Mama's Lasagna

This is my mama's lasagna. Our family grew up with this as one of our favorite dinners, and it continued to be one of my favorite comfort foods to cook when I went away to college. Now, it is one of Peter's favorites that I get to cook for him! I have only made a few minor alterations to the original version I was given. My mom and my dad are VERY different when it comes to their food preferences. My mom enjoys healthier foods, and my dad prefers the 'fully-leaded' versions. However, this lasagna is the PERFECT balance. Mom figured out how to make some easy, healthy substitutions that taste great, and Papa still gets his meaty, cheesy, delicious lasagna. 


Recipe: 

• 1/2 lb (1/2 16 oz. box) Lasagna Noodles (you can use whole wheat pasta to make it even healthier), cooked & drained
• 1 lb lean ground Turkey (instead of red meat)
• 16 oz. shredded Mozzarella Cheese (low moisture- part skim for lower fat content)
• 16 oz. fat free Cottage Cheese (instead of ricotta-- if you're not a cottage cheese fan, DON'T WORRY- this does not taste like cottage cheese and you won't even know it's there! For proof, Peter can't stand cottage cheese, but loves this lasagna.)
• 2 eggs (remove one or both yolks to reduce cholesterol)
• 1 jar of Red Sauce, or 1 batch of homemade pasta sauce
• Parmesan Cheese for topping (about 3/4 cup)

**Nutrition Noteworthy: Among cheeses, part-skim mozzarella, nonfat cottage cheese and parmesan cheese rank as some of the best for being lowest in calories, fat, and cholesterol. Part-skim mozzarella and parmesan also rank fairly high for their calcium levels. However, all cheeses are generally high in sodium, so proceed with caution (especially if you have high blood pressure, heart conditions, or compromised kidney function.)

While your noodles are boiling, brown your ground turkey in some extra virgin olive oil.

When the meat is browned and cooked through, add the red sauce and let simmer. (optional: I also added 2 chopped zucchinis and a couple good handfuls of spinach leaves into the sauce as well. It may look like a LOT of spinach, but it will wilt down to nothing in the sauce. This is a great way to sneak in some veggies for your picky eaters.) Stir all together and let simmer over medium-low heat.

**Nutrition Noteworthy: Spinach is a nutritional powerhouse; it is a GREAT source of Iron, Calcium, Vitamins C & A, and Folic Acid... in addition to many other vitamins and health benefits. 

See how much the veggies have reduced!

 While your sauce is simmering, mix together the cheesy filling: Cottage cheese, mozzarella, and the 2 eggs.

Helpful Hint: Spread some of the red sauce and/or some extra oil on the bottom of the pan before you start layering, or else the noodles on the bottom will bake hard onto your pan, and it won't scoop out nicely.

Then drain your cooked noodles and start layering your ingredients as follows: 

1. Noodles
2. 1/2 of cheesy mixture
3. Noodles
4. 1/2 of red sauce
5. other 1/2 of cheesy mixture
6. Noodles
7. other 1/2 of red sauce
8. Top with parmesan

 Bake at 350 degrees F for about 45 minutes or until it is heated all the way through and the parmesan is golden and bubbly on top.

Also, let it sit for about 5-10 minutes before you try to cut in to it. This will let it firm and set up. Otherwise you will try to serve it onto a plate and it will run apart kind of soupy. Trust me, it will still be hot, but it will look much nicer for serving if you do wait a few minutes.

Leftovers pack easily, and reheat well in containers to take to the office for lunch.

It also freezes well; I like to cut leftovers into individual serving sizes and freeze the portions in ziplock baggies. Then, if Peter is home alone, or if I don't have time to make dinner, there is always some homemade lasagna ready to step up to the plate!

Mediterranean Pasta Salad

My niece, Kinley, had a picnic party at the park to celebrate her 2nd birthday this month. I was in charge of bringing a pasta salad side dish. This is somewhat of a difficult task in our family, only because my Aunt Diana Lu is the queen of awesome pasta salads. I played around with different ingredients until I found a combination that I was happy with. I think even Aunt Diana Lu would approve of this one :)


A lot of pasta salads use mayonnaise as the base of their creamy dressing, but because this was for an afternoon picnic and I wasn't sure how long it would be sitting outside before we ate it, I wanted to avoid any mayo in this one. Also, as an added bonus, the salad would be healthier without the addition of mayonnaise. The end result was a very flavorful but light dressing. The feta even mixed well with the dressing to create a little creamy texture in the absence of mayo :) I loved it and I hope you enjoy it too!


Recipe List:


Salad Dressing:

• 1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1/2 cup Red Wine Vinegar
• 1 1/2 tsp minced Garlic
• 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 2 tsp Sugar
• 1 tsp Lemon Juice
• 1 1/2 tsp Honey

Salad Ingredients:

• 2 lbs of Farfalle or 'Bow Tie' pasta, cooked and cooled (I like bow tie pasta for pasta salad, but you can use 1 lb of whichever pasta you prefer)
• 1 cup Marinated Artichokes, roughly chopped
• 1 Red Bell Pepper, diced
• 1 small can (4 oz) of sliced Olives, drained
• 1/2 small Red Onion, diced
• 6 oz. Sundried Tomato & Basil Feta Cheese (regular Feta would be just fine too)
• 1 pint (2 cups) Grape Tomatoes, halved

Mix together the salad dressing ingredients with a whisk.

Add all of your chopped/prepared salad ingredients with the cooled pasta in a large bowl, and toss together with the salad dressing:

 Transfer to your serving bowl and enjoy!

This is also a great dish because you can make it the night before. Just cover your bowl with plastic wrap and store in the fridge overnight. This will let the flavors marinade together even more, and give you more free time on the day of your event to make more dishes or set up for your guests.

During the birthday party, a very smart ice cream man circled his truck around the park with his luring music calling out to all the children. Kinley LOVES the ice cream man. In fact, sometimes she hears music, whether it's the ice cream truck or not, and she yells with excitement, "Ice Cream Man!" Of course, that was the drill at the park this day. On our way running over to the ice cream truck, she told me that she wanted 'pink ice cream'. I asked the man for his most pink ice cream, and he handed me a 'pink panther'.

 Isn't she SO cute eating her pink panther ice cream.

And while all the children played with their friends at the park... so did the men:

Best Banana Bread

This is the all-time best banana bread recipe. A good family friend of ours made banana bread for my family when I was a little girl, and it was SO good that my mom asked her for the recipe; this is the only banana bread recipe that we have made since then, and that is the recipe that I am sharing with you today. And the kicker is- this friend doesn't even remember giving us the recipe... in fact, she doesn't even recall ever making banana bread! I have only made a few additions to the original recipe: Vanilla, an extra Banana, and the Cinnamon-Sugar crust...

Ingredients: 

2 cups Bisquick

1 cup Sugar

2 Eggs

2 Tbsp Butter, slightly melted

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/4 tsp Nutmeg

1 tsp Vanilla

Cinnamon-Sugar mixture for sprinkling

4 medium-large, over-ripe Bananas 

**the 'over-ripe' is key here; if you get squeemish at the thought of black bananas, please let me put your mind at ease; when bananas turn black, it is simply the carbohydrates ripening and converting to sugar. This makes the bananas sweeter for your bread. Carbohydrates in starchy produce ripens into sugars at colder temperatures. This is why bananas turn black when you keep them in the refrigerator. This is also why starchy produce (like potatoes and certain squashes) are in season in the winter. When the weather turns cold, the starches fully develop and ripen to sugars so that they are ready to eat.

This is the easiest recipe prep I could share; place everything in a bowl and mix with an electric hand mixer. You could also place it all in a blender and let it whirl until well mixed:

 Then spray a bread loaf dish and swirl a cinnamon-sugar mixture around until all the surfaces are well coated, like this: 

Pour the banana bread batter into the prepared loaf dish, and finish with another light sprinkling of cinnamon-sugar over the top:

Cook at 350 degrees F for 45-50 minutes, or until a knife is inserted a few inches into the middle of the loaf and it comes out without any wet batter. It is a dense bread, so be sure to check the middle to be certain that it is cooked all the way through before you take it out of the oven.

 I have found that if your oven tends to cook very quickly (like mine) and the bread consistently comes out too doughy in the middle, then lower the temperature to 325 degrees F and lengthen the cooking time to about 65-75 minutes. You just have to know your oven :)

 Beautiful! Warm and soft inside, with a sweet crunchy outside!

If you are someone who does not prefer the 'butt' of breads... this bread will change that. The delicious crust created by the cinnamon-sugar coating is irresistable! The first end slice, fresh out of the oven, is the most desirable:

If it lasts beyond the first day, I like mine toasted with a light spread of butter, like in the picture below. (You can also see Peter in the background enjoying his breakfast slice of banana bread along with his regular morning routine: ESPN top 10).

Additional Options:
This bread is great with some golden raisins or chocolate chips mixed into the batter before it is poured into it's baking dish.