Homemade Manicotti

For my first real post I decided to share one of my family's favorite recipes, homemade manicotti...no big ugly store bought shells required! Even my toddler will eat this, and his daily menu pretty much only consists of cereal, peanut butter sandwiches and shredded cheese.

I found this recipe in a Rachel Ray magazine a few years ago...and changed it a bit. It is easier to make than it looks and is delicious!!!

Noodles:

3 Large Eggs
1 C Water
3/4 C flour

Filling:

2 C Ricotta Cheese
1 C Mozzarella Cheese
1/2 C Shredded Parmesan Cheese (Original recipe calls for Romano, but I prefer Parm or mix of the 2)
1/3 C Parsley
Sprinkle of Garlic Salt
3 T Milk

1 Jar of your favorite pasta sauce
Additional cheese for topping

Preheat oven to 350. In a medium bowl combine the cheeses, parsley, garlic salt and milk.

In a separate bowl whisk the eggs with the water. Whisk in the flour.

Heat a skillet over medium heat (at least 8-inch, but I use larger) and spray with cooking spray. Scoop out 3 T of batter into skillet, spreading in a circular motion, you want it to look like a pancake. Repeat this until you have used up all of your batter. If you have small prep bowls they are the best for making these (I have small silicone ones that pour very nicely).

After you have finished all of our noodles (or crepes as Rachel calls them...maybe I'll just call her Rach like her and I are BFF...so crepes as Rach says) poor a small amount of your pasta sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish and spread to cover entire bottom of pan...don't try to do smaller...just don't...you'll only regret it later! You will think you can fit them in something smaller, but you can't. Then take each of your noodles, fill them with your cheese mixture, roll them up and place them seam side down in your pan. Then cover with your remaining pasta sauce and additional cheese as you desire.

Bake for 25 minutes.

Eat delicious food.

Here's some tips for you:

If you use brown eggs (organic, fresh from the chicken or otherwise) they make a denser noodle because they are a thicker egg, so you will only get half as many noodles, so double your noodle recipe or half your cheese mixture, depending on how many you need to feed. The typical recipe will feed 3-4.

You may have some extra cheese leftover (I usually have a small amount because I usually burn at least 1 noodle trying to do too many things at once), save it and make lasagna (if your family really loves pasta like mine does).

Make sure you have a good non-stick skillet and use the cooking spray or you will never get these noodles out of your pan.

I hope you enjoy! More delicious recipes and other fun things coming soon!

Did you try this recipe? Let me know how it turned out!

The Normal Housewife...Finding my Place in the Crowd

So if any of you have followed some of my previous blog posts on a previous blog you are well aware of my issue with finding my niche. Some of you are wondering "What the heck does that mean?" Throughout the internet there are millions, if not billions, of pages like this, a woman with a family who is crafty and creative. But what makes me different? Well, honestly I don't know. I just hope that you find something here you enjoy. I kept thinking to myself "I have to do something different! What do I love to do!?!?" There are too many things that I love to do, so I've decided this blog will just be about my life. About my family and our struggles, about my craft projects and recipes...and their struggles, and sometimes just about life in general, maybe what's in the news, I don't know, but either way I hope you find something here that suits you. 

Many of you are probably asking "Who is this person and what is she talking about?!?!" I'm Lynzee, and all I strive to be is normal. Where's my white picket fence!!!! 

I grew up in a large and somewhat crazy family, maybe someday I will get into some of the dynamics, but long story short I am the youngest of 5 children, I was raised by my mother and step-father who treated me like I was his own, all of my siblings are much older than me, and I have more nieces and nephews that I can even count on a whim. We didn't have much, and I dealt with a lot growing up, including being broke and losing my step-father (who from now on will just be called my dad) at the age of 18, 2 weeks before my high school graduation, forcing me to become an adult...fast! So through all the struggles and chaos of life, all I want for my family (which consists so far of me, my husband, my toddler son, a cat and a dog) is to be "normal," or at least what I envision as normal. But mostly, I just want my family to be happy and live comfortably financial wise.

So that's it, that's me in a nutshell. Brace yourself for upcoming craft projects, great recipes (or at least I hope so), home improvement projects, financial posts (I would say tips, but realistically it will probably be me begging for help) and many other things. Wish me luck!

I'm going to put a question out there for everyone: What are some life lessons you've learned through struggles you've had in your past? How have they effected who you are today? That almost makes me sound like a teacher haha! For example, when my dad passed away he had no life insurance, and it was very unexpected. This put quite a burden on my mom and I. I never want my son or future children to go through something like that, so for me life insurance is a must! Ready? Go!