GG's Lasagna

I cannot believe I've never done a post about my grandma's lasagna recipe. But, alas, that must be the case because when I went to make it recently I couldn't find it here on the ol' blog. For those of you that don't know her, my grandma is awesome. Seriously, I've never met someone that doesn't love her as soon as they meet her. She'll be 95 in May, and she's still going strong. She takes one medication and only because her doctor thinks a woman her age should be on some sort of medication. Sheesh. She grew up on a farm in Hale, Missouri during the Great Depression, and I (still) love when she tells me stories about her youth. She is hands down one of my favorite people in the world.



We all love her lasagna recipe, and it is Boy #1's absolute favorite food in the world. He turned seven last month, and while my brother and his girlfriend were here visiting for the weekend for his birthday we had a lasagna dinner at my mom's. My grandma made her lasagna, and my brother made a vegan one. That was on a Saturday night, I think it was. The boy's birthday was Wednesday, and I asked him what he wanted me to make for his birthday dinner one night that week, and he said, "GG's lasagna." I said, "Really? But we just had that." He said, "I know, it's my favorite." Okay...I can't argue with that! So we had GG's lasagna again later that week. A few years ago I took my scanner to my grandparents' house and sat down with my grandma's recipe box to scan some of my favorite recipes of hers. I love that I have the recipe in her handwriting, too.





GG's Lasagna
Source: my awesome grandma

Sauce:
1-1/2 lb. ground beef
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 8-ounce cans tomato sauce
1 cup water
1 T. dried parsley
1 t. oregano
3/4 t. salt
1/4 t. thyme
1 bay leaf

Simmer. Remove bay leaf before using sauce.

Other ingredients:
1 cup sour cream
8 ounces cream cheese
8 ounces lasagna noodles, cooked
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Mix together sour cream and cream cheese.

Assemble in a flat baking dish and layer:
1/3 cup sauce, noodles, cream cheese and sour cream, mozzarella. Keep layering until mozzarella cheese is on top.

Bake 45 minutes at 350.

*****

This lasagna does not last when I make it. There's maybe one or two servings leftover, and normally Boy #1 has it for breakfast the next day or wants to take it in his lunch. I really think he'd eat this every day if I'd make it that often.

Lasagna Cupcakes

I'm still not caught up on older posts, but we had these last night and they were so yummy I had to post them right away. A friend of mine posted a link on Facebook to the recipe, and I thought they looked so cute and tasty. Plus I love lasagna, but I hate making it because it takes forever and makes a ton. We're pretty much eating lasagna for a week straight when I do make it. This seemed like a clever way to have lasagna, and all I needed to buy for it were the won ton wrappers.

Lasagna Cupcakes
Source: CruftBox.com via my friend Callista on Facebook

24 won ton or gyoza wrappers
Marinara sauce
1 lb. Italian sausage or ground beef
Ricotta cheese
Mozzarella cheese

Spray or wipe a cupcake/muffin tin with olive oil. Place one wrapper in the tin form it into a cup shape. Add a small dollop of pasta sauce then some sausage. Add a spoonful of ricotta cheese. Once you filled in the first layer, gently press another wrapper on top of the ricotta layer, forming another cup. Repeat the filling and top each with shredded mozzarella.

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.

*****

Isn't that clever? Boy #1 claimed he didn't like ricotta, but the rest of us gobbled them up. I had really wanted to use gyoza wrappers for their round shape, but my grocery store only had won ton wrappers. It wasn't that big a deal except that there were corners on each of the cupcakes. I made my own marinara by heating up a can of crushed tomatoes with some seasonings added in, so I had my muffin tin on the counter next to the stove. I put the first layer of won ton wrappers in each spot/hole/whatever-you-want-to-call-it then put a spoonful of sauce in each. Then I added a spoonful of sausage, then a spoonful of ricotta. I kind of squished each layer down as I went with the back of a spoon. Then I repeated. It all came together really fast.

I'll definitely make these again. Easy, relatively inexpensive, pretty quick...all pluses in my book!

Rocco's Mushroom Lasagna

I have a bit of a celebrity crush on a handsome chef...Rocco DiSpirito. Haven't heard of him? here's some eye candy:

Handsome fella, don't you think? I found his most recent cookbook, Now Eat This! Diet at Costco and had to get it. I really like his first Now Eat This cookbook. I had seen this mushroom lasagna on his Facebook page and really wanted to try it. I slated it for last Friday night's dinner for just the husband and me.

Rocco's Mushroom Lasagna
Source: Now Eat This! Diet by Rocco DiSpirito

Nonstick cooking spray
2 cups reduced-fat ricotta cheese, such as Sargento
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
4 ounces (about 8 sheets) no-boil whole wheat lasagna noodles, such as Dalallo
10 ounces sliced cremini mushrooms
4 ounces white button mushrooms
1/2 cup shredded reduced-fat mozzarella cheese

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Coat the inside of an 8 x 8 x 2-inch baking pan with cooking spray and set aside.

In a medium bowl, add the ricotta, basil, parsley, and ¾cup Parmigiano-Reggiano. Mix with a spoon until blended. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Line the bottom of the prepared baking pan with two lasagna sheets. Top with ½ cup of the cheese mixture. Using the back of a spoon, spread the mixture so that the noodles are covered. Top with a layer of mushrooms. Repeat the procedure two more times. On the last layer, place two lasagna sheets on top of the mushrooms. Spread a layer of the remaining cheese mixture on top. Scatter the mozzarella and remaining Parmigiano-Reggiano on top.

Cover tightly with foil and bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

Raise the temperature of the oven to 425°F, and bake for another 15 minutes. Uncover the dish and continue to bake for another 15 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

PER SERVING
388 calories 15g fat (8g sat / 2.6g mono / 1.2g poly) 57mg cholesterol 510mg sodium 34g carbohydrates 3g fiber 28g protein

*****

I wasn't able to find the no-boil whole wheat noodles, so I just went with regular no-boil noodles instead. It worked out okay because the husband was doing an open water swim race the next day, so he was happy to have the carbs. I followed the cooking directions exactly for mine...and it came out pretty dry. I think I could have reduced the amount of time at 425 and it would have been fine. It was still good, just a little dry.

This is definitely something I'd make again. The 8x8 dish yielded four very generous servings and at only 388 calories each, that's pretty good! Oh, Rocco, you did not disappoint!

Polenta Lasagna

I have some major blog catching up to do (what else is new?!), but I wanted to start with this because it was probaby the most amazing thing we've eaten recently. As I've mentioned before, I belong to a pretty amazing parenting message board. Someone posted recently asking what to do with polenta and my friend Heather (who could potentially be one of my BFFs if she and her husband weren't Alabama fans and we didn't live across the country from each other) said she had made polenta lasagna. She filled me in on the basics of how she'd done it, and since I had a tube of polenta in the pantry I slated it for dinner this week. I was pretty giddy about trying it. Heather didn't have an exact recipe of what she did, so I followed her lead and just winged it as I went along.

Heather's Polenta Lasagna

1 tube polenta (mine was 18 ounces)
1 lb sweet Italian sausage
3 cans fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
8 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced and sauteed

Heat large skillet sprayed with non-stick spray over medium high heat. Slice polenta into 1/2-inch rounds and place in skillet. Cook 4-5 minutes per side, then flip. Remove from skillet and chill in the refrigerator.

Remove sausage from casings and brown in a large pot. Once cooked through, remove sausage and add onions and garlic. Cook until browned (you may need to deglaze the pan...I used a bit of beef broth). Add tomatoes to the pot (do not drain tomatoes) and add sausage back to the pot. Let simmer 2-3 hours for maximum flavor.

Once polenta slices have cooled, remove them from the fridge and cut the slices in half.

Preheat oven to 375.

Spray an 8x8 baking dish with non-stick spray. Spoon some sauce into the bottom of the dish and spread it around. Place a single layer of polenta slices on top of the sauce to cover bottom of the dish. Spoon sauce to cover polenta layer. Top with a layer of mozzarella cheese. Spread sauteed mushrooms over the cheese. Repeat layers with remaining polenta slices, sauce, and mozzarella, finishing with mozzarella.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until heated through and bubbling. For best results, let the lasagna sit for 5-10 minutes after removing from the oven.

*****

This was SO EASY. It was really a lot easier than regular lasagna because the polenta cooks a lot faster than lasagna noodles. Plus since it bakes in a smaller dish you aren't eating lasagna for days and days. Don't get me wrong--I love lasagna, but a 9x13 pan of it lasts a loooooooooong time for us. The only real planning ahead was to cook the polenta early enough to give it time to cool and to let the sauce simmer, if you're making your own. You could, of course, use jarred sauce to speed it up, but I just prefer to make my own. You could probably slice the polenta thinner to begin with, but I found it a lot easier to slice after it had cooked some than when I was initially slicing up the tube.

I hadn't ever used polenta before. I'm not entirely sure why I had bought the tube of it at Trader Joe's, but I'm sure glad I did. In fact, I went there yesterday and picked up another tube while I was there. I feel the need to embrace polenta now. The husband didn't know what it was, and since he's a southern boy, I told him "Italian grits." :)

My kids ate this pretty reluctantly, but I think that was more due to me giving them snacks too late in the day so they weren't that hungry at dinner time. The husband loved it. In fact he was just sitting here next to me a few minutes ago and commented on how much he loved it. He had some of the leftovers for lunch yesterday and raved about it again after having that. This is definitely something I'll make again!

Tube of polenta:


It was very shiny. In fact it's shininess disturbed me a bit, but I got over it.


Sliced, ready for cooking:


Post-cooking, post-second slicing, ready for layering:


The process begins...






Mmmm...polenta lasagna...

Buffalo Chicken Lasagna

Wow, it took me a lot longer to get caught up than I had intended! And I think I still have two things I didn't post, but one wasn't very interesting, and the other was the goat cheese from my cheese making class, which for some reason I feel I need a big chunk of time to post. Or maybe I'm just too lazy to go downstairs and find the recipes from the class and type up how to do it. But, I promise you that some day I will!! Right now I'm sneaking a couple minutes while the boy is at preschool and the baby is sleeping to post tonight's dinner. Then it's an exciting morning of putting away laundry, throwing more laundry in the washer, and cleaning my kitchen. You're jealous of me, aren't you? Being a stay at home mom is sooooo glamorous, I know.

I was flipping through my Make it Fast, Cook it Slow cookbook recently looking for ideas for Wednesday night (Bible study night) dinners and saw this Buffalo Chicken Lasgna recipe. It sounded intriguing, and all I really needed for it was some ricotta, so I figured I'd slate it for one night this week. Although I'm not doing it in the crockpot, I'm going to do it in the oven like a regular lasagna.

Actually I'm going to be super lazy and just post the link to the original recipe:

Crockpot Buffalo Chicken Lasagna

I'm using no-cook lasagna noodles because I have some on hand I want to use up, and then I'll bake it in the oven, probably at 350 for 30 minutes covered, then 10 uncovered to let the top brown a bit. Our friend Steve is having dinner with us tonight, so I really hope this turns out!! I'm going to look up a low fat Ceasar dressing and make a salad to go with this. I may stop at the store for some bread, too, but I'll have to decide if it's worth it to go to the grocery store with two kids for just one thing!

*****

Mmmmmm...this was really good! I love interesting takes on lasagna, something other than the normal "ricotta, meat sauce, noodles, mozarella" recipe. I used too much blue cheese, but I don't think it was too distracting from the overall flavor. I ended up having not quite an entire cup of hot sauce because I didn't have enough, but still had that wing tanginess to it. The boy didn't really eat it--he said he didn't like the cheese in it. He just picked the chicken out of his. The baby, however, had THIRDS. So three out of four of us loving it is pretty good! I'll definitely make this again, and I'd like to try the crockpot version next time to see how that does.

Lasagna

One of my favorite food blogs is Food Is To Love. She has some fantastic sounding recipes she's posted, and I feel a kinship to her because she has trouble growing plants as well, although her tomatoes are doing a heck of a lot better than mine. I was going back through her blog over the weekend reading all the recipes and saw this one. Tonight is our last Bible Study, so we're having a potluck and Wii tournament. I thought lasagna would be a good choice because I could have it assembled early and everyone likes lasagna. I was debating if I should make my usual lasagna or my grandma's recipe, and then I saw Andrea's and thought I'd give it a go.

Andrea's Lasagna
© 2008, 2009 Food is to love / Andrea Quigley

1 lb lean ground beef
1 lb hot Italian pork sausage, casings removed
1 large onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
4 cloves minced garlic, separated
2 large cans whole tomatoes
1 large can tomato puree
1 small can tomato paste
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons dried basil
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 egg
1 large container part-skim ricotta
2 tablespoons dried parsley, or 1/4 cup fresh
6oz fresh mozzarella cheese, 1/2 cubed, 1/2 thinly sliced
1/2 -3/4 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese
9 lasagna noodles
1 tablespoon olive oil
additional kosher salt and pepper to taste

Heat a large pot over medium heat. Brown the ground beef and sausage until there is no more pink. Remove the meat and drain the liquid/fat over a bowl. Put about 1/4 cup of the beef and pork fat back in the pot and cook the onion and green pepper for 3-4 minutes, then add the 3 of the cloves of minced garlic and cook for another minute.

Next add all your tomato products (2 cans whole tomatoes, 1 can puree, 1 can paste), the bay leaves, sugar, basil, oregano, red pepper flakes, kosher salt and pepper and simmer, stirring occasionally, for at least 2 hours. 2 1/2 hours will give you a thicker sauce, which means a firmer lasagna. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed. The whole tomatoes should have broken down. If they are still mostly whole, take a potato masher and break up a little.

While the sauce is simmering, in a large bowl, lightly beat the egg. Mix in the ricotta, last clove of minced garlic, parsley, cubed mozzarella, half the parmesan and salt and pepper to taste. (I always use fresh mozzarella and grate my own parmesan. I think pre-grated and shredded cheeses are too dry and lose a lot of their flavor. Buying it whole and cutting/shredding yourself is more work and costs a little more, but the flavor is stronger so you'll actually end up using less.)

When your sauce is almost ready to use, heat a large pot full of water to boiling. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil and a pinch of kosher salt. Cook your noodles for about a minute less than the box directions say to. Drain and spread out on a couple of kitchen towels. Cover with a damp towel.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Pour a large ladle full of sauce in a 9 x 13 pan (9x11 is okay too, but you may need to trim your noodles to fit them), and spread out. Now layer 3 noodles, 1/3 of the ricotta mixture, 1 or 2 ladles of sauce, 3 noodles, 1/3 ricotta, sauce, 3 noodles, the last 1/3 ricotta mixture and another ladle or two of sauce. Press down after each layer of noodles. Top with the thinly sliced mozzarella, tearing with your hands if needed, and the rest of the parmesan cheese.

Bake for 10 minutes. Turn the broiler to 500, leave the oven door open slightly and brown the top of the lasagna for 3 or 4 minutes. Let cool for at least 10 minutes (The longer it sits, the easier it will be to remove from the pan). Serve with some crusty bread and a salad.

*****

I had to go grocery shopping with both kids this morning, and I didn't want to take the time to find fresh mozzarella, so I just bought shredded. Taking both kids grocery shopping I think is the third level of hell, so I try to make it as fast as possible when I have to do it. Oh, and I forgot to get a green pepper. I may have one in the fridge. I need to get my sauce simmering so I can let it go for awhile and still have time to assemble the lasagna. Mmmm...I can't wait for dinner tonight!

*****

Wow. WOW. This lasagna was AWESOME. The sauce is my new go to meat sauce--I couldn't stop taking bites of it while it was simmering. I had to tell myself several times to step away from the pot of sauce. The husband had the same problem when he got home and tasted it. Based on the sauce I figured the lasagna itself would be good, and it was. Everyone loved it--there was only one small piece left after all was said and done last night. I think with fresh mozzarella it would be even better. I had a bit of an issue with my parmesan cheese--I was just about out so I went out to my garage fridge to get the chunk I had purchased recently at Costco, only to find it was moldy! Gross!! It wasn't that long ago I bought it, and the sell by date wasn't until November, so that will be getting returned!! So I was kind of shy on the parmesan, but it was still super tasty. I really wish there was more left so I could have some today, but the husband has already claimed the leftover piece for his lunch.

Thanks, Andrea, for sharing a fantastic recipe!!!

Lasagna

In an attempt to not have leftovers at the end of the week, I'm using something I found in our freezer. When my in-laws were here at Christmas, my MIL made lasagna for Christmas Eve dinner. We didn't eat all of it, and I didn't want it to go to waste, so I froze what was left. I had completely forgotten about it until I was looking for something in the freezer recently. I remembered it was there when I was figuring out meals for this week. I wanted something easy tonight since the husband has his class at church, so I got this out to thaw and will just throw it in the oven when dinner gets closer. Shoot, I just remembered I was going to defrost a loaf of bread dough to make along with this, but now there won't be enough time before dinner.

Here's the recipe my MIL uses for her lasagna. It's kind of cool in that she does the meat as a separate layer on top--meatballs and sausage--instead of having a meat sauce.

Aurelia's Lasagna

Pioneer Woman's Best Lasagna Ever

I have a new website obsession. Okay, two websites. The Pioneer Woman and The Pioneer Woman Cooks. Thanks to the BTB girls for turning me on to the cooking one, then I found the other one through there. This woman is HILARIOUS. And she's an awesome photographer. The PW website is under construction right now, so you might have to wait a couple days to check it out. I'm slowly working my way through reading all the recipes on the PWC website...there are some things I'm DYING to try. If I didn't care so much about my weight, I'd probably have made a lot of them by now.

Anyway, I wanted to make lasagna for dinner tonight because the boy and I are heading out of town tomorrow for four days. I figured having lasagna would give the husband leftovers to eat while we're gone instead of him getting pizza every night. Let's hope it works. I'm going to be pretty mad if I come home and the same amount of lasagna is in the fridge as when I left. I'll also be mad if my house is in any state other than what I left it. Love you, husband, but consider yourself warned. Happy wife, happy life.

I digress. I was going to make the same old lasagna recipe I always make (my mom's...which is very yummy), then I saw one on PWC that I thought I'd try. I read through all the comments (all 314 of them) and decided it would be worth trying. A couple food snobs didn't like it (or didn't like her choice of ingredients), but for the most part it got rave reviews from everyone else. I'm excited to try it.

Pioneer Woman's Best Lasagna Ever
1-1/2 pounds ground beef
1 pound hot breakfast sausage (Jimmy Dean’s bulk)
2 cloves minced garlic
2 14.5 oz cans whole tomatoes
2 6 oz cans tomato paste
2 T dried parsley flakes
2 T dried basil
1 t salt
10-oz package of lasagna noodles, cooked to al dente
1 lb sliced mozzarella cheese

Mix together:
3 cups lowfat cottage cheese, 2 beaten eggs, ½ cup Kraft Parmesan cheese, 2 T dried parsley flakes, 1 tsp salt

In a skillet, combine 1 1/2 pounds ground beef, 1 pound hot breakfast sausage, and 2 cloves minced garlic. Cook until brown. Drain off about half the fat (or more, to taste). After that, add two 14.5-oz cans of whole tomatoes, two 6-oz cans of tomato paste, 2 tablespoons of dried parsley flakes, 2 tablespoons dried basil and 1 teaspoon salt. Mix together thoroughly and simmer, uncovered, about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

While the meat mixture is cooking, mix 3 cups lowfat cottage cheese in a bowl with 2 beaten eggs. To the cottage cheese, add 1/2 cup Kraft Parmesan Cheese. 2 tablespoons dried parsley flakes, and 1 teaspoon salt. Mix together well.

Now, go ahead and build your assembly line: meat mixture, 1 pound sliced mozzarella cheese, cottage cheese mixture, and cooked lasagna noodles. Lay four cooked lasagna noodles in the bottom of the pan, overlapping as you go. Spread half of the cottage cheese mixture evenly over the noodles. Then lay 1/2 pound of mozzarella cheese slices on top of the cottage cheese mixture. With the spoon, make a line through the middle of the meat mixture so you’ll distribute it evenly. Spread a little less than half of the meat mixture over the mozzarella cheese slices until it’s evenly distributed. Repeat and finish with meat mixture. Top with a pretty generous layer of good ole Kraft grated parm.

Now pop it in a 350-degree oven for 20-30 minutes, until hot and bubbly. (Alternately, you could cover and freeze it, unbaked, at this point or cover and refrigerate, unbaked, for up to two days before baking.)

*****

Quite a few of the reviews said it was too salty, so I think I'll probably leave out the extra salt. I'm using shredded mozzarella because I couldn't find sliced mozzarella, the block of mozzarella was expensive, and I already had an 8 ounce bag, so I only needed to buy one more.

I had recently decided I was only going to use Parmigiano-Reggiano going forward. I used to use the parmesan cheese in a can, then switched to buying it already shredded, then to buying a chunk of parmesan and grating it myself with my awesome microplane. Slowly I'm making the transition to the good stuff. I hesitated to make this recipe when I saw the canned cheese because that's a major step back for me, but I'm going to try it and see how it turns out. The can of cheese was only $2-something, so not a big deal. Can of cheese...that sounds so wrong.

I just mopped my kitchen, so once I've given that time to dry I think I'll assemble the lasagna, so that's one less thing I have to do once the boy is up from his nap. Fingers crossed we like it!

Crockpot Lasagna

It's totally overcast here today which is so nice! I just wish it would rain more. It rained a bit this morning but not enough for my liking. Ironic that I left Seattle because I was so tired of the rain, now living in AZ, I can't wait for it to rain. The air here has just been so gross lately, we need a good rain to clean things out. We rarely seem to get cool, big thunderstorms or all-day rain, which is still weird for me, even though I've lived here eight years now. I'd just like one rainy day!! Of course, usually the one time it does rain all day is when I have a bunch of errands or something outside planned to do.

Anyway, I digress. Tonight we're having crockpot lasagna. I've made it before and posted in on here, but I think it's been awhile. I had found a non-meat recipe I was going to try, but it was just noodles, sauce, and cheese which sounded blah to me. So I'm using the recipe I made before but without the ground beef, and I added a box of frozen spinach in with the ricotta cheese. I used to have a really good vegetarian lasagna recipe (Jo, do you remember me making it in college and when you lived here?), but alas I can't find it anywhere. I think I threw it away when cleaning out my printed out recipes awhile back because I didn't think John would ever eat it. We'll see how this turns out. It's nice to have dinner all done, just have to wash the bowl I used to mix the cheese and spinach. Cross your fingers my son takes a good nap today so I can get my chores done and have some couch time! Weather like this makes me want to just lay on the couch. Plus Oprah looks like a good one today, I don't want to miss it! :)

The recipe I'm including is the way I made it last time, with meat.

Crockpot Lasagna
8 lasagna noodles, uncooked
1 lb. ground beef
1 tsp Italian seasoning
28-oz jar spaghetti sauce
1/3 cup water
4-oz can sliced mushrooms
15 oz. ricotta cheese
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Break noodles. Place half in bottom of greased slow cooker. Brown ground beef and drain. Stir in Italian seasoning. Spread half over noodles in slow cooker. Layer half of sauce and water, half of mushrooms, half of ricotta cheese, and half of mozzarella over beef. Repeat layers. Cover. Cook on Low for 5 hours.

*****

Like I said above, I skipped the ground beef and mixed in a box of frozen spinach (defrosted and drained) with the ricotta to give it a little more texture and taste. And I didn't do the canned mushrooms because they creep me out, and I think they're gross. Some things just weren't meant to be canned!

Review

Okay, for having fake meat the lasagna was really good. I don't know if it was the perfect lasagna, but it was really good. So, here's how I did mine.

Claire's Combination Lasagna
9 lasagna noodles
6 cups spaghetti sauce (from this recipe)
16 oz ricotta cheese
3-1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (separated)
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
3 eggs
1 package soy meatballs
4 soy Italian sausages (sliced lengthwise and then in half to have 16 pieces)

Cook lasagna noodles according to package directions. Rinse with cold water when done cooking. Mix together ricotta, 1-1/2 cups mozzarella, parmesan, and eggs. In bottom of 9x13 pan, spread just enough sauce to cover the bottom. Lay down three of the noodles. Spread half the cheese mixture over noodles. Cover with 1/3 of sauce. Repeat layers, only after laying down last noodles spread a little sauce then cover with meatballs and sausage. Pour remaining sauce over meat, then top with cheese. Bake, covered, at 50 for 10 minutes. Remove cover and bake another 10 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

*****

By all means you could use real meat, we just used fake. I also used Egg Beaters instead of real eggs. We have a TON of it left, even after having my parents over for dinner.

The Perfect Lasagna

Okay, guys, tonight I am attempting the near impossible. Roughly four years ago I made lasagna for dinner one night when some of John's friends were over. It was proclaimed by all three of them to be the most perfect lasagna EVER. I really have no idea how I did it as I used a combination of my mom's recipe and John's mom's recipe, along with that spaghetti sauce I made two nights ago.

Since I was making the sauce, I have decided to give the perfect lasagna another go. I had both recipes out in front of me trying to figure out how I would have done it. I guess I won't know if I got it until after we eat. So since I don't know which it will be, I figured I would post both recipes and then if the one I made ends up being perfect, I'll post it with my review. So, my MIL's first since it's on the computer and my mom's is a hard copy.

Mother-in-Law's Lasagna Recipe
6 cups spaghetti sauce
8 oz Lasagna pasta
4 cups ricotta cheese
2 cups mozarella cheese
¼ cup Parmesan cheese
4 eggs
1 tab parsley
salt pepper to taste
Italian spices to taste (basil, oregano, garlic powder)
Meatballs, cooked
Italian sausage, cooked

Cook Lasagna pasta / drain well
Mix ricotta cheese, mozzerela cheese, parmesan cheese, egs, parsley for filling
Layer in a 13 by 9 in pan (the deeper the better!)
Sauce, pasta, cheese filling etc.
Top layer is sauce /mozarella cheese and a few meatballs and suasages placed on top.
Bake covered 30 minutes.
Uncover .
Bake 10 minutes more.
Let set 10 minutes then serve.

*****

Mom's Lasagna Recipe
1/2 lb lasagna noodles
2 Tbsp oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 lb ground beef
2-1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp rosemary or sweet basil
1 Tbsp minced parsley
2 cans tomato paste
1-1/2 paste cans hot water
2 eggs, beaten
1 pint cottage cheese or 1/2 lb ricotta cheese
1/2 lb mozarella cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesan

Cook noodles in salted water, drain. Heat oil in skillet; saute garlic and onion until soft. Add beef and seasonings and cook until crumbly. Add tomato paste and hot waer and simmer 15 minutes. Set aside.

Blend eggs with cottage cheese in bowl. In a 9x13 pan put a thin layer of suace, half the noodles, all the cottage cheese and egg mixture, and 1/2 the mozzarella and half the meat sauce; on top layer place rest of noodles, remainder of sauce and mozzarella cheese. Spinkle with parmesan cheese. Bake, covered, in 350 oven for 30 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

*****

Okay, so I'm doing the meatball/sausage topping from John's mom's recipe, only I will used soy/veggie meatballs and sausage. My parents are eating with us tonight, so I'll report back on what everyone thought and how exactly I ended up making it.

Crockpot Lasagna

Okay, I've given in and decided to have lasagna this week after all. I had all the stuff and nothing else on my menu for the week sounded good for tonight. It's really too hot here to eat, but I guess we must.

As I've said before, I love my crockpot. I can't remember if I've made lasagna in it before or not. I kind of think I have, but I can't remember when it would have been. This recipe is from the "Fix It and Forget It Slow Cooker Cookbook." It's a must-have if you own a crockpot. I also have the "Light" version but some of the stuff in there is weird.

Crockpot Lasagna (technical name is Violette's Lasgna)
8 lasagna noodles, uncooked
1 lb. ground beef
1 tsp Italian seasoning
28-oz jar spaghetti sauce
1/3 cup water
4-oz can sliced mushrooms
15 oz. ricotta cheese
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Break noodles. Place half in bottom of greased slow cooker. Brown ground beef and drain. Stir in Italian seasoning. Spread half over noodles in slow cooker. Layer half of sauce and water, half of mushrooms, half of ricotta cheese, and half of mozzarella over beef. Repeat layers. Cover. Cook on Low for 5 hours.

*****

I used ground turkey because there was some in the inside freezer. I didn't want to brave the inferno I call my garage to get out ground beef. I also added in some onion and garlic when I was browning the meat. And I skipped the canned mushrooms. For one thing, canned mushrooms are weird to me. For another, the sauce I had was "mushroom and green pepper" so I figured I was okay.

I love that dinner is cooking away while I do my chores this afternoon. Of course, I still need to clean up the kitchen after assembling it. I think that is my least favorite chore...dishes and cleaning the kitchen. The ironic part is I hate having a messy kitchen. I forgot to run my dishwasher early in the day yesterday, so there wasn't room in it last night for our dinner dishes, so not only are there lasagna dishes to clean (okay, just the skillet from the turkey meat), but there are dishes from last night.