Meat Lasagna

I found this Lasagna recipe on AllRecipes. I made a couple tweaks but nothing major. I omit the parsley and used oregano instead of basil. I used spicy sausage and ground turkey. I reduced the sugar from 2 tbsp to 1 tbsp and I think the sauce was still very sweet. Next time I will omit the sugar completely and add some red pepper flakes.

Served with my Italian Bread recipe!

Update 9/2015: I've made it again, yummy! I will say it is better if you keep it covered while cooking for almost the entire time as it doesn't dry out as much. Instead of making one large pan I split it into two 9x9 pans and froze the other. To reheat - defrost overnight in the fridge and bake covered for 1-2 hours.

Meat Lasagna

Makes a heaping 9 x 13 baking dish

1 pound Italian sausage (sweet or spicy)
3/4 pound lean ground beef (or ground turkey)
1/2 cup minced onion
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoons white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil leaves (or oregano)
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (optional)
1 box lasagna noodles
16 ounces ricotta cheese
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups grated mozzarella cheese
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

In a large pot, cook sausage, ground beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until well browned.

Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Season with sugar, basil, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning, 1 tablespoon salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons parsley. Simmer, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg, remaining parsley, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

To assemble, spread 1 1/2 cups of meat sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Arrange noodles over meat sauce. Spread with one third of the ricotta cheese mixture. Top with handful of the mozzarella. Spoon 1 1/2 cups meat sauce over mozzarella and repeat the layers.

Cover with foil: to prevent sticking, either spray foil with cooking spray, or make sure the foil does not touch the cheese.

Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil, and bake an additional 25 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.

Cheesy Tomato Sauce

You know when you the cooking gods are smiling and you make something really really tasty? Well this pasta sauce was created on one of those lucky cooking days. It is a simple semi-homemade sauce recipe for when you need to make dinner with limited ingredients!

Cheesy Tomato Sauce
makes 4-8 servings

1 lb ground turkey
1 onion, diced
2 big cloves of garlic, minced
1 Thai chili pepper, small mince
3 shakes of Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp dried or freshly chopped basil, oregano
1 jar of pasta sauce (I used tomato basil)/Canned no flavor tomato sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Heat oil in large frying pan. Saute onion, garlic, and pepper together. Once starting to soften add the meat. Season with the worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Cook meat until done. Add spices and tomato sauce and let it simmer until you are ready to eat. If you want to make it cheesy, stir in the mozzarella until it is combined and melted. Let it simmer for another 10 (ish) minutes then serve over pasta!

Hearty Vegetable Lasagna

Wow! Life can sure get hectic! Kind of dropped the ball on my 100th post and celebrating the blog's 1 year! Hope you enjoy post # 99 and stay tuned for 100!

Here is a veggie lasagna which used the Hearty Vegetable Lasagna recipe for inspiration. I added in extra veggies and followed some of the reviews ideas for flavors. This was very filling and straightforward to make. Easy make ahead meal as well. Be cautious when freezing veggie based lasagnas because they produce a lot of liquid and can get soggy. If anyone has any tips for making them freeze better, please let me know!

Previous Vegetable Lasagna using zucchini, squash, eggplant, and spinach.

Veg!

Spread some sauce/veg in the bottom

Layers of noodles, ricotta, veg, and sauce

Continue and top with cheese

Golden bubbly goodness!

Hearty Vegetable Lasagna 
makes 12 slices

 1 (16 ounce) package lasagna noodles

2 tablespoons oil

1 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced

¾ cup chopped green bell pepper

½ cup carrots (or whatever is left over in your fridge)

¾ cup chopped onion

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp oregano

Salt and pepper

½ zucchini, sliced

½ bag baby spinach

2 (26 ounce) jars pasta sauce

1 (15 ounce) container part-skim ricotta cheese

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Cook the lasagna noodles in a large pot of boiling water for 10 minutes, or until al dente. Rinse with cold water, and drain. (OR use no cook lasagna noodles)

In a large saucepan heat oil. Cook and stir mushrooms, green peppers, carrots, onion, garlic, and oregano, season with salt and pepper. Cook until softened. Add in zuchini and Wilt several handfuls of spinach over the warm veggies, stir to combine

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spread 1 cup tomato sauce and some of the veggie mix into the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Layer on top of that: noodles, veggies, sauce, and ricotta until nothing remains. There will be approx 2-4 layers. 

Top with the mozzarella cheese.

Bake, uncovered, for 40 minutes (but keep an eye on it, if it starts to get too brown cover with foil and let it continue to cook). Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

Bacon, Broccoli, and Zucchini Quiche

I was looking for tasty and easy breakfasts to make for when friends came over. I thought quiche would be a good idea. I didn't know what recipe to use, but I figured you can't go wrong with Paula Dean's recipes!

Of course I made a few changes, most unplanned. I was out of eggs, so I used 5 instead of 6. I used broccoli and zucchini instead of spinach since the spinach was expensive. I considered kale but the store was out. Instead of heavy cream I used light cream and reduced it to 1 cup. I swapped Swiss cheese (which is a weird cheese) to mozzarella cheese (according to my friends, its not a real cheese). I read a review that said to add in a dash of nutmeg. I added it in, but I couldn't really taste it.

Refrigerated pie crusts sometimes come in packages of two, but you can always freeze the other. To defrost, I left it on the counter, it took about 30 minutes and rolled out fine.

The egg mix was delish! I would recommend trying different veggies to change the whole meal up.

To reheat: Preheat oven to 350F, heat slice for 10 minutes, turn off oven, let it stay in the oven for another 10. This heats it up nice while keeping the crust crispy.

Bacon and Veg Quiche
Makes 1 pan, 6-8 slices

5 eggs, scrambled
1 cup light cream
salt & pepper
dash of nutmeg (a very small pintch)
1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
4 pieces of bacon, cooked than crumbled
1/4 of a small onion, diced
1 cup of chopped broccoli
1 small zucchini, sliced
1 refrigerated pie crust

Cook bacon, drain frying pan as needed. Don't wash the pan, cook the onions for a few minutes. pull off the burner if the pan is too hot and onions start to brown. Add broccoli and cook approx 4-6 minutes.

In a bowl, combine scrambled eggs, cream, salt & pepper, nutmeg, bacon, and cheese.

Put the pie crust in the 9 inch round pan. Place zucchini in the bottom. Pour the egg mix over the top. Bake for 35 minutes at 325. I did the last 10 minutes at 350. Take it out when the top is set and starting to get a little golden.

Cube Steak Parmesan

I had another piece of cubed round cut beef from the Marlboro Man Sandwiches that I made the other day (I froze the meat!). There were a few ideas such as fried steak and stews, but I had some left over tomato basil sauce so the Parmesan recipes really caught my eye.

Dip the steak into 1/2 cup flour, then dip into 1 beaten egg, then into 1 cup of panko bread crumbs. Heat up the skillet with some oil and placed the  meat into the pan once it was hot. Cook each side for about 4-6 minutes until cooked through.

 Next place tomato sauce into the bottom of the pan, add the crispy meat, top with more sauce and some shredded cheese. Bake in the oven at 375F for about 20 minutes until its all hot and the cheese is melted.

Serve over pasta and top with any remaining sauce.

Enjoy!

Vegetable Lasagna

Girls night! And I'm still on a zucchini kick, so I decided to make a hearty vegetable lasagna and talked Kelly into it. It is full of zucchini, summer squash, eggplant, and spinach and then layered with ricotta and mozzarella cheese and a tomato basil sauce.

Fairly fast dinner, takes about an hour with 20 minutes waiting for eggplant prep, 20 in the oven and 20 actively cooking and assembling.

You can also sub in other veggies or add in more veg. Others could include mushrooms, peppers, onions....

 

Chop up the veggies to about the same size and thickness. They will be sauteed and baked so about 1/4 inch.

I also salted the eggplant and let it sit in the strainer for about half hour to let the bitter out of it.

Heat oil and spices (oregano, garlic powder, and onion powder) for a minute. When pan is hot add in veggies. Toss around in the oil. After about 4-5 minutes, when veggies are still al dente, wilt in spinach and chopped fresh basil.

Layering begins! I put down some sauce in the bottom of the pan, then some veggie mix, then pasta sheets. Not really sure why I put the veggies on the bottom, a little sauce would have been good... but it didn't really make a difference with the veggies. Anyways, a dollop of ricotta cheese, some tomato sauce, more veggies, a handful of mozzarella cheese, then more pasta sheets!

Layering in action!

 Cover dish with foil and cook at 350 for 20 minutes. I cook it for a shorter time because the veggies are already hot. Take foil off and broil for another 5 minutes. Keep an eye on it though, it gets brown fast!

Golden cheesey topping!!

 

 Let it cool a minute or two, then cut and serve. Tender veggies in every bite!

 It was soo tasty. Highly recommend this and will make again!

Vegetable Lasagna
Makes 4 servings

olive oil
1/2 tsp each of oregano, garlic powder, and onion powder
1/2 a zucchini, a squash, a eggplant; sliced and quartered (approx 1 cup or a little more of each)
1/2 of a 6 oz bag of spinach (could add more though)
1/4 cup basil leaves
15 oz ricotta cheese
2 cups mozzarella cheese
12 oz jar of tomato sauce (I used tomato basil flavor)

Slice veggies
Salt eggplant and let sit for about half hour, then rinse

In frying pan add a tbsp of olive oil, 1/2 tsp of oregano, garlic powder, and onion powder.
Add zucchini, squash and eggplant, cook about 5 minutes
Wilt in spinach and basil leaves

Put some sauce in the bottom of the pan
Add some of the cooked veggie mix
Put down the pasta sheet... then Ricotta cheese, Sauce, Veggies, Mozzarella cheese then another sheet of pasta. Continue another 2-3 times ending with mozzarella cheese.

Cover with foil, cook 20 minutes at 350 degrees
Cook additional 5 minutes under broiler - but keep an eye on it!

Stuffed Zucchini with Turkey, Tomatoes, and Basil

I'm on a zucchini kick and I found a new recipe on Pinterest and decided to test it out on my book club! This was called "Pizzucchini" you can find the original recipe here. I must say, this recipe sounded great, and it was good, however it isn't a substitute for pizza. It was zucchini stuffed with ground turkey, tomatoes, onion, covered in cheese and then baked. Tasty, but not pizza.

I heated up a pan with a little oil and then added some onions. I used about 1/3 of a cup diced onion. Then I added some garlic powder and oregano. I let that soften for a few minutes. Next I tossed in the ground turkey and let that cook entirely.

Meanwhile, I washed the zucchini and then sliced them lengthwise to create little boats out of them.

Once the turkey was cooked I added in tomato sauce and the zucchini guts. I let this cook together for about 5 minutes. I used jar tomato sauce it was garlic and onion flavor I believe...I also tossed in some fresh basil that I chopped.

I took the zucchini and placed them next to each other in the baking dish. I tried to fill the boats with the mixture but it spilled all over the dish. Then I thought of making this next time with almost lasagna style... just an idea... So I filled the boats the rest of the way and then covered it with cheese. I put it in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes. I broiled it for the last few minutes so the cheese was golden and gooey.

Verdict? Tasty stuffed zucchinis! This was a very filling meal and would be great for a side dish or part of a potluck.

If I wanted to make these more pizza like I would omit the turkey, use pizza sauce, maybe real mozzarella cheese, fresh basil, oregano... etc.

Stuffed Zucchini
serves 4
2 Large zucchini, cut in half
1 lb ground turkey (I had a little left over)
1/4 cup diced onion
basil
1 tsp garlic powder
salt & pepper
2 cups tomato sauce
1 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese

1. Preheat over to 400 degrees.
2. In frying pan soften onion and garlic. Add ground turkey and cook together until done.
3. Make zucchini boats by scooping out the middle of the zucchinis. Put the boats in the baking dish.
4. Add the sauce and zucchini guts into the frying pan and simmer for about 5 minutes.
5. Spoon mixture into the boats. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
6. Bake for 10 minutes until cheese is melted and turning golden brown.

Turkey and Spinach Stuffed Shells

I was making dinner last night and decided to attempt my cousin's Stuffed Shell Recipe. It had been a while since I've made this, so I made it up as I went along. I decided to stuff it with turkey, spinach, and ricotta. I used mushroom pepper jar sauce and covered it in mozzarella.

From start to finish this recipe took about an hour to prepare and cook, but makes about 30+ stuffed shells. Depends on how much filling you put in each one, mine were fairly hardy. We ate about 6 each. The filling could be used for Lasagna or Raviolis as well.

I used my food processor (still awesome!) to dice/chop up the onion and the garlic. Put it in a hot frying pan and let it get soft. I added in some seasonings here. Oregano, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. I stirred this around for about a minute. Then I added the meat. I used ground chicken but turkey or beef would be fine too.

Once it cooked through there was a lot of liquid in the pan. I drained it then added in the spinach leaves. I was rushing around the grocery store and just grabbed a bag of spinach. Not all bags of spinach are created equal. This bag had spinach with stems and I had to pick through it. Next time I'll make sure I get baby spinach leaves just for making this dish a little easier. However it made no difference to the taste. I wilted the spinach in the meat mixture. The meat was very chunky and not the texture I was looking for so I dumped it all in the food processor and pulsed it a few times until it was coarse sand texture.

Next I added in the container of ricotta cheese. YUM!

Meanwhile, I cooked the jumbo shells and had them drained and waiting to be filled. I under cook them a two minutes because I am against soggy pasta and it is going to bake in the oven more too.

I put some sauce in the bottom of the pan and started to stuff the shells and place them in the baking dish. I used a jar of Mushroom and Pepper sauce. Nothing super fancy.

Next I covered it with the rest of the sauce and then a bag of mozzarella cheese. Baked it uncovered at 375 for 20 minutes or until the cheese is melted and starting to get a little golden.

Changes for next time? Well, we didn't think it had enough flavor. I think I might try it with chicken sausage (out of the casings), or double/triple the herbs when cooking the meat. And for those who don't like ground turkey, it didn't taste like there was any meat in it, and because I pulsed it in the food processor there wasn't any meat texture either.

All and all a tasty meal and not too intensive. It can be changed easily for your food preferences or whatever ingredients you have in the house.

I made Molten Lava Cakes for dessert!

Turkey and Spinach Stuffed Shells

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

Jumbo Shells

1 med/small vidalia Onion

5 cloves Garlic

1 tsp Red Pepper Flakes

1 tsp Oregano

Salt & Pepper to taste

1 lb ground turkey 

16 oz (ish) of fresh spinach

16 oz part skim ricotta cheese

1 jar of sauce (or homemade sauce)

2 cups of mozzarella cheese (it is 1 package)

Directions

1. Heat pan with some olive oil and add chopped onion and garlic.
2. Add red pepper flakes, pepper, oregano. Stir.
3. Add meat and continue to stir.
4. When mostly done cooking add in spinach until it wilts (about 30 seconds).
5. Pulse in food processor until everything is about the same size.
6. Let mixture cool.
7. Boil water and cook shells a few minutes shorter than the recommended package directions.
8. Add in ricotta, salt, pepper, any more seasonings, and then egg to the cooled meat mixture.
9. Put some sauce in the bottom of the baking dish, stuff shells, top with rest of sauce and mozzarella.
10. Bake at 375 for about 20-25 minutes.

Enjoy!!