Stacey's Lasagna

I've been taking the lazy way out and buying frozen lasagnas for a while now. SuperDad finally complained and said that homemade lasagna was much better, so I decided to go for it. I couldn't find my old lasagna recipe, so I made up this one. The whole family loved it! I'm definitely keeping this one in a handy place! :)

Stacey's Lasagna

Ingredients:

1 24 oz. (1 1/2 lb.) container cottage cheese or ricotta cheese
5 oz. container shredded parmesan cheese (not the grated powdery stuff)
12 lasagna noodles, cooked
1 lb. ground turkey
1/4 to 1/2 lb. turkey breakfast sausage, crumbled
1/2 large or 1 small onion, finely diced
1/2 red bell pepper, finely diced
Salt, pepper
1/4 cup cooked and crumbled bacon (can use real bacon bits, but not the imitation kind)
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp. prepared basil pesto (sun-dried tomato flavored pesto works well, too)
2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1 jar spaghetti sauce, any flavor
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
1 10 oz. bag baby spinach, rinsed and roughly chopped (can cut stems off, but not necessary)
1 1/2 lbs. shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1. Combine cottage cheese with parmesan cheese and let sit, covered.

2. Cook lasagna noodles until just done, turn off heat, and let sit in water until ready to use. (Edited to add: MAKE SURE you dry these on some paper towels before you layer them in the lasagna or you will end up with a nice watery mess and your people will complain.)

3. In large skillet or pot, brown ground turkey and sausage (chopping with spatula to break up chunks) with onion and bell pepper until meat is cooked through and vegetables are tender. Season with salt and pepper. Add bacon pieces, minced garlic, balsamic vinegar and pesto, stirring well to combine. Cook on medium-high heat about 1 minute, then stir in tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce and spinach. Stir well to combine and cook until it starts to bubble, then remove from heat.

4. In a deep 9x13 lasagna pan (I used the foil disposable kind - easy clean-up!), layer the following in order:
* Meat sauce - just enough to lightly cover bottom of pan
* 3 cooked noodles
* 1/4 of the cottage cheese mixture
* 1/4 of the sauce left in the pot
* 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
* Repeat layers three more times, ending with shredded mozzarella on top.

5. Bake at 350 for about 30 to 45 minutes or until bubbly and cheese is melted.

Hamburger Casserole

This is another recipe from Mow Mow, my grandma. This was always one of my favorite things that she made. The combination of the cream cheese, sour cream, and green onions is so tasty!

(This recipe makes a lot, so you might want to half the recipe, or make it all and just freeze half. It freezes really well.)

2 lbs. hamburger meat
1 1/3 tsp. salt
1 2/3 tsp. sugar
2 - 16 oz cans tomatoes
2 - 8 oz cans tomato sauce
3 cloves garlic, chopped
pepper to taste
2 - 5 oz packages wide noodles
1/2 pint sour cream
2 - 3 oz packages cream cheese
12 chopped green onions
2 cups grated mild cheddar cheese

Brown meat in a skillet. Cook for 10 minutes with sugar, salt, and garlic. Add tomatoes and tomato sauce.
Cook noodles, drain but do not rinse. Add sour cream and cream cheese. Stir until cheese melts.
Chop green onions.
In a buttered casserole dish, alternate noodles, meat, onions, and grated cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

Links!!

I've been trying out new recipes from around the blogosphere for a while now, and I just had to share a few of the links with you!

Super Easy CrockPot Lasagna - Sweet mercy, this is probably the best lasagna cooking method ever! The CrockPot Lady isn't kidding when she says it really works. Here's what I did differently... I doubled up on the sauce, added a pound of ground turkey, and substituted monterey jack cheese instead of mozzarella because I'm a doofus and bought the wrong kind (it was also cheaper at our Wal Mart). I also left out the hard-boiled eggs because I didn't want SuperDad to have to go to the hospital with a bad case of anaphylactic shock. It was REALLY REALLY tasty, though! I had a good bit of leftover sauce and spinach, so I added the spinach to the sauce, cooked it down, and canned it in a large jar. We'll be having that with some spaghetti later in the week. (Edited to add: if you make it this way, you'll need to watch to make sure the edges don't burn... not sure what I'm doing wrong, but the last several times I've made this in the crockpot, it burns around the edges, even if I turn it off earlier than you're supposed to. Everyone has been complaining, so I need to find a better way to do this one. Maybe I'll just buy frozen lasagnas and see how they like that? LOL)

Really yummy biscuits - Shannon posted this recipe as a Works-for-Me-Wednesday a long time ago, and I've been making them ever since. They really are good, and you can serve them for breakfast with jam (or honey!), or with your favorite meal. They're sweet, but not too sweet to have with a meatloaf, you know?

Penne with Shrimp - I found this in the Pioneer Woman Cooks archives and had to try it! We've modified it a little... we add broccoli and make extra sauce. We all love this one! (Note to self: add to menu plan for next month.) Also really good if you substitute chicken for the shrimp and add spinach instead of broccoli.

If this site doesn't make you want to go out and buy supplies to make your own cheese, nothing will. I SO want to make some fresh mozzarella... yum.

Sorta-Soba Bowls

I love my Rachael Ray cookbook, and that's where I found this recipe. My local grocery store didn't have some of the ingredients, so I substituted and modified to fit my family's tastes. It came out really well!

1 pound whole wheat spaghetti

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 medium onion, sliced into thin strips

1 cup julienned carrots

2 medium zucchini, sliced in half lengthwise and cut into 1/2 inch-thick slices

8 oz. package fresh sliced mushrooms (or 2 cans pieces and stems)

1/2 head cabbage, cut into 1/2 inch slices or 1-inch squares

32 oz. box chicken broth

1 tablespoon ground coriander (a definite must)

1 teaspoon white pepper

1/2 teaspoon ginger

salt (check before serving - I never add enough salt and people complain)

soy sauce for serving (I use Kikkoman low-sodium with no MSG)

lemon or lime wedges for serving

chili-garlic sauce for serving (found in the Asian foods section)

OPTIONAL: cooked, shredded meat (turkey, chicken, pork, beef, whatever - we had some turkey that SuperDad had cooked on the BBQ grill that he added to his for lunch the next day)

First, start the water going for the noodles (4 quarts heavily salted water for 1 pound spaghetti noodles).

While the spaghetti noodles are cooking, place 2 tablespoons extra light olive oil in a large soup pot and turn on to medium-high heat. Cook the onion, garlic, carrots, and zucchini until the onions and zucchini start to get tender, about 5 minutes (more if you're like me and the pan wasn't hot enough). Add the mushrooms and cabbage and cook for another 5 minutes or until the mushrooms and cabbage start to look fully cooked. Add the chicken broth and seasonings and bring up to a boil (if you want to add more broth or water to make it more soupy, go ahead - one box was perfect for the amount of veggies I had - it just came to the top of the veggies in the pot). Simmer for about 5-10 minutes, depending how crisp you want the veggies to still be. Remove from heat. Your noodles should be pretty close to done by now. When they're done, drain and toss with olive oil and a little salt.

To serve, put noodles in individual bowls. Ladle the soup/veggies on top and serve with soy sauce and a squeeze of lemon or lime juice. Two of my kids ate it this way with no problem. The Tiny Man would have rather eaten just plain noodles. SuperDad and I added a small amount of chili-garlic sauce to ours, and it added just the right amount of extra flavor and spice for us.

Side note: If your people require meat at every meal (like mine apparently do), then at this point, they'll start to fuss at you, and you'll have to go get the leftover turkey out of the fridge so they can satisfy their carnivorous side. I had mine vegetarian and it was still great.

For lunch the next day, I just added the leftover noodles to the leftover soup and veggies, added a couple of shakes of soy sauce and some lime juice and reheated. Big Brother, the Princess, and I all enjoyed it like this for lunch. The Tiny Man, however, had a PB&J.

Beef Bake

2 cups cooked macaroni
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
3/4 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion, optional
2 cups grated cheese
8 ounce can tomato sauce
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
large can chopped or stewed tomatoes

Cook meat, celery and peppers together. Add rest of ingredients (except cheese) and place in a casserole dish. Sprinkle with cheese and bake 350 degrees for 30 minutes.