Weekend Part 3

I was so excited that my sister Allie came to church with us this weekend to see our new service. It's always great to have visitors! I thought I had to teach Sunday school this weekend (Jay and I trade off weeks with another lady at our church) and I brought Allie down to my classroom to meet my kids! There were five cute girls there so excited to meet another "adult"! I was all set to teach when the other lady I teach with came. We had gotten our weeks confused. We'll you don't have to ask me twice to get out and enjoy my Sunday! Allie and I left and hit up Nordstrom Rack. The place was PACKED! Unfortunately we really didn't find anything. She got a pair of tennis shoes and I got some PJ's. I was looking for designer deals but nothing really caught my eye. We had fun shopping though!

I have never seen the lot so full!

My sister was running away so that she wouldn't show up on the blog!

Ha! I got her!

Jay and I are trying to get back into playing tennis. I'm one of those people that needs to look the part in order to play the game so we swung by Dick's and he bought me a cute visor and warm up jacket to match my tennis outfit! What a great husband I have :)

We went to visit our friends Jennifer and Brian and their sweet baby boy, Clark. Clark is 11 weeks old and we hadn't met him yet! We both were suffering from the flu when he was born and just hadn't had a chance to come by yet. We had so much fun cuddling with him! Newborns are sooo tiny and sweet and smell so good! I'm bummed I forgot to take a picture! We had such fun visiting that we lost track of time and didn't make it back in time for a tennis match before bible study. Maybe tonight?

After bible study, I came home to cook my lunches for week. I get super bored of salads! I'm trying to incorporate veggies in a better more filling way. 

Here are some recipes I made for lunches:

Paige's Chicken Soup (adapted from a recipe from my sweet friend Paige from bible study)

2 boxes low fat chicken broth

Handful of parsley

1 large can stewed tomatoes (drained)

1 onion (dice and saute until soft before adding to the soup!)

1 rotisserie chicken

2 cans northern beans

Salt and Pepper to taste

Put all ingredients in a big pot, boil, then letter simmer. Easy and yum! Freeze leftovers and let them sit out the night before you take them to work!

Adapted from The Whole Tulip's Whole Wheat Penne Primavera

All the ingredients in this dish came from Trader Joe's.

2 large portobello mushroom caps, sliced in long strips
1 container grape tomatoes (they were out of cherry!)
1 can artichoke hearts (drained)
1 large handful of kale spinach, stems discarded and cut into strips
1 large handful of basil, cut into strips
1/4 cups of toasted pine nuts
1 lb of whole wheat penne
1 clove of garlic (optional)
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Parmesan to garnish

Heat a large pot of water for pasta. Cook pasta according to package directions.

In a large saute pan heat a couple of teaspoons of olive oil over medium high heat and add mushrooms and cook through. Remove mushrooms from pan and add more olive oil garlic, cherry tomatoes, salt and pepper. Let the tomatoes cook for 3-4 minutes and then mash with a potato masher or fork to help them burst. Let simmer until the tomatoes are a sauce like consistency.

Add back the mushrooms, artichokes, and kale spinach. Once the pasta is al dente, drain reserving a little of the cooking water and add to the pan with the vegetables. Stir together and add a little pasta cooking water to help all come together. Once all combined, add the pine nuts and basil.