Manicotti/Lasagna Roll Ups

I know that I have brought up a typical day in the cookin' in heels house before, but another standard practice is that I arrive at home, change into sweats, take her royal Arnie-ness on a walk,

work out (on a good day, but who am I kidding . . . this hasn't happened in months), then set to cooking.  And, a good 25% of the time, I stand in the pantry, hand on head, with a crinkled nose and generally pissed off expression, wondering what in the WORLD I'm going to make for supper because necessary item a, b, or c is not in the pantry (or fridge, or freezer, or liquor cabinet) like I thought. 

This . . . is exasperating.  I found myself in such a situation just days ago, when I had intended to make some lasagna roll-ups for two.  They were to be heatlhy and easy and PASTA, so it sounded good to me!  But alas, my ricotta cheese had . . . how shall we say . . . gone bad.  Turned pink, to be exact, which I'm pretty sure is not a sign of freshness.  So I set off to make something else!  Something tasty!  Something so the BF wouldn't keep asking "When's dinner?  What are we having?  When will it be ready?"

I boiled four lasagna noodles, let them cool, then browned a quarter of a pound of ground beef with a small white onion.  To that I added the usual suspects: red pepper, basil, garlic, salt, pepper, and oregano.  I let the mixture cool, then mixed in about 1/4 cup of toasted bread crumbs, a tablespoon of parmesan, 1/4 cup of mozzarella, and an egg white.

I layed each noodle out and put two layers of baby spinach on the noodle, followed by 1/4 of the beef mixture, then rolled them up and put them in a small baking dish that had about 3 tablespoons of store bought pasta sauce in the bottom.  I dumped some more sauce over the top, sprinkled it with more mozzarella, and threw the darn thing into the oven, hoping it would turn out.

AND IT DID!  I was quite pleased with myself.  The BF inquired as to whether there was more sauce (thank GOD I had dumped a decent amount over the top of the pasta.  I wouldn't want to leave him sauceless, after all) but told me that it was good! 

Sometimes making things up on the fly works out.  But I will never leave ricotta unsupervised again.

I saw these shoes in a magazine (Allure, maybe?  I can't remember) a few months ago while I was getting my hair did, and promptly snapped a picture with my phone and zipped the picture over to a pal in Tennessee with directions to find them because, obviously, I had to have them.  They were nowhere to be found.  Until recently.

Image via Nordstrom.

While I would be slightly concerned that the buckle would chafe my delicate ankles, it would be worth it.