Homemade Lasagna (The Best Ever!!)

I recommend cutting the recipe by 1/2

Ingredients:

2 thirty-five-ounce cans plum tomatoes (About 6 cups)

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for the baking sheet

2 finely chopped medium garlic cloves

1 tablespoon coarse salt

1 1/2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper

20 fresh basil leaves, 8 torn, 12 whole

3 pounds fresh ricotta cheese

3/4 grated cup (2 1/2 ounces) parmigiano-riggiano cheese

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 pound grated mozzarella cheese

Pasta (we tried spinach and it was good) Recipe doesn't specify how much. Just make it look good.

Directions:

1. Pass tomatoes through a food mill fitted with the large disc ( or chop with a knife) set aside. Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium-low heat. Add garlic; cook until soft and light golden brown, about 2 minuets. Add reserved tomatoes, and simmer until thickened, about 35 minutes. Season with 2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Stir in torn basil leaves; set aside.

2. In a large bowl, combine ricotta and parmesan cheeses, butter, nutmeg, 1 teaspoon of salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Stir until well combined. set aside.

3. Oil a rimmed baking sheet; set aside. Cover and bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add one sheet of pasta at a time to boiling water. Cook for 1 minute, and transfer to prepared baking sheet. Repeat until all pasta has been cooked.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a silpat or parchment paper; set aside. assemble the lasagna: Spread 1/2 cup tomato sauce in the bottom of a 9-by-13 inch baking pan. Place a layer of lasagna sheets in the pan, allowing sheets to hang over the ends of pan. Spread 1/4 of the ricotta-cheese mixture evenly over pasta and sprinkle with mozzarella. Top with a layer pasta, cut to fit inside pan. Spread 1 cup tomato sauce over pasta. Repeat layering process, alternating pasta layers with cheese and sauce layers (There should be a total of three cheese layers and two sauce layers).

5. Bring pasta hanging over ends of the pan up and over the top of final layer. Use more pasta, if necessary, to completely cover top. Spread with 1 1/2 to 2 cups tomato sauce. Dollop top of lasagna with remaining ricotta cheese mixture. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella. Place on prepared baking sheet, and transfer to oven. Bake until the top i s bubbling and light golden brown, 45 to 50 minutes.

Chicken Fajitas

This is a healthy recipe! (Bren, these are the fajitas I made once that you liked)

4 chicken breasts

1/4 cp. lime juice

1/4 cp. lemon juice

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

1 tsp. cumin

pinch of garlic

1 large red pepper, cut in strips

1 large green pepper, cut in strips

1 large sweet yellow onion

8-6 inch low fat tortillas

2 Tbs. fresh cilantro

Combine juices, garlic, salt and pepper in bowl. Add chicken breasts that have been lightly pounded in mixture and refrigerate for an hour.

Spray skillet with cooking spray over med. heat. Put chicken in the skillet (discard marianade). Saute chicken about 3 minutes or until cooked through. Remove chicken, add more cooking spray. Add onions and stir fry for 2-3 minutes. Then add peppers and stir until lightly crisp and tender. Cut chicken into strips. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve warm. 

Coconut Syrup

This is NOT healthy, but a great treat on your pancakes or ice cream. 

1/2 cp. butter

1/2 cp. buttermilk (or 1/2 cup milk with 1/2 tsp. vinegar-sit for a minute)

1 tsp. of coconut flavoring (vanilla works great too)

1 cup of sugar

1/2 tsp. baking soda

Heat buttermilk on med. heat, then add butter and sugar. Boil for two minutes, take off heat, and add flavor and baking soda. Stir well and let sit. 

OREOS

Here are some yummy easy cookies, kind of like oreos but tastier and soft. I like to dye the frosting color-- like for Halloween I used orange, I also made some for a boy baby shower and dyed the frosting blue. You can make the cookies any size you want, but my favorite is to make them mini so they are bite sized.

Ingredients:

2 Chocolate cake mixes

1 cup of oil

4 eggs

Mix together. Bake at 325 for 8 min. (don't let them overcook so they will stay soft!). Let cool, then put frosting in between.

Frosting:

Mix together

8oz. Cream cheese

4 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla (or other flavoring)

*This makes a lot of cookies, you could probably half the recipe pretty easy if you are making cookies for just your family...or not;)

Sausages and Cider Sauce

Braised Sausages with Apple, Onion and Hard Cider Sauce
Serves 4

Ingredients
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 pounds veal, beef or chicken bratwurst (8 links)
4 apples, left unpeeled, sliced
2 medium onions, sliced
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 cup hard cider (or regular cidar which I used)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/3 cup grainy mustard
1 tablespoon butter
1 loaf pumpernickel raisin bread, sliced (didnt buy this so I used my muffins that I made)

Preparation

I used only 3 big sausages and 1/2 of the above recipe since I dont eat sausages but I did try them and next time will probably make more cause they were really tasty. Seth loved em. Very good autumnish flavor.

I used 3 Colosomos frozen brauts (cant spell) unthawed. Put them in a frying pan on medium heat filled 3/4 the way up with water. When the water is 1/2 evaporated I flip the sausages and start working on the below.

Add the apples and onions to a seperate frying pan (deep), then season with salt and pepper and cook until tender 5 minutes. Add the cider (I think hard would be good if I had any), brown sugar and grainy mustard and bring up to a bubble. Add the sausages to the pan (water should be evaporated) and cook until the liquids have reduced a bit and thickened up, 3-4 minutes.
While everything is simmering, toast a few slices of pumpernickel bread under the broiler and butter them. Serve the sausages with some veggies and buttered pumpernickel toast alongside.

Best Healthy Muffins Ive Ever Had

3 cups graded fresh zuchini
2/3 cup melted butter
1.25 cup honey
2 eggs
2 tsp backing soda
1 tsp backing powder
1/2 tsp of salt
3.5 Cups whole wheat flour freshly ground (if using store bought use less flour not sure how much)
2 tsp Cinninmin
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp Cloves
1 cup Nuts (your choice I like Walnuts)
1 cup Raisens

Pre heat oven to 350

Mix honey, eggs, butter, and vanilla. Mix dry ingrediants seperatly then combine. Then add Zucinni, nuts and raisens. Put into muffin tins (I use muffin cup liner things) and back for 25-30 minutes. Makes anywhere between 18-24 muffins depending on how you pack them. I filled the cups to over the top.

Pot stickers

POT STICKERS

This is our new favorite recipe. I'll post a must more detailed version on my recipe blog tomorrow. Go check it out! *grins*

Pot Stickers

• 1 package wonton wrappers (about 50ct) either circle or square
• 1 bag coleslaw mix
• 1 lb ground chicken
• 2 t ginger
• 2 stalks green onions--finely chopped
• 1 tsp salt
• 2-3 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil

Mix all the ingredients together (except for the wrappers). Spoon a TINY bit(about a tbsp or less) into the middle of one wrapper (be careful, they stick together in sets of two). Seal the edges with water. The back of the wonton wrappers have a good description on how to fold these up.

To cook, heat about 2-3 Tbsp oil in a pan. After it's HOT, add the pot-stickers, but don't crowd the pan. Let them brown on the bottom for a minute, then put the lid on it. Leave a tiny opening so you can pour some water over them. Hot oil and water do NOT play well together. Remember that kids! :) You'll want to have enough water to cover the pot-stickers about 1/3 of the way. Cover them, and let the cook until the water's gone. You'll hear a difference in the sizzle. Flip them over and cook until the other side's crispy.

We're still trying to find a good sauce to dip these in. We had soy sauce tonight, but using ground chicken makes these a little dry inside. The soy sauce was good, but salty.