Comfort Food Italiano Style!

My good friends at Red Gold Tomatoes contacted me about another fun contest they are hosting. They are giving away some awesome Lasagna kits on Facebook now until Feb. 13! Go check them out! You can find their page here https://www.facebook.com/RedGold/timeline.

I’m a big fan of yummy and EASY recipes. I don’t have time to buy a bunch of random ingredients and spend hours in the kitchen. I have 2 small children, remember? So, I was delighted to test drive some of Red Gold’s items to use in a lasagna!

 

ALL IN ONE LASAGNA

Ingredients

1/2 cup water

1 (28 ounce) can Red Gold® Crushed Tomatoes, or 2 (15 ounce) cans Red Gold Crushed Tomatoes

2 (14.5 ounce) cans Red Gold® Diced Tomatoes with Basil, Garlic & Oregano

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

Salt to taste

1 (16 ounce) box traditional lasagna noodles, uncooked

1 (15 ounce) carton low fat ricotta cheese

3 cups (16 ounce) shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese 

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350o F. In large mixing bowl combine water, crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, Italian seasoning and salt.

• Cover the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking pan with 1½ cups of sauce mixture.  Arrange 1/3 of noodles on top of sauce, slightly overlapped.  Top with ½ of ricotta cheese, 1 cup of mozzarella cheese and 1 cup of sauce.  Repeat layers and top with last 1/3 of noodles and the remaining sauce.  Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses.

• Cover tightly with foil and bake for 1 to 1½ hours; until noodles are cooked. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

• The recipe makes 12 servings, but you could divide the recipe into two 9x9 inch baking dishes and freeze one for a wintry night supper.

Variations:

1. Add 1 pound ground Italian sausage or lean ground beef, cooked and drained, to the tomato mixture of the basic recipe.

2. For added color, flavor and nutrition add 1 (10 ounce) package frozen spinach, thawed and water removed, as another layer after the cheese layers.

3. Add both Italian sausage and spinach for great nutritional value and appearance.  Use each as a layer in the recipe.

4. Add fresh basil to sauce for added color and flavor or sprinkle fresh basil on top as a garnish.

5. Use fresh mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced, as an option to shredded mozzarella cheese.

Enjoy!

Bubble Up Pizza & 24 Days of Christmas 2 and 3

One of the first recipes I ever tried and LOVED via Pinterest  (follow me HERE) was Bubble up Enchiladas. Seriously, this is so easy to put together and quite tasty! It's in our round of trusted family dinners. So when I saw this Bubble Up Pizza recipes I HAD to try it! It did not disappoint! Pinned here and source is here.

Biscuits, cheese, pizza sauce and whatever toppings you like!

Throw it in a casserole dish and bake at 375 for about 20-25 minutes.

Eat.

2nd Day of Christmas

Today we spent a little time practicing gift wrapping. 

I have compiled some books, stickers and activities to incorporate into my 24 days of Christmas! Kendall and I wrapped some of them up and I put them in a basket so she could pick one out!

3rd Day of Christmas

I handed her a Christmas book today. Does that count? Honestly, it felt so good outside so we played on her swing set in the backyard and had a snack when we got home. 

Don't judge my choice of snack... it was a long day! ;)

And last but not least... Mr. Wilson let me take his picture in front of our Christmas tree. He is getting into the holiday spirit too!

Baked Ravioli: Hey, That’s Pintastic!

I saw this recipe on Pinterest and thought it would be yummy! It only contained a few ingredients, was very easy to assemble and I knew we would like it.

Original Recipe found here.

I had the help of my cooking assistant while making the recipe. I’m certain that was the magic touch!

 

 

Verdict: It was good. Paired nice with salad and French bread. Reheated well. We would make this again!

Yogurt Cake

I saw this concept on Pinterest and thought I’d give it a try. I love cake and want it all the time. Cake is the main reason I go to birthday parties and weddings.

All you need is Devil’s Food cake mix, 1 cup of water  and 1 cup of plain greek yogurt. I read that Devil’s food was the best flavor for this…

The batter was strange. I wasn’t sure how it would end up. End Product:

It’s very moist and yummy. At 180 calories a slice, you can’t go wrong!

Cheeseburger Flatbread Melts via Pinterest

I made these little creations last weekend.

(via) Found on Pinterest HERE

The hubby LOVED them… me not so much. I think it was all the onion flavor. I don’t like meatloaf or sloppy Joe's (un-American, right?) and they kind of resembled those.

I did love the flatbread part! I wonder if I could think of something else to serve on these toasty flatbreads! Yum!

Homemade Donuts

Have you ever made donuts at home?

Here is how I make homemade donuts. They are delicious!

You will need:

• 1 can of biscuits (I prefer regular plain biscuits)
• oil
• skillet
• powdered sugar
• milk
• butter
• paper towels

Heat up some oil on med-med/high in a skillet. While it’s heating, cut the middle out of the biscuit. This would be a perfect task for one of the corer things if I had one. I cook the donut holes too.

I use a fork to flip the donuts in the oil. I’m not really sure how long I let them cook.

While that’s going on you can have some paper towels on a plate ready to lay the cooked donuts on.

Melt some butter and add a little milk. I think I used around 2 tbsps of butter and probably the same amount of milk. I don’t measure… oops.

 

Once the donuts are all cooked you can start adding powdered sugar. I think I used 1 – 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar. Keep adding until you get the consistency you like. If you’d like to add flavor or food coloring to your icing this would be the time.

 

I take the donut and dip it right into the icing. These are best served a little warm. 

So easy and so yummy! Enjoy!

Our Weekend & Yummy Potato Recipe!!!

Friday
I have been looking forward to this semi annual consignment all year and found some great things to add to Kendall’s spring/summer wardrobe. I was a little disappointed in this sale compared to the fall sale but I also went on restock day last time.

I love this girl’s blog… she seriously has the BEST and EASIEST hairstyle tutorials. I tried her fishtail side ponytail on Saturday. Ha!
 
I thought this picture was so funny. Kendall (rocking some Christmas pjs) was just sitting on the edge of the couch watch Mickey like a big girl. Love her hands on her knees. She wasn’t into me taking a picture so early! Ha!

Sunday we enjoyed hanging around our yard enjoying the beautiful weather.

We even took a few rides around the property on our 4 wheeler.
We rode as a family across the street to my parent’s property!
Kendall loves picking up dandelions in the yard. When we are outside we stop at everyone and pluck it out of the grass.

New recipe found on pinterest here…
Microwave a baked potato until it is soft.

Cut in half and cut it into squares without breaking the skin.

Sprinkle with butter, parmesan cheese and seasoned salt.

Pop it in the broiler for 10-12 minutes and enjoy!!!

These were so yummy! I will probably repeat this recipe again this week because it was sooooo easy!!!

DIY Chic Fil A Nuggets & Family Pictures

Tonight I decided to try another Pinterest recipe. I originally wanted to try the knock off recipe for Cracker Barrel’s grilled chicken tenderloins but that involved ingredients I didn’t have in stock! So Chic Fil A nuggets!

Here is the recipe I used pinned here. This picture is also from Pinterest.

These were very easy and so yummy! I felt they lacked seasoning that you find with the real deal but this recipe captures the sweet breading of the originals. We wouldn’t eat at Chic Fil A if we knew all their secrets… so it’s ok!

I received a special delivery in the mail today from Sara Johnson Photography. My lovely and talented friend Sara did the best job with our photos and I’m so happy with how they turned out!

Here are a few of my favorites! Enjoy!

Kendall’s face in some of the photos cracks me up… she is something else! Ha!