Crockpot Lasagna

This was so easy! It's hard to get that "lasagna" shape when serving (so it's just a bowl of noodles, beef & Italian cheese) but it tastes pretty damn good!

I also really need to start taking pictures of the whole set-up/cooking process.

1 package of ground beef (I used 93% lean and the meat is still moist, not dry at all!) - this package was roughly around 2lbs, btw
2 jars of pasta sauce (I used Prego Tomato, Onion & Garlic)
Ricotta cheese
1 package of shredded Italian cheese (I used Italian Blend)
Lasagna noodles, *uncooked*
Salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste (I used to season the beef)

Brown the beef in a skillet, season to taste. Drain off excess grease. Mix in jars of pasta sauce.

For the crockpot, I suggest spraying with non-stick spray...I didn't have any, so I just took a towel and rubbed a bit of vegetable oil all along the sides.

Cover the bottom of the pot with the beef/pasta sauce mixture.
Layer lasagna noodles (I had to break mine up a bit to make them fit).
Spread ricotta cheese. I admit it was hard to spread this smoothly.
Sprinkle Italian cheese(s) on top of ricotta.
Top with more beef/pasta mixture and repeat.

I made 2 layers using all ingredients, then once I ended with the beef/pasta mixture, I added more lasagna noodles then topped with the remaining beef/pasta sauce mixture. The crockpot was about 2/3 full.

Cover and cook on LOW for about 4 hours, then about 5min before serving sprinkle some more Italian cheese(s) on top.

So yummy!

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....and a simple dessert....microwave cinnamon apples!

Okay, the moment I saw this, I had to try it.

Cinnamon apples = fall. It's not very fall-ish in Texas right now, which makes me sad. Fall is my favorite season.

1 apple (I used a Gala apple for this because that is what I have on hand, but you can use whatever apple you like!)
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp corn starch (I used all-purpose flour because that's all I have on hand)
1 spoonful of sugar (I just used regular granulated sugar...but if you would rather use Stevia or Splenda or something, go right ahead!)
1 tbsp water
Raisins (optional)

Slice your apple. I'm lazy and use an apple slicer. Best thing ever. You can choose to leave the skin on or peel it off...I left it on, but I think next time I will peel them. Throw everything into a bag and shake/mix around until everything is evenly coated. Open the bag a bit to vent, place in the microwave for 2 minutes and viola! They're done :) Easy clean-up, too...just throw away the bag! But be careful, because the bag will be VERY hot and be careful of steam burns!

This would be amazing with some vanilla ice cream.... :)

Hainanese Chicken Rice

My apartment smells HEAVENLY right now!!!

This is a Hainanese Chicken Rice recipe, adapted from HERE.

Although the name is of Chinese origin, this is considered to be Singapore's national dish. It's so simple!

Of course, I can't get a true "kampong" chicken (a chicken from a village) and I honestly do not have a pot big enough to boil a whole chicken. So instead, I bought a $5 rotisserie chicken from Walmart lol. I carved out all of the breast meat and cut it into smaller chunks. You could use the leg meat if you want, but I prefer all white meat.

1 chicken
3 cups of Jasmine rice, uncooked
3 cups of chicken stock (I used Swenson's 30% Reduced Sodium Chicken Stock)
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 slice of ginger, minced
matchstick carrots, diced (I just grabbed a handful from the bag lol)
vegetable oil
salt & pepper to taste

Take the Jasmine rice and rinse a couple of times, then soak in water for at least 10 minutes. Drain and try to get as much liquid out as possible.

While my rice was soaking, I went ahead and minced the garlic and the ginger. I heated a pot with some vegetable oil and added the garlic and ginger and stir-fried on medium-high heat. OMG the smell was amazing and SO FRAGRANT!! Just be careful not to burn them, which I have a tendency of doing...but today, I was successful! Yes!

Once the garlic and ginger are fragrant, add the rice and stir fry for a couple of minutes.

Add the stock and carrots. Season with salt & pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat to low and cover for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, take put the pot aside (with the lid still on) and let it sit for another 5-10 minutes. Refrain from opening the lid, because this the heat/steam is crucial to the cooking process for the rice!

While I was waiting, I sliced up the chicken breast. Once the rice has "rested" go ahead and add your chicken and you're ready to go!!!

This was soooooooooo delicious!!! I'm sure it would taste even better if I cooked my own chicken and made my own stock, but for my adaptation this was VERY tasty. The rice was perfect, the carrots were tender (I was afraid they would be underdone...probably so if I used larger chunks) and the rotisserie chicken compliments the rice very well. I highly suggest you try this!

Military Monday blog hop!

:)

Because I work night shift, my sleeping schedule is constantly messed up.
Especially when my manager happened to split up my shifts this past week. I'd rather just do my three in a row and be done with it.
I woke up at 0300...I was wide awake! So I lazed around, added about another 230967203690276 pins (at least it feels that way!) then at 0730 I prepped the ribs for the crock pot.
...Though they aren't really ribs because only like 3 of them actually have the bone lol. They're more just like chunks of meat.
I trimmed some fat, seasoned with salt and pepper and threw them in the crock pot with a whole bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's honey BBQ sauce. Put the pot on low. The ribs have been braising for about 9 hours and I took a little taste and they are AMAZING. So tender they literally fall apart and melt in your mouth. Mmmm.
Now to wait for hubs to get home. It's so hard resisting the urge to eat a bunch of ribs now!

pot roast!

I'm making this for dinner :) I finally bought a crock pot, and I think it was one of the best decisions ever. The roast smells wonderful and I snagged a carrot for a taste test...it tastes so good!

And I barely had to do a thing! I was at Walmart and saw a "pot roast kit" - came with the meat, seasoning packet and vegetables. It's a pretty good portion, too, at least for hubby & I. It cost roughly around $15. Just followed the instructions, placed the crock pot on high and let it do the work. It's been on high for about 4 hours and the meat is now cooked to medium (using a meat thermometer) so now I put it on low. Hopefully it will continue to tenderize without overcooking it. Hubs will be home in 2-3 hours :)

I have been on such a cooking/baking streak! Monday I made chicken parmesan along with those mint oreo brownies...though I forgot to buy bread crumbs so I had to make do with the stale bread I had on hand lol...yesterday I made cheddar-pepperjack mac n cheese and today is the pot roast!

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Mint oreo brownies!

Don't these look deeelish?
And they were so easy!
Recipe adapted from Making Memories :) I had to make some changes because I lacked some ingredients, but these brownies turned out AMAZING! Perfect for my sweet tooth and hubby loves them.

* 1 box of brownie mix (I used Duncan Hines dark chocolate)
* 1 package of Mint Oreos, divided into 3 piles (I just divided them based on the rows in the package since there are three of them lol)
* 1 8 oz block of cream cheese, softened
* 2 cups of powdered sugar (Omitted because I didn't have this, I just used granulated sugar, and I did not use anywhere near 2 cups. This I just kind of eyeballed)
* 1 8 oz tub of Cool Whip thawed and in the fridge (Forgot to buy this at the store, so I just used the whipped cream I had in the fridge)

Make brownies according to box instructions. Fold-in 1/3 of Oreos. Bake according to instructions. Cool completely.
In a separate bowl, mix cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Fold-in Cool Whip (or whipped cream) and 1/3 of Oreos. Spread over brownies.
Top with remaining 1/3 of Oreos. Refridgerate for 20-30 minutes then serve.

The original recipe called for an additional chocolate layer but since I didn't have chocolate chips on hand (and I was too lazy to go back to the store) I omitted that step.

Mine didn't look as "pretty" as Making Memories', but they were still amazingly delicious and rich!

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Food nom nom.

I made this for dinner yesterday! Marinated salmon steaks in some teriyaki and seasoned w/ cracked black pepper and a wee bit of salt for a couple of hours, then pan seared them to perfection :) I added some chopped spring onions towards the end of cooking. For the broccoli, I boiled them to soften them up. I heated up a pan w/ some oil & minced garlic. Once the garlic started to sweat out a bit I threw in the broccoli and sort of stir fried it. I added some sesame seed oil and some gochujang (korean red hot pepper flakes) and seasoned w/ salt and pepper. It wasn't a "true" stir fry espcially since I didn't have any soy sauce on hand...but it was very good! Served on a bed of jasmine rice :) I tried to be cool with my "presentation" but the fish fell apart. Hubs LOVED it and said it was the best salmon he has ever had :) he says I'm a good cook when I try haha...

Oh, and fresh salmon really tastes sooooooo much better than the frozen kind. We usually just cook the frozen stuff but yesterday I decided to buy some fresh fillets. I need to buy more next time though because that wasn't enough for hubby lol.

For dessert I made chocolate cakes in a mug. So easy! Literally just take a mug and add:
1 tbsp self-rising flour (not heaped or leveled)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder (I used Hershey's Special Dark)
1 tsp instant coffee powder
1 egg
1 tbsp sunflower oil (I just used vegetable oil)
1 tbsp milk
Some chocolate chips (I used dark chocolate chips)

Mix the dry ingredients, then add egg and whisk together with fork. Add oil & milk. Drop in chocolate chips. Microwave on high for 2 1/2 minutes, cooking times vary depending on your microwave. Let it rest for about a minute and serve with either a dusting of powdered sugar, some whipped creme or vanilla ice cream.

I might have overcooked mine just a bit because it mostly tasted like a sponge cake and towards the bottom it was more gooey, but overall it was very delicious! I served mine w/ whipped creme but I suggest vanilla ice cream :)

Have any of you tried this yogurt yet? IT IS AMAZING!!!! I have tried both strawberry and raspberry but so far the strawberry one is my favorite. I bought a bunch yesterday and also bought a blueberry fruit on the bottom one to try. I also like the 2% & 0% total Fage yogurt (with the fruit mixins) but I really think Oikos has Fage beat. The only downside is that it's expensive...but Walmart should sell them for $1!!

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meet me in st. louis...

Friday was oleoresin capsicum day. Saturday was stay-up-all-night and drink in St. Louis day (or night?). Saturday itself was pretty low-key and then we all decided to leave at 5pm. It takes a little over 2 hours to get there from Fort Leonard Wood but we made and we decided to check into our hotel before heading off. We stayed at The Hyatt right by the Arch. Here's the Arch from our window :)

We went to Ranoush for dinner, which is an Arabic restaurant. I've had Arabic food before and when I had it (which was like in 8th grade lol) I didn't care for it too much. A couple of weeks ago I went to Aladdin's and I was blown away by their food. I had their Arayiss "pita-pitza" which was a toasted pita with hummus, seasoned lean ground beef, parsley and pine nuts. It was SO SO GOOD. Since then I have been craving Arabic food, so going to Ranoush was nice :)

The food was excellent. They ran out of a lot of things though, including lamb, and lamb & rice is apparently a very popular dish in the Middle East. We ordered quite a few appetizers:

- libbeh - Arabic yogurt with olive oil and spices...kind of reminded me of sour cream. I do not like sour cream, so I didn't like this one very much.

- hummus - best damn hummus I have ever had!

- falafel - it's made from ground chickpeas and some other things, then deep-fried. Vegetarian. It was delicious.

- kibbeh - seasoned lean ground beef in a little shell that's deep fried, like the falafel. Also very delicious.

Of course everything was served with warm pita bread :)

For our entrees, I ordered the beef shawarma. I didn't really understand the difference between that and the beef kafta which sounded the same, but the beef shawarma was amazingly good. It was lean seasoned beef that almost had a chargrilled taste to it with sauteed onions. It wasn't salty or greasy at all and the beef itself was flavorful but light. It was served on more pita and with a huge vegetable salad on the side. I didn't finish it and I felt bad, especially after Zaid told me that I didn't eat anything lol but I stuffed my face. It was just like a never-ending plate of food! E had the chicken shawarma, basically the same thing. It was also very tasty!

Afterwards we went to the Nara Cafe & Hookah Bar for drinks and hookah, obviously :) Last time I smoked hookah (before going to Missouri) was probably 2-3 years ago at this place by campus. I probably won't smoke it again unless E & I go back to Zaid's house when I go back to Missouri in April for E's MPBOLC graduation :)

Mingo (his nickname) and Zaid

After staying there for awhile, we barhopped. Lots of cool little bars, but my favorite was the Jive & Wail. Underneath it said "dueling pianos" so we decided to check it out.

It was 2 dudes and 2 pianos on stage who take requests and will practically play ANYTHING. When we walked in, we saw this:

This was at like 0130 and there was this old guy dancing on stage. He was so cute! They were playing "I've Got Friends in Low Places" :)

I was OBVIOUSLY drinking :)

They played some other stuff including "F*ck You" by Cee Lo Green but at 0200 they kicked us all out because by then it was 0300 and that's when the bar closed...

it actually sucked going that night because EVERYTHING closed an hour early. Zaid kept telling me how there is "24 hours of drinking in Las Vegas and that we need to go" haha. I don't really drink all that much, just once in awhile, and when I do it's not very much. I get drunk the quickest but also sober up the quickest. A few sips of wine will get my face turning red like in the picture above...it's quite sad, really!

I can understand Zaid for wanting to go out and drink and party. In Saudi Arabia, people drink, but it isn't socially acceptable...you drink in the home, but you don't go out and party like you do here. He graduates at the same time E does but then has another two weeks in Missouri for a course that he will have to take, and afterwards he goes back to Saudi Arabia.

We took a shuttle back to our hotel at like 0530...there were some other people who were very drunk riding with us, along with another man who just so happened to be black. I'm proud to be an American, but sometimes my fellow Americans are so damn ignorant. They said a few racial slurs to the black man. Then one of the guys (who had a scarf) wrapped it around his head and said to Zaid "look, I look like someone from your country" and Zaid just gave him this look...then one of the girls with that guy mentioned how Zaid kept giving him looks and asked "are you going to kill us because he said that? Just so you know he isn't with us!" :/

We finally got back to our hotel room, had a good time ;) then passed out and woke up 4 hours later. We went back to the area where Ranoush was because the other night I saw some plush Chain Chomps (Mario, anyone?) in the window, but when we were finished with dinner they were already closed. There just so happened to be a Chipotle next door, so we ate there :)

We then went to FroYo, which I've always wanted to try. They didn't have the taro flavor which I really wanted, but what we got was delicious.

Low fat red velvet yogurt on the bottom (that tasted just like red velvet cake!) and low fat cake batter yogurt on top with fresh strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and slivered almonds. We devoured it. E loved it, and so did I.

We went into a few stores then headed back to Fort Leonard Wood. For the rest of the evening we just relaxed, played COD4 nazi zombies and watched The Living Dead. Him & I are perfect for each other :)

And now I'm back in Ohio :( I almost contemplated staying another day, because Missouri randomly got hit with a lot of snow/freezing rain this morning. It wasn't bad by FLW, but about 45min out it was REALLY bad. I saw a lot of accidents, including a flipped-over semi. I decided to just keep going, because according to the weather forecast, Illinois and Indiana and Ohio would be fine. The beginning of Illinois was bad but the rest of the drive was fine.

Oh, and today must have been "cut off Melissa" day. The worst was when I was in St. Louis...the highway split off into two exits and this woman went into the wrong exit then quickly crossed over and cut right in front of me. The weather was bad, there was a lot of pick-up off the road from her car and for a moment I couldn't see anything. The exit ramp was also a turn so I was very scared that I would either hit her, hit the barrier or have the car behind me rear end me. Thankfully none of the above happened, but it still scared the shit out of me. Stupid drivers :(

Oh, and I still do NOT have my wedding band. We placed the order before the New Year and still nothing. I called Jared today and apparently the band did come in, but it didn't pass their inspection standards. So that's good that they're picky and they want to make sure you get a quality ring. The bad news, is that their vendor is over in Japan, and with everything that is going on over there, the band probably will not come in until May, probably after the wedding. They said they have another vendor that they use that will create a replica of the ring in the size that I need in about 3-4 weeks at no extra charge.

And speaking of Japan, I still can't believe everything that is happening over there. Still keeping them in my prayers ♥

Yesterday, E and the rest of his group got OC-sprayed.

the spray went from ear-to-ear, then they had to go through an obstacle course. They had to knee and punch some targets (30 seconds each), OC spray a target (but that was just water) and then arrest someone. Afterwards they went to the decon station.

I felt so bad for all of these soldiers because I can only imagine how much it must suck to get sprayed in the face like that. Getting gassed or tased is nothing compared to getting OC-sprayed. Gas is like 10 minutes of suck, tased is a few moments of suck but OC-spray is like over an hour of suck. I captured pictures of E going through the obstacle course and then followed him to the decon station where I helped him and the other soldiers. There wasn't much I could do, other than pouring water on them, offering them paper towels and getting them baby shampoo and telling them to face the wind to help with the burn. One of the soldiers said to me, "you know, you're a very nice person. thank you." That made me smile :) I told E to slather sour cream on his face after flushing with water because it will help neutralize the burn. A lot of the other guys laughed, but once they slathered some sour cream on their face they realized how much it helps :)

Now E can no longer make fun of me for slathering sour cream all over my fingers and hands one day. We made guacamole and added some finely-chopped jalapeno to the mix. I didn't wear gloves and failed to properly wash off those capsacein oils. I just used some soap and water. That didn't work. Later that night I took a shower and rubbed my eyes and they were burning and then my fingers and hands felt like they were on fire. It was miserable. There was nothing that really could be done because the pores in my skin were already open and the capsaceins have already penetrated into the skin, but sour cream and dairy provided temporary relief. Once some ibuprofen kicked in I felt a lot better. Now I'm NOT comparing the burning from the jalapeno to the burn in your face/eyes from the OC spray, but it really helps to neutralize that burn! Now every time I chop up jalapenos I rinse with sour cream/yogurt/milk and then soap & water. I haven't had a problem since :)

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Lol aww...so proud of him! His face is fine now :)

Last night we went to The Hub which is a German restaurant. I don't mind German food, but I've never been "blown away" by something by so much where I *HAVE* to have it. I got the zigeur schnitzel, which intrigued me because of the "jalapeno & mushroom sauce." when I got it, it just looked like a bunch of brown gravy...wasn't spicy at all. There was only like 1 little slice of jalapeno and that wasn't even hot. At least the pork was tender.

E got the kaiser schnitzel with spaetzle. The kaiser schnitzel had some sort of weird creamy sauce on it that tasted like it was mustard-based (and I hate mustard) but it had a really good flavor. E loved it. Everything was good, but I would rather go to Seoul Garden or El Jimador the next time I come here. Plus the service at The Hub was VERY slow. We waited over an hour just to get our food.

Tonight we're going to Saint Louis so that should be interesting :) We're going to an Arabic restaurant for dinner which I'm excited for! :)

Premier Jewelry!

Although it was at our apartment, my roommate hosted a Premier Jewelry party. It was a lot of fun! I didn't really buy a whole lot: -

*toggle bracelet that has black and silver beads and small metal chains...sounds weird but it's reeeeeally cute and pretty! that was $41.

* a bangle watch at 1/2 price ($34.50). I'm not a watch person unless I'm at work but this one is really nice and I liked the way it looked on my wrist!

* a free necklace that otherwise would have been $39! It kind of has a purple tint to it but also other colors and it seriously looks good with any color you wear. I don't know how to really describe it so when my order comes in in about a week I'll post pictures!

Because people bought stuff and my roommate was the host, she got $500-worth of FREE jewelry. And this stuff is NICE jewelry, too. This made me want to host a party on my own so I'm going to do that on April 2nd :) Tina had a decent turn out, there were 10 of us!

I also normally don't have people over. I was thinking of doing some finger foods. At this party we had chips & dips (queso, spinach & artichoke and a taco dip) along with salsa. We made swedish meatballs in the crockpot (but just the meatballs, no noodles) with Jack Daniel's BBQ sauce and they were deeeelish. For "dessert" we had cheesecake brownies and for beverages we had lottttts of wine and of course bottle water. I kind of want to stay away from that stuff and do something a little different. I was thinking chips 'n homemade guacamole dip and maybe a homemade black bean/corn/tomato salsa but I don't know what else! So I ask you, what are your favorite finger foods for a small little get-together party? I realize this isn't until April but I'm obsessive so this will constantly be on my mind until then (thankfully I'm not compulsive! lol)

I also can't wait for my Army charm bracelet to come in the mail from Melissa's Marvels :) I ordered it with the "Army Wife," yellow ribbon, a dog tag with a heart cut out, star, pink flip flop & combat boot charms and request to do green and pink beaded accents. I'll post pictures of that too when I receive it :)