Thursday, May 19, 2011

Easy Cheesy Meatless Lasagna

I am always looking for ways to keep my grocery bill down. One of the best ways I found is by doing at least one meatless meal a week. This is a new one I tried this week. The kids LOVED it. My oldest even had seconds!

3 Lasagna noodles
jar of spaghetti sauce
1 tub of ricotta cheese
1 cup of mozzerella cheese
1/2 cup of parmesean cheese

Preheat the oven to 375.

Boil the lasagna noodles until soft. Meanwhile, mix together the ricotta cheese and 1/4 cup parm cheese.

Put 1/4 cup of spaghetti sauce on the bottom of an 8x8 pan. Cut each lasagna noodle in half and lay two of the halfs side by side on top of the spaghetti sauce. Next, take 1/2 of the cheese mixture and spread it on top of the noodles. Add 1/3 of the spaghetti sauce.

Repeat the first layer with two more noodle halves, the rest of the cheese mixture and more spaghetti sauce. 

For the third layer use the two remaining noodle halves, the rest of the spaghetti sauce and top with moz cheese until it is well covered (about a cup). Sprinkle with 1/4 cup of parm cheese. Cover with foil and bake for about 20 minutes.  Let cool for 5 minutes before cutting and serving.

Yumtastic. :)

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Weddin' Signs

So, I saw an idea of using barn wood to make signs for a wedding a long time ago, but my venue didn't really allow you to stick stuff in the ground, so I had let it go.... until now.

Since we have moved locations, I know that I can use them so I thought I would try a low cost approach.

I still had some cardboard left from my "R" project and cut up the rest of the box to make the signs. I painted them white, added letters and arrows that I cut out with the cricut on some white posterboard and then attached some wood dowels with hot glue. I doubled them up on the big sign since that one is a little bigger and will be by the highway. :)

DIY Twine Wreath

So shortly after I finished my pictures last weekend I got a new obsession. Wreaths! Who doesn't need a fun wreath on the their front door? Well.. this girl apparently, but we will get to that later.

Anyway, while on my weekly trip to Dollar Tree I picked up a woven craft wreath and got really excited for my new project. I also picked up some twine from Hobby Lobby ($2.99) and some daisies from Dollar General. I already had a wooden R at home that has just been waiting to be used. So I painted it black in anticipation for this. :)

I started Sunday by wrapping the twine around the wreath. I tied it in a knot at the top and started my journey around it. I used hot glue every five or so inches to keep it secure. This took me (no joke) about three hours combined. NOT an fun task. It was easy, just very time consuming and my hands hurt like heck, I started complaining on facebook after the first 1.5 hours.

Once I finally got everything wrapped up I pulled some of the daisies off of the bush that I picked up at Dollar General and glued two and my R once I was happy with their position.

To hang it I used black ribbon to make a bow and attached a daisy to the middle of the bow. I used some blue ribbon I had sitting around to loop the top and glued it place, using the daisy to hide the ugly-ness of the hot glue connection. :)

Once I was done I was sooooooo excited to hang it on my door.... but I realized that the nail in the door is about eye level to me and the wreath would hang to about my belly. :(

So, I bought a wreath hanger from Wal-mart this evening and it will not stay in place, when I shut the door the wreath sticks out about 6 inches, so it is now proudly hung in my doorway. SIGH.

Oh well, at least we can enjoy it. Total cost? $7
wreath: $1
twine: $2.99
flowers: $3
total: $6.99