Easy Dinner and Playing the Waiting Game

Today marks the start of what is hopefully my last week of this pregnancy. ;) 

A girl can hope right? 

Today has been an exhausting day not gonna lie. 

I was up most of the night for no particular reason (besides the obvious contractions and having to go pee every few hours). Add taking a toddler grocery shopping and visiting teaching and this momma is pooped. 

Thank goodness for an easy dinner prep! Done in about 15 min and cooked in 30! score. 

Favorite healthy and simple dinner idea!

I feed a family of myself my hubby and a toddler, and I like quick easy dinner ideas that don't take tons of prep. This is one of those meals. 

smile emoticon

Grilled Honey Lime Chicken Skewers serves 3-4

*add in grilled zucchini and pineapple to really make these kabobs awesome‪#‎21dayfixapproved‬ 

3 tablespoons soy sauce - You can use gluten - free soy sauce to make this recipe gluten - free

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

juice of one lime

2 garlic cloves, minced

¼ teaspoon of salt

¼ teaspoon of pepper

½ teaspoon red pepper flakes, to taste

2 tablespoon cilantro

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts - cut into bite size pieces

Instructions

In a bowl - combine soy sauce, salt, pepper, honey vegetable oil, garlic, lime, red pepper flakes, and 1 tablespoon of cilantro

Place chicken in the marinade - cover and place in the fridge for 1 hour

Place chicken on skewers and heat on a grill or fry pan - cook each side for a couple minutes --- I like to cook one piece of chicken separately so I can check when it should be done

Sprinkle the rest of the cilantro on top

Enjoy!!

Source: http://www.budgetsavvydiva.com/2013/04/honey-lime-chicken-skewe/ 

Crock pot Lasagne HOW TO

alrighty.

Who else has issues with spending too much time on dinner at actual dinner time? When my hubby is home from work, the last thing I want to be doing is spending tons of time prepping and making our dinner. I'd much rather play with him and Joshua and just have some good quality family time while dinner cooks.

Sometimes, this isn't possible.

Today, I made it possible. :)

Allow me to introduce you to the wonders of the crockpot. You can make pretty much EVERYTHING in here, as long as you have it prepped and ready to go in time to cook slowly throughout the day.

I love making meals. I also love making FREEZER meals. This is a recipe that has enough ingredients for BOTH! Hurray!

And! Just as a bonus, I upped the veggies and use more protein, as well as whole wheat pasta so it's more on the healthy side, when properly portioned and served!

Below is the recipe: I'm sharing it first cuz it drives me nuts on blogs when I see the recipe only AFTER scrolling through every little picture there is....

Crockpot Lasagna (makes 2 6-8 serving meals--freeze one for later!)

7-8 whole wheat lasagna noodles, uncooked!

For Cheese filling:
2 24 oz packages cottage cheese
2 cups motzerella cheese
2 cups parmesan cheese
2 cloves of minced garlic
salt and pepper to taste
2 eggs
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp italian seasoning
2-3 cups fresh or frozen spinach

For Sauce
2 pounds ground beef, cooked

in blender combine...
2 14.5 oz cans organic tomato sauce
2 14.5 oz cans organic diced tomatoes
3-4 cloves minced garlic
2-3 tablespoons honey or brown sugar
1.5 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp chopped dried onions
1 tsp onion powder
2 tsp italian seasoning
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

*combine sauce and meat and cheese for simpler assembly!

Sauce? check. Meat? Check. Now mix!

Sauce in the blender, ready to go with spices!

Line your crockpot with a liner (these are AMAZING if you haven't tried them--find them in your local grocery store near the tin foil and plastic wrap stuff). I spray my liner with cooking spray just for extra non-stickness.

Here's my spinach and cheese mixture. high in protein and veggies. :) 

Begin layering your sauce and cheese mixture and then use 2 noodles to create a divider.

once you being layering, it goes fast. I take 7-8 noodles from a box of lasagne noodles and use 2 per layer. 

I use 7-8 noodles total (I'm only serving a family a 3 and this still makes TONS with just those 8 noodles.

When you're all finished, top it with some extra sauce and cheese, and put on the lid. Cook for 2 hours on high, then the rest of the 8 hours total time on low. I started mine around 8AM and we left the house and ate at 5:30/6pm. 

This is after being on high for 2 hours and then on low until we were ready to eat. It was perfect. almost none of the noodles were too cooked or overly crunchy. 

Freezer meal in bags! Put sauce and cheese together if you want and then it's ready to be thawed and layered in a crock pot! 

Here's the finished deliciousness. 

Hope you enjoy this! Happy cooking!