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I Started a MONSTER Blog

We'll see how long it lasts. Mostly because I'm a Gemini and I'm fabulous at starting stuff but not at finishing.

MONSTER has his own blog, ok, so really it's me telling the story of Rusty and pet stuff and dog stuff and treats and whatnot. It's boring if you're not a pet person.

Trust me. IT'S BORING IF YOU'RE NOT A PET PERSON.

But in any case, we rescued MONSTER from the White River Humane Society in Bedford, IN. This picture was taken for his adoption picture for Petfinder. Poor dog was 15 pounds under weight. I'm slowly telling the story of MONSTER so far and what has worked for us, training wise, etc...

So um, here's the link: Rescuing MONSTER

At first I was going to do a photography blog and then, well, no that was too boring for me. Go figure. Enjoy, all of my two freakin' posts...

No Pants Subway Ride 2009

Finally. Thanksgiving Vacation Picture.

Ha! Not pictureS!!! In any case, I took this with my cell phone during our Thanksgiving cruise (when the MONSTER got hookworm, remember?) in Key West.

Dang, do I want to go back!

And Who Thinks Commuters Don't Have Entertainment?

Chicken. Chicken. Chicken.

No more red meat, it's done. The occasional hamburger or roast beef from Arby's but no more red meat.

But that means that I have to be more adventurous with chicken and turkey. I think eventually I'll probably go vegetarian but right now I love chicken and bacon WAY TOO MUCH.

So today I got an e-mail from Real Simple. I'm going to make just about every chicken recipe on this list. Why? Because I'm not as creative right now with food as I was three weeks ago. And I feel like making a list and checking items off of it. Like cleaning out the closets. Check. Making chicken for dinner. Check.

And so tonight the checklist begins...

Twitter Me This...

Well, technically speaking I signed up for Twitter for work. My work is very social technology oriented. What other work place encourages facebook? Yeah, I know... Facebook.

And then my blogging spoke to me... About Twitter. Ok, so blogs don't really speak but whatever. I'm on Twitter so if you want to see what I'm up to - feel free. I'll probably put up blog updates and stuff and interesting links. And life.

Twitter Me This!!!

Easy Lasagna

UPDATE: So, I got a lovely comment about freezing lasagna, and why yes, it does freeze well! Instead of baking, I'd freeze it, wrapping it in 2 layers of tinfoil - it should keep for up to a month. Then, thaw in the refrigerator and bake as usual!

See? Super easy. No chopping required. Unless you want to...

Instead of store bought sauce, I used my marinara sauce from earlier this month.

Ground beef? No, ground turkey. Yes.

Brown it with salt and pepper OR McCormick's Steak Seasoning like I do.

Mmm... ground turkey.

Dump your marinara into the pan to warm up after the meat has been browned.

Mix all the cheeses together along with the egg.

It's supposed to be parsley but I used basil instead. It works, just any dried/green herb you have. Whatever, it's easy lasagna, right?

Combine everything together until just mixed - no worries, the shredded mozarella will blend in nicely.

I added one cup of chicken brother instead of one cup water. I like flaver, thank you very much. I bet you could add wine instead... if you're daring...

Start off with a 9x13 pan. Eh, don't worry about buttering it. This is easy.

Add one cup meat sauce.

Pasta.

Cheese.

Meat sauce, but don't let your arm give your lasagna a shadow like I did. That's not very pretty.

Pasta.

Cheese.

Meat sauce with no shadow.

Pasta.

The rest of the cheese.

The rest of the meat sauce.

Shred more mozzarella while your pan bakes at 350 for 45 minutes. I didn't cover it so I put more sauce on it than normal so it wouldn't dry out.

Mmm... Cheese...

Oh - it's finally done...

Why yes, yes it is ready to eat...

Easy Lasagna

1 lb. ground beef
2-1/2 cups KRAFT Shredded Low-Moisture Part-Skim Mozzarella Cheese, divided
1 container (15 oz.) POLLY-O Natural Part Skim Ricotta Cheese
1/2 cup KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese, divided
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 jar (26 oz.) spaghetti sauce
1 cup water
12 lasagna noodles, uncooked
Make It

HEAT oven to 350°F. Brown meat in large skillet on medium-high heat. Meanwhile, mix 1-1/4 cups mozzarella, ricotta cheese, 1/4 cup Parmesan, parsley and egg until well blended; set aside.
DRAIN meat; return to skillet. Stir in spaghetti sauce. Add water to empty sauce jar; cover with lid and shake well. Add to meat mixture; stir until well blended. Spread 1 cup sauce onto bottom of 13x9-inch baking dish; top with layers of 3 lasagna noodles, 1/3 of the ricotta cheese mixture and 1 cup sauce. Repeat layers twice. Top with remaining noodles, sauce and cheeses. Cover with greased foil.
BAKE 1 hour or until heated through, removing foil after 45 min. Let stand 15 min. before cutting to serve.

Free Suave - Today Only!

Suavenomics - Free Suave.

You know, being thrifty is kinda fun! I should post more free stuff more often. Here's a few links that I like to look at every once in awhile:

Shop4Freebies
Walmart Free Samples (Yes, seriously)
Freemania

Etc... Etc... You can pretty much just google "free sample of..." and lots will pop up. Right now you can get a free sample of Rachael Ray's dog food and then of course Dove always has samples... The list can go on and on!

Green Your Cooking

I'm pretty eco-friendly. We put out 3 - 4 huge bins of recycling every other week. I buy Tom's of Maine toothpaste. And cloth napkins... But greening your cooking is something else that I'm not really very sure how to do. We have an electric stove. And I HATE to use the rolling dishwasher. So we hand wash the dishes, which does NOT save on water consumption at all.

But at least you can green your cutting board. Try this acacia wood chopping block. Acacia is naturally sustainable, even more so than teak (who knew?). It's $34.98 at Lowe's right now.


Or an even more awesome alternative is THIS cork cutting board from Crate & Barrel. It's on SALE for $19.99. Crate & Barrel also has a green living section of their website. I'm glad commercialism is heading eco-friendly.

Enjoy being green in your kitchen!