Baked Spaghetti Casserole

A couple of years ago Mr. Miller and I took the Six Week Body Makeover challenge. It was very successful and easy to follow. Yes, I know now it has to be a lifestyle and not a "diet". (oh how I hate the word diet!) It also led me to the conclusion about my body and wheat. We have decided again to incorporate some of the rules into our lives again. I still had all the paper work, books, etc. I am really excited to feel good and get the "junk" out of our diet again.

I decided today to post a favorite recipe of ours from those days. Great source of vegetables and it happens to be GF!

baked spaghetti casserole

1 lb ground turkey or bison
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/4 cup chopped bell pepper (optional)
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon oregano (optional)
1-1/2 teaspoons Mrs. Dash salt-free Garlic & Herbs seasoning
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
3 small cans no-salt-added tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
2 medium-large zucchini, skin peeled off and discarded

Brown the first seven ingredients in a non-stick skillet. Add mushrooms, tomato sauce and water. Stir well. Simmer on low for about five minutes. Use a vegetable peeler or potato peeler to make thin strips out of the zucchini (discard seeds). These will resemble pasta. Add the zucchini strips to the meat sauce and transfer everything into a casserole baking dish. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

We don't even miss the cheese in this recipe. I did find Rice Cheese, which in moderation is OK. On this plan we cut out non complex carbohydrates and dairy. Which I can do, after all wheat is bad for me and the dairy well with rice milk products I can get a little here and there. Enjoy, its a great dinner and before long these veggies will be available in your own garden. How friendly to the wallet is that?

What a Party!

We had a CELEBRATION this weekend. Junior Mint had his 1st Birthday Party. It was a great celebration with all of our friends and family. Mama made our cake. A big Thank You to Mimi, The Deacon and Pops for bringing the rest to reality. We couldn't have done it without them. It was a great time and even Gigi was able to make up to the party thanks to our friends Mr. Tom and Ms. Norma.

We took the Deacon and Pops to the airport yesterday, saw the Chiropractor and had leftovers for dinner. We are tired. Had an amazing time and can't imagine a better day for my little Junior Mint.

Community of Change ~ February

My January change went well. Mr. Miller installed a low flow shower head in our bathroom. We picked this up at Wal-Mart for $24.99. It is very easy to install and simple to use. It can be a hand held which is nice when cleaning the shower too.

Saying that I will lead into our change for February. We have decided to go natural and earth friendly on all of our cleaning products. I love, love the Seventh Generation products. If you go to http://www.seventhgeneration.com/ you can even print off coupons. I usually find mine at Whole Foods but I do know that Target carries some of their products also.

I have found a new love for their laundry detergent. I have also discovered that if when doing the cold water soak first on Junior Mints diapers add 1 Cup of Peroxide, let agitate slightly and then soak for 45 minutes. Finish cycle. Then do your hot wash with 1/2 the recommended amount of detergent and cold rinse 2 times and I have no order and it works great on the stains. However nothing is as good on those stains as the Sun and a little lemon juice, but until thaws around here we are just living with the stains.



The next big product is one that is in all of our cabinets...VINEGAR! Yes, I said vinegar! I use vinegar for a lot of things around the house. My favorite is cleaning mirrors and windows. A little vinegar with plain old water in a spray bottle followed by wiping dry with yesterdays newspaper and your windows and mirrors have never looked so good. Thanks to my Dad for teaching me that trick as a youngster. I used to cringe when he said it was "window day" but now I am thankful he showed me how! Love you Dad!

http://www.vinegartips.com/ has wonderful uses for cleaning, disinfecting, odor remover, etc. No wonder it has been around for 10,000 years, it just might be the world's oldest and trusted ingredient.



How did your changes go? Don't forget to click on the Community of Change button on the sidebar to check out what others are doing.