Tuna, Anyone?

Tuna, Anyone?

Tuna Pasta
(This is my favorite “It’s 5:00 and I don’t know what to
make for dinner” recipe. That happens to me a lot. Sorry there are not a lot of measurements. It’s such an easy recipe, you just throw it all together. It really doesn't have a strong tuna flavor. Our kids love it.)

½ onion, chopped
Olive oil
Shredded carrots, optional
1 can tuna
2 8 oz cans tomato sauce
1 tsp sugar
Basil
Cayenne, if you like
Salt, pepper
¾ box pasta
Sauté the onion in olive oil, and add a few shredded carrots if you feel like it. When they're soft, add a can of tuna and sprinkle the surface area with dried basil. Cook for a minute, then add 2 8 oz cans tomato sauce, some cayenne, salt, and pepper, and sugar (Sometimes I add a little chopped up tomato if I have it.) While that's simmering, I cook up 3/4 box of pasta, we like penne or rigatoni, then mix together and serve with parmesan cheese. (You could cook a whole box of pasta, but you may need some extra tomato sauce or don't simmer and let it reduce as long. We don't eat a whole box yet with our family.)


Easy Tuna Casserole

3 cups cooked macaroni
2 cans tuna, drained
2 cans condensed cream of chicken soup
1 1/4 shredded colby jack cheese (or cheddar, since that's all I ever have)
1 cup French fried onions and breadcrumbs (mixed)
Palmful of each - garlic powder, onion salt, oregano leaves and basil leaves
Sprinkle - celery seed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a 9x13 baking dish, combine the macaroni, tuna, soup and seasonings. Mix well and then top with cheese.
Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, or until bubbly. Sprinkle with French fried onions and bread crumbs and bake for another 5 minutes.
Serve hot.

A Bad Mom Moment

Yesterday morning I was brushing my teeth when I heard a very loud bang and "The Cry" that tells you something is definitely wrong. Eleyna had tripped over her feet and landed head first into the corner of the wall, splitting her head open. As far as head splitting goes, it wasn't terrible, but it was bad enough. I held it closed for awhile while I called my neighbor to watch the kids, then a friend drove me to the doctor where she got her head stitched back together.
I don't feel like a bad mom because I could have prevented it in any way. I didn't leave her by herself very long, she didn't trip on anything left around by house cleaning neglect. I mean, I guess I could have held her hand while she walked out of the kitchen...
I feel like a bad mom because as we sat in the doctor's office reading books as her head numbed, just me and her, she had the time of her life. I think she was so happy to be alone with me for such a long time. After getting stitched up, she left the doctor's office with a big grin on her face.
Poor girl, stuck between a demanding older sister, and a baby for most of her life. I feel bad that I haven't spent more time alone with her.

Baking

And not the cooking kind, either. Our swamp cooler is about to die, so it doesn't work after 11:00 in the morning. We have to get the house as cold as possible, glide through until about 6:00, then finally cool off again about 9:00 at night. I hate to wish for the weather to cool off, because that just means snow will be here quicker than we want, but ... I wish the weather would cool off.
And about the cooking kind, I miss baking. I don't dare cook anything and heat our house up more. I can't wait to make bread and cookies and an oven baked dinner again.

To make the heat work for me, I did make some fabulous fruit leather outside a few days when it got to be about 100 degrees. I mixed 1 quart of applesauce with 1 T Jello dissolved in 1/4 cup of boiling water. I spread it out on my super handy Tupperware silicone pad, and left it outside all day in a Jelly Roll pan covered with some see through fabric- cheesecloth would work nicely if I had it. (You could also put it in 2 13x9 pans sprayed with Pam and bake at the lowest setting in your oven, or of course in a dehydrator.)

I also roasted some homemade granola in the sunshine, which worked quite nicely.

The Trouble with Sisters

The planets have aligned and I'm finally posting on our blog. (OK, I just turned on a movie.)

Here are the disadvantages of only having sisters:

• Loves to try on Princess shoes
• Loves to wear bead necklaces
• Cries, "Ow! Ow! Ow!" when I even touch a comb to his head.

And yet, he's definitely all boy. He's our first big climber. (I'm afraid he is going to learn to climb out of the crib soon, since when I get him out he's standing on his bottle to get higher up.) He can down an ice cream cone in less than 5 minutes as his sisters daintily lick the ice cream and it all melts down the opposite side. He loves cars and trains and food.
Oh, and he's finally putting words together like: "I want some!" (Sounds like awe-some), "I outside again!"

10 Years since high school, 9 years of marriage

This weekend was my 10 year reunion. Jake couldn't understand why I've been looking forward to it so much. I just really loved high school, especially now that it's been so long that I've forgotten all of the reasons why I didn't love it. I had really great friends, so many fun memories. Besides the fact that only a few of the friends I really hung out with came, I had a really great time. It was so nice to catch up a teeny tiny bit on people's lives.

So, the best things about being out of high school?

1) I finally don't look 16. Maybe I look 20? ........ Please?

2) I'm finally glad to be tall. I hated being tall, especially in junior high when I was taller than the boys.

3) You really can't trade life experience for youth. (Cliche, I know.) Especially since I'm not a great book learner. I forget things too quickly. I have to actually experience it to remember it.

4) I've had the greatest friends in the past 10 years. I feel so lucky to have met them and so sad to have left them behind moving around so much.

5) I'm glad to finally have my own opinions about a few things, at least about my own household, maybe not about politics yet. It took me longer than most to get past my parent's ideas about things.

We also celebrated our 9 year anniversary this weekend. We stayed in a fabulous themed-room hotel, decorated like Morocco. It had a wonderful jetted tub and aromatherapy shower (if you like to be stifled and extremely hot, which Jake did.) It was a relaxing kid-free vacation. (Here are some pictures.)

So what have I learned in 9 years of marriage? Jake and I are absolutely opposite in every way possible and perfect together anyway.