Tag Archive | cooking

Stuffed Pizza Rolls

A few weeks back I posted about making the stuffed pizza rolls using the Pillsbury crescent roll dough. I loved them but Kevin wanted to try the version my girlfriend made. I have to admit after seeing the photos of hers on Facebook I was eager to try her version! Of course being me I had to tweak it to my own liking! I added pizza sauce inside the rolls instead of just using it for dipping.

Ingredients
1 jar of pizza sauce
1 can of Pillsbury grands biscuits
16 slices of pizza pepperoni
1/3 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 cup diced red or sweet onion
1/4 cup diced hot peppers (optional)
1.5 cups shredded cheese
1 egg
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese

Method
Flatten the biscuits into rounds and spread with pizza sauce. Add peppers and onions. Top veggies and sauce with 2 slices of pepperoni and cover in cheese.

Carefully bring up edges and pinch together to seal and form a ball.

Place in greased cake pan and continue until all 8 balls are formed. Brush pizza rolls with egg wash and sprinkle with Italian seasoning, Parmesan, and garlic.

Bake at 350 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining shredded cheese and return to oven briefly to let it melt.
Serve with pizza sauce for dipping!

Enjoy!

Luscious Lasagna

Mar5

When I think of home cooked hearty, comfort food meals lasagna always makes the list! Yes it is a fairly labour intensive meal but I find I can have the veggies chopped, sauce made, assembled and in the oven in about 45 minutes. Not an every night type of meal but delicious and healthy! Plus the added bonus of leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch or dinner!

I use ground turkey to make my lasagna but I’ve used ground beef, veggie ground round, as well as a beef Italian sausage mix in the past. All turn out wonderful but ground turkey is the leanest and healthiest choice. I mean other then the veggie option of course!

I also like to use the no boil noodles but again in the past have used the traditional type. I just find it adds to the prep time and I’m not a fan of burning my fingers on slippery hot noodles! Quit snickering ladies 😉 I am a big fan of the Trader joes no boil noodles because they have a nice texture once cooked. I am also a jan of the Trader Joes basil marinara sauce. Ummm yum! However if you’re anything like me you will use whatever you have on hand!

So here we go!
Ingredients

1 pound ground turkey (or beef/meat of your choice)
2 cups cottage cheese or ricotta
2 cups mozzarella (I use low fat)
1 bunch of basil (1/2 cup chopped)
1 bunch cilantro (1/4 cup chopped)
4 cloves fresh garlic
1 jar marinara sauce or pasta sauce of choice
1 box of lasagna noodles
1 onion
1 pepper
2 tablespoons finely chopped. jalapeño (optional)
1 can mushrooms (optional)
2 cups baby spinach
1 egg
Olive oil for sautéing
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
Seasoning salt & pepper to taste
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon (optional but delightful)

Sauce prep
Chop onion, pepper, chopped jalapeño, 2 garlic cloves and sauté with a tiny but of olive oil for about three minutes. Add in meat, garlic, seasonings of choice and sauté
until cooked. Once the meat is cooked to a safe temperature add in the marinara sauce and 1.5 cups of water. At this point if you are using the cinnamon add it now! Trust me it makes the flavours really pop. Turn heat down to lowest setting and allow to simmer for a few minutes.

While the meat sauce mix is cooking prep the cottage or ricotta cheese by simply adding the egg, chopped basil, cilantro, garlic seasonings if choice and mixing well!

Assembly
At this point you are ready to assemble start by placing 1/3 of the sauce mix in the bottom of a large casserole pan and topping with a layer of noodles and another 1/3 of sauce. Add another layer of noodles and top them with the cottage cheese mixture. Spread mixture out evenly and top with baby spinach and another layer of noodle! Top those noodles with the remainder of the sauce spread mozzarella cheese on top! Cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees for 55 minutes! I like to spray my foil with Pam to keep the cheese from sticking. I also like to broil the lasagna uncovered for a couple of minutes before removing from the oven.

I bake my lasagna on a cookie sheet because if you ever have to clean bubbled over lasagna out of your oven you will quickly decide you never wish to do it again!!!

Be sure to let your lasagna sit for 10 – 15 minutes before cutting. Enjoy!

Weekend Fun Or Something

Feb23

My weekend so far has been pretty laid back but productive! Thursday Kevin and I headed down to Bellingham to do some grocery shopping. I spent a small fortune at Trader Joes but got lots of favourites plus lots of new things to try! We also wandered around Bellis Fair mall and Fred Mayer. I really hoped to find the Nike Free Run shoes I want but alas they didn’t have the pink and blue color combo I long for! Woah is me friends!!! I curtailed my shoe sadness by bringing home a bottle of wine I’ve been longing to try but can’t find in Canada.

On Friday Kevin and I had a pretty relaxing day, cleaned the house, and whipped up a big batch of meatballs to go with out spaghetti for dinner. We made enough pasta sauce and meatballs for three dinners. It is always nice to have stuff in the freezer pre cooked for those busy nights.

While on the topic of food I should share with you one of my yummy finds from Trader Joes, Greek Chicken with orzo and olives.

I found this meal very tasty although if you aren’t a fan of black olives you will not enjoy this at all. The chicken is tender and flavourful And the orzo is cooked just right and not soggy like many pre made pasta meals I’ve tasted. It works out to 8 weight watchers points for 1/3 the package. Makes a good size for lunch with a salad. It was a welcome meal after some house cleaning that’s for sure!

I followed up lunch with a cup of Tazo Passion tea! I adore this stuff but detest the price in Canada. I pay 11 dollars for a box of Passion tea bags at Starbucks here, on the rare occasion the grocery store has them they are 7 dollars! In Bellingham I got the same size box for $2.99

After dinner and a quick stroll around Homesense and Winners Kevin and I cuddled up on the couch and called it a night.

This morning I got up and watched my birds outside over a banana protein muffin covered in locally made honey roasted peanut butter. Ummm yum! Incase I’ve never shared this with you fine folks…. I have a peanut butter addiction!! Don’t judge me!!!!

After breakfast I hung out with my sister in law, Krista for a while and then headed out to do some errands. Mostly I hoped I could find the shoes at my local mall. Again no luck, so instead I ended up with some other goodies!! Mainly wine, mini cupcakes, a case of Corona and some treats for my Muffin.

After the errands were run Kevin and I decided to go for lunch. I’m not going to lie to any of you it was not a healthy meal!!!

It was infact a Vera’s bacon cheese burger covered in hot peppers and pickles!! Holy F it was amazing. I promptly came home and did an hour of yard work because I felt guilty! Turning over the garden is a better work out then the gym!!! Muffin and Maple decided to help Krista, Kevin and I with the yard work. Muffin even did a little digging of her own which then lead to her and I having a long shower once the yard work was done! Yes I shower with my dog!! Lets face it I’m gonna end up soaked either way and this saves my kitchen or bathroom from bring turned into a wet war co

Thankfully she didn’t get her new owl collar dirty!

Neither her nor Maple were super pleased to learn mud play time ending meant shower time!

As for now I’m considering going to Walmart or saying forget it and starting dinner. I know, I know my life is a constant struggle between amazing activities!! To be honest with all of you I am having a harder time them I let on lately. It’s been two weeks since I’ve made time (forced myself) to spend any time with any friends and even that was only an hour. I’ve bailed on so many plans it is shameful, as are the times I’ve just flat out said no when invited out. The only friend I’ve seen consistently is Krista and that’s because she lives upstairs with my brother!! Other then her I’ve only spent time with Kevin and Muffin. I know I should be making more of an effort to not let myself feel like this it’s hard. I don’t want to talk about how I feel and I’m starting to feel like I don’t want people I know to even be around me. I never want to come off as feeling sorry for myself or whiny so it just feels easier to avoid everyone.

Snow Day!!!

Jan14

Good morning blog world! So we woke up to a dusting of snow this morning in beautiful Langley BC!

Thankfully I’m warm and cozy on the couch at work and don’t have to travel on the roads. Such a light dusting of snow wouldn’t be a big deal if there wasn’t a layer of ice under it! Oh well the ice factor and the fact we BC folk panic at the mere mention of snow!

Anyways yesterday started out as a laid back Sunday morning. Kevin ventured out to watch Football at the pub with his friends while I got a few things done.

I picked up a few of the new reusable Starbucks cups over the weekend and decided to give ’em a try yesterday. Thankfully my Tassimo beverage maker has a removable cup shelf or else this baby wouldn’t have fit! The cup is a grande size, made of plastic and designed to look exactly like the Starbucks to go cups. Apparently they are good for 30 dishwasher cycles or indefinite hand washes. What I take away from that is the cup will last me until I drop it on the cement or I drop something heavy on it in the sink!!! I also don’t pretend this will be much different then the multiple reusable grocery bags I own, which I only remember to take into the grocery store one in five trips!!!! But alas I like the premise behind it and I will make an effort to take it with me on my visits to Starbucks!

Please tell me I’m not the only one in love with vanilla sugar?!?!

I have a large jar of this in my pantry at all times! So simple yet so tasty. Simply fill a jar with sugar and sit a vanilla bean open and scrape out the bean and add to the jar. Every time you use a vanilla bean for baking or ice cream making place the pod in the jar and shake frequently. The longer it sits the more vanilla infused the sugar becomes. I use the sugar in all sorts of stuff, chocolate chip cookies, tea, muffins, etc.

I decided to start a little Pinterest science project. Yesterday while I was doing some meal prep I remembered reading you can grow green onions in a glass of water from the cuttings of your previous green onions!

So I made sure to leave the onion bulbs intact and simply placed them in a small cup of water and put them on the window sill. I posted about it on Facebook and got a mix of reactions. Apparently it does work, which I figured it would seeing as how I have bamboo that lives in a glass of water in my kitchen, and has for five years! I got comments saying it was a cool way to save a few cents on your grocery bill, to comments saying the onions produced aren’t as flavourful as their ground grown counter parts. I’m more doing it for the simple curiosity factor and not to save the 33 to 99 cents a bunch of green onions runs me a week!

I shall keep you posted as to the progress of my little project! I enjoy watching things grow. I can’t wait for spring!! I am looking forward to getting some herbs and veggies planted but mostly trying to devise a plan to grow baby potatoes!

I wasn’t feeling all that adventurous in the kitchen last night so I whipped up a 2 egg + an extra white omelet with ham, cheese, and green onions. I had my omelet with some Trader Joes organic silver dollar pancakes and some grapes. Quick, easy, healthy, and delicious.

Since Costco has stopped selling my favorite honey Greek yogurt I’ve gone on a search to find a suitable replacement.

I tried this little delight as my evening snack at work last night. Oikos honey Greek yogurt proved to be very good albeit pricey. Four of these little 100 gram containers ran me almost five bucks. They are 100 calories a container with 8 grams of protein, which isn’t bad at all. There small size lends perfectly to small evening snack. I would buy them again, hopefully at a sale price!

I have been snacking on oranges all weekend which is stupid two fold for me! Number one I’m allergic to oranges!! They make me itchy and sometimes give me hives just like raspberries! Which for the record I don’t shy away from either! Secondly
oranges are packed with vitamin C, and autoimmune disease sufferers should avoid high doses of vitamin C.

I just can’t help myself!

Well I guess I should do something productive work wise for a while!! Stay warm people!

So Much For Daily!!!

Jan12

Happy Saturday!!!! So it’s been a few days since I’ve updated. The week had its ups and downs that’s for sure! Ups included but not limited to awesome work outs at the gym, my Dad’s birthday, a day trip to Bellingham with Kevin, a glorious day of thrift store shopping, and a day date with my man! Not to mention my kitchen successful adventures.

The only real down side of the week being my pain level. Yesterday was by far the most pain I’ve felt since mid summer. Of course that is a relevant statement considering I live with pain daily. Just the last few days has been very bad. Luckily I see my specialist soon. Enough about that! On to the pictures!

My Food!

I can’t seem to get enough Greek yogurt these days and this passion fruit flavour was spectacular!

I decided to invent a recipe while I was at work…I ended up making high protein low fat banana peanut butter muffins! These little bad boys pack a serious nutritious punch! Lots of protein, fibre and no junk minus six chocolate chips!

My boss and I wanted something veggie packed for dinner so I whipped up a stir fry with lots of veggies, chicken breast and a sweet chilli sauce served on a bed of quinoa. Serious healthy yum!

I tried a new to me oatmeal and it was very tasty served in my usual peanut butter, banana fashion. I’ve tried a few of the Bob’s Red mill products and I’ve never been disappointed.

I’m not sure what I was thinking yesterday morning at Starbucks but in that cup is a grande chamomile tea. Nothing unusual right?!??! Except for some reason my loopy brain decided to dump cinnamon in it along with the usual honey! Luckily it didn’t taste bad because by the time I realized what I had done we were already in the border line up!

I baked my dad a batch of date squares from my Grandmas recipe. They turned out nearly perfect, none will ever be as good as hers! I will share the photos and recipe soon.

I turned those ingredients into stuffed chicken breasts wrapped in prosciutto. They turned out rich and satisfying. Recipes and photos to come soon.

Our day trip to Bellingham was great. I was in a lot of pain so we just took our time, Kevin is very understanding and slows accordingly on my bad days.

Our first stop was the mall. We got a few good deals, my favorite being my new drifit long sleeve shirt. After the mall we hit Trader Joes. We got so much good stuff!! We hit Costco and Fred Meyer before stopping at 5 Guys burgers for dinner! My fave part of 5 Guys was the freshly roasted peanuts! So neat! Yes I am easily amused, thank you for asking !

Have I ever told you about my Pyrex and Lululemon addictions?!?! No! Another time I will get into it! Though I will tell you I acquired a few new pieces of both this weekend.

Muffin is currently enjoying some tummy rubs from Dad but she would like you to know she’s had a busy week!!

She had helped keep an eye on dinner!

Checked out some award winning Canadian cheddar !

Hung out with Maple!

Helped Nightlight (her coworker dog) locate misplaced toys at work!

Cuddled with Mom!

And avoided Jasmine! Sometimes sunning yourself on the pool deck is best left to the big dogs!!

Well friends that is a brief catch up on the past four days. The only thing else I can tell you about is my gym adventures. Not going to lie my my gym adventures are pretty uninteresting but necessary. I split my gym time between warm up, weights, cardio, and stretching. I’m seriously missing running but don’t dare until I talk to my specialist. I am considering rejoining water running as its low impact. Thinking about this is making me sad.

Well my blog reading team, Kevin is trying to talk me into going to a movie. I’m gonna talk him out of it with my sneaky ways!

Goodnight all!

Soaking Wet Sunday

Jan6

Have you ever spent time with someone who speaks just to hear the sound of their own voice? Who asks the same question repeatedly but never listens to the answer? Someone who accuses you of being cranky because you don’t have much to say at the moment? My frustration level is a little high right now. Not as high as earlier this evening but still higher then I care for.

Before this turns into a full blown rant let me change the subject. How was everyone’s Sunday? Good I hope. The majority of mine was delightful. I got up early and cleaned the house. I mean who doesn’t love cleaning? I made myself a labour intensive breakfast as pictured below!

I hung out in the rain with Muffin…

I made sure the fur kids shared breakfast…

Yes the cat is bigger then the dog!

Once noon rolled around I was happy to meet up with four girlfriends and head out for frozen yogurt and girl talk!

That’s Katie’s classic pout face! You would think she would be happy with a pocket full of candy!!!

Upon returning home I found Kevin and Muffin in the same place I left them, on the couch watching football. I decided to throw together some mini pita pizzas and baked cheddar bacon chicken bites! Who says game day food can’t be healthy!

The rest of my Sunday afternoon was typical and now I find myself at work for the next three days. I’m going to cut this short tonight friends.

I hope Monday goes by smoothly for everyone, sweet dreams.

Seriously Stuffed Saturday

Jan5

Hi friends, it is 10:30 P.M. and to say I’m tired is an overstatement! I’ve been ready to crawl into bed since about 8 P.M. but for a number of reasons that hasn’t happened yet. Muffin and I were up bright and early and had a jam packed day. We were up early for a good reason at least, her epic-ally over due spa day. I present for your viewing enjoyment an no longer unruly, shaggy beast!

Spending the morning at the spa is apparently very exhausting!

Once Muffin was safely at the groomer I ventured to the gym. I was pleased to find it wasn’t terribly busy for a Saturday morning in January. Have peoples resolutions already fizzled?

I completed 35 minutes of cardio, split between the bike and elliptical and then 30 minutes of arm weights and ab work. Followed that up with 15 minutes of stretching and called it a day. It was a good work out, I was off in my own little Taylor Swift workout fueled zone. I am such a geek!

After the gym I headed to Starbucks to meet a girlfriend and her fiance for coffee. We chatted for well over an hour. Lots of catching up was done and even more wedding talk! She is getting married in the somewhat near future and we had a great time chatting about ideas, mostly cupcakes.

My skinny peppermint mocha vanished all to quickly! Note to self: Don’t skip breakfast before the gym! Healthy living fail. After coffee I headed back to the groomer to pick up Muffin and then had a visit with my parents and my adorable niece who is feeling a little under the weather after her big snow sledding trip.

I somehow managed to go till mid afternoon with no food. I know, I know! I almost never do that and trust me by the time I got food in me I wasn’t feeling so great. After a late lunch Kevin and I leashed up Muffin and my Brother and Sister in law’s dog Maple up for a walk around the neighbor hood.

Maple was more interested in the world then having her picture taken! Please forgive her she is still a puppy.

Muffin on the other paw was more interested in visiting with her neighbor BFF dog, Sophie. Of course she was also concerned about looking fashionable in her little pink fur lined jacket. Someone really should slap me!

After our walk Kevin attempted to watch some football but I caused much distraction by doing another 15 minute mini trampoline workout. Who knew jumping up and down was a distraction for men! Ya learn something everyday!

If you have one of these I suggest you utilize it! I did a few exercises but the sit/stand with the medicine ball was felt the most. It is amazing how such a simple exercise can be so effective. I used my extra work out as an excuse to eat a piece of yesterdays banana bread with some peanut butter. So yummy!

My other snack of the day was much healthier I promise. Veggies and dip, an easy stand by.

Later in the evening Kevin and I ventured back out to get me a pair of shoes I saw yesterday. I loved them when I saw them but wasn’t 100% sure I needed them at the time. After thinking about them all day I decided I did want them and much to my sadness by the time we got back to the store my size was all sold out. I guess it wasn’t meant to be. Have I mentioned life is hard?

Once home I tackled dinner.

I made whole wheat spaghetti with my Mom’s meat sauce recipe. It calls for an abundance of garlic, mushrooms, onions, peppers and lean ground beef amoung a few other key ingredients. Kevin likes to dust his pasta with parmeasan, which has never been on my yum list. Don’t get me wrong I love parmeasan, heck I love all cheese. I just don’t like it on my pasta sauce. I am very odd when it comes to food, and mostly all aspects of everything! OCD for the win!! More on that little jem some other day.

After dinner the three of us did some cuddling and I whined about being sore, and seriously considered a bubble bath.

We have some pretty intense cuddle sessions in this house!

I am sure you have noticed my love of owl’s, they pop up everywhere around my house and on me. Today was no different. Ever get the feeling you’re being watched? I did all day. This little hooter peeked out of my sleeve and stared back at me every time I looked down today. Such a cute little bracelet!

That is as close as a picture of me gets today. No one needs to see my look of exhaustion. So with that friends I am going to leave you for the day. I think I am going to tackle that bubble bath. My goal is to not fall asleep in the tub but I make no promises.

Friday Before And After!

Jan4

Hi Friends, both new and old! I am very excited to see a few of you commenting. Thank you! So my day started off rather productive, Kev and Muffin had no intention of getting out of bed when I did, so I busied myself in the kitchen. Did some dinner prep, baked some banana bread, and finally made an omelette and English muffins to entice the other two lazy bones out of bed!!!

I thought it might be fun to show you some before and after photos of my kitchen adventures today!! Here we go! Greek lemon potatoes prepped to soak for the day in lemon juice, olive oil, white wine, garlic, and spices.

And after an hour in the oven this evening…

I made a bowl of homemade tzatziki because Greek potatoes just aren’t the same without it in my opinion. I used chopped cucumber, low fat Greek yogurt, dill, garlic, lemon juice, a little olive oil, and a touch of salt and pepper.

The finished product had a serious garlic kick. Just how we like it.

Kevin and I paired our Greek potatoes with some Barbqued pepper garlic pork tender loin and some sauteed zucchini with a sprinkle of parmasan.

It turned out pretty delightful, but im not going to lie I am glad I am not the one who had to stand outside in the dark to barbque the pork. Thanks Kevin! Love you.

Up next on my “To Do” list after prepping dinner this morning was to make a couple loaves of banana bread. I love baking and my friends and family don’t seem to mind because I always like to gift my creations. That way I don’t eat it all myself. Always thinking 😉

The final product, with a little Instagram filter action for your enjoyment!

If any of you would like me to post my recipes for anything I make please just let me know. I am considering adding a recipes tab if there is any interest.

I didn’t spend all day in the kitchen, though I could have today. I visited my parents and then this afternoon we ventured out to find some new oven mitts and of course as always with shopping I ended up with more then mitts. I got a new wallet, shorts for the gym, kitchen towels, and a few other things. The wallet was a necessity as mine decided to give up on life mid way through Christmas shopping last month. I finally found one I liked okay fine loved. It has owls on it, clearly I couldn’t say no.

When we got home from shopping Muffin was sure everything I purchased was simply hers and all made for a cozy bed.

As if spoiling myself wasn’t bad enough, my best friend Katie showed up this afternoon bearing gifts for me.

New Pj pants, a reusable owl bag and some Bath and body works bath gel. See told you I was spoiled! Katie is awesome, but she’s my friend you can’t have her! 😉 Okay find maybe I can share! You should know I managed to unload a good chunk of banana bread on her before she escaped my house.

Muffin would like me to show you all her before, during, and after her big yawn today.

So here we are before, just chilling with dad. No big thing!

Then it happened and i’m still not sure how I caught it on camera, but my little tiny nine pound fur ball let out the worlds biggest yawn. For a second I thought we were all going to be sucked into some sort of puppy black hole!

>;Promptly after the big yawn she went back to relaxing. You know the thing that takes up most of her doggy day!!

I need to reiterate that her life is hard people! So very hard! She is going for a groomer visit very soon to tame that mess of fur she has going on. I promise you will be shocked when you see her after a day at the spa. She will look ridiculous and not in a good way. You’ve been warned.

It has been raining here most of the day and I haven’t felt so great. Sometime soon I will get into the reason why I don’t feel so great lately but for now I won’t. I didn’t go to the gym as I had planned and I guess I just have to accept that for what it is. We did However spend a good solid hour walking today and I thankfully we did so indoors. I am going to take Muffin around the block and catch up on some blog reading before we call it a night. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day exercise wise.

Enjoy your Friday night friends!

Life With The McGavins

100% Not Sugar Coated