Monday, April 23, 2012

Crock Pot Lasagna & Homemade Croutons

In my adventures of learning to cook differently (aka without an oven or grill) I have been making lots of crock pot recipes. This Betty Crocker's Slow Cooker Lasagna recipe I'd highly recommend!

Changes I would definitely make to Mrs. Crocker's recipe:
1) Add at least 1 extra large can of spaghetti sauce (about 24oz minimum) to the meat sauce. This will obviously be much more saucy at first than regular oven baked lasagna, but since it's in the crock pot for so long a LOT of the sauce soaks into the noodles and you're left with what tastes like hamburger helper.
2) Add some Italian Style (or regular) diced tomatoes too. Since so much of the sauce absorbs it is nice to have some tomato in your bite
3) I cooked my lasagna on high for 3 hours due to a time crunch, but I would recommend following the directions for cooking on low for 4-6 hours (if you can). The outside layer of my lasagna got too crispy with that high heat.
4) I added an egg to my ricotta & cheese mix out of habit... not sure if that was necessary though.


Tip: Serve at sunset with wine and a salad as a first course and you will feel spectacularly fancy and healthy... even when your salad is a caesar salad which has very few redeemable qualities. ;)


I also added some homemade garlic bread croutons in the attempt to use up a LOT of leftover rolls that were going to go bad soon. They were so delicious and SO EASY to make we have declared a rule in our house we will no longer buy "regular" croutons.

STEPS:
1) Cut rolls into bite sized pieces & put on a skillet
2) Drizzle olive oil
3) Sprinkle garlic salt, garlic powder, some onion powder and cayenne pepper if you're feeling frisky
4) Stir around so every side gets a little bit of everything
5) Cook for about 3 minutes (once the pan is hot) on Medium, flip and repeat

WARNING: This is embarrassingly easy and extremely delicious. Your life will be changed.








With love from Roseville,
Paige

Friday, April 20, 2012

Workin on my fitness

So I never should have posted the "wow I'm eating healthy and doing great with exercise" post because I'm pretty sure the moment I pressed "Publish" I jinxed myself with terrible eating habits and zero motivation.

But nothing is more motivating than seeing your increased number on the scale paired with swimsuit shipping in this sunny and gorgeous Sacramento weather!

So I'm back on the wagon and working this summer on increasing my metal discipline. See, I'm not naturally competitive with myself- I couldn't care less if I meet a personal goal most of the time. But I want to care, so I'm finding the inner dancer... err I mean athlete... in me and getting FIT!

I don't have specific goals yet... But I will post when I do so I have some sense of accountability. Humm although I did post my new years resolution and I have no idea what it even says...

Here's to new goals that I will actually accomplish!

(I really want to write "We'll see" but that sounds like I'm already quitting)

With love from Natomas,
Paige

Monday, April 16, 2012

New Beginnings

It always seems like there's some kind of change going on in our household!

I am starting a new job in medical sales April 30! I'll be a Customer Support Specialist for a company called Millennium Labs.

I will call on physicians who treat patients with chronic pain and provide them a medication monitoring service. This service allows the doctor to understand what the patient is or isn't taking and overall care for their patient in the best way they can.

I am so excited to start this journey!!! But that's not to say it will be easy leaving the school.

The school I work at has been such a wonderful place. All of the teachers and staff welcomed me and included me from day one. Every person at the school works harder than I've ever witnessed to provide the kids with quality education... oh and the kids! They are too cute. I am so thankful to have been a part of Westlake Charter!

I've been busy buying clothes for my new big girl job... shoes with heals and pointy toes, pants not made out of jeans, shirts that are called blouses... :) It's been fun adding to my wardrobe!

I'm excited for the journey that waits ahead and the many, many things I will learn.

With love from Roseville,
Paige