Tortellini with Blush Alfredo

I feel like the title makes this sound way more impressive than it actually is. In all honesty, this is not so much a recipe as me sharing with you one of my toss together meals when I need a quick fix.  It is what my sister would call "semi-homemade" (or the food network, whatever). Using my typical kitchen staples, I am able to make a decent pasta dish in about 15 minutes.

 This kind of started out because I never liked jarred Alfredo sauce, yet when I lived with my mother she always seemed to have it in her pantry. My mom has this one pot "wonder" she would make at least once a week with chicken and whatever veggies she had with Alfredo and either a gallon of oil or a pound of butter. I may be exaggerating with the amounts of saturated fat she used, but probably not by much. The food would glisten. I grew to hate this dish, along with a lot of my mothers cooking. Don't get me wrong, I love my mother. She is a wonderful woman who has taught me many things. Cooking healthy is not one of them. I try to encourage her to make some changes in her diet and cooking habits. Old habits are hard to squash; one day I hope she takes to heart what I share with her.

I can be a bit overbearing with the "healthy lifestyle" tips with my family, only because I care and don't want to see them succumbed to cardiovascular disease or any sort of cancer. I have learned alot about what we put into our bodies lately. I would really like to share that with whoever is reading this. Right now is probably not the best time to go on that tangent though, since I am about to share a quick meal that I have probably made more over the course of the years more than I have ever made any other specific meal. Like I said, before my ramblings took ahold of me, this idea originated when I was not fond of the taste of the jarred Alfredo sauce. I added some red spaghetti sauce and found it made pink! There goes my blush sauce. Even better, one night I did not have any red sauce so I dumped a can of diced tomatoes into the Alfredo. I have never looked back.

• Frozen tortellini or ravioli (any pasta really...whatever is on hand)
• Jar Alfredo sauce
• Can diced tomatoes
• One bag frozen broccoli, green beans, or peas (I like broccoli the best, but again, whatever you have will work. Especially if it is green.)

Prepare the pasta according to the package instructions. Combine the Alfredo, tomatoes, and vegetables in a medium sauce pan and heat. Combine and Voila! YUM

I made this as my Meatless Monday meal this week. I had some leftover chicken from the weekend, which I then shredded up and added to my leftovers for Tuesdays lunch. This is very versatile so use your imagination. This is not a recipe, but a quick meal idea. Take it and run with it. Some nights you just don't have on hand what a recipe calls for and you make do with whatever you have. That is the beauty of cooking!

Laundry Detergent

This is another catch-up post. I made an original batch of laundry detergent the same night I made my homemade dishwasher detergent. The first batch turned out to be unusable crap. After a day of sitting in my repurposed milk jug, it completely solidified. The blog I found this on warned that might happen and advised to cut down the amount of bar soup to use. Which is what I did and I am so glad I gave this a second chance.

The original recipe makes 2 gallons of detergent. I cut it down to make just one since I wasn't sure how it would turn out. Plus my largest pot is not deep enough to hold two gallons.

• 1/4 bar of soap (any kind that you would wash your body with)
• 1/2 cup Borax
• 1/2 cup washing soda
• 1 gallon water

Grate the soap using a cheese grater. Cook soap and half a gallon of the water over medium heat, until the soap shreds dissolve. Add the borax and washing soda then bring to a boil. Add half a gallon of cold water. Stir well. Using a funnel, pour your detergent into a one gallon milk jug.

Each load of laundry will use 1/2 cup of detergent. I bought measuring cups and left the half cup one down at my washer. At first I was disappointed by this second batch of detergent because of the texture. The first few loads seemed to have a lumpiness to them. Every time I load my washer, I shake well before poaring. Now it is flowing nice and smooth. Also, this detergent does not create a lot of suds, but that is ok. Suds do not necessarily equal clean. This gallon has lasted me over a month so far and still is not finished.

I will definitely stick to homemade laundry detergent from now on. By making my own detergent, I save some money and help lower my carbon footprint. Every bottle of store bought detergent I use saves the consumption of a plastic bottle that may end up in a landfill.

Bacon-Jalapeno Poppers

I'm baaacckkkk! Missed me? I'm sure you did. I missed myself a little.
Well, that sounds a bit weird. I have had a lot on my plate. I attempted to take my last college course to obtain an Associates Degree. Such a tiny little degree and 9 years after high school, I still dont have it! I'm a great student when I can apply myself. A 3.8 GPA doesn't just earn itself, you know. So when I took on this one last class, the blog wound up being the second thing that had to go on the back burner. The first was working out. Exercise has been something newly important to my daily regimen since about Thanksgiving. Even with cutting out the workouts and the blog to make time for school work, I still couldn't get it done. I wound up withdrawing from the class. Such a pity, because that was almost $600 that just blew right out my window. the stress was just too much to handle right now with starting to work full time again and managing my household alone. I have a few recipes piling up that need to be shared. I am going to work on this as well as try to motivate myself to get back into the habit of working out. A happy and healthy mommy can make all the difference in the world to a 4 year old. And THAT, my friends, is the most important. Ever.

Can you guess where I found this recipe? Nothing better than Pinterest! Except of course that one time that the link I followed put a virus on my work computer. DO NOT  click on anything that says 20 worst baby names. The original recipe I used is here. For the first time, in probably ever, I followed this recipe exactly. No substitutions or alterations. It probably helped a lot that there is only 3 ingredients. Easy peasy.

• 12 jalapenos
• 1 block cream cheese
• 8 slices raw bacon, cut into thirds

***you will need a baking sheet and a cooling rack that you would use when cooling fresh baked cookies

Preheat oven to 375. Slice the jalapenos in half and remove seeds with a spoon. Please wear gloves or wash your hand immediately after handling these peppers. You DO NOT want the accidental burning body part incident I wound up with the first time I made these. I will leave it at that, but feel free to use your imagination. Using a spoon, fill each jalapeno shell with cream cheese. If you let the cheese sit out while you are slicing and seeding the peppers, it should become softer and easier to work with. Wrap the bacon pieces around the stuffed peppers and lay it on the cooling rack. Place the cooling rack on a cookie sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes. Recipe yields 24 poppers.

You may want to have your cookie sheet covered with foil before you put the rack on and bake. The purpose of baking them on the rack and not directly on the cookie sheet is so the bacon grease can drip down off the peppers. I am not sure if this collection of grease would make the peppers soggy if you cook them without the rack.

These peppers were an absolute hit. I first made them for a super bowl party and they were the first thing devored from the entire spread. I had about 5 myself. Every time someone walked by the table, they could not resist popping one of these boys in their mouths.  I have made them again for a special Valentines treat and will be making them again for my brother-in-laws birthday dinner this upcoming Saturday. They are a bit tedious to make, but definitely worth it.

Some poppers were a lot spicier than others. I'm not sure why this happened. Maybe I missed a seed or two when cleaning them out. Maybe some of the oil was more concentrated in some of the peppers. I have no idea. Some did not seem to be spicy at all, which would make me think these are kid friendly, until you bit into that one that blows your taste buds out of your mouth...

Eat at your own risk. But they are sooooo worth the risk!