I AM alive... here's proof

So about the time I took on the great idea of this blog, I got a second job.... which then turned into a full time job, which has now scaled back (just a LITTLE bit) to a part time job of about 32 hours a week. My carefree days of cooking have gone basically kaput, since I now get off work at 5PM and have to trek home. (Yes, I'm aware of the fact that other mothers have been doing this for decades, but for ME this is new territory.... I was the typical SAHM who got a part-time job on the nights/weekends when the kids were asleep... but not anymore!)

With all that gibberish being said, I'm hoping to get back

into cooking some more, with simple recipes that help save time. This post in fact, is about one such product which has helped me save time over the past few weeks.

I've been a fanatic of Fast Fixin chicken products for literally YEARS, (I'm a mother of 3, so I've bought my share of chicken nugget packages) but I recently stumbled upon their beef meatballs. (I PROMISE this is not a paid advertisement, I'm simply giving a review of a product.) In a word, these meatballs were "yummy" and even far-superior to other pre-formed meatballs I've tried before. OF COURSE homemade meatballs are better tasting, since you're able to customize them to your family's specific tastes and preferences, but these meatballs were great. I cooked them a little longer than the recommended cooking times, but that's because I prefer my meatballs to have a crispy crunch to them. They are good alone, in a meatball sub, or smothered in sauce on top of spaghetti (yes, cue the music.)

And since I'm singing the praises of Fast Fixin, let me tell you that not only do they help outschools with their Home Team Rewards program, but they also have a loyalty program called Fast Fixin Fanatics which allows you to redeem 10 Fast Fixin UPCs for a coupon good toward your next purchase.

Spinach Cheese Manicotti

I made Spinach Cheese Manicotti for Sunday "dinner" (which is what I call the Sunday mid-day meal- I call the evening meal "supper", but only on Sundays for some weird reason).

I pre-cooked the noodles before church so that would be ready for me when I got home. When I got ready to assemble the cheese I realized I hadn't gotten one of the ingredients- cream cheese. No biggie, I just winged it... I added more mozzarella cheese, and an egg to help bind the ricotta and the mozzarella together (something I frequently do when making lasagna, and that was actually part of the recipe on the back of the manicotti shell box as well.) I didn't follow the recipe exactly in other areas, I used a store bought sauce and omitted the garlic. In many of my future endeavors I plan on following the SPIRIT of the recipe anyway, so this was just par for the course.

When it was time to fill the shells I wanted to try a trick I'd seen on a Martha Stewart show... didn't work for me. I spooned the combined cheese into a plastic bag and cut off a tip, so it would be like a pastry bag. I don't think my plastic bag was strong enough (I used a cheap store-brand) and I must not have had the technique right. I ended up breaking most of the shells, so I just spilt them all down the side, laid them flat on a plate, squirted a line of cheese in the center and then rolled it back up- I should have done that from the beginning, it was much easier.

I plated the meal with salad and a yummy garlic crescent roll that I had seen at the grocery store's bakery department. I still hadn't told him the name of the disk. When I asked my DH for a star rating (like 4 out of 5 stars) he just rolled his eyes. I asked for suggestions or comments, and he said slowly, "there was a lot of green stuff inside." Duh- it was the Spinach. I'll admit that I'd never cooked spinach before, and it's only been in the house in baby/raw form for salads, so perhaps I should have prepared him for the spinach-ness about it, but I didn't think it tasted too spinach-y.

I will definitely make this recipe again, or at least a lasagna version with the spinach, and I'd probably make the recipe again like I did this first time, w/out the cream cheese and with the homemade sauce.

(PHOTO TAKEN FROM THE TASTE OF HOME WEBSITES)