Lasagna Night!!

I'm discovering more and more that I am completely becoming my mother: I cry at the drop of the hat, I can't stand the sound of other people chewing loudly, and I apparently have good instincts in the kitchen.

My mother had what I've always considered an amazing ability in the kitchen. She could take whatever random ingredients were in the house, and with hardly a thought, turn them into an incredible meal. Some of my favorite dinners came out of those moments. And while I haven't been brave enough to wander completely away from my cook book, I find myself being able to take liberties and adapt recipes to create my own signature dishes. Jon's new favorite Mexican bean salad being one of those dishes. Tonight's experiment--lasagna with a bit of a Greek twist.


I began with a box of oven-ready lasagna noodles and the recipe on the back. For the most part, I followed that recipe with the following twists. I didn't use meat in the sauce. Ground beef definitely wasn't on sale this week. Instead of the seasoning they added to the ricotta, I added my new favorite Greek seasoning blend. I can't even remember where I found it, but this stuff is fabulous. I also added a layer of feta cheese on top of the ricotta with a layer of spinach on that (that would be where the Greek twist comes in). A little more feta thrown on top before a nice layer of mozzarella.







Mmmmmmmmmm. Tasty











It turned out pretty darn good, but there are a few things I would change for next time:
1. Because I didn't use meat sauce, the layers turned out pretty thin. So I'm thinking add either more layers of pasta or some chopped veggies.
2. My Greek influences didn't come through as well as I had hoped. You couldn't really taste the feta through the sauce. I'd like to try making my own tomato sauce to tone the flavor down a bit.

I thought it turned out pretty damn good for a first attempt at lasagna. And Jon obviously had no problems with it, so I consider it a success.