Sausage Lasagna!

What, two posts in a week?!  Unheard of.  Anyway I just had to tell you about the fatty goodness of Sausage Lasagna. Now normally when you make lasagna at home, people follow the recipe on the back of the box and use ground beef or if they want to be healthier, they use ground turkey.  Both choices are great, but that deep extra fat of sausage adds so much more flavor to the meal.  My husband and I once ate an entire 9x13 pan in one night.  Remind me to check my cholesterol at some point soon.  I think that sometimes homemade lasagna can be intimidating because of all the steps involved, but really if you just follow the recipe on the back of most noodle boxes and you will be fine.  And a bonus, unless you have no self-control like me and my husband, you should have days of leftovers!  So you have been warned, this is in no way a healthy meal, but hey, treat yourself once in a while! 

 

Sausage Lasagna 

1 lb ground sausage (I love Jimmy Dean's Sage or Maple)

1  8oz package no boil lasagna noodles

1 26 oz jar of spaghetti sauce (I love Newman's One or Classico brands)

1 15oz can of tomato sauce

 1/4 onion

4-6 Brussels sprouts

15oz ricotta cheese

1/2 cup sour cream

1 egg

1 teaspoon dried basil leaves

1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves

1 teaspoon dried parsley leaves

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder
salt and pepper

1/2 chili powder

3 cups mozzarella cheese

 1/3 cup grated Parmesan

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Cook the sausage until brown.  Chopped onion and Brussels sprouts into small pieces.  Now at this point I would normally drain the pan of any excess fat, but not this time.  

Yummy fatty sausage

In the same seasoned pan (I used my dutch oven) add the jar of spaghetti sauce, the can of tomato sauce, chopped onion and chopped Brussels sprouts.  I like the have a lot of sauce in my lasagna so occasionally I will add a second can of tomato sauce or even just a little bit of water to ensure there is plenty of sauce to go around.  there really is nothing worse  I just add those few veggies to make myself feel better about using a pound of sausage in this recipe!  

Spaghetti, Veggie, and Sausage sauce

In a medium bowl stir together ricotta cheese, sour cream, egg and all the spices.  I like to add the sour cream because I think it makes the ricotta cheese a little bit smoother and its high fat content adds a little extra richness to the dish.  I add a few extra spices because I think that ricotta cheese can be slightly bland, and those spices really pump up the flavors in the cheese layer.  

Finally grate the mozzarella and the Parmesan cheese.  Set aside.  Most recipes call for 4 cups of mozzarella, but that is a lot of cheese!  I find that 3 cups is plenty for this lasagna!

Now is the fun part, layering the lasagna!  Using a 9x13 inch pan (I prefer to use glass pans) line the bottom with a small amount the spaghetti/sausage mixture.  Place 3 pieces of the no-boil noodles in  the pan.  Thoroughly cover each piece of lasagna with the ricotta/sour cream mixture.  Then cover with more of spaghetti sauce and finally top with a handful of mozzarella cheese.  Add another layer of noodles and repeat the whole process two more times.  At this point you should be out of ricotta mixture and only have three noodles left.  Put those noodles onto and add the remaining spaghetti sauce followed by the rest of the mozzarella and top with the Parmesan cheese.  Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.  Take the foil off and then bake for an additional 15 minutes until the cheese is bubbling and gooey.  Remove from the oven and let stand for at least 5 minutes.  This is often the longest 5 minutes of the process for me, but if the lasagna does not stand it will slide all over the place.

Enjoy the Lasagna

Keep Tasting,

Pickles, Lemonade, and Duck Eggs: My current preggo cravings!

I drank almost a gallon of Newman's own all natural lemonade in a week.  And I am addicted to the never heated Claussen pickles.  I went through a whole jar in week. And I usually don't really have any opinion on pickles.  I don't dislike them, but I have never gone out of my way to eat them plain.  And now I am ordering them on the side at restaurants!  But hey, I want what I want right now!  The lady who does my eyebrows says I am having a girl because of my cravings.  Who knows, I already have a boy name picked out, so now I am starting to think of girl names.

Now to the point of this blog post.  Duck eggs!  Now I didn't intend to start loving duck eggs but they quite strangely popped up in my life.  My husband works as a commercial glazier.  That means he installs glass in commercial buildings (think buildings like airports, all glass entry ways, new high rise construction, etc.)  Anyway, in the course of his work he meets lots of different people from architects to electricians and sheet metal workers.  Last week he comes home with a carton of duck eggs!  I was like, what the.....  But then I fried one up and it was delicious.  Duck eggs are fluffier, fattier, and bigger than chicken eggs.  And they have more nutrients and Omega-3 fatty acids than chicken eggs!  They are supposed to be great for baking, so I will have the try that very soon.  And my husband got them from a sheet metal guy who raises organic farm fresh eggs so they are way better than the caged eggs you can buy at the grocery store.  I am hooked on them.  I have been about 5 eggs a week.  My favorite way to eat duck eggs is in a delicious duck egg sandwich.

Delicious Duck Egg Sandwich
2 pieces thick cut whole wheat bread
1 over hard duck egg
1/2 a roma tomato sliced
1 half classen pickle thinly sliced
1 think slice sharp cheddar cheese
miracle whip

Basically I just make sure the egg is thoroughly cooked through, melt the cheese onto of the egg and construct a sandwich.  And the funny thing is I usually don't even like miracle whip!

Anyway if you get the chance to try some duck eggs please do!

P.S. Pregnant or fat?

Keep Tasting,

What to eat when you are expecting (A hungry pregnant girl's rant)

Hello,

 

So I have taken a long hiatus from food blogging because I am pregnant!  I am a little over 14 weeks pregnant today!  I am excited and terrified.  And I have found the pregnancy and food are strange bedfellows. Sometimes they agree, and sometimes they have angry fights in my head and in my stomach.
 In my head I fight a new fear of food that I have never had before.  I have never ever worried about food borne illnesses, and now I have to worry about them for the sake of the lemon sized fetus inside me!  And I have had my episodes of food fear lately.  Did you know that listeria can possibly be on every vegetable and in soft-serve frozen yogurt, soft cheeses, and humus?  And apparently listeria is bad whilst pregnant.  So everything needs to be washed or avoided.  I can pretty much say that in the last few months I have pretty much unknowingly eaten every food you are not supposed to eat.  Yesterday I accidentally ate some sausage that looked a teeny tiny bit pink.  It was blackened on the grill and my husband has patiently been telling me that I am fine, but I still worry.  The grill literally caught fire so I think I might be okay, but this nagging fear sticks in my head.  And then I go on the internet and Dr. Google convinces me that no matter what I do I am wrong and I have caused irreparable harm to myself and my baby.  My husband and my family have all threatened to cancel my internet and take away my smart phone! But my husband has been so great and supportive listening to my crazy worries about everything involving this pregnancy!  I am secretly praying that I have the immunity to toxoplasmosis.  Toxoplasmosis is really bad to get when you are pregnant unless you already got it from eating undercooked or raw meat.  Let's hope all my years of eating raw meat has paid off with this disease. You can also get it from cats, but I hate cats, so at least I don't really have to worry about those things.  The list of worries goes on and on, so it is hard not to be a little afraid every time I sit down to eat.
But since I am pregnant I am always hungry.  Thankfully I had very minimal nausea, instead my healthy appetite just got better and bigger.  And I have a new fondness for lemonade and olives.  Lots and lots of lemonade.  Coincidentally I have the worse heartburn ever!  And I am so tired all of the time.  The absolute last thing that I want to do is stand in a kitchen and cook.  All I want to do is eat and sleep.  What am I supposed to do?  I have to keep eating, especially since I am eating for two!  So I will be blogging my steps and missteps of eating (and not drinking) while pregnant.  Pray for me that at the end of all this I wont be too fat, my marriage will be intact, and we will have a healthy baby!
I was going to write about my homemade tacos, but let's be real, I haven't made those since March.  Before I knew about the growing bundle inside me.  Lately I have been eating lots of chips, salsa, ritz crackers with nutella, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, candy, ice cream, fried eggs, salmon, and salads.  My husband is good at making salads and cooking salmon!  I make sure everything is thoroughly washed in the salads though! 
Today though I had just enough energy to make a semi-homemade meal.  I browned some chicken legs in my beloved dutch oven.  I added some chopped onions, mushrooms, and brussel sprouts to the pot and let them cook down for a few  and then poured some organic red lentil curry soup (I will have to write another blog about my new fondness for organic box soups).   I let the meat and soup cook together or another 15 minutes.  I removed the bone and skin from the chicken legs and made an enhanced boxed soup!  I cooked some orzo to add a little more texture and carbs to the meal.  I added a dollop of sour cream and it was actually really good.

I make no guarantees, but I will try to update more as my hunger and my stomach continue to grow in the next few months.  And after this baby is born in November, I have already asked my husband to have a plate of blue cheese, a rare steak, and a big old glass of red wine waiting for me in the hospital!

Keep Tasting,