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Friday, August 7, 2015

Zucchini Lasagna

I was sooo skeptical about this, but I really want to incorporate more veggies over here.

Way harder than you think - way, way harder when your toddler is a teeny, tiny overlord.

I found this recipe on pinterest (Ilovepinterest)

I read the ingredients - simple, I had almost everything except the cheese - so obviously I bought cheese.

The instructions read to get 3 medium zucchini.Okay.

We have different opinions of what 'medium' means - apparently.

Their version of 3 medium zucchini.  This was equivalent to ONE of mine.


I had zucchini slices everywhere. Everywhere

The recipe said to dry the slices and broil them and blah blah omg do I look like I have that much time. I did toss them with salt and put them in paper towel and dried out as much as I could - between watching 'So You Think You Can Dance' season 2.

I did brown my meat - the only direction I followed.

Once that was done, I realized I didn't have time to make all the sauce - so I grabbed a spaghetti sauce - meh - that happens dudes. Then I realized I didn't have ricotta cheese - like WHO DOES?! Bahahaha, so I used the better thing French Onion Dip (Helluva) I mixed it with Parmesan Cheese - I thought I was supposed to use that but after re-reading I realize that I was supposed to use Parmegino ... something something.

I started with the meat sauce, then the 'zucchini noodles', then my made up white sauce, tossed some mozzarella cheese in there, then kept layering.

It was unreal!!! Like so yummy and the kid even ate it!!! Next time - I'll try making my own sauce and I'll add more zucchini. I didn't put a TON because I thought it would be sketchy but I could get away with WAY more.





Saturday, August 1, 2015

Awesome Pack - July 2015

EEEEEK It's HERE!!!


I found this particular 'mystery box' because of You Tube and Internet. Don't judge me. -.-
My kids like to watch a lot of those weird unboxing videos with little mystery bags/boxes and they'd stumbled upon some subscription boxes. I thought the idea was fun! I like presents! I don't like being surprised ... but I like surprise presents! I had found a couple that were interesting (like a tackle one for Corey and some Nerdy ones - which were ... meh) THIS particular box is supposed to be filled with stuff to bring the family together to do fun activities!! YAY! Right? I scoured the internet for other videos or images to see what was really in them and I went to their website. Go there to get more info - I'll spare you from repeating what is written there.

AWESOME PACK WEBSITE


It sounded SUPER FUN - plus ...wait ... Canadian?
(random musing : they ship from Quebec; I wonder if I put down that we speak french if they would send french stuff ..... interesting.)

I decided to try it out. I signed up for one month and told myself I can always cancel if it's super lame. I secretly hoped it would be super awesome. I answered some questions about our family - including naming all the games we already have - hello that's awesome, no duplicates. Although, if you live with kids that lose pieces all the time, duplicates might be fun HAHAHA. Whoot! Exciting!

Then I got an email asking even MORE questions ... or ... maybe that was where I listed the games. My bad - I forgot but at some point that happened. I was able to add a few details about everyone in the family, what we liked etc ...

Then it felt like forever!!!!

Also - we went camping and I found more games and was all 'OH MAH GAWD' what if they send those? So I was able to add those to my list no problem-o!!! The boxes ship out the last 2 weeks of the month and we got our on July 31st. I followed the tracking number extremely close LOL.

(random musing : I think they should rename the boxes ... or maybe I should rename my box August Box because I got it at the end of the month ... you know?)

We waited for Corey to come home, then - opened the box.
 
Sorry it's blurry - I was super excited. This was what we saw when we opened the box.

It had this - which we DID not look at because we wanted to see for ourselves! We looked afterwards.
And THIS is what we got!
At first, I was ... unsure ... but it's now been 24 hours and we've had quite a bit of fun. I don't have individual pictures ... sorry - fail.

First Up - The game. Every box comes with a board game. FUN FARM (amazon sells it for 27.50$). My first impression was ... seriously? I should have asked for a more 'grown up' or complicated game but let me tell you ... it was quite hilarious. Even Nikki got the concept and everyone had to pay super close attention. You basically have these adorable little foamy animals and some cards and dice. The animals are in a circle and you place a card in the middle. Someone rolls the dice and if the dice match the cards it's a race to grab that animal! Well cripes ... between the kids getting confused and me taking forever to make connections - it wasn't as easy as I thought but the concept was easy enough for Nikki.

Next Up - The kids each got these little Mosaic things (well Amelie and William did) and those were cool. We like mosaics but it was too easy for Amelie. She loves the cuff she made but was done in about 5 minutes. William is still working on his dinosaur today bahahaha. I don't know the value of these? 2$ Each? 4$? 5$?

Thirdly - Bubble Guppies Pick a Pair. Nikki grabbed that from the box before it was completely opened. She was all 'BUBBLE GUPPIES!!! AAAAHHHH' and she likes 'making the same' and also popping out of their little cardboard holders. Perfectly educational game that is perfectly fun. I found this game on amazon for 19.99 not 100% sure about that price though.

Fourth-ly? - Thomas the train megablocks - This ... might have been for Nolan? I had mentioned we had a 4 month old but I didn't add him to the group because ... dudes he's 4 months old and I had emailed them asking how young they go ... Regardless of who it was 'designed' ... probably Nikki ... everyone has played with it. Toys R Us sells it for 10.99

Fifthly - used immediately in the hot tub - water sprayer soaker things. BAHAHAHA I don't even have to explain it do I. There was one for each kid.

It also came with an activity book with cool ideas. Unfortunately the cool ideas this month was what to do with bananas and we already make banana ice cream LOL but I won't hold that against them ;)

I'm going to stay subscribed for another month. They will be sending me another little survey to make my package even more awesome next time and this is a great way to try new board games I would probably NEVER buy just by looking at them. I don't have time to check the ratings, blah blah blah ... blah. I'm also going to ask they send something a tad more complicated for Amelie.

I paid 57.73 and that included stuff for all of us : 1 Board game, stuff for Amelie, William and Nikki, and free shipping. I think the value is close to the same? Corey was less impressed but ... I think the farm game was too hard for him ;) I still recommend this if you like some surprises.

I think you just have to have an open mind. It did get us to do things together as a family instead of just watching TV - and that's Awesome.