Snowball fight

I was chasing my sweet puppy around the yard throwing snowballs at her yesterday when I looked down and I had dog poo all over my work shoes.  Serves me right for exploding freezing cold balls of frost on my little corg's face....she couldn't throw any in return, but she could plant land mines to get me back!  *sigh*....and that's just about how my life seems to have gone all week. 

This week was a tough one at work...and I'm feeling a little burned out.  I think this is half due to work itself with the stressful, crazy-busy environment that is my office these days...and half due to this skin treatment I'm on that makes it nearly impossible to keep my eyes open past noon.  I'm insanely grateful that this is the worst of my side-effects thus far, but I can not WAIT for these next few months of treatment to be over.  This afternoon fog that takes over my vision and holds hostage the ever-important common sense side of my brain is making life a little challenging.  I got home from work relatively early yesterday in order to work out and clean house a bit, but after my workout accompanied by the latest Biggest Loser episode (the guilt helps me keep running) I sat down on the couch to cool down and ended up sleeping for an hour an a half.  When I finally woke up and realized I needed to start dinner, it took EVERYTHING I had to get my big booty off the couch and up to the kitchen.  I managed to do it though...and kept my eyes open long enough to make a new recipe for dinner.  I'm not sure what it's called...so let's name it Yummy Pesto Veggies and Pasta with Italian Chicken Sausage.  It actually turned out pretty good! (It just looked weird)

Ingredients:
12 oz pasta (we used whole wheat shells)
1/2 lb fresh green beans (trimmed and cut)
1 cup frozen peas
8 oz Italian-style chicken sausage links
1/2 cup pesto
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 bottle or can of beer (optional)











I've never worked with sausage links before (I know, sad), so as I do with all things I'm unfamiliar with, I googled how to cook them.  I decided to go with the half-boil, half fry method (you could really cook them however you want....just slice them thinly afterward).  First, I put the links in a pan and covered them with a mixture of beer and water (good thing Patrick had a bottle left over from who-knows-when).  I boiled them in the mixture for about 10 minutes. Apparently boiling beer makes this weird foam... :P

Then I transferred the links to another pan coated in cooking spray.  I cooked the links on medium-high heat for about 20 minutes, rotating every few minutes (I don't have a meat thermometer yet, so I went a little long to be on the safe side...they were a little dry but still yummy!).

I sliced the links thinly and put them back in the pan and poured the leftover beer/water over them.  This was a good idea, methinks...it helped give the dried-out sausage some of its moisture back...

When it was close to eating time, I cooked the shells according to the package directions and just added the peas and green beans into the water for the last 3 minutes of cooking.  Then drained the pasta, added the sausage/juice, pesto and parmesan and Voila!  Easy food.  Patrick really liked this one.  I don't think it was super healthy, but hey....at least we got some veggies in there and used chicken sausage instead of the pork stuff.  Also, it made a TON!  We'll have a few extra lunches and dinners outta this one.

So with any luck, I'll be able to wake myself up enough after work to go home and start that cleaning I've been meaning to do.  That way, I can free up the rest of my weekend for fun times with the hubby!  I'm pretty excited to try a homemade carpet stain remover that I found on pinterest...I'll take some pics and share if it's as magical as it claims to be!