My Birthday and Weekend #Linky ~ Amanda's Books and More

Friday, March 4, 2016

My Birthday and Weekend #Linky

Welcome to my weekend blog hop -

Make My Saturday Sweet #165!

It's been a busy and fun-filled birthday week! Amanda had a birthday on Sunday and I had a birthday on Thursday. If you missed Amanda's Birthday photos then check out Tuesday's post, the Birthday Girl.

I was spoiled with lovely and thoughtful gifts. Even Amanda spent time shopping for me with her grandma and another day with her dad. She also chose a couple of gifts and paid for one or two small items with her pocket money.

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The morning of my birthday
(I borrowed Amanda's natural
gemstone bracelet for the day)

Amanda chose the card, a chocolate heart, French
nougat and orchid food for my new orchid plant.

Gifts from Hubby - Belgium chocolate, cream liquor,
and the Inspirational Coloring for Mom book

The first page that I colored from
my new coloring book.

We made a lasagna the night before and
popped it into the oven on my birthday.

I don't follow a recipe when making lasagna, but here's the order of layers with lasagna sheets between each layer: on the bottom was white sauce (Béchamel sauce), then cooked mince (ground beef), then creamed butternut, another layer of cooked mince and lastly more white sauce with grated white cheddar cheese on top.

How I like to make

my lasagna layers:

For the mince (ground beef):

I cook lean mince (ground beef) and chopped onion. My favorite seasoning for the beef is chicken stock (we use one that doesn't have MSG), salt and pepper, a can of chopped and peeled tomatoes and ketchup. Make sure the mince isn't too saucy or the lasagna will end up runny.

The white sauce:

I make a traditional white sauce (Béchamel sauce) like this one and add a couple of sprinkles of nutmeg. I don't use pepper, because I use pepper in the mince (ground beef).

The vegetable layer:
I find that lasagna can be a heavy dish, so I like to include one layer with a vegetable. I use either a creamed spinach or creamed butternut.

We had butternut in my birthday lasagna. It's a great way to sneak a vegetable in when you have picky eaters. Thankfully, all four of our kids like to eat fruits and veggies. We raised them to eat healthily, but we know that not everyone likes the same things, so we try to be understanding. Can you believe that I have two kids that don't like bananas?

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Make My Saturday Sweet is a weekend blog hop for all family friendly blogs. You are welcome to link your favorite post from the past week(s) and to visit the last link before yours and leave a sweet comment. It's a really easy and fun way to make new friends and to catch up on old acquaintances.

Now on to my blog hop...