Man-sagna in disguise!

Hello friends! 

I hope everyone is having a wonderful night!  Work went by sooooo fast again today (this week is flyingggg?) and I was so excited to get home for tonight’s cooking adventure!

Why?  Because plans were to take a stab at a fun old school lasagna recipe that I found while thumbing through a magazine the other day….

Hey Santa, what are you doin’ here?!

… I like to call it “Man-sagna” if you will (bc I’m dorky like that haha).  See friends, my Italian boyfriend loves him some hearty, thick lasagna but all I have ever made is lasagna with loads of veggies before…. so I thought I’d give this recipe a whirl but incorporate some of my own “touches” if you will

Here were the key players as I put a twist on this Campbell’s classic (a few unpictured):

• 9 whole wheat lasagna noodles
• 1 package natural, lean ground beef
• 1 bottle Barilla Mushroom & Garlic pasta sauce
• 1 eggplant, sliced thin
• 2 small zucchini, sliced thin
• 1 can Campbell’s 98%FF cream of mushroom soup
• 1/4 cup milk
• Mozzarella cheese
• salt/pepper
• EVOO
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced

First step was to brown up the ground beef, which I decided right away would be much better with the addition of these guys!

With the help of about 1 tblsp EVOO I sauteed them up over medium heat for about 4 minutes… then added the ground beef to the mix cooking until browned (break it apart as it cooks)

At this point it was time to add the pasta sauce (set aside a teeny bit!), easy peasy

While I was doing the sauce cookin’ I also boiled up the lasagna noodles & sliced the eggplant and zucchini into thin slices.

After all these were ready it was assembly time!!!  Go ahead and preheat your oven to 400F too friends

1. Start with a thin layer of the set aside pasta sauce on the bottom of the casserole dish.

2. Add 3 cooked lasagna noodles (looks like the bottom one had a rough day eh? )

3.  A layer of sliced eggplant and zucchini

 

4.  A layer of the tomato sauce / ground meat mixture.

5.  A layer of the cream of mushroom soup, which had been mixed with the 1/4 cup milk.

7.  Top with a layer of mozzarella cheese!

8.  Hope you’re ready to repeat again!  Steps 2-7  topped with a last layer of noodles + cheese.  Into a 400F oven uncovered for about 20 minutes, then covered with foil for another 10 minutes and voila!

The kitchen fairy has arrived

Time to serve it up (let it cool down for about 5 minutes friends so it’s manageable, if you can wait!)

Along with a simple side salad of romaine, marinated artichoke hearts, Italian cheese blend and balsamic

Oh mannnnnnnnn-(sagna) this dinner hit the spot!  Perfect for a cold night and really pretty healthy considering the ingredients

I’ll give you The Man quote of tonight:  “Babe, this is awesome… you gotta make this for my Dad!!!” and this was said within the first few bites (I didn’t even have to ask?!).  That may be the ultimate compliment in my book, bringin’ Italian Dad into the pic and all… woah outta my league?!

I was all smiles, ear-to-ear this girl!  Haha even Lucy wanted in on the action so badly that her ear started going outta control…

What the heck, that ear got stuck all sorts a crazy, cutest lil’ thing!

So there you have it, “man-sagna” with some sneaky hidden veggies was a success  

Alrighty friends, time to go watch some TV and catch up on your wonderful-ness with some google reader!  Can you believe that tomorrow is humpday already?  Fly by week whoop whoop! 

And tomorrow morning I think I am wakin’ up early with The Man to get my workout on becauseeeee we have a DATE after work!!! Hint hint:  a movie sounding the opposite of “Old Sun” may or may not be involved

Have a lovely night friends!

 

Noma’am-sorrysir-yesplease?

Well we made it through Monday friends, and onto a beautiful Tuesday!!!

After a drama-filled Gossip Girl event last night (woahhhhh what an episode eh?!) I awoke this morning to….sun & frost?!  These are 2 things this lady hasn’t seen around here in a while 

Apparently I was in a coma last night too bc reports from The Man indicate the following gibberish coming from my mouth at various hours of the night: 

“glarble blarble glarble…. Noma’am-sorrysir-yesplease”

What the heck??? Hahahaha

Anywho, even though it was chilly this morning, the sun was shining and I’ll take that over our new usual of rain & wind any day!!!

One thing I don’t want to take everyday however is…..Traffic, esp traffic that doubles commute time to work = Bad Bad Bad…. but we won’t go there k?

Lunch eats today looked a lil’ somethin’ like this:

Leftover Turkey Sausage & White Beans

Half PB & Jelly Sammich

This was not just any PB & Jelly friends, oh no no, this sammie was a  top Celebrity version of PB sammiches….

+   = ?

Yea, that’s just how this sammich rolls, k?

Some birthday celebration cake – from Ukrops, they make the BEST ICING in the world… I’m for realz friends, I don’t like cake from any other grocery store but this one (cake snob who?) haha

Onto other news of the holiday sort…. check it out friends!

We still have some “specialty ornaments” to get and a tree skirt/topper however I am really liking it so far!  We are doing a blue & gold theme, it matches our living room and feels kinda beachy, I love it

Dinner adventures tonight include my attempt at “man-sagna“…. haha yea I just totally made that one up (fail)!

See friends, I’ve only really made veggie lasagna before but The Man really likes a good hearty meat lasagna (he’s Italian, who can blame him ) so after stumbling across an easy and intriguing recipe I decided I would give it a whirl!  Of course I’m sneaking veggies in there too, but don’t tell k?

Last but not least, tis the month of giveaways in the blog world apparently, check this one out over @IowaGirlEats!

Pretty awesome-tacular huh?!

Alright, gotta run, work has gotten busy and I gots some things to get through here…. can’t wait to see ya’ll tonight!!

 

One dish meal ya say?!

One dish meal ya say?  Yes please!

Ahhh friends, Monday night…. so after basically hydroplaning home in Richmond’s 900th rain storm of the season @ at swift 35mph  it ended up being wee bit later than I had planned by the time I got back!!

I knew that there was one thing that couldn’t be skipped however, and that was a meetup with my homegirl Jillian… she wouldn’t bail on me either so who am I to ditch her?  A sleek 20 some minutes of Level 2 shred later and I was feelin’ like a new woman!  Add 15 minutes of ab ripper punishment X into the mix and life was good

Nothing like a great workout to get into the groove of things, right?!

After all that it was getting late and I knew I only had about 30 minutes between now and our shows coming on tv to get dinner set up and ready…

…. there enters the one dish 30 minute recipe!

Italian Sausage & White Beans inspired by Cooking Light

Of course, I used some different items than what was called for (broken record…?)

• Johnsonville smoked turkey sausages, sliced
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can Italian tomatoes
• 1 can northern beans, drained & rinsed
• 1 tblsp EVOO
• dried basil
• dried oregano
• salt/pepper
• stragglers included red wine + Frank’s hot sauce

Saute the onion, green pepper and garlic about 1 tblsp EVOO over medium heat for about 5 minutes until cooked through a bit, salt & pepper too friends!

Then add in the turkey sausages and saute until they brown up nicely and start to fill the house with the most delicious smell (unknown side effect ??) !!

At this point add the beans, basil and oregano

Then the tomatoes

Guess what else found its way into the dish tonight???  Mwuhahaha sneaky sneaky!

I also added a splash of Frank’s hot sauce …. Italian meets Mexican?  Ole!

All served up

So how was it?  Deelish! 

If you need proof friends:  The Man saw me making this combo and asked directly “ugh so what exactly are we having for dinner, I don’t really like beans like that and probably will just have to pick them out”….. did he pick them out friends?  I’m lookin’ a clean bowl right now, so I’m goin’ to take that as a total win whoop whoop

This meal was really tasty, filling and so fast and easy for a weeknight that I couldn’t have been happier!

Alrighty, gotta jet!  TV time + my man Chuck Bass is waitin’ for me   Have a lovely night friends!

 

Imposters!

Hello friends!  Back from vacation are we?  Yea yea yea…. tell me something I don’t know

This morning started with me playing the meanest mental trick ever on myself haha… so my phone alarm goes off at 7:10am and I roll over thinking to myself “who set their alarm so early on my day off grrrr!?!?!” until I quickly realized that this was no day off… yea, take that Steph.  The PITS.

Anywho, work has been super productive this morning so that is actually feelin’ real nice I must say.  I have some projects to work on before returning to training next week and I think they will keep me occupied to say the least for the remainder of the week!

Lunch eats consisted of imposter pics leftovers… is someone still savoring vacation here or what?

Coconut Pumpkin Soup

Tarragon Dijon Potatoes w/ Oikos

Oh. Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

On tonight’s agenda

• workout central!  cardio + ab ripper X is in order
• dinner! look for a new easy peasy creation featuring cannellini beans
• quality tv!  i.e. gossip girl, ya know ;)

Alright friends, back to the grind (or to the salt mine as my Dad always says??) haha… have a great one!

 

Coconut Pumpkin Soup!

Ahhh Sundays… you tease me so!  I get to enjoy all the joy you have to offer, yet always remember that I must go back to work for a full week *gasp!* tomorrow

You win some you lose some as they say, right friends?

Well today was a definite win in my book!  We spent the day working around the house and the weather was amazing here, almost 70 degrees?!  The Christmas tree is lookin’ mighty fine too, however not yet ready for the “big reveal”… soon friends, soon

Onto tonight’s dinner, featuring:

This is a recipe that I got from one of my mom’s magazines however ya’ll know my style and I made some changes before even starting + as I went along (per usual )

Starting players:

• 2 carrots, peeled & chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tblsp olive oil
• 1 15 oz. can pumpkin
• 1 14 oz. can light coconut milk
• 1 14 oz. can vegetable broth
• 2 tblsp brown sugar
• 1 fresh jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
• salt & pepper
• 1 tsp fresh ginger, minced
• parsley to garnish

First I finely chopped the onion, green pepper and carrot.

Then I sauteed these guys in olive oil over medium heat for a few minutes until tender.  I ended up adding 1 clove minced garlic towards the end (yea yea yea )

Meanwhile I combined the pumpkin, coconut milk, broth, brown sugar, jalapeno, ginger, salt & pepper in a large bowl.

Then added this to a saucepan along with the cooked veggie mixture, bringing to a boil.

Upon tasting I just really thought it needed a lil’ “kick“ if you will — so there I went adding in things that weren’t called for, story of my life (always outta line right  )

About 1/4 tsp of curry powder and a few shakes of crushed red pepper flakes later, this bad johnny was kicked up to a whole ‘notha level!  I then let it simmer away for about 40 minutes uncovered….

… and voila!  Oh friends, I wish you could see how thick & delicious this soup was, and the flavor was so fabulous *le sigh*  Winner winner soup-time dinner?!

And to make it even better, the whole pot only had about 650 calories total… split that into 4 generous servings (approx. 165 per serving) and you are working with some pretty impressive stats in exchange for such a flavor punch! (KO?!)

We also had some peppercorn pork tenderloin to finish up (best $5.99 spent evah haha) with my new fave TJ’s find!

Oh yeaaaaaaaaaaa

Eaten on our newly festive table of course!

And now I am stuffed and t-i-r-e-dddddd!!!  Time to cozy up in front of the fireplace & Xmas tree for some serious tv time…. it’s been a busy day and gotta rest up for a full week ahead!  I’m kind of ready to get back into the normal swing of things (i.e. regular workouts!) for a bit… call me crazy?! 

Hope you friends have a lovely Sunday evening and see you tomorrow (put your Monday happy hats on?)