Happy New Year 2020!

Happy New Year! It's that time of year when resolutions are being made. I have heard all kinds of things from friends already...lose weight, less social media, travel more, spend less time worrying, less drinking, more exercise...the list goes on and on. I do love fresh starts and new beginnings. While I can be a creature of habit, I love change. I start to get stir-crazy if things stay the same for too long. Having moved nine times since I graduated from college could have something to do with it. We have now been in our house for almost 7 years, and I am itching for a change. Anyone who knows my house knows that the kitchen is the change that absolutely needs to be made this year!

But I digress. I know myself well enough to know that if I make a crazy resolution like lose the 12 pounds to get me back to pre-last baby weight by Spring Break or never drink wine again, I am setting myself up for failure. So, I've been thinking about a solid, realistic goal for the year, and this is what I came up with: Make Healthy Choices. This covers pretty much all areas of my life...make healthy eating choices is obvious...make healthy choices concerning exercise and choose to "move my body" (thanks LMC!) when I feel like staying in my pjs and drinking coffee...make healthy choices for my family...this not only means healthy meals and strict bedtimes, but it means making choices for the sake of keeping my relationships healthy...date nights, family game nights, mini-vacations, etc...make healthy choices for my mental health...exercise and healthy eating will help with this, but also giving myself permission to do things for just myself and saying no to things that are not a "hell yes!" (thanks HWM!).

I think I did OK with making healthy choices last year. I exercise a good bit, but I also love to eat whatever is in sight. As my metabolism tries to sabotage me every four years, this is just not working any more. I never understood why my friends over 40 would order a salad at lunch while I was chowing down on a Reuben with extra fries when we had just done the same workout. Um, now I get it. This is the WORST!

Anyone who has followed this blog for a while knows that I LOVE pasta and any sort of taco-ish food. While I will never give up on a good plate of nachos, I hope you'll find that I post some healthy alternatives over the next year. We could all use a little help, right?

I posted an image yesterday on Instagram of Every Last Bite's Butternut Squash Pasta with Alfredo Sauce. My entire house smelled delicious, and it was so yummy and filling. Tonight I'm making Nana's Meatballs and serving it over zoodles for myself and regular noodles for my family. Here's the recipe:





Homemade Meatballs:

1 1/2 lbs ground beef
1 3/4 cup Italian breadcrumbs
2 eggs
3 oz Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup milk
2 T parsley flakes
salt & pepper to taste (I used about 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper)
3/4 tsp garlic powder.
Mix all ingredients together with hands in large bowl until thoroughly combined. Form into balls (makes about 12). Brown meatballs in batches and then simmer in sauce.

I would love to hear what your New Year's Resolutions are and to know what some of your favorite recipes are or some recipes that you'd like to make healthier...maybe we can help each other! Happy New Year to everyone...I hope 2020 is your best year yet!

xoxo,
Amy

Happy Cooking!

George's Birthday Dinner

Nana's Lasagna with Homemade Meatballs, Strawberry Salad, and Red Velvet Cake:

My husband is 1/4 Italian, and I am lucky enough to have inherited his grandmother's recipe for her famous lasagna. The recipe was not originally written down. One of my husband's aunts (his dad's, brother's wife) learned how to make it at his grandmother's side and wrote down the method. There is still no set "recipe," and I am sure that mine will never taste as delicious as Nana's did, but it is something that I try to make for my husband on special occasions. This past weekend, we celebrated his 35th birthday, so we had his grandmother's lasagna, meatballs, a salad, and a red velvet cake in keeping with tradition.

As I don't want to be the "outlaw" to spill family secrets, I will share this recipe from Food and Wine with you that looks similar to hers...some of the spices are slightly different and she used pork ribs as her meat base with meatballs served on the side...it's the closest I could find:

Grandma's Lasagna



I had leftover sauce so I made these meatballs and cooked them in the crockpot on low for 8 hours in the sauce. I served them on the side just like his grandmother used to do:

Homemade Meatballs:
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
1 3/4 cup Italian breadcrumbs
2 eggs
3 oz Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup milk
2 T parsley flakes
salt & pepper to taste (I used about 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper)
3/4 tsp garlic powder.

Mix all ingredients together with hands in large bowl until thoroughly combined. Form into balls (makes about 12). Brown meatballs in batches and then simmer in sauce.

Red Velvet Cake:
The red velvet cake that I decided to make this year was out of a box (gasp!). I really didn't have the energy this past week to get it together to make a red velvet cake from scratch along with the lasagna and the meatballs. And you know what?!?! My husband declared that it was the most moist and delicious red velvet cake I'd ever made him. At first this made me so sad as I have tried many variations over our nine years of marriage, and then I decided that attitude was ridiculous because this means that I will be using boxed cake from now until forevermore.

I did make the cream cheese frosting from scratch...this ended up being my dessert for the evening. Here's the recipe I used from Food Network:

Cream Cheese Frosting


Happy Cooking!