Thursday, October 20, 2011

Recipes: White Lasagna

Earlier this week Tanner and I made this recipe for dinner. It was a lengthy (but fun!) process, and the final result was unbelievably awesome. Definitely makes my list of favorite dinner recipes we've conquered. Putting it in the vault. :]

 
Ingredients
  • 9 lasagna noodles
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups chicken broth
  • 1 1/2 cups milk
  • 4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
  • 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
  • 1 teaspoon dried basil
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 2 cups ricotta cheese
  • 2 cups cubed, cooked chicken meat
  • 2 (10 ounce) packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese for topping
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain, and rinse with cold water.
  2. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook the onion and garlic in the butter until tender, stirring frequently. Stir in the flour and salt, and simmer until bubbly. Mix in the broth and milk, and boil, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Stir in 2 cups mozzarella cheese and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Season with the basil, oregano, and ground black pepper. Remove from heat, and set aside.
  3. Spread 1/3 of the sauce mixture in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Layer with 1/3 of the noodles, the ricotta, and the chicken. Arrange 1/3 of the noodles over the chicken, and layer with 1/3 of the sauce mixture, spinach, and the remaining 2 cups mozzarella cheese and 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese. Arrange remaining noodles over cheese, and spread remaining sauce evenly over noodles. Sprinkle with parsley and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese.
  4. Bake 35 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. 
 

Monday, October 17, 2011

weekend recap


Our weekend of randomly picking activities out of a hat was a success! We had the best time, and it was nice not feeling pressured to make decisions for a little while. Our lineup of activities (in pictures!) included:
buying vampire teeth
finishing up the last of our thank you cards
a trip to the pumpkin patch
picking up some spooky stella-wear
tanner's first (and probably last) sushi experience...so sad
some equally awesome, though not pictured, activities included:
road trip to a small-town fall festival
a neighborhood bike ride with musical accompaniment
perfecting the art of omelet making (Tanner is a PRO, I tell you)
board games on the patio at sunset
QT couch and movie time (X's 2!)
    Quite possibly one of my favorite weekends ever. :]
    Tonight we're settling in for a cold front that's moving through! Tomorrow I will wear a sweater AND maybe even tights. Praise Jesus. Hoping your weekend was wonderful!
    xoxo

    Friday, October 14, 2011

    Blog Lovin'

    Color issue is a fabulous new blog that I am loving loving loving.
    And guess what? Color issue is having a giveaway right now that is a-stinking-mazing.
    check it out --> here <--

    Wednesday, August 10, 2011

    and you think you're a hypochondriac...


    Today I convinced myself I had Malaria.
    Thankfully, my mom talked me out of my crazy, and now I'm pretty sure it's just a head cold.
    Chalk it up to a long first day of internship.

    (speaking of internship--hoping my sad little corner of the office will soon be this pretty!)

    Monday, August 8, 2011

    Married!



    It happened! :)
    We're married.
    It was lovely, beautiful, and everything I could possibly hope for.
    The whole things still feels very blissful and surreal to me, even though we've returned from the honeymoon and hit the ground running. I'm enjoying taking little breaks to look back over pictures and remember how much fun this whole experience has been.
    Once the photographer's pictures come in, I will post a full recap of the day, the details and some of my most favorite things.

    above photos are all by my sweet friend jenny.



    Wednesday, June 29, 2011

    and then life got crazy and I nearly died.


    Summer school is pretty much the most ridiculously un-fun experience on the planet. Especially when you have two classes at opposite ends of the day. Especially when you have senioritis like woah. Especially when you'd rather be doing fun wedding things and playing on pinterest.

    I will be so very relieved one week from now when all this is over, and I can be a normal, pool creeping college kid.

    Wednesday, May 11, 2011

    the coolest gadgets I've ever seen

    So I've recently become a pinterest user, and it hasn't taken me long to become addicted. Never heard of pinterest? Let me introduce you. This is what their website has to say:

    "Think of Pinterest as a virtual pinboard — a place where you can create collections of things you love and "follow" collections created by people with great taste.

    People use Pinterest to collect and share all sorts of things -- wedding inspiration, favorite T-shirts, DJ equipment. You name it, people are pinning it.

    We know you have great taste in something. Our mission is to make Pinterest the best place for you to share your taste with the world."

    It's just neat. Neat neat neat. And I love it.

    Today I stumbled upon a pinboard called "Gadgets and Toys", which I've been geeking out over for the last hour or so. I feel compelled to share my favorites with you here. I want every last one of these crazies.

    A mini pie maker? Yes, please.

    These make me want to have a party.

    How fabulous are these poach pods? I may have to learn to like poached eggs.



    Elephant bookends. Presh.
    The most perfect tray ever.



    You place this little guy in your pot of water and it rings when the water is boiling. How awesome.

    A waterproof iPad case. We need this for Mexico!


    WHAT?! Where can I find one of these?


    Everything about this makes me happy.


    It's hidden in the kitchen island! I foresee one of these in our future.


    I'm fascinated by this.

    Stylish and practical and awesome.

    This is genius. From Clayton Gray Home (which may be my new favorite housewares shopping location).

    Kids get all the cool stuff.

    A CUPCAKE dog bed? What?! Stella needs this. She just does.

    Tanner needs this lunchbox. Thank you etsy.

    Amazing, right? I have now sufficiently wasted my morning, and I don't even care.

    I love Williams Sonoma.
    And I love this heart shaped sandwich press of theirs.
    So stinking fun.

    Thursday, May 5, 2011

    I'M BACK!

    I survived finals. :)
    I have my life back. And life has been good!
    I have been CRAAZZZYYY busy with interviews, wedding fun and finishing up last minute school requirements. Today I had an interview with San Francisco! Hopefully I will hear something and be able to make a decision pretty soon. Still waiting to hear from Austin, though. Pray they call me!

    Wanna see some pretty hair in the mean time?






    Dreamy huh?
    All images found here.



    Wednesday, April 20, 2011

    A quick update



    Hello hello!

    Quick life update. It's finals time around here, and I am SWAMPED. So much going on. So much craziness. But it's almost over, and I can not wait for the break.

    Our invitations came in! There are ridiculously beautiful. I'm so attached to them, I don't know how I'm going to part with them all on Friday. I can't wait to post about them here--after finals. Kirsten, if you happen to read this--> THANK YOU!!! They're more perfect than we could have ever hoped for.

    Tanner and I had a Waco engagement session with the lovely and fabulous Ms. KrisAnn last week, and it was so so much fun. You can read about it on her blog if you like. We love them. :)

    I finally finished our wedding website this evening! After some minor crisis type set-backs today, everything has worked out. It's so nice to have that out of the way. Want to check it out?

    Of course, you do.

    Tomorrow is my Friday!
    XOXO

    Wednesday, April 13, 2011

    dear maintenance man


    dear school district maintenance man,
    You might possibly be an angel. You are most definitely a life saver.
    Thanks so much for driving out to the main office to put on some strange girl's spare tire. Because of you, that strange girl's day has been brightened.
    I hope there is a raise in your near future, because you deserve it.

    dear main office secretary,
    Thank you for calling the maintenance man.
    Thank you for taking it upon yourself to wait outside with me until my tire was fixed.
    Thank you for your knowledge of changing tires, and trying to teach me the basics while we waited for the maintenance man.
    Thank you for the hug goodbye.

    Today you both reminded me of how wonderful and kind people can be, and that always trying to do things by myself is just silly.

    Sincerely,
    Staci

    Monday, April 11, 2011

    media mondays


    There are no words.

    love notes

    Tanner says the funniest things.
    Do you know what statement prefaced yesterdays sweet, romantic moment?
    "Baby, thank you for taking care of my knives."
    Be jealous. ;]

    Friday, April 8, 2011

    happy things

    Hello! Happy weekend!

    Tomorrow is engagement session numero uno, and we are so excited!
    Tonight we're staying in, getting things together for the morning and watching harry potter. Jealous? ;)

    Soooo yeah. I don't really have happy things. I just have one happy thing.

    This home.

    It makes me giddy.

    Thursday, April 7, 2011

    dear fiance

    dear fiance,

    HAPPY FREAKING BIRTHDAY!
    I'm am so very blessed by you.
    i
    love
    love
    love
    you.

    ~staci

    Tuesday, April 5, 2011

    weekend adventures





    This weekend we took a little trip to the bustling town of Belton, TX, for dinner and some "study time" with miss Sharon Marie. As fate would have it, Sharon locked herself out of her house without her car keys, and we were left to fend for ourselves while she sorted things out. Fortunately, Belton as a river--and ducks--which provided us with much entertainment. It was a pretty lovely Sunday. :)