Recipe Obsessed? Maybe...

Since my gastric bypass surgery almost 3 years ago, I have been a little more than obsessed with finding the perfect recipe.  I can't explain it, I don't know why, but I am.  It comes and goes, but lately it's been back with a vengeance. 

I would spend hours.  And I mean HOURS on the Internet looking at food blogs and writing down recipes I thought sounded good, or I thought I might want to try at a later date.  Then I would watch The Food Network or Man vs. Food.  To say I was still obsessed with food would be an understatement.  Then came along Pinterest plus my meal planning and let's just say it kicked my obsession into overdrive.  However, this new found obsession for recipes keeps my hands busy and out of food.  Catch 22?  Maybe.  But I have an awesome collection of recipes to chose from when I want to try something new. 

I now have notebook, after notebook, after notebook full of hand written recipes which have no organization whatsoever.  I'm trying to figure out a way to organize them all and am drawing a blank.  Does anyone have any ideas?  I've started typing them up and printing them out, but my goodness that's a lot of work!  But again, something that keeps my hands busy.  So, this is what I've come up with so far.  I thought of putting them in page protectors and then having a binder for each "category".  What do you think?  Yes?  No?  Something better?  HELP!!!!

On a side note, I've been having a lot of fun infusing my water with different fruits.  I've done a batch of watermelon lemonade (Crystal Light), cherry lemonade and strawberry lemonade.  Earlier this week I did lemonade with fresh lime juice, strawberries and mint.  It was wonderful!  Today I might try watermelon and cucumber.  The possibilities are endless!!!! 

I decided to try another new recipe tonight for dinner, Slow Cooker Lasagna.  And, are you sitting down?  I only changed one ingredient!  Can you believe it?!  Instead of Ricotta cheese, I used cottage cheese. I don't remember where I found this recipe, so if you're reading this and it's yours, please take credit for it☺

Slow Cooker Lasagna

Slow Cooker Lasagna 

1 lb ground turkey

1 jar (24oz) spaghetti sauce

1 cup water

1 container (15oz) Ricotta cheese

2 cups (8oz) mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1 egg

2 Tbsp parsley flakes

lasagna noodles, uncooked

1. Brown turkey, drain fat.  Stir in spaghetti sauce and water.  Allow to simmer for about 10 minutes.
2. In a bowl, mix together Ricotta cheese, 1 1/2 cups (6oz) mozzarella cheese, parsley, egg and Parmesan cheese.
3. Spray slow cooker with cooking spray.  Place one cup meat mixture on the bottom of slow cooker.  Follow with noodles (broken to fit across) and then 1/2 of the cheese mixture. 
4. Next, scoop 2 cups of meat mixture, top with noodles and then the other 1/2 of the cheese mixture.  Top with remaining meat mixture.
5. Cover and cook for 4-6 hours on low.  Sprinkle remaining mozzarella cheese on top, allowing it to melt.  

The verdict?  Not too shabby!  I will be making this again, but next time I will add some of my own spices like garlic.  There wasn't enough garlic for this girl.  And you could easily change up the taste depending on the flavor of spaghetti sauce you pick out.  I ended up cooking mine for about 5 1/2 hours and then put it on warm for about 30 minutes while the neighbor and I went for a walk.

Well, I'm off to do my menu plan for next week.  I think I'm only going to try one new recipe, so I should probably be picking that out.  Have a good rest of the evening!

Until next time!