Sunday, November 20, 2011

Lasagna Cupcakes

Lasagna Cupcakes

A little recipe I found somewhere online then lost the link and decided to make a go of it myself. I remember the lady who wrote the original said she copied it from some restaurant she went to so if you find the original please let me know I'd love to link it and comment how great this turned out.

So first thing I did was get those Goya wraps they sell in the freezer section. I've used these before and liked them then. I guess you could use any light pastry. I rolled them thin and used the top of my flour container to cut out the circles that fit into my well sprayed cupcake pan.  Spray it well so they pop out when cooking is done.


Now preheat your oven to 375 ish....

For the 12 I made I used about a quarter pound of beef and a couple breakfast sausages, use Italian sausage if you'd prefer that taste. Brown it until 99% cooked.

 Now get some ricotta cheese I used the skim version, some shredded mozzarella. Now I did layers as follows
Ricotta
Mozzarella
Meat
Piece of Goya wrap
Ricotta
Mozzarella
then a top layer of Parmesan mixed with some other cheeses

I left the home made sauce out thinking it would make them to wet to pick up, but you could add it into the cup if you'd like. The sauce I used was homemade but I'm sure canned would be just as good ( :-) )
Bake for about 45 minutes until GB&D.

I liked cutting them in half and then putting a little sauce on top but I'm sure they would be great whole and frozen for lunches etc. Honestly Melissa and I ate every one of them for dinner...  Man I'm fat
    


Enjoy 

Riley for Christmas

I've been asked by many what to get Riley for Christmas. So here is some stuff that I think she would like because as of today she is not saying much more that mamamamamama or dadadadadadad or mmmmaahhhhhhhh hihihihihi sounds. Mind you these are just things I like :-) and think i would have a good time playing with.... I mean she would love. Take the ideas and go with it from there...

She thanks you in advance...


Sit to stand alphabet train (Toys R Us)
KidKraft Wooden Block Set (Wal-Mart)
Sassy - Soft-Sided Toy Box (Wal-Mart)
Books of all kinds.... (children's books, she doesn't need Twilight or Game of thrones)

Ok I think that's enough, you should get a general Idea from that type of stuff. ,she will be 9 months old, rolling crawling and trying to stand. By next Christmas she will be walking and talking so anything good within that time period. She can always use cute cloths 12 months +, Diapers size 3 in Members Mark, wipes, and general tune up items......  She always accepts Love and cards with pictures of the people who love her.






Friday, November 18, 2011

The journey

We recently got back from a little "vacation" of visiting family. Regretfully the cost of flight and associated needs of flying prevented us from doing that. So we drove. For Melissa and I this would be a 16-20 hour non stop drive. Well no more is it Melissa and I alone. I had in the plans that we would likely take longer. I figured we would stop at near every rest stop on the way for about half to a full hour for stretch and play time. Well we ended up stomping about that and once for the night each way. The hotels were unplanned but well needed, the one on the way up especially (I did not get enough sleep that day to continue and followed the arrive alive not early policy). Now for the part your all waiting for, how the 7+ month old did on a 2 day drive; well to maintain here status as the most awesome child in the world she would have to be awesome and she was. The ride up was the best. She was so excited at the first rest stop, "what is all of this". I would look back and she would be starring out the window at the trees or playing with her toys. She enjoyed her time when we arrived, similar to being in the at home routine just different and new people around. The drive back went good too. She was done with the car with about 5 or 6 hours left. You could tell she didn't want to do this anymore. I can't blame her, I didn't either. Even after the stop for the night (I didn't want to stop, would of been more than able to finish the drive), but she needed to or it would of been crying all the rest of the way. We made it home on Friday after leaving Thursday, hit a 5 minute flurry of snow specks in Kentucky, and had sunshine the whole way. Love driving and would do it again...... Riley you are awesome.....