lasagna

White Chicken Lasagna

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When I was younger I never cared for lasagna. I attribute this to a few things. I did not care for lots of red sauce at that time. I always thought lasagnas had too much sauce. It was unappealing to look at & I ended up scraping excess away. I also thought they were too cheesy. I love cheese. I have always loved cheese. I eat way too much cheese I am sure, but when it comes to pizzas & lasagnas I believe that less is more. I also don’t know if I ever had a homemade lasagna. They were always frozen aisle lasagnas.

Once I started cooking for myself, I realized I love lasagna. I just like it the way I make it with less sauce & cheese. I also never used to use loaf pans. I would use a normal 8×8 or 9×13 pan. Since I am cooking for 2 almost always, I like using the loaf pans. That way it is always fresh when you pop it in the oven. I also like being able to prep meals ahead of time & lasagna is one of the perfect make ahead meals. With the loaf pans you get one right away and another within a week. As the guy I am cooking for likes red lasagnas I have always made those. I decided to make a white lasagna this time. It is creamy, savory, & a nice change from a traditional red sauced lasagna. It even has his approval.

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White Chicken Lasagna

  • 2 large chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
  • 8 lasagna noodles, cooked
  • 1 1/2 cups cottage cheese
  • 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
  • 1 egg
  • 1tsp each basil, oregano, pepper
  • few dashes each onion powder & garlic powder
  • 1 diced onion, red pepper, & yellow pepper
  • olive oil
  • 1 tbsp. butter
  • 3 tbsp. flour
  • 1 cup chicken stock
  • 3 cups milk
  • pinch sage, basil, oregano, pepper & salt
  • 1/4 cup mozzarella
  • 1/2-3/4 cup mozzarella cheese
  • parmesan cheese (optional)
  1. Lightly coat a large skillet with olive oil. Sauté the onion & peppers until almost caramelized. Add one tbsp. butter & stir until melted. Add 3 tbsp. flour & stir until dissolved. Add 1 cup chicken stock, 3 cups milk, & pinch each basil, oregano, pepper & salt. Stir often until thickened & bubbly. Add 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese.
  2. Meanwhile, mix egg, cottage cheese, shredded chicken, tsp each basil, oregano, & pepper, few dashes each onion & garlic powder, & 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese in a medium bowl.
  3. Take two loaf pans & place 1/4 cup sauce on the bottoms of each. Place approx. 1.5 noodles (cutting & overlapping as necessary) on sauce. Top each with 1/4 the chicken mixture. Sprinkle a small amount of mozzarella cheese over the chicken. Top with sauce. Repeat layers once ending with last layer of noodles on top. Finally, over the last set of noodles place some more mozzarella & top with remainder of sauce. If desired, top with parmesan cheese. Cover both with foil. Bake immediately, place in the fridge overnight, or place in the freezer for up to a week (if placing in freezer cover with foil, wrap it completely in plastic wrap, & wrap again completely with foil. Remove outer wrap of foil & plastic before baking).
  4. Bake in a 375F oven for 40-45min covered & 15-20 minutes without foil (if frozen add 10-15 minutes to each portion of baking).

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Multiple Meals: Pizza, Lasagna, & Gravy

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There is no story behind this post. I simply had too much food that needed to be eaten so it wouldn’t go to waste. Seeing as how I only like to eat the same thing a handful of times, I decided to split it into 3 meals (this also took care of a lot of meal planning for me for the week). Each can serve 2 & you get spare lasagna as well!

Prep for all 3:

  • Brown 1lb ground beef & 1lb hot Italian sausage together. Set aside 1 cup browned meat for gravy.
  • Sauté 2 yellow squash, 2 zucchini & 2 onions together
  • Prepare pizza sauce (mix all together)
    • (1) 6oz can tomato paste
    • 1/3-2/3 cup water (depends on consistency you want for pizza sauce)
    • ¼ olive oil
    • Dash Salt & pepper
    • 2tsp each Basil & oregano
  • Prepare pizza dough (makes 2 – 1 for pizza & 1 for another use within 1 week in the fridge covered loosely):
    • Mix in a large bowl: 1.5 cups warm water, 2 ¼ tsp yeast, 1tsp salt, 2 tsp sugar, ¼ cup olive oil
    • Add 3 cups bread flour using wet hands if needed to incorporate all the flour
    • Cover loosely and let rise for 2-2.5 hrs

 

Pizza

  • Browned meat
  • Sautéed veggies
  • Pizza sauce
  • Half the dough
  • Mozzarella cheese
    • Preheat oven with pizza stone lightly coated with cornmeal at 450F for 30minutes. Roll out dough on a lightly floured pizza peel to be 1/8in thick.
    • Spoon half the sauce on the dough. Top with light sprinkling of cheese. You should still see the sauce through the cheese
    • Top with browned meat & veggies. Again, be light with toppings.
    • Slide onto stone & bake for 20-25minutes until crust is cooked through.

sausage pizza

 

Lasagna (Makes 2 lasagnas. Each lasagna serves 2)

  • Browned meat
  • Sautéed veggies
  • Pizza sauce & 15oz can tomato sauce
  • 6-12 cooked lasagna noodles (depending on preference)
  • 1 container part-skim ricotta cheese
  • 1 egg
  • Mozzarella cheese
  • Basil & oregano
    • Mix pizza sauce & tomato sauce together. Add more basil & oregano to taste.
    • Mix egg & ricotta cheese. Add ¼ cup mozzarella cheese to this mixture.
    • Put ~1/4 cup sauce on bottoms of two loaf pans.
    • Cut noodles as necessary to fit pan (about 1-2 noodles per layer & 3 layers total).
    • Add a few tbsp ricotta mixture & spread over noodles. Top with browned meat & veggies. Top with more sauce. Repeat layer again & add some mozzarella cheese over the ricotta blend. For the final layer, use ricotta, mozzarella & sauce only. Cover with foil. Repeat for second lasagna. Bake immediately, after 24hrs in fridge, or within a week in the freezer.
    • If baking immediately, bake for 30 minutes with foil & 15-20 without foil. If baking after storing in the fridge for a day, bake for 40minutes with foil & 15-20 without. If baking from the freezer, bake for 60 minutes with the foil, & 15-20 without.

sausage lasagna

 

Gravy

  • 1 cup Browned meat
  • 1 cup Milk
  • 1 tbsp Flour
  • Pepper to taste
    • Put browned meat in skillet or pot. Reheat for a few minutes.
    • Add 1 tbsp flour to meat & sauté for 1-2minutes.
    • Add 1 cup milk & cook over medium heat until thickened & bubbly. Add pepper to taste.
    • Serve over biscuits or toasted baguette slices (if all else fails, serve over a slice of toast like I did)

 

sausage gravy

Breakfast Lasagna

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On the weekends, particularly Sunday, I like to have something different for breakfast if possible. Considering all I had was bacon & eggs, I decided I would just make pancakes to go along with that. Nothing special. As I was gathering all my supplies, I thought…why not make it more fun and turn it into Breakfast Lasagna. The pancakes can be the noodles, the bacon & eggs could be the meat, I have cheese, and couldn’t the syrup become some sort of sauce? Yes. Yes. Yes. Thus, Breakfast Lasagna was made. The best part is that you can use whatever you have on hand & make it your own. Sausage, bacon, ham, none of the above? It doesn’t really matter. It’s whatever you feel like throwing together. Here is what I did…

Bacon

  1. Cook 4 slices bacon in a skillet over medium to medium high heat until crispy or preheat the oven to 400F and bake on a foil lined baking sheet for 15-20minutes until crispy. (I always bake my bacon as it turns out more even & is out of the way while I prep other things).
  2. Set bacon on a paper towel lined plate & pour bacon grease into a small pot (if you baked your bacon) or keep in the skillet for later use.

Pancakes (use your own recipe or follow this one)

  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/8 tsp baking soda
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • few dashes cinnamon
  • 1 egg white or the whole egg if you desire
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk or sour milk (or 1/2tbsp lemon juice and 1/2 cup milk that stood for 5 minutes)
  • 1/2tsp vanilla extract
  • butter or cooking oil for cooking the pancakes
  1. Combine all the dry ingredients in a medium bowl.
  2. Combine all the wet ingredients in a small bowl.
  3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients & stir until just combined.
  4. Preheat a skillet over medium heat. Add a small pat of butter to coat the skillet.
  5. Pour batter* into skillet and cook until pancakes are golden brown, turning to second side when they have turned bubbly & the edges are slightly dry. Cook the second side until pancakes are golden brown. Approx. 2min per side.

* Make whatever size pancakes will fit into a small casserole dish or oven safe container so you don’t have to tare them as much. I made oval pancakes.

Scrambled Eggs

  1. Whisk 4 eggs & a few tbsp milk together until smooth.
  2. Pour into a small greased skillet that has been heating over medium heat.
  3. Let sit until edges start to set – approx 1 minute. Using a wooden spoon or a spatula, scrape the sides of the eggs to create large curds. Continue in this manner until the eggs are cooked through. Set aside.

Maple Bechamel

  1. Place the skillet or small pot with reserved bacon grease over medium-low to medium heat.
  2. Add a small pat of butter & stir until almost melted. Add a tbsp flour and stir into bacon-butter mixture.
  3. Add approx. 1/2 cup maple syrup to this and mix constantly until thickened & bubbly. Set aside.

Assembly

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  1. Preheat the oven to 400F if you did not bake your bacon. If you did, keep the oven set at this temperature.
  2. Take a small casserole dish or oven safe container and grease the bottom & sides.
  3. Place a layer of pancakes (approx half the pancakes) on the bottom.
  4. Coat the pancakes with half of the béchamel sauce.
  5. Top with half the eggs.
  6. Crumble the bacon and place half on top. 
  7. Add a small amount (a few tbsp) of cheddar cheese over this.
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  8. Repeat layers. (I had one pancake leftover so tore it into small pieces & placed it over the top).

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9. Cover with foil and bake for 10min. Remove the foil & bake for 5-10min more.

10. Cut into 2 pieces & serve with additional syrup if desired.

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Multiple Meals: Ground Beef & Italian Sausage

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To continue the theme of Meal Planning, I shall share some things I do to make multiple meals. I am usually cooking for 2 while many recipes are for 4 people. I either make the recipe as is and we have leftovers or I decide to make two separate dishes. In this first installment of Multiple Meals, I use a pound of ground beef & a pound of Italian sausage and make 2 different dinners but each can be eaten twice.

The first thing that needs to be done is to combine both meats together & then divide the meat mixture in half (now you have two separate pounds of combined meat). Brown one of the halves of meat with an onion and set aside for prepping two lasagnas. To the other half, we will be making meatballs. One for spaghetti & the other for sandwiches.

Meatballs

Take the half of meat that is for the meatballs (1lb) and add the following:

  • 1 slice milk soaked bread (place a piece of bread on a plate and pour milk over it so that it is saturated all the way through. Squeeze out the excess).
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • ¼ tsp each salt & pepper
  • ½ tsp each basil & oregano
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 beaten egg
  • 2-3tbsp parmesan cheese

Take half of this mixture & place in the fridge for the next night’s dinner*

To the other half, form the meatballs by hand (roughly the size of a golf ball) and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake in a 450F oven for 5-8 minutes until browned. Remove from the oven.

Meanwhile, chop an onion & a green pepper and sauté in a large skillet in a small amount of olive oil over medium low heat for about 20-30 minutes until caramelized to your liking. Add a minced clove of garlic and sauté for about 2 minutes. Add 8oz canned tomato sauce, 1/2 tsp. oregano, 1/2 tsp. basil, and salt & pepper to taste. Add the meatballs to the skillet and cook over low heat while covered for 20-30 minutes. Top with parmesan cheese if desired & serve over cooked spaghetti noodles.

The next night you can prepare exactly the same way and serve in a hoagie bun for meatball sandwiches.

meatball

* If desired you can prep all the meatballs and sauce at once if you are having the sandwiches for lunch or if you know you are crunched for time the next day. Just reheat when ready to eat.

 

Loaf Pan Lasagna

For the lasagna, we will be making two lasagnas (in loaf pans) that serve two each.

  • 1lb meat previously browned with an onion
  • 8 cooked lasagna noodles
  • 16oz ricotta cheese (I used part-skim)
  • 1 egg
  • ¼ tsp pepper
  • ½ tsp each oregano & basil
  • 1.5-2 cups mozzarella
  • 1 26oz jar spaghetti sauce or make your own
  • ¼ cup Parmesan cheese (& more for sprinkling if desired)

Either the day you brown the meat with the onion or the next day after it has been browned prep the lasagnas as follows:

Mix ricotta, egg, seasonings, & 1/4 cup parmesan cheese in a bowl for the filling.

Place approximately 1/4 cup spaghetti sauce on the bottom of each loaf pan. Place two noodles on top of the sauce. Cut or overlap as necessary. Place 1/6 of the ricotta filling on the noodles and spread into a thin layer (approximately 1/3 cup). Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Place 1/4 of the browned meat on the filling. Top with more spaghetti sauce. Next place one noodle over the sauce cutting as necessary. Repeat filling, cheese, meat, & sauce layers once. Finally, place one noodle over the sauce and top with the rest of the ricotta filling, mozzarella, and sauce. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese if desired.

Put one in the fridge for night 3 (night 1=spaghetti & meatballs, night 2=meatball sandwiches, night 3=lasagna) and one in the freezer. Cover the one in the fridge with aluminum foil. To the one placed in the freezer make sure to cover with aluminum foil, wrap all the way around in plastic wrap, & wrap again all the way around but with foil. Use within 1-2weeks for ideal flavor.

lasagna

 

Fridge lasagna: Preheat the oven to 375F. Bake with the foil covering for 40minutes. Remove the cover & continue to bake for 20minutes. Let sit for 5-10 minutes.

Freezer lasagna: Preheat the oven to 375F. Remove extra foil & the plastic. Bake with the foil covering for 1 hour. Remove the cover & continue to bake for 20minutes. Let sit for 5-10 minutes.