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

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

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

Yum!

I have decided I really love feeding people. Mainly, I love feeding Jeremy.

One, because he doesn't complain if the meal is "eh."

Two, because I love knowing that he has been feed good, nourishing, food and is energized for the day. Sometimes he only eats dinner (how he does this I will never find out- coming from the girl with an emergency granola bar.. or two... in her purse at all times) so I want to make sure it is hearty, fairly healthy and delicious.

Here are a few meals we've had lately.

Delicious pasta. My new go-to!

• Noodles
• Chunky spaghetti sauce
• Diced tomatoes, italian or jalepeno flavored
• Garlic salt, garlic powder, pepper, basil, oregano, salt to taste
• Chicken, shredded or cubed
• Top with parmesan cheese and parsley

Tacos in lettuce! Great for holding it all together and obviously less calories.

The Pioneer Woman Pantry Pasta for Two. Relatively simple to make and delicious! I accidentally bought sweet white wine and would not recommend using that. I'd make it again with more sauce to noodle ratio.

And sweet treats like these are ALWAYS at work tempting me as I walk by the table. We have a love hate relationship- basically I love the way they taste and hate caving into the temptation!

With love from Roseville,

Paige

Home, Food & Goals

HOME

This past week we've been focusing on settling into our home! Every moment we have seems to have been filled with cleaning, organizing, setting up services, etc.

It was so, so helpful to have family help us get settled. My family helped clean & get all of our stuff into the house and Jeremy's family flew up to see the house and help deep clean & organize.

We are BLESSED & THANKFUL.

It was great timing for me to have this week off of work. I've been able to relax, cook and continue making our house a home!

I had no idea how much this house would mean to me. I thought it would be like getting a car- fun, exciting and useful- but it really has been meaningful to me. And I love it.

FOOD

Last night was our first date night in the house and I made Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili. It was flavorful, healthy, delicious, and easy to make. Like, actually easy to make.

I made Jeremy a burrito and I ate mine, as you can see, in a bowl.

Click here for the recipe.

GOALS

My senior year of high school suddenly it mattered a lot what I ate in relation to how my body looked. I have been figuring out over the past 6 years how it looks for me to be healthy. I have realized it doesn't mean dieting, exercising daily, or anything extreme. Being healthy for me means a balance.

And today I am the same weight I was about 6 years ago as a junior in high school, which has been my goal weight. Yey!

One of the biggest things I've learned is "It's not worth it."

It's not worth feeling sick to have extra sugar.

It's not worth eating milk products and not feeling well.

It's not worth being bloated and overweight to have extra snacks or desserts.

And going with that, I've learned "It IS worth it."

It is worth it to eat real food.

It is worth it to take extra time and cook meals at home.

It is worth having delicious chocolate daily in small portions.

It is worth eating small portions throughout the day because that's what my body is asking for.

Some of the rules I've followed (sometimes not so well) to get me here:

- Don't eat when I'm not hungry

- Don't overeat/stuff myself

- Don't drink soda on weekdays

- Only 1 soda a day on weekends

- No sweets before lunch or after dinner

- Lots of fruits and veggies when possible

- Always have water or tea in my hand

Now to start exercising. I kind of suck at that...

With love from Roseville,

Paige

Prayers for the Black Cat

Yesterday evening I approached a busy intersection where I can almost always bet a homeless person will be standing with a sign.

To my surprise, a black cat was sitting attentively at the spot where a person usually stands.

Now I don't have a love, or even a like for cats, but I felt bad for the dang thing. It was sitting there in the cold, probably minutes away from dashing out in traffic and become roadkill.

I found myself wondering who's cat it was... We're they looking for it? Was it lost? Hungry?

Then I thought, "I should probably say a prayer for the cat."

And I stopped suddenly in one of those moments of clarity and realization.

The homeless people on that corner have become a lawn ornament to me. They're always there, and most likely always will be. And I've stopped thinking about them.

Are they cold?

Are they hungry?

Are they lost?

Is someone looking for them?

And why don't I say a prayer for them? Ask God for their protection?

Why do I experience the 45 seconds of awkward-not-making-eye-contact-and-looking-at-my-phone and not exchange that for what I would give for the black cat?

With love from Sacramento,

Paige

Our First Home

Welp, we've GOT IT! :) Our first house.

I wrote a blog a few weeks ago that I never posted. I was imagining how it would feel when we got our house... ready to press "publish post" when we got the keys. It was filled with lots of exclamation points and bolded words. Descriptions of the rooms and sharing our hopes and dreams for the house.

And I do feel so excited. I do feel like using exclamation points and bolded words... but I also feel quiet. I feel like being still. I feel thankful.

I will be updating Facebook with pictures as we continue to renovate and decorate each room.

In the mean time, I'll give a little synopsis. It was built in 1977 in the city of Roseville, outside of Sacramento. It's along a greenbelt- so the backyard is open to a creek/green park area. It's a 3 bedroom 2.5 bath, 2 story house with the rooms and 2 baths upstairs.

And I'm not sure what it is about the house- but I love it. I love the windows and the smell of the pine trees and that I can see living there forever- a feeling I never thought possible.

So that's all for now :)

With love and THANKS from Sacramento (because we don't have internet yet in our house ;)),

Paige