New Year's Resolution and Turkey and Spinach Lasagna

My one and only New Year's resolution is to post recipes to this blog at least every other week. Over the break quite a few people told me they actually read this and I became embarassed about how inconsistent I have been in updating it. So, for my few yet devoted readers, expect some awesome recipes coming your way at least twice a month in 2011!

Let's start with a delightful lasagna recipe I made last night. I was inspired by this recipe from Green Light Bites and made some modifications to accomodate my love for cheese and garlic. Also, I just made a regular lasagna rather than the roll ups for lack of time to roll each one individually, but the roll ups look like a really cute idea.

Here is my version of the recipe:

Turkey and Spinch Lasagna

Ingredients

1 19.2 oz package of lean ground turkey breast

2 tbsp minced garlic

2 tbsp italian seasoning

2 c. low fat ricotta cheese

1 1/2 c. chopped spinach

1/2 c. shredded italian blend cheese

1/2 c. shredded mozerella cheese

1 tbsp garlic powder

1/2 tbsp onion powder

1 tsp salt

1 26 oz can of spaghetti sauce

20 sheets whole wheat lasagna noodles (Hodgson Mill are the only ones I know; of course regular noodles are fine)

Extra Italian blend cheese as desired

Extra Mozerella cheese as desired

Italian seasoning to taste

Driend parsley to garnish

Directions

Preheat oven to 375. Prepare noodles "al dente" according to package. During this time, brown the turkey meat and season with 2 tbsp minced garlic and 2 tbsp italian seasoning. Let cool slightly. Mix browned turkey into a large mixing bowl with ricotta cheese, 1/2 c. italian cheese blend, 1/2 c. mozerella cheese, 1 tbsp garlic powder, 1/2 tbsp onion powder, and 1 tsp salt.

Spread a moderate layer of spaghetti sauce on the bottom of a glass or metal 9x13 cake pan. When lasagna noodles have cooked, layer as follows: noodles, ricotta/turkey mixture, noodles, sauce and cheese. Repeat until your lasagna is the right size for you and your pan. Top with Sauce, cheese, italian seasoning, and parsley. Bake at 375 for about 3o minutes. Cover with tin foil if you do not like crispy edges or browned cheese. This amount made one 9x13 and one 9x9 pan of lasagna for us. Delicious! We served it to friends and still have plenty of leftovers!

I didn't get a great picture, but basically, it looks like lasagna... :)

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust in the Bread Machine

A few weeks ago I discovered the joy of making my own pizza crust and we made amazing Chicken Spinach Pizzas. So good! I found a recipe from allrecipes.com and modified it to make it whole wheat and work in my bread machine. Easiest thing in the world. On allrecipes there are directions for doing this without a bread machine, so if you don't have one, you can go check those out.

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust

Ingredients
1 1/2 c. warm water
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
3 1/2 c. whole wheat bread flour (regular whole wheat flour is fine)
1 tbsp. active dry yeast

Directions

Put ingredients into bread machine starting with wet ingredients followed by dry. The trick is that after you add the flour, make a small intentation or well into the mound of flour and add yeast into the well, keeping it dry and apart from wet ingredients. Put on "dough" setting of your bread machine.

Preheat oven to 425. Once dough is done, take it from the machine and separate it onto two equal parts. Using a bit of extra flour and a rolling pin roll out your two pizza crusts to the size and shape you want. We make ours into two 16" round pizzas. Cover with your choice of sauce, cheese and toppings.

Bake for 17 to 20 minutes depending on thickness and how well done you like your pizza. I like mine a little crispy. Enjoy!

Garlic and Herb Chicken with Pasta

I apologize for the lapse in posts, we had family in town for two weeks and both Zac and I are working on our masters thesis projects. Also, I am training for a marathon, so the free time has been eaten up by other things and cooking and blogging about cooking fell low on the priority list. However, the other day I made a specialty of mine that I should post. My garlic and herb chicken. It's an easy recipe and best served with pasta; this time I served it with gnocchi (as shown in the picture) which is amazing. I tried to make my own gnocchi a few weeks back and it was a complete disaster! So I just bought this from the store, which was hard to find! We finally did find some at Glondo's, which is a specialty italian sausage store in Cle Elum. Yay! Anyway, here is the chicken recipe:

Garlic and Herb Chicken

Ingredients

4 chicken breasts

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 tbsp garlic powder

1 tbsp italian seasoning

1 tbsp Mrs. Dash garlic and herb seasoning (optional, but it's REALLY awesome)

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

If desired, chop chicken breasts into bite sized pieces, or cook as a whole breast. Pour olive oil into a large fryinig pan and place on the stove on medium heat. Add chicken to pan. If cooking as a whole breast, cover the chicken in 1/2 of the seasoning, fry for a few moments, then flip the chicken and cover the other side in the final 1/2 of seasoning. If cooking in pieces, add all seasoning, covering chicken thoroughly. Fry chicken in olive oil until cooked thoroughly and to desired brownness.

Notes:

So yummy! Serve over pasta, with sauce, or alone.