Home cooking

I really like to cook good healthly meals for my family. Sometimes, it's hard to find something that everyone likes. We all love lasagna, but I wanted to find a healthier version. I found a recipe for lasagna rolls and modified it a little to suit our taste.

This recipe is really very simple to make, and has less fat and calories than your average lasagna recipe. All you need to make this recipe is...
Lasagna noodles (cooked and drained), 1/2 chopped onion, fresh mushrooms (cut in small pieces), approximately 6 oz. of fresh baby spinach (I buy the ready to eat bags), minced garlic (1 tsp), a large skim Ricotta cheese, 1/2 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese (skim version), and I used my favorite spaghetti sauce.
First you boil and drain the noodles.

While the noodles are cooking, in a large saucepan, pour in a little oil (I used canola oil). Add your minced garlic, onions, mushrooms and spinach and cook till tender.

Next, mix up your Ricotta and Mozzarella cheeses together.

I save about half of the cheese mixture, and add the other half to the spinach, mushrooms, and onions.

My two youngest prefer their lasagna rolls without the veggies, so I do half with veggies, and half with just cheese. Next you take the lasagna noodle, and spread on the cheese mixture.

Then, you roll them up and place them in a dish. I put a little pasta sauce in the bottom of the dish first, then put the rolls on top. I use two dishes, one for the spinach rolls and one for just plain cheese.

Now all you have to do is pour on your sauce, cover with foil and bake. I bake them at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. This recipe cooks much quicker than a baked lasagna recipe because you don't have all the layers. I served this with a salad and bread. It's a fairly quick and easy meal to make, and it is really good. This would be a great dish to serve when company comes over. It looks really professional and taste great. If you like Italian food, I think you should give this recipe a try.
Let me know what you think if you decide to try it.

Mantel Decorating

I would love to have a real fireplace mantel. I have always wanted a fireplace. My sweet husband bought me an electric fireplace. It is pretty close to the real thing without the mess and having to cut wood. I think it is pretty, and it is the size of a real mantel - so I'm satisfied for now.

 

I love to decorate my mantel for special occasions and holidays, so I decided it was time for a little Valentine's Day decorating. I usually do a wreath on the front door and decorate my mantel. This year I decided to just look around the house for some things to use.

 

I have a small collection of teapots, and this red and white one was a gift from my father-in-law.

I love the vintage look and the colors worked great for Valentine's Day.

The teddy bear belongs to my youngest daughter.

It reminds me of all those stuffed animals given on this occasion.

 

 

 

This book was a treasure I found discarded at our local library.

I thought a book on roses would be appropriate for V-Day. The book is titled,

"The Complete Book of 169 Redoute' Roses," by Frank Anderson.

It is a book full of botanical illustrations

done by Pierre-Joseph Redoute' (1759-1841).

 

 

This is the other half of my mantel, another teapot, another borrowed stuffed animal, (my Hannah loves sock monkeys), and more roses. I thought the mantel turned out pretty nice considering I spent no money at all.

 

My favorite scripture to remember during this month is

1 Corinthians Chapter 13

Verse 13 says...

"And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three;

but the greatest of these is charity."

 

 

 

 

 

Homemaking

Have you ever made homemade laundry detergent? It's really simple and a little goes a long way. Detergent is so expensive, and for just a few dollars you can make 2 gallons of detergent without all the chemicals. Here's how...

I purchased this soap at my grocery store. This one bar will make three batches of 2 gallon detergent.

You'll also need to buy these two items which are easy to find at most grocery stores.

 

The first step is to grate about 1/3 of the soap bar into a large pot.

 

 

 

Next you add 2 quarts of water (8 cups), and heat on medium until the shavings dissolve.

Next add 1/2 cup of the washing soda, and 1/2 cup of Borax and stir until it dissolves into the water.

 

 

Turn off the heat and add 2 more quarts of water to the pot.

 

 

 

Divide this between 2 gallon jugs (I reused vinegar jugs). Fill each about 1/2 full and then add 2 more quarts of water to each jug. The consistency will be thinner than store bought detergent, but you will only need to use 1/2 cup for regular washers, and 1/8 cup for HE washers per load.

I always shake the detergent a little before I use it for a load of laundry.

Just so you know, vinegar is a great rinse agent and fabric softener in laundry,

and your clothes do not end of smelling of vinegar.

There are several different recipes for homemade detergent that are easy to find on the internet.

Give it a try!

 

Winter Days

 

We woke up this morning to beautiful snow!

It started last evening, and snowed until around 11 PM. It was so peaceful to watch.

The kids wanted the day off of school, but I said, "No."

I was merciful, and gave us a 1/2 day of school, then we went out to enjoy the snow.

 

 

It was a beautiful sunny day which was very nice because it has been raining all week.

 

 

The trees were so dramatic in their coat of white.

We did a little sledding, and then...

 

 

We made a very sweet lady snowperson. I like her smile.

 

 

How do you like her hat? She just had to have a cute hat.

 

 

Someone else likes hats in our family.

We had a great family day in the snow, they seem to come so rare for us,

but it was a really nice change.

I hope we have another day like today before winter leaves us. 

Enjoy your family today!

 

 

 

 

 

Good Food

I love one dish meals. It's so easy and delicious.
The weather around my house has been so rainy and cold, that I have been wanting to make a hot pot of something. I made some tacos for supper the other night and used venison as the ground meat. I had some left, so I decided to turn it into chili beans for last nights supper. All I needed was canned beans, diced tomatoes, and chili seasoning.

Any brand will do

 

I just warmed the meat in a soup pot, added these ingredients, and got it to boiling. I turned down the heat to a simmer and covered it.

 

 

 

 

Next, I decided to make a salad. My husband and I have been trying to eat a salad every night with supper. I now really love salad. I usually used Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and one small Gala apple diced up. Sometimes I add more vegetables if they are in season. I love garlic and herb dressing on this salad. It has a sweet and sour taste with the apples - Ummm!

 

 

You can't have chili beans without good old cornbread. So, that was next on my menu. I just buy a bag of cornmeal, and follow the directions on back of the bag. I am trying to lose weight, so just one piece for me, but boy was it good!

 

 

You should try this quick and easy meal sometime when you have leftover ground meat. It cooks up quickly, and is so good.



 

Creative Whimsy

I love to go treasure seeking in thrift stores, antique shops and the Goodwill. I also love owls, so I scored one day when I found this cute owl. I'm not exactly sure what it is. It looks like maybe a napkin holder, but I loved the stain glass look of the colors, and the graphic nature of the owl, so I bought it.

Isn't he cute!

 

 

I keep him in my kitchen window so that the light will shine through the colors. One day I had the idea to draw him. I wanted to have some "me time." I need this time when you are home all day with three children homeschooling, cleaning, cooking, LAUNDRY!!- So I drew him on watercolor paper with the intent to paint it.

You can see that I decided to color him instead. I used my cheap colored pencils (one day I will have a nice set for craft projects).

 

 

My "me time" has to be broken up into small time slots, so this took several settings before I finished him, but I like it.

 

Isn't he the cutest thing.

Here's a close up...

 

Sometimes we just need to do something, just for the sake of being creative. I really enjoyed creating this little guy. I think that I will fame it and hang it somewhere. He makes me smile.

 

 

 



A New Start

It's has been awhile since my last post. I guess that life has been just really busy, but I do want to be more consistent in blogging this year. I will be attempting to learn all the blogging ins and outs so that I can post at least three days a week.

My two youngest have been involved in our community basketball league, and so we have been spending our Saturdays at the local school's gym. I though I would share a few pictures of my daughter's lastest game (they lost, but they sure had fun).

 

She's number 23.

 

Most of the pictures didn't turn out so well, but I did get a good shot of her after the game.

 

 

She loves being part of the team, and making friends.

 

She and her dad have been busy doing chalk drawings on our driveway. The weather has been so mild here in North Carolina that it has felt like Spring.

 

 

 

A moon with Mickey Mouse ears - What?

A very happy sun (sorry about the shadow)

Ma and Pa (very cute)

 







There was also a very fine dragon, but he was so big that I couldn't get all of him in the picture frame. He was very colorful. The recent rain has washed the canvas clean, but I'm sure they will return again on one of the mild days. Hope you are enjoying some nice weather.