Dinner results...

So, this is how dinner rolled out.

First of all, last night, I used a three ingredient slow cooker total cheat recipe. I used a packaged of frozen boneless chicken breasts, a can of condensed cream of chicken soup (some people use cream of mushroom) and I tossed that in the slow cooker on high. No water needed! That took only about an hour and a half to cook even with the chicken breasts frozen solid. The third ingredient was one cup of rice thrown into my awesome fuzzy logic rice cooker and the chicken was placed over the cooked rice. I was thinking I could of slipped finely chopped cauliflower in the slow cooker and no one would of been the wiser! Yummy!

So, on to tonight's dinner. This was the original recipe:

Crock-pot Ravioli Casserole

1 1/2 lbs. lean ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 (15 oz.) can tomato sauce
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. Italian seasoning
salt/pepper
10 oz. frozen spinach, thawed
16 oz. bowtie pasta, cooked
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
1 1/2 cup mozzarella, shredded

And now for the magic...Brown ground beef with onion and garlic. Put in crock-pot and add sauce, tomatoes and seasonings. Cook for 6-7 hours on low. Add the last 4 ingredients during the last 30 minutes of cooking and turn crock-pot to high. Add the spinach, pasta, parmesan and 1 cup of the mozzarella and mix it all up really well. Then add the last 1/2 cup of mozzarella to melt on the top.

So this is what I used:
1 onion,
1 tbs. minced garlic,
2 15oz cans of tomato sauce,
1 can of petite diced tomatoes,
2 tsp. Of Italian seasoning, (it has plenty of oregano for me),
salt/pepper,
1 box of farfalle pasta,
1 cup shredded parm cheese,
2 cups of shredded mozzarella,
20 oz of extra lean turkey

I basically followed the same instructions, but shortened the crockpot time down to about 3 hours, adding all the prepared ingredients at once. I only boiled the pasta to al dente before adding it to the crockpot, so adding the little extra water softened the pasta to just the right point. I added 1/2 of the cheeses at the beginning of the crockpot cooking time and the remainder about 15 minutes prior to eating. I actually completely forgot the spinach *hitting myself in the head*, I had fallen asleep prior to preparing and was in a rush when I went to make it. So it lost the veggie aspect as so many of our meals seem to. Oh well! It was 1/2 twin approved and adult approved, which is what I expected and leftovers for tomorrow.

the beginning of the domino line...

As long as I remember as a young child, playing with dominos fascinated me.  I never knew any rules, never played with anyone, I just was enthralled with standing them up in rows and patterns and then tipping them over to have them fall.  I used our tiny kitchen and the rough linoleum floor because that was the only place the dominos would stand up, the remainder of the tiny trailer I was raised in was carpeted.  How frustrated I would get when my sleeve of my shirt would hit a domino and would collapse my row before I was ready to tumble my masterpiece.  I really had little patience, I would give it maybe one more shot and then be done until another day.  The thrill of getting them all set up to see them fall in a satisfying order of perfection was thrilling to me, even though I know it was a chaotic mess all over my mother's kitchen floor.  I didn't really enjoy the cleaning up part after, really.  That was rather anticlimactic.  The endorphins were gone and my brain had already moved onto other things, a trial of being a child with an attention span limited to specific activities.  A poor habit that has followed me throughout life.

I realize now, sadly many, many years too late that life in general has been a game of dominos, much like I played as a child.  Several years before I became a legal adult, I balanced the first domino.  I don't think my domino line has ever gotten really long without them tumbling down.  At this time of my life, it seems like I can't keep one standing.  There are so many elements that come and crash the damn things down.  I wonder if I am the only one that feels this way, or do others have circles and rows and complete designs on their kitchen floors with them continuously adding more dominos on a daily basis? Is this normal?

People say I analyze things too much. I say I am just trying to understand a world that could be less complex, less exhausting. I want simple, where 2+2 really do add up to be 4. I'm just not sure something like that exists anymore. For the record, I started this blog last year, I just couldn't bring myself to publish it. A lot of things in life have changed. I guess maybe I'm tired of feeling as if I don't have a voice anymore. Maybe I'll blog more, maybe this and tomorrow night's dinner will be it, who knows. We'll just have to see how the dominos fall.

What's cooking at my house tomorrow...

Dinner for Tomorrow:

This read like it would be super yummy, so I'll have to try it and make my own cheater modifications and take a picture...for now this is how the recipe reads from a Rival Crock-pot cookbook.

Crock-pot Ravioli Casserole

1 1/2 lbs. lean ground beef 1 onion, chopped 1 clove garlic, minced 1 (15 oz.) can tomato sauce 1 can stewed tomatoes 1 tsp. oregano 1 tsp. Italian seasoning salt/pepper 10 oz. frozen spinach, thawed 16 oz. bowtie pasta, cooked 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded 1 1/2 cup mozzarella, shredded

And now for the magic...Brown ground beef with onion and garlic. Put in crock-pot and add sauce, tomatoes and seasonings. Cook for 6-7 hours on low. Add the last 4 ingredients during the last 30 minutes of cooking and turn crock-pot to high. Add the spinach, pasta, parmesan and 1 cup of the mozzarella and mix it all up really well. Then add the last 1/2 cup of mozzarella to melt on the top.

I'll have one twin that will eat it and one twin that will turn his nose up to it, but that is normal around here. Hope someone else can enjoy this as well! Let me know!

For now, enjoy this gorgeous picture of the coast of Cali that I took on the way home from a visit with my daughter and a friend this past weekend. I just had to pull off the road and snap this shot in Goleta. It's incredibly beautiful there, just off the 101. Absolutely no photo enhancements, just pure Cali for you!