Healthy Food: Cheesy Baked Skillet Pasta

This is something that is quick and easy for those that do not have time on their hands or for those that do not know how to cook. Either way, I would recommend this delish dish.

I have the recipe for this Cheesy Baked Skillet Pasta

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Serving Size: 6-8

Ingredients

• 1 pound gemelli pasta or other short cut pasta
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 large cloves garlic, minced
• 1 (28 ounce) can san marzano whole peeled tomatoes
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 2 teaspoon dried parsley
  
  
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1/2 cup of marinara sauce, plus more if desired
• pinch of salt
• pinch of pepper
• 1 1/2 cups shredded gouda cheese
• 1 cup shredded fresh mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
• fresh basil, for serving

Instructions

1. Cook gemelli according to directions on package. Drain and set aside. Preheat broiler.
2. Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Saute garlic over medium high heat for 1-2 minutes, stirring so the garlic doesn’t burn. Add tomatoes, dried basil, parsley, oregano and crushed red pepper. Season with salt and pepper. Begin to break up the tomatoes using the back of a wooden spoon and simmer for 5-10 minutes or until mixture thickens slightly.Continue to break up the tomatoes as you stir. Add the marinara and 1/4 cup parmesan cheese. Remove from heat and add to the pasta, toss well. Add more marinara sauce if you like more sauce. If your skillet is not oven safe transfer to a baking dish.
3. Top with the shredded gouda and mozzarella cheese and place under broiler for 5-8 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly. Sprinkle with fresh basil and serve with parmesan cheese if desired.

Healthy Mind: Something to Remember

Work at Home Opportunities for 12/5

1. Social Media Internet Assessor needed at LionBridge
2. Rent Surveyors at Pierce Eislen
3. Search Engine Evaluators with Leapforce
4. Editors and Translators for a variety of topics at AJE
5. Senior Translator (multiple languages) for gengo
6. Additional work at home jobs can be found at Indeed

Extra Cash Suggestions

1. Bing Rewards for searching the web
2. Viggle for SmartPhone Users
3. Surveys through Opinion Outpost
4. Earn through CashCrate

Work At Home Opportunities for 12/3

Trust me, I do understand looking for work, especially an at home job, but do not worry. I have a list of current work at home job openings. Since it's that time of year where people spend like crazy and jobs are welcoming everyone to work for them during the holidays, I figured to share some job opportunities that you all could enjoy.

 

1. Customer Service for Safe Auto Insurance Company
2. Community Associate with Vimeo (night shift)
3. Web Savvy Secretary to work from Roca Labs
4. Regional Medical Coder for Tenet Healthcare
5. Market Survey Specialist for Resource Management
6. Full Time Writer and Social Media Expert for LKR Social Media
7. Lead Generation for Insurance Protection Specialists
8. Seasoned Sports Writer for XN Sports
9. Preschool and Daycare Sales Reps for Lifetouch
10. Additional work at home jobs can be found at Indeed

Extra Cash Suggestions

1. Earn with your blog sharing coupons and deals through Escalate Media
2. Complete quick surveys about products you buy and more! NPD Group
3. Surveys through Opinion Outpost
4. Earn through CashCrate
5. Rate Music at SliceThePie
6. Transcribe at Quicktate

I will keep you all updated soon on more jobs!

Healthy Hair: Embracing Your Natural Uniqueness

                          

                                                              Start them early!

I just want to take a quick moment to talk about something that is very important and dear to my heart...black people's natural hair. More specifically, those that are in the workforce that are getting discriminated solely by their hair, not their work ethics and our little kids that are attending schools and being told and forced to change their natural hair.

Honestly, I'm tired of hearing all of these stories. 

Why is that, you ask?

Because for once we as a black body are coming in terms to finding out who we are and are appreciating our uniqueness. Why do we out of ALL people need to change our hair? Next thing you know, they are going to force us to change our skin tone simply because they don't like it or shall I say, can't be like us. Yes, I said it. People hate who we are, yet try to be us. If anyone has noticed, they are taking pills to become who we are. I say, black queen, black princess, black king, and black prince continue to represent who YOU are and do not worry about what others say. They can tell you to cut your hair. They can fire you because you don't "fit" into their white ideals, but always remember THEY CANNOT TAKE WHAT'S WITHIN YOU! THEY CAN TAKE YOUR BODY, BUT CAN NEVER HAVE YOUR SOUL! 

Have a great day!

Healthy Foods- Our dinner

Yum! What are you thankful for?

For me, I am thankful for this wonderful family that I am in. Although everyday may not seem wonderful to me or to my partner, but we make things work. The best thing about this relationship is having someone that can throw down in the kitchen! I never knew that I would end up with someone that can cook, but I'm thankful that he is in my life and he can really cook. I can cook, however, I do not think that I am as good as he is. He made this delicious dish (pictured above) and it was DIVINE!

A extra plus is that we both made the decision to stop eating meat so that means meatless dinners. It was a very easy transition and it's great to have someone to share this with so that I'm not alone with this transition. Although our families do not understand what we are doing with being vegetarians, we will not let what they do not like stop us for doing something that we love to do. One question that I was asked by my grandmother was "So, what are you going to eat for Thanksgiving since it's coming up?" Well, one we don't celebrate Thanksgiving. Please read up on the real story behind Thanksgiving and you will understand if you do not already know the truth behind this "holiday". But on this day since we will be with family, we will eat similar things as we used to eat, but we are more focused 1 with staying healthy and 2 not including meat in our dish. I understand that there are people out there that are vegans and vegetarians that still have Thanksgiving dinner, but they make it work to suit them. I just believe that it is a personal preference, but hey, that's me.

What are your thoughts on going meatless for this upcoming holiday? If you've used to eat meat (or any animal), but you do not eat meat (animal) anymore, how did your family take it when you let them know that you stopped eating meat (animal)?

Work at Home Opportunities for 11/26

1. Referral Reps for Umbrella Partnerships
2. Customer Care Reps for Word Travel Holdings
3. Freelance Writers for Examiner.com
4. Lead Generators for IAG
5. Travel Blogger for Agoda.com
6. Language Teachers for Language Trainers
7. Social Studies Writers and Editors for Quarasan
8. Additional work at home jobs can be found at Indeed

Here are some extra cash ideas as well

1. Jingit is a fun and legit extra cash service
2. Earn through CashCrate
3. Rate Music at SliceThePie
4. Transcribe at Quicktate
5. Tasks for Field Agent (iPhone App)
6. Scan Your Household Purchases and earn rewards at Nielsen

Healthy Hair: A mini collage of my hair since last year

I'm loving every moment of this journey!

Healthy Hair: Operation waist length hair

Back in October, I wrote a post on growing out my hair to waist length in one year. I just wanted to update you all with the inches that I'm currently at. As of today, I am at 10 inches. I was at 8 inches back in October. That means that I have 6 more inches to go to reach waist length (and please remember that I'm measuring from the nape of my head...not my hairline). I am happy with my growth and I know that I can achieve another 6 inches by summer/fall time of next year.

So far my hair has been growing 1 inch per month which is excellent. I believe the IM and my other practices have been helping it grow that much in one month. I am standing in faith that my arm pit length hair will reach waist length by the end of next year. :-)

Healthy Hair: BSL hair challenge 2013

So to make sure that I am staying on track with taking proper care of my hair, I have decided that these three dates will be my length check dates (August 31 is the last day of this challenge):

February 28

May 31

August 31

During this time, I will take photos of my length in whatever style that I am wearing at the time that actually shows my length. I just took some pictures of how my hair looks now. My hair has shrunken even in these braids, but I'm not worried about it because I already have a picture showing my length that I just took last week. *shrugs* With natural curly and kinky hair, shrinkage is something that we cannot run from which can be both a good and bad thing depending on the person. I used to want my hair to show it's length at all times, but I thought about it one day and I was like who really cares? I would love to shock people instead of having to stress myself out everyday to straighten it to show that I have hair on top of my head.

This picture gets me every time because it's so true!

So for me, I say no to absolute shrinkage just to prove that I have hair. I rather stretch my hair so that I am not having so many tangles and SSKs. That's what I'm aiming for because Lord knows that if I wear my hair in it's shrunken state that I would be off better by cutting it because detangling it will be a complete nightmare (trust me, I've done it plenty of times thinking that I could still wear it like that as it has gotten longer). I now know that as my hair grow, certain things will have to change to accommodate that new length because I don't want anymore setbacks. As for right now, I am looking to grow out my hair in a proper state which is healthy. I have posted a picture of what my hair looks like now. I just did these braids a couple of days ago and I plan on keeping them in until New Years because I am going to wear my hair out at that time.

What it looks like now in braids

What it looks like when it is stretched

Do you have a hair goal that you will like to reach or a mini goal that you can reach by August 31, 2014? If so, feel free to join this challenge with me!