Freezer Fun Food: Lasagna Spirals

When I saw lasagna spirals on Lynn’s blog, I knew I had to give it a try. I added it to my first menu and here it is. Rolling up little lasagnas sounded work intensive but wasn’t that bad. Also, they’re so fancy looking that I have something for a fancy menu.

This did take longer than I thought to make though. I didn’t get to try one until 9 p.m. Substitutions that I used were dried oregano and dried basil for the fresh basil. I couldn’t see buying all that basil for just a tablespoon. (Window sill herb garden, you say. I know, I say.)

Most of this was already on hand except the ricotta (low-fat) and fresh spinach. I wonder how it’d be with frozen spinach instead….

Hi, I’m a big tray of awesomeness. You know you want me.

Of course there was enough for quite a few servings so I took Lynn’s advice and grabbed all the one-cup containers I had. I found that I didn’t have as many as I thought so I started grabbing other containers. Let’s see which do best!

Ready for the freezer. Here’s hoping!

Steel-cut Saturday

Today, since I had all morning and wanted to procrastinate my studying, I tried some steel-cut oats. Boy, did that take forever to cook! And the bottom of the pan was scrubtastic. Worth it? Not sure. I have half of the pan leftover in the fridge.

Breakfast – 10ish

• Steel-cut oatmeal, 1 cup: 4
  Interesting. WW.com says oatmeal is 2 points per cup. On container, it looks like 4 a cup.
• Honey, 3-string drizzle: .5
  I miss my local honey desperately!
• ICBINB, light, dollop: .5
  From the tub.
• Milk, skim, 1.5 cup: 2.5

Lunch
Diet Mountain Dew, 1 can: 0
Tortilla, low-fat: 2
Ground turkey with taco seasoning, 1/2 cup: 4?
Cheese stick, low-fat: 2
Picante sauce, liberal pour: 0
Corn, 1/2 cup?: 1
Lima beans, 1/2 cup?: 1
Lima beans have a little taco meat in them because I microwaved the two together in a non-plastic bowl

Dinner
Leftover lasagna from the freezer, little square: 12?
Salad (spinach, 1/2 apple, sprinkle of dried cranberries, sprinkle of walnuts, carrot): 0+.5+1+3+0
Balsamic, light dressing, 2 Tbl: 1
Leftover cauliflower: 1
Corn, lima beans: 1

Snack
Hot cocoa: 8

I’m filling most of this the day after because of how hard it was to do anything but study yesterday. I think I need to keep the little paper journal with me so I can write stuff done and not rely on memory. Photos help but I don’t photograph everything.

Yesterday’s quiz in the class went horribly. I’m getting very frustrated with the amount of times this professor puts material on the quiz that isn’t covered in the class. I turned to my comfort: ice cream.

Not a snack…
Ice cream with chocolate syrup: 20?

Oh and I didn’t write down what I turned to the other night after the bad fight. That time it was Krispy Kreme chocolate glazed donuts. I just looked up how much that “retreat into comfort zone” cost and that was 30 points. Needless to say, I’m way over my WPA. Will my few (ok, a lot at the few times) transgressions mean a gain tomorrow?

Lasagna, Salad, Bread, Herb Dipping NomNom

For mother’s day, I made lasagna. I was given the choice to cook whatever so I started making the spaghetti sauce and then asked which is preferred. Neither. So, I took some sauce and froze it and made lasagna with the rest! Best of both worlds.

Also, I cut up some of the lasagna and froze it. I can’t wait to pull it out at a later date! I have no idea how to cook it but I’ll figure it out. 🙂 Sorry so late in posting my dinner but I got distracted.

Summer school is starting!

Dinner: May 11, 2008

• Jo Mama’s World Famous Lasagna
  I don’t use many noodles… maybe 6. I’ve tried this a few ways and found that the wine wasn’t a deal breaker for me. It seemed such a waste to use just a little bit of a bottle and the bottle sit around unfinished forever. I also use more garlic… probably around double what’s called for. When I want it spicy, I use two pounds of Johnsonville Hot Italian Sausage. When I want a little kick, I just use one and the rest can be homemade turkey sausage or mild. I’ve made this with just one pound of homemade turkey sausage and it was good. I went for the full hot kick for mother’s day.
• Warmed loaf of bread
  I looked all over for a frozen loaf of bread that I would thaw and cook but couldn’t find one. I grabbed a fresh baked loaf from the deli. Near the end of the lasagna baking, I put the foil-wrapped loaf in the oven to warm up. Better than nothing!
• Carrabba’s Bread Dipping Spice
  I love this stuff! I use barely any olive oil so it’s basically me dipping the bread into an herb mixture. 😉 Mom preferred butter. Fine with me! More herbs for me. I have found that fresh parsley is much better in this than dried. The rest of the herbs I use are dried. I just stir it some finely diced parsley in with the rest of the herbs. I don’t pulse it or anything. I also use more garlic than called for… of course. I’ve noticed how much the olive oil matters. I couldn’t find the kind I used before so went for a light one. Not the same. I think the one before was in a dark bottle and labeled for dipping.
• Salad
  Bag o’ salad greens, cucumbers (had to peel cause she had the non-English one), roma tomato, etc. Balsamic dressing.