a little of this, a little of that

Although I felt a bit guilty, I left Saturday morning.

I left to enjoy about 36 hours of uninterrupted conversations and laughter.  I'm so glad I went.  I'm so glad I spent that time with girls that are precious to me.  KD beach weekend 2011 - rain, flying squirrels, drinks on a boyfriend and sisterly love.  Don't get much better than that!

 
And I got to come home to laughter and love from these precious girls on Sunday!

So lets be honest here.  Because I had so much fun over the weekend, this week has been interesting to say the least.  Not terrible, just not well thought out.  I've been tired and my home life has been messy.

I had a work conference/dinner Monday night - so Brad and the girls ate pancakes.  Tuesday night we enjoyed kids eat free night at Moe's.  Wednesday night I picked up sandwiches at J&J's Deli.  And on top of the lack of meals, I've got 4 piles of folded clothes stacked on the couch and 5 million little piles of dirty clothes around the house.

No one can do it all - right?

So on Wednesday night Lillie and I broke down and made dinner for Thursday.. a variation on this Sicilian Rice Ball Casserole from Gina's Skinny Recipes.

But I'm pretty sure I made the "fat" version of this dish.
Here's how we rolled...

• 2 cups uncooked long grain rice
• 1 package sweet/mild ground Italian sausage
• 1 onion, chopped
• salt and fresh pepper
• 8oz frozen peas
• 15 oz can of Hunts tomato sauce
  
• cooking spray
• seasoned breadcrumbs
• 2 cups shredded part skim mozzarella 

Cook the rice.
Saute meat and onions.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Then add frozen peas and about 8 ounces of tomato sauce.  Simmer on low, covered for 20 minutes.

Preheat over to 400.  Combine rice, 1/2 cup cheese, egg(beaten) and 3 ounces of tomato sauce in large bowl.  Rice will be sticky.

Spray casserole dish with cooking spray.  Coat bottom/sides of casserole dish with breadcrumbs.

Put in half the rice mixture and cover the bottom of the dish and a little up the sides.  Press to form a bottom layer.

Add the meat and peas.

Sprinkle mozzarella on top.  Top with remaining rice and press until even.  Top with remaining tomato sauce, a thin layer of breadcrumbs and remaining cheese.

Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes.  Remove foil and bake for 10 more minutes to melt cheese.

Like I said, we made the dish Wednesday night - cooked it for 20 minutes, then put it in the fridge.  Pulled it out tonight and stuck it back in the over to heat it up and melt the cheese.  Yummy.

And in other news, some of our family members have taken on a 30 day challenge!  My absolute favorite is the Sheriff's (aka Brad's Dad's) 30 day challenge to learn the guitar.

It all started with Ann sending out this Ted talk.



Inspired?  Me too!  What are you going to try for the next 30 days?