One Pot, 1/2 Hour Lasagna? Thank You, Ninja Cooking System.

I got myself the Ninja Cooking System for Mother's Day.  I have seen them at Target for a while, but thought it was just a REALLY expensive Crock-Pot.  While trying to find something for my mom, I saw it and actually looked at what it was.  After some convincing that it was okay to spend that much, I got it.  (I got it at Kohl's with a 20% off and $30 Kohl's cash, so it didn't sting quite as bad.)  It came with a little recipe book, and this was one of them.  My favorite part about it so far is the clean up.  It took me two minutes to wash it, threw the spoon in the dishwasher, and I'm calling it good.

I followed this recipe, except I used chicken Italian sausage instead of hamburger.  Next time, I'll use ground turkey.  The kids didn't really like it, and I'm guessing that's why.  A little too spicy for them, perhaps.

Seriously, though.  10 minutes of sausage cooking, 20 minutes with the pasta, sauce, and water.  3 minutes after you add the spinach and cheese mixture, and you're DONE.  The only prep was to clean the spinach and mix together the cheeses, which was easily done during the 20 minute stretch.

So far, I'm a big fan of this thing.  Just the clean up alone is worth it.

 I forgot to take a picture before we dug in, but here is what was left.

*UPDATE* I just threw this into LoseIt with 10 oz of ground turkey. If you go with 6 servings, each one is only 284 calories!

**UPDATE, UPDATE** I forgot to buy fresh spinach this time, so I used frozen. Worked like a charm. I've made this three times now, and have decided I'll never stop. Easy, tasty, and the clean up is next to nothing. I'm in the middle of a deep clean and wanted minimal impact. This baby did the trick. 

My New Favorite Frosting Recipe and Cute Cupcake Liners

There are a few things I look for in a frosting recipe.

1.  Crisco scares the crap out of me.  Absolutely NO Crisco is allowed.
2.  It can't be too hard or time consuming.

Okay.  Two rules.  I have two rules when I'm looking for a new frosting recipe.

On this particular occasion, I was also looking for a frosting I could color and use to pipe decorations onto the cake.  This recipe seemed easy enough and fit the bill.  *UPDATE* The link in this pin isn't working.  This is the recipe.

The hardest part was not eating all of it before it made it onto the cake.  The second hardest part was waiting for the cream cheese and butter to come to room temperature.

I only made half of this recipe and it was enough for the little cake, 16 cupcakes, PLUS a bunch leftover that I planed on using as a strawberry dip.

I also went ahead and tried this pin while I was at it.  I had white cupcake liners that I bought quite a while ago, and it was easy enough.  A little messy, but worth it.  You could have a lot of fun with a tie dye effect, if you wanted to.  I did notice that it's better when the color on the liner is a different color than the frosting.

No Bake Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries

Who wouldn't want to try this pin, right?  I've seen it 1200 times since I joined the (stupid) Pinterest world.  Now that strawberries are cheap again (someone remind me to find out if Cracker Barrel has strawberry shortcake yet), I decided it was time.  Here is what I learned, short and simple.

1.  It was impossible to make them pretty.
2.  The cheesecake was instantly thick, which made it quite difficult to control.
3.  My wrists really hurt after I was done.  (Flashbacks to decorating cakes with fudge for Christmas at TCBY.)
4.  You have to leave the stem on, or there is a hole at the bottom.
5.  Leaving the stem on makes them somewhat difficult to eat.
6.  If you use the 1/3 less fat (fake) cream cheese, light Cool Whip, and sugar free pudding, these are only about 25 calories a piece.

I actually made these in two batches, because it made so much of the cheesecake and I had two huge containers of strawberries (and I ended up eating 1/4 of them while cutting the X in them, because I cut too far).  The first batch I made like the original pin (the top two strawberries). But, after discovering that it's a pain in the rear to make, and eat, I decided to do the second batch upside down like this pin (bottom three).  It was way easier to make, but the cheesecake slid right out.  Plus, you couldn't fit as much in the strawberries.  I actually only filled enough to take this (really bad) picture, then I used the rest as a dip.

So, they tasted great, but I won't make this particular recipe again.