Invented Lasagna!

I got off work an hour early tonight, and figured that I could actually cook a slower meal than what I had originally planned.  This is always a good thing.

I picked up some mozza cheese at the store, I figured I could use up some of the fish in our deep freeze and make pizza fish for the kids.  I should really blog that idea, it's quite tasty.  By the time I got home, I realized I could make lasagna.

I didn't have any pasta sauce or tomato sauce or tomato paste though.  This was going to take some creativity, good thing I can be creative!

Here is the finished result.

1lb ground turkey, browned.  While that cooked, I pureed one 28oz can of tomatoes, undrained, with half a 12oz jar of roasted red peppers.  Poured that into the skillet with the turkey, added some onion, garlic, and italian seasoning (I really love my jar of Tuscan seasoning, yum).

While that cooked up a bit, I threw a pile of spinach into the blender with a 1/4 cup of water, 1/2 cup of cottage cheese, about 1/4 cup of parmesan, and a big scoop of the sauce, and blended until it was smooth.

In a 9x13 pan, I poured a small amount of sauce.  Then added a layer of lasagna noodles, yes, uncooked.  Then I topped with sauce, and a second layer of noodles.  Then I poured my green goop overtop, and added more cottage cheese, followed by a third layer of noodles and the rest of the sauce.  Covered with foil and baked at 350 for about 45 minutes.

After 45 minutes or so, I topped with a bunch of shredded mozza, and a few more shakes of parmesan cheese.  Bake 15 minutes more or so, then let set about 10 minutes before slicing.  It was *tasty*, and the kids even ate the green layer.  Probably because none of them saw that it was spinach.

MacGyver Mom!

After a recent trip to Costco, and the realization that we have *so much* food in the house, I'm calling this next month or so "MacGyver Mom Time".

What, what?

Yes, MacGyver Mom.  It's my challenge to me.  I'm going to use up all the food stuffs in the freezer, the deep freeze in the garage, and the cold storage room under my stairs.

Why?  I could say "because it's there", which is reason enough.  Beyond that, there is so much random food in my deep freeze and storage room, and I'm not being diligent about using/rotating it.  I have so much produce from my garden from last year (and perhaps a year before that) that needs to get eaten before we plant again in June.  There is pear sauce, apple butter, rhubarb/strawberry compote all crying out for pancakes or coffee cake or to be used as filling in muffins.  I think there is actually at least one full 10kg bag of flour in the deep freeze too.  It's kind of ridiculous.

So, that's my challenge.  I will be aiming to only buy perishables, fruit/veg, dairy and some bread if I don't have time to bake around the work schedule.

Wish me well!