Classic, Cheese Lasagna

Tonight I made lasagna from scratch for the first time. It took two hours of prep and one hour of cooking time. It was super good. However, as good as it was, next time I will use store bought sauce.


First I made the marinara sauce.
2 (28 oz each) whole, peeled plum tomatoes, undrained
3 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped (2 Tblsp)
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1. Pulse tomatoes and juices in a food processor until coarsely chopped.
2. Heat garlic and oil in a 5-quart pot over medium heat until garlic begins to sizzle, about 2 minutes. Add tomato puree, salt, and pepper, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer, partially covered, stirring occasionally for 30 minutes

While the sauce was simmering I cooked the lasagna noodles according to the instructions on the box.

The next step is to prepare the ricotta mix.

1 pound whole-milk ricotta cheese
1 large egg
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
freshly ground pepper
1 pound fresh mozzarella
Marinara
store-bought noodles, cooked
5 ounces coarsely grated Parmesan cheese (about 1 3/4 cups)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine ricotta, egg, nutmeg, and salt in a medium bowl. Season with pepper. Coarsely grate 1/2 of the mozzarella, and stir into ricotta mixture. Using your fingers, shred remaining mozzarella into 2-inch strips, and reserve.
2. Spread 1/2 cup marinara in a 9 by 13inch baking dish. Place a layer of noodles over marinara. Spread 1/3 of the ricotta mixture over noodles, and sprinkle with 1/3 of the parmesan. Place a layer of noodles over the cheese layer. Spread 1 cup marinara over noodles. Repeat layering (noodles, marinara, noodles, ricotta mixture, parmesan) 2 more times. Spread remaining marinara over cheese layer, then sprinkle with shredded mozzarella.
3. Place baking dish on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until cheese is golden brown and sauce is bubbling, 45-50 minutes. Let stand for 15 minutes before serving.

This lasagna turned out great. I'd give it a 9 out of 10. The recipe was taken from the October '08 Martha Stewart Magazine. Here it is on their website, only the link on their site isn't working. But you can see the other three versions of lasagna from the article.

September 22-28

This is the menu for the week. Last night, on Tuesday, we had hotdogs instead of burgers and I'm guessing we'll have burgers instead of Lemon Chicken on Thursday. Everything else should stay the same. I'm super excited about making my new recipe this week. I've never made lasagna before, I've only reheated it!

Tuna Pasta Salad

This was Shawn's special this week. I still need to get the recipe from him.





It sure looks yummy! It tasted good to. I'd give this recipe an 8 out of 10. The biggest problem with it is that two hours after we ate we were hungry again. In the future I would probably make a much smaller batch and serve it with something else instead of it being the main course.

Chicken, Broccoli and Brown Rice

This is the first meal in an experiment we are trying. I've always tried to add a new recipe to the menu each week. Now Shawn is joining in the fun too. Once a week we have a "his special" and a "her special". We will take pictures (if we remember) and I'll post them along with the recipe and review it. We got the idea from this blog.

This is a Campbell's soup recipe. For some reason their adds always look so good!
The recipe:
1tbls vegetable oil
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1 can (10.75oz) Campbell's Condensed Cream of Chicken soup
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups uncooked instant brown rice
2 cups fresh or frozen broccoli flowerets

1. Heat oil in 10" skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook until well browned on both sides. Remove chicken from skillet.
2. Stir soup, water, paprika and black pepper in skillet. Heat to a boil.
3. Stir rice and broccoli in skillet. Reduce heat to low. Return chicken to skillet. Sprinkle additional paprika and black pepper over chicken. Cover and cook 5 min. or until chicken is cooked through and rice is tender.

This recipe recieved a 6.5 out of 10 from us. We liked it and with some changes would make it again. It would have been better if I had cooked it for a few extra minutes at the end with the lid off to cook off some of the extra moisture. This recipe would be good with other veggies in it as well, like carrots, peppers and/or zucchini.
I used 98% fat free condensed cream of chicken soup and extra virgin olive oil in order to make it a bit healthier. See the Campbell's site for other pictures and nutritional info for this recipe.

September 15-21

Monday: was my special; Chicken, broccoli and brown rice.
Tuesday: dinner at Shawn's parents house.
Wednesday: Leftovers from Monday.
Thursday: Burritos
Friday: Ended up being Shawn's special. He made Tuna Pasta Salad.
Saturday: Qdoba
Sunday: Panda Express

This weeks menu post ended up being a bit of a confession...we didn't follow it very well. But as you'll see in the upcoming weeks, we usually follow it pretty closely.

Personal Online Cookbook

This site will be home to our weekly menus as well as our weekly "his and hers" specials. I will be posting pictures and recipes of our specials, essentially creating an online cookbook with reviews. This will help me when it comes to planning the weekly menus, I can scan through previous weeks for ideas!