Mr E about to eat a new recipe - Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies - Yum!

I'll update this post in a bit after the baby is asleep. I had an intense craving for chocolate and PB and came up with this variation. This recipe is to die for -- so moist and delicious.

Miss Em dyed her hair purple!

First baby ice cream cone at Sweet Tomatoes

Friday Night Family Tie Dye

Adam & Eve

I just finished this book, Adam & Eve, a few days ago by Sena Jeter Naslund.  It was very good and a bit magical.  It begins with Lucy Bergman, the wife of a very famous astrophysicist who has discovered evidence of extraterrestrial life on other planets.  She travels with him to speeches around the world, and he has yet to tell the world of his findings.  Before his next speech when he will tell the world, he gives her the flash drive with all the information to wear around her neck, and she is supposed to give it to him right before his speech that day.  Well....he's killed by a falling piano of all things!  Before he dies, he tells her if something happens to him, she must decide when the time is right to reveal to the world about his findings.

She is invited to speak at another seminar in Egypt to celebrate her husband's life and while there she becomes grief stricken once more.  She flees and decides to go to Nag Hammadi where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, and soon she begins a new journey.  She is approached by a strange man at the seminar, who later finds her at Nag Hammadi, to smuggle a secret codex he has found to France where he will meet her.  The codex predates the book of Genesis and has the potential to even disprove it.

In the background of all of this happening is a secret organization called Perpetuity whose members are hellbent on keeping religion intact in this world and will do whatever they can to stop such things as the evidence of extraterrestrials and this codex.  So...while Lucy is flying the codex out of Egypt something happens to her plane and she crashes and ends up in an "Eden" of sorts with a stranger named Adam. 

Next up is The Bright Forever.  I'm hoping to finish it in the next couple days and have a review next week.  I can't put that book down. If you enjoyed The Lovely Bones - it's right up your alley.

Five Cheese Baked Ziti

 

I made this up the other day while trying to make something new, and it came out wonderfully good.  It takes just 10-15 minutes to make, especially if you use those new quick cooking pasta, then I bake it for about 10 more minutes to melt the cheese. I like it better with ground turkey because the meat just falls apart. Also of note, we LOVE garlic in our family, so this has a lot of garlic in it -- you can decrease it if needed. 

This recipe is perfect to have leftovers for lunches.  For our family, this is enough to feed a family of 4, plus it's perfect for the baby to have finger food, and it leaves enough leftovers to have for about 2 or 3 days worth of lunches. 

Five Cheese Baked Ziti

1 box of quick cook penne or rotini

1 to 1.5 lbs of ground turkey or hamburger

1 can of crushed tomatos

1 4 oz. can of tomato sauce

1/4 cup of water

1 cup of shredded italian cheese blend - mine had 5 cheeses in it (hence the name, lol)

6 slices of provolone cheese - optional

2 tbs Parmesan cheese

1 tbs olive oil

1 tbs of minced garlic

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1 tsp Garlic powder

1 tsp Onion powder

Preheat oven to 350.  

While heating up pan for browning the meat, add the olive oil and coat bottom of pan.  Boil noodles per directions on box while browning ground turkey.  While browning meat add parmesan cheese, garlic powder, onion powder, italian seasoning, and minced garlic.  After meat has no pink, turn heat to medium-low and add crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, and water.  Let the meat-tomato mixture start bubbling before adding to noodles.  Drain noodles, then mix with tomato mixture, and gradually stir in shredded cheese.  Pour into casserole dish and top off with slices of provolone.  Bake for 10 minutes or until top cheese is melted.  Serves 6-7 people.

Next recipe will be meat loaf....my kids love meatballs, so my meatloaf is essentially a loaf-sized meatball.