Easy Crockpot Lasagna

This lasagna is so easy to make and it doesn't take all day to cook.

You will need:

• Pam cooking spray
• 26 oz Pasta Sauce
• 3/4 cup water
• 15 oz Ricotta Cheese
• 1/2 - 1 cup of shredded carrots
• 6 Regular Lasagna Noodles
• 1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese

You spray some Pam in your crock pot.  I use the smaller 4 quart pot.

In a microwave safe bowl, mix the jar of sauce and the water together and microwave on high for 3 minutes.  Cover with a paper towel, as it might splatter.

While that is heating up, mix together the ricotta and the carrots (I used carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower).

Spoon 1/2 cup of the sauce in the crock pot.  Break 3 of the noodles and arrange them over the sauce.

Spoon half of the ricotta mixture over the noodles.

 

Continue layering in the following order:

• 1/2 cup mozzarella
• half the remaining sauce
• remaining noodles (breaking them to fit)
• remaining ricotta mixture
• 1/2 mozzarella
• rest of the sauce
• rest of the mozzarella

Cover and cook on low for 3-4 hours, or until the noodles are how you like them.  For easier serving, you can pull the crock part out of the liner and let it sit covered for about 20 minutes. 

Trick for freezing ground meat

We go to the wholesale club and buy meat. 

You put it all in a ziploc bag and flatten it out...

 

Then you use a ruler (or whatever not sharp straight edge  you might have) and push the bag down, dividing into equal sections.  Then lay it flat to freeze, breaking off pieces as you need them.

Snip-Its Review

Em, the two year old, needed a haircut.  I have the ability to cut hair, but not the patience.  I noticed the salon as I was driving by, and checked out their website-- Snip Its 

I looked up the local salon, and there was a $10 off coupon for first time customers.  Score!  Em and I got to the salon as it opened, and walked on in.  The ladies in there were nice, and after taking our name and email address little Em got seated in a chair. 

I was worried, as this was her first 'real' haircut, how she would act.  They have many weapons over at Snip Its to divert little fussy kid's attention.  They have bubbles, candy, animal crackers, toys, and movies.  What kid wouldn't like that?  They even have haircut birthday parties there. 

Em settled in, and the haircut began.

 

 

She didn't fuss once.  The lady who cut her hair was very nice and we had a good experience.  Em got a Snip Its bow, little toy at the register, and we were on our way.

 

Thoughts:

A regular priced haircut at Snip Its is $20.  It would be worth it with a child like my son (screamed and hated haircuts), but for an easy going toddler/preschooler that probably doesn't need to watch cartoons and have bubbles blown at her while she sits, no way. 

I like the birthday party salon idea, but Sweet N Sassy is right down the road for the girls, and they have a limo for them to ride in too.  The thought of cut hair around my birthday cake isn't the best either.  ugh. 

We did like it, and will go back when we get another coupon. 

They roll 'em, you cook 'em

I shopped at HEB the other day and I saw these HEB ~Ready to Cook~ flour tortillas in the refrigerated section. 

This intrigued me, as I haven't ever seen these before and more often than not around here we always have those two or three extra tortillas in the bag that never get used.  I end up sticking them in the freezer or fridge and then they get stale tasting.  When I throw them away, I just feel wasteful.  These aren't cooked yet and already refrigerated so any left in the bag is no big deal.  Score!

Upon opening the bag straight from the fridge, I ran into a problem.  The tortillas broke a bit.

I let them sit on the counter for a few minutes and breakage wasn't a problem anymore.  I continued to heat my pan over medium heat, as the instructions state.  The first one cooked pretty quick and turned out perfect!

The second one, not quite so good.  It got all burnt, yet was raw in places.  I am not sure if it was my stove (I haven't had an issue with the stove top), but I had to turn the heat down to low for the next tortillas, which turned out fine.

Taste test:  I made some cheese quesadillas with these tortillas and upon first taste I was swept back to days gone by when my friend's mother (who was Hispanic) would roll out and cook her own tortillas for us for lunch after school.  They were that good.  They were thinner and crispier and actually tasted yummy.  Not like the pre-made bagged ones you find in the bread aisle.  If you have a few extra minutes to cook these for your soft tacos, I highly recommend them.

Yeah, we pop almost daily...

We go through a lot of popcorn.  Everyone in our house loves it!  Buying the microwave popcorn is very costly and I couldn't tell you what is in the junk that I feel squishing in the bag.  Having an Aspie child with food sensitivity, I think a LOT about what he eats and try to make the things he will eat without a fight as healthy as possible.  I'm also a little lazy.  I don't like to clean a popcorn popper and I like the convenience of just sticking a bag in the microwave.  In an effort to save some money and still be lazy, we have a way of popping corn that makes us all happy.

You take a paper lunch bag and a 1/2 cup of popcorn kernels.

Then you can add a tablespoon or two of olive or veggie oil, but I don't.  I just fold over the top of the bag and put it in the microwave.

After 2 minutes and 45 seconds (I have an old 700 watt microwave-so it might take yours a shorter amount of time-just listen for the pops to slow to prevent scorching) you have a lovely popped treat!

Here's the fun part...  toppings!  You can use salt, butter, garlic powder, cheese, mix some raisins or cranberries in, peanuts...anything goes.  We use Kernel Season's Popcorn Seasoning and Parkay butter spray.

The spray makes it so the salt stuff will stay on the popcorn, yet not add all the calories that a bunch of melted butter and oil would.  We also like the popcorn seasoning because it is like a powder and just works better than table salt.

Homemade Gourmet - Mini Pecan Pie Muffins

I am cleaning out my pantry and I find a package of Homemade Gourmet Min Pecan Pie Muffins.

I had had these at a Homemade Gourmet party and was not too enthused with them.  They came in a pack sampler I bought and have just hung around the pantry for some time. 

You need this:

1 Homemade Gourmet® Mini Pecan Pie Muffin Mix 2 eggs, beaten 1 stick butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir all ingredients together in mixing bowl until blended.

2. Spray mini-muffin tins with flour-based cooking spray. Fill tins half full and bake for 12 minutes.

3. Remove muffins from oven and immediately remove from pan onto a cooling rack or counter top.

I thought, 'I have that stuff!  Let's do this!'  I mixed it all together and put it in the pan...  There were some large whole pieces of pecan in there and I was not sure how that would pan out (ha!) with the mini muffin pan and all, but I went for it. 

Then baked them and viola! teeny mini muffins!

Taste test:  These muffins were dainty cakes of pecan bliss.  I probably shouldn't admit this, but they didn't make it long enough to see the next batch come out from the oven.  Hubby, me, and the 2 year old LOVED them!
Tip:  If margarine is used, then the muffins are more cake like.  I used butter and they were caramelized and denser than when I had had them before.  That person obviously used margarine instead of butter and they were not as good to me.

Let's Talk About Roombas....

So I have a love/hate relationship with Roombas.  I love those little vacuuming robots.  They work well-when they work.  I hate them when they don't work.  That's quite often.

My past with Roombas is quite sorted.  I have gone through 5 of them.  Five.  That wasn't a typo.  Not including a Scooba, but that will be another blog for another day.  For some reason or another, the battery goes out (that isn't cheap!) or some sort of dust gets somewhere into it that canned air just can't reach.

One day last October, Hubby and I were meandering through Fry's Electronics.  I spotted a lovely new improved Roomba, and just like a beaten battered wife that is still in love with her abusive husband, I went back to Roomba and brought this slave of vacuuming bliss home.  It was the newer model.  iRobot has made improvements upon their shoddy product.  Right?   I didn't have to sweep up after the birds or the cat litter box, and the downstairs (at least-ha!) was neat and tidy.  All was well.  So I thought.

Yesterday I made the mistake of saying that Roomba had lasted longer than any Roomba ever.  About 15 minutes later Roomba says (in a woman's voice) 'Error 2, please clean Roomba's brush cage.'  I clean out Roomba and off he goes.  I get the message again and then we blow it out with the air, scrub the sensors, clean out cat hair from the side.  Still get the same. 

I am now angry.  We have tile floors.  TILE!  This is no shag carpet I ask Roomba to clean.  I have short haired dogs and a cat.  I don't push the Roomba hard.  I call iRobot and the tech guy is nice, but I know he is in India.  He troubleshoots the problem and I haven't been keeping the brush cage clean enough apparently.  They are sending me new brushes and a new cage for the bottom.  I have to clean the brushes after every cleaning.  Every.  Cleaning.  What's the point?  After letting the Roomba run for an hour and then still having to clean the brushes...  I could just go in the closet and get my vacuum and NOT have to clean the brushes and my closet vac will work in the morning too!

iRobot-improve your products.  I'll keep your number on my speed dial for the next time it goes out.

Homemade Gourmet Yo! It's Queso Dip

So I had some Homemade Gourmet - Yo! It's Queso Dip sitting in my pantry and I decided to make something out of it.  It had been sitting in there for some time.  The first time I made this dip, I had put a roll of breakfast sausage in it and had these terribly salty tortilla chips.  It was GROSS!  I decided to not blame that dinner fiasco on the dip mix, and held on to it. 

Tonight I wanted something different so I mixed the dip as per the instructions:

Yo! It's Queso Dip

Ingredients
1	Homemade Gourmet® Yo! It's Queso Dip Mix
1 10 ounce	can diced tomatoes with green chilies (Rotel Tomatoes)
1/4 cup	milk
2 8 ounce	packages cream cheese, softened

Directions

1. Place mix in a microwavable bowl with canned tomatoes and milk. 2. Stir to blend. 3. Add cream cheese, cover and place in microwave on high for 1 1/2 minutes. 4. Break up cream cheese and stir. Return to microwave on high for another 1 1/2 minutes. 5. Stir, and continue to cook on high until cream cheese is smooth.  While I had this going on I had a 12 oz bag of elbow noodles boiling and about a pound of hamburger meat cooking up with an onion.  After those were cooked, I drained them.  I also peeled and shredded 3 large carrots and steamed them in a covered bowl in the microwave with a little bit of water for 3 minutes. I put the dip, noodles, meat, a can of corn, carrots and about 1/2 cup of salsa in a big old bowl and mixed it up.  You can stick it in the oven at 350 for a bit, but we were hungry so I decided to just serve it with a little bit of cheddar cheese on top.  You know what?  It was YUMMMY! Even the 2 year old ate it up.  It might not be the lowest calorie food ever, but you dont eat it every day.  I have renewed faith in Homemade Gourmet - Yo! It's Queso Dip.