and shredded cheese to crescent rolls and roll as tightly as possible.  Place on greased pan or silpat and bake as rolls were directed/until browned.  Serve alongside warmed pizza sauce for dipping.  Homemade comfort food to cheer up your spirit and your tummy! 

Cheers to the Weekend!

School and life craziness and I abandoned my dear blog friend... So ashamed, but I'll try to make it up! Crazy kind of week it has been! Of course, mine started out with a bang..... and I mean a big one! An allergic reaction causing my lips to excessively swell, and boy was that an experience (not to mention my hubs probably wouldn't have left the house with me if I paid him!, but I don't blame him!).  

1. Seriously, no plastic surgery went into the making of this picture.... an allergic reaction to.... who knows.... Can't be explained with words, so just see this magic for yourself :\

Oh yes, no exaggeration :(

At least it eventually calmed down to....

Still wasn't down on leaving the house...

12-15 hours later.... ALMOST back to normal!!!!

  TINY way to go!... eventually I got my lips back!

2. AMAZING outing with my "Litter Sister D" at a farm in the middle of nowhere with other Matches (Bigs and Littles).  Seriously a lifechanger, be a Big in your area, check out Big Brothers, Big Sisters... She had a BLAST!

She loved skipping rocks along the river...

Another Little Brother caught a froggy!

Can't show "Little's" faces, but here's D and I plus other matches on the Hay Ride!

3. Our littlest kiddo got spayed on Wednesday, and geesh is she a trooper! I couldn't stop thinking of her all day, hoping and praying she was okay and it was so different in the house without her energy! 

Poor girl was so scared waiting for her name to be called :(

Don't worry, she's shaved and doin' A-okay! Has all her energy back :)

4. Turned in my first Masters course paper, which read like a bullet point of facts, but I followed the directions? Hopefully it turns out okay... getting jittery waiting for my first graduate school grade!

COMPLETED ON TIME!... Prayers for the best!

Best thing to come out of this class, an online portfolio on what I'm researching throughout this semester to supplement my resume!

If you're interested, you look through it here

5. After adopting our latest furry kiddo Rory, our other animals have been vying for my hubs and I's attention... Two of us and four of them, trying to keep the lovin' going round' as much as we can!

VERY rare to have all the kiddos on the bed at once! Wishing mama a good night's sleep!

In the meantime, our pups are enjoying sunbathing...

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

 

 

 

Making your Wallet Happy!

I ALWAYSSSSS try, no matter how tired or stressed I get, to pack my lunch for the following day so avoid that oh so easy trip to Subway, Panera, etc. where it burns $3-$10 in my pocket each time... Of course I fail from time to time, we're only human, but there are more benefits than just cost savings to packing your lunch -- there are also great health benefits.  

When you make something, whether to bring to work or school the next day, you control the ingredients, the portion size, everything! This was was exemplified to me very well a couple weeks ago!

My lunch made and packaged the night before:

 Pesto Primavera Spaghetti with a Spring Mix Salad with Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette!... All homemade!

I choose certain sizes of tupperware to make sure I'm not taking 3-4 servings of pasta for lunch, but rather a small 1-2 servings with a light salad on the side, and being the preparer, I knew exactly what ingredients where in what, how much, and by bringing my dressing separately, I controlled the next day how much I would use in my salad so it's not under or over dressed.  

Another day later in the week, I just could not bring myself to make my lunch the night before and knew going to bed Panera had free Wi-Fi and was just next door and so coughed it up that this would be my "free day" to go out for lunch.  The Wi-Fi took forever to load that I wasn't able to get my work done, I ended up spending $10 on soup/salad lunch combo that was extremely salty and overdressed. I also looked up the nutritional data for my meal when I got home that evening and holy-moly.... that was NOT healthy! I still love Panera, don't get me wrong...

In a nutshell, lesson learned! **Pack your lunch Katie** :)

HAPPY LUNCHING!