Week 9: Braided Spaghetti Bread

Happy March everyone!  We are so close to Spring!  I can smell it in the air.  With the sun shining the past two days, the snow melting, and the 40 degree temps, I'm getting so anxious for Spring it's unreal.

Our past week was jam packed with fun.  We had our much hyped snow day on Wednesday!  I got the call before Scott.  A full 45 minutes before Scott.  So, it was a nerve-wracking 45 minutes from 4:45am-5:30am until Scott's school was called off too.  Geez...took long enough.  We made sure we had a ton of fun things for the kids to do so that we could all stay sane stuck at home all day.  I had the boys make some St. Patrick's Day shamrocks with their hands and also had Sean do some ice cube painting!

We also had a play date with their cousins that live two streets over.  Nana was babysitting the girls for the day so Sean had a blast playing with both his cousins and Nana.  The snow was perfect for making a giant snowman!

It was strange going back to work for Thursday and Friday, but at least it broke up the week and made it go by quicker.

Friday night I came home from work and put together my new recipe for the week.  I made Braided Spaghetti Bread from pinterest.  A friend of mine had made it a few months ago and posted her picture of it on facebook and it motivated me to give it a shot.  I mean, how can the combination of garlic bread, spaghetti, and meat sauce go wrong?

• 1 Loaf Rhodes Bread Dough or 12 Rhodes Dinner Rolls, thawed to room temperature
• 6 oz spaghetti, cooked
• 1 cup thick spaghetti sauce
• 8 oz mozzarella cheese, cut into 1/2 –inch cubes
• 1 egg white
• Parmesan cheese
• Parsley flakes

Roll loaf or combined dinner rolls into a 12x16-inch rectangle. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 10-15 minutes.

Cook spaghetti according to package instructions. Drain and let cool slightly.

Remove wrap from dough. Place spaghetti lengthwise in a 4-inch strip down the center of dough. Tip with sauce and cheese cubes. (I mixed my spaghetti and sauce together and added a ½ pound of cooked ground beef with onions and garlic).

 Make cuts 1 ½-inches apart on long sides of dough to within ½-inch of filling.

Begin braid by folding top and bottom strips toward filling. Then braid strips left over right, right over left. Finish by pulling last strip over and tucking under braid.

Lift braid with both hands and place on large sprayed baking sheet. (or transfer parchment paper to baking sheet). Brush with egg white and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and parsley (I added garlic powder).

It was great!  I think the added garlic powder on the bread was key.  It gave the dough some more flavor.  Bread dough isn't the most exciting form of bread, so any added flavor really made it more tasty.  Even Sean liked it.  Look at all the amazing gooey cheese coming out?!

The rest of our weekend was completely crazy!  We packed a bridal shower, Monster Truck Show at Ford Field, and 3rd birthday party at a bowling alley all into one weekend.  So, we decided it was best we stay at our parent's house in Troy.  Sean and Scott stayed at Scott's parents' house Saturday night and Evan and I stayed at my parents' house.  It was fun!  But, very chaotic.  Add a visit with my best friend, grocery shopping at both Whole Foods and Kroger while in Troy, and a couple of meals out at restaurants and we never stopped.  But, my mom and I enjoyed out Saturday evening sitting in her hot tub and watching Something Borrowed while the boys were at the Monster Truck Show and Evan was fast asleep.

I'm exhausted just writing a recap of our weekend, but it was so much fun!