It was my mom's birthday a few weeks back, and as a celebration I decided to cook lunch for everyone. This is kind of a big deal in my family, since I'm probably the one with the least cooking skills in the house. Add to that the fact that I chose two recipes I'd never tried to make before and the fact that the Seahawks were playing at noon, and it turned into a race against time. I showed up at my parents' with all the ingredients I'd need at 9 AM. For lunch I made spinach and cheese stuffed shells with marinara sauce. For dessert, a red velvet and white chocolate cheesecake (which I'll post a recipe for separately). Not only was it delicious, but fairly simple to put together, and looked really nice!

Pasta is probably one of the easiest things to make. Boil it, add a can or jar of sauce, some sort of meat if you have any at home, some cheese, and you're good to go! This weekend, I made some baked penne with tomato sauce and shredded chicken breasts. I always exaggerate when I'm cooking, so I ended up making enough for an army, or really enough for 6 meals this week, and 10 more that I stuck in the freezer.

So last night I started another class to prepare for the GMAT. This one is twice a week, 3 hours each night. While I understood it would be rushed, I forgot about one important thing: food! For my first class on Tuesday, I didn't realize how little time I would have between getting home from work, exercising with Zoey, eating dinner, and driving to class. So it turned into me running out the door with a poorly thrown together sandwich and no water to go sit in a "let me overload your brain with information until you just stare straight ahead and look like a zombie" 3 hour class. So tonight, I decided to prepare myself for tomorrow night.