May was a bit awash for our family in terms of any schedule and healthy lifestyle whatsoever. We were vacationing for part of the month and I was out of town teaching Medicine Cabinet Makeover Classes. Needless to say, our menu plans were non-existent and we’re feeling rather burned out on my usual go-to recipes. So, this week, we’re trying lots of new dishes from clean eating magazine.
We finally have a summer schedule and I have a darling girl from the neighborhood coming over to watch the kids while exercise and work. We’re working on our Summer Bucket List today, but first we need to get to the grocery store. Here’s our plan for the week. I’ll be drinking doTERRA Trimshakes or green smoothies for breakfast and lunch (more green smoothies on my bucket list for the summer). My kids love smoothies too, so they’ll also be having them when I don’t have steel cut oatmeal made in batches on hand. They are crazy about steel cut oatmeal and love customizing their own. We have tons of fresh fruits and veggies around for snacking and extra fiber throughout the day.
Dinner recipes we’re trying this week: Seared Pork Chops with Apples & Leeks, Southwest Meatballs with warm corn-black bean salsa, Balsamic-Glazed Sirloin with Rustic Sweet Potato Mash from Clean Eating Magazine. I’m switching some things up in these recipes and will post them if I LOVE them! Clean Eating has great tips for cooking meat properly and we have so many random cuts of meat from Christiansen Family Farms, so I’m looking forward to learning more and improving my kitchen skills this summer.
We’re also trying the Easy Cheesy Lasagna from doTERRA’s Summer Sensation recipes:
EASY CHEESY LASAGNA
1 pound lean ground beef
1 (28 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
1 drop dōTERRA oregano essential oil
1 drop dōTERRA black pepper essential oil
1 drop dōTERRA cilantro essential oil
10 ounces of cottage cheese
1 (32 ounce) ricotta cheese
1 cup grated American cheese
½ Tablespoon parsley
½ Tablespoon basil
2 eggs
1 (16 ounce) package ready to use lasagna noodles
8 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
In a large skillet, cook and stir ground beef until brown. Stir in pasta sauce, oregano, black pepper essential oil, and cilantro essential oil and heat through.
In a medium size bowl, combine cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, grated parmesan cheese, eggs, parsley, and basil.
Spread a thin layer of the meat sauce in the bottom of a 13×9 inch pan. Layer with uncooked lasagna noodles, cheese mixture, mozzarella cheese, and meat sauce. Continue layering until all ingredients are used, reserving 1/2 cup mozzarella. Cover pan with aluminum foil.
Bake in a preheated 350° F oven for 40 minutes. Uncover, and top with remaining half cup of mozzarella cheese. Bake for an additional 15 minutes. Remove from oven, and let stand 10 to 15 minutes before serving.
Watch for more of our own experiments with the Summer Sensation oils. If you don’t have these oils yet, ask me how you can get them for FREE!
