Greek Casserole - Macaroni & Spinach +

It's been awhile. Haven't felt creative until just the other night when I made a casserole for a friend whose family member passed away. Sometimes the worst circumstances offer a moment of inspiration...

Anyways! My mom reminded me of this casserole that my Aunt had made a couple times years ago. It's been awhile since I've had it but it turned out quite yummy - you should try to make it as well - it's great for a weeks lunch.

1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon salt
Pepper to taste
Dash of ground allspice
1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup water
1/2 pound macaroni
4 tablespoons melted butter
1 (10-ounce) packages forzen, chopped spinach, thawed and drained
3/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1 cup grated kefalotiri cheese
1 tablespoon grated onion
1/4 cup bread crumbs

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Brown the meat, onion, and garlic in 2 tablespoons water. Add 1 teaspoon salt, a dash of pepper, and allspice, tomato sauce, tomato paste, and water. Simmer until thickened, about 30 minutes.
• Cook macaroni according to package directions, drain well, and toss with 4 tablespoons of melted butter. Grease an 8x12 inch casserole pan. Put half the macaroni in the casserole pan and spread the spinach on top. Sprinkle crumbled feta over the spinach, add remaining macaroni, and top with the meat sauce.
• Combine 1/4 cup milk, the 2 eggs, grated cheese and grated onion, mix well and pour over meat sauce.
• Sprinkle bread crumbs on top and bake for 30 minutes.
• Let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes before serving.
• Serves 6-8.

Over the Shoulder Boulder Holders

Yes I said it. And every time I do, I crack myself up. Whoever came up with that term for ta-tas was a special person.

Unfortunately, there are a number of bras that just sit in my lingerie drawer just waiting to be used. They don't seem to realize that will probably never happen again. So I've decided, instead of throwing them away which is what most people resort to, I wanted to find a way to revert sending them to the landfill. None of my lovelies are in bad shape and I would feel much better knowing someone else was able to use them.

I've researched and found a couple organizations that focus solely on donating new or used bras to people less forunate - yay! I'm sure you have a couple stashed away so take 'em out, give 'em a wash, and spend $10 sending them to any of the organzations linked below. You'll be happy and so will the lucky lady who gets to put that boulder holder to use!

http://www.donateyourbras.com/

http://www.soma.com/store/page.jsp?id=56709275&icid=Global-Top-Donate-Bras

http://brarecycling.com/index.shtml

Goodbye my four lovelies!

Couponing!

Sunday night I invited my neighbor over to start couponing with me since I purchased a subcription to the Sunday edition of the Houston Chronicle. We had talked about couponing a handful of weeks ago but I couldn't get serious until I was done with school so last night was our first night attacking the paper.

After I spent some of my free time researching the strategy behind couponing, I realized I needed a way to keep all my discounts in one place. Before Julia came over, I stopped by Office Depot to pick up a 1/2" black binder, a package of 10 trading card binder pages, and extra wide dividers for each of us. It came out to $10 a person (great expense for keeping everything together). So each of us organized our coupons into categories of our choosing.

Julia:
Grocery Shopping
Dining Out
The Dogs/Cosmetics (shared a divider)

Me:
Grocery Shopping
Dining Out
Entertainment (movie coupons, restaurant coupons, etc.)
Misc (airport parking coupons, speciality store coupons, tax services coupons, etc.)


It's a work in progress of course and I will keep you posted!

Back again.

Ladies and Gents,

The Eclectorator blog has been resurrected. Since I have finished my graduate studies, I've been contemplating what to do with all my newly discovered "free time." Naturally, I've thought of many things: learning how to play the bango (don't quite have the patience for it), dedicate my body to the study of yoga (just doesn't bend like that anymore), eating as a hobby (wish I could do this without gaining weight), but instead of all those things I'd like to do at some point in my life and as part of my New Year's Resolution, I decided to simplify my life. In doing so, I've set no exact goals or expectations for myself. Rather I'm aiming at anything and everything.

Some examples.

I bought what seems to be the world's smallest planner to force me not to plan half as much into my day as I used to. I've promised to limit my eating out which has resulted in quickly learning what tastes good and what doesn't from the freezer aisle at Kroger. I plan to give away all of the crap I've somehow hoarded over the past 6 years of my life - including door knobs, yes, door knobs (you'd be surprised what I've collected). I'm couponing but not turning into one of those crazies that stock piles just in case there is a zombie attack or the world runs out of everything somehow. I've also been working on a budget which includes changing banks and this is scary for me. I've had the same bank for 10 years of my life and not quite sure why it's so hard for me to switch. Silly, silly me. The point of all this is, the blog has made it's way back into my life. I'm hoping it will help force me to simplify and maybe help someone else to do so as well at some point. We shall see, eh!?

In addition to simplifying, interior design has always been my passion which is partly the reason for my blog's name as you can see. So instead of my previously fabulous topic of discussion (men), I'm going back to my roots. I hope you will enjoy the change. I'm excited to this started.

Happy reading!!