Where have I been?

I was surprised to learn that a few people actually read my blog. And those few people are wondering where I've been. Mostly, I've been busy being a mom and wife... but I've also been spending my free time reading actual books instead of the internet (crazy, I know!) and being crafty with my sewing machine. Oh yeah, and one other thing I've been doing: packing up our house to move.

Moving is by no means fun but I anticipate that I will like our new place much more than our current SFH. So, I am excited. The ONE thing I will miss (other than the neighborhood) is my gas stove. (Do you know how difficult it is to find a gas stove in a townhouse? ) This is funny because the first week we moved in the pilot light went out on this old stove and we awoke one morning to dog vomit and gas fumes that had been leaking all night. Needless to say, as a highly emotional pregnant woman, I raised hell with our landlord and debated on re-packing our boxes and moving out because of this stove. In the end, the old gas stove has made many a wonderful meal.

Now that our move is right around the corner, we've taken on the task of eating everything in the house so that we don't have to move it 4 miles down the road. The premise sounds fun: don't go grocery shopping for weeks for anything but milk, fruit and vegetables, and use what's in the not one but two refrigerator/freezers and on the cupboard shelves. But what meals come of this method are interesting, to say the least. One of those meals actually turned out decent. I'm calling it "mock lasagna".

Mock Lasagna or Ravioli Casserole

(*Note, there are no measurements because I used whatever I had)

Frozen cheese/spinach ravioli (I used whatever was left in the bag of costco ravioli)

Provolone cheese slices

Fat-free sour cream

Shredded mozarella

Spaghetti sauce

meatballs

broccoli

Hubby bought a bag of chopped broccoli from Costco so I steamed several cups, chopped it up, and threw it back into the saucepan with the spaghetti sauce. Then I added some frozen meatballs (homemade from the Sneaky Chef cookbook-which means more broccoli and spinach-but Trader Joe's has great meatballs) and heated through until I could break up the meatballs to resemble ground beef.

I poured some sauce in the bottom of a 9X13 casserole dish and topped it with a single layer of ravioli. I then added a single layer of the provolone, spread on some sour cream and topped that with the broccoli/meat/spaghetti sauce mix. I only had enough ravioli to do one layer, but if you have more (or no-cook lasagna noodles) you can repeat. I topped it all off with mozzarella cheese and baked at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

The best part about this meal is that it took less than 20 minutes to throw together. I won't show you pictures because it's not real pretty, but it helped me clean out the fridge, tasted pretty good and was nutrient-packed - all in all, a success!