Easy Lasagna

Don’t cook the noodles first! Just assemble, cover and bake:

1 lb. lean ground beef or turkey
1 qt. thick spaghetti or marinara sauce (1 can Trader Joe’s Marinara sauce 28 oz. + enough Classico Spicy Tomato & Basil sauce to make a quart works well)
2 1/2 c. water
1/2 c. chopped fresh basil or 1 tbs. dried basil
1 lb. lasagna noodles
15 oz. part skim Ricotta cheese
1 lb. grated Monterey Jack cheese
1 c. grate Parmesan cheese

This makes 15-18 servings.
one 8×8″” and one 15X9 1/2 X1 3/4.
Sauté meat in large skillet breaking up as it cooks.
Combine sauce with water in a bowl.
Spray pans with Pam.
Cover bottom of pans with a layer of the sauce mix.
Arrange a layer of noodles, layer of cheeses, layer of meat and layer of sauce.
Repeat layers, ending with sauce and Parmesan cheese.
Cover tightly with foil.
Place on a baking sheet; it splatters while it cooks.

Preheat over to 350 F.
Bake an hours until noodles are tender.
Uncover and let stand in oven for 15 minutes.
If it seems dry, add more sauce.
Can be baked a day ahead and re-warmed in a 350 F. oven for about 45 minutes.

Put the following into your kitchen aide and beat well:

6 eggs
1/2 cup of sugar
1 cup of egg nog
1 cup of half and half
1 cup of orange juice
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
1 stick of melted butter (I use some of this to butter the pan with)

Add one very large loaf of egg bread to the following mixed ingredients and allow it to soak for a few minutes. Stir it until all the bread has absorbed most of the egg mix. (This is where you can improvise. You can use fresh bread or drier bread, use 2 mixed loaves of bread or you can use fruit bread. I use a large loaf of Panatone Italian fruit cake and it is delicious!)

Pour into a bundt mold or any pan and cook for about 1 hour at 350 degrees when it is golden on top and your knife comes out clean.

You can add a variety of options to this. I recently added a banana, a cup of blueberries and some pecans. The sky is the limit!

Enjoy!

Use ready made roll out pie crust on the bottom. Then fill with berries (blueberry, boysenberry, raspberry) and 1/2 cup (REAL!) maple syrup and about 2 tablespoons flour – maybe 3.

Put the top on and bake at 350 -375 until brown and bubbling.

Note: Save some shredded cheese to go on top

Equal parts sour cream and cottage cheese and shredded cheese. (Use cheddar or Mexican blend or mozzarella)

Can of green chilis

Cooked steak or fajita meat chopped up (this is also optional)

Use non stick spray in the bottom of cake pan and then cover the bottom with a little enchilada sauce. Preheat oven to 350.

Coat both sides of tortilla (corn or flour) with enchilada sauce then fill with mixture, roll and place in pan. You don’t have to be super neat on this. It’ll spread out on its own as it cooks. When the pan is full, cover with cheese and then cover with sauce.

Bake until the middle is bubbly and hot. I have sour cream, cilantro and extra cheese to be put on top.

Garlic — fresh or jarred is the best

Lemon juice

Salt

Black Pepper

Hot peppers

Cilantro

White Onion

Tomatoes (optional)

Basically, the other ingredients are to your own personal taste. Also I have found with the chilis that they are not all created equal. Even the ones that are supposed to be hot are not necessarily hot. Leave the seeds in for more bite. This seems to be the hottest part. If you have too much lemon juice you can cut it with salt. I don’t use a lot of salt as I find the chips are usually salty enough.

I thoroughly enjoyed this experience. The food was very good and is a combination of Cuban and Spanish (Spain) food. This place has been around since 1905 and is somewhat of a historical landmark. I had a thin cut sirloin steak topped with chopped white onions and parsley marinated in lime juice. Very yummy.

Kris, Laura and I went last Sunday and enjoyed sitting out on the deck which is on the inter-coastal waterway side of the island. I found the prices to be quite reasonable, it cost about $75.00 for three of us to eat. This included a dessert that we shared and two expensive bottles of sparkling water.