Spinach Lasagna Roll Ups

Sometimes you just need a little Italian food in your life. Just like this spinach lasagna roll ups i found online. I am, no doubt, a pasta lover. And of all my Pinterest finds, so far this is my favorite! 

I love traditional lasagna. My most favorite lasagna recipe to date is my Ninang Tess' recipe. This recipe though, is quite different but undeniably just as good! The spinach filling, with all those cheesy goodness, also gives it a fresh and delicious change. 

I first gave this a try on Chloe's 8th month birthday dinner. Everyone loved it, even my husband who's not really a fan of pasta. And recently I made this for Marie Lou's pool party and thought of sharing this on my blog. :)

What I love most about this, aside from how cute they look, is the idea of rolling it up. It is simply genius!  Lasagna in a single-serving-form! No more messy square lasagna layers! :)

I found this recipe from budgetbites.com. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 pound lasagna noodles

1 package (15 oz.) ricotta

1 cup shredded mozzarella

1/4 cup grated parmesan

1 whole egg

10 ounce frozen spinach

2 1/2 cup marinara sauce

1 dash salt and pepper

1 drop non-stick cooking spray

Directions

Bring a large pot of water with a dash of salt to a full boil. Add the lasagna noodles and cook until al dente (soft but not soggy... about 12-15 minutes). When they are finished cooking, drain in a colander.

While the noodles are boiling, thaw the package of frozen spinach in the microwave and then squeeze out as much excess liquid as possible.

Combine the spinach in a bowl with the ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan, egg, freshly grated pepper and about 1/4 tsp of salt. Mix until well combined.

When the noodles and filling are ready to go, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Prepare the tray by spraying with non-stick spray.

On a clean surface, lay out a few noodles at a time. Place a few tablespoons of spinach filling on each pasta noodle and spread to cover from edge to edge. The filling does not need to be thick because once the noodle is rolled up, it will be compounded. 

Roll the noodles up and place in the prepared casserole dish. Repeat until all of your filling is gone (there may be some noodles left over, these are "back ups" in case any of the others rip during assembly).

Pour the marinara sauce over the rolled noodles and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. The sauce will keep the noodles hydrated and soft while baking.

Cover the dish in foil and bake for 30 minutes. Serve hot or divide into individual portions and refrigerate.

I made 17 lasagna roll ups from this recipe :)

Yum! 

- C ♥

Mongolian Beef Lo Mein

Most of the recipes I'll be posting here will be my very own "Julie and Julia" take on recipes I saw online, or my mom's/mom-in-law's recipes, recipes from friends, or just some random craving. 

So here's a recipe that I saw on Pinterest from momsdish.com. The way she illustrated the cooking procedure with her photos made it so easy for me to follow the instructions (and know that I'm doing it just right). 

Natalya, the blogger, called this recipe Beef Lo Mein. But I think it deserves a better name because as per Natalya, the taste is absolutely, ridiculously the bomb! This recipe had me at that.  Absolutely, ridiculously the bomb! Hahaha! :)

The sauce for the steak was basically the makings of a mongolian beef recipe, thus, I'm giving it that name. I followed the cooking procedure meticulously except that I had to replace the beef better than bullion with hoisin sauce because that's what I had at the time. It still tasted good. Bomb good! *wink!

I prepared this dish for Chlo's 11th month birthday with a tray of cheesy-bacon potato bites on the side. Yum! Mark's ship went underway that week so Chlo's Godmom, Marie Lou, came over to celebrate with us. 

And so, here goes...

Ingredients:

8 ounces Thin Spaghetti, broken in half

1 teaspoon Sesame Oil

1/4 cups Boiled Water

1 Hoisin Sauce (or Beef better than Bullion)

3 tablespoon Soy Sauce

2 tablespoon Brown Sugar

Oil for frying

1 pound Beef

2 cups Broccoli

1 large Onion

4 garlic cloves

Procedure:

Cook spaghetti per box instructions. Into cooked spaghetti add sesame oil and stir well to combine. 

Into hot, boiled water add hoisin sauce and brown sugar; stir to dissolve. Into the mixture, add soy sauce and set aside. 

 Using a hot skillet, brown both sides of the beef. Let beef cool and slice it into two inch pieces.

Add sliced beef into the same skillet, fry until completely cooked. Into the cooked beef, add sauce mixture, cook all together for about a minute, set aside.

Using the skillet, where you've cooked beef, sauté onions until golden brown. Remove from the heat. 

In a separate oiled skillet, sautee carrots until softened, add broccoli and cook for about three minutes. Press garlic into the same mixture and remove form the heat.

In a large dish, combine spaghetti, vegetables and beef, together. Toss to combine, serve hot.

Cheesy-bacon potato bites 

- C ♥

Chlo's First Birthday - A Bumble Bee Birthday Party

How the Party Came to Bee?

A few months before Chlo's big day, I have been on the look out for inspirations for a theme on her first birthday party. I remembered, one day when we went to a park, how she looked exceptionally pretty and cute and oh so cuddly, surrounded with the luscious green landscape and bright yellow flowers. Her birthday falls early Spring and she looks good in yellow. That's when it came to me. A Spring Bumble Bee Party is just perfect! I couldn't hide my excitement once the theme was decided that whenever I talk to someone at home, I'd just blab out all about the ideas that came up to my head! 

I was never a fan of extremely formal parties, especially for a baby's first birthday party, and with our Spring Bumble Bee theme, Mark and I decided on the venue to be in a park. My mom-in-law was on top of the food, and Gizelle (my sister-in-law) and I were in charge of the look and decors of the venue. :)

Most of my inspirations were from Pinterest and Etsy. For Chloe's invites, I fell in love with BluGrass Designs' Bumble Bee Custom invitation. :)

Custom Bumble Bee invitation by BluGrass Designs

My little bumble bee! <3

 Chloe just woke up from a five-minute nap on our way to the gazebo. But still a cutie in her personalized bumble bee tutu outfit!

Party Look, DIY Decorations & Favors

Yes. Most of the decorations and the favors for the party are DIY. Sometimes, I'm crafty like that. :) 

Gizelle was in Santa Barbara the whole time we were planning so the brainstorming was a little challenging but we  managed. :) But I also got help from Gizelle's friends, Maritza and Anh, and Chlo's god parents, Marie Lou and Bryan. 

We wanted to keep the look of the party light and bright, so for the colors we chose yellow, white, and green. 

For the table centerpieces, I found mason jars from the dollar store. I've always wanted to have a set of mason jars because they're very versatile (I got myself 15 that day). I tied a green ribbon around the neck and made tons of pinwheels to go in it. I also found free bumble bee printables in Pinterest so the birthday tags and labels are all set. Here's the link to the bumble bee label set

 

Mason jars, yellow tin pails, DIY pinwheels.

I've always love tulle pompoms and was surprised of how easy it is to make them. For the party, I made a tulle pompom garland to hang over the dessert table but for some reason, and maybe over the craziness of preparing on that day, I forgot to bring the box where I kept them =l  Thus, no photo of the garland in the venue. (No photo of the finished garland at all!) But here's the link to my post in IG when was in the middle of making them: Tulle pompom garland

For the favors, I didn't want to settle on the usual loot bags with candies and random little toys. In my search for the perfect party favor, I came across a photo in Pinterest with yellow tin pails as the party favors. So I looked and looked everywhere to find an inexpensive tin pail (instead of $3 a piece from Target/Party City) and guess where I found them?? The Dollar Store! Yay! The ones I got from there didn't have a handle so I just bought a couple of rolls of curling ribbons and voila! I got pretty yellow tin pails! :) I filled them with a toy magnifying glass, a bumblebee pencil, water paint, bubbles, a mini rubix cube, two or three little more toys that I forgot what they're called, chocolates, and a scented beeswax candle in a covered tin can for the adult guests. I also got yellow and green paper bags and filled them with matching notepads & pens, crayons, and mini coloring books for older children.

Yellow tin pail party favors

Dessert Table

Styling the dessert table was my favorite of all! I wanted to keep it simple with just a plain white table cloth and just the view of the park as the back drop. I had a little candy buffet in one corner with Lemon rock candy, black and yellow chocolate marbles, and spring oreos, all yellow, white, and a little black to stick with the theme. 

The cutie bumble bee cupcakes are from my favorite local vegan cupcake catering company Sweet Tooth Bake Shoppe. I asked Kelly to bake my husband's favorite Smore's cupcakes, and to try something new, Lemon drop cupcakes which are both so good! They're a hit at the party! 

 Smore's cupcake

Little candy buffet corner: lemon rock candy sticks,black & yellow chocolate marbles, and spring oreos.

I really wanted to stick with the bee theme so I looked for bumble bee cake designs. I found in Pinterest a four layer fondant bee hive cake with little bees all over it. I knew then that it'll be tough to find a baker that will deliver the cake design that I wanted. And of course, the taste is a huge factor too. I spent nights reading reviews of local bakers around town and found The Grove Pastry Shop. I was impressed with the cake designs gallery and upon reading the reviews,  was confident of how good the cake itself will be. And I wasn't disappointed. I ordered their signature Whip Cream Cake and send in a photo of the design I wanted, got a quote and it's a done deal. Went to pick up the cake and I was dumbfounded! It was so beautiful it's heartbreaking to slice it up! But the heartbreak was soooo worth it because it's really good! 

Bumble Bee Cake Topper 

Whip Cream Cake from The Grove Pastry Shop.

Dessert Table 

Lunch Spread

Our lunch spread is a typical Filipino feast all prepared by my mom-in-law except for the lechon. The food included fried calamari, garlic buttered shrimp, spring rolls, beef morcon, stir-fry veggies,  chicken pastel, spaghetti, & pancit. Yum! 

It's a feast! 

And instead of getting one of those heavy, bulky coolers, I opted for two green round tubs which my daughter loved! Haha! She can't get enough of playing with the cans and the ice! :)

Oh, Chlo! 

Photo Booth Frame 

This was one of Gizelle's brilliant ideas! She sent me a photo of a huge frame for the photo booth and thought it was perfect! I got a foam board from staples and cut it into a landscape frame. Gizelle's friend, Maritza, took care of the drawings. :) Everyone had fun posing with the frame plus, Gizelle had a bunch of props that went with it. Oh fun, fun, fun! 

Me with my girls! :)

Some of Chloe's guests enjoying the photo booth :)

Our turn! :)

Us three :)

My Birthday Girl! 

- C ♥

The C's

It has been a while. The last time I had a blog was way back in college which, to be honest, feels like ages ago. Not that I'm old, old (for I feel like I'm stuck at age 22!)  But a lot has changed :) For starters, I now live thousands of miles from home; I am now married to my college best friend; and now, I am also a mother :) So here I am, doing a part of me that I miss the most back then, writing.

I have been giving quite some thoughts about what to write for my blog debut post.  And what it came to be is that I wanted to write about my family (because basically, I will be mentioning them every now and then so I thought it's the only fair thing to give a proper introduction).  

Mark, my husband, is a man of a few words. He is my first love. :) We met in college and started out as friends, then best friends, and well, my boyfriend. We were in a long distance relationship for 2 years when he had to move to the United States and I was left back home. Those 2 years were tough,  not to mention the first few month of him being in boot camp, but here we are, madly in love and happily married :) 

Chloe Isabelle, my beautiful daughter. She turned one a month ago and she never fails to amaze and surprise us! She loves to sing and dance, and has this infectious smile that will warm your heart and make you smile and happy. What I love most about her is how she's so into books. They say silence is golden, unless you have a child. And in that case, it means something is up. But with Chlo, when it's quiet, you'll actually find her browsing through one of her books. :) She's also quite a character! And oh,  how I just love everything about her!

And then there's me. Anne Camille. My friends and my husband's family call me Rory (from Gilmore Girls, my favorite soap back in high school).  I am a bookworm (or used to be), a little OCD, crafty, learning the ropes in the kitchen, and basically in life as a military wife and a new mom. This blog is about all that, and all the things that make me happy. :)

Welcome to Mrs. C!

- C ♥