Recipe Monday - Easy and Incredible Lasagna

Cooking is generally hard for me, but one thing I've got down is lasagna.

You really can't fail at this...it's that easy.

Lasagna noodles

Sauce

Shredded Mozzarella cheese

Shredded Parmesan cheese

Ricotta Cheese

Ground beef

Spinach

1) Start boiling a lot of water and cook 9 noodles

2) Preheat oven to 350

3) Brown the ground beef until cooked through

4) Add sauce to the beef and turn heat to low

5) Mix together all the cheeses, saving some of the mozz and parm.

6) Rinse spinach

7) Put a thin layer of sauce on bottom of lasagna pan

8) Layer three noodles across

9) Put a layer of beef / sauce there

10) Layer of the mixed cheese

11) Layer of spinach

12) Repeat all layering until last noodles are on top and all ingredients used.

13) Sprinkle sauce on top

14) Spinkle rest of mozz and parm on top

15) Bake for 30-35 minutes.

DONE.

Eat for a week.

 

Recipe Monday - Fried Spaghetti

Yesterday, as I was frying some spaghetti, it came to my attention that this is a thing most people do not do. And my only question to you is...why? You should fry your spaghetti after you've had it the first night. On reheat the sauce is all cakey and loses its flavor anyway. Why not have a crunchy, fresh-tasting leftover over a mushy, meh one?

Instructions are easy:

Heat olive oil in a pan at medium. Dump in spaghetti. Stir occasionally until the noodles start to show a bi of crispiness, then stir nonstop until they're crunchy all the way through. You can add meatballs, sausage, pepperoni (shown) or anything you want!






 

Recipe Monday - Chicken Parm

Everyone knows how to make chicken parmesan, but in case you don't, here's my recipe.

• 4 boneless chicken breasts, pounded to 1/2 inch thickness
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• seasoned bread crumbs
• 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 8 slices mozzarella cheese, or more
• 1 jar (16 oz) spaghetti sauce
• Parmesan cheese

Whisk together the egg and milk. Dip the chicken breasts in milk and egg mixture and then in bread crumbs. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Brown the chicken in the hot oil on both sides until golden, about 3 to 4 minutes on each side.


Set chicken in a baking dish. Slice 8 pieces of mozzarella cheese and put two on each chicken breast. Pour 1 jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce over all.

Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and a little more mozzarella and bake at 350° for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until bubbly.

I added sundried tomatoes to mine.




 

Recipe Monday - Pasta Faggioli

No finished photo...I forgot. But here it is mid-cooking.

One bag of 15-bean soup
Onions
Carrots
Celery
Spinach
Pasta
Garlic
Salt and Pepper
Ham Seasoning
Italian seasoning
Diced Tomatoes with juice
1 can tomato sauce
Ham chunks
10 cups water

Boil the water, then throw the beans in. After an hour, throw in everything else. Simmer for three hours. That's it!


 

Recipe Monday - Fancy but Easy Stuffed Shells

I halved this recipe and it served four adults and three toddlers. 1 box of jumbo shells...cooked to package directions  32 ounces of ricotta cheese  3 cups mozzerella cheese  1\2 cup of parm.cheese  2 eggs  1/2 tbs.onion powder  3cloves of garlic chopped  1 tsp. of pepper  1 teaspoon of seasoning salt  1 box of chopped frozen spinach..thawed and sqeezed dry  2 tbsp. of sundried tomatoes (the ones in the oil)drained and chopped  2 cans of tomato sauce...whatever is your favorite.  2 pounds of ground beef  1 large onion chopped  2 tbsp. of brown sugar

*brown ground beef with your onion until there is no pink *preheat oven to 350'F *while thats cooking, mix your ricotta cheese in a big bowl with *1 1/2 cups mozzerella, parm.cheese, 2 eggs,onion powder, garlic, pepper, seas-salt, spinach (I used fresh spinach and steamed it), and sunndried tomatoes... *add the spaghetti sauce *add the brown sugar *and simmer for the time you are stuffing your shells *stuff your shells with about 2 or 3 tbsp.of cheese mixture or to your desired amount *in 9x13 dish add about one inch of spag.sauce *place the shells in the bottom of the dish and cover good with sauce and remaining mozzerella cheese *cover with foil and cook in 350' oven for 30 to 45 min

Recipe Monday - Unstuffed Peppers

This is not my recipe. I shamelessly stole it from my friend Janel. It's wonderful. Stuffed peppers are my favorite meal ever, but they take too long and make too much mess for too little reward. This casserole is the easy version and it tastes just like the real thing.

 

1 1/2 cups uncooked rice

1 jar marinara
1 lb hamburger

4 cloves fresh garlic or 2-4 T diced jarred garlic

1 onion or bag of diced frozen onion
2-4 bell peppers or bag of diced frozen green peppers
1/2 - 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Seasonings like: salt and pepper, Italian seasonings, balsamic vinegar, a teaspoon of unsweetened cocoa powder, worchestshire sauce

First, cook the rice on the stovetop.

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

While the rice is cooking, cook the meat. Add salt, pepper, Italian seasonings, and garlic. Drain meat. Add in the wet ingredients like balsamic vinegar and worchestshire sauce and jar of marinara. Add the bell pepper and onion and let it simmer for a bit on low-medium heat for about 10 minutes

Your rice should be finished by now. Dump it into the saute pan if there's room. I transfer everything to a large casserole dish. Mix together well. Top with the cheese.  Put in the oven and bake for about 20 minutes. Take out and let cool for a bit.

This is seriously the best thing I've ever made. My kids love it. Even my husband loves it and he hates tomato sauce. It's delicious. I can't recommend it enough. Thank you, Janel!

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