Tasty Thursday: Butternut Squash Lasagna

When I make my grocery list each week, I comb through my recipe binders and cookbooks. This week a recipe fell out that was torn from a newspaper over four years ago and yet was one I’d never made. I’m not sure why because it looked delicious. I made a tweak here and there, added the ingredients to my shopping list and the results were wonderful! It would be easy to adapt as a vegetarian meal. It was hearty but not heavy. I can’t wait to make it again. What a wonderful alternative to traditional tomato-sauce based lasagna!

Butternut Squash Lasagna

1 medium butternut squash
1 quart of chicken broth
1 pound of ground sweet Italian sausage
1 medium onion, diced
1 tsp garlic
2 eggs
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/4 tsp ground red pepper
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 pound of lasagna noodles
grated Parmesan cheese

1. Roast the squash: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut the squash in half lengthwise, remove the seeds and lay flesh side up on a baking sheet. Place a tablespoon of butter on each half and season with salt & pepper. Roast for 25-30 minutes until flesh is soft enough to pierce with a fork. Let cool.

2. Brown your sausage over medium high heat. Remove and place in a bowl lined with paper towels (helps to remove some of the grease) and pour off most of the fat from the pan, reserving just enough to brown your garlic & onions. Cook the onions & garlic for about 10 minutes until the onion is translucent and lightly browned. Place in the bowl with the sausage. (Don’t forget to pull out your paper towels!)

3. Bring a large pot of water to boil and cook your lasagna noodles according to instructions. At this time also put your chicken broth on to simmer.

4. While that’s happening, scoop the flesh of the cooled butternut squash into a food processor and blend until smooth. Add the eggs, ricotta cheese and seasonings. Blend until smooth then mix with the sausage & onions. This is your filling.

5. In a lasagna pan or 9×13 dish, layer your lasagna. Alternate noodles, filling, a generous sprinkle of parmesan and a ladle full of broth. End with noodles, one more scoop of broth and more parmesan on the top. Bake, covered at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for another 15 minutes until the top is golden and the edges are a bit crispy.

We served this with some grilled asparagus alongside (toss one bunch of asparagus with olive oil, salt, pepper & red pepper flakes and grill on a lightly oiled grill pan for about 10 minutes).

Tasty Thursday: Ham & Asparagus Strata

I’ve been doing breakfast for dinner on a more regular basis lately. It’s easy on the budget but I also like it because casseroles like this one are easy to warm up on those busy nights where we’re not all together at the same time. Instead of a hearty (heavy) casserole, an egg strata is a lighter alternative and a good way to work in some veggies.

Ham & Asparagus Strata

8 pieces of bread, cubed
8 eggs
3 cups of milk
2 cups of shredded cheese (any kind, I tend to go for a pepperjack or swiss for this recipe)
1 bunch of asparagus chopped into small pieces
8oz of diced ham steak

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Place the bread cubes in a greased 9×13 baking dish. In a bowl, whisk together eggs and milk – pour over the bread. Spread the asparagus & ham over the bread and top with the cheese. (I usually mix it slightly in the pan too, just to make sure everything is sitting in the egg mixture.)

3. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for about an hour.

Note: I like to make this in the morning and stick it in the fridge until dinner time on a busy day. The time in the fridge seems to help the ingredients all meld together a bit more. You can refrigerate it overnight if you’d like or bake it right away. It’s nice to have a recipe be flexible like that, don’t you think?

Tasty Thursday: Applesauce Pork Roast

I like roasting meat in the oven but some days it’s hard to find the time. The crock pot can be a great roasting substitute. The meat comes out moist and tender. And you can get it started in the morning, so dinner is ready when you get home.

Recently I had some pork loin roast and had the idea of cooking it in applesauce. Apples & pork are a good combination so I figured applesauce would be a good cooking sauce. The results were delicious!

Crock Pot Applesauce Pork Roast

• 2-3 lbs of pork loin roast
• 2 TB canola oil
• salt, pepper and rosemary – approx 1 tsp each
• 1 cup of applesauce
• 2 TB dijon mustard
• 1 TB of honey

In a medium size bowl, mix together the applesauce, mustard & honey. Set aside.

Season the roast with salt, pepper & rosemary. Then brown it on all sides in 2 TB of hot oil.

Put roast in crock pot and cover with applesauce mixture. Cook on low for 7-8 hours.

We served mashed potatoes and a green vegetable on the side. When I cooked it, I doubled the recipe and we used the leftover pork in a Peanut Noodle Salad. The sweetness from the applesauce with the spicy in that recipe were a delicious way to get two meals out of the pork.

Tasty Thursday: Easy Calzones

I’ve got some random leftovers & supplies in the fridge that need to be used soon… pizza dough, some spaghetti sauce, a bell pepper… and I remembered an easy smoked sausage calzone recipe that uses all of those! Tonight, I’ll be using up my leftovers without it feeling like leftovers 🙂

The Ingredients
1 tube of refrigerated pizza dough
1 container of ricotta cheese
1 bag of shredded mozzarella
1 tsp minced garlic
1 package of smoked sausage (I like the skinless, turkey variety because it’s low fat)
1 green pepper, thinly sliced
1 medium-sized yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 8oz package of sliced mushrooms
1 TB cooking oil
corn meal

Click here for the instructions complete with pictures.

Tasty Thursday: the beauty of the pitch-in

‘Tis the season for entertaining! I understand that for some people, the thought of entertaining a large group is at worst intimidating and at best not high on their list of favorite things to do. I have two ideas from recent get-togethers at my house that were delicious and easy. So delicious I’d like to have all these people over again each month. The idea? Pitch-in Dinners! Many hands make light work and when you have lots of people pitching in with dinner, you end up with some seriously good eats.

Pitch-in idea #1: Burrito Bowls

Make a list of ingredients and have everyone sign up for two or three. Here’s what we had:

Rice
Two kinds of meat: chicken & beef
Pinto beans
Queso
Guacamole
Toppings: lettuce, cheese, sour cream, and a couple kinds of salsa
Dessert

Pitch-in idea #2: Chili Cook-off

This was the perfect idea for this group of friends because we have lots of kids. There were 18 kids running around that day and not one of them went hungry. Each family brought a crock-pot full of their favorite chili. I supplied toppings, corn bread & dessert. We lined up the crock-pots on the counter and ate the day away. YUM.

In both cases, I supplied disposable bowls, silverware & napkins for easy clean-up. So don’t let the idea of entertaining make you cringe – get a group of friends together and prepare to eat and laugh and enjoy each other’s company!