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| This was our Sunday dinner this week - wigglie trying to sneak some broccoli. |
For this dinner of the week I thought I'd share my easy, cheater lasagna. I have a lasagna recipe that cooks and simmers all day and uses several kinds of cheese, but this is easier, faster and taste as good as the other. And, when it lasts less than fifteen minutes at the Sunday buffet line, it makes more sense.
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| For all these dishes the oven temp should be 350. |
Let's start with dessert first.
As always preheat your oven.
This Chocolate Chip cake is a cheater cake too. A box mix (shudder) is used.
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| 1 yellow cake mix. |
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| Add 2 farm fresh yummy eggs. |
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| Normally, I use a can of butterscotch pudding, but no cans could be found on the grocer's shelves, so I improvised. I used all four snack packs. |
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| Just dump them in and get them aquainted. |
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| You don't need a mixer. Just stir by hand and the batter will look lumpy. Don't over mix. |
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| Spray your cake pan. (Once again, a tip. If you spray under your oven hood while on high, the excess will be sucked away!) |
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| Spread into greased cake pan. This is a 9 X 13. |
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| I think these are the best. |
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| Measure out 1 - 2 cups of chips depending on how heavy you like your chocolate. |
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| Sprinkle evenly over the cake. |
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| Lightly sprinkle sugar over the chips. This makes the surface a little crunchy when done. |
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| Bake about 25 - 30 minutes, always testing so you don't over bake. Test with a toothpick. It should come out clean when baked. |
Now for the lasagna.
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| 2 lbs. of farm fresh ground beed. If anyone is interested e-mail me, Son #2 sells it and it is delish! |
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Get a large pot of water going to boil your noodles. Add a couple of teaspoons of salt to your water.
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| Chop an onion and add the onion to the ground beef. Salt and pepper and brown. |
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| This is a great tool to brown ground beef. I don't know what it's called but I think I got it through Pampered Chef. (Any Pampered Chef dealers reading this, feel free to leave your contact info in the comments.) |
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| Add your noodles to the water. They won't fit in the pan at first. I know some people don't pre-cook their noodles. I just have a hard time doing that, so I get them started by slightly boiling them - they don't get cooked all the way. |
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| See, they fit once they start cooking. |
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| Brown and drain grease from burger. |
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| Here's the cheater part. Buy two to three DIFFERENT kinds of sauce. Add them to the meat mixture. When you mix them together, that is where the magic happens. I switch it up and use different kinds. It never fails, someone will ask, "This is really good, did you do something different?" |
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| Drain and rinse your noodles. If you rinse them in cold water, it makes it easier to handle - not so hot. |
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| Shredded mozzarella. Only one kind of cheese for our cheater recipe. |
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| Form an assembly line. |
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| A little sauce to begin with so the noodles don't stick to the bottom. |
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| A layer of noodles. This is a larger pan. It is 10" X 15". When I am feeding all 17 of us I use this pan and a 9X 13. |
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| Another layer of sauce. |
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| Sprinkle cheese over. |
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| More noodles. |
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| More sauce - do this sequence for 3 layers. |
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| Finish with cheese. |
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| I add some oregeno and basil to pretty it up - at least one pan. There are some persnickity eaters here who don't think they like that. |
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| Bake about 30 minutes - until bubbly and your cheese is browning. |
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Can you see it bubbling? Can you smell how yummy????
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This is a quick, yet favorite addition to the meal - Herb Bread.
1 stick of softened butter
2 t parsley flakes
1/4 t oregeno
1/4 t dill weed
1/8 t garlic salt
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| These are the spices you will use. |
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| I made a double batch today. |
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| Mix the herbs into the butter. |
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| French bread. |
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| Cut into slices, but keep them in line as you will "put the back together" again. |
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| Spread the butter mixture on one side and place on a sheet of aluminum foil. |
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| Make a canoe. |
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| Spread butter over top. |
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| You can use plain parmesan cheese if you prefer. |
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| Sprinkle over top. |
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Bake about 20 minutes or so at 350.
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Broccoli with cream sauce:
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| Clean and cut up your broccoli. Once again, since we have so many I used about 4 heads. |
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| Slightly steam. I add about 1 inch of water to the bottom of the pot. Bring to boil, let boil about one minute, Turn heat off, cover pan and let sit while making the sauce. |
Cream sauce:
1/4 C butter
3/4 C water
1 C milk
1/4 C flour
1 t chicken boullon granules
1 T lemon juice
1/2 t salt
pepper
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| Melt butter in pan. 1/2 stick or 1/4 C |
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| Add 1 C milk |
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Add water. 3/4 C
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| 1/2 t salt |
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| 1/4 C flour |
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| Mix until it bubbles and thickens to look like pudding. |
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| Add pepper. We like pepper so I add about a full teaspoon. |
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| 1 T lemon juice and mix all together. |
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| Pour over broccoli. For the large amount of broccoli I used, I should have doubled the recipe. This makes a good amount if using a couple heads of broccoli. You can also use frozen broccoli, but I prefer fresh. |
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Sprinkle with cheese and bake at 350 until cheese melts and bubbles a little.
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| Very rarely do we have leftovers. |
Normally, we gather here at my house each Sunday for dinner. Some scatter to do their own things, but I am blessed to have all the kids and wigglies at my table frequently.
I hope these dinner ideas, recipes and hints will incourage you to circle the wagons and chow down together.
