Classic Lasagna

What is the only thing you, me and Garfield have in common? We all love dogs  lasagna. Here is my grandma's recipe of "Classic" lasagna. Some lasagnas use ricotta, my grandma doesn't mess around as she uses a brick of mozzarella. I like Grandma's much better.

This is another great meal for a dinner party because it feeds a lot. I used a normal sized casserole dish and it wasn't enough to hold the entire recipe so I had to call in the services of some other random baking dish I had. Buy a box of frozen garlic bread or a French Loaf  of bread with this and you should be able to feed a minimum of 8 people (unless someone was training with Michael Phelps that day).

Recipe/Directions:

So this small pan feeds probably 2 people, and this is actually only 1/5th of the total batch

This is one of my top 5 homemade meals ever. I recall not liking it when I was a young chitlin, now I wonder what the hell was wrong with me. It's like eating soft gooey pizza and who isn't on board with that? Like anything that tastes like a soft gooey pizza, it is high in calories (special thanks to the mozzarella). You can try lower calorie meats (or no meat at all). Since cheese is the main culprit, I bet you could replace the mozzarella with cottage cheese (likely save some calories and get more protein. Try it out and let me know what you think?

Raccoon River Brew Co.

If you would like another opinion on a restaurant, check out another Des Moines fan site for a restaurant review on Raccoon River Brewing Co.


http://www.desmoinesisnotboring.com/wordpress/raccoon-river-brewing-company-even-accountants-will-like-it/#comment-34817

Mexican Lasagna

First up for "Lasagna Week" is Mexican Lasagna. This recipe was found on the back of a Kraft Shredded Cheese. In particularly, the kind that infuses Philly Cream Cheese into it. This cheese is amazing as it melts better than normal shredded cheese and tastes creamier. Despite the different taste and melting I am pretty sure there isn't any difference in nutritional value...so it is fair to assume the added ingredient is MAGIC!

This recipe is pretty awesome yet pretty simple. Only 6 ingredients and it is essentially like eating tacos, except there isn't as much room to Trojan horse veggies in there. This has a ton of protein in it, as well as calories....so this isn't necessarily on my healthy eats list but watch your portions and side some salad with it.

You can cut the Pinto Beans down to 3/4 can if you like

Here are the results (with a couple slices missing)

My only knock on this recipe is that the pinto beans feel pretty dense when you eat them. Perhaps adding less of them will alleviate that. You may try to cook the beans in the microwave before baking the dish to soften them up, but I am not sure if that will work. Regardless, this is some serious comfort food that I recommend you give a shot.

Breakfast burrito

When I have friends stay with me, I turn my house into a B & B. The experience may not be as cozy as Schrute Farms but I do what I can. My favorite breakfast to make would be the breakfast burrito. It makes a ton of food for a lot of people, or some weekend leftovers for a small crew. It is also a balanced breakfast with good sources of protein to offset the carbs. Be careful, it isn't difficult to make this a high calorie breakfast so watch your portions or plan on being active after you get done.

I generally never do the same recipe twice....mainly because I forget what I did before and this instance is no different. This time I used breakfast turkey sausage instead of pork sausage which saved quite a few calories. I also used chipotle seasoning (sold at Hyvee).

Ingredients: Chopped Red Bell Pepper, Chipotle Seasoning, Jalapeno seasoning, eggs, Hash Browns & Turkey Sausage

Instructions (I don't do exact measurements very well so adjust to your preference):

Half bag of Hash browns (shown)

1lb Turkey sausage

Roughly 8-10 eggs.

Roughly 1c of diced bell peppers (any color works)

The challenge I always have is getting the hash browns crispy. This time I heated canola oil in the pan before I put the hash browns in. Then I put on some chiptole & jalapeno seasonings and packed them in the skillet to cook for a while on high (5-10 mins each side). They still didn't come out as crispy as I like but they worked. Then throw in the sausage until cooked. Crack open as many eggs as you want and stir the mixture a bit so that the eggs get scrambled. Once everything is cooked it should look something like this:

Ingredients + Heat = This

Put the skillet mixture on a tortilla if you like, or not. I usually put mine on a heated up tortilla and sprinkle some cheddar cheese. This time I replaced the cheese with greek yogurt and some homemade salsa. I like that combination because it gives it a zingy, creaminess and is much healthier than cheese.

The burrito filling lay on a tortilla with Greek yogurt and salsa

I've made these burritos for years and have never had a complaint.Try this recipe out or your own combination. What would you do different for your burrito?