Meatball Lasagna and changes...

When I first started this blog, about two years ago, I was hoping to keep it anonymous and focus only on diabetic cooking. I was really inspired by the movie Julie & Julia and I hoped to get people to follow me, read my stuff, and follow others who shared my interest. I called it Annie's Diabetic Goodies. At the time I was insanely paranoid about putting myself out there, now not so much. Little by little, I began adding paragraphs about moments in my life what where just hectic and insane but I like to believe that I kept that at a minimum. Though looking back I didn't really.

Then, for one whole year, I did not write anything. The beginning of 2012 was horrible, then it got weird and now I have a boyfriend.

Now in 2013, I have decided to pick this up again. Hopefully get some followers, follow interesting blogs and become part of a community. I think I will eventually post a picture of me. Have my readers, if I happen to get readers, know who I am and put a face to this. But only after I have thought about it some more and asked my close friends for their opinions. I mean everyone is online now, in one way or another.

I want this blog to be more about food and my cooking adventures. I'll post pictures of food and places I am going. I also hope to eat healthier this year and lose weight. Well, just a bit. I will still make diabetic food because my parents are both diabetic and it would be a good way to keep in shape and eat healthy. Also, to let others know that diabetic food can be good. But, there will be moments when I want to make cookies or something else. Maybe with time, I can modify it for diabetic purposes.

Much of the same way I styled the previous postings will be kept. Maybe with time I will take something out but for now the format seems to work. Until I think of a better way to do this.

I will be taking my recipe's from books, magazine's and websites and will do my best to reference each so that I don't get in trouble and all that Jazz.

I really don't know much about cooking but I have learned, the bit that I have cooked, that I can follow cooking directions really well. I hope that people take time to read this and help me learn more and maybe learn a little something from me. Any questions or suggestions please comment. :)

- Annie

Book: (this is where I tell you what I am reading at the moment. I like reading what other people are reading at the moment.) We by Yevgeny Zamyatin. It inspired 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I haven't really been reading it but I hope to get through it. This is a must read for I have enjoyed both those books it inspired. I am also reading the Manga One Piece. So many chapters but it is pretty good. I am in chapter 44.

iPod: (my ipod on shuffle.) Muse ExoPolitics.

Pandora: (on shuffle or mixing is what I believe they call it on the website. This I may remove or maybe the iPod one and just keep it to one song.) Deadmau5 - So There I Was.

Quote: Do not mind anything that anyone tells you about anyone else. Judge everyone and everything for yourself. - Henry James.

Meatball-Mushroom Lasagna

Ingredients: 

•  1 lb frozen fully cooked turkey, beef or vegetarian meatballs
• 12 oz sliced assorted mushrooms
• 2 1/2 cups pasta sauce (from 25-28 oz jar)
• 6 eggroll wrappers
• 3/4 c shredded part-skim mozzarella
• extra virgin olive oil spray.

Directions

•  Heat oven to 375 F. Brown meatballs in large skillet coated with olive oil spray over medium-high heat, 4 minutes. Transfer to plate and halve. Coat skillet with spray. Cook mushrooms, stirring, 6 minutes. Put on plate.

• We don't eat mushrooms. I have never tasted mushrooms. I want to but I am afraid to cook them myself. What if I make it wrong somehow? It tasted fine and didn't feel like there was anything missing. I also, don't have a skillet but the pan managed to cook the turkey, though the meatballs were already cooked. We also don't have a cooking spray but we did use olive oil. I also didn't turn on the oven. It seemed a waste of gas. I turned it on when I put it in.
• Spread 3/4 cup of the sauce in 2 qt baking dish. Top with 2 wrappers, overlapping slightly. Arrange half of the meatballs in one layer. Top with 1/4 cup of the cheese and one-third of the mushrooms. Repeat layers (start and end with 1/2 cup sauce.) Top with remaining 2 wrappers, 3/4 cup sauce, mushrooms, and 1/4 cup cheese. Cover tightly with foil. Bake until bubbling, 40 minutes.

• According to the Magazine Prevention, Eggroll wrappers are found in the refrigerated produce case. But in the Spanish neighborhood I live in, I did not found such a thing. I even asked the people that worked there and they looked at me as if I were insane. So I used regular lasagna sheets. I placed the half meatball in the center and covered with lasagna.

Thoughts

•  This came out really good. The Turkey meatballs that were bought came out a bit spicy and I really enjoyed that because I have been on a spicy food binge. I want to remake it but with beef meatballs. The prep time was 5 minutes and the total time for cooking was 1 hour. This served 8.