Lasagna!

This coming Saturday, June 2nd, is Matt's grandmother's birthday. They are going out of town so we celebrated early. Grandmom is not particular at all and just told me to cook whatever I wanted. I decided to make lasagna and it turns out that it is one of her favorite foods. Who knew? :) We had "The Bread" from the Pioneer Woman too. You can find that recipe here but I wanted to share the full lasagna recipe here. It is from Paula Deen and it is SO Good! Hope you enjoy!

Lots O'Meat Lasagna

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds ground chuck
• 1 pound ground Italian sausage
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons ground oregano
• 1 teaspoon ground basil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, and oregano
• 2 (15-ounce) cans tomato sauce
• 1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
• 1 1/2 cups small curd cottage cheese
• 1 (5-ounce) package grated Parmigianno-Reggiano
• 2 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley leaves
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 9 oven-ready lasagna noodles
• 2 (8-ounce) packages shredded mozzarella

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large saucepan, combine ground chuck, sausage onion and garlic. Cook over medium heat until meat is browned and crumbled; drain.

Return meat to pan and add oregano, basil, salt and pepper. Add tomatoes, tomato sauce and paste. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 30 to 45 minutes.

In a small bowl, combine cottage cheese, Parmesan, parsley, and eggs.

Spoon 1/4 of sauce into bottom of a 13 by 9 by 2-inch baking pan. Place 3 uncooked lasagna noodles on top of sauce. Do not overlap noodles. Spread 1/3 of cottage cheese mixture over noodles, top with 1/4 of sauce and 1/3 mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers, ending with sauce, reserving 1/3 of mozzarella cheese.

Bake 45 minutes. Top with remaining cheese and bake 15 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Let rest 10 minutes before serving.

Til then-

Did YOU Hear about the Morgans? 

Panini Sandwiches

Matt and I love a good sandwich. We hardly ever go out to eat sandwiches because restaurants charge so much money but we make them at home from time to time. This past Saturday we went to a restaurant in Greenville, SC called Luna Rosa. We had heard they had awesome gelato and we had to try it. Their menu is small but includes some salads, soups, pasta dishes, pizzas and panini sandwiches. We wanted to splurge on gelato so we opted for panini sandwiches. The sandwiches we got were SOOOO GOOOD and it made us want to make some at home.

We had talked about getting a panini press before we were married but decided there were definitely more needed gifts than that. Saturday we decided to use our George Foreman grill and try to make panini sandwiches that way AND it worked!

Sunday, we had Matt's grandparents over after church for the rest of the day. We were having a heavy dinner so we wanted a lighter lunch so we made panini sandwiches.  We used pumpernickel bread and whole wheat bread, a variety of cheeses, turkey and BBQ beef and grilled onions. I put a little butter on the outside of each piece and made the sandwich up like normal. Once the grill was hot, we placed the sandwiches on and they were done in less than 3 minutes. They were so good!

We will definitely be making many more panini sandwiches on our George Foreman Grill this summer!

Let me know if you try it!

Til then-
Did YOU Hear about the Morgans?

Those Moments...

You know those moments when...

       You and your spouse want to spend the day doing the exact same thing whether it be lounging, gardening, painting, anything. It doesn't matter what it is. You just want to do it together. So fun.

You feel so productive for all of the work you have accomplished. 

                            

  You are laying in the bed next to your spouse and are in awe of how blessed you are. 

You receive praise/thanks from someone close to you that you do things for regularly that seem to go unnoticed.

Those are good moments...

Til then-
Did YOU hear about the Morgans ?

Strawberries!!!

We recently purchased some strawberries from a local farm, Strawberry Hill, USA and the following pictures should let you know what we did with them :)

The end.

Til then-

Did YOU Hear About the Morgans? 

Open Letters Part 3

Dear Bacon,

You are so delicious!

Thanks, Bacon Lover

Dear iPhone 3GS Battery,

Please hold a charge for more than a couple of hours. I am not willing to pay the cost to replace you for another battery and I'm holding out to purchase a new phone until the next one comes out.

Thanks, Person who is CONSTANTLY charging the phone :)

Dear Apple,

Please announce when the next iPhone is coming out.

Thanks, The person who is holding out for the new phone

Dear Gas Prices,

Thanks for decreasing.

Sincerely, Person who has been driving nearly 700 miles each week

Dear Husband,

Thank you for getting out of bed very early this week to make me breakfast. It was a great surprise!

Sincerely, the Love of your life

Til then-

Did YOU Hear about the Morgans? 

Something Funny

Matt was working tonight and a guy came up to him and asked "Do you have an epoxy that will glue bamboo to glass? I'm making a bong"

SERIOUSLY!?!?

The adventures of working at The Home Depot.

Til then-
Did YOU hear about the Morgans?

What Happened in 500 Days?

I mentioned on Monday that Matt and I celebrated 500 days of marriage. I thought I would give an extra sneak peek into what we have done in 500 days.

--Gotten married (DUH)
--travelled to New Orleans, Oregon and Washington for our honeymoon
--celebrated 2 of Matt's birthdays and 1 of mine
--moved to South Carolina
--travelled to Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina
--bought a fish
--started selling items on Etsy
--started a photography business
--watched the entire series of Law and Order: SVU on Netflix
--planted a small garden
--started hiking
--began our 101 in 1001 list
--made homemade laundry detergent
--sold one car, bought another one which we paid off in 5 months!
--had all of Matt's family here for the weekend
--handmade all Christmas gifts for our friends and family
--cooked a LOT of good meals
--spent 500 nights next to each other (no nights apart!)
--spent all major holidays just the two of us, just how we wanted it to be
--cooked Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner together
--celebrated our First Christmas
--went to an Air Show



Obviously, there were TONS of more things that we did in our first 500 days but those were some of the fun and memorable ones.

Can't wait for the next 500!

til then-
Did YOU Hear about the Morgans?

My Husband's Talent

Matt's family was here in March and Matt got to take some awesome family photos of them. Here are some of them: 

GROUP PHOTOS: 

KIERAN PHOTOS:

LUKE PHOTOS: 

ENJOY!

Til then-

Did YOU Hear about the Morgans? 

Mr. and Mrs.

As mentioned in an earlier post, Matt and I have been married for 500 days as of today. It was pure coincidence that we discovered this but we were excited when we did. I have Mondays off right now and Matt happened to be off so we decided to have an adventure. I worked at my PRN job a few hours, Matt slept in and did a few home chores and then we set out for a short road trip. We went to a local strawberry farm, Strawberry Hill, U.S.A., ate lunch, and bought some yummy strawberries and local honey. We went to a Dutch country store and then headed home to watch our favorite shows online and eat chocolate covered strawberries. We had a GREAT day and are grateful that even in the midst of busyness that we have little moments of extreme FUN!

Here are a few pictures of us from a recent fun little photo shoot!

YEP, we sure do have fun together!

Til then-
Did YOU Hear about the Morgans?