Happy Friday!

Pull your boas and have a fantastic weekend!

I can fly!

When you take a bunch of big kids to a 3 year old birthday party this is what you get!

WW Recipe: Penne with Vodka Sauce

I made this last week and I had to share!
Penne with Vodka Sauce
Penne alla Vodka
Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: 6 • Serving Size: 1 cup pasta, 7.25 fl oz sauce • Calories: 356 • Points: 6.25 pts

• 2 tsp butter
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 shallots, minced
• 3 oz prosciutto, chopped
• 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
• 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 14 oz can diced tomatoes
• 1/2 cup vodka
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup half and half
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped

• 12 oz uncooked (6 cups cooked) whole wheat or high fiber penne

In a large sauté pan heat butter on a low flame. Add garlic and shallots and sauté until soft, about 2 minutes. Add prosciutto and red pepper flakes and cook another minute. Add tomatoes, vodka, salt and pepper and cook on low, covered about 20 minutes. Add basil and half and half, mix well and cook another 5 minutes. Serve this over pasta and top with grated cheese.

My Snowy Valentine

For Valentine's Day we went to Church and then out to breakfast. Grand mom picked up candy for them which they promptly ate before breakfast hit the table. Note: See the tape on the cat door - that's their sneaky way of trapping the kitty. Poor Poor Kitty.

Let it snow....let snow... let it snow snow and more snow!

I remember complaining that we never get a good snow storm, just enough to cancel school for a day to go sledding. Boy did my wish come true times two! With over 40 inches of snow we would loose our daughter for sure and all we would be able to see would be the top of a pink snow hat through the snow.

King of the Hill

They quickly learned that they could perform miracles like walking on top of snow.

Our garden was practically filled to the brim with snow. These were not the visions I had of the garden when we built it.

They soon learned that the driveway was the easiest place to play.

Shoveling became the new hobby and why not since there was no hope of ever getting to the gym.

We could sled after the first snowfall, but forget about it after the second! Whenever we have snow an abundance of children show up on our hill. It gets so bad that Gavin starts referring to them as "Hey Kid".

Ahhh the classic snow angel or it could be pure exhaustion from walking through chest deep snow.

The calm of the morning before the house wakes up.

Great Wolf Lodge

We took our kids and niece to the Great Wolf Lodge and we had a great time. I had a tiny Oh My God I am Surly Going to Loose a Kid moment as I peered down through the plate glass window onto the gigantic waterpark.

Every time the bell rang 1,000 gallons of water came pouring out of this gigantic bucket. Thank God I have good hearing!

This was our downtime after the fire alarm woke us up and we had to wait to get into the waterpark.

We spent about 10 hours in the waterpark and there was a lot of other stuff to do that we didn't even have time during our stay. The kids got to eat rock candy and run around the hotel in their PJs way past their bedtime.

They even had story time each night which was cool.We rode the world's scariest water slide. We willingly got into a raft which dropped us into a 6-story funnel and we flew 30 feet up the sides of the funnel and I thought for sure that I was going to loose my first born. At the bottom he said that was awesome and when asked if he wanted to do it again promptly responded "No way!!!".

Light Eggplant Parm

Since I can't load pictures right now - I'll tell you what we had for dinner last night. It as so good and healthy! I took it from Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes.

Lighter Eggplant Parmesan

Servings: 6 servings • Time: 60 minutes • Points: 5 ww points

• 1 large eggplant (2 lbs)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
  
• 12 oz fat free ricotta
• 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp Pecorino Romano
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
  
• 1 egg
• 2 cups reduced fat mozzarella (I used Sargento)
• 3 cups homemade tomato sauce
• salt
  

Start by making the sauce if you don't have any already made. While the sauce simmers, slice the eggplant into 1/4 inch thick slices. Lightly salt the slices and put in a colander to release excess moisture for about 1/2 hour. Lay on paper towels to soak up any extra moisture.

Preheat oven to 450°. Brush eggplant lightly with olive oil on both sides and place on cookie sheets. Bake for 20-25 minutes, turning half way through until eggplant is golden brown.

In a medium bowl combine ricotta, egg, parsley and 1/4 cup of grated cheese.

In a 9x12 baking dish, put a little sauce on the bottom of the dish and put a layer of eggplant to cover the bottom of the dish. Top with 1/3 of the ricotta cheese mixture, mozzarella cheese and sauce. Add another layer of eggplant and repeat the ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese and sauce until everything is used up. Top with sauce and the mozzarella cheese and the remaining grated cheese.

Cover with foil and bake until cheese is melted and everything is bubbling, about 30 minutes at 400°. Remove foil and bake an additional 8-10 minutes. Take it out of the oven and let it sit about 10 minutes before cutting. Enjoy!