Not only is green jello with sliced cucumbers refreshing and great for any picnic, but it was also my dad’s favorite version for jello! The sugary lime jello is perfectly paired with the crisp and refreshing cucumber. Placing cucumbers in jello doesn’t affect their texture and the cucumbers also don’t change color in this side/dessert. This recipe is easy to make and a great way to sneak something healthy into their food. Nothing says summer like cucumbers in lime jello!
Pour 2 packets of green jello into a medium-large sized bowl. Turn your water to hot and let run until fully heated. Place 2 cups of hot water into the bowl. Stir until powder is mostly dissolved. Add 2 cups of cold water. Stir until remaining powder dissolves. Cover and place into the fridge for 1 hour.
Wash 2 medium sized. Cut your cucumbers as you desire. Once an hour has passed, add your cucumbers to your jello mix. Cover and return to the fridge until solid.
I make carbonara quite often. If you want an adult mac & cheese, this is perfect for dinner dates, or for the whole family. This carbonara recipe is more authentic Italian than most, because carbonara is not supposed to use milk/cream, however many choose to use them to thicken and make a creamy sauce. However, as long as you don’t over cook your eggs when adding your pasta, your sauce will come out plenty creamy. This recipe is unique because I have added sharp cheddar to the cheese sauce. This makes the sauce less mature with the parmasean flavor and a little more like a homemade mac & cheese. I also added broccoli for a healthy touch and to add color to this mono-toned dish. This recipe made 5 adult sized portions.
Steam 1/2 a small head of broccoli, about 2 cups.
In a large sauce pan, bring water to a boil. Once boiling, add 12 Oz of spaghetti. Boil until al dente.
In a medium large serving bowl, mix together 2 eggs, 1 cup of grated parmasean, and 1 1/2 cup of chopped white sharp cheddar.
Once noodles reach al dente, take 1 cup of pasta water. Add 1/4 cup to your cheese mixture, and stir for 30-45 seconds.
Strain your noodles and shake 3 times before adding to cheese mixture. Move quickly and begin stirring noodles till sauce becomes smooth. Add your steamed broccoli and stir. Serve right away.
Curry is an easy dish to make, but all you really need is the spices. I’ve made curry before, but this time I tried a couple different things. This time I used tomato products, and I added enough spices to get some actual spiciness off of the curry. Curry makes a lot of food, and after eating it for several days, we froze the remainder to enjoy again later. The hot spice on this curry mellowed out over time, but I inevitably froze it due to eating up all the white rice I had cooked with it. And, as long as you don’t mix in the rice, the curry will reheat with the same texture and flavor after it’s been frozen. This curry recipe makes approximately 11 adult sized servings. Finally, for this recipe I used leftover sauce from a stromboli we had gotten about a week prior, and I diced up the leftover grilled zucchini, so I didn’t have to heat it as long as you will if you are starting from raw.
In a medium saucepan, add 1 1/2 cup of rice. Rinse the rice under running water until the runoff is almost completely opaque (4-5 rinses). Add 2 cups of water to the rinsed rice, then add to stove over medium heat. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, cover and reduce heat to low, then cook for 18-20 minutes. Then, remove from heat.
In a large dutch oven, add 1 qt of diced tomatoes and juice, and 1/2 a jar of tomato sauce. Turn heat to medium low and cover.
In a frying pan, brown and breakup 1 pound of ground beef. Dice an onion and add 1/2 to the beef, cook till translucent. Add the beef and onion to your dutch oven. Add 1 Tbsp oil to your pan. Dice and add 2-3 small zucchini to the pan and cook until very tender. Add zucchini to your dutch oven.
Turn your dutch oven heat to medium-high. Bring mixture to a simmer. Once simmering, add 1 Tbsp curry powder, 1/2 Tbsp cumin, 1 Tbsp chili powder, 1/2 Tbsp ground ginger, 2 tsp Cayenne pepper powder, 1 tsp cinnamon, and 2 tsp paprika. Stir. Cook until rice is done, but for at least 4-5 minutes to let the flavor permeate.
Our guest room, if you could even call it that before, was used mostly for storage, but it also had our cat’s supplies and Josh’s desk. Now that the floor was complete, we came up with some plans for the room to be a guest room and at home office. With this in minds, the first thing we did was decide how to paint the room. We decided that since we had no orange in the house it would be a good choice. I wasn’t a big fan of orange as a color, but I wanted a new and unique color for the room. We picked up a sample of a saturated and bold orange. I had planned to just paint one spot, but I ended up using almost the entire can, and created what we decided would be an accent wall.
Because the accent wall was hand painted instead of rollered on, it had lots of inconsistencies in color and had lots of texture. I personally loved the effect and decided to leave it that way. So, since that was our accent wall, we wanted something neutral but also slightly orange in order to match the existing wall. That is when we decided on Belgian Waffle. The color was slightly darker and orange compared to the existing color, but it was subtle enough to barely notice it was painted if it had been a while since you saw the room.
Finally, I painted the trim pieces with a new layer of white paint, and Josh installed them with a air brad nailer. Finally, we moved in from our room. In the future, we have a spare bed that will be going were our bed is. Our spare is a full instead of the queen that we have. I plan on leaving the open nightstand where it is against the wall after the legs get finished. On the other side of the bed we will have enough room to fit Josh’s desk against the wall with the window, and there should be enough room to add my cedar chest at the foot of the bed. The rug we bought specifically for this space. It’s a 6 ft x 9 ft rug, and we plan to have it stick out at the foot of the bed, as it is seen here. Josh and I are temporarily moved in here as we are working to redo the floors in our room next.
Pasta salad is a summer staple. Cool foods are so refreshing in the summer and all the fresh veggies make it so delicious! For this recipe, I used frozen broccoli. You can use fresh, but I just prefer how much longer frozen veggies last. I used 4 small onions and that was all I really needed. This recipe is really simple and doesn’t take long to make at all. The broccoli adds good flavor and texture, but most of the flavor comes from the onion and Italian dressing. This recipe also made a lot of pasta! We probably got 6-7 side sized servings from it.
Dice up 1/4 a head of Broccoli and stream it for 10 minutes or until fork tender. Or, microwave a bag of frozen Broccoli as directed on package. Set aside and let cool.
In a medium pan, bring water to a boil. Add 1 1/2 cup dried macaroni and boil until al dente. Strain your noodles, rinse with cool water, strain off excess water, then transfer to a medium-larger serving bowl.
Dice up 1/2 an onion or 4 shallots and add them to your pasta.
Strain your broccoli and run under cool water for a few minutes. Add all of your steamed broccoli (1/2 the bag) to your pasta. Add 2 Tbsp italian dressing, 2 Tbsp Ranch dressing, and 2/3 cup mayo. Add 1 Tbsp italian seasoning, and 2 tsp paprika. Stir. Serve immediately or chill before serving.
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