Crock-Pot Lasagna

Today I tried to make Lasagna in my crock-pot... I'd have to say it was successful! I found the recipe from Creating through Life but it seemed a little bland for our taste so the following is how I made ours! I also used ground turkey because it's leaner & healthier. I found it interesting that this recipe calls for cottage cheese because I've always used ricotta in my lasagna... but cottage cheese is like half the calories of ricotta... genius!

You'll need the following:

• 1 lb. ground turkey (or beef... or sausage)
• 29 oz can of tomato sauce
• 8 oz lasagna noodles, uncooked
• onion
• garlic
• Italian seasonings
• salt & pepper
• 4 cups mozzarella
• 1 1/2 cups of cottage cheese

*Spray your crock-pot with cooking spray*

Start by browning your ground turkey in a large saucepan. Add in onion, Italian seasonings, salt & pepper & garlic. (I pressed my garlic, I prefer it that way & it extracts allicin (which has properties that are believed to decrease blood pressure, have anti-thrombotic and anti-inflammatory activities, and function as an antioxidant to some extent!) 

Add in tomato sauce to ground turkey!

In a different bowl combine cottage cheese & mozzarella.

Layer 1/3 of sauce in the crock-pot
Cover with (uncooked) lasagna noodles, you may need to break them to fit the oval shape of the pot.
Layer 1/3 of the cheese mixture
Repeat!
Top off the lasagna with any extra tomato sauce.

Set on Low & walk away for 4 hours!

So maybe this doesn't look so good, but it sure does taste good!

Show & Tell Friday

Check out my bedside table! I found it at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore (Love that place!) here in West Palm Beach. I have not done a single thing to it... yet. I'm considering painting it! (Big surprise!)

It's solid wood... because back when this was made they wouldn't have considered making furniture out of crappy particle board! It's perfect for what we needed!

Produce Wasters

I have a confession. I am bad about buying produce & letting go bad! I know, I know... money just thrown away. It's terrible & I hate that I am (we are) wasteful!

Here is my solution, it works & it's super simple too...

As soon as I get home I wash my fruit & prep it. I put it in the appropriate containers. That's it! Nathan & I both see it in our fridge & know it's clean & ready to be eaten.

Silly, I know, but hey... it works. We'll save money & eat healthier snacks!

New Camera = Practice Shots

I got a new camera! I'm so excited to learn the ends and out of it. I can't wait to get the new lens I won off ebay & hopefully I'll get much better! 

First Baptist Church of West Palm Beach

South Flagler Dr. ... aka our front yard!

Isn't my hubby cute?!

This is our apartment! :)

FBC of WPB again!

Banyan Trees

The fountain behind Steve & Tina's house!

Some of Tina's gorgeous flowers!

Anyway... I'm enjoying my new toy! I'm so thankful for the gift of this camera.

Too good to be true? Nope!

Last week while browsing pintrest I found a recipe that looked delicious, sounded interesting & the calorie count was crazy low! I knew I had to give it a try. So I did... & it was delicious!!!

The recipe comes from a blog called Healthy is Always Better & I haven't taken the time to but I plan to scan her whole website to find more delicious recipes!

Here it is:

Ingredients:

•  3 egg whites
•  1 3/4 cup oats
•  3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt (or regular plain low fat yogurt)
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar (or 1-1/2 Tbsp. vinegar)
• 1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1-1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 cup sugar substitute (like Splenda granular) OR 1/4 cup + 2 tbs stevia
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (or use white chocolate or peanut butter chips!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 (12-cup) muffin pans with foil cupcake liners, or spray muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray.

In a food processor (or blender), mix all of the ingredients together, except for the chocolate chips. Blend until oats are ground and mixture is smooth.

Place mixture in a bowl and gently stir in 1/2 of the chocolate chips (set the rest aside). Scoop mixture into prepared muffin pans.

Place muffins tins in the oven for 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes, remove muffins from the oven (but don’t shut oven off), and distribute the other half of the chocolate chips on top of each muffin.

Place the muffins back into the oven and bake for an additional 2-5 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

I added a little more chocolate chips than should have... oops! ;)

So each muffin has roughly 60 calories!! They are so good. Thankfully they are also filling... because after the first bite I wanted to eat all 24 muffins... I mean they only have 60 calories!

I prefer to nuke mine in the microwave for 10 seconds and eat it with a fork! Mmmmmm 

Show & Tell Friday!

This week has FLOWN by. Wow. I had to check my calendar to make sure it was in fact Friday!

So I love today's thrifty find! It's a compilation of thrifty finds made into one big display. So here it is!

The large frame is from a church library that had a hideous paining in it! We actually used it to display pictures at our wedding too! It was free!

Inside the large frame is a compilation of pictures from our engagement & wedding. Also there is  artwork, fabric and of course the P!

I found this heavy iron frame at a garage sale in Raleigh for only 25 cents! It didn't have glass so I decided to go with some fabric I already had on hand.

I saw this little piece in a thrift store with Maw Maw (Nathan's gma) & fell in love with it as soon as I laid my eyes on it! I fully intended to pay the $1 but of course Maw Maw treated me to it. Now I think of her when I look at it, which I love.

Another garage sale find! This one comes from Wake Forest, NC & I found it for 25 cents too. I accidentally broke the glass so I just figured fabric was another good option! I had this fabric already too. 

I found this tiny frame with a bunch of other ones in different colors at a thrift store in Western Carolina. I think this one may have cost 50 cents? I love them! 

There you have it! I think it feels cozy & kinda eclectic but contained.

Cohesive Color! The kitchen window.

Most of the time being a renter means you have to be extra creative to make the rented space your own... while staying inside the guidelines & not pouring your own money into the property that you will never get back!

We just got married only 6 1/2 months ago & everything we registered for we loved and still love! It worked in our original space but now we have to make it work in our new one. As much as I love color on the walls it creates another challenge when that color isn't something you picked & isn't exactly one that matches your existing things. So my goal was to find a fabric that would make the old and new work together!

Observe. I've never had dark counter tops until now & I'm loving them! The cabinets are a strange grey finish... but whatever! The walls are a light green that kind of reminds me of key lime pie! 

The floors also have green in them.

 

These are the colors we registered for. Kind of Fallish... not so much Key Lime Pie!

BUT with my love of green... I had these! (Love this garage sale find!)

And this was a gift from Sarah for Christmas(?) one year! This inspired me...

 

I found a fabric at Joann's Fabrics and loved it. However it wasn't on sale so I walked around the entire store thinking about it and browsing everything else. I finally caved & bought it really... it was only $10! 

I loved this. It's paisley & has the colors I needed!

  Then I found this tutorial on pinterest! A no sew Roman Shade sounded just perfect. The entire project cost me $15. You really can't beat that! 

 So that is the final product & I really like it! Everything now works together better in this space. Now on to a rug for the sink!

Show & Tell Friday!

Today is another two for one special! Now that things are settling back down I should be able to do my Show & Tell thirfting finds every Friday again! Nathan helped me with these thrifting finds & his muscles were invaluable! ;)

Here is our first major wow find! I love this chair. It's the perfect reading chair. It's comfy, it spins, & it has a matching ottoman!

Yes, this is possibly one of my favorite purchases. How much did we spend? OH, $10. Yeah... For the chair & the ottoman... $10.

When we moved down to Florida we packed up everything we owned in a moving truck that was suppose to be for 2-3 rooms. We packed our entire house in that. One thing we had to leave behind was our dining room table. (It wasn't my favorite anyway!) As soon as I got down here the look was on! We couldn't have people over for dinner without a dining room table!! I found this guy who has used furniture store here (still out of my price range) but he had a storage unit that he was trying to make room in, so he was ready to sell!

Here it is! I really didn't have to do anything.

I'm such a fan of the unique details.

Eventually I'll recover these, but they're in surprisingly good condition! 

I got the entire set for $80! 

I'd have to say Nathan & I were pretty proud of ourselves! To celebrate our finds we had our first dinner guests. It was so nice to host Matt & Amanda! 

People in Wake Forest: Get excited because this sweet couple is moving to you! Matt is starting at SEBTS & Nathan & I are so jealous you guys get them!