Rainy Days and Monday

Ah Mondays. Check email, boil water for tea and coffee in the French press, charge cellphone, make tea and coffee, eat breakfast (2 eggs), brush teeth, get dressed, go to the gym...phew!

Met a friend at the gym today. My friend is a cardio junkie, self proclaimed, so burning 600 calories today shouldn't be a problem. I did a little elliptical, then the rowing machine, then some arm and ab stuff, hit the bike (lame, I know), military press with the kettle bell, Russian twists with the 8# medicine ball...almost done, more crunches on the bosu, S-T-R-E-T-C-H...done.

Sadly, the steam room is undergoing some maintenance, so no steam today. OK, really DONE. I checked my heart rate monitor, burned 660 calories. I feel good about today. I brought some almonds and a banana (ate half) AND drank a lot of water.

Went to lunch, I'll tell you about that place in a later post. Asian food, kept it healthy.

Dinner for my family, hmmm. It's Fall and raining on and off, so comfort food is in order. Tonight I googled pasta, spinach, and ground beef and this is what I came up with - Beef Florentine. I love the last minute google dinner. I usually have luck with the recipes on AllRecipe.com so to the kitchen I went. Pretty easy to follow recipe and all I did was added garlic bread and red wine.

Beef Florentine
from Allrecipes.com

OK, just ok. I probably won't make this again. Nothing was wrong with it, I added a couple more cloves of garlic and red pepper flakes. I used frozen diced tomatoes from my friend's garden instead of the canned tomato sauce in the recipe. Oh, I also steamed my own spinach and used colby-jack cheese instead.

Ingredients:
2 cups medium egg noodles
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped
spinach, thawed and drained
1 (8 ounce) container cottage cheese
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
8 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
Directions:
1.
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta, and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
2.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
3.
In a skillet over medium heat, brown the ground beef until evenly brown; drain excess fat. Season with oregano, salt and pepper. Stir in tomato sauce and water. Remove from heat, and stir in cooked noodles.
4.
In a medium bowl, combine spinach, cottage cheese, onion, and Parmesan cheese. Spread half of noodle mixture in a large casserole dish. Layer with all of spinach mixture, then cover with remaining noodle mixture.
5.
Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Cover with mozzarella, and continue cooking 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted.
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