Ragu Bolognese

This is bound to become a new favorite in this house!
Ragu Bolognese
1 pound of hamburger (very lean 95%)
Brown in large deep skillet
Season well with Italian seasonings (oregano etc but I just used pizza seasoning and salt)
Add 2/3 cup of white wine and simmer until wine is evaporated
Add chopped veggies
* 2 stalks of celery
* 2 carrots
* 1/2 red bell pepper
* 1/2 yellow bell pepper
* 1 medium onion

Simmer for 10 minutes or so with lid on until the veggies are getting tender
Cook up 8 ounces of whole wheat pasta, broken into 3 inch pieces.
Add:
* 1 zucchini diced up
* 1 can of mushrooms
* 1 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes in juice
* 1/2 of a 16 oz can of tomato sauce

Simmer until thickened, another 5-7 minutes
Add:
2/3 cup 2% milk
1/4 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese
Cooked and drained pasta
Simmer another 5 minutes

This made 6 very large servings and for anyone doing Weight Watchers, this figures out to only 7 points per 2 cup serving!

We enjoyed this with a green salad with Italian dressing.  And the leftovers for lunch were great too!

Back to food!

With all the excitement of our last month I have to admit that I have not been doing a ton of cooking!  Imagine that!

Once we got home it seemed like we had very little time to regroup before we were on our way to Nebraska with Uncle LeRoy.  Now we are home for a while though and I am going to get back to posting some recipes.

One meal we made that made for good leftovers was
White Chicken Chili

4-6 Chicken breasts, baked and chopped up
2 cans of chick peas
2 cans of white kidney beans
2 small cans of diced green chilies
2 cups of brown rice, precooked
4-6 cups of chicken broth (more if you like it more soupy)
3-4T of powdered milk
Rinse and drain beans -
Mix it all together and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
Top the soup with some diced cilantro, green onions and sour cream.
I threw the chicken breasts in the oven while Conner was making breakfast.  We had chicken breasts with raw veggies for lunch and then the rest went into the soup for dinner.

Another meal that we threw together quickly was
Beef and Barley Soup
2 round steaks chopped and browned in Olive oil with 1 large onion. 
5-6 carrots
5-6 stalks of celery
10 cups of Beef broth
1 cup of red wine
1/2 cup barley
1/2 cup split green peas
Simmer for 2-4 hours and serve with crusty bread.
This was better the 2nd time around!
I don't have a picture of this one to show you though.

An always easy standby is this one.

To bake the whole chicken I squeeze a lemon on the outside of it, rub some garlic into it, put the squeezed lemon in the cavity with an onion and bake breast down until the temperature in the breast is 165. 
The green beans are just canned beans with dehydrated onions and salt/pepper
The pasta just cooked pasta with some canned tomato sauce. 
And of course we cannot forget the ranch dip!

Then the leftover baked chicken makes for great Ceasar salads the next day!

ROAD TRIP

On the 11th of January we left for an 11 day road trip with the boys and that was a wonderful privilege.  We traveled over 3000 miles in 10 days!  It was a flurry of activity that took us from Colorado Springs to Moab the first day, through snow and ice! 

Day two took us to Arches National Park and on to Las Vegas where we visited with Micheal and Judy for a couple days.

Day three was fun times with the one of the cutest babies in the family!

And Downtown Las Vegas too....

Day 5 was Hoover Dam and homemade Sushi for lunch!

Day 6 was on to Death Valley

Day 7 we saw the Salton Sea and Joshua Tree National Park

The Salton Sea is a science project.  We studied about it a few years ago and have always been interested in seeing it. It is called the accidental sea as it was an inland salt water sea.  However, the salinity continued to increase to such a level that most of the fish died.  Then agricultural runoff with phosphates caused algae bloom which steals the oxygen from the water so the fish (of which only tilapia still live there) die in huge numbers each cycle.  Those fish then wash up on the shore of the sea and rot, causing a terrible smell.  The beach, which looks like white sand, is actually fragments of fish bones!  

Here is a link to a video documentary about the sea if you are interested.  This is a science video.

Salton Sea Documentary

Another history channel link

Day 8 and 9 - SAN DIEGO!

We spent 2 days at the tide pools at the Cabrillo National Monument.  This was the highlight of our trip.  The pools are fascinating and beautiful.  We all could spend hours there!  And we did!

The ocean was amazing smashing against the rocks as the tide came in!

We spent 2 days at the tide pools.  We also visited our favorite little crepe place in San Diego and our favorite beach at Imperial Beach

The evening of the 9th day we headed back east.  We sent to Casa Grande that first night then the next day on to Pat and Harold Halbig's house in Los Lunas.  We had 2 relaxing days there then stopped to see Aunt Barbara and Uncle Harold Lerwick on the way home on day 11.

Day 11 - Almost home...we can see the mountains!

This trip was the perfect way for a home schooling family to expand our boundaries and learn more things about areas we had never been! 

Travel, Travel and more Travel!

Well....it has been a while since I updated this!  But...in my defense...I have been a little busy!

For Christmas and New Years we went to Nebraska and South Dakota and had a very nice time with lots of social get-togethers! 

We got to spend time with Laura, have a sing with the friends, read stories to the little ones, visit with grandma and grandpa, survived the stomach flu on the way home....it was all good except that last part!

Then January 6 I got to accompany a dear friend to CA to visit a boarding school and stay at Pebble Beach.  I had never gone down 17 mile drive before...and it isn't even 17 miles!  It was absolutely beautiful.  The company was great and the scenery very worth the trip. 

The Ocean from 17 mile drive.

 The Monterey Bay Aquarium was amazing!  So many beautiful things.

 The jellyfish were beautiful.

Then after getting home from Monterey we had the wonderful privilege of seeing a very special "life-long" friend and spending time with her and her kids.  We had dinner at our house then went to the zoo the next day.  It was a perfect time to spend with wonderful people!  The kids all had fun together and Michelle and I got to spend a lot of time talking!  It was perfect that we didn't have any of that uncomfortable "too much time has passed" feeling.  It was just like we were 12 years old again, giggling in my bedroom after Scottsbluff Special Meeting!

The grizzly bear put on quite a show for us!

The kids did a little climbing around too.