Blonde Sided

Sifting your way through the dating world isn't always fun and games. Not so long ago the plan was to meet at a local book store coffee shop. We had a lot of things in common, he was nice and endearing, but I was still standing in lukewarm water on where I stood with my feelings. As I stood in the middle of the coffee shop it became clear this wasn't going to go well. There were no tables available, despite many tables only holding laptops, books and jackets with no owner. With food and drink in hand we made our way to an empty aisle in the back of the store as not to disturb anyone, the self help aisle at that.

I had my guard up, arms crossed, body positioned three feet away from him and yet he thought it would be fun to caress my arm and when my hand was free hold onto it. I felt awkward and embarrassed, I'm not a girl for PDA and this was pushing it for me.

I tried my darndest to avoid the idea of PDA, but just as I let me guard down and I reached to take a bite of my snack I found myself being pulled into his arms his lips hitting me smack where the sweet blondie, I had been enjoying, was suppose to be.

I thought to myself how in the world did this just happen? I went for the blondie and wound up with a smooch. As I let reality set in I stood there with his lips on mine scanning the titles of the self help books no less then a foot away. I found no help in the titles on my escape plan, but I found out I really liked blondies (Starbucks for the win!). So the whole date wasn't a loss.

In the end the relationship didn't work and I'm not disappointed about it at all. I was blind sided by his moves and taken a back into boiling water on the relationship front when his lips hit mine.


Tonight I decided to re-visit the memory of the date and celebrate my single hood with making blondies. My guinea pigs sat in wait, begging before they even hit the oven to know when they where done. What they didn't know was that they too where going to be blind sided by the blondie experience, just in a more pleasant way. I opted to split the required M&M's and add Peanut butter M&M's (my favorite) with original. The end result is a second batch laying in wait for tomorrows round two of guinea pig opinions.

Recipe

Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 30 mins
Serves: more than 1

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup vanilla or white chips
1-3/4 cups plain M&M’s, (I used half original and half peanut butter)


Pre heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix softened butter, brown sugar and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla to the sugar mixture. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt together and gradually add to the sugar mixture. Stir in the chips and desired M&M's, leaving some M&M's to top the dish.

Spoon evenly into a greased pan.

Place in oven for 20-30 minutes until golden brown.

Let cool and enjoy!

Mac n' bacon chick

Mac n' bacon chick

Sometimes you sit there wondering what the heck are you going to eat. Take out again? Hamburger helper? Peanut butter and jelly? Everything seems so blah when you grow up on the quick and easy. Don't get me wrong I love me some hamburger helper every now & then!


As I was going through the list of items within the freezer all I knew was I wanted pasta with  Bertolli's four cheese Rosa sauce. (This is truly my favorite sauce & I have been known to clear the shelves when I find it) But I didn't want just noodles, I wanted something flavorful and exciting, oh and I really wanted bacon.

So I pulled out the bacon threw it in the pan and as I scrolled through my rolodex of recipes in my head I remembered a recipe of bacon wrapped chicken I saw via Pinterest.  I thought I could do this and tossed some frozen chicken into the microwave to defrost.

As the microwave beeped and the bacon finished cooking I found myself becoming, well lazy. So I tossed the chicken into the pan of bacon grease and let it sizzle. Turned on the water for the pasta and let everything do it's job.

Once the chicken and pasta where ready, I mixed the noodles with butter and sauce (using half of a jar). I then tossed half the noodle mixture into a greased casserole dish and mixed in half a bag of Italian Mixed cheeses. Next came a layer of chicken, which I sliced halfway through cooking, and a layer of cheese followed by the rest of the noodle mixture. I topped the dish off with the rest of the cheese and covered it with bits of chopped bacon before throwing it into the oven for 20 minutes.

The mixture of smells was mouth watering, as my "guinea pigs" sat waiting patiently for the experiment to be done. As I pulled the dish out of the oven it ran through my head, so many taste and textures this sure isn't going to taste well together.

With first bite everyone was begging for more. They loved the mixture of the chicken with the crunch of the bacon and the ooey gooey cheese. The taste of the sauce combined it all together, making for a delicious new dish I know I'm bound to make for many years to come.

Recipe

Prep time: 1hr (if meat isn't already cooked)
Cook time: 20 minutes
Serves 4-6 people (depending on how much pasta you use)

Ingredients:

1/2 package of bacon (I used low sodium)
2 chicken breast
1 box of pasta (any type)
1 jar of Bertolli Four cheese Rosa sauce
1/4 stick of butter
1 package of desired cheese

Pre heat the oven at 400 degrees.

Cook the bacon until desired tenderness. Once the bacon is cooked place the chicken into the grease & let cook. (I cut the chicken halfway through the cooking process to speed up time). Chop up the bacon, once cooled.

Boil water for the noodles and follow the directions on the box. Drain the noodles, add 1/4 stick of butter and 1/2 of the jar of sauce to the noodles.

Once the bacon, chicken and noodles are prepared take a greased casserole dish and start layering the noodles (mixing with cheese) and chicken. I will leave the desired cheese context up to the chef as I love cheese and used the whole package which was 2 cups.

When you reach the top layer of noodles add a layer of cheese to brown in the oven and seal in
moisture, then sprinkle the bacon bits you chopped up earlier.

Place into the oven for 20 minutes.

Let cool for 2 minutes and serve.