Pre-cooking the meat helped immensely for time but I ran just a tad short on mozzarella and really needed provolone on top. Oh well, I added some colby-jack cheese on top, cooked it for an hour then took the foil off and cooked for another fifteen minutes.
I had to kind of mish mash the two recipes as I went due to using oven ready noodles but a semi-homemade sauce. Neither of the recipes from the box of noodles or the recipe I found on pinterest.
Not enough cheese and sauce. I broke some of the noodles up to fill in gaps so all of them were used. If I attempt this again, it is going to get more sauce and cheese for sure. I still have the jar of marinara sauce and will likely open that up and add it to portions I will fix for lunch and dinner in the future. Really needed some slices of provolone on top.
I was afraid the noodles wouldn't be cooked all the way through and I thought I had feared it was true. The bottom layer of noodles would not cut and thinking about it, thought that was odd because it was being cooked from the bottom. Turns out, the bottom layer around the edges was burned. Not a rave review from my partner but it was good. If I had added anymore sauce it would have really spilled out over the edges. As it was, there was some drippage and burning in the oven.
My Lasagna:
I chopped up half a green bell pepper and a red, a rib of celery, half a yellow onion and used four cloves of garlic. A little olive oil in the dutch oven and cooked the onion and garlic first, then added in the other veggies. Got that all softened then tossed in the can of tomatoes, juice and all then the crushed. Oh yes, since I was doing 'scratch' I used about a tablespoon of Italian seasoning with an extra teaspoon of oregano and crushed red pepper. Mashed that all together in the pestle and tossed that in. I heated the meat in the microwave for a minute then tossed that in and stirred. Turned down the heat to about 3 but left the lid off, when it looked like it was bubbling a bit much, turned it down to 1 (really low) and put the lid on. Cooked that probably for about an hour, maybe forty-five minutes. Took the lid off and it looked a bit watery so I added in the can of paste and another large pinch of oregano. Salt and pepper fresh ground and a pinch of sugar. Taste test said it needed to be smoothed out a bit so I added a pinch of baking soda. I have heard you can add a carrot for a few minutes but I didn't have a carrot until after it was in the oven (found a bag of four carrots on the community table when I took Rocky for a walk while it was cooking). Started the oven on 350 then double guessed myself and turned it up to 400 but only for about fifteen minutes, then turned it down again. That may have been the reason for the burning.
Oh and we had a good chopped salad (not the absolute mashed chop that other people do) just a good standard salad with tomato, cucumber, red onion, romaine (fresh from the garden!), iceberg and a little bit of green leaf lettuce and some shavings of carrot.
We will have meals for days, which is a good thing. I like having leftovers to supplement fresh meals, that's how you make meals stretch longer.
So, fresh meals not for a few days but there are pollo asado tacos in the future for sure.
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