Red, White, and Green Lasagna

Sunday night is the night I go through the fridge making sure to throw away any expired salad dressings, make sure I'm not growing any science projects in the produce drawer, and check any meat that I hadn't had a chance to cook yet and see if I need to throw it in the freezer (I HATE wasting groceries when there are still hungry people - when they solve world hunger I will begin to waste with abandon...but until then) and as I was going through my weekly inventory, I had some marinara and pesto that I needed to use up, and some turkey sausage that was only a few days from expiring, so this multi-colored lasagna was born.

Red, White, and Green Lasagna

For the red layer:
1 - 15 oz Marinara (I used Buitoni - but any marinara would do)
8 - Oven Ready Lasagna Noodles

For the white layer:
2 - 15 oz Tubs of Fat Free Ricotta Cheese
1/2 C Egg Beaters (or you can use 2 large eggs)
2t Italian Seasoning
1/2 C Shredded Parmesan Cheese
1 3/4 C Shredded Italian 3 Cheese 2% Milk Blend (You could also use regular Italian Blend)

For the green layer:
1 - 7oz Reduced Fat Pesto (I used Buitoni - but any pesto would do)
1 - 10oz Pkg Archer Farms Spinach Garlic Turkey Sausage, Sliced
1 - 8oz Pkg Sliced Mushrooms
Dash of salt
non-stick cooking spray

Topping:
1/4 C Shredded Parmesan Cheese
1 C Shredded Italian 3 Cheese 2% Milk Blend

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

First assemble the green layer by spraying a skillet with non-stick spray and sprinkle with a dash of salt, putting the skillet on medium heat, add the mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes and then add the sliced sausage and cook until the mushrooms and sausage slices are browned.  Once browned, remove from heat and stir in the pesto, and set aside.

Next assemble the white layer by mixing together the cheeses, egg, and italian seasoning in a medium bowl and set aside.

Now you're ready to put the lasagna together, in a 9x13 baking dish put half of the marinara on the bottom of the pan, then place 4 of the lasagna noodles on top.  Then spread half of the white layer mixture on top of the noodles, followed by half of the green layer then 4 lasagna noodles.  Then to finish it off spread out the remaining half of the marinara on top of the noodles, then the remaining half of the white layer mixture and the last half of the green layer mixture layered on top. 

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 60 minutes, sprinkle the topping cheeses on top and put back into the oven for 10 minutes.

Reasons I like this lasagna:

• Its easy to use light ingredients and you can't taste the difference
• The only cooking involved was to brown the sausage and mushrooms
• This lasagna has 8-10 servings, which means that I will cook once and have multiple meals already made
• Lasagnas freeze beautifully - you can assemble it and freeze before or after baking
• It was easy enough that I was able to watch the Golden Globes pre-show red carpet while assembling it

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

-Meg

So You Think You Can Cook?

Tonight, I was driving home (stomach growling), thinking about what I was going to make for dinner. Usually, my quick and easy go-to dinner in the winter is a little angel hair pasta with butter and grated cheese. There's nothing like easy, cheesy pasta to make all the insanity of your day melt away!

However, after chatting with Meg today, I decided to change it up a little. We were talking about how since the start of the blog, we find ourselves cooking more and wanting to try new things. To stop making the same things over and over because we're too afraid (or lazy?) to go outside of our comfort zone. So, I ran with that thought.

To add a little pizazz to my "lazy-man's dinner", I heated a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan, added a teaspoon of garlic, a teaspoon of basil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Once the noodles were finished cooking and drained, I tossed it in the mixture. Added some grated cheese and... VOILA! It was so much tastier than my usual noodles and cheese. It was EGG-CELLENT!

(Please note that I was also watching Celebrity Cook-Off Rachael Ray vs. Guy Fieri. I don't know if it was the spirit of the show or my lack of 'experience' but I may as well have been a contestant. I'm jumping around the kitchen trying to make sure the garlic doesn't burn or that the noodles don't set too long. After all was cooked and eaten, I looked back and saw stuff laying everywhere. It was just so pathetic. If a camera was in the kitchen, you would've seen a crazed-hungry, jumping bean making a total mess... Just sayin'.)

Now, I know this is nothing special BUT, I tried something different. Moved outside my comfort zone... on a week night at that! This is not the kind of thing I usually do. So, Bravo, Tina! Bravo!

Until next time...

~Tina, the other egg

Lasagna - Turned Up A Notch!

Almost every night, for at least half an hour, I'm in my kitchen watching my favorite cooking shows. The Barefoot Contessa, Cooking For Real with Sunny Anderson, Guy's Big Bite, Giada at Home (I know, I know, I have issues. I'm a Celebrity Chef Groupie *sigh*)... I sit there watching in awe, not only of their yummy-looking dishes but at how much fun they're having. The ease in which they create their dishes. Like it's the easiest thing to do... and they're there to show us how. But it just doesn't seem that way when I try to recreate the receipes. It seems like it's taking forever AND I make a massive mess of my kitchen.

Then I have an epiphany: These people take hours making their dishes and then are edited to fit in a 30 minute segment AAAAAND don't have to clean up after themselves! UGH! Of course, they don't show you THAT on the show! Because I'm pretty sure if I had a "staff" to clean up after me, cooking would be so much easier and I would look just like them!

For Christmas, my friend's mother gave me The Barefoot Contessa Family-Style Cookbook. I was so excited! I couldn't wait to try out a recipe. And finally did, this past Sunday. I was really craving comfort food so I decided to start out easy and try the Lasagna with Turkey Sausage. Now, I've been baking the same, super yummy lasagna for years. But, like Ina says "we're going to turn it up a notch!"...

...And so we did.

First off, Ina says the lasagna takes 20 minutes to prepare. You know what I say? She lied. It took me a good hour to prep the whole lasagna. For crying out loud, it's a 3 step process! Noodles, meat sauce and cheesy mix! 20 minutes?? I. Don't. Think. So. Plus, my kitchen was a disaster area! It looked like a tornado had just finished blowing through!

Second, I did make some changes to the ingredients to, let's say, fit more to my style. See my remarks in red below...

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup chopped yellow onion - 1 onion
• 2 garlic cloves, minced (2 teaspoons minced garlic, from a jar)
• 1 1/2 pounds sweet Italian turkey sausage, casings removed (1 Jimmy Dean Pork Sausage Roll)
• 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes in tomato puree (crushed tomatoes IN puree? No, just crushed tomatoes!)
• 1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, divided (1/4 cup dried parsley)
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves (1/2 cup dried basil leaves)
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 pound lasagna noodles (8 lasagna noodles)
• 15 ounces ricotta cheese
• 3 to 4 ounces creamy goat cheese, crumbled
• 1 cup grated Parmesan, plus 1/4 cup for sprinkling
• 1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 pound fresh mozzarella, thinly sliced

The fact of the matter is, I only have a chance to cook on the weekends. To constantly buy fresh herbs, when I already have the dried ones in my cupboard (and refrigerator), for two people to eat, seems ludicrous. I almost never use fresh herbs and my meals are just as tasty. Also, I don't care for turkey... Unless it's a big, fat bird in the middle of my table at Thanksgiving dinner.

So, let me say this... I ♥ Ina Garten! I LOVE her recipes and will continue to recreate them. This lasagna was definitely a step up from the lasagna I'd been making. I think the thinly-sliced mozzarella was better than the shredded mozzarella I used to use. To me, it gave it a "thicker" taste. And the goat cheese? Why had I never thought to put that in my old recipe? I mean seriously, it gave it fabulous texture and taste! Much creamier with a little tang. I'll never go back! This is now MY recipe for lasagna going forward!


And how great was it that my new Temp-tations Old-World Oven-to-Table Set came just in time? AWESOME!

~Tina