Pasta Bake & Coleslaw

ZESTY PASTA BAKE

Ingredients:
8 oz sliced mushrooms
1 yellow onion
1 box whole wheat rotini pasta
1 lbs turkey sausage
28 oz crushes tomatos
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup shredded colby-jack cheese
1 medium zucchini chopped into bite sized chunks
crushed red pepper (to taste)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray 9x13 pan with cooking spray
Prepare pasta as directed on box
Meanwhile, place sausage in large skillet. Add onion, zucchini, and mushrooms. Cook until sausage is no longer pink.
Add crushed tomatoes and crushed red pepper flakes to skillet, cook for 2 minutes or until bubbling.
Add cooked pasta to skillet and mix until pasta is well coated.
Spoon half of pasta mixture into pan, layer with mozzarella cheese, the rest of the pasta, and top with colby-jack cheese.
Bake for 15 minutes or until heated through and cheese is melted.


COLESLAW
I was pretty happy to make this recipe for 2 reasons... #1: I like coleslaw, #2: I bought a HUGE cabbage (5 1/2 lbs) for $0.48! Needless to say I made a pretty large batch!

Ingredients
cabbage
carrots
green peppers

Sauce:
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (or white vinegar)
1/2 cup mayo
salt and pepper to taste
(since I had such a large cabbage I doubled the sauce)

Directions:
Chop/shred/slice all veggies and mix in a large bowl
In another bowl combine sauce ingredients, stir, pour over veggies, and mix well.

Awesome Weather & Grilling!

The past few days have been BEAUTIFUL!! Temps in the high 70's with a slight breeze and sunny... IN MARCH IN THE MIDWEST! Crazy! Birds are singing, the heat in the house is turned off, windows are open, grass is growing, I am able to run outside without a coat on. Everything is just putting me in a good mood :)

To make things even better, we broke out the grill after having it covered up all winter! YAY! On Tuesday I marinated some chicken breasts and made potato and onion foil packets for the grill. It all turned out very moist and yummy (I used a chipotle lime marinade).

Then, yesterday, Brandon made "Juicy Lucy" burgers. These are pretty much taking 2 thin layers of meat and putting a stack of cheese in the middle, then sealing the edges. The result is a hamburger patty with a pocket of melty-ooy-gooy-delicious cheese in the middle. They turned our really well! I love grilling :)

3-2-1 Cake

Here is a simple recipe my mom showed me called "3-2-1 Cake"

Mix together:
One box of cake mix (any flavor...I used chocolate)
One box angel food cake mix

Take 3 tablespoons of the cake mixture, 2 tablespoons water, stir, and heat in microwave safe mug for 1 minute.

The result is a perfectly sized individual portion of cake! (even better with a little scoop of ice cream on top! yum!)