2 9-ounce packages refrigerated cheese-filled tortellini
1 pound fresh asparagus spears (about 16 spears), trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 large yellow sweet pepper, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 – 1.5 teaspoons finely shredded lemon peel
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil or salad oil
1 tablespoon Dijon-style mustard
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup finely shredded Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup sliced green onions (4)
1/2 cup pine nuts or chopped almonds, toasted
In a 4-quart Dutch oven, cook tortellini according to package directions, adding asparagus and sweet pepper the last minute of cooking; drain. Rinse tortellini and vegetables with cold water; drain again.
For dressing, in a screw-top jar, combine lemon peel, lemon juice, oil, mustard, sugar, salt, and garlic. Cover and shake well.
In a very large bowl, place tortellini and vegetables. Add dressing; toss to coat. Cover and chill for 2 to 8 hours. Just before serving, stir in cheese, green onions, and nuts. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
From Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook Bridal Edition (12th Edition)
2 tablespoon yellow cornmeal
2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 13-ouince can tomatillos
3 tablespoons snipped fresh cilantro
3 tablespoons finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 fresh jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped
In a plastic bag, combine first 5 ingredients. Add chicken pieces, a few at a time, shaking to coat.
In a large skillet, cook chicken in hot oil for 8 to 10 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink (170*), turning once.
Meanwhile, for salsa, drain, rinse, and coarsely chop tomatillos (should be about 1 cup). In a small bowl, combine tomatillos, cilantro, onion, lime juice, and jalapeno pepper. Serve salsa over chicken.
From Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook Bridal Edition (12th Edition)
Here’s the background story:
Last summer (2008), we were planning a wedding. We were trying to save money for the wedding and for our future lives together. Sugarland announced a concert in Ames in October (again, 2008). Since we were trying to save money, we didn’t get tickets.
At our wedding reception, Patrick surprised me twice. He showed a slideshow of us (super cute, by the way!) that I had no clue about! He also bought me a gift: a book with Sugarland tickets hiding inside. Yup, that’s right! He surprised me with tickets!
Since we weren’t going a major honeymoon, we were going to take another mini-moon at the time of the concert – about a month after the wedding. Then…Jennifer Nettles got sick and the concert was postponed. That was a huge bummer! The last time we attended a concert where an artist postponed, it was over 2 years before the artist came back. So we put the tickets in our new lockbox and waited it out.
In December, I think, we got the announcement that the show would be re-scheduled for Sept, 17, 2009. Just in time to celebrate our 1 year anniversary!
That was last night. We had an amazing time! Well, the beginning started off on a sour note. It’s a bit of a long story, but basically, some cheaters ruined what was supposed to be a really fun scavenger hunt for a Sugarland-related prize. Hours before the clues were supposed to come out, the cheaters turned in the key that was hidden and claimed their prizes. We hung out on the concert grounds anyways since it was a gorgeous day and we made some friends from Minnesota. (They came early for the scavenger hunt too.)
Matt Nathenson (sp?!) opened the show and he was really good. I had never heard of him, but I had heard the last song he sang, Come On, Get Higher. I’m soo glad he sang it as I love that song!
Billy Currington took the stage next; I was a little disappointed in him. He didn’t really seem to enjoy doing the show with us. I guess I had just had my ideals set too high!
Sugarland, of course, did not disappoint! They were so good! I loved it! Our Minnesota friends said we’d become addicts once we heard Sugarland live…they may be right! I can’t tell you what was my favorite part though because I loved it all. The bubble machine was super cool as were the very large bubbles that Jennifer and Kristin rolled over the audience in. They – and the rest of the band – were very much into their music, which always makes for a better concert. They were having a blast and so did the audience! My husband says I dance like Jennifer does; I take it as a compliment 
Thank you Patrick for the tickets over a year ago. And thank you Sugarland for making my husband’s first gift to me as a married couple come alive in all the best ways possible!
I made calzones the other night. They were good! Ugly, yes, a bit. But they were good!
I made 2 batches – pepperoni for Patrick and sausage for me.
I started by cooking my sausage – 3/4 pound Italian. Meanwhile, I mixed up the Jiffy pizza mix according to package directions. I split the dough into 3 parts and rolled out into an oblong shape. After draining and slightly cooling the sausage, I squeezed on some pizza sauce, added a third of the sausage, and a handful of cheese to each. Remember to only fill about halfway across! Fold over the over half of the dough and pinch the sides together. Repeat with remaining dough. Bake according to package directions, but keep an each on them as they might take less time than an actual pizza.
I did the exact same with Patrick’s except I used about 1-1.5 ouces of pepperoni per calzone. And I forgot the pizza sauce.
Careful with the fillings. Again, you only want to fill a little less than halfway across each section of rolled out dough. I used too much filling in ours so the calzone was oozing out with fillings. 
Patrick didn’t like his calzones with sauce in them. In fact, he liked them without any sauce at all. I didn’t have any calzones made without sauce, but I did like my sauce on the side better than I liked the sauce inside.
I will be making these again! And next time, I may even take a picture!
Here’s the meals that I prepped for this week. Since we won’t be eating together very often, I didn’t set dates for when we’d eat anything. We’ll just grab what sounds good!
Steak and Penne Pasta in a Garlic White Sauce
Baked Potatoes
Shredded BBQ Chicken & Cheese Wraps
Pizza Calzones – Pepperoni for Patrick, Sausage for me
Ham & Veggie Pot Pies
Scrambled Eggs/Breakfast
This should be enough for lunches and dinners all week. Yay!
Another busy week for us!
Last Saturday (the 5th) was our anniversary. We watched Scrubs all day (love Scrubs!), made puppy chow, and went to Waterfront Seafood for dinner. I tell you what, that was one amazing day!
Sunday was a pretty typical day. I attempted to shoe shop as both pair of work shoes are really worn out; very unsuccessful day. Monday was a normal day for both of us as well.
We both had Tuesday off all day. We ran some errands, cleaned the house, and had a more successful shoe shopping day. We watched more Scrubs too!
I don’t remember what happened Wednesday so I’m guessing that was a normal day, but who knows!
Thursday we spent the morning together. Patrick had an oil change in the afternoon, a few hours before he was scheduled to work. The oil change turned into much more as he had to have the brakes re-done too. That was not so great, but we’ll be ok financially. Luckily, he’s getting paid better now so we can handle these emergencies better.
Friday was a work day…all day away from home.
Yesterday I worked in the morning. Then we spent some time with my sister and her boyfriend. (Thanks for the early birthday presents!) We browsed the Brass Armadillo and the Planned Parenthood Booksale later that night too. It was a good day, all-in-all.
Today I worked in the morning and Patrick worked the afternoon. I came home and worked on the house some and made meals for the week. I’m so ready for bed!
8 ounces (2 cups) dried rigatoni
1 15-ounce can white kidney (cannellini), Great Northern, or navy beans, rinsed and drained
1 14.5-ounce can Italian-style stewed tomatoes, undrained
6 ounces cooked smoked turkey sausage, cut into 1/2-inch slices
1/3 cup snipped fresh basil
1/4 cup (1 ounce) finely shredded Asiago or Parmesan cheese
Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain; return pasta to saucepan.
Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, combine beans, undrained tomatoes, and sausage. Cooke and stir until heated through. Add bean mixture and basil to pasta; stir gently to combine. To serve, sprinkle each serving with cheese.
From Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook Bridal Edition (12th Edition)
We’ve had this official mail-in rebate order form for a $10 rebate check from Kellogg’s and a $70 coupon code from Dell sitting on the desk for quite some time now – most of the summer if I remember right. 10 proofs of purchase and the original store receipt proving that you bought all 10 items in a single transaction by the qualitying date are required.
10 items is a lot to buy. We almost did it last month, but, of couse, I wasn’t thinking about it when we bought the items so we were 2 or 3 short of a qualifying transaction.
I flipped through the 2 local store ads, Fareway and Hy-Vee, on Friday to see what deals I needed to snag over the weekend. Fareway had Nutrigran bars on sale. Hy-Vee had Pop-Tarts and select Kellogg’s cereals on sale. Hy-Vee also had a buy 3 Kellogg’s cereal + 3 Pop-Tarts, get $1.50 off coupon. Lucky me, Fareway matches Hy-Vee ads.
I looked through our coupon file, too, since I knew I had some type of cereal coupons. I had coupons for $1.00 off two select Kellogg’s cereals, $1.00 off two Pop-Tarts, and $1.00 off two select Keebler (owned by Kellogg’s) cookies.
Here’s what I bought:
| Size | Normal Price |
Purchase Price |
Manf. Coupon |
Store Coupon |
Sale Savings |
Total Store Savings |
|
| Frosted Bite-Size Mini-Wheats | 24 oz. | $3.99 | $3.99 | $0.50 | $0.25 | $0.00 | $0.75 |
| Frosted Bite-Size Mini-Wheats | 24 oz. | 3.99 | 3.99 | 0.50 | 0.25 | $0.00 | $0.75 |
| Apple Jacks | 12.2 oz. | 3.99 | 3.99 | 0.50 | 0.25 | $0.00 | $0.75 |
| Froot Loops | 17 oz. | 3.99 | 3.99 | 0.50 | $0.00 | $0.50 | |
| Frosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon Poptarts | 8 count | 1.99 | 1.68 | 0.50 | 0.25 | $0.31 | $1.06 |
| Frosted Chocolate Fudge Pop-Tarts | 8 count | 1.99 | 1.68 | 0.50 | 0.25 | $0.31 | $1.06 |
| Wildberry Pop-Tarts | 8 count | 1.99 | 1.68 | 0.25 | $0.31 | $0.56 | |
| S’mores Pop-Tarts | 8 count | 1.99 | 1.68 | $0.31 | $0.31 | ||
| Strawberry Nutri-Grain Cereal Bars | 8 count | 2.99 | 2.50 | $0.49 | $0.49 | ||
| Apple Cinnamon Nutri-Grain Cereal Bars | 8 count | 2.99 | 2.50 | $0.49 | $0.49 | ||
| Fudge Shoppe Fudge Stripes | 11.5 oz. | 2.50 | 1.67 | 0.50 | $0.83 | $1.33 | |
| Fudge Shoppe Peanut Butter Filled | 9.5 oz. | 2.50 | 1.67 | 0.50 | $0.83 | $1.33 | |
| $31.02 | $9.38 |
$9 off of $30 is pretty darn good by itself. Add in the $10 rebate check that I’ll be getting back and that’s nearly 2/3’s of the cost that I saved!
Savings Accounts
Last week, we opened a few new savings accounts at Wells Fargo.
Joint Patrick Amanda
Household* Fun** Fun**
Home Improvement* Clothing* Clothing*
Gifts*
*We’ll pay for these items with our debit cards, then transfer the correct amount of money from the correct account into checking. When the money is gone, it’s gone for the month.
**We’ll do the same thing as above with these accounts, but we can take cash out to buy whatever we want without the other knowing.
This week, I also opened the following savings accounts with ING: education, emergency (e-fund), healthcare, cars, and vacation. To use money from these accounts, a transfer from our checking is required.
Groceries
I also purchased 2 of 3 gift cards for groceries. Since most of groceries come from Fareway, I got Patrick and I each a $65 gift card to Fareway. I also need to stop by Hy-Vee for a $20 gift card for any Sunday or specialty trips we make. I might get 2 of these ($20 each every other month) so we both have money to Hy-Vee if we need it.
Bills
All our regular bills (fixed expenses), will continue to come out of the checking account as usual. We know what these expenses are worth so it’s just as easy to pay in this manner.
Again, most everything else will come out of checking initially, and then it will be reimbursed. It sounds like a bit of a pain-in-the-butt with the transfers, but if I do transfers weekly, it shouldn’t be a problem. In fact, I’m sure some categories could go all month before I need to transfer back into checking.
1 large onion, sliced and separated into rings
1 clive garlin, minced
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
1 14-ounce can beef broth
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, marjoram, or oregano, crushed
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
12 ounces thinly sliced cooked beef
4 French-style rolls, split
In a saucepan, cook onions and garlic in hot butter until tender. Stir in broth, thyme, and pepper. Bring to boiling; reduce hear. Simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Add beef. Return to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes more or until beef is heated though.
If desired, toast rolls. Remove beef slices and onion rings from liquid. Arrange on rolls. Serve with individual dishes of broth for dipping.
From Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook Bridal Edition (12th Edition)
