As per your requests.....

So Tex Mex Lasagna is not my recipe per say, but I have played around with it a little. The original recipe was taken from Dinners Done Right, which I am a total advocate for, but that's not what this entry is about. I may have also stumbled upon a similar recipe on the Cooking Light website in my quest for an image...

I am about to share how I make my award winning... ok, maybe not award winning, but relatively popular Tex Mex Lasagna recipe and an adaptation for crock pot. WooT for the Crock Pot Mod!  Also, this recipe can be made as a meatless meal... Not how I prefer it, but still quite tasty.

WHAT YOU"LL NEED:

1 can Tomato Sauce

1 can Black Beans, rinsed and drained

1 can Stewed Tomatoes (I use the kind with Chilies in them)

1 jar of Pace Chunky Salsa (here you can also choose your own flavor of salsa, but for liquid content, I stick with this brand)

1 small bag of Frozen Corn

1 bag (2 cups) Shredded Cheese (usually use Mexican Blend, but here again, plain cheddar or Monterrey Jack would be good as well)

Box of Lasagna Noodles (I use the Oven Ready or No Boil noodles from Barilla for obvious reasons)

-----HERE IS WHERE YOU STOP if you don't want MEAT----- (see also, boring)

Approximately 2 cups of Diced Chicken  (Now I get all Sandra Lee: Semi-Homemade here and use the grilled frozen strips because they only need a little chopping and they are ready to go into the dish. They are also precooked, which means I can worry less about contamination and more about preparation.)

TO PREPARE:

Ok since you probably know how to build a lasagna, I will only share this: There apparently IS a right and wrong way to stack the noodles.

So you'll be layering a little bit of everything in each layer. But make sure you put a little sauce in the bottom, and you can even grease/ spray you baking dish for (hopefully) easier clean up.

Bake this bad boy for about 30-45 minutes, depending on size and depth of the dish @ 450° F (Look for bubbly sauce and tender noodles.)

Should be perfect with a dollop of sour cream!

---- CROCK POT MOD -----

I use a 6 Quart Oval Crock Pot so four hours on low is enough for me. Should be enough for anyone assuming you do no more than three layers. If your crock pot is smaller, you may want to adjust the time.

Now I wish I had a beautiful image of a delectible layered lasagna to share here... alas, I don't BUT it would (and sorta does on a good day) look like this:

If you have tried this recipe with modification such as corn tortillas or added things like olives or chillies or green onions, I am sure it was great! Please let me know about it, I'd love to try your recipe. Thanks!

Am I addicted to farming?

Well, it all happened pretty suddenly. One day I am purposely neglecting my Myspace page, rarely checking my (junk) email, and basically blissfully unaware. I decide (much in the same way I decided to create a Myspace page), that I need to see someone else’s Facebook page. You basically need an account for this, of course. So I’m just going to take a look, not add anyone or anything silly like that… Well little did I suspect I would be not only using Facebook, but encouraging my whole extended family to log on. Or actually, discovering that much of my extended family was ALREADY on Facebook.

I’m in marketing, I need to be on top of the latest technology. That is what I told myself. In the beginning that is…


It sorta happened against my better judgment and really against my will, but after receiving and ignoring the tens, actually many, many tens of “join our crew” or “So-and-so needs you to help out on their farm,” I finally broke down to check it out.

HERE’S where they suck you in…. FIRST you get to design your character. Who doesn’t want to have pigtails and wear overalls? Then they make it real easy, the first 5 levels of all of their games fly by at breakneck speeds, and you barely realize that in day one you are in level 7… You end up stumbling away from your computer dazed and dehydrated, since you can’t leave the game because everything is set on timers. But you have been successful, you earn ribbons, and find lost sheep. You gain a sense of accomplishment, or really, determination.

See, you want to buy the next available crop, or animal or whatever, but you have to gain experience points in order to “purchase” with game money (farm coins & farm cash) any of the really cool stuff. As we well know in real life, no one needs any sort of ACTUAL experience in order to get ridiculously in debt, so why should this game be any different? Ha ha, it isn’t, in fact, you can get into REAL debt by purchasing Farm Cash with REAL, cold hard cash! Hurray! A true American story! Software company makes millions of dollars off of unsuspecting stay at home mom’s and unsuspecting college kids… I say millions because according to Zynga, the company who created and runs the game, there are over 69 million users. Of FarmVille. One game of 16 available on Facebook alone! They are doing very well for themselves without a doubt, even without the class action lawsuit pending for $5 mill...

I digress.

So assuming you haven’t wasted money, or valuable time spent sleeping on playing FarmVille you get the pop-up, asking if you want to send “free gifts” to your friends… of course this is a crazy pop-up, and totally in your line of vision for you cow who needs milking… and THEN the people start sending YOU “free gifts”…

Free gifts are great and totally returnable (read sell-able) just like bad Christmas or Birthday presents. These free gifts are like a never ending birthday party, and you don’t even have to listen to terrible birthday song, which is totally copyrighted and owned indirectly by the AOL Time Warner company(until at least 2030), just in case you wondered. But don’t worry, all royalties go to charities.

Again I digress.

I guess what it comes down to is that the game creates that interaction between people, that doesn’t happen enough in real, everyday life. The act of giving. I know that some people give in order to procure their own gifts, but I don’t think that matters because for a brief time, the receiver is happy and feels special.

This game, FarmVille, actually brought my family together for a fun dinner and bonding. People who hadn’t seen each other in at least six months, some, more than a year! How can that be a negative thing? Sure these games are addictive, but it’s because they are so easy. Who wouldn’t want to sit down after a long day of work and just do something fun, easy, and relaxing. (Except, of course, when the internet or game server had issues, but hey, it IS beta.)

So yes, I am going to wave my FarmVille flag proudly, and marvel at the adorable animal graphics, because I like free games. I like black sheep. And gosh darn it, I like pink cows that give strawberry milk! I may even buy the matching coffee mug.

Addicted? No. A fan? Totally…

So I’ll be sure to be back after I have harvested my crops. Oh yeah, those are pictures of my farm. ;)  Feel free to leave me your comments.