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I enjoy cooking,eating food, being creative with food, and like to try new things. I try to avoid pre-packaged foods as much as I can.

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Oct 12, 2011

My room smells like Lasagna now...

I don't think my body understands how much I have to do this week. Yesterday I wanted to take a little nap at about 9:50 pm. However, my body decided that it was bed time... Needless to say, I never did make my dinner and I didn't blog either. Sadness. This week has already had a few crazy days, so if I happen to miss any more blogs this week, I apologize in advance. It is the week before midterms and I feel like there should be 3 of me in order to get done all the work that I need to. As I am writing this blog (at 10 pm), I am currently eating "dinner" consisting of tomato and mozzarella salad. If you haven't seen that recipe, please click the link and you will be taken to that blog entry. Honestly, it is so good that I could probably eat it for days! But yea, this week is homework, homework, more homework, slight break, and... you guessed it... more homework. Oh the life of a college student, lol. I was thinking earlier that maybe once every 2 weeks or once every month I could record myself making the recipe and post it on Youtube. Sound interesting to anyone?

As you have probably guessed, today's recipe is lasagna. If you are looking for an oven lasagna, please look at lasagna recipe or veggie lasagna . The links will take you directly to my previous posts about my delicious oven lasagna. However, I made a microwave lasagna. Sound interesting? I hope so!

Microwave Lasagna

Ingredients:
Before Cooking
Before cooking
  •  4 cups homemade or purchased marinara sauce (Italian Garden Sauce for me)
  • 1 tsp. dried oregano (Optional)
  • 1 handful fresh basil, chopped (I used a few tsps. of dried basil)
  • 1 sandwich baggie full of washed spinach (I used less than the recipe itself called for, and my Spinach was mixed with Arugula)
  • 1 garlic clove, peeled and minced (or you could use some garlic powder... the garlic salt was a bit much)
  • 1/2 cup water
  •  1 8 oz box of no-boil lasagna noodles
  • 1 cup ricotta cheese (8 oz)
  • 1 egg ... could be left out... The store ran out of the eggs I use! :-(
  • 2 cups shredded Cheddar or jack cheese (I only used about a cup)
  • 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (I got the big block of mozzarella and used 3/4 of it)
Instructions:

After cooking

  1. In a large bowl, stir together marinara sauce, oregano, and garlic. 
  2. Pour about a third of the sauce mixture evenly into a 7- by 11-inch microwave-safe baking dish (or a large glass bowl). Stir water into remaining sauce; set aside. (I recommend using the water to get out the remainder of the sauce from the jar.)
  3. In a food processor, combine the washed spinach and basil.  Process until everything is finely chopped.  Add in the ricotta cheese and 1 egg, and process again until the cheese, egg, spinach, and basil are all fully mixed. (If you do not have a food processor, rip the spinach and basil and mix with the ricotta cheese. Add in the egg and make sure it is all mixed well.)
  4. Rinse uncooked lasagna noodles with cold water. Then arrange a third of the uncooked noodles in a single layer atop sauce in baking dish.  
  5. Spread a thin layer of the spinach/cheese mixture atop the uncooked noodles, and then add a layer of cheddar cheese and mozzarella cheese (about a third of each cheese).  
  6. Next, pour a third of the remaining sauce to make the next layer.  Add another layer of lasagna noodles on top, and repeat with another layer of spinach/ricotta cheese, followed by cheddar and mozzarella.  
  7. Finally, repeat with one more layer of sauce, lasagna, ricotta/spinach, and cheddar/mozzarella.
  8. Cover and microwave on high heat for 25 minutes, giving dish a half-turn after 12 minutes. Remove from the microwave at this point and let the lasagna stand, covered, for about 10 minutes.  
  9. Scoop out a portion, serve, and enjoy!
As I noted in the ingredients list, I did adjust a few things, leave a few things out, and adjusted measurements sometimes. This recipe is based off of spinach lasagna recipe. I couldn't help but sample a bit after it was covered for 10 minutes. Super tasty! It was cheesy and was spiced well. I'll tell ya, I absolutely hate flat tasting lasagna. I had lasagna twice in Scotland and I was disappointed both times. Just a tip... never EVER use nacho meat and nacho cheese sauce in lasagna. So nasty! Anyway, please feel free to leave a comment if you'd like to and definitely let me know about the whole Youtube video of a recipe every 2 weeks- every month. I think it could be interesting... 

As always...

 Bon appétit!






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