For a really different take on the Italian classic, Lasagna, try this unique recipe for French Bread Lasagna.  Instead of lasagna noodles, this recipe calls for half-inch thick slices of French bread.  Tell the kids you are having an international meal to really peak their interest.  Explain that lasagna is usually an Italian dish but this is made with French bread and being eaten in their American kitchen.  Have a little fun with the concept and talk to the kids about the different cultures while you enjoy this meal. 

FRENCH BREAD LASAGNA

1 lb lean ground beef

1/3 cup chopped onion

1/3 cup chopped celery

2 garlic cloves, minced

14 slices french bread (about 1/2″ thick)

4 large tomatoes, sliced about 1/2″ thick

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried parsley flakes

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried crushed rosemary

1 tsp garlic powder

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

2 tsps olive oil, divided

3 tbsps butter

3 tbsps all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups milk

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

In a skillet, brown the beef with the onion, celery, and garlic; drain well and set aside.  Toast bread and line the bottom of an ungreased 13×9x2-inch baking pan or dish with 10 of the slices.  Top slices with half of the meat mixture and half of the tomatoes.  Combine the basil, parsley, oregano, rosemary, garlic powder, salt, and pepper; sprinkle half of the mixture over the tomatoes.  Drizzle with 1 teaspoon of the oil.  Crumble remaining bread slices over the top of the spices and oil.  In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and stir in the flour until smooth.  Gradually stir in milk and bring to a boil.  Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly, about 2 minutes.  Remove from the heat, stir in Parmesan cheese.  Pour over the casserole.  Top with the mozzarella cheese.  Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes or until bubbly and cheese is golden brown.

Yield: 8 to 10 servings.

Enjoy!

A way of expressing your love or gratitude to a person is to buy a gif for him. It’s a matter of great delight when you see the smile of happiness on the receivers face. It’s really a wonderful feeling to experience. But sometimes this approach of buying gifts of the persons choice proves difficult as you cannot really make out what the person needs. Many a times the gift goes in vain and all the efforts put into buying the gift seem useless. Worse than that, it’s a hard feeling to find out that your gift has ended up in the yearly garage sale of that person.

To avoid such experiences and to utilize your time in much better way the only way out is Gift Cards. It’s a new way of expressing your love and gratitude. Yes, Gift Cards are here to save you from the brainstorming work of selecting a gift. Now simply gift a person a Gift Card so he can choose a gift he wants. A gift card is like a cash voucher where the receiver can simply get it remitted wherever and whenever he chooses to do so. More over the gift cards are accepted all over the United States and there is no expiry of that. So whenever the recipient chooses to buy the product of his choice he can simply use the gift card and thank you for such wonderful gift. There are many types of gift cards to choose from like online gift cards, best buy gift cards, Chilis Gift cards, American Express gift cards etc.

It’s a wonderful idea to gift your father a gift card on Fathers day to show how much you love him. Enough of gifting him neckties, socks, wallets or hankies on this day. Usually there is no novelty in such gifts and your father never feels special about your gifts. Instead gift him the Father’s day Gift Card. Using this card he can buy a product whenever and wherever he pleases. If he’s a movie buff he can buy himself new DVD’s, if he’s a sports freak he can buy himself some a new set of Golf Clubs, if he’s a computer geek he can get his system updated or a new or expanded version of his favorite computer game. So much so are the uses that he will buy whatever he needs and will thank you for his heart for such a wonderful gift idea.

Share the happiness with him and let him choose what he wants. It would be the best Father’s Day Gift you have ever thought of for such a wonderful person in your life. You can choose from the recommended Home Depot gift cards, Ticketmaster Gift cards, Orvis gift cards, Dick’s Sporting Goods gift cards, iTunes gift cards for iPods, Frontgates gift cards etc.

Living rooms are the room in the house for entertaining guests, retiring at night to relax and read a book, watch TV or a movie, listen to music and more. Therefore, you can see why there is so much to consider when you choose to design your living room. There are multiple spaces within one space that need to be designed.

More often than not, the television becomes the focal point of the living room. This is great if you spend all your time watching TV, but not so good if you want to make your living room multi functional. Some people have the luxury of having a family room, here they keep the television and leave the living room for more formal occasions and entertaining. Whatever the case, the living room is often the room in which people judge our design taste! You want to make your living room in contemporary, exotic or traditional. Whatever the role design you must choose the fit living furniture. Can we redecorate our living room with a small budget?

Redecorate it does not mean new! You can renew your old stuff by paint or just play with color. If you have furniture made of wood is easier to redecorate with moving, painting, putting accessories and more. Give the touch of elegant and rich you must thing about putting wooden living room furniture. Making your living room multi function not only as family territory but also your guests choose the furniture with the best material. Wood is match with others stuff you just combine with accessories. Get your new and fresh look living room by add more accessories or just move it. Without spent much money and little bit creativity that is the best kind of home decoration

I love Italian dishes and have tried to perfect my lasagna recipe for years. So far this is the best I’ve come up with and enjoy it very well. I’d never used a butter sauce before, but for some reason it seems to add that something special to the results.Lasagna Sauce:1 lb hamburger or ground sirloin1 tsp (more or less to liking) Italian seasoning1 jar Ragu Traditional Spaghetti sauce1 can diced tomatoesButter Sauce:2 TBS butter or margarine2 tsp all-purpose flour (approximate)1/2 cup milk (approximate)Cheese Mixture:1 tub Ricotta cheese1/2 to 1 cup shredded Parmesanbeaten egg (optional)1/4 cup shredded RomanoExtra:several slices Mozarella cheeseGrated ParmesanGrated RomanoLasagna noodlesFor sauce:Brown hamburger or sirloin. When about 3/4 browned, add Italian seasoning. Let brown for about 5 minutes more. Then add Ragu and diced tomatoes. Cook on low heat to blend flavors while making butter sauce.For butter sauce:Melt butter or margarine, add flour, a little at a time and stir until lumps are gone. Add milk gradually and stir until slightly thickened. This shouldn’t be as thick as gravy.For cheese mixture:Blend Ricotta cheese, Parmesan, beaten egg and Romano in a bowl.

Directions:

In a glass baking dish sprayed with Pam, add sauce on the bottom. Then add a layer of lasagna noodles. On top of the noodles add more lasagna sauce, then butter sauce, then the Ricotta cheese mixture, then a couple slices of Mozarella and keep repeating this until your top layer is sauce over noodles. Sprinkle grated Parmesan and grated Romano on top. Cover with aluminum foil and let stand in refrigerator overnight. Next day bake in 350 degree oven for about an hour or until bubbly.If you prefer to bake the same day as you make the lasagna, you’ll need to boil the lasagna noodles until tender. But, making it ahead and leaving in the refrigerator overnight, saves you the trouble and the flavors tend to blend very well.

It’s funny how we all think we know our fathers well – until the time comes when we have to buy a Father’s Day gifts for them. All of a sudden our minds draw blanks. We have ideas that seem great for about 0.3 seconds and then it dawns on us that the presents we’re considering are bland, predictable and most importantly lacking in that special thing – the personal touch. As our name suggests, we know a thing or two about getting personal. Read on and find out why it’s so important.

Compare these two fabulous Gifts:(1) a day spent throwing a screeching Lamborghini around corners at breakneck speed (2) a day being pampered and massaged in a country retreat with scented candles and whale songs, where bath robes and flip flops are the height of fashion. Any father would be thrilled to receive either from their son or daughter, wouldn’t they? Well, no. For some dads, the idea of firing up a V12 and burning some rubber will cause the involuntary rolling of eyes and stifled yawns. For others, any activity that results in a lowering of the heart rate is a pointless, overindulgent exercise. Getting the wrong Father’s Day present for Dad will just go to suggest that you’re confusing the things he would like with the things you would like. Straight away, you’ve failed the personal test.

So we’ve established that however magnificent and expensive a present is, if it’s not bought with him in mind, it’s like giving a fry-up breakfast to a vegetarian. To be truly personal in your gift buying means avoiding stereotypes of “what dads like” and thinking about the actual person you’re buying for. If you get it right, you’ll certainly have made a grand gesture, no matter how much you’ve spent.

We all have experience of receiving presents that show that the giver doesn’t actually know us all that well. If the present is everyday and neutral, like chocolates, a good bottle of wine or a gift voucher, it’s fine. Quite often they are things that you like but rarely buy for yourself – and it would be ridiculous to assume we know everyone intimately. But when the gift tries to tap into your personality but misses by a mile, it can end up being quite embarrassing, especially when they see it on eBay a couple of days later (bundled with last year’s present).

Buying Father’s Day Gifts isn’t like playing golf. You don’t take a drive down the fairway and then chip and putt your way to par. You have to get a hole in one every time. So now is the time to start really thinking about the things that excite your dad. How does he spend his weekends and evenings? Does he follow sport or hate it? Is he just happy to spend time with his family (or, if they’ve flown the nest, your mum)? Is he a gardener? A culture vulture? A thrill seeker? A cinema-goer? A wine connoisseur? At gettingpersonal.co.uk, you’ll find all your personalised gifts in one place.

One thing that can be guaranteed is that once you’ve really given some thought to the loves of his life, finding an appropriate gift will be that much easier. Most importantly, it will be personal. And when you’re showing someone how much you love them, that’s the most important thing of all.

GettingPersonal.co.uk are one of the UK’s leading on-line retailers of Gifts, personalised gifts and Fathers Day Gifts. Their website is packed with over 1,500 gifts for any special occasion.

For more go to www.gettingpersonal.co.uk

You have to know that living room is the room which guest can rest in it so the room must be comfort. Commonly the living room should reflect the owner style in order to be comfortable. Avoid decorating room in a rush. You have to take some time to decorate it. Now you can see few decorating ideas when you read this to help you making perfect of this room.

Eye catching is the most important to this room so you have to be very creative. You have to remember, your decoration must enhance your comfort in this room and the beauty of the room. It is better if you use bright and neutral scheme color of wall. Painting is not to be worried because it will change your living room furniture and decoration without repainting.

Sitting areas must be made cozy by making them in properly in position. You can choose the place of focal point, but it’s better if the focal point is sofas. The focal point must be faced by furniture. You can add more furniture like fireplace, piano or artwork. You have to decorate the focal point to make the living room more style, cozy and comfortable. Don’t forget about others decorating items like paint, murals, carpets and painting. They must be arranged correctly in order to make you feel homely. You can feel homely if you arrange them correctly.  Alternative choice, you can decorate your living room which reflect happy mood or relax. So now do it in your home comfortable

Why is it that dads can be such a challenge when it comes to picking that perfect gift for Father’s Day? He’s your dad; this should be easy, right? Maybe the difficulty comes in having Father’s Day only one month after Mother’s Day. Does your gift for Dad suffer from a lack of creative energy? How about using some of our gift suggestions as a starting point for an awesome Father’s Day gift?

1.) Be Prepared!

All good dads teach their kids this lesson. Use this opportunity to return the favor with a battery-free emergency radio. As anyone in a storm prone area can tell you, an emergency radio is an indispensable part of any emergency preparedness kit. Continuing on with the theme of being prepared, give Dad a new flashlight (with extra batteries) and maybe an emergency case of his favorite beer.

2.) The Gift of Time

Ask any parent what they really want from their kids and they will say more time together. A great Father’s Day gift is the making of family backyard BBQ. Start with a new barbeque tool set. But don’t stop there. Then you need to visit your local store and pick out some of the finest steaks they have (don’t forget to get enough for the whole family) and all the fixings. A gift for dad the whole family gets to enjoy, this gift may be one that becomes a family tradition for years to come.

3.) Start Your Engines

Have a NASCAR dad? With a racing season of nine months and tracks across the country, you can easily get tickets to race for your dad. The race may not be on Father’s Day but he will still love the gift. How do you package such an exciting gift? Why not in a mug with the logo of his favorite NASCAR driver such as Dale Earnhardt, Jr.? He will be so surprised when he finds out what is in the mug and he can relive the memories of race day whenever he uses the mug. Can’t you just see the grin on your dad’s face?

4.) Up in the Air

Does your dad travel for business or enjoy travel for pleasure? Then a new travel bag or trolley bag might be the perfect gift. Luggage can get so beat up during travel. Pack into the bag some travel necessities such as a new toiletry bag filled with all the necessities, a book by your father’s favorite author, and gift card for a nationwide chain restaurant so your dad can enjoy a meal on you after a long day of meetings.

Sometimes we make gift giving too difficult. The best gifts are those items that the recipients already love. So ask yourself, what does my dad enjoy?

5.) Crack Open a Six Pack

Is your dad a beer or wine aficionado? Buy him a bottle (or case) of a unique or memorable wine or a six pack of a limited edition micro-brew. Does he have a favorite game or hobby? Use them to come up with gift ideas, obvious examples are golf balls for golfers or power tools. But consider getting him something he would not buy for himself such as that exotic wood for the cabinet he has always want to build or time with a golf pro to really improve his game.

6.) Turn a Page

Books seem to be an easy out for gift giving. But for a reader, you really can not have too many books. Ask your father for his favorite authors and if he has all their books. Buy him the books missing from his collection or the latest release. If you get this information, a gift certificate for more books would be much appreciated.

We always think about taking Mom out for dinner for Mother’s Day. Why not take Dad out to his favorite restaurant? Give him his Father’s Day gift there while he is enjoying time with those who know and love him the most.

For something a little different try this easy recipe for tasty Lasagna Roll-ups.  It’s quick and easy and combines many healthy items into one dish.  The lasagna provides grain (even a better grain value if you use whole-wheat lasagna), the ground beef provides the meat, spinach adds a healthy vegetable, of course the tomatoes in the sauce are well known to be excellent in reducing one’s cancer risk, and three kinds of cheeses add dairy to the mix.   This would make a great addition to your recipe file.

LASAGNA ROLL-UPS

4 lasagna noodles

1/2 lb. lean ground beef

1 small onion, chopped

1 box frozen spinach, thawed and drained well

8 oz reduced-fat ricotta cheese

1 egg, beaten

1 tsp low-fat milk

1/2 tsp thyme

1/4 tsp salt, optional

2 cups sugar-free spaghetti sauce without meat, divided

1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

Cook noodles according to package directions; rinse and drain.  In a medium  non-stick skillet, cook ground beef and onion until beef is no longer pink.  Drain in a colander and rinse with hot water to remove excess fat.  Rinse pan and wipe with a paper towel.  Add the spinach, ricotta cheese, egg, milk, thyme and salt, if using, to the ground beef.  Mix up well and divide evenly, spreading over the lasagna noodles.  Pour 1/4 cup spaghetti sauce over the meat mixture of each noodle.  Carefully roll up jelly-roll style and place seam side down in an 8-inch square baking dish that has been sprayed with non-stick vegetable oil spray.  Pour the remaining cup of spaghetti sauce over the noodles.  Cover and bake for 45-50 minutes until heated through.  Sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese.

4 servings:  Each contains approximately 350 calories, 33 g carbs and 23 g protein

Note:  You can use lean ground turkey instead of the beef, if you prefer poultry over red meat.

An area rug can be a fabulous addition to the interior design of your home. Area rugs are currently available in a variety of shapes including rectangle, square, oval, round and so on to match your preferences in interior decoration. When you are planning to renovate your home, make sure to utilize round area rugs, the perfect floor furnishing alternative that can significantly enhance your living room décor.Dazzling Colors and Designs for Exceptional Elegance By furnishing the floor of your living room with round area rugs, you can substantially improve its appearance and appeal. Round area rugs make rooms with limited space as well as uniquely shaped and fully furnished living rooms aesthetically appealing. To precisely suit the interior decorations of your home, round area rugs are available in an assortment of eye-catching designs, colors and patterns. By selecting round shaped area rugs of appropriate dimensions and right color combinations you can enhance the overall elegance of the entire space. Light colored round area rugs impart a spacious look for your living room, whereas dark shaded rugs generate more warmth in your living room. At present, to provide better durability, round area rugs made of both natural fibers and synthetic materials including acrylic, polypropylene, sisal, wool, nylon, cotton and jute are widely available in the industry. Cotton rugs can be used in living rooms. Rugs made of natural fibers are more environment friendly, whereas synthetic rugs are stronger. Easy to Maintain and More Durable Another significant benefit of using round area rugs for decorating your living room floors is that, you can easily refashion the entire area by making the minimum of investments. As far as the maintenance process is concerned, these area rugs are easy to clean and are more durable. Before purchasing round area rugs for enhancing the interiors of your living rooms, it is important to purchase area rugs of the right dimensions and design patterns that go well with the interior design of your home.

The living room creates a lasting impression for all who enter. It reveals to your family and guests if you’re formal and elegant or fun-loving and laid-back. The living room sets the mood for the home and should be a reflection of the owner’s personal taste.

A living room can be arranged in many ways. For some, this space is formal and perfect at all times, to be entered and used only when guests come to call. To others, it serves as a comfortable family gathering place for watching TV, doing homework, or visiting.

In the past, living room décor was often symmetrical. Traditionally, a painting is placed above the sofa, and flanked by two end tables topped by lamps. Formal window treatments of luxurious fabrics trimmed with braid and fringe, and perfectly set pairs of occasional chairs and tables follow traditional rules of decorating. Few homes these days have space for such a ideal room that is more to be looked at than used.

Decorating style has evolved to allow a less formal look. While retaining certain elements such as beautiful millwork or lush fabrics, the more casual living room has lighter window treatments and more comfortable furniture. Studied symmetry has given way to softer lines, fewer rules, and more color.

A more casual family room style of living room has a character of nonchalance. While furniture and fabrics should be coordinated, there are few rules. Choices are governed by practicality. Furniture selection and placement is less structured. Seating around a TV is often necessary, with a table for casual eating. In today’s home, the living room may even have a computer center, that would be integrated in to the homes audio/visual system.

Regardless of what purpose your living room serves, the fabrics, colors, furniture, and accessories should be what you love. Whether it’s serene and neutral, colorful and lively, or something in-between, it should reflect your taste. After all, this is truly a room for living.

Living room remodeling projects are extremely important because they involve the hub of the home. Whether you’re looking for details on incorporating historical architecture, adding a luxurious texture to the wall or you just want to fresh change remember to use a licensed contractor for any remodeling requiring a permit, Sovereign Homes will meticulously design and implement a program tailored to your specific needs. From the inception of architectural and interior design to the completed project, we offer a full gamut of renovation services, undertaking projects as small as a kitchen remodel to a full scale renovation.