Lasagna Toss

This recipe comes from the Nanny Goat blog recipe swap!  It tastes just like regular lasagna, but it takes a lot less time to make!

What you need:
1 lb Browned Hamburger Meat
1 Jar (26 oz) Spaghetti Sauce
1/4 C. Italian Dressing
12 Lasagna Noodles- broken into quarters
1/2 Chopped Green Pepper
1 C. Shredded Mozzarella
3 Cloves minced Garlic
1 2/3 C. Water

I actually didn't change a thing about the ingredients this time.

Here's what you do:


1.  Stir the hamburger, green pepper, garlic, spaghetti sauce, water and italian dressing in a large saucepan.  Bring to a boil.

2.  Take your lasagna noodles, and break 'em all up, and add 'em to the pot.

3.  Stir and cover.  Cook on medium-low heat for 15-25 minutes until the noodles are tender, stirring occasionally.

4.  Sprinkle with cheese, cover for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Enjoy!

Lucy's Walk

Today was such a beautiful day outside (aka not raining) that I decided to take Lucy for a walk when I got home from work.  I've actually been hoping to show all of you some of the trails near the house, so this was a great opportunity to take some pictures since I was moving at a much slower pace than usual.

This trail is particularly nice because it is easy to get to, and it has a great vibe..  I am not really sure what to call it besides a vibe.  Even though it is right behind a subdivision, it is so quiet and serene!  

The views of the Puget Sound are absolutely amazing in some areas.  I usually do this trail in the early morning, so the sunset was an added bonus this afternoon.  But the mornings are beautiful too, with some fog lifing off of the water, and the birds just waking up!

The whole area is protected and that is how it stays so beautiful!

Lucy really liked being out of the backyard and exploring :)

See Puget Sound back in there?

Tried to take a break and get a picture of us together and this is the best I got.. Lucy doesn't sit still very long and isn't sure what "look at the camera" means hahahaha

I hope you had a beautiful day too!

Jamie's Creamy Chicken Enchilladas

Courtesy of my battle buddy Jamie, I made some delish dinner tonight for Hubby!  This recipe was super easy and can be prepped ahead of time too!

What you need:

2 lbs shredded Chicken

24 oz Sour Cream

16 oz Sour Cream

10.75 oz can Cream of Chicken Soup

6 oz can of Diced Green Chiles w/ liquid

3 Cups Mexican Cheese Mix

12 pack flour tortillas

NonStick Spray

2 Mixing Bowls

9x13 Pan

Okay, now here's the scoop:

•  There was a tinsy mix up with me and Jamie regarding the amount of Sour Cream.. turns out I used too much this time (but it was still super yummy!).  
• Also, she uses Jalapeno peppers instead of just plain ol' green chiles, but me and Hubby are faint of tastebuds so we kept it mild this time.  
• Oh, and I used left overs from our Beer Can Chicken (recipe and blog soon to follow) for the shredded chicken,  Jamie uses a rotisserie chicken from the store, but you could use canned chicken too if you want.

Here's what you do:

1.  Preheat the oven to 350*, debone the chicken and throw away the fat, bones, and skin.

2.  In a large mixing bowl, mix the sour cream, chicken soup, chiles with liquid, and 2 cups of mexican cheese.  Place 1/4 of the mixture to the side in a small bowl.

3.  Add Chicken to the 1st bowl and mix it all up

4.  Spoon the Chicken mixture into the tortillas and roll them up.  Place into a non-stick sprayed 9x13 dish

5.  Spread the remaining mixture over the enchilladas and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.

6.  Bake uncovered 25 minutes and let stand 5 minutes

Enjoy!

What did you make for dinner?  

Share your recipe with me, and I'll try it out!

Rock out your run... Stumbling Mumbling Monday!

Happy Monday everyone!  I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend!

This week's stumbling adventure was a treasure trove of useful sites!  But since I had an awesome run this morning (go me.) it put me in the mood for something that would have made it even better. 

Viola!  I found jog.fm in todays adventures, and it is fantastic!  I have been going back and forth on whether to listen to music while running.  Sometimes I'm in the mood, but it's got to be the "right" music.  Enter jog.fm

I have used podcasts from iTunes for my running music before, from PodRunner... but it was mostly techno all mixed up and stuff, which isn't really my thing (if that is your thing, then you'll love that site too!).

This site lets you sort the songs right off by Popularity, BPM, etc.

Plus, if you aren't sure what BPM you need you can search by pace!  This is exactly what I was looking for.  Now I can have some great tunes that will help me keep the pace that I need.  Whether I'm doing a short run, tempo run or my long run, this will keep me on track. 

Just a sampling of what I might use for my tempo runs.

AND I like that the site lets you listen to a preview, tells you if it's explicit, where you can buy it, what pace it's good for, and the BPM that it puts you at!  

But WAIT!  There's MORE!

Then you click Buy This Playlist!

And it takes you right to iTunes with your whole playlist on a single album for you to buy!  Whoot Whoot!

Something tells me that my Wednesday run is going to be a lot more entertaining!  

Do you run with or without music?  

What swayed you that way?

Welcome Home Dinner

Hey Everybody!  Hubby came home from the field after three weeks on Friday night, and to celebrate I made my go-to yummy dinner of steak, oven roasted potatoes and green beans.

First off, I made a pilgrimage to our favorite grocery store Tacoma Boys (an additional 30 minute drive out of the way.  In rush hour traffic.).  They have the most amazing meat and produce selection.  Ever.

So I picked up what we needed (still haven't broken the shop-each-day cycle, but that should be done today!)  and it looked so yummy already!

Next I got the veggies all cleaned up and prepped, ready to go!

The potatoes are prepped with extra virgin olive oil and seasoned salt and put in a pyrex pan.








The green beans are prepped with extra virgin olive oil, salt, and pepper.












Next up is seasoning the steaks.  Use a ziplock back and add olive oil, pepper, salt, and thyme.  I have no idea what the measurements are... but more thyme than pepper....  And I let it sit and get all yummy until hubby came home.  Probably a couple hours..  The Army doesn't really have a set time of sending him home.  Patience is key.

Once the steaks are marinated, and you've got about 45 minutes to show time, heat your oven to 350*.  Once it's all warmed up, pop the potatoes in for 35-45 minutes.  You probably want to stir them at least once halfway through so they don't stick to the pan too much.

(i hate those black dots.. ruins the pictures lol)

Once the potatoes are about halfway done, I start on the green beans and the steaks.  Both get a saucepan prepped with olive oil and heated to med-low heat.  But the green beans get a little water at the bottom of the pan too so it's kind of a combo of sauteing and steaming.  The steaks need just a little bit of oil to keep them from browning too much.  Usually Hubby grills the steaks, but he was pretty worn out so I cooked them on the stove instead.

Sidenote:  I love the stainless steel cookware that we got for a wedding present, but I definitely have not mastered cooking the protein portion of the meal in them.  I always end up burning it.  Hence, the crappy pan for the steaks..

The green beans, on the other hand, turned out fabulous!

Unfortunately, the food was so amazing smelling and delicious that I totally forgot to get a picture of the finished product!  Jeeze!  But it must have been good, because it sent Hubby into a food coma!

Do you have a favorite "welcome home" meal that you make?

How did you celebrate your most recent reunion?

Living Room Makeover - Part 2

So, prior to this post you got to see how the living room went from this:

To this:

Already much better, no?  I am loving the color!

Now the fun really begins!  A few weeks ago, there was a Groupon for CanvasOnDemand.com and I snatched it up!

1.  If you are not already a Groupon subscriber, I highly recommend it! I saved $126 on these!!  Whooohooo!

2.  Picking one wedding picture out of 768 to put on said canvas took way longer than I thought it would.

Here's what we got!

This is actually one of our engagement pictures taken by my big brother!  Pretty cute!

Okay, I know... ewww!  Such a mushy picture!  But, this is one of my favorites of our wedding day.  We were walking through the downtown area on the way to the ceremony.  Catchlight Photography is amazing and I highly recommend them to anyone seeking photography services in NorthWest Arkansas.

So these two amazing new canvas pieces will be going in the living room!  So excited about the house coming together.  The rest of the room isn't public ready yet, so you'll just have to wait and see how it turns out!

What deals have you gotten lately?

Homemade Spaghetti & Meatballs

As part of my 30 Meal Plan, I am putting together some of our favorite recipes.  One of the first things that came to mind was my home made spaghetti and meatballs!  This is sooo yummy, and a lot easier to make than you would think!

What you need:

Sauce:

"A bit" of Olive Oil
1 Medium Onion, Chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 can (28 oz) whole tomatoes, undrained
1 can(6 oz) tomato paste
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup water
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried basil leaves
1/4 tsp pepper

1 package (16 oz) Spaghetti

Meatballs:
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
3/4 C dry bread crumbs
1/2 C milk
2 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried oregano leaves
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 egg

Okay, now that you saw all that, here are some notes from me:

• We aren't onion people, so I usually use 1 onion total and split it between the sauce and the meatballs
• You don't have to use breadcrumbs, the dried onion stuff from Campbells (you know, the stuff you use on green bean casserole at Thanksgiving?) all crumbled up is also a yummy option.
• I don't think I have ever used fresh parsley.. even though it says to.. so do what you have around
• As you can see in the picture, its also not a hard and fast rule to put the sauce over spaghetti, any pasta will be yummy!

Directions:

1.  Meatballs:  Set the oven on 350*, mix up all the ingredients (I even use my mixer for this 'cuase touching all that raw meat is gross lol) and make it into balls.  I use my ice cream scoop to get about the same amount in each ball.  Put the balls in an ungreased pan and bake for 15-20 minutes or until they aren't gooey and pink inside.

2.  Take out your biggest soup pot and heat up your olive oil.  Add in the onion and garlic.  (I usually use that jarred garlic stuff too, sooo much easier than chopping garlic!)  Saute until the onions are tender.  I have a hard time being patient enough to wait, but it's really important that the onions are squishy.

3.  Once the onions are squishy, add in all of the other stuff on the sauce list.  Use your spoon to break up the whole tomatoes as they heat up.  Heat it to boiling, and then reduce and simmer for 30 minutes.  Make sure you stir it every once and a while.

4.  Add the meatballs to the sauce and cover and simmer for 15 more minutes.  Cook and drain the spaghetti at this point.  Put the pasta on a big plate, heap with the yummy sauce and meatballs and.. enjoy!

What "from scratch" recipes do you have?

Lucy's New Home

Having a new home is always exciting, and with our move to a new home, we also had to consider whether we would keep Lucy as an indoor dog, or have her be an outdoor dog.

Hubby felt pretty strongly about having Lucy stay outside once we relocated.  Lucy is a hairy dog.  Not just a little, but absolutely hairy.  The groomer charges us as if she is a husky, that's how hairy she is.  Her hair made it so that if you didn't vacuum every day the house was covered in it.

I have never had an outside dog before.  I felt like I was being a bad mom to my fur baby by subjecting her to the rain and yuck of the pacific northwest.  I mean, lets face it, it's only sunny like three days a year here!  Wouldn't poor Lucy be cold and wet and lonely?

In the end, Hubby made some good arguments for having Lucy stay outside.  My condition was that I be able to get her a fantastic house too.  I mean, us humans got an upgrade, why not get the best for my pooch?

I intended to take pictures as I was putting this together, but once again, totally forgot.  Hubby wasn't home to put it together, and I got caught up in the excitement of giving Lucy a sweet new pad.

She looks pretty cute next to it, huh?  She refuses to use it so far, but Hubby says that if she gets cold enough or wet enough she will realize that it is a safe and warm place to sleep.  I will admit, I sorta kinda spoiled her while we were waiting to find a dog house and let her sleep in the garage.  Hopefully she will come to love her new home as much as we love ours!

Do any of you have outside dogs?  

How do make them still feel like part of the "pack"?