We visited Betty Owen’s twins’ school for their 8th grade awards ceremony.

Shout out to Ben…he wanted to be on the blog!

And sweet Sarah, too.

Uncle Bill cooked Indian food…a family favorite!

Mom and I were able to spend a gorgeous Saturday afternoon in Manhattan, along with our friend Margaret (it was Margaret’s first time in NYC).

No trip to Manhattan is complete without lots of great food. We found an awesome (and inexpensive) Thai restaurant in SoHo, then of course ended the day with sweets.

And finally, I towed a Crumbs cupcake (caramel apple…to die for) all the way home to Florida for the Duke to enjoy. Am I the best wife or what?

These pictures took forever to upload! I hope you enjoy. And if you’re the praying kind, please send up a few for my aunt. She needs a miracle to recover…doctors don’t know what’s going on, but are saying her brain is basically “asleep.”

Enjoy your week, and thanks for stopping by.
The Duchess

Since I had extra time on my hands this weekend, I made quite a few recipes for the blog. Figured I’d get ahead while I could, ya know? I’d been craving Chicken Parmesan for who knows how long, but I wanted to do a different spin on it. I ended up ditching the fattening bread crumbs and oil, and turned the whole dish inside out!

The result? A deliciously simple and light dish!

Start by butterflying your chicken breast and lightly browning on both sides…

Then spread each breast with a couple tablespoons of marinara sauce.

Add a slice of mozzarella

Lots of fresh basil…

Fold the breast over, secure with a toothpick and stick in the oven.

After baking for 25 minutes at 375, you’ve got a beautifully cooked chicken breast filled with familiar Chicken Parmesan flavors. YUM!

Ok, so that entire recipe called for FOUR ingredients…I think you can handle it.

I served myself half a chicken roll up and it made for the perfect dinner portion. And the best part is I now have leftovers for lunch today.

Have a great Tuesday. See you soon with a mouth-watering tuna salad…much different than what you’re used to!
The Duchess

Last night we threw an impromptu dinner party at our house with two other couples. We all went out together Friday night, and the idea to have them over for dinner last night just naturally came together. You all know I love to cook, but I also love entertaining. I love the feeling of a house full of great people enjoying each other’s company and wonderful food.

When everyone arrived, we munched on a yummy appetizer. It’s Praline Mustard Glaze over cream cheese with extra pecans sprinkled on top.

It’s the perfect mix of sweet, salty, sticky, creamy. It goes great with a plate of salty crackers and chips.

Here are our good friends Laura, Damon, Patrick and Laura. We have about two other friends named Laura, also. Makes things pretty easy.

For dinner I made a delicious and super easy pasta dish from Real Simple. The original recipe was Sausage, Mozzarella and Broccoli Rabe with Shells, but I used spinach and mushrooms instead of the broccoli rabe and used whole wheat egg noodles. I think my pan was a little too small, huh?

Guess I underestimated how much food I had!

Here it is, ready to go in the oven (minus mozzarella, of course).

And here it is fresh out of the oven.

Holy yum! This stuff was delicious. The whole wheat egg noodles are great- a bit lighter than other hearty whole wheat pastas.

The Duke and I were thoroughly stuffed after this meal.

While we all digested, we played a thrilling game of Catch Phrase- girls vs. guys. Girls won, of course, 4 games to 2!!! Girls rule, boys drool!

Now the Duke and I are off to enjoy this extra hour of sunlight today. We’re signed up for a photography class today. We also have a house showing, so hopefully these buyers will be interested. Ta ta for now. The Duchess

I’ve been salivating over PW’s Baked Lemon Pasta for about a year now and finally broke down and made the darn dish over the weekend. All I can say is Oh, Baby. This stuff is goooooood.

This dish involves lots of lemon, parsley, sour cream, and my good friend, butter.

Since I live on the Gulf of Mexico, I decided to saute some fresh shrimp on the side. Don’t hate, but I never devein my shrimp. Living in the South, we eat everything. Not even the digestive tract of shellfish can scare us! And honestly, I think the vein adds a little somethin’ somethin’.

I followed P-Dub’s recipe exactly, but used whole wheat pasta (instead of white) and lite sour cream (instead of whole fat). Gotta keep it healthy, folks.

If that doesn’t look good, then I don’t know what does. I could have just eaten this creamy and citrus-y pasta straight out of the pan, but I was nice and decided to share some with the Duke.

I suggest you make this dish at your earliest convenience and lock yourself with it in the closet with a fork and and a loaf of garlic bread.

I secretly hope that one day the Pioneer Woman and I can be friends. We’ll do each other’s hair and stay up late talking about Taylor Lautner. Until that day, I’ll just continue to live vicariously through her mouth-watering kitchen creations. The Duchess

Since I needed to get to school (which is about 30 minutes away, door to door) by 7:45 this morning, I woke up at 5 sharp to hit the gym. A busy week doesn’t mean I can sacrifice my gym time. My treadmill run wasn’t all that easy this morning. I ran could only run 15 minutes at a 6.2 speed before stopping to walk 5 minutes at a 4.5. I ran another 8 minutes at 6.2, then walked the last two minutes as my cool down. Not my best…probably because I felt hungry during the run.

To cure my hunger, I had a thick slice of whole wheat pumpkin bread topped with low fat yogurt and chopped apples for breakfast.

Oh yum! This is one of my favorite breakfasts. I microwaved the bread so it was nice and hot. This may sound weird, but I like it when the yogurt gets slightly warm and gooey.

This is my new favorite brand of yogurt. It’s a departure from the Greek yogurt I’ve been living off of lately.

Stonyfield Low Fat French Vanilla is the bomb! It’s thinner than Greek yogurt and oh, so good! It’s great with sliced bananas and a drizzle of honey, too.

After our morning activities, I was ready for snack. I munched on some craisins, mixed nuts and original-flavored gold fish. Don’t you love the leftover Valentine plate??

Since I’m in the classroom by myself this week, I thought I’d snap some pictures of our cute setup. Here is Mrs. Brown’s Calming Canopy.

Boys and girls can go to the calming canopy if they’re angry or sad, or just need to calm themselves. They go under the canopy and take deep breaths until they’re ready to go about their day.

Here is some lovely Valentine artwork:

How cute are these puppies? I love how each has its own personality, just like the kids.

And these heart elephants are my favorite:

The trunk is a bunch of little pink hearts. Too cute!!

By the time the kids laid down for nap time, I was famished. I happily dove into my leftover creamy pasta from last night’s dinner. It had smoked turkey sausage, artichoke hearts, mushrooms and peas. The sauce was just melted low fat cream cheese and about a cup of pasta water.

It was a very tasty and healthy alternative to alfredo sauce. It may not have been quite as good as the real deal, but it did the trick for the Duke and I.

So, after my long day of subbing, I got to head to my second job! Joy! In addition to being a teacher’s aide, I work at the aftercare program at our school. It’s just a few extra hours a day, and I get to work with kids from Kindergarten through 9th grade.

Since today is Mardi Gras, I was happy to find the snack at aftercare was good ole Moon Pies!!!

I don’t think I’ve ever actually eaten a moon pie, but they’re such a Mardi Gras tradition. Did you know that Mardi Gras actually originated in Mobile, AL? Mobile is only a little over an hour away from Destin, so we get lots of Mardi Gras spill-over.

It’s time for American Idol and Men’s figure skating, so I gotta run! The Duke and I don’t know what to watch first. GO TEAM USA!!!

The Duke was out of town the other night, so I relived the glory days and made myself a beautiful plate of pasta with every veggie I could find. This is a great dish for using up produce that’s nearing the end of its life, so use anything you have on hand.

This is such a simple dish that I almost feel silly even typing it out, but it’s just too good to pass up! If any of you readers are participating in Recipe Girl’s 10 in 2010 Challenge, this is the perfect recipe to add to your healthy collection.

I hope you all have a great weekend! I’ll see you Monday with a Lentil Soup recipe that is more comforting that momma’s chicken and dumplings. And that’s no joke. The Duchess

I’m also a bit late in my My Girl, Paula! posting this week, but at least I made it, right? This week’s theme was “Where’s the Beef?” and we could make any Paula recipe with beef. I chose Bobby’s Goulash, written by her cutie patootie son. I’ve seen the recipe before, but never paid it any thought. It just seemed kind of generic, but I had all of the ingredients on hand this weekend and gave it a try. It was so delicious! It’s really just a simple and tasty spaghetti meat sauce. The smell of it simmering away on my stove on a cool Sunday afternoon was wonderful. I think I’ll certainly make it again, but I’ll likely use ground turkey next time. I just don’t tend to eat a lot of beef these days. I substituted whole wheat pasta for regular, and it worked out great. I also didn’t cook it quite as long as the recipe says. After adding the pasta, I only cooked it for about 20 minutes and completely omitted the step when you let the pot sit with the heat off for 30 minutes. Click here for Bobby’s fabulous recipe. It’s sure to warm your soul on these cold Winter nights.

The Duke and I are hosting a Christmas Cocktail Party on Saturday, so I’ll be back Monday with a recap of all the festivities. Enjoy your weekend and stay warm!The Duchess

Since I could barely muster the strength to pour a glass of vino when I got home from work Monday, I was certainly not about to tackle a culinary masterpiece. Instead I opted to rummage through the fridge and find anything that wasn’t growing bacteria. Although I guess I could take it into class for science? I’ll make note of that. Finally, justification for buying expensive cheeses, only to see them rot in front of my very eyes! Well, I managed to find pithy asparagus, whole wheat tortellini and even prosciutto…not too bad. I sauteed it all together and it ended up being fantastic. Don’t you love how the meals that take zero brain cells end up being the best? Well, I’ll certainly be making this again. For the vegetarians out there, feel free to omit the prosciutto.

Alright, it’s off to school for me. Parent Orientation is tomorrow night. Let me make it through that hump, and I’ll be back later in the week with another yummy recipe! Be sure to follow me, and of course, leave me comments! I love to hear your thoughts.
The Duchess