Fabulous Friday!

Note: I totally wrote this post last night and then got so caught up watching the season 2 finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Netflix that I forgot to post it (I am a total nerd, I know)! Anyhow, here's a rundown of my fabulous Friday!

To quote my husband (which I do frequently), "today was a nice-ass day!"

Indeed, it was.

We woke up around 7, made breakfast (Bob's Red Mill 10-Grain Hot Cereal with mashed banana and maple cinnamon almond butter), and morning beverages (coffee for me, tea for him), then snuggled in our PJs and watched this week's Top Chef!

Does anyone else love Top Chef as much as we do? We have been totally addicted for multiple seasons. I'm not sure who I have pegged for the finals yet, but I do know that I do not like Angelo. He rubs me the wrong way. Any other opinions?

After getting our foodie fix, we went for a short hike at St. Joseph's Hill. This hike is always a super excuse for Brian to convince me to get lunch at his favorite cafe, The Purple Onion. 

We had a yummy lunch (B got the Norcal Nicoise Salad with seared Ahi tuna and I got a Thai Turkey Sandwich with basil and thai mayo - just a little, on the side!) and then headed home to putter around and pretend to get a lot of stuff done, when in reality I just laid out by the pool for a while. But hey, it's summer!

For dinner, I made a pasta bake, in an attempt to eat down the fridge before we leave on Sunday. 

Meg's Veggie Pasta Bake
Ingredients

• 3 cups veggies (I used 2 cups bell peppers, 1 cup yellow onion)
• 16oz dried pasta
• 2 jars pasta sauce
• several handfuls fresh spinach
• shredded cheese (I like mozzarella)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400.
2. Dump your veggies in the bottom of a 9x13" baking dish (I usually put my baking dish on top of a cookie sheet to avoid spillage on the bottom of my oven)
3. Top with pasta (I used a combo of spinach pasta and enriched pasta because I was trying to use up some leftovers).
4. Top pasta with spinach and pour pasta sauce over top
5. Cover with tinfoil and bake for 35-45 minutes. Stir at 20 minutes and then again at 10 minutes.
6. Remove foil and top with cheese. Crank up the heat to 500 (or turn on your broiler). Cook for another few minutes until cheese is bubbly.

Brian had just gotten back from mountain biking with his dad. I think he liked it...

What a goober!

For dessert I enjoyed a handful of dark chocolate, dried cherry, almond, cashew, and pistachio trail mix. The perfect small bite!

 

My Life-Saver: TJ's Melange a Trois

I always try to have a bag or two of these frozen peppers in my freezer. Makes getting dinner on the table on a busy night (or a night when you don't have much in the way of groceries), so much easier! And they are super cheap - it costs less to buy one of these bags than it does to buy a fresh bell pepper!

What is your favorite time-saver in the kitchen? Bottled pasta sauce? Precut carrots? Frozen corn?