Book Club recap April – September

Since clearly I have not kept up with the book club update, here is a list and remarks about the books we have read since…APRIL!!!!!!!! Man! That is 7 months ago!!!

Well we have read some good and some bad but that is the point reading books that we normally wouldn’t read and ones that have a great discussion! Book discussion that is! I mean Aaron (and all our boys for that matter) makes fun of us because he thinks we have about a 5min book discussion and a 2 hr gossip and catch up session…which is totally not the case. The truth is we probably have about a 1/2 hour to 45 min of book discussion than catch up 😉 I mean what book clubs actually just talk about just the book the entire time then leave….um probably none of them!

Anyway here is the list:

*April: Just One of The Guys by Kristin Hannah

Goodreads rating was: 3.93 stars and Book Club gave it an average of 3 stars

This was an ok book decided upon book club, but I unfortunately didn’t finish it, this was due to pure exhaustion with being pregnant in my first tri (can you believe it that we are already at the end!!!!). I do plan to eventually pick it back up though!

*May: The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

Goodreads rating was: 3.89 stars and Book Club gave it an average of 0-1 stars, for the pure fact that we all called it quits. The writing style with this book was very hard to get through! It seemed to be very scattered.

*June: We took a break since I was so tired and getting the energy to read just wasn’t happening (there are only 4 of us in the club so when one person doesn’t finish it can take away from the discussion)

*July: Family Pieces by Misa Rush

Goodreads rating was: 3.75 stars and Book Club gave it an average of 3 stars

This book came highly recommended by a friend in my online book club so this was one of my choices that they all chose for this month. We mainly felt that the book wasn’t bad but it took a long time to actually get into the story about the puzzle pieces and we seemed to want to read more about the secondary characters and their stories, which was frustrating.

*August: Emma’s Secret by Steena Holmes

Goodreads rating was: 3.7 stars and Book Club gave it an average of 4 stars

Ok, so lets just say we really enjoyed this book, because we did but we had no idea that this is “technically” a sequel! There is no where that tells you that there is a book before this called Finding Emma. We didn’t realize this until the end of the book where there are authors notes and it says that this was written because of the feedback from Finding Emma. Now even though I felt that reading this as a standalone is ok (because of course after I had to read the first one!) and I didn’t feel that anything in Emma’s Secret was confusing or not explained, it was still a bummer for someone who likes to read books in order!

*September: A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

Goodreads rating was: 3.22 stars and Book Club gave it an average of 2 stars

This was just plain WEIRD!!!!!!!!!!!!! We all can agree that this was just wrong! You think you are getting a somewhat sweet story about a want to be wife who answered an ad, but every chapter it just got weirder. This is really all I can say!

Well those are our books! Please someone recommend some good book club choices!!! (We are reading The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman this month so hopefully I will have something good to report 😉 )

Mini Spinach Lasagna Roll Ups

I know it has been a while since I last posted and I am going to go ahead and say if I can continue to post something at least once a month with these twins coming then it is a success 🙂

These very cute very delicious appetizers that I made for an Olive Oil tasting party we hosted maybe a month ago were such and amazing hit! They were super easy and were just perfect! I even made so many extra’s that I had lunch for a couple days and this was perfect! Easy enough, no? Well with the Holiday’s coming, this will be a perfect appetizer so go ahead and give them a shot 🙂

Here are some pictures of them all prepped and ready for the oven, I was too busy eating them to get any pictures after they were baked, but you get the picture 😉 (please don’t mind my “used” cookie sheet!)

They are even pretty before they are baked!!! Yummo! Anyway here is the recipe (I wish I could say I came up with this on my own but of course Pinterest had some influence):

Ingredients:

1 box of lasagna noodles cooked

1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed & drained

1 (15 ounce) container ricotta

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon Italian seasonings

pasta sauce (your preference)

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (or more if you are like me and love cheese!)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• In a medium bowl combine spinach, ricotta, Parmesan cheese, egg, garlic, and Italian seasonings. Add salt and pepper if desired.
• Pat noodles dry with a paper towel and lay them on parchment or wax paper. Cut each noodle in half width-wise. Fill each noodle with 2-3 tablespoons of the ricotta mixture, leaving an inch empty on one side of the noodle. Start rolling each noodle up, ending on the side that has one inch empty. This is so that the filling doesn’t spill out the end.
• Slice each noodle in half with a sharp knife and place roll seam side down on a greased cookie sheet (I normally cover mine with aluminum foil & spray it with Pam). You can place them pretty close together since they won’t be spreading or anything so pack them babies on there 🙂
• Place some pizza sauce on top of each roll and top each with cheese.
• Bake for 18-20 minutes or until cheese is melted inside. Serve with warm pizza sauce for dipping. (I ate them just like they were! So good!)

Easy enough, no? Well with the Holiday’s coming, this will be a perfect appetizer so go ahead and give them a shot 🙂

Enjoy!