Dinner Spanakopitas

I'm delighted to be participating in my first EVER "Show Us Your Life" over at Kelly's Korner!

I saw this recently on the Food Network show, Barefoot Contessa. I have to admit that her show isn't my favorite BUT I do love her cookbooks. They are great! And so is this recipe if you love spinach. When I saw the recipe I thought it would be too complicated for me, but it's super easy, however you will need to devote a little bit of time to it. Still it's worth it. So enjoy. I am just going to link to the actual recipe for Dinner Spanakopitas to make it easy, but I will upload my pictures and let you know that I substituted slivered almonds for pine nuts. I'm not a big pine nut fan, but thought a little crunch would be nice, so I tried almonds and I probably could have added some more. I actually only ate one of the spanakopitas that I made and froze the rest for a rainy day. I loved the melted feta cheese with the spinach....yummmmmmy! Thanks for stopping by.

Side note, do NOT be afraid of phyllo dough. It was my first time using it and I actually impressed myself! :)




There are two things I learned from writing this post. #1: It's NOT easy to take pictures of food and make it look good enough to eat. #2: #1 might be because I need a better camera!

and now the rest of the story....

So the talk went well. I told Jake that when he was ready sometime that day that I would like to talk to him about something I think is very important. And the result is that I have a plan and a HUGE weight lifting off my shoulders. It's truly amazing.

Okay moving on. I have a recipe to share. I found it in "Family Circle" April 1, 2009 magazine. And really I'm sharing it because my friend Jamie LOVES tortellini as much as me and so I think she will enjoy this and so will you. It's very simple and super fast.


TORTELLINI SOUP:

3 cups vegetable broth
3 cups water
1/2 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning (in a packet)
1 package (9 oz) cheese-filled tortellini
3 large carrots, peeled and sliced into coins
3 ribs of celery, thinly sliced
3/4 pounds ripe plum tomatoes (about 4), seeded and chopped
1 bag (6 oz) of baby spinach
Grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

1. In large post, bring broth, water and Italian seasoning to boil. Add tortellini and simmer for 3 mins. Add carrots and celery and simmer additional 4 mins. Stir in tomatoes and spinach ans simmer 2 more mins or until veggies are tender. Serve with Parmesan cheese.

Okay so here's somethings I did different. First off, I accidentally poured in the entire package of Italian seasoning which was (according to the package) 8 1/8 teaspoon servings. However I just added more broth and water and it still turned out wonderful. Because there's no meat, I used a bigger portion of tortellini's. And I used canned tomatoes (the garlic, oregano, and basil seasoned ones). I also added some chopped white onions. I hope you'll give it a try and if you add anything that you feel makes it better....please let me know so I can try it. Sorry by the way that I don't have a picture (I bet you could google it).

Moving on.

I made some curtains for the window that line both sides of our front door. We are trying to save on the electric bill and the light would be blinding in the afternoon once we got home. So here's a before:

And here's an after:

Jake picked the fabric and I didn't like it when we were in the store, but he let's me win on so many things that I thought it was more than time for him to win one. And I had to tell him that once they were up I absolutely loved them! He did a great job.

And lastly, I made up a mantra for myself....is that strange? I felt like I needed one for when life throws me curve balls. So I'm sharing it with you and hoping your shares yours with me, if you have one.

I am young, smart, successful, and financially stable.

I read somewhere that even if your aren't these things currently (financially stable), you should still say it as if it is in the present. Because you want these things to happen now, not in the future. NOW! :)

Happy Monday!