The plan after that was a date night and a lazy Sunday before having friends over for a Rioja tasting, but my husband was asked to babysit very early Sunday morning. Out the window went our date, so cooking up something delicious was the next best thing.

As you know I often use cook books for inspiration rather than to follow recipes by the book, and Saturday night was no different. I grabbed one of my favorites, a book  from Sally Bee, The Secret Ingredient and found a recipe for Healthiest Ever Lasagna. I changed it up ever-so-slightly making it likely a little less healthy, but overall I think it packed a good punch of protein and nutrients. We both had two servings for dinner, I packed the rest for weekday lunches, and on Sunday morning I made another lasagna, so yeah, it’s good.

I totally eyeballed everything, so I apologize for not having exact measurements. I used the following ingredients and ended up with enough filling for two lasagnas. I love when that happens.

Lasagna filling

lean ground turkey (about a pound)

baby bella mushrooms, crumbled (about 4 cups)

carrots, chopped (about 4 cups)

large yellow onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup red wine – I used a Coteaux Sauvages Rhone blend from Michel-Schlumberger because it was opened already. It’s an amazing wine, and it cooked down , giving the lasagna great flavor

12 ounces of canned chopped tomatoes with juice

5 teaspoons tomato  paste

a few pinches of ground oregano, basil, and black pepper

Lasagna sauce

1 cup skim milk

flour and butter for the roux

a cup shredded aged cheddar

Giovanni Rana no-boil lasagna noodles (from the fresh pasta section of the store)

To make the filling, I started by cooking the onions down in a tiny bit of oil, then layering in the carrots, garlic and turkey until the turkey was browned, then mixing in the rest. This filling may seem like it has a lot of liquid, but it simmers for about 45 minutes, resulting in a rich, thick, and aromatic mix. I am kind of glad it’s still cool enough for recipes like this.

While the filling was simmering, I made a quick white sauce for the topping. First up was a roux of flour and butter which I cooked until nice and brown, adding skim milk and stirring away until nice and blended. I added a pinch of nutmeg and then started to layer my lasagna, topping it with the white sauce and then the shredded cheese.

I popped it into the oven at 400 for about 20 minutes, finishing with 2 minutes under the broiler on high to get the cheese bubbly and brown. Gorgeous.

We really, really loved this dish. The wine and mushrooms added a ton of flavor, and it was filling. I often find myself hungry after dinner, but this was really satisfying. It was healthier and cheaper than going out to dinner and resulted in great lunches for the week. You can’t beat it.

Making lunches and breakfasts ahead of time and eating well are two big goals for this week. Last week was kind of chaotic getting used to a new schedule, and I felt like every day all I could think about was crashing in bed. Hopefully this week will bring some extra energy.

What are your mini goals for the week?

Technorati Tags: dinner, Food, healthy, lasagna, recipe

I decided to go with a Food Network recipe by Giada De Laurentiis. I love Giada, and just about everything she makes looks mouth-watering. I changed up the recipe by using about 2/3 of the cheese her recipe called for and adding pureed white beans in since I had a bunch left over and didn’t know what to do with them.

I started with a few cups of butternut squash.

I learned last winter at a cooking demo from Chef Corey Comeau how to make perfect butternut squash. . . by NOT adding water. I sautéed the squash in oil with a generous grind of black pepper. As it caramelized, the smell was tantalizing and incredible. Before it started to burn, I added a tiny bit of water and let it cook off. The result was tender, addictive squash.

I decided to puree it up with the beans to create a creamy, healthy lasagna filling, and boy was it a good idea!

It’s also my new favorite bean dip. Grilled bread plus this mixture, and you have an amazing, healthy appetizer.

Once the butternut squash was all set, I got started on the white sauce for the lasagna.

The sauce is simple, a butter and flour roux, four cups of whole milk, and a giant handful of basil. This beautiful, fragrant organic basil is nestled in a little jug that used to belong to my nana. My nana is in a nursing home, so I have some of her beautiful vases and dishes. She has had some health scares recently, including a bad fall last week, and I have been treasuring these items more than ever. She will be 97 on November 6, and I am so lucky to have her in my life.

Definitely be sure to add fresh basil to this dish. It made all the difference in the sauce. Smelled amazing.

For my lasagna noodles, I used these Culinary Circle noodles from Shaw’s. I kind of love it when a store brand has a fancy label, and these noodles were of good quality and very inexpensive.

Once I had the sauce bubbling, I added the bit that is so important in a white sauce, fresh ground nutmeg. Thank you, Grenada honeymoon! We seriously have a never ending supply of nutmeg, and it’s as good today as it was five years ago. It makes such a nice addition to a cream or milk based sauce.

Putting the lasagna together was easy. I simply added some sauce to a casserole dish and started the layering, noodles, butternut squash puree, mozzarella cheese, sauce, repeat,

I wrapped the lasagna tightly in foil and cooked it for about 30 minutes at 375. At that point I removed the foil and added a generous sprinkle of grated parmesan and put the lasagna back in the oven for about 15 minutes to get all brown and bubbly.

Yum. I can’t even describe how good this dish was. It was so rich and creamy with lots of different flavors from the sweet butternut squash, the basil, and the cheese. It was excellent reheated the next day as well. I loved being able to sneak an extra bit of nutrition in with the white beans, and they definitely made it more filling.

It still feels like summer (and I am a-okay with that!), but it was nice to delve a little bit into fall with a seasonal dish.

What’s your favorite butternut squash recipe?

Technorati Tags: butternut squash, dinner, fall, lasagna, recipe, Vegetarian

January nights call for stick-to-your-ribs fare, and yesterday after a long but great day, I couldn’t warm up. Lasagna with meat sauce, made with whole wheat noodles, was the cure.

The bonus, with all of the cooking going on in the kitchen, my usually cold house is much warmer!

I started by making a veggie-heavy sauce with two chopped red bell peppers, four cloves of garlic and quarter of an onion. This photo shows a white onion, but soon after I realized I had a red onion already cut, so I used that.

After sautéing the veggies in a glug of awesomely fragrant Lucini basil olive oil, I added in a few cups of ground turkey, stirring constantly until the turkey was browned and the vegetables sizzling.

Then I poured in a can of whole tomatoes with basil. Pastene tomatoes, one of my favorites, were on sale at Market Basket, and we stocked up, so be prepared for more tomato recipes in the near future!

Rather than mash the tomatoes as I usually do, I grabbed a handy tool from my Foodbuzz Festival swag bag. These vegetable scissors are meant for chopping salad veggies, but they have come in handy when making pulled pork as well as a bunch of other veggie dishes. They worked perfectly to thoroughly chop the tomatoes and incorporate it with the turkey.

While I caught up on some work and blog reading, I let the sauce simmer. When it was time for dinner, I boiled up some whole wheat Hodgson Mill lasagna noodles and started the layering process.

A layer of meat sauce, topped with a layer of noodles, topped with dollops of part-skim ricotta, and repeat.

At the very end, I topped the lasagna with a few handfuls of shredded mozzarella, wrapped it in foil and put it in a 375 degree oven for 25 minutes. During the last five minutes, I removed the foil so the cheese got nice and melty. I was so hungry, I forgot to take a photo of the final product, but it was yummy and really quite healthy.

Random aside, although Rachael Ray annoys me sometimes, I got the idea of a garbage bowl from her show a long time ago, and I find it to be so handy! Our trash bin is across the kitchen from the counter, and the garbage bowl keeps everything on the counters neat. Love it.

Since I am cutting back a little to ensure my pants fit in 2011, I made myself decide between wine and dessert last night. I chose a small glass of Ladera Malbec, purchased on our visit to Ladera back in the summer. This is one of my current favorite wines, and with hints of vanilla, it provided the perfect end to my meal. While I really enjoyed slightly overdoing it in the snacking department over the holidays, a little balance feels really nice.

I spent the evening curled up with new TV, an episode of Pretty Little Liars and the Craigslist Killer movie. After weeks of repeats and in the midst of a million thoughts about my future, I was more than a little excited for some mindless entertainment!

Have you gotten any great tips from cooking shows like the Rachael Ray garbage bowl trick?

Technorati Tags: Food, lasagna, meat sauce, whole wheat pasta, wine

This week’s wine and food pairing is actually from last Friday. I worked from home which is one of my favorite things ever. Without having to waste the time of a commute, I got SO much done and was able to throw together an easy spinach lasagna.

I started out with about 4 cups of fresh baby spinach.

And a 14 ounce can of Trader Joe’s marinara sauce, which I doctored up with extra garlic, basil, oregano, and a teeny glug of olive oil.

The filling was a large container of part-skim ricotta, one whole egg, a handful of nutty, salty parmesan, and a cup of part-skim mozzarella.

I used the “no boil” lasagna noodles. Starting with a layer of sauce in the bottom of a glass baking dish, I layered sauce and spinach, noodles, cheese filling, sauce, etc. The recipe I was roughly following called for another cup of mozzarella sprinkled on top, but we really didn’t need it.

Cover tightly with foil and bake at 375 for about 40 minutes. For the last 4 minutes, I put the broiler on which resulted in bubbly brown deliciousness.

For the wine pairing, I broke into the latest wine that we bought at the Bin Ends fine wine flea market. We tasted a few Sicilian wines there and decided to add a few bottles to our rack.

On this particular evening, we opened a Cossentin Nero d’Avola. This Sicilian wine was a perfect match. Dark red and tasting of dark berries and a little bit of anise, this wine worked well with the richness of the cheese as well as the acidity of the tomato sauce. We have another bottle of this Nero d’Avola left as well as a bottle of Francesco Nicosia Nero d’Avola waiting for us at Bin Ends. I love trying new grapes! The Nicosia wine that we ordered has the perfect blend of fruit with a hint of black pepper which I LOVE in a wine, so I will definitely be giving that its own post once we go pick it up!

Are you ready for the weekend?! I am so happy its almost here and more than looking forward to getting my 21 mile run. . . and my longest pre-Boston Marathon run over and done with!

What are you doing this weekend? Does it involve wine?

Technorati Tags: Food, lasagna, Sicily, wine, wine and food pairing