Recipe - Beef and Spinach Lasagna

Operation: VDay Night Lasagna was a success! Instead of dealing with a crowded restaurant on Valentine's Day night, the boyfriend and I decided to just stay in and make lasagna. I made spinach lasagna months ago for Father's Day and he loved it, but had mentioned that it would be good to try again with meat this time for more protein -- more flavor, more filling. I searched down a recipe and found this one: Beef and spinach lasagna @ Food Mayhem.

So yesterday after work I headed to HEB, picked up the ingredients (along with some hand dipped chocolate covered strawberries, made right in front of me - yum!), and headed home. Even got the boyfriend to help me cook! Always a plus.

So here is the recipe, with my additions/deletions in red. And some pictures.

Beef and Spinach Lasagna
Makes one 9×13 tray

Meat Sauce

• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1 cup chopped onion (I didn't measure the chopped onion - I just bought a medium sized yellow onion and chopped it into small chunks. It was probably about 1 1/2 cups - 2 cups)
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste (I bought a tiny can of it and didn't know what to do with it after, so we used about 2 tablespoons)
• 1 pound 11 ounces (90% lean) ground beef
• 1 (28oz) can crushed tomato with basil (Bought Hunt's brand with basil and garlic)
• 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• Small tub of sliced white mushrooms (I forgot to look at the ounce size of the package -- usually I've only seen it in one large size, but HEB had two sizes - the regular and about half of that)
• Handful of finely chopped fresh basil (I saw it in the store and figured, since the sauce has basil in it, why not more basil? Yum.)
• 1 bay leaf (Didn't use it -- didn't feel like digging it out of the sauce at the end)

Cheese & Spinach Filling

• 10 ounces frozen spinach, blanched, drained and cooled
• 1 pound shredded whole milk mozzarella, divided
• 1 pound whole milk ricotta

Assembly

• 9×13 baking dish
• 1 box lasagna sheets (I bought the oven-ready type. I think either will work - last time the ones I used didn't specify oven-ready, and did have boiling instructions on the back.) 

Instructions -

Meat Sauce (can be made a day or two ahead and refrigerated, warm before using):

1. Heat oil in a medium pot on medium high heat. Stir in onions and garlic and soften for about a minute. Add carrots and stir around for another minute. Stir in tomato paste until well distributed.
2. Add ground beef and stir around until browned, about 5 minutes.
3. Add crushed tomatoes, mushrooms, and basil, garlic, and bay leaf. Bring to boil. Stir and reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Remove from heat and remove bay leaf. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F while meat sauce cools a bit.

Meat sauce after simmering (lol, so hot it fogged up my phone's camera lens)

Cheese & Spinach Filling:

1. Ring out spinach with paper towels.
2. In a medium sized bowl , combine spinach, 8 ounces of mozzarella, and ricotta.

Spinach and cheese mixture, yum!

Assembly

1. Spread 1 cup of meat sauce on the bottom of the pan.
2. Lay 4 sheets (or 3 if using the regular size) of lasagna down.
3. Spread 1/3 of cheese and spinach filling on top of lasagna sheets. Spread a little more than 1 cup of meat sauce on top.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 two more times. Lay another layer of lasagna sheets on top. Cover with remaining meat sauce. Spread remaining mozzarella on top.
(We didn't end up with many layers. Ours was as follows: meat sauce on bottom, noodles, all of the spinach/cheese mixture, most of the rest of the meat sauce, noodles, final bits of meat sauce/liquid to wet the noodles, cover with cheese. My pan isn't very deep so I didn't think we could do all the layers. It turned out fine.)
5. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes. Remove aluminum foil and bake for another 5 minutes. Serve.

Bottom layer of meat I believe.

All covered in cheese, ready to bake!

Side view, pre-baking.

Fresh from the oven!

My (first) slice!

The boyfriend's first slice!

After slicing into it

Look at those leftovers!

This keeps well in the fridge and freezes well. You can reheat piece by piece in the microwave. It’s a really awesome dish to have sitting in the fridge.

5 for 5, recipe fail

Well the recipe yesterday... I had so many pictures of my cooking, step by step, to share. But I'm not even going to because the recipe turned out terrible. Okay not terrible as in completely inedible just... blah, why did I even bother making it? I used frozen spinach instead of fresh spinach, and it turned out mushy... should have drained it more. And I put so much seasoning on top of the chicken but it turned out bland and just boring. Which raises the question I obviously don't know the answer to... how much seasoning is too much? How much is just right? I guess it's better I under season than over season.

Sigh. One of these days I will learn how to properly season while cooking. Back to the drawing board! It sounded interesting, and I ran it by the boyfriend before making it, and he said it sounded good.

I would have been better off using the spinach and just making a spinach lasagna, like one I made in the summer for father's day when my parents came up to see the new apartment. Live and learn. I'll just need to make that again some time.

It's time to do my weekly 5 for five!

1. Laundry, laundry. Do your laundry -- and put it away!
2. Go to Zumba twice. Tuesday and Thursday, you are my days! I should try to go to the 15 minute ab workout they have before my 7pm Zumba class too. I did that last week (the one time I worked out, blah) and ow! My abs were sore for days! Good stuff!
3. Talk with the boyfriend more on plans for Valentine's Day weekend. Where are we going, how long are we going for? Talk to work about it being okay to be gone for All Star weekend.
4. Wall art. Put it up! At least one room. I don't really care which one at this point.
5. Try out the new food processor. With something, don't know what. Hummus seems easy enough. You like it, you have a good recipe for it.

Long term list!
1. Organize books and movies.
2. Put up wall art.
3. Go through clothes.
4. Go to Goodwill. Did this Saturday! Took away a bag of clothes and old towels and stuff, a lamp, and the old pots and pans. I will need to go again if I, excuse me, WHEN I go through my clothes, but it's on the list!
5. Revisit the shoe cubby idea.
6. Figure out how to make Thai tea.
7. Clean my car. Clean out the trunk, clear out the back seat, get it washed.
8. Reorganize the pantry. 

Sunday Confessions!

Oh Sunday, Sunday... Time for random confessions! Actually on Sunday too, woo woo. My boyfriend is off at some rp'ing event, playing with his new collection of D10 dice, so I have the apartment to myself! Which means really I have the computer to myself. I had it to myself technically this morning while he was asleep but I slept in as  well. For once! Probably partly due to the glass of red wine I drank the night before with some of my friends. Yum. Not often a red wine girl but it's so yum!



1. I love my job. I seriously really do. I've been there almost 3 years now... It's totally busy right now and W-2 time, year-end, quarter-end wrap tasks are consuming my life for the next month and making it damn near impossible for me to schedule anything during the week with friends (I work late often during this time, but never really know when I'll need to or want to, or where I'll be in the whole process to even yet warrant it).
But every time I tell people where I work and what I do, their response is almost almost, "Oh that's so cool." Usually followed by, "Do you get free tickets" or "what does ___ make?". And I have to smile and say yes, it is cool. Yes, I do get free tickets -- not court side though. Oh I wish. Oh court side ... such a dream of mine. And yes I know what ___ makes but I won't tell you. Go Google it yourself!
Every day is different. Every day is an adventure! I've learned so much... There's no way I would have ever been able to get my CPP while I was at my old job. I just didn't have the exposure to basic payroll concepts that I do now. I don't think the CPP really would have helped me much there anyway. But now? I use things I learned in the course every day.

2. I want ice cream. I know. It's weird. We're in the middle of winter -- as wintry as it ever really gets here in Houston, TX -- and it's 40 degrees outside (actually today it's sunny and clear and windy and 57 degrees and so friggin' beautiful I wanna cry. I played disc golf. I was terrible but it was so fun). But I want ice cream! I'm going to the grocery store later. Maybe I'll give in. I'll get one that's so rich and decadent a) the boyfriend who doesn't really like or crave sweets won't touch it and b) it's so rich I can only take 1-2 bites and I'm done for the day.

3. Does someone want to come over and put up my wall art for me? Seriously. I don't want to do it! I want to have it up, it'll look so nice... I have spots for most of it planned out... I just don't want to. I'm scared of putting holes in the wall and messing up the placement and having to move it up or down and then you have a hole. And the painting. Blaaah. I'm having a big girls day in two weeks... I should really aim to have at least 2 rooms done by then (bedroom, living room, bathroom, dining room).

4. Going to try a new recipe today! Spinach and tomato chicken. I'm amazed too -- something that's not from the crockpot? And on Crockpot Sunday at that?? Laura, you wild woman! I'll report back later with how this turns out.

Hm. What else. Oh. Sure why not.

5. This wine is really good. This is the wine I drank last night that made me sleep in. You should try it out. It's super tasty. It's basically super expensive French wine that due to the weird French wine laws, can't be bottled as super expensive French wine. Here's some information on it. If you like reds, check it out. It's $12. And tastes like a $70 bottle. At least that's what my win connoisseur friend, who introduced me to it, says.

Time to go play with my iPad. And think about putting up wall art...

Recipe - Crockpot Chicken Taco Chili

I wanted to do a crockpot recipe yesterday so I did! I hadn't done chili yet so I purused my Pinterest boards on Saturday with my boyfriend so he could veto anything I might choose and decided to do this one:

I have it pinned here on my Completed board. Here's the recipe below, with my few changes.

Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili
Servings: 10

1 onion, chopped (used 1 medium sized yellow onion)
1 16-oz can black beans (used 1 15-oz can of Ranch Style black beans - drained off most of the liquid)
1 16-oz can kidney beans (used 1 15.5-oz can of HEB dark red kidney beans - drained off most of the liquid)
1 8-oz can tomato sauce (used 1 15-oz can of HEB tomato sauce)
10 oz package frozen corn kernels (used 1 15-oz can of Hill Country Fare whole kernel corn - drained off most of the liquid)
2 14.5-oz cans diced tomatoes w/chilies (used 2 10-oz cans of Ro*Tel Diced Tomatoes & Green Chilies - 1 Mild, 1 Original)
1 packet taco seasoning
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp chili powder
24 0z. (3) boneless skinless chicken breasts (I used just over two pounds, chicken breast tenders, cut into about 4 pieces each. Since the chicken didn't really shred, very glad I did this)
chili peppers, chopped (optional) (didn't do this, the BF isn't a huge fan of spicy)
chopped fresh cilantro (sadly didn't do this, the BF hates cilantro. If I want him to not eat something, a way to protect it so it's mine, all mine, is add cilantro. But that's mean.)
 
Combine beans, onion, chili peppers, corn, tomato sauce, cumin, chili powder and taco seasoning in a slow cooker. Place chicken on top and cover. Cook on low for 10 hours or on high for 6 hours (usually I prefer to cook on low but I didn't get this in the crockpot until around 11, and I didn't want to have to wait until 9PM to eat so I did high for 6 hours). Half hour before serving, remove chicken and shred (didn't do this - when it had about an hour left, I poked the chicken with a fork and it wasn't shredding so I just stirred it down into the liquid so it would get the flavor and mix up better). Return chicken to slow cooker and stir in. Top with fresh cilantro (nope). Also try it with low fat cheese and sour cream (extra points) (served on a handful of Fritos and with a sprinkling of shredded cheddar cheese). 

I also stirred it around every once in awhile. Maybe every 2 hours or so? 

Whoops, the only pic I took of it cooking - pretty much right after I dumped everything in.

And I also forgot to take pics of the day of when it was ready.
So here it is the next day! Sunday crockpot, Monday leftovers!

Friday! No more quarantine!

It's Friday!!!

It's also the first day of the week I really feel normal again. And healthy. I had a sore throat on Sunday when I woke up for the Graffiti Run and powered through it. And then slept for most of Sunday as I mentioned in my blog earlier this week. Monday and Tuesday, powered through work cos I had things I needed to get done and slept long hours in the evening. Tuesday I went to Buffalo Wild Wings to meet up with friends figuring I'd order some wings some a spice sauce -- spice is good for clearing sinuses, right? After I left BW3, I went to get some serious meds. Wednesday I left work early because I finished my very time sensitive work for the week and figured this is dumb, I need rest, I need to recover. That is what sick time is for! Yesterday I was feeling much better... unfortunately not better enough to go to Zumba. Especially not when I had to spend an hour in traffic getting home! Ridiculous! So I was very bad this week with the working out... but I was sick. So leave me alone. I'm doing yoga tonight with a friend. Hot yoga! Sweat out the rest of my sicky toxins!

On Wednesday I did FINALLY cook the curry thing I'd been meaning to cook for about a week now...

How it's supposed to look - per the box.

How mine looked... Hmm.

It's actually pretty good. Cut up about 2.5 pounds of chicken into little chunks (I was supposed to cube it -- time consuming!!), a whole yellow onion into small chunks, two red bell peppers into chunks. I kind of browned the onions and chicken in the pot in oil but not really. I am so bad at doing that. I always add too much oil and then it gets hot and starts popping and I get scared and take it off the heat and use the heated up oil to brown things. It's really probably hilarious to watch. I eventually gave up on it and continued on, dumping in the rest of the chicken and onion and bell pepper. I worry more about browning red meat than poultry. Then I added six cups of water and brought it to a boil and then it simmer, covered, for about 15 minutes. (I had a bag of little carrots to add but didn't -- it didn't seem like I had enough room in the pot for another veggie.) Then took it off the heat and broke up the curry mix into it and let them melt which turned it the brown color!

Grade for the curry sauce mix: B+. I'll buy it again. The first night it was really liquidy -- I probably should have added some flour or corn starch to the pot to thicken it but didn't want to deal with it. Actually as it cools though the sauce thickens up. It's thicker now than it was the first day. It's really handy and goes a long way. And is pretty tasty. I wish I could just make it myself because the sodium level on the boxed stuff is really high... But considering how much the entire pack makes, it's not terrible. Definitely not something I'll make every week. Is the curry I buy at Tokyo Bowl better? Yes. But you can't eat out every day!

The first night I made it we ate it over rice. Yum. Last night my boyfriend got creative and got out some of the leftover curry and some packs of ramen. Curry ramen noodles! Yum!

Yesterday was my holiday office party. We went ice skating and played broomball (senior manager went down!!!) and then had a raffle. I put in to win the CEO's courtside seats for a game, and an iPad... Didn't win a thing. They also raffled off, pulling from everyone's tickets, cash! Two $250, $500, and $1,000... Nope. No money for me. But it was all in good fun. Congrats to those who did win (grumble, grumble). I can't complain. When Chris and I went to his holiday office party, I won two free movie tickets from their raffle.

So now all of my chances to win a free iPad are gone for the season. Guess I should just buy one already. One black 32 gig iPad with retina display (just call it the iPad 4, Apple), coming up! Merry Christmas. To myself! This morning I was listening to my radio show on my drive to work and they were talking about a study that says women expect their partner to give them $480 worth of Christmas gifts. The formula is about 1% of the partner's annual salary. That is absolutely ridiculous. About a month ago Chris actually asked me, so you want an iPad, and I told him not to get one for me. Can he afford it? Yes, of course. Do I deserve it? Of course, I'm awesome! But that's way too much. He already has my love, he doesn't have to try to buy it.

All right, time to do some work. Then it's the weekend!!

Today -- lunch with my sister at Food truck Fridays! Yoga!
Then this weekend... Spa! Holiday book exchange with my book club! Pub crawl! Game night (maybe)! Dim sum! Ultimate Frisbee! Busy weekend.