it may not be pretty

As I mentioned in my previous post, I did menu planning last week for the first time. The last thing on my menu was made Friday night when my brothers and my dad were all here. Keith busted me out that it was a spinach lasagna (no meat) and the guys were skeptical.

To be honest, I was too... but for different reasons. I've never made lasagna before. And while the contents of the recipe I used seemed right, the directions and layering seemed off. So I did the best I could and put it in the oven - rushing because the guys were on their way and getting close. I didn't fully read the recipe through to the end and missed an important step. When I opened the oven to check on it part way through, the top noodles still looked hard, dry, and were starting to curl up. Keith said I needed more sauce, so we poured more on. Then he mentioned maybe putting tin foil over it would help keep the moisture in. Ding Ding Ding! There it was. Tinfoil, the last step that I completely missed. Duh! So, with the extra sauce, I put tin foil on for the remainder of the baking time and everything turned out fine.


It wasn't the prettiest thing in the world - a little crispy looking on top and the noodles settled down a bit, but were still a little curly on top. But other than that, I thought it tasted great. Dad and brothers liked it, too - but Brian says 'more meat, less spinach' next time.

I used this recipe and adjusted just a tiny bit based on comments - but like I said, the direction for putting it together didn't match up to me. So, here's how I did it.

Spinach Lasagna
1 jar spaghetti sauce (choose your fav flavor)
1 c. cut fresh mushrooms
2 eggs
1 pint ricotta cheese
1/2 tsp. salt
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
8 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
15 lasagna noodles

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease one 13x9 inch baking dish.

In a medium bowl, beat the eggs and combine them with the ricotta or cottage cheese, salt, spinach and 1/4 cup of the Parmesan cheese. (exactly like recipe said)

Spread 1/2 cup spaghetti sauce into the baking dish. Place 5 of the uncooked noodles over the sauce. Top noodles with half of the spinach mixture. Sprinkle with half of the shredded cheese. Spread the mushrooms on top of the cheese. Cover lightly with more spaghetti sauce. Add another layer of noodles, then remaining spinach mixture, rest of the mozzarella, and more sauce. Add one more layer of noodles and top with the rest of spaghetti sauce. And finally, cover it with tinfoil. Bake for one hour; after baking, let cool for 1o minutes before cutting/serving.

The final note I have on this is that I ran out of cheese, so I took it out after 50 minutes, removed the tinfoil, and added parmesan on top - then baked for the last 10 minutes. Next time, I'll probably have more mozzarella on hand and top it with more of that. And, depending on who I'm cooking for, may add some seasoned ground turkey. :)

So ends my first week of menu planning and it was pretty successful... and since I haven't gone to the store for this week, yet, it has been a ham sandwich kind of day. I'm cooking for one for the next few days due to the annual fishing trip, so I see cereal and more ham sandwiches in my immediate future.