My boys are getting too big, too quick. Isn't that how it goes? They turned 7 and 4 this summer. Which makes the Little Man no longer a baby. It's undeniable, I guess.
And birthdays in our house mean that you get to pick the dinner. I was pretty happy when Big Man asked for lasagna. I don't make it often, because it's quite a bit of work and it makes so much... but a birthday party is the perfect place to get rid of eat the whole pan.
My lasagna is pretty easy, a combination of the things others have recommended to us, tweaked until it's perfect for my family.
Ingredients:
8 oz cottage cheese (you can use ricotta if you want, but aldi's doesn't always have it, and since we shop there, we use cottage cheese)
parmesean cheese
1 egg
1/4 tsp fresh grated nutmeg
1 lb hamburger
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
2 c spaghetti sauce (We used homemade, since we had an abundance of tomatoes!)
3 cups mozzerella cheese
lasagna noodles, I prefer the no cook, barilla square ones. I will go out in search of them, because I love them!
Instructions:
In a small pan, brown the burger with the onion and garlic powder. Add the spaghetti sauce.
In a blender, blend the cottage cheese, nutmeg, egg and 1/4 c parmesean cheese.
In a deep 9x13 pan, spread the meat sauce on the bottom of the pan.
On top of that, layer the noodles, the ricotta mixture, mozzerella cheese and then more meat sauce.
Do this until your pan is full. I usually get three or four layers in.
Cover with alumninum foil and bake at 350 for 1 hour.
Remove the foil and then broil on low until it is browned.
Serve to your family and CELEBRATE!
Enjoy!
My husband called today. I missed the phone call. I called him back and told him I was up to my elbows in tomatoes.
It's been a common occurance here. I think we've frozen 25 quarts of tomatoes this year. I don't can, I freeze, I have a big freezer and honestly, canning scares me.
It's simple really.
Boil a big pot of water, throw the tomatoes in for just a minute.
Peel and dice and put them in freezer bags.
Until your freezer is full. Because mine is. I can hardly shut it if everything isn't perfectly in there. But it makes me happy.
I love the idea of using all of the corn, tomatoes, green beans and green peppers that we've frozen this summer.
Green peppers are simple too.... just cut them, take out the seeds and ribs, dice them and freeze them.
But don't comfuse them with these!!!
I know! It's been forever... but I'm here. It's been a crazy last month, with camping, music festivals, more camping, more music, a mountain of tomatoes and back to school madness. We've eaten, but it's been alot of the same dinners... something on the grill, fresh corn and potatoes and cucumbers.
So I'm back, with a freezer full of beef, tomatoes, corn, green peppers, green beans and spaghetti sauce.
And this week, we're working with apples around here. But dinners... well, we're back to menu planning. Here we go.
Monday- BLATs (throwing a little avacado on the blts... cheese for the little guys)
Tuesday- chicken parmesean
Wednesday- Work
Thursday- chicken pot pie
Friday- Taco salad bowls
Saturday- Thanksgiing on the grill
Sunday- Sausage and perogies
So hang on... recipes are coming.
So what's new with you? what was the best thing you've cooked while I was away?
