Lasagna Night

Made a yummy ground turkey lasagna last week, and snuck in some shredded carrots, spinach, and chopped mushrooms, too!
I just layered lasagna noodles in a casserole dish with tomato sauce, ricotta cheese, and shredded mozzarella cheese, as well as the mixture of cooked ground turkey with the veggies.

It turned out really well, but I tried those no boil lasagna noodles, and I don't like them. They aren't cooked all the way yet, so during cooking I think they sucked up all the moisture in the sauce, veggies, and ricotta, because once baked, there wasn't a whole lot of sauce or moisture to the layers. Plus, I probably cooked it a bit too long overall, the already-cooked ground turkey was a little dry, and the cheese on top was a little too browned.
That's what I'll change next time.
But, I hadn't made lasagna in forever, so it wasn't bad! I like that it was healthier, too.

Also served it with Trader Joe's cheesy garlic bread, sold in the freezer section....SO GOOD! very garlicky, but I love it.

So there. Lasagna.

Old-Fashioned Peanut-Butter Cookies & Chicken and Dumplings Crock Pot Soup!

Made a successful crock pot soup on a Saturday afternoon!

Chicken and Dumplings Soup

Sorry, I forgot to take photos.

I filled the crock pot halfway with chicken stock.
Added 4 (raw) chicken breasts, chopped carrots, onion, celery, leeks, some herbs and spices and let it simmer for 4 hours on high.
Then, I mixed up some biscuit dough (Bisquick, or I used an awesome Trader Joe's multi grain mix) and drop spoonfuls right on top of the simmering soup. Let cook for an additional 30 minutes until the dumplings are set. Add just less than 1/4 cup of cream at the end for a richer soup - although I didn't notice much difference.

(I wanted to speed this along so I brought some chicken stock up to a boil on the stove and cooked them in there since the crock pot soup liquid never gets close to a boil, then added them to the soup)

I don't really have a specific recipe, I kind of just added what I had....but it was actually good!!

I used these both as a guide:
http://caloriecount.about.com/claires-all-white-meat-chicken-recipe-r8617

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/12/chicken-and-dumplings/

Oh, and Kylie helped me make some peanut butter cookies, too!
This recipe is flour-less, and I under baked them a couple minutes and let set up on the cooling cookie sheets.
They are so good!!

Old-Fashioned Peanut-Butter Cookies

Makes 18 cookies

 

Ingredients

• 1 cup creamy peanut butter (not the all-natural variety)
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350° F.

2. Using an electric mixer, beat the peanut butter and sugars on medium-high speed until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low and beat in the eggs, baking soda, vanilla, and salt.

3. Roll heaping tablespoonfuls of the dough into balls and place on baking sheets, spacing them 2 inches apart. With a lightly sugared fork, press the dough to a ⅜-inch thickness, making a crisscross pattern on top of each cookie.

4. Bake, rotating the baking sheets halfway through, until the edges are set, 10 to 12 minutes.

(I only did about 8 minutes!!) Cool to let set up on the baking sheets.  Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.

And the Oscar Goes to....

Made some adorable Red Carpet/Academy Awards themed mini cupcakes for an Oscar viewing party tomorrow!
Red velvet with cream cheese frosting

...AND THEN!!
Bought some edible gold dust at Michael's! Their cake decorating section is so awesome.

Then, I took a piece of cardstock (ahem, one of those Bed, Bath, & Beyond coupons I get in the mail), and traced a star on it (from this template, or just draw one). Cut out the star, so you are left with a stencil.

Poured some magical gold fairy dust into a little bowl and found my small pastry brush.
Carefully set the stencil on top of the first cupcake, brushed over some gold dust, and even more carefully lifted the stencil up off the cupcake. This pulled at the frosting some, and made a few of them not such recognizable stars, but I tried!!

and there you have it.
Cupcakes fit for a red carpet!

Enjoy your party!!

the adventures that are my life

My mom made me post this, haha, because we both were laughing so hard as I told her the story. The sad, pathetic, “are you kidding me?!” story of how I was late to my Zumba workout class after work. Say ZUMBA! It’s a fun word. Zuuumba!

*Disclaimer* I have left out the plethora of swear words and direct mentions of people who may read this, which were told in the original story, haha.

Ok, so I knew I had this class after work, but had plenty of time to get home by 5:00pm, make myself some dinner to eat and have time to digest before the 6:30pm class.

Ended up having to stay late at work until 5:00pm, instead of 4:30pm. OK….still will have time…eat fast/less…right before I head out the door, I am attacked Office Space style with one last task. I speed through it. OK…still only like 5:08pm. This is workable.

I get home, and all we have is leftover macaroni and cheese (nice light snack, right? Idiot.) So I decide to sauté some spinach and mushrooms to add to the mix (eating MORE food?!). They are taking too long, so I go watch TV. Well, the veggies burn! The kitchen reeks of burnt food. I run around turning all the fans on. Scarf down my food (oh, I ate the burned veggies, haha) way too fast, and eat way too much; washing it down with about a gallon of water! Great. Now I am way too full AND have to go exercise. Moron.  Not feeling up to wearing my spandex pants and fitted tank (after said jumbo meal), I throw on some sweat pants and a tshirt, and start to head out the door.  Only about 5 or 10 minutes later than I wanted to. OK, I just might make this work.

Nope. Remembered I didn’t know how to get there!  Run over to my computer and Google random Zumba phrases until I find the right location…got it!...Google maps……yeah, that looks like the right directions; same as the one other time I went. OK, save the directions in the Navigation in my phone, and bolt out the door!

Proceed to auto-pilot my way 5 minutes in the direction of MY WORK, instead of the way to the class! WHAT?! You’ve got to be kidding me.  Well, I should have just turned around, but I figured I had gone pretty far, and remembered one cross street that connected that street with the one I needed to be on.

Find the street. Turn right. OK, we can make this happen!....keep going….hmm, I hope the street is coming up soon….wow this is really far…..through horse pastures and rural areas?!...come oooon! WHERE is it?!.....

OK, OK, fiiinally I find my street! And I am back on track. 6:19pm

Small chance I can still make it there at a fashionably late time.

Keep trucking along. Traffic and red lights galore. Hit every single light.

OK, almost to the point when I need my phone to Navigate the rest of the directions for me.

I remember some of it from the other time I went, but not every turn.

Almost time to look at the directions……….oh. My phone freezes!!

ARE YOU SERIOUS?! My phone freezes all the time. I have to yank out the battery, and re-insert it to re-boot the phone. …which takes about 5 minutes. Awesome.

Driving along…figuring out my way well enough…really needing the directions soon for the next couple turns…..come on phone! Go faster! Turn back on. …just TURN OOOONNN. …turn on….NOW! …what about….NOW!......now???..

One actual wrong turn, and U-Turn later, the phone finally turns back on, and through some miracle, let’s me jump right in to the Navigation system, without freezing yet again.

Get right back into my directions, find my way to the class. Text my friend letting her know I am running late, and she offers to save me a spot.

…right in the front and center of the class. :) Awesome…

Well, I made it. Not much more than 5 minutes late. But seriously…could anything else have gone wrong?! Sheesh.

So there. There is my reenactment of the story.

Go Zumba.

Be sure to wear a flower in your hair

Another blog that I love, showed a tutorial on making felt flower hair clips that I have been dying to try!

See her blog for all the steps - I just followed them exactly for the pink flower.

http://flexibledreams.blogspot.com/2011/02/felt-flower-tutorial.html

They are really simple: cut flowers out of felt, fold them up, and hot glue to the main circle piece.
I cut the pink flowers for the first one a bit too big for what I wanted, but it will be perfect for Kylie!
On the second blue one, I tried to  make all the flower pieces quite a bit smaller, and it was exactly what I wanted for my hair.  Then, I glued two stacked buttons in the middle, instead of the last middle piece.

I also used a bobby pin on the back of the blue one, instead of the hair clip.

I noticed on a homemade-looking clip Kylie already has, a circle of felt was glued in between the sides of the hair clip, and then glued to the back, to help hold it on better. So, clip the felt circle, as you would your hair, then glue it like that to the back, making sure you don't fuse the clip closed.  Same with the bobby pin; I made sure I didn't glue the clip part shut, while gluing it to the base.

So there! Adorable, easy, custom flower hair clips!

Check out that blog for a ton of other fun ideas, too!
http://flexibledreams.blogspot.com/

Sew What?

OK, guys, so the daunting sewing machine has been pulled out of the box, and the instruction manual has been studied cover to cover...several times; each time, referring to the legend of labeled parts.

I got this Singer Simple machine from Sears...worst customer service employee ever, who was saved by adorable grandma sewing expert employee who helped me make the right purchase and explain the features to me!

 

But, it has been done! I have transferred thread from a hand sewing spool to the proper, and included, bobbin; and I have loaded bobbins of thread into the bottom and top of the machine.

And let me tell you, successfully following the, like, 8 step tutorial for threading the machine is quite the small victory! Not small. HUGE! GO ME!!

I also used the automatic needle threader, which, in theory is an awesome time saver, but I could only get it to work 1 out of the 5 times I tried, so I just hand threaded the needle the second time.

So here it is! My first machine-sewed seam.  I just folded an edge over on some ugly, dye-attempted fabric to use for practice, and sewed straight up the edge, and then turned corners just for the practice.

My next practice project will be to sew a little pillow!

So far I need to practice going in a straight line, because somehow the fabric ends up halfway under the foot, when it started over to the side. Oops.....

Also, I need to buy different thread, because this hand-sewing one-layer thread I have keeps breaking, and I am convinced it is not my fault!

So, there you have it! Both Christmas gift domestic items have now been used...and I think the sewing machine might be more successful than the crock pot already, but we are still holding out hope on that.

Sew there. ;)

Tales From the Crock Pot Rookie...

Well my third crock pot chicken adventure was a FLOP.

Promise to self: I will never cook chicken for 8 hours. EVER.

I tested out a pesto ricotta stuffed chicken recipe a friend gave me, and the stuffing and sauce tasted so good, but the chicken was just overcooked and dry. It was trash.

When in doubt, make pasta!

I cooked up some whole grain pasta and tossed it with some bell peppers, olive oil, salt, pepper, and leftover (not that had been stuffed! eww) ricotta, and pesto, and a bit of the mushroom & white wine sauce from the chicken (not so eww)

And we had decent enough dinner.

I tend to make what I call "kitchen sink pasta" all the time...mostly for myself because the combinations I come up with scare the boyfriend.  And they are always best with fresh mozzarella chunks, or other cheese. I have added olive tapenade, wilted spinach, and all kinds of other leftovers and it always turns out great! (to me!)

So, I learned I need to figure out a way to pound chicken thinner, because the stuffed chicken rolls were more like struggling fat tacos. I also learned....DO NOT EVER COOK white meat chicken breast for more than 3-4 hours. Just stop doing it.

I meant to do it for 3 hours, but it got late, so I changed it to 8 hours on low instead...lazy.

I am going to try this recipe again sometime and not screw it up!

Here is the recipe  (Thanks Katie!):

Pesto-Stuffed Chicken Breast (makes 6 servings)

1 cup - ricotta cheese
¼ cup - Parmesan cheese, grated
½ cup - prepared pesto sauce
6 - Chicken breast, pounded thin

salt and pepper
½ can (10 3/4oz) - condensed cream of mushroom soup
¼ cup - milk
¼ cup - white wine

In a small mixing bowl, combine the ricotta, Parmesan cheese, and pesto. Place a dollop of the pesto-ricotta mixture on each chicken breast. Roll up each chicken breast and secure with a wooden pick or cooking string. Season each roll with salt and pepper. Arrange the rolls in the slow cooker.

In a small bowl whisk together the soup, milk, and white wine. Pour the sauce over the chicken breast rolls.

Cover; cook on low 4 to 6hrs (or on high 3 to 4 hrs).

Garnish each chicken breast with toasted pine nuts and fresh basil leaves. (optional)

Oh, and just wait for more rookie stories, because I finally just took my sewing machine out of the box yesterday... YIKES.