Super Easy Lasagna Recipe

Easiest and most delicious Lasagna recipe using a pressure cooker for the meatballs and sauce! 

Ingredients

2 bottle of tomato purée 

2 mozzarella packages

Parmesan cheese

2 lean ground veal packages (if you buy the veal at the butcher, tell them to double grind it) 

1 package of lasagna noodle

Italian style bread crumbs 

1 egg (I don’t use eggs because of allergies)

Onion/garlic 

Olive oil 

Turn the sauté setting on the pressure cooker, add olive oil, (I don’t have specific measurements, but coat the whole bottom of the pot with oil!) Slice some onion very thin and 1 garlic very thin. Let these cook in oil then add the bottles of tomato purée you can add some water to jars to get all the sauce out and pour in the pot. Season with oregano/basil/ Italian blend. I also sprinkle Parmesan in the sauce mm mmm. 

Add veal to a bowl, season with with garlic powder, salt. (Any seasonings you like) Add breadcrumbs, little at a time and some olive oil. Mix with hands and form the meatballs.

Place the meatballs in sauce.

Set the pressure cooker to Soup/stew 30min!! 

(follow your pressure cooker/instapot directions) 

When sauce and meatballs are done... release the steam and open your pressure cooker. 

spoon out meatballs with some sauce in a bowl. 

Mash up the meat balls set aside. Make as saucy as you like. 

Cook lasagna noodles.

Drain. 

Get out your baking dishes to prepare the lasagna! 

Add sauce on the bottom of each dish, place lasagna noodles, meat sauce, mozzarella, lasagna, repeat. I think I did 3 layers. 

Once you get to the top, the last layer. Add the noodles and add sauce only, top with mozzarella and parmesan cheese 

Wrap with foil. Cook 30 min at 400F. 

Then remove the foil, cook another 15 mins

And done! A yummy Sunday dinner! Or Christmas lunch like we just had! Enjoy! This is the exact recipe my mother used for our Sunday lunches, minus the pressure cooker, ha! But the sauce and lasagna is sooo yummy! You’ll never know the difference!  

P.S save the extra sauce in jars for other dishes you can make during the week.

Great Wolf Lodge fun and tips!

For the past 4 years, we’ve had a Christmas tradition of going to Great Wolf lodge! I’m pretty sure I have many posts from the past about it!

Great Wolf can totally be done on a budget but also can get quite expensive with all the ad ons. Since we have been many times and know what we like, we budget in advanced for the cost! 

We usually stay 1 night. We’ve done 2 nights in the past, just depends on the great deal you get ha!

The water park opens at 9am, so the day you check in you can get there early and enjoy the water. Even though check in is later on. You can just leave your bags at the front and they will bring them over to your room. Then you can grab a locker in the water park and put the rest of your things after you change and head in the water! Or! Get the cabana!

The past few times we went with family, we split the cost of the cabana.

We love getting the cabana for the group. Instead of getting a locker you can just put your stuff in the cabana and there’s a safe too. So get there for 9am and go straight to your cabana, The cabana comes with towels, water, juice, some fruit and some snacks. They also deliver your food right to the cabana :) 

We always get the meal plan. It’s definitely worth it. Kids under 3 are free so that’s great too.

For the lunch the dads got burgers and fries, the moms got chicken fingers and fries haha (salads available too) the kids got pizza and hotdogs.


My older son was the height for all the slides but the rest of the littles could only go on a few. But there’s a wave pool, kids hottub, adult hot tub too, lots of slides for the big kids and the little kids Ha! Even the dads had a blast.


Great Wolf lodge isn’t only about the water park. It’s the whole experience.  At Christmas it’s fully decorated with lights and it’s soo festive! We love it! Santa even shows up for pics! 

Oh back to the meal plan. The meal plan comes with lunch, dinner at the buffet and breakfast at the buffet. 

They have a good selection of food and desserts.

My little guy was standard with the nuggets, fries and pasta. 

Mr K had everything, from salmon, mussels, pasta, Mac and cheese, ribs and a huge ice cream bowl with all the toppings.


We stayed in the water park until 4pm (water park is open 9am-9pm) then headed to the room to get some rest, shower and come out in our Pj’s for for dinner. That’s a must at great wolf! 

We always get the wolf den suite with bunk beds for the kids! 

In the evening there’s soo much to do at great wolf lodge. 

They had a snow fall! (Bubbles)

Story time for the kids! 

PJ dance party! 

They have a few cafes for mom and dad to get coffee or delicious sweets and ice cream  haha

Our kids have had the paw pass in the passed

Which gave them their wolf ears, magiquest wands (which we activate every year) and their stuffed animal (which you choose and stuff when you get a paw pass)

The magiquest game is all over GreatWolf lodge so it’s always a fun game with the kids and adults going through the stairwell and all the floors waving their wands.

Ohhh and I can’t forget the arcades. We always end the evening at the arcades. Playing allll the games!

We all had a blast! 

Mama T tips!

Bring bathing suits haha duh!

Flip flops! 

Robes for the kids is good for when they walk over to the room.

Pj’s! 

Waterproof phone cases!

I recommend getting the meal plan too.

Bring snacks for your room for the night while you cozy up and watch a movie with your fam. I brought water bottles, chips, candy, granola bars. 

If I think of anything else I’ll add it in the comments.

Or just DM me on Instagram and I’ll be happy to answer any questions!


Since the falls is just around the corner and it was a nice Sunday afternoon. We stopped by the falls and even did the journey behind the falls! 150 ft down by elevator and through the tunnels, behind the falls! 

Ha! Those rain coats were needed. 

The kids were fascinated. 

**this post is not an ad, although may sound like one ha! Just sharing my family adventures! - Mama T

Mason jar portion fix meals!

If you've been following me on instagram (aka_mama_t)

Then you have been seeing all my tips and inspiration on
eating healthy and a healthy balance of it all.

I came across the idea of the Mason Jar salads and quickly realized that
I will use these jars as my quick, go to lunches!
Not only with salads either. You'll see below!

Using my portion fix containers, I decided to make a warm lunch in my mason jars.
The mason jars save space in my fridge too, so I love that. No plates or big containers taking up space.

So to meal prep at the beginning of the week. I grabbed the costco ready made chicken I had in the fridge and frozen veggies and made a quick stirfry. I also made some oven baked sweet potato chunks.

Using my portion fix containers, I just scooped what I needed.
1. The Red container for the chicken (1 Red/protein)
2. The Green container for the veggies (1 Green/veggie)
3. The Yellow Container for the sweet potato(1 Yellow/carbs)








Super easy meal prep. Everyday this week I had lunch in the fridge ready for me!
I just grabbed a mason jar that was already made to the exact portions I need for lunch.
Poured them into a bowl and heated it up in the microwave. I added a touch of hot sauce
and lunch was warm and delish!






The week before I made loaded salads in my mason jars. Soo good too!

1. Red container for the chicken (1 Red/ Protein)
2. Purple container for apples (1 purple/ Fruit)
3. Green container for spinach (1 Green/Veggie)
4. Yellow container for quinoa (1 yellow / Carb)
5. Orange container for balsamic dressing (1 orange/ dressing)
6. Blue container for feta (0.5 blue/fats)

To ensure my spinach didn't get soggy, I put the dressing at the bottom.
Then added the quinoa, chicken, apples, spinach and feta.
Easy to grab from the fridge, toss in a bowl and eat my yummy lunch!



See, super easy! What are your go to lunches? Be sure to share them with me too!

MrM 4

This little cutie started junior kindergarten! 

Ohmygosh he was the absolute cutest. So brave, sooo ready, soo determined to check out this “school” thing. 

No tears and he was totally chill about it. Although after the first day he asked me where I went when I “left him there all day” haha 

Umm making 2 lunches felt so stressful the first day. Was I packing enough, will they like it, will the eat it. 

Good news. They ate it allllll, the both of them! Little M said he ate it all by himself with no help and he was soo proud to talk about it. He is loving his independence, 

He’s grown  so much over the summer and it was shocking to see him so put together and ready to begin this new stage! The boys always surprise me with their courage. 

Big bro was amazed too, and he’s so happy to have little brother in the same school. 


The second day of school he had show and tell. He brought his Spider-Man mask and couldn’t wait to show his friends.

He strolled in the school yard, didn’t even look back.  

He came home talking about his time at  recess with friends and the conversation they had. Haha

He told big brother that he said prayers in class. 🙏🏻

Just melted my heart. 

My little not so baby, baby boy, off to school ❤️

When in Rome pt 2

When the kids keep asking to GO back to Italy, you KNOW it was a good trip. We weren’t there for long! Yet still it left an impression on them :) memories they will have forever.

Our  FULL day in Rome, we spent the day in Vatican City.  See pt 1. <—- 

The next day we slept in and decided to eat breakfast at a restaurant near our place. It’s true what they say... sitting down for breakfast will cost you! It was $60 euros for sandwiches, coffees, and toasted bread. Ha! When in Rome tho! 

After our bellies were full, we hopped in a taxi and went straight to the Colosseum.

A beauty to see in person! We had amazing weather too. 

The lines were long. So we did pay for a skip the line tour. The kids were awesome in the Vatican with a guided tour, but I think we were all a bit more tired than the day before. So we got in and then ditched our tour guide and walked around. The kids got to explore at their own fast pace ha! Plus, we gave the kids, a brief “kid” version of what down in there :/ 



How amazing are my pics tho :) 

These boys were facinated! 

We spent a few hours here taking it all in. 

When traveling with kids, the main thing is, know your kids, know your family. Every family is different, every kid is different. Some do well with fast pace, some don’t, some need snacks every second (my kids) some kids don’t. 

. 

It seems like we covered a lot in just 2.5 days, and we did,  but we actually took our time and didn’t cram it in. We know our kids and we like to take it easy. No rush, no over booking ourselves. A slow pace, so we can take it all in and not feel overwhelmed. 

After the Colosseum I knew the kids were tired. We didn’t want to continue walking too much around the grounds and end up too exhausted for the evening. So instead we hopped on the hop on hop off bus. We didn’t hop off until it was our stop near the  Spanish steps. But in the meantime we learned about all the historical sights a long the way. Mr K was paying close attention and ended up feeding us some of the information later on that night. 





Oh, and don’t forget to buy the kids a little souvenir or something to hold them over a bit longer, ha! They called these mushy balls they bought from a street vendor “doctor pimple poppers” ha! And that was the joke the whole trip. 






Once we hopped off at our stop, we had a little walk to our place. 

A scenic fun walk. 

We took in the calm fresh Rome air and talked about ... dinner of course haha well, gelato first then dinner. 





In Italy, they fill the wine glass right up to the rim! 


Ahhhh take me back! 

One more post to come! Yummy food and last evening in Rome before a 7 day cruise! Sicily! Malta! Spain, France and Genova!