Our Italian Fave

There is a new family dinner favorite in the Geddes House during these cold winter days...ravioli casserole or aka cheater lasagna! It is super easy to make and only requires a few ingredients if you go the express route.

You'll Need

1 bag frozen ravioli 

1 lbs. ground beef (optional)

Marinara sauce or make your own

4 c. mozzarella cheese

Start off by preheating the oven to 400

Take your sauce and cook the raw meet directly into it over low heat until meat is mostly cooked. This is the secrete to a nice thick/non watery meat sauce. Add a few dashes of sugar to taste if needed. 

In a 13x9 pan, make a layer of sauce on the bottom. Take ravioli out of freezer and rinse off (this helps the cooking process) Then make a checker pattern with pasta. Don't worry if some are frozen together, as they will cook just the same.

Cover with a nice layer of cheese

Repeat the first step on the layer of cheese

Coat pasta with the rest of sauce and healthy layer of cheese

Cover with foil and bake for 15-20 minutes. You can remove the foil towards the end if you want to brown the cheese or not. You'll know if the pasta is done by using a fork and poking through to see how easily it goes in.

Be prepared to not have much leftover after dinner ;)

When the Cleaning Get's Tough

This is what it has come to lately in our house. The pots and pans kept piling up and no volunteers came forward to wash them. Since my kitchen has very little counter space...a plastic tote and my bathtub will have to suffice. Not proud that it has come to this, but food isn't going to cook itself!

Do you have a weekly cleaning regime where each day of the week has a specific set of chores? I know I need to get my butt in action on one of those, but with my mother living in the family room...it is as if my organizational side of the brain ceases to function correctly. Instead only sputtering out bits and pieces of focus.

....I guess one of these days.

Pintrest Test

During naptime, I decided to try this pin to complement some tuna noodle casserole. I used my bread machine to handle the dough, which makes it MUCH easier than by hand. 

How it looked after a dough cycle

Here is my work area: melted butter with minced garlic, parm cheese and dough.

This is how much my dough yielded in my glass pan before baking.

Voila! The finished product. I snuck a taste to be sure it tasted as good as it smelled.

Yep...safe for human consumption :)

The bread besides the butter/garlic/cheese get up is super moist and soft. I would be curious to try it out as just a plain white bread. In the recipe, it calls for 3-4 cups flour, which seemed odd. I did four cups. Also, they say 4 tablespoons of butter... but took more like 8, so 1 stick of butter. 

Curiosity

As most mothers may know, trying to cook with children underfoot can be a daunting challenge. One may want to be in your arms all.the.time. While the other insist on putting hands on to the counters and dipping fingers in the butter dish in the process. I know I've had to stop many times to run interference so the oven door can open.

While prepping the other day, Eliza was as always full of curiosity as to what mommy was doing. A treat of fresh green beans were on the menu that night, requiring extra attention before being steamed. Having a toddler between you and the counter while little fingers kept growing closer to my chef knife made me a bit nervous. 

I would like dinner tonight....hold the blood and an ER visit please.

So in order to honor and entertain her curiosity, I decided, "what the heck, just plop her right on the counter." She just thought this was such a treat! Eliza is getting to that age where I can trust her in new ways, not worrying about her falling off the counter. She is learning that knives and other kitchen tools can be sharp as she points while I chop away and says "boo boo mommy?"

I do look forward to venturing into many more activities like baking together where she can participate in more ways than just observing. Yes, I know this will mean more mess, time, patience etc but....

YOLO