Old and New

Happy Thursday everyone! This is my very first post from my brand new MacBook and using ecto. Yesterday after work, I immediately went to FedEx to pick up my new baby, and then when I arrived home I saw another package waiting for me on the front steps!

So many prizes! The smaller box is my new Nike armband for my iPod nano and the iPod touch I received with my computer. And then of course, the big box was this!

Hooray! I have wanted a Mac for years and years, when I was in college all the computer labs in my majors building only had Macs and I became addicted. Now I finally have one of my own. I immediately set to work transferring my old iTunes library to my new computer and playing around. Just so you have an idea of what I was working with before, I give you old vs. new.

Haha everything is significantly smaller. After I had a sufficient fill of playing with my new toys, I took a break to heat up some dinner. Leftover Zucchini and Yellow Squash Lasagna with a piece of garlic mozzarella bread on the side.

Just as delicious as it was the first time. After dinner I sat on the couch some more with my new computer and just hanging out watching some TV. I caught a re-run of Tuesday’s Teen Mom, so I was finally able to watch the last half an hour. The boyfriend hates the show, but it is definitely one of my guilty pleasures.

This weekend coming up is one of the only weekends of the entire summer that I am home. The bf is hosting his brothers bachelor party up in NYC, so I plan on vegging out at the pool, doing some shopping at KOP, and hanging out with my sister. After this it’s go, go, go again. Whoever said summer was time to relax was clearly delusional.

Alright, well I hope everyone has a fantastic day! Almost time for another weekend!

Yoga Class and a Recipe

First of all, I would like to say congrats to my friend Michelle who got engaged on the beach in North Carolina this morning!  See Michelle, we told you he was going to do it!

Last night I decided to venture out of my comfort zone and try a class at my gym.  I’ve never taken a real yoga class before, just done DVDs at home, so I thought I would see what a real class taught by an instructor is like.  Verdict?  Meh.  I could do without the chanting for 10 minutes at the beginning and the end, and the instructor was so quiet I couldn’t hear a single word she said.  I mean I get that yoga is supposed to be soothing and relaxing, but it would help if I could hear you when you tell us to change positions.  However, I am sore today which I like, so maybe I’ll try it again.

After the hour yoga class, I hopped on the elliptical for 30 minutes to work up a good sweat.  After the gym, I raced home to start cooking dinner for me and my sister.  I had two zucchini’s and two yellow squash that needed to be used, so Meghann’s Zucchini and Yellow Squash Lasagna seemed like a perfect choice.  I roughly followed her recipe, but included a few of my traditional lasagna ingredients also.

• 2 zucchini
• 2 yellow squash
• 1 clove garlic (diced)
• 1/2 of a small to medium onion (chopped)
• 1/2 lb of ground turkey
• 1 jar of pasta sauce
• 1 egg
• 7 oz Low Fat Ricotta Cheese
• Low Fat Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
• Fennel Seed, Oregano, Thyme, Salt, Pepper, Italian Seasoning

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, slice the zucchini and squash length wise, season with salt and pepper, place on a baking sheet, and cook for 10 minutes.

While the vegetables are cooking, chop up your garlic and onion then add to a hot pan (mine was sprayed with cooking spray) and sauté.

Once the onions are cooked, they’ll start to look translucent, add your ground turkey and cook until it is no longer pink.

Once the turkey is cooked, add your pasta sauce.  I just happened to have a jar in the fridge, but it is also easy to make your own using tomato paste and tomato sauce.  Once the sauce is added, season with all the spices.  I really enjoy using fennel seed in sauces because it gives whatever meat you use really an Italian sausage taste.

I also ended up throwing garlic and onion powder into the mix as well.  Let the sauce simmer for a few minutes to really combine the flavors.  While it is sitting, you can prepare the cheese mixture.  Place your egg and Ricotta cheese into a bowl, and combine thoroughly with a spoon.

Once everything is ready, you can begin to prepare you lasagna layers.  I sprayed my dish with cooking spray before adding the zucchini and squash.  My layers went veggies, sauce mixture, ricotta, mozzarella, repeat.

After I did the first layer, I realized that it would work better to place the veggies the other way, so I did that for the top.  Live and learn.

See, works much better this way.

Cook covered for 25 minutes, and then uncover and cook for 5-10 more depending on how the cheese on top looks.  I let mine sit for another 5 minutes once out of the oven to allow the layers to set.  Then serve!

After all that work, I was really hoping this would be insanely delicious.  It definitely was!  My sister and I both helped ourselves to seconds and there are plenty of leftovers for dinner tonight.  I didn’t even miss the noodles, I think the combination of zucchini and squash left it more flavorful than regular lasagna.  Definitely a win, and a recipe I will be repeating.

Then for desert I had this cute little cup of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream while watching a Teen Mom marathon on MTV.  They were gearing up for the start of the new season, which I started to watch but fell asleep half way through.  I’ll have to catch the last half of the episode soon.

Baskin Robbins is within eye sight of my house, very dangerous.  All in all Tuesday wasn’t so bad, and you know what it’s Wednesday already!  This post is absurdly long, so I’m going to stop babbling now, but have a great day!

April Fools!

I was going to try and think of a funny joke to play, but I could really only think of one and I didn’t want the bf to have a heart attack when this post was emailed to him.  So instead I’ll just ask, anyone playing any good April fools jokes this year? Last year my friend and co-worker, Ashley, put pieces of tape on the bottom of everyone’s mouse so that they wouldn’t work.  She cracked herself up for awhile about that, our boss didn’t find it very funny.

I had a dentist appointment after work last night, I really, really hate the dentist.  I still have a retainer cemented to the back of my bottom teeth from the end of my braces days, and they never leave it alone.  I swear the lady always spends a good 15 minutes picking at it with that stupid metal thing.  Metal, on metal, on teeth is not a good noise, or feeling.  Also, I need two more fillings.  In the past year, I have already gotten six.  Yes, six fillings in one year.  I went 22 years of life without a single cavity, and then my teeth decided to crap out on me.  The funny thing?  When the dentist came in to look at them, his first words were, “Wow you have really nice teeth”.  Ok, then why do every single one of them have a filling?  The good news is the newest two fillings aren’t for cavities, apparently I managed to chip both of the left side molars.  No idea how that happened, but whatev.  I’ll just wave goodbye to $150.

Alright enough biotching and moaning from me, I made myself go to the gym after the dentist and am glad I did.  I like swimming, but it felt good to get on the elliptical last night and break a sweat.  I did 35 min on the elliptical, sprinting to the refrains in songs.  Then I did some stretching and plank work for the old abdominals.  PT tonight, so probably no workout, which is kind of the one thing about this that is bumming me out.  Two days a week for the next month I’ll be in PT which means I’m losing two workout days.  I’ve already been struggling to not gain weight since I stopped running, and I have gained a few lbs, and now this is going to reduce my workout time even more.  Ugh.  I know once I can start running again everything will even itself out, but in the meantime I’m afraid my clothes from last summer won’t fit 😦 .  Wow, even when I say I’m going to stop complaining I don’t, ok I swear moving on.

My sister is home for her Easter break, so last night we had a nice little family dinner.  I talked about this recipe before on the blog, but I didn’t put it together so I didn’t have any real pictures or ingredients to give you, so I present again Weeknight Lasagna.

One package of Lobster Ravioli

One package of Spinach and Ricotta Ravioli

I put a thin layer of Vodka sauce on the bottom of a casserole dish and laid out the Spinach ravioli.

Followed by a layer of defrosted frozen spinach and mozzarella cheese.

Then topped with the package of Lobster ravioli.

And another layer of sauce, mozzarella cheese, and Parmesan cheese.

Cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes.  Uncover and bake for another 10 minutes.  Enjoy with a bottle of Chianti, like this one.

Isn’t that a pretty bottle?  I really like it.  After cooking let the “lasagna” sit and cool for five minutes before serving.  My sister and I crowded around the stove and just kind of stared at it for the whole five minutes.

After what felt like forever, we dished it up and served it along side some chicken that had baked in marinara sauce.

Looks messy, but it was still fantastic.  Again, as with everything I make soooo much is leftover.  I need to learn how to cook in smaller portions.  Alright well that is all from me this morning.  I’m super jealous of everyone that has off tomorrow, I will be dragging my butt to work in the gorgeous 80 degree weather that is in the forecast.  Since today is “Friday” for some people, any good weekend plans? I’m off to NYC tomorrow to have dinner with the bf’s family on Saturday night, and then we’re both headed back down here for Easter dinner with my family on Sunday.  Busy, busy weekend.  Have a great day!