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.

Recipe - Funfetti Cookies

Like practically everything I've cooked for the last eight months or so, I can't take credit for this. I found it on Pinterest. (Not pin-interest as my friend and boyfriend like to call it. I'm looking at you, Kevin and Chris!) So awhile ago I discovered Funfetti dip and made it for a game night, which I know I've talked about on this blog, and it was a hit. And I've made it about three times since.

I had another game night with friends on Friday and figured I'd try something different. Funfetti cookies! They were from the same blogger who I discovered the dip through, so I figured it was worth a shot!

Definitely go check out the original blogger's site: http://www.eat-yourself-skinny.com/. Good stuff there.

Now without further ado... how does the dip translate to cookie form?

We start with three ingredients - Funfetti dip, 2 eggs, low fat yogurt
(I used vanilla because that's what the original recipe called for. Original flavor would probably work too, but the vanilla is a little sweeter and we are making cookies here.
To note, I do use original yogurt when I make the dip. But you have a lot of sweetness from the cool whip in that recipe. I also usually split the big tub of yogurt - half for the funfetti dip, half to make ranch dip for veggies, since I only make this when I'm having a party or bringing food to a party. Okay, that's enough footnotes for now.)

I also used my brand new non-stick baking mat for this. OMGILUVITSOMUCH<3! Seriously, if you bake. Get it. That's a standard size cookie sheet. Look how big the mat is!

And mix! Mix! Mix! Make the mixer do the work for you! This is after I made the mistake of using the whisk attachment and all the dough got in the middle of it... that was fun. Living and learning, living and learning.

And put them on the mat! I used my cookie scooper to do it. The dough is really sticky so I do recommend some type of utensil, or just a spoon, not your hands.

Just a different view... I don't know why. I did learn that the cookies do spread out more than I thought they would so definitely don't have them as close together as some of mine are. Mainly those two on the bottom left.

And then you bake for about 12 minutes at 375 degrees.

And you end up with these!

My thoughts on the cookies? Are mixed. Some of my friends liked the dip more, some liked the cookies more. I like the dip more just because it yields more. I only ended up with about a dozen and a half cookies. So they went really fast, whereas we can sit there and eat the dip all night and still have leftovers. I'll probably make them again, because they're not bad cookies. They're actually really good. It just depends on the setting you're making them for. A small get together, or just a night by yourself, the cookies. A large get together, the dip.

Now one of my friends wants to dip a funfetti cookie in funfetti dip... Next time, funfetti icing for the cookies?

Recipe in easy form:
1 box Funfetti cake mix (18.9 oz)
2 eggs
1/2 cup low-fat/fat-free vanilla yogurt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium bowl, mix cake mix, yogurt, and eggs until all clumps are gone. Drop small rounded balls onto cookie sheet greased or covered in baking mat, parchment paper. Bake for 10-12 minutes until cookies are slightly browned.

Tuesday Confessions!

That time again and this time I'm two days late! Oh yea I rock so hard! I think you guys know the drill by now. Click on the badge below, head over to Alyx's blog and link up! Make your own confessions, after reading mine of course!


1. I need to work on my temper. That sounds weird. I need to clarify... I don't lose my temper a lot. Almost never. But sometimes when I'm really tired or frustrated or both, I have these little outbursts that could almost be called temper tantrums. They're not healthy and I'm not proud of them and I don't like them. So yes, need to work on them.

2. Valentine's Day is coming up! I don't have huge plans with the boyfriend... Dinner at home that night, go out to eat for the day sometime next weekend since I'm working every evening this weekend for All Star weekend. I thought about doing something really cute, like a scavenger hunt, then I remembered Gone Girl... so nixed that idea.

3. I skipped working out last night. Whoops. It was the second class of my free two class pass from S Factor. It was just so rainy and gross last night! The last thing I wanted to do when I got home was go out again. So I didn't. Ha, world! Instead I watched about 4 episodes of Breaking Bad, season two. Almost done with season two, two more episodes!

4. I signed up for a TRX class! I'll start in March, every Saturday for six weeks. Excited and scared! Hopefully I won't make a fool of myself in front of my friend who's in the training session with me. I've always said I have very little upper body strength -- maybe this will be when I change that!

5. I think I'm obsessed. I can't stop thinking about when these games come out from Guillotine Games. I'm in love with Zombicide and have about 7 of my closest friends equally in love. We're planning an all-Zombicide games night. In honor of Walking Dead starting up again!

Zombicide Toxic City Mall expansion

Zombicide Prison Outbreak expansion/stand alone

6. I think I'm going to give up soda for Lent. Or fried food. Last year I did fried food and did really well... only cheated once! Or I could do soda AND fried food? Hm... Still deciding. I have one more day to decide!
This weekend might be the worst weekend to give up caffeine before. I'm going to be working late three nights in a row... It's not supposed to be easy though.
Oddly enough, I'm not at all religious... I don't even go to church. I have no opinions on the Pope's announcement yesterday that he's stepping down. I won't go to church for Ash Wednesday. But I still honor Lent by doing my sacrifice each year.

Can I do without you for 40 days, soda?

7. Happy late Chinese New Year! It's the year of the Snake! Chinese New Year started on Sunday. Saturday night my boyfriend and I had a big family dinner to honor the holiday. I got my first red pocket!

Money in red

Here's some information on Chinese New Year celebrations that seems pretty accurate. We did the New Years Eve family gathering and feasting. And the red pockets.

8. I owe you a recipe post. I haven't forgotten about the Funfetti cookies I said I was making last week. I did make them. Soon, soon! I'll probably work on that after I finish this post.

9. Whoa, eight confessions so far? I'm on a roll!

10. It's NBA Week! The NBA All Star games are rolling into town and Toyota Center is all dressed up!

Toyota Center -- AKA, All Star Center?

I'm going to try to get better pictures later this week when it's not so rainy disgusting.

Sunday Monday Confessions!

It's that time of the week again!


1. I'm just going to start calling these my Monday confessions. I just never can seem to get this done on a Sunday! It's on my calendar, I think about what I want to post, I just never get it done.

2. I'm getting a new kitchen doohickey this week! It was recommended to me by one of my awesome friends who loves to craft, bake, and is a great mom. She's like Martha Stewart. But cooler. Cos I can ask her questions. And she never went to jail.
So this is what I'm getting:

You can get your own at Amazon!

It's a Matfer 321005 Exopat 11-5/8-by-16-3/8-Inch Nonstick Baking Mat. I've been using parchment paper when I bake, which makes clean up so much easier, but it's a bit of a pain (I'm also just lazy). I don't want to spend the time cutting it, and then the paper is wider than the pan so I have to squash it down so it doesn't hang all over the place. And then I saw my friend posted a pic of her cookies out of the oven and I was all, 'yum! Hey what's that mat they're on....' I was sold.

3. I plan to test out my new baking mat this week! I have a game night with friends coming up this Friday so I'm going to make Funfetti cookies! Everyone loves the dip, and the same blogger who posted the dip (http://www.eat-yourself-skinny.com/) has a post with them in cookie format... So I want to see how they translate. Will report back soon.

4. I am Zelda obsessed! Reading The Legend of Zelda; Hyrule Historia, finding out about the Wii U Zelda in the works and the remake of Wind Waker has totally inspired me to play the old games again. I dug out my old Nintendo DS, the one that still has the GameBoy Advance slot, and started replaying Minish Cap from the beginning. I'm already about halfway finished. I tried to continue playing Ocarina on my 3DS but I don't remember where I am or what I was doing so I turned it off, I'll come back to it. I plan to also replay the Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons games -- flashback to GameBoy Color!! Pretty sure they'll play in the GBA slot on my older DS. And awhile ago I restarted playing Twilight Princess. Will pick that up again in awhile.
And I still have no plans to even try to finish Majora's Mask. Stupid game. I just can't do the lover's mask task, I can't do it!

5. I think I need to amend my 2011 taxes. Ew. :/ Should be pretty easy... thank you Turbo Tax!

6. I worked out Friday night, Saturday afternoon, and I'm working out tonight. Go me!

7. I read What Alice Forgot last week, in about 3 days, and it's seriously made myself think -- if it was ten years ago and then the next thing I knew, it was today, what would I think of my life?
That makes very little sense... Here's the book synopsis, to help explain:
Alice Love is twenty-nine years old, madly in love with her husband, and pregnant with their first child. So imagine her surprise when, after a fall, she comes to on the floor of a gym (a gym! she HATES the gym!) and discovers that she's actually thirty-nine, has three children, and is in the midst of an acrimonious divorce. A knock on the head has misplaced ten years of her life, and Alice isn't sure she likes who she's become. It turns out, though, that forgetting might be the most memorable thing that has ever happened to Alice.
 So let's see... ten years ago, I was almost 22. (I was probably playing Oracle of Seasons/Ages, lol.) I was living with my parents in Lake Jackson, after nearly flunking out of TCU. I wasn't in contact with any of my friends from TCU because I was so ashamed of how badly I'd done and how I had to leave. I was going to Brazosport College to appease my parents... It was my second semester. I think it was around this time I was taking a computer programming class and realizing that I could do college, I wasn't dumb, and I had decided on a major that I could graduate with in a year. I think I was still terrified of my parents' idea that after I graduated from BC, I needed to go to a university and finish up my bachelor's degree. I was working at Hallmark/Coach House Gifts. I was totally frivolous with my money and accumulating a lot of debt that future me would get to deal with. I spent most nights hanging out at IHOP with my friends -- ah! The start of my chub! Eating a club sandwich or pancakes or fries or a sundae at 11pm then going to sleep an hour later... My dating life was pretty nonexistent.
Now? (I'm still playing Zelda!) I'm living in the Galleria area with my long term boyfriend. I've reconnected with my really close friends from TCU. Do we see each other? No, but I do want to change that and soon, Miss Polly and Miss Lissa! But our lives are busy. :) I have an MBA and a payroll certification. I work for the Houston Rockets. I have seized control of my debt and am much more aware of my expenditures and my disposable income. 
If I had short term amnesia today, and was thinking it was 10 years ago, and I was looking at my life, I definitely don't think I would recognize it. But I'm actually so thankful of that. I have grown so much in the last ten years and I am in such a better place, in all aspects of my life. Financially, emotionally, mentally, physically.

Sunday Confessions!

You know the drill! Grab the button (click on the button to go to Every Day is a New Adventure, who started this - she has the code super easy to copy/paste). Write up your confessions. Link up. Visit some new blogs!


1. I can never seem to do these on a Sunday. I really don't know why... I even woke up early yesterday and had several hours in the living room to myself, while the boyfriend was still asleep. I just wanted to read my book, not look at a computer.

2. I have to find my workout motivation! It's not even the end of January, it's too early to lose the whole "New Year, new resolutions!" oomph. I went to S Factor yesterday and realized it had been about a week and a half since I'd worked out. I didn't even wear my BodyBugg at all last week! Gotta get back to it... pretty much done with all of my workout Groupons, so now to get to a good routine with my usual places. Should go to Zumba tonight and tomorrow night. Those are my only two chances to go this week. I have trivia on Wednesday night, a concert on Thursday night, and a colorful run (yes, yet another one - it's my 3rd!) on Saturday morning.

3. I'M GOING TO SEE LADY GAGA THIS WEEK!! It'll be my second time seeing her in concert.

4. I had a psychic reading on Friday. I went to an entrepreneur showcase at S Factor with a friend (basically, all of their students who do direct sales things -- Scentsy, Premier Designs, Passion Parties, etc. set up tables and other people came in to check out the studio and the tables). One of their students was offering 10 minutes readings for $5 and I figured what the hell, why not. It was my first time ever doing something like this.
Some of the things she said were a little uncanny, too on point. One thing was silly. And one thing is just... staying with me, in the back of my mind. I actually talked to one of my friends and she's willing to go to some other psychic with me. Palm readings, tarot readings, I'm really not that picky. I want to try it out again, get a "second opinion", and just have fun with my friend. Now I need to do some research to find one that's not too gadawful expensive or in a sketchy neighborhood.
Too funny, I remember a scene in the book MWF Seeking BFF where she and a new friend went to get their palms read.

5. I turned down a cupcake on Saturday! My friend was going to Sprinkles, and asked me if I wanted one, and I said nah, thank you though. My reasoning was I was probably going to have frozen yogurt later that evening, so no double dessert for me! I didn't even end up having the froyo! And I wanted ice cream yesterday but never had it! (The bad thing is, the reason I didn't is because our complex's water was turned off yesterday so they could fix something. So I didn't want to get a bowl, the scoop, a spoon, dirty and then let them sit in the sink for who knows how long until the wtaer was back on and I could wash them. Little OCD....)

ZELDA!

So I think by this point everyone knows I have a weird obsessive love of all things Zelda?

So it must be said.

I am super duper excited about the informtion released by Nintendo yesterday!!

Nintendo teases new Zelda, Wind Waker remake for Wii U

I knew as soon as I heard about the Wii U that I wouldn't buy it until a Legend of Zelda game came out for it. So the new Zelda game, as far as I can tell with various articles (here's a good one from last October), is planned for 2014. But later this year a remake of Wind Waker will be released for the Wii U. So looks like I'll be getting a Wii U sooner than I thought.

So. Excited!

I've honestly been craving replaying Wind Waker too. 

Catch up - did you miss me?

Oh my gosh, busy January, how you thwart my blogging schedule!

Phew... it's been a busy month. Can't believe it's been more than two weeks since I last touched this thing. I kept meaning to blog but I spend so much time starting at a computer at work it's the last thing I want to look at on the weekends sometime and especially the week nights.

So time to play catch up. What have I been up to? Warning... I don't know why, but there are links all over the place with this post.

• W-2 Season. It kills me dead every year. There's just so much to do with the year end wrap up. I've kept my calendar relatively clear this month because I have to with my work demands. Not doing something every night though, I must admit, has been nice. Must continue to keep control over my schedule like I was forced to this month! I'm not going to bore you with the details of what I've been doing day to day at work. It's done, for the most part. I don't really want to think about it anymore.

• Won an award at work! Go me! It's basically an Employee of the Month program we have, except it's quarter based instead of monthly. Every quarter, they ask for employees to nominate their peers as the new One Team All Star -- basically the best of the best, an employee who always gives it their all and exemplifies the core values of the company. It's kind of a big deal.

My first trophy in forever!

• Have not been cooking a lot but I was able to try out a few restaurants I've been meaning to for awhile: BRC Gastropub on Shepherd -- so yummy! -- and Mother Teresa's in Lake Jackson. Authentic Italian food! So delicious. Chris and I went down to have dinner with some friends who live in LJ. Figured it was only fair, almost all the other times we've seen them, they've come up to Houston. 288 is a two way street!

• I've done some Zumba at Tropa Z Fitness. Not nearly as much as I should be doing, but things come up. I'll be better! And I have a year long membership that I'm going to be charged for each month. I MUST be better. I also used a Groupon deal with a friend that we both bought for Vault Houston - we tried out an intro class to Vault AIR-TONE. It was interesting... different. I'll try it again. And this Sunday, the same friend and I are going to enjoy another Groupon deal we bought for a class at S Factor. Pretty excited about that. I've tried out another pole dance workout class and enjoyed the class itself but not the location. 

• Successfully hosted a Slumber Parties party at my apartment this past weekend! Had to kick the boyfriend out for that. Slumber Parties is a direct sales, home party company for bedroom accessories. Let's just leave it at that? ;) My consultant is great - here's her website. My party is still open until the end of the month -- if you see something you want, contact her and let her know you were referred to her by me, Laura B. All of their products are great. I got $400 in product for $150, thanks to free or discounted merchandise hostess benefits! I had so many ladies in my apartment, oh my gosh, and it's really not that big, when you start talking about fitting 15 people in the living room. I actually  had to borrow folding chairs from E&A earlier in the week. I was looking at the RVSP list and the number of people who'd said yes, and looking at my living room, and the two recliners and one desk chair and four kitchen table chairs.... yea, that wasn't going to work. Thank goodness I was able to borrow chairs! Life savers!!

•  Finished reading The Hobbit! One book on the BBC Big Read List, down! And to stick with my 2013 reading challenge, 2 more to go! Or 12. But I still don't know if I'm that ambitious... We'll see. Next on the list... I think I'll try reading Tess of the d'Urbervilles.Got it for free on Amazon for my Kindle! 

• Ordered this -- The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia. It's a little embarrassing about how much I'm looking forward to getting this. But not really. If I wasn't a nerd, Chris and I wouldn't work as well as we do. 

• Loving on Pandora!!! Seriously, was I the last person in the world to discover how cool this thing is?

• Watched Spank! The 50 Shades Parody, a Fifty Shades of Grey parody. Pretty funny. It did inspire me to read more of 50 Shades, before I was only about one chapter in... Oh my god, it's so bad but oddly compelling. I don't understand it! I am so tired of reading about the main character's "inner goddess". Just call it what it is!

•  Got a new battery for my car. That was... thrilling. It could have been a lot worse though. I thought it was going to be much worse. Luckily I was off on Monday. So discovered my car wouldn't start, Chris tried to do a jump start, didn't work. Called my dad and told him the issues and he thought it might be something wrong with the relay. So Chris heads back to work and I call up Honda Care to set up a tow to a dealership. The tow truck comes by and takes a look and he is able to jump it! Yay! I guess the tow truck had a lot more juice than Chris' car, cos we did everything right. So then I headed over to AutoZone to get the battery tested and it was bad, so I bought a new one. The annoying this is now my car says Enter Code when I try to turn the radio on, since the battery was disconnected. Need to find my owners manual, I need the car-specific security code.

I think that's it...  Phew. And there's still a week left to this month. I need it to be February already!!

But then it'll be the month of All Star. Yikes.