My littlest sweetie....

Ok, so she's not my tiniest kid these days, but she's still my tiniest girl. AND SHE's FOUR?!?!?! How did that happen??? 

Happy Birthday, Sweet Thing!

The Best Pasta Salad You've Ever Eaten...

Whenever we have a family get together planned, I always check the sale ad before I commit to what I'm bringing. This week, veggies were on sale at Aldi, so I committed to bringing a pasta salad to my father in law and daughter's birthday celebration. I always use the same method for pasta salad and people always act like it is the best pasta salad they have ever tasted. Last night, I sent my leftovers home with family, and now my people are mad at me because they wanted to snack on this! So, here is how I do it,

Ingredients -

1 lb of pasta, cooked as directed
4 or 5 different veggies (diced) (I've used bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumber and red onion)
1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
1 bottle of ZESTY (very important) Italian dressing
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions -

While your pasta is cooking, dice the vegetables and place in a large bowl. Stir in Parmesan cheese. Once your pasta is cooked, drain and rinse until it is nice and cold. Place the noodles in the bowl with the veggies and top with half a bottle of dressing. Add salt and pepper to taste. (I use a ton of black pepper and a little salt.) Once everything is mixed together, you can cover with saran and store in the fridge until you are ready to serve it. Before serving, top with the remaining half a bottle of dressing. Serve cold!

See! I told you it was super easy!!! We actually have this as our main dish for dinner a lot in the summer too! It's just so refreshing and healthy!

See more recipes at Beauty and Bedlam!

Crockpot Chicken Marinara

Whoa! I'm back! After endless seemingly endless complications and half a million boxes, we're finally almost 100% settled in to our new house! Now, if we could just find my husband's wedding ring, we'd be golden! Our new house is easily twice the size of our old house, and we are just so happy with the space! My kids have a huge finished basement to go nuts in, and they have just been thrilled. My six year old's first request was for a trapeze down there, which was good for a laugh! Regardless, I haven't heard a peep about the trapeze since the first day we moved in, their totally happy with their sea of toys and room to do cartwheels!

Of course, I'm really happy to be back to cooking! I even have empty cabinets in my new kitchen! The new kitchen is not without it's quirks, but I'll get used to it. (I'm really missing my island!) We'll make some changes over time too. And, you'll notice that my pictures have a new setting! We have a really sunny eat in kitchen nook that I think will be very picture taking friendly! I ALSO have a super old and ugly table (see above) that isn't the hottest back drop. Someone gave us this table ten years ago when my husband moved in to our first apartment. It's been in the basement of our old house since 2006, but we had to break it back out since we have both a formal and informal eating space now! We'd planned on replacing it before we moved in, but I haven't found an alternative that I like either. I'd rather stick with something free that I hate than pay for something new that I hate.

Sunday is my husband's new work day. I was happy to try out a new recipe in the crockpot while the kids and I hit the pool this afternoon. My oldest daughter really loved it! She had three huge bowls! Here is my adapted recipe,

4 boneless chicken breast halves

3 cups of marinara sauce

1 handful of grape tomatoes

1/2 cup Italian salad dressing

1-1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/3 orange bell pepper

2 tablespoons of butter

1 box of rigatoni (I use rigatoni because it's so much easier for little people to manage.)

1/2 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Directions -

• Place chicken in a 4-qt. slow cooker. In a small bowl, combine the marinara sauce, tomato, Italian salad dressing, Italian seasoning, garlic and bell pepper; pour over chicken. Cover and cook on low for 4-5 hours or until chicken is tender. Melt in 2 tablespoons of butter when the chicken is cooked.
• Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions; drain. Serve chicken and sauce with pasta; sprinkle with cheese.

Brown Sugar and Butterscotch Scones

Here is another version of my amazing scone recipe. They were so great! My husband said they were his favorite yet!

Scones:

• 4 cups flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla
• 1 cup room temperature butter, cubed
• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 cups milk
• 1 cup of butterscotch chips

Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Cube the butter and mix in to the mixture until the butter is pea sized. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and milk together. Stir into the flour mixture until the dough is moist, do not over mix. Knead in the butterscotch chips. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead a couple of times. Divide dough into two equal balls. Pat each ball into an 8 inch circle. (Be careful to make sure it is not too thick in the center.) Place each ball onto a parchment paper lined or greased cookie sheet. Score each circle with a knife into 6 wedges. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 25-30 minutes, or until done and lightly golden. Allow the scones to cool.

Pampered Chef's Veggie Pizza

I've had this pizza once before, and I thought it was amazing. It's usually served as an appetizer, but I knew my family would accept it just fine as a quick lunch after church. Today, I baked the crust when I got up and assembled later in the day when we were ready to eat. It's super fast to prepare when the crust is already cool and ready to go!

Here is the recipe (adapted from www.pamperedchef.com,)

2 8 oz packages of crescent rolls
1 8 oz brick of cream cheese (softened)
1.5 tablespoons of mayo
1.5 tablespoons of sour cream
1 teaspoon of minced garlic
1 teaspoon of dill
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups of assorted veggies (very finely diced)
1/4 cup of grated cheese

(For my veggies, I used broccoli and carrot slaw and broccoli crowns. I intended on adding radishes, but I forgot to buy them! I definitely recommend using "dry" veggies to keep everything from getting soggy. That way, leftovers will hold up just fine in the fridge for a day or so.)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Unroll crescent dough; separate into sixteen triangles. On a baking stone arrange triangles in a circle with points in the center and wide ends toward the outside. (I placed mine around the edges and let them overlap a little. I filled the center with a leftover crescent, and I had two leftover that I rolled and baked when I baked my crust.) Using a rolling pin, roll the dough to press the seams together. Trim any excess. Bake 12-15 minutes or until light golden brown. Remove from oven; cool completely.

1. Combine cream cheese, mayonnaise, sour cream, garlic pressed with Garlic Press and dill weed. Season with salt and black pepper; mix well.. Spread cream cheese mixture evenly over crust.
2. Dice all of the veggies in to a fine dice.
3. Sprinkle vegetables and grated cheese over pizza.
4. Slice and serve!

Salsa Con Queso Macaroni

I'm always so excited when I find a new recipe for my family to try. Since we eat at home almost 100% of the time, I just get soooooooooo bored with our regular menu items. I always get really discouraged when I try to find new recipes because it seems like everything is a boring version of the same thing. That being said, Mexican Mac and Cheese?!?!?! So not boring! I used this recipe from TheWellFedNewlyweds. for inspiration, and switched it up a little bit and adjusted it to feed a family of 5. This is how I made it!

Ingredients

1 lb large macaroni shells pasta
2 tsp. vegetable oil
1 medium red onion, diced
 4 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno, chopped (I left it in big pieces, so my kids could pick it out.)
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
2 T. flour
2 1/2 cups milk
6 T. cream cheese, diced
16 oz. Monterey jack cheese, shredded, divided
2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 box of Tyson grilled chicken strips
Salt, pepper and lime zest to taste

Directions -

Boil pasta as directed. Follow the "al dente" instructions.

While your pasta is boiling, in a separate pan, saute onion and jalapeno over medium heat until your onion is translucent. Add garlic, cumin, chili powder and flour. Once this mixture is warmed through, and milk, chicken, cream cheese, 12 oz of cheese, salt, pepper and lime zest. Stir until your cheese sauce is hot and melted through. Next, add your tomatoes and pour over your drained pasta. Stir everything together and spread in an 8x10 pan. Bake for 25ish minutes until it is hot and the cheese on top is melted.

There are a lot of ways you could mix this up! Next time, I will definitely add spinach. You could also swap out the chicken for ground beef. In a pinch, I think you could easily switch out the spices and veggies for a cup or so of jarred salsa. I love how adaptable this is!

I served mine with Pineapple and Avocado Pico de Gallo, and it was a hit! We enjoyed restaurant quality food without the restaurant price!

Pineapple and Avocado Pico

A friend of mine made pineapple and avocado salsa for our Bible Study last summer. I was skeptical at first, but I was blown away by how delicious it was. When I asked her for the recipe, she basically said she didn't have one and made me guess what was in it! Ha! It's been so long since I had it that I didn't remember exactly how she made it anyway! I just sort of "winged it," and it is just as good as the first time I had it. Here is how I made it,

Ingredients -

1 pineapple, diced
3 avocados, diced
1 red onion, diced
1 lime (zest and juice)
2 tablespoons of cilantro, chopped
Salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper to taste

(I considered using a jalapeno, but I opted not to. You could totally add one if you want something more spicy!)

Instructions --

(Are you ready for this?)

Combine ingredients and stir!

This makes a good sized batch to share at a party or take on a picnic! I will serve this as an appetizer before a new dinner we are trying out tonight, but I'm thinking we will use any leftovers on black bean tacos tomorrow. It's going to be awesome!

See more recipes at www.beautyandbedlam.com.