Jen's Recipe Corner: Lasagna

Ok I don't know exactly when I turned into June Cleaver but it happened.  I made up my own Lasagna recipe.  Shocking.  Even more surprising was that it was freaking delicious and relatively healthy for you.  So here's the recipe I wrote down partially to share, partially so I don't forget how I did it.

Meat and Spinach Lasagna

Ingredients:

1 medium onion

1 tsp minced garlic

1 lb lean ground beef

1 28 oz can tomato sauce

1 16 oz can diced tomatoes

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp thyme

1 ½  tsp salt

Pepper

Garlic powder

2 16 oz containers cottage cheese

4 eggs

1 tsp nutmeg

Bag of Fresh spinach

2 cups mozzarella cheese

1 cup Parmesan cheese

First…Make the meat sauce

• Saute one medium onion and 1 heaping tsp of minced garlic in EVOO.
• Add 1 lb lean ground beef
• Drain and toss in a bigger pot
• Add one big can of tomato sauce
• Add one can diced tomatoes
• Add 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp thyme, 1 tsp salt, and pepper to taste.  Also added garlic powder to taste.
• Simmer for 1 hour.

While that’s cooking…Make the filling:

• Dump 2 16 oz containers of cottage cheese in a bowl (I used 2% milkfat)
• Beat 3-4 eggs in a separate bowl and mix in with the cottage cheese 
• Add 1 tsp nutmeg
• Add ½ tsp salt 
• Scoop out 1 ½ cups of this mixture into a separate bowl to use as the lasagna topping. 
• Add chopped fresh spinach to the main mixture….I used like 2 handful of fresh – probably 2 cups or so.
• Mix it all up.

Then put it all together…

• Use the Barilla no-cook noodles.  Soak 9 of them in warm water for a few minutes to make them pliable but not too soft.
• Spray lasagna pan with PAM.
• Spread some of the tomato sauce on the bottom of the pan.
• Place 3 noodles in the bottom side by side – not touching.
• Add ½ the spinach mixture in a layer across the noodles.
• Add a layer of the tomato sauce.
• Add a layer of mozzarella cheese and parmesan
• Add another layer of noodles, spinach, tomato sauce, cheese
• Add another layer of noodles, then add the reserved CC mixture (without the spinach), tomato sauce, and top with a final layer of cheese.

 

Cook covered tightly with parchment paper and tin foil at 375 degrees for 50 minutes.  Then remove foil/parchment and cook for another 10-15 minutes. Then you do the Hokey Pokey and you turn yourself around.  That's what it's all about.

Remove from oven and let it sit 15 min before serving.

Delish.

We may grow old but we never grow up...

Over the past week I've had at least a dozen "I've got to blog about that" moments but now that I have time I forget what I was going to write about.  Let's see what happens if I just keep typing....

Most recently, I have learned that Mommies deserve hazard pay.  Our dear little angel head-butted me in the cheekbone so hard that I was momentarily stunned.  She thought it was hilarious.  I iced it down but SB has one hard head.  I hope I don't end up with a big shiner tomorrow and look like a Lifetime movie victim lurking around the grocery store with big sunglasses on to hide the evidence of abuse.  It would give the crotchety old ladies at the Harris Teeter something to talk about, at least.

In other, less violent SB news, we have started down the path of over-scheduling her with activities, as all good American parents do.  Ok, well two activities is probably not going to send her into therapy, but it will definitely improve the quality of her sleep-time, we hope.  Last week she started swim lessons, and this week she is starting music class.  Swimming was something else.  The biggest challenge for Mommy was to figure out how to get SB and myself dried off and dressed after the lesson.  She was running around like mad, moving chairs around in the play area like a tiny interior decorator.  I finally gave up changing out of my swimsuit and just pulled on my trackpants, going home with a nice wet rear.  Lovely in 45 degree weather.  Next week I will change my strategy a bit so I don't end up with a frozen tooshie.

We are very excited about music class.  As you know, we are convinced she will be a musical prodigy due to her early start at piano and guitar.  She also totes her toy xylophone around the house all day for impromptu jam sessions.  Her dance moves are awesome.  She sways from side to side, spins around and then walks backward like Michael Jackson (may he rest in peace.)  I've got to get that on video to play at her rehearsal dinner someday.  I'm sure she will LOVE getting to sing and dance and play with other kids.  Even better, her little neighbor friend Gavin will be in the same class so she can get some girl-next-door flirting in.  G came over for a visit the other day and the two of them sat on the couch together.  G started putting the moves on SB, SB would act aloof and jump off the couch, but then she'd cruise by and drop a toy off for G to play with.  Already starting with the games...we never grow out of that phase, do we?

Speaking of never growing out of something...I must relay this story that Mom told me about my Grandma.  She probably wouldn't appreciate me sharing it so NO ONE TELL GRANDMA I'm blogging about her situation.  I don't think she's internet savvy - let's keep it that way for now.  Anyway, my 88 year old Grandma recently transitioned to a Retirement facility after living alone for over 30 years.  It's been an adjustment but she's trying to make it work for her.  So get this.  She's met a nice man who was friendly enough to have lunch and dinner with her in the cafeteria fairly regularly.   Let's call him "Gary."  So Grandma is upset because some of the ladies have been making comments about her and Gary spending time together and "oh you make a nice couple" in a snarky kind of way.  Grandma is mortified and now doesn't want to even go to the cafeteria because of all the controversy.  Seriously.  This sounds like something you'd hear in 8th grade.  So the bad news is, we may grow old but we never grow up.  The good news is, my Grandma's still a sassy little number and she's got the "mean girls" jealous.  Ha.  I hope she sees it that way and continues to enjoy "Gary's" company and tells those old biddies to suck it.  In a nice Grandmotherly sort of way, of course.

Dr. King Deserves More News Coverage than Angie's Ugly Green Dress

Did anyone else find it sad that there was more talk about who was wearing what at the Golden Globes last night than the fact that it was Martin Luther King Jr Day?  I will admit that I did not go to any MLK festivities today, but for the love of pete, enough about Angelina Jolie's long sleeve jewel tone dress.  I really don't care.  Clearly the studio paid someone off for her crappy movie to have been nominated. (...by the way in the "comedy" category? Just because people are laughing at your movie doesn't make it a comedy.) So I really, really don't care about her ugly dress.  Matt Lauer and his "news" colleagues should be ashamed of themselves.

That said, the only thing that did make the news about the holiday this morning was that a small group of people led by a local NAACP leader were protesting the fact that Charlotte schools were using this day as a make-up day for one of the 3 1/2 snow days that happened last week.  He called Charlotte a "racist bastion" because kids had to go to school.  Um, seems a little over the top.  Let me get this straight.  People are mad because kids are learning in school instead of home playing video games all day?  Now if a family had planned to attend an MLK event today, that's great.  But how many parents had that on the agenda today?  Not many, I'm guessing.   Heck, many people had to work today.   I would think that if we could ask Dr. King where kids should be today, he would be delighted to have them in school, learning about his message and his legacy.  So good job to the small group of protesters who managed to completely overshadow the meaning and the spirit of this day.  What did you teach your kids today?

  "Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will."  - Martin Luther King, Jr.


I remember having to memorize excerpts from his "I Have a Dream Speech" in 7th grade, I think it was.  Hearing it now, the speech still resonates.  He was an inspiring man.  I can't help but wonder how different our society would be now if his life had not been cut too short.  It was hard finding a YouTube video of his speech that did not have horrifyingly bigoted and hateful remarks somewhere in the public comments.  Very sad.  Clearly, his work is unfinished. 




 

Stuff you never think about when you are blinded by love in the window of a home furnishings store...

A few years ago, when I bought our current house, I fell in love with some beautiful plates at Z gallerie.  Pretty. square. sassy, seafoam-green plates.  And my wonderful parents bought me a set for Christmas.  I loved them.  They were so funky and didn't you hear that square plates actually make you lose weight because you eat less?

Well, soon I found out why God did not intend for us to have square plates.  You knock those dumb corners into everything - the cabinet, the dishwasher, the sink, the granite countertops...it's impossible to put them away without chipping one.  I have dents in my cabinet interiors and a few chips in the granite courtesy of these demon plates.  Oh and the plates fared much worse then the granite.  Half of them had major chips in them, so much so that we'd have to whip out the fancy plates whenever company came for dinner because we couldn't assemble a set of four without major crackage.  Another thing, microwaves were built for round plates.  The square dinner plate was too big and clunked on the door with every rotation so whenever we heated something up we'd hear THUMP....THUMP...THUMP...above the regular whirring microwave sounds.  Third problem was the bowls.  Square bowls.  Ever try mixing something up in a square?  Like Oatmeal for instance.  Stuff gets hung up in the corners. I resorted to beating eggs in a mug because the square bowls just didn't work at all with a whisk.


Anyway, Kurt finally said one day  "I work too hard all day to have to eat off of chipped plates" or some revelation like that.  So now, the infamous plates are half in the trash and half (the good half) in a box on its way to Goodwill.  I did feel a little bit like a hoarder though...thinking, "well I could keep those plates and use them in a mosaic art project someday." Right.  Like that'll ever happen.  I have adopted the mantra if "someday" isn't in the next few weeks, then it needs to go.  So bye-bye square plates.  I will miss your funkiness, but you have been replaced by standard round, white dinnerware from Ikea.  Sometimes it doesn't pay to be different.

Back in the Blog

Long time no blog, right?  I took a little vacation over the holidays from my computer...well I still checked email and facebook on my iPhone of course. I'm not Laura Ingalls on the prairie for crying out loud.  I was getting some serious carpal tunnel from all my typing and photoshop work so it was a nice break.  But I'm back and even better equipped to serve my photography clients since Kurt got me and awesome Wacom Tablet for Christmas.  It is the coolest.thing.ever.  It's a step away from being Tom Cruise in Minority Report, whipping around those computer screens in the air with his fingertips.  Ok, well maybe it's not that advanced, but it is awesome.  It's a wireless pen that you use instead of a mouse but it is so sensitive it's like a paintbrush or an artist's pencil.  I can literally draw in photoshop.  Smooth lines, amazing accuracy.  It's a thing of beauty. And I think it will save my left hand from shriveling up and dying right on the end of my arm.  (I'm a lefty.)  So thanks Kurtie Claus for the new toy.  I love it. 
I had an awesome newborn shoot last weekend.  No it did not make me want to have another one, although he was super-adorable.  (See for yourself here)  It reminded me just how tiny and helpless Little Miss Independent was just 18 months ago.  Now she is running down the hallways, hollering, playing the piano, using a fork to feed herself enchiladas, and voicing her very strong opinion about everything.  She is such a riot.  Grandma and Grandpa picked out the best toys for our little girl this Christmas.  Musical instruments, a set of play groceries...my living room looks like the trashed hotel room of a preschool rock band.  The xylophone is a huge hit.  Even more popular is the xylophone mallet.  She takes it everywhere.  Fortunately it's lightweight plastic.  Otherwise, we'd all be walking around with dents in our foreheads.  Not to mention the furniture.
So I hate to cut this short but I've got to get to bed at a decent hour tonight.  SB has woken up at 5AM the past two nights and partied 'til about 6:30.  Mommy is tired.  Tomorrow's post...why square plates are evil.