Buon Giorno!

I love Italian food, and who doesn’t, considering it usually involves some type of cheesy carb!  Since we’re off meat, I had been throwing around the idea of making a big veggie lasagna for our holiday meal.  Well, all the ingredients magically appeared in my grocery cart this morning… and then this came out of the oven hours later.  Haha not so much!

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I was looking for the easy way out and bought express lasagna noodles, bottled pasta sauce and shredded cheese.  Hey, sometimes ya do what ya gotta do.  I was planning adding zucchini to the dish but there was none to be found.  Instead, we had basic Lasagna Florentine.

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Hubby is not a fan of huge veggie chunks so I stuck to a basic pasta sauce and the cheese filling, which consisted of cooked onions, garlic, spinach, cottage cheese & 4 cheese Italian blend.  Funny enough, I unintentionally bought all the ingredients from the recipe listed on the noodle boxSo I just followed that recipe.  It was really easy and turned out quite well.

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Not bad. Not bad.  Although I wished it had of browned up a bit more.  I like the top layer to be crunchy. ;)   Hubby really liked it; he mentioned that it was good several times over the course of our meal!  To be honest, I was a bit surprised since it was lacking in the meat department.  I thought it was good; not the best lasagna I’ve ever made but decent. 1/6 of the huge pan was 8 points. (Approx 400 calories)

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***
Before Supper my Mom came over and we went for a lovely walk/run on the local trail.  It was another gorgeous day and we were out for 60 mins in total.  The time went by really fast as we chatted up a storm.  Mom started going to the gym a few months ago and has really built up her cardio and lost about 10 lbs.  So proud of her and glad that she’s healthy & active. :) 

Rewinding back a bit – I stuck with the Italian theme throughout the day and made us pizza subs for lunch.  Fresh buns topped with a mix of tomato pesto/tomato paste, green peppers, red onions & mushrooms, sprinkled with cheese.  Baked in the oven.  Quick, easy & delicious!

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Strawberries for dessert.  These guys are from Florida and just don’t taste the same as the local berries. I can’t wait for ours to be ready.

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While at the grocery store I scored some cool treats that have been all over blogland lately.  Two new flavours of froyo – Nanaimo Bar & Rocky Road.

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I am a total ice cream gal so you know that I had to try both! 😉  Nanaimo Bar wins.

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Overall this weekend rocked!! I got plenty, plenty, plenty of exercise/activity, managed to eat fairly well and in general felt great.   I also finally caught up with all of you and got in a little me time too.  Sort of sad to see the weekend end though.  Oh well, at least it’s a short week and I have our annual Cape Split hike to look forward to. 

I’m out!

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