New Food Friday #3 ~ "No Layer Lasagne"

Monday night I wanted to try something different so we put on a CPMeal. Not something normally done on Mondays but hey, why not change it up a little right?

No Layer Lasagne

8 Lasagne noodles, broken into bite-size pieces
1.5 pounds Lean ground beef
3/4 cup of finely chopped onions
28 oz of canned tomatoes, with juice, broken up
5.5oz can of tomato paste
1 cup of creamed cottage cheese
2 cups of grated mozzarella cheese
2 tsp of granulated sugar
1 tsp of parsley flakes
1/2 tsp of dried whole oregano
1/4 tsp of garlic powder
1/4 tsp of dried sweet basil
1 and 1/4 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of pepper

1 - Cook lasagna noodle pieces in salted boiling water for about 14 to 16 minutes until tender but firm. Drain.

2 - Scramble-fry ground beef in non-stock frying pan until browned. Drain well. Turn into Slow Cooker

3 - add remaining ingredients. Stir well. Add lasagna noodle pieces stir and cover. cook on low for 7 to 9 hours, or on high for 3.5 to 4.5 hours. Makes 10 cups.

Miranda's Mix-Ups - canned tomatoes, I was sure what they meant so I used diced tomatoes, I didn't have whole oregano, just ground so I used about 1/4tsp instead. And no sweet basil, just ground basil so I used about 1/8tsp.

K - ate it all!
Q - ate a few bites, once he realized there were noodles in there he picked them all out.
Arnold - said it was good, not incredible but good.
Me - meh. To be honest it wasn't the best thing ever made but was good and filled our tummies, and 2 containers for Arnold's work.




I paired it with home made bread and some garlic butter!!

Dancing Men

My little guys LOVE their gymnastics class. It has to be one of their favourite things every week. They both know that on Tuesdays and Thursdays we have things to do. Gymnastics, and swimming.

After the boys getting dressed for gymnastics on Tuesday they started showing off their new tricks:

Kyler's














Quinton's












Both






Have a great Thursday!

Wordless Wednesday ~ K's New Fish

We went and got K a new fish on Monday after his went to the "ocean" (All drains lead to the ocean ~ Finding Nemo)

Q and his fish "Fighter Fighter"





K and his NEW fish "Kingdom"

Where I spend about 1 hour a week

I'm training. What! NO! Shock right? Well I started doing my training again this year. I want to be under 1 hour at the tri! I'm so excited for it. For now, Arnold has been wonderful and let me borrow "HIS" trainer.

You attach this trainer to the back of the wheel on your bike and off you go. Well... you stay right there but you can pedal to your hearts content, or until your legs feel like they are falling off.

Since it's been a while since I got back into biking I figured I would start out slow. With using my average speeds and my random bikings I did this summer I realized that saying (since no stopping, slowing down, or pausing at stop signs) every 2 minutes is about 1km. It's not totally right, but pretty darn close, I like to think.

I head out to the garage, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and get in a bike ride. Currently my plan is to get back up to my 20 minutes/10km stance before Feb 1st. My goal is to do big KM's on Monday and Friday, and back off a bit on Wednesdays. For example:

Monday (yesterday) was an 8km bike ride (17 minutes and 31 seconds)
Wednesday (tomorrow) will be an 5/6 km bike ride, unless I feel like I can keep going
Friday will be an 8km or more bike ride.

Once Feb comes around I'm hoping to "up" my km's at least 5km every month. So in Feb I will be doing 20minutes/10km, then by March I want to do 30 minutes/15km, April I would like to be at 40 minutes/20km. And then move out onto the road for my training.

So yesterday while I was outside I thought I would take some photos of my bike. Please excuse the fact that our garage looks insanely full (cause it is) but here's where I spend alot of my time:









Random PS... don't look now, but I think I might be *done* laundry!!!

* Worth Sharing!

This morning I got the best piece of mail I have in a while. A few weeks back I ordered a box of tissues for free. I know I'm weird but it was just so darn cute and so perfect, and SO FREE! And it shipped to Canada!

It arrive. And how cool could this be!












So aside from softness, and tissues, what's worth sharing today? Maybe just a smile. I know it can make or break a day!

New Food Friday ~ #2 ~ Harvest Chicken and Potatoes

This was our Tuesday Meal. I thought with our first day of gymnastics it might be a bit better if I had a Crock-Pot meal ready to go. I prepped this around lunch time (about 10:30am). Aside from making a mistake it turned out rather well.

Harvest Chicken and Potatoes

1 pound of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces
3 tablespoons of flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of black pepper
12 oz small new potatoes, scrubbed and halved
2 cups of baby carrots, cut into thirds
2 celery stalks, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 large onion, chopped
1 can (4oz) sliced mushrooms drained
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried sage
1 cup of low-sodium chicken broth
1 tablespoon of unsalted butter, softened

1 - In a medium-size bowl, stir together chicken, 2 tablespoons of the flour, 1/4 teaspoon of the salt and the pepper; add to slow cooker. Stir in potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, mushrooms, garlic, 1/2 teaspoon of the thyme, the sage and broth. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or on Low for 6 hours.

2 - In a small bowl, stir together remaining 1 tablespoon flour and the butter until a paste forms. Push the chicken and veggies to one side and whisk paste, remaining 1/4 teaspoon each salt and thyme into slow cooker bowl. cook 1 more hour or until thickened.

With this you can get about 6 servings

Miranda's Mix-Ups - I used 3 chicken breasts cut up, 2pounds of potatoes, about 3 to 4 cups of carrots, 4 celery stalks, no mushrooms, 6 cloves of garlic, and my mix up was putting in 4 cups of beef broth. I ended up adding in another 4 cups of chicken broth in the end. And I needed more flour to mix into the soup.

K - ate all and asked for more
Q - ate some, loved dipping his bun in the soup
Arnold - LOVED it and ate lots (and packed up 4 servings for later)
Me - It was good! I could totally taste the beef flavour, which I didn't want but it was yummy! And we paired it with another package of the buns from Monday night's supper we didn't use! So good.

New Food Friday ~ #1 ~ Mexican Beef Melts

We tried this on Monday. It was so good, so easy and so perfect for us. It's a great meal that I think you could make up and cook, store in the fridge/freezer as "Pizza Pops" but more of a "taco" style.

Mexican Beef Melts

1 pound of lean (at least 80%) ground beef
1 package of Old El Paso Taco Seasoning Mix
2/3 cup of Water
1.5 cups of Old el Paso Thick'n Chunky salsa
1 can of Pillsbury Grands home style Refrigerate southern style or buttermilk biscuits
1 cup of shredded Monterey Jack cheese or Mexican cheese blend (about 4 oz)
1 cup of sour cream, if desired

1 - Heat oven to 375F. Lightly spray large cookie sheet with cooking spray. In 10-inch skillet, cook ground beef over medium-high heat 5 - 7 minutes, stirring frequently, until thoroughly cooked; drain.

2 - Stir in taco seasoning mix, water and 1/2 cup of the salsa. Cook 2 to 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until mixture has thickened.

3 - Separate dough into 8 biscuits. Press or roll each into 6-inch round. Spoon about 1/4 cup of beef mixture onto centre of each round. Top each one with 1 tablespoon of cheese. Fold dough over filling; press edges firmly with fork to seal. Place on cookie sheet.

4 - Bake 9 to 14 minutes or until golden brown. To serve, top each sandwich with 1 heaping tablespoon remaining salsa, and 1 tablespoon of remaining cheese. Serve with sour cream.


I didn't add the salsa to the meat mixture as Q doesn't like it so it was a bit different but so good.

K - Ate all of it
Q - ate 2 pieces of his. He was worried the meat would fall out!
Arnold - loved it (and ate like 4 of them!)
Me - wonderful, much like a pizza pocket.