Mighty Tasty Mini Lasagnas

Happy Monday! Did you have a good weekend? I did; although Kenn's been so busy he doesn't know if he's coming or going, we took Saturday night to go out for dinner to celebrate our anniversary. We'd already planned to take Sunday off - we were going to go to Atlanta for the weekend, but he couldn't take all the time off to go. So, we woke up to the electricity off. That makes it difficult to get projects he needed done, OR get ready to go anywhere. So we took the day off, anyway. :) It felt REALLY odd, and I was REALLY tempted to go do what I was supposed to be doing, but I didn't. I hope I don't pay for that later....

Oh, well. Too late now. :D

Today's recipe is for Mighty Tasty Mini Lasagnas from Catching Fireflies.

Now, then. I used my mom's Pampered Chef brownie pan to make these in; the original did it in regular muffin tins, but I thought, since wonton wrappers are square, why not go more with the shape of them?

These are a YES, PLEASE! recipe. They were super easy to assembly-line make, easy ingredients - I tend to keep everything but the ricotta in my fridge, anyway - and pretty yummy. I do wish I'd had some ground beef to bulk these up a bit, but they were still good. I've got some in my freezer, too - I tend to be the only one who eats stuff like this, so I didn't make too many. :) That was another nice thing about the "recipe"; you really don't have to make a lot of them! I'm also going to tag them as frugal; they're not expensive to make, if you price it out per cup!

OK, I'm out of here. This is our last normal week of rehearsal for CINDERELLA, then into tech week and opening! :) Have a wonderful day! Be BLESSED!

Crockpot "Refried" Beans

Good Monday afternoon! :) I know it's a bit later than normal, but I wasn't home much this weekend. I'm house managing for Lamplighter's Theater Company, and between church and the show, there wasn't a lot of spare time to be found! :)

That doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about what to post. :D I made this recipe last week; it's from Pennies & Pancakes, for Crockpot "Refried" Beans.

Let me just say, from the start, this gets a YES, PLEASE! :) It's a great, inexpensive, adjustable recipe. The only thing I measured was the water, because I didn't want to have it be too soupy or too dry.

The flavor is GREAT on these! I found I didn't need all the cooking time listed; be sure your beans aren't crunchy, for sure, but mine were done about a half-hour after I turned my pot down to LOW. I cut the recipe in half; we don't eat a LOT of refried beans, and I didn't want them going to waste - even though they're so inexpensive to make!

I will recommend this to you, too: keep some of the liquid if you drain off some from your beans. I was worried when I mashed them that I hadn't gotten rid of enough liquid. But they really tightened up, and I now wish I'd left just a bit more. If you keep some of the liquid, you can add it when your beans start to cool. But I don't think I'll be using canned beans if I can do a little planning ahead; these really were tasty!!!!!!

I had these vegetarian beans and melted cheese with organic blue corn tortilla chips for dinner one night; I felt so virtuous! :D And I highly recommend that, if you like cilantro, you sprinkle a little on whatever you serve these beans with. It's one of the top 5 nutrient-dense foods on the PLANET, and it gives a great freshness to the taste. But whatever floats your boat! :)

OK, I'm outta here. Have a WONDERFUL week! Be BLESSED!!! (And be sure to come back Wednesday, for a Valentine's suggestion!)