Lazy Lasagna

I love to cook, and find it really rewarding to make dishes my family will enjoy and request again. Many hours are (mostly) happily spent poring over recipe books, shopping for just the right ingredients, chopping and prepping and then cooking or baking. I especially love to find recipes that feature 'exotic' and really flavorful ingredients like curry, ginger or fennel or try out recipes that leave us getting hungrier by the minute, enticed by the delicious smells of ingredients working their magic.
But, it would be a lie to say that I always love laborious recipes. There are those days when I'm just beat from the daily activities or don't want to spend 45 minutes babysitting a pan of risotto. Times when I just want to throw something easy together and forget about it while the dish does it's own thing in the oven. Evenings when I need to help my girls with homework projects or want to just veg out with a great book on the couch. Does any of this sound familiar to you? Well, tonight's one of those nights and I'll share my secret with you. It's called Lazy Lasagna. Only seven ingredients and about 20 minutes of your time actually putting it all together before it bakes to comforting cheesy-gooey, delectable and satisfying goodness. You don't even have to pre-boil the noodles! Ready? Let's get dinner started...

Lazy Lasagna (makes 1 9X11 pan)
1 lb. ground beef or turkey
32 oz. jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce
1 lb. cottage cheese
8 oz. sour cream
8 uncooked lasagna noodles
12 oz. shredded Italian cheese blend
1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1 c. water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brown meat, drain, and add spaghetti sauce. Reduce heat to low and heat thoroughly. Combine cottage cheese and sour cream and blend in a bowl. Spoon 1/3 of the meat sauce in bottom of pan. Put 4 noodles over sauce, 1/2 of cheese mixture, 1/3 of the shredded cheese mixture and Parmesan. Repeat. Top with remaining meat sauce and cheese. Pour water around the sides of the pan and cover tightly with foil (I lightly spray the underside of the foil with oil so the cheese doesn't stick). Bake for 1 hour. Uncover, and bake 20 more minutes or until bubbly. Let stand 15 minutes and enjoy your lazy lasagna!

Pasta with Creme Fraiche, Lemons and Basil

As I was perusing through my cookbooks trying to plan the meals for this coming week, I came across this recipe for Lotsa Lemon Pasta in the I Love Trader Joe's Cookbook. I looked at the ingredient list and saw that one of my favorite ingredients was featured- creme fraiche. If you've never had creme fraiche before, I can describe it's flavour and texture as somewhat similar to sour cream. It's tangy and ever so slightly sweet. Because of it's high fat content, it doesn't separate when heated and can lend itself well to either savory or sweet dishes. I continued to look down the ingredient list and saw that arugula was listed. Because I didn't have fresh arugula on hand but had just bought a bunch of fresh basil, I decided to substitute one green for the other. As I added ingredients and stirred the sauce together, I tasted it and decided that because of the aromatic lemon zest, I only needed the juice of one lemon instead of two. I also decided to add a dash of nutmeg to the sauce and I felt it was perfectly seasoned.
When the warm pasta was added to the creme fraiche sauce, I immediately smelled the citrusy zing of the lemon and I added the basil right before serving to avoid it turning an unattractive brown. We took our first bite and it was like Spring in our bowls. Seriously. It was fresh, aromatic and made me feel happy. The recipe below is written with my substitutions and additions. I hope you'll enjoy this first taste of Spring.

Pasta with Creme Fraiche, Lemons and Basil (serves 6)
1 7.5-8 oz. container creme fraiche
juice of 1 fresh lemon
zest of 2 lemons
1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 16 oz bag of bow tie pasta (or other similar sized pasta)
freshly ground pepper and salt, to taste
dash of nutmeg
10-12 leaves of fresh basil, chiffonade

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and cook the pasta al dente. Drain the pasta and set aside.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, stir together the creme fraiche, lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, pepper, dash of nutmeg and Parmesan cheese together. When pasta is slightly cool, add to sauce and stir. Right before serving, stir in basil. You can add more Parmesan and basil to the top, if desired. Bon Appetite!