Cooking – simplify the chaos

Momma B’s Lasagna

It’s finally Friday! (Am I the only one who sings that song regularly on Fridays? I sure hope not!)

I am feeling a bit sore today because yesterday after running a mile for warm-up, my friend Lindsay and I tried a new NikeFit workout called “Dynamic Kettlebell” — it was intense!

I absolutely love the NikeFit app! This workout was 30 minutes long and kept us engaged the whole time. It worked our legs, butts, abs, and arms in different ways and I am definitely feeling it today! I just hope the soreness doesn’t stick around so I’m ready to go for my 5k race tomorrow. It’s my first ever race and I’m a little nervous; I am in no way a runner but I do love a challenge and I’m excited to participate in this event!

After my workout I was super hungry so I came home and started cooking up a delicious and filling meal — my mom’s famous lasagna! This was an absolute favorite of mine (growing up I requested it for my birthday meal every year) and it is always a crowd pleaser. I thought I’d share it with you today so you too can appreciate my mom’s amazingness. 🙂

Momma B’s Lasagna

Ingredients for meat sauce:

-1 pound ground beef

-1 Tbsp parsley flakes

-1 Tbsp basil

-1 1/2 tsp salt

-2 8 oz. cans tomato sauce

-12 oz tomato paste (I use the kind with no salt added; if yours has salt, I recommend not adding the full amount of salt listed above)

Ingredients for cottage cheese layer:

-3 c. cottage cheese

-2 beaten eggs

-2 tsp salt (I usually do a little less)

– 1/2 tsp pepper

-2 Tbsp parsley flakes

Extra ingredients:

-9 lasagna noodles (I use brown rice pasta noodles)

-1 lb mozzerella cheese

-parsley to sprinkle on top

Directions:

1. Brown the ground beef in a large skillet and add the rest of the ingredients once you drain the meat. Simmer the mixture until the sauce is thick (approx. 30 minutes), stirring occasionally.

2. While the sauce is thickening, boil the lasagna noodles. As the noodles are boiling, pre-heat the oven to 375.

3. Mix together the ingredients listed above for the “cottage cheese layer.” (Not gonna lie, this mixture doesn’t look very appealing but just trust me, it will be worth it!)

4. Rinse the lasagna noodles in a colander. By this time, the sauce should be close to finished.

5. Place 3 noodles on the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish. Next, put half of the cottage cheese mixture on top. It’s okay if the mixture doesn’t actually cover all the noodles; the meat sauce will even it out. (I use a spatula to smooth each layer).

6. Add half of the meat sauce on top of the cottage cheese and cover with a layer of mozzerella.

7. Repeat steps 5-6.

8. Top the lasagna with the final three noodles and cover with mozzerella. Sprinkle a bit of parsley on top.

9. Cover the dish with baking foil and bake at 375 for 30 minutes.

10. Enjoy!!

***

Loved styling my new Stella & Dot bracelet into my casual Friday look!

Cardigan: Bought at consignment store (similar here) ~ Lace Shirt: Express (exact old, similar here) ~ Jeans: American Eagle (similar here) ~ Necklace: Express (old) ~ Renegade Bracelet: Stella Dot (exact here) ~ Arrow Bracelet: Ebay (no longer available)

Super Simple Roast

Hello there!

Today was yet another day off of school (this time not due to snow but rather to extremely low temperatures) and it was a productive one for me! I did a lot of cleaning and spent a solid 1 1/2 hours at the gym, which was really nice. Normally I only have 30-45 minutes to spend there so it was nice to get a nice long session in. I also had lots of time to snuggle my fur babies and give them plenty of love! 🙂

Simple Roast

Since I had plenty of time today and Justin and I happened to be hosting some friends for dinner, I decided to make a yummy roast for dinner. I used a super simple recipe that my mom passed down to me. When I say “super simple,” I mean that even beginning cooks can easily make this and have it turn out delicious! It does need to spend several hours in the oven, so I don’t often have time to make it; however, today I had the time to do it so it was the perfect choice!

My dad provided Justin and I with several roasts that he purchases from a local butcher every year. I am always thankful for local food and meat is no exception; however, this particular cut was rather fatty so I had to spend a little time cutting off most of the excess fat. I placed the roast in my roaster and surrounded it with five potatoes, peeled and cut in half, and about 8-9 carrots, peeled and cut in half.

I poked several holes in the top of the roast using a fork.

I sprinkled a bit of seasoned salt on top of the roast and then filled the roasting pan with water until it covered all but the top of the roast. I then sprinkled half a packet of onion soup & dip mix into the water.

Then I covered the pan and put it in the oven. (The picture below looks a little gross but trust me . . . looks aren’t everything!)

After about 4 hours, I removed the roast and separated all the ingredients. I added some flour to the leftover “soup” mixtureand voila! Gravy for the potatoes!

I also served this meal with some homemade bread that I made on another day off school. It was delicious and a huge hit with everyone! Easy and delicious meal? Great success!

Super Simple Pot Roast

Ingredients:

-Beef Tip Roast (mine was about 2 pounds)

-5 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and cut in half

-8-10 carrots; peeled and cut in half (you could also use baby carrots)

-Seasoned Salt to taste (I used roughly 2 tsp)

-1/2 packet of Onion Soup & Dip Mix

-Flour (to thicken gravy)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Place the roast in a roasting pan.

2. Surround the roast with the carrots and potatoes.

3. Use a fork to poke holes in the top of the roast.

4. Sprinkle seasoned salt over roast.

5. Fill the roasting pan with water until all but the top of the roast is covered.

6. Sprinkle the onion soup & dip mix into the water.

7. Cover the roasting pan and place in oven for 3-4 hours (depends on how fast your oven cooks). Potatoes should be soft and roast cooked through.

8. Remove from oven; separate meat, potatoes, and carrots.

9. Mix remaining water with a bit of flour to thicken into gravy.

10. Enjoy!

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 3-4 hours

Serves 6 (may depend on the size of your roast)

I hope you love this recipe as much as I do!

***

No school but at least hosting dinner gave me a reason to dress up a bit! 🙂

Lace Shirt: Maurices

Cami: Target

Purple Sleeveless Top: Forever 21

Skinny Jeans: Maurices

Flats: Target

Necklace: Forever 21

Belt: Bluetique

Friends + Thanksgiving = Friendsgiving

“Friendsgiving” is finally here!

Tonight we got together with a bunch of friends from the medical school for a Thanksgiving feast. This event is awesome for three major reasons:

1- We have pretty awesome friends and it’s always fun to hang out as a group.

2- There was a lot of delicious food.

3- Tomorrow, I am allowed to decorate for Christmas! (Waiting until after the actual Thanksgiving day is just too long for a Christmas lover like myself so Justin and I agreed Friendsgiving is technically close enough to count)

I told the host of our Thanksgiving meal, Kara, that I’d be willing to bring green bean casserole, apple pie, and rolls. I wanted to bring traditional dishes using healthy recipes (same taste, better for you!) Lately, I have been trying to incorporate more clean eating into Justin and my diets. We don’t often eat out and we rarely have junk food, but I cook a lot and I find myself using a lot of processed ingredients/foods in our meals. I’ve been researching a lot about eating clean (I’ll save my findings for another blog post) and have been trying to use recipes that are clean.

I was lucky enough to find some yummy (and SIMPLE) clean recipes on The Gracious Pantry blog. I woke up early to get the rolls done this morning, and got the others got done after school. It really helped that the casserole and pie bake for almost the same amount of time at the same temperature so they could be in the oven together.

Green bean casserole recipe here. I used my mom’s home-grown, canned beans for an extra amount of deliciousness!

Rolls recipe here. I didn’t have pastry flour, so I used whole wheat flour and they turned out a bit harder/dense than I would’ve liked, but they were yummy when softened! I warmed them in the oven for a few minutes right before dinner.

Apple pie recipe here. I did make my own crust using this recipe! I actually really enjoy baking and this recipe was a fun one to try. The actual recipe calls for a second crust covering the whole pie, but I didn’t have quite enough crust so I just cut the remaining dough in strips and criss-crossed it.

The thing I like most about these recipes is that they are simple and do not call for a ton of unusual ingredients. Sometimes healthy recipes call for things I’ve never even heard of, but these were all made with staples in my kitchen! I have a feeling I will be using The Gracious Pantry a lot in the future!

Now that I’m stuffed to the max, I’m going to go relax with my hubby and plan out where I’m going to hang all my Christmas decorations tomorrow. Happy Hump Day/Friendsgiving Day!

***

Because I was up early preparing the rolls for Friendsgiving, I did not have much time to throw together an outfit. I chose some simple, solid layers and a colorful necklace as my statement piece.

Shirt: Express

Sweater: Express

Pants: Maurices

Shoes: Fegalicious by Fergie

Necklace: Premier Jewelry