Spinach Lasagna Rolls

I got this idea off of C + C Marriage Factory. I have been wanting to try to make a veggie lasagna and frankly chopping up all the veg just seemed too time consuming. I tried this out tonight and loved it. I am bringing leftovers for a co-worker tomorrow, so hoping she likes it too. These are individual lasagnas. They freeze well and make an excellent hot lunch. I definitely think these are staying on the menu.

**Disclaimer....I used her photo's cause frankly my camera decided it didn't want to cooperate and phone pics just don't do it justice.**

Ingredients:
9 lasagna noodles, cooked
10 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and completely drained
15 oz fat free ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg
salt and fresh pepper
32 oz tomato sauce (I used Bertolli Tomato & Basil)
9 tbsp (about 3 oz) part skim mozzarella cheese, shredded

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°. Combine spinach, ricotta, Parmesan, egg, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Ladle about 1 cup sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 12 baking dish.


Place a piece of wax paper on the counter and lay out lasagna noodles. Make sure noodles are dry. Take 1/3 cup of ricotta mixture and spread evenly over noodle.

Roll carefully and place seam side down onto the baking dish. Repeat with remaining noodles.

Ladle sauce over the noodles in the baking dish and top each one with 1 tbsp mozzarella cheese.

Put foil over baking dish and bake for 40 minutes, or until cheese melts.

To serve, ladle a little sauce on the plate and top with lasagna roll.

Servings: 9

Serving size: 1 roll

Calories per serving: 225

Points: 4

C&C Marriage Factory made a homemade sauce and while I was adventurous to make these beauties....I didn't try her sauce....it sounds delicious...maybe next time.

Stuffed Zucchini Boat

Seriously one of the best things I have made in FOREVER! This will definitely be staying on the recipe board. I served it with brown rice, but thinking maybe some orzo would be really good with this.

Ingredients:

1 zucchini, about 12 inches long (or 2 6-inch)

2 tbsp. olive oil, divided

½ cup onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

½ cup mushrooms, chopped

1 lb. turkey sausage or ground turkey

2 tbsp. dry white wine

2-3 tomatoes, seeded and diced

3 tbsp. chopped fresh basil

1 tsp. minced fresh rosemary

¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 egg, lightly beaten

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. pepper

Directions:

Cut zucchini in half lengthwise. Scoop out insides, leaving a shell about ¼-inch thick. Reserve about half of the insides.

In a medium skillet over medium-high heat, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Sauté the onion and garlic until tender, about 4-5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and reserved zucchini insides to the skillet and sauté another 2 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Heat the remaining tablespoon of the olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Crumble in the sausage or ground turkey and cook until lightly browned on all sides, stirring occasionally. Stir in the cooked onion and mushroom mixture. Add the wine to the pan along with the tomatoes, basil and rosemary. Cook for 1 more minute. Drain of any excess fat, remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 375° F. Once the turkey mixture has cooled a bit, mix in the Parmesan, egg, salt and pepper. Fill the zucchini shells with the mixture. Fill a baking dish with ¼-inch of water. Place the filled zucchini shells in the pan and bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes, until golden brown. Remove the zucchini from the pan and serve immediately.

6 weeks

I am officially less than 6 weeks from my birthday! I'm only making a big deal out of this because well I'll be 30. Yes the big 3-0. No more 20's.

I will be headed to FL for the big day. My best friend is going with me and we are gonna hang at the momma's. Lay on the beach, drink lots of wine, eat good home cooking and just RELAX.

CAN'T WAIT!

Fail

I never realized how much I like Gluten....until I went without it.

I'll pass....bring on the bread, bring on the beer, bring on the good tasting food. I need wheat in my diet.

Gluten or Not to Gluten

So I am trying something.

Gluten FREE.

This is HARD. I am craving bread. Soft, buttery, sourdough. Oh how I want thee.

I figured since the doc said NO to the big C....lets try something else out to loose weight.

I am taking thyroid meds and have cut out gluten almost 100%. It's only been a week, but I feel better. I am not lethargic. I actually get hungry. I have been eating a ton of fruits and veggies. A TON.

The one downfall....I went to a bar recently and got looked at like I had 3 heads when I asked IF they had gluten free beer. Seriously people really have a condition where they can't eat or drink it. Don't treat me like crap because I ask a serious question. Won't be going back to that bar...EVER.

Denver 2010

I got to travel to Denver, CO (5,280 feet above see level...hence mile high city) (got to knock it off my 101 in 1001) for work last week and managed to talk my company in to letting me stay for the weekend. Granted, it might have been the fact that the air fare was a little cheaper flying home on Sunday night rather than Friday morning, or the fact that I have "family" in town and was able to stay with them, but either way Denver is AWESOME!

I flew into town on Tuesday afternoon, met me boss, checked into my hotel and grabbed dinner at Earls. (can't get the link to work).

Wednesday, got up grabbed coffee at Starbucks. Rode the 16th Street Shuttle down to one of my clients offices. Walked over to the Westin for our quarterly meeting. Met with another client afterwards. Went to my companies office downtown for a brief hello to my account executives. When all was said and done...grabbed a Pomegranite Martini at Prime Bar with some of the girls from my afternoon client meeting. After my happy hour drink, I met my best friends cousin, Christen (hadn't seen her since the BF's wedding nearly

3 years ago) for dinner at Rock Bottom Brewery.

Thursday. Drove up to Greeley and Boulder w/the boss and t

he AE. Met with a few clients. The photo is from the back of one of the office buildings...seriously I could look at that EVERY DAY! Drove back to the city. (got a shot of the skyline)

Was DONE for work at 12:30. I called my ex-step-mother (yes we are still really good friends) and we met for lunch at a 5-Star Restaurant....knock another one off my 101 in 1001 days! We went to the Brown Palace. SOOOOOO good. I had Prosciutto Wrapped Chicken Salad.

Afterwards we went back to Earls and I had their housemade Sangria. Yummy. Crashed out pretty early on Thursday (thinking time change caught up with me).

Friday. Met my ex-step-mom and her co-worker for lunch at PF Changs and then we took the light rail back to her place and ended up driving out to Colorado Springs to see Garden of the Gods

and Pikes Peak. Absolutely GORGEOUS.

Friday night...went to a Colorado Rockies v. Milwaukee Brewers game. Our seats were AMAZING. Club level. Fantastic...I think I am officially spoiled.

Saturday. I've always wanted to see The Stanley Hotel (from Stephen King's The Shining). Drove up to Estes Park (about 8,000 feet above sea level). Driving through the mountains was breathtaking. Driving into Estes Park and seeing the snow covered mountains and Stanley Hotel on the hill GORGEOUS.

Ate lunch, promptly got sick....headache, nausea, lightheaded....yup I got Altitude sickness. NOT Fun. I had to drink a crap load of water and munch on tums to help till I could get down from the altitude.

We did the ghost tour...and I am a complete cynic...I didn't feel or see anything, however my camera captured something completely different. I got some "orbs" which they say are ghosts...yeah still a cynic...its totally got to be dust. It was fun though to hear about some of the history.

Walked around town for a little bit afterwards and bought a beautiful blue turquoise ring. I also bought a blue stone bracelet with a silver plated Aspen Leaf....anyone who knows me, knows I love leaves.

I flew back on Sunday afternoon/evening and thankfully I am not too jet lagged. All in all I fell in love with Denver and the surrounding areas. I didn't get to see everything because its so spread out, but I had an absolute blast and will definetly be back.

It's NOT!

It's not cancer!!!! I went to the lovely Dr. Alan Dackiw at John's Hopkins and he gave me the news I was begging to hear.

He had the pathologist re-run my biopsy slides. Benign!

I might have scared him when I burst into tears.

We are going to keep an eye on the nodule, if it grows or changes we will re-visit surgery. For now I go back to the endocrine doc for thyroid meds, meet with a nutritionist and in 6 months have another ultrasound and biopsy.

I have to say that was probably the best news I've gotten in a while. Thank god for a small miracle.