Pasta Substitutions

I have been trying to figure out food for a while. Having the same things week after week gets old, even if it tastes good. I love my lasagna (and so does everybody else) but I get tired of so much pasta, lol. A couple weeks ago Ken brought home some yellow squash and zucchini so I served it as the veggie part of a pasta meal- yes, pasta again. I love summer because it means we get to grill all our chicken, and that's just yummy!

Pasta with grilled chicken and squash

I got a crazy idea after doing the first meal... I thought about how "healthy" people (those who don't eat pasta 24/7 like us poor married couples) substitute veggies for pasta in dishes. Then I connected just how cheap squash is in the summertime... so I decided squash would sub for pasta at a meal. I might have been crazy trying it the first time we've had a house guest since Weslee arrived, but I pulled it off somehow. I cooked up diced tomatoes with onion, garlic and seasonings for the sauce and sauteed strips of yellow squash for the "pasta". The chicken is lemon dill, and is cooked in tin foil on the grill. Both Ken and his sister (and me) were pleasantly surprised that the meal actually tasted good... instead of being "just edible" like Ken had been wary of, apparently. So squash will now be a staple in our meals!

Grilled chicken with sauteed squash and homemade tomato sauce

Tomato Alfredo Lasagna with Spinach

I bought ingredients for lasagna the last time I went to the store because I thought it might be a fun dish to make. First I was going to use my mom's recipe, and I had also looked at a Food Network recipe. In the end, I came up with my own recipe after figuring out the basics of a lasagna. Some of this could be done more simply by buying things ready-made, but it only takes about an hour to do it all from scratch.

1 Package Lasagna Noodles
2 C. White sauce recipe (with garlic and onion powder added) --could also you store-bought
1lb Ground Beef (turkey won't give the same taste)
1 Jar Three Cheese Pasta Sauce
1/2 C. Onion, minced
2 Cloves Garlic, minced
1/2 tsp Parsley
1/2 tsp Basil
1/4 tsp Oregano
1/2 Bundle Spinach, washed and dried
1 2lb container Ricotta
6 oz Parmesan
8 oz Mozzarella
1 Egg


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F when noodles are cooking
It's easiest to prepare the sauce ahead of time or first in the recipe. Cook white sauce (I'll put the one I use at the bottom of the page if you don't have one). Brown ground beef in skillet with salt, pepper, onion powder and garlic powder. Make sure the beef is in very small bits. Add beef and jar of pasta sauce to white sauce, set aside. Boil water, add lasagna noodles, cook, drain, and coat with olive oil. While noodles are cooking, add olive oil to a pan on medium heat. Saute onion, garlic and seasonings until translucent. Add spinach and salt and pepper to taste and cook down; finely chop, set aside. In a bowl, mix ricotta, parmesan, egg, and spinach.
In a deep 9x13 casserole dish spoon a little sauce into bottom. Layer noodles, slightly overlapping. In spoonfuls place 1/3 of ricotta mixture on top, spread evenly. Pour 1/3 sauce over ricotta, spread evenly. Repeat 2x, then top with mozzarella cheese. Bake 1 hour. Remove and let cool approx. 30 minutes before cutting and serving so everything sets. Enjoy!

White Sauce
4 Tbsp Butter
4 Tbsp Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper
1/4 tsp Garlic Powder
1/4 tsp Onion Powder
2 C. Milk

Melt butter in pan, add flour and seasonings. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is smooth and bubbly. Add milk and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil 1 minute. Remove from heat.

Laughing at the Lion

Weslee chatting with the camera

All Smiles

We had a tire blowout today and spent a couple hours at Les Schwab Tires getting it repaired. Weslee played the whole time we were there, and was in a great mood. He kept smiling and talking and flirting, and even developed a fascination for the camera! Gone are the days when we were lucky to catch his little grins.

Bouncing Baby Boy

My sister Meredith let us borrow her baby jumper/swing and Weslee just loves it! He loves to sit up all the time and the jumper lets us have a break while entertaining him. We line up all his toys on the tray and watch him hop around while playing. I discovered the other day that he will start jumping when he hears us sing or listens to songs on the radio. The bottom picture is him surrounded by his toys after getting all tired out from the jumper.

Weslee's Baby Dedication/Mother's Day

Weslee's annointing with Pastor Case

Our first time hosting a family dinner

Family Picture

Mother's Day was rather exciting for us this year, since our church does all the baby dedications on the same day. All of Ken's family came to town for the dedication, and we hosted a lunch after church for everybody. I'd never had to make food for so many people, and somehow we managed to fit nearly 20 people in our little house! All went pretty well though, but I probably wouldn't choose to have such a large crowd in such a small space again.

I don't have any pictures from the church service dedication for Weslee, but the picture above is from the private anointing we had before the service with our pastor. It was something that Ken and I wanted to do before God, to promise our child to Him.

He did very well with the day, even though it ended in an ER visit for him. His umbilical hernia had come back a bit and we had to get it checked out to make sure it wasn't the kind we need to be concerned about. Luckily, he is doing fine, and we're just monitoring his little belly button to make sure nothing changes.