10/5/12 - Layered Italian Casserole

Today was a HAPPY, HAPPY day! I lost 2 pounds this week. Putting me at a total of 38.6 to date, and with that I have FINALLY surpassed my biggest goal yet…I have lost every single ounce of pregnancy weight! It’s way overdue, but it’sf finally gone, and I am so excited about it! Technically, from my highest weight ever (when I delivered Olivia), I have lost 51.6lbs. That’s crazy! I can’t even imagine carrying an extra 50lbs from where I’m at right now! I’m so ready to knock out the rest of the weight loss, its going feel amazing!

Here are my updated progress pics! Totally embarassing, but it does wonders to REALLY see how far you've come!

The girls were actually pretty well behaved today. We had some breakfast and got our day started. As we were getting ready to leave, I let Chuy out for a bathroom break, and of course, my luck, he disappeared. I am SO sick of searching the neighborhood for him. So frustrating. We drove around for a long time looking for him, with no success. So, we took a break from our searching to carry out our plans for the day…some fall pictures of the girls. We don’t really get any leaves in our yard, so we stopped down the street and the girls had a ball rolling around and playing in the leaves. They thought it was hilarious, and I got some great shots of them.

We took one last drive around the neighborhood on our way home, and sure enough, came across Chuy. Wandering the streets like it’s no big deal. Ugh! We had lunch when we arrived home, and the girls went down for their naps. I relaxed for a while, and caught up on some shows, then started preparing dinner. We had dinner as soon as Christian arrived home from work, and then took a little family trip to Target. We returned the ottoman we bought a few weeks ago (it’s too small for the area we need it) and picked up a present for a birthday party we’re going to tomorrow. We made our way home and had some little bedtime ice cream snack (my first time trying Pumpkin Ice Cream, and man was it delicious!). Christian has to work tomorrow, but his friend Lorenzo wanted to stop over and hang out for a bit, so he risked being the walking dead tomorrow and stayed up. The girls and I were just exhausted, and called it a night. Another day down, and we have a crazy busy weekend ahead of us!

Tonight’s dinner was Layered Italian Casserole.

Ingredients:

• 12 ozs of Cooked Spaghetti (cooked according to the package)
• 1½ lbs Ground Beef (I only used 1lb, and of course, 93/7)
• 2 Minced Gloves of Garlic
• 2 15oz Cans of Italian Tomato Sauce
• 1 tbsp Fresh Parsley
• 1 tbsp Dried Oregano
• 4 Cups Cottage Cheese
• 2 ½ Cups Shredded Mozzarella Cheese (I only used 2 Cups)
• ½ Cup Parmesan Cheese

Sides:

• Garlic Texas Toast (cooked according to the package)
• Green Giant Mixed Vegetables Steamer (cooked according to the package)

Directions:

1. Brown the beef, and mix in the garlic until cooked. Add the tomato sauce, parsley and oregano until heated through.
2. In a large bowl, combine the cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese and ¼ cup of the parmesan cheese.
3. Spread 1 cup of meat sauce into a greased, 13x9 baking dish. Layer with half of the spaghetti, then add a layer of the cheese mixture. Repeat layers, and the dish should be full.
4. Cover and bake at 350° for 45 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle with remaining mozzarella (I just omitted a handful from the previous mixture) and parmesan cheeses, and bake for another 5-10 minutes.

This made a TON of food, especially for our family. I would definitely either half the recipe, or freeze half of it in the future. It was good though, I would make it again.