Day 6 I'm thankful for being able to cook/ Lasagna Recipe

I am thankful I know how to cook and bake. I love food some would say I'm a foodie. I can sometimes create a dish and it turn out pretty good. Sometimes I take a traditional recipe and change it up a bit. Like this Lasagna. I needed to use up some veggies I had in fridge and Lasagna was on the menu. So I added them to my sauce.

Lasagna Ingredients:

I always buy 1 box Barilla no bake lasagna noodles

1 16oz. Ricotta Cheese part skim

3 cups mozzarella cheese

2 eggs

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 lb. ground beef/turkey or Italian sausage ( I use ground turkey)

2 jars marinara sauce

onion

carrots

celery ....all of these to taste

Prep:

Preheat oven to 375, spray 13 x 9 pan with non-stick spray. In Medium bowl, beat eggs. Stir in ricotta, 2 cups mozzarella and the Parmesan.

In medium sauce pan warm olive oil, when warm add diced onion, carrot and celery. Once a bit soft add these veggies to your marinara sauce.

To assemble:

When layering lasagna, slightly overlap sheets. Lasagna will expand to the edges during cooking.

1. Spread bottom of pan with sauce

2. Layer 4 uncooked sheets, 1/3 of ricotta mixture, half browned meat, 1 cup of mozzarella and 1 cup sauce

3. Layer 4 uncooked sheets, 1/3 ricotta mixture and 1 1/2 cup sauce

4. Layer uncooked sheets, remaining ricotta mixture, remaining meet and sauce

5. layer remaining 1 cup mozzarella on top.

**I also used a mixture of Italian cheeses on top to add a little flavor.

My kids do not usually like lasagna and this night they ate all of it. I also make my own marinara.

Marinara:

Buy a store brand tomato sauce.

In large pot warm up sauce and add a bunch of seasonings like:

Parsley

Salt

Pepper

Oregano

Basil

Garlic minced

all to taste. I also add cooked ground turkey to half my sauce.

Once it's all infused together divide into freezer safe Tupperware. I freeze them for enough for 4 people.

Happy Cooking!

If you end up making my lasagna let me know how it turns out.

Day 5, I'm Thankful for Coffee!

I have to say I love coffee. I love all kinds of coffee, but my daily cup is just a drip coffee from my own kitchen brewed bright and early in the dark. I have early mornings and let me tell you it's been hard to get motivated these days when it's 7am and dark outside. But that first smell of coffee gets my heart going just a bit. Then that first sip of hot delicious (most of the time) coffee at least gets me to make breakfast for the boys.
Last week we had this coffee blend made in New Orleans. Short story when we were there last year we went to the famous cafe and had coffee and it was amazing. I thought they really know what they are doing. Who needs Columbia beans? WE DO! This blend I got sucked! If it didn't cost a fortune I would of tossed it. Now we are onto trying Maxwell house, not a big fan unless it has cream and lots of sugar in it. I may have to stick with plain ol' Folgers, they really know what they are doing.
When I have a few dollars in my wallet, usually given to me on Sunday's from Roger's Saturday night tip money I do head on over to the local Starbucks and splurge! My favorite is the Caramel Macchiatto, but I do like the white chocolate mocha and now that it's the holiday's I'm dying for an Egg Nog Latte! Just last Sunday morning the boys and I got on our running shoes and walked to the local Starbucks for a hot cup of Joe and hot chocolates. I thoroughly enjoyed that coffee and that walk!
As much as I love coffee, here's the weird thing....I only take about 6 sips and I'm good. I cannot drink and entire cup. I have my tall Starbucks plastic mug with lid, I fill it to the top no fail every morning and I take a few sips, carry it around and don't drink any more of it. I end up dumping it out after a few hours. When I buy an actual tall Starbucks latte sometimes I can finish it, sometimes it last me 2 mornings. I know I'm weird.
So Coffee I am thankful for you!

Fall Decor

One thing I love about Fall and Thanksgiving is I get to bring out my table decor. I have silver chargers down with a leaf plate. It fits a perfect piece of pumpkin pie! I then have brown napkins sitting between the leaf and my adorable Pumpkin bowls with lids. I made a very tasty baked potato soup last fall and filled them up topped them off with bacon bits and cheese...delish! I also just want to add that the brown napkins were used as part of my centerpieces from my wedding! I finally found a use for them! I just need to entertain so that people can actually see and use my wonderful fall table decor.

I'm Thankful for Day #4= My Family

Today I am thankful for my husband, today is our 4 year wedding anniversary! We have been together for 7 almost 8 years. We have 2 very handsome boys and a large home in a great community. I am thankful for my boys, they keep me on my toes at all times. I get such joy watching them grow up. Oh how I miss them being babies but even today at 7 and 5 they do the funniest things.
Last night in the car ride home Mr. T says turn up the radio and D just starts singing the song! Husband and I sat quietly smiling just listening to D. We had no idea he knew the song, he usually talks so much how could he possibly know words to a song. At that moment I had wished I had a video camera.
This morning T, tells daddy that he has to make breakfast, I ask why he says that. I always do coffee, breakfast and pack lunches in the morning. T says, mommy you need a break you do everything, and today you should stay in bed a little longer. My heart melted, he's going to make a great husband someday! I also enjoyed it a tiny bit when T told daddy that he shouldn't be in front of the TV so much and stop being lazy. T got in trouble for "talking back" but like I said I enjoyed it because he just loves his momma! But I guess I have to watch what I say ;) But if this is as bad as it gets, I'm OK with that.
I love my family and I feel so blessed to have them!

Halloween Sugar cookies

My mom sent the boys some Halloween shaped cookies cutters, so naturally I decided to make sugar cookies. I decided I wanted to try and make royal icing and decorate these cookies.

I have never made or used royal icing (do not forget this while seeing the pics). I did my best!

 1st I didn't use the right bowl, then I just kept adding sugar to make it thick. I just didn't know how to do any of it really.

 The ghosts turned out fine, I even like my pumpkins but the black was a nightmare to make and then I had to stack my cookies and they stuck together. Then to make the details on the pots the royal icing was way to thin and runny. I was in a huge hurry to take them to brunch.

My brooms are OK. I already have my fall cookies planned out. I went out and spent a fortune on Meringue powder, so the next round should work!

# 3 I'm thankful for good MUSIC!

I love music, all kinds of music! I listen to music all the time and love finding songs that just make you rock your heart out. It's really hard for me to not sing when I'm listening to music on my ipod working out. Sometimes I just have to lip sync while running at the gym, but I don't care!
One song I heard playing on a commercial the other day just had me singing and didn't want it to end. I was reading and taking notes so I had to jot down the words so I wouldn't forget to blog about it.  Here is the info:
Merrilee Rush (January 26, 1944 in Seattle, Washington) is an American singer, best known for her recording of the song "Angel of the Morning", a Top 10 song which earned her a Grammy nomination for Female Vocalist Of The Year in 1968.

The song "Angel of the Morning" was written and composed by the songwriter Chip Taylor (né James Wesley Voight, the younger brother of the actor Jon Voight and the uncle of the actress Angelina Jolie). Taylor had also written and composed "Wild Thing," a hit for The Troggs in 1966, and "I Can't Let Go," a hit for The Hollies in the United Kingdom. Rush's recording of "Angel of the Morning" was featured prominently in the movie, Girl, Interrupted, for which Jolie won an Academy Award. "Angel of the Morning" has also been featured in the major motion pictures Jerry Maguire and Fingers starring Harvey Keitel.


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30 Days of Thankfulness- Day 1 & 2

I read quit a few blogs each day, some I check a few times a day they are so good. But today after seeing several blogs with the topic 30 days of thankfulness I had to jump on the band wagon. I'm curious to see how many things we have in common.
Since I missed yesterday this blog will have 2 things I'm thankful for. 1st is I'm thankful for being healthy and able to go workout at the gym as much as I want.

And some day I hope to look as good as Marilyn and workout in a bikini..No I won't that's another Gym no no

The second thing I am thankful for is really good books! I love to read. I read at every spare moment during the day and at bed time. If it's really good sometimes I'll read at red lights, well at least I did with Twilight series.

There is nothing better than reading books while cozy in a warm blanket on a dark, rainy days !!!
If you have a blog that you are also doing the Thankfulness challenge leave a comment so I can stop by and read it! If you don't blog but are thankful for something anyway leave me a comment! Cannot wait to read them. Happy November!