super-easy spinach lasagna

so... my camera? is still deadish. oh, yeah, i do have a warranty. and... i did call. okay, and they have sent me the shipping label, but... go to a ups store? oh, that sounds like a lot of work.

on top of that, geesh. i've got so much to do. first and foremost, i have to finish reading the discworld books before i start grad school. and yes, i DO MEAN that that project is a high priority. i'm doing a bunch of other boring life stuff, too, like gearing up to move (eventually), paying down student loans, fafsa applications for NEW student loans, et cetera, et cetera.

but! don't feel sad! blogging isn't the only thing i'm not doing much of! i'm also not COOKING much! yes! really! bill cooks dinner almost every night lately, and, let me tell you, i may never tire of grilled meat & grilled veg dinners. SO. GOOD.

i did make a spinach lasagna last night, though, which makes me feel good because it feeds us for three days so that's almost like i cooked THREE dinners. plus, it's vegetarian, low-fat, high-protein, super-easy and recession-friendly ($13 for three dinners for 2 = less than $2.50 a meal). and freaking yummy.

so... you can make one, too.

ingredients:

• about a half package of no boil lasagna noodles
• a jar (25 ounces or so) of your choice tomato gravy
• a 20-ounce bag of frozen spinach
• 8 ounces shredded part-skim mozzarella
  
• 15 ounces part-skim ricotta
• 1 large egg

prep: gloriously none!

actual cooking:

• beat together the egg & ricotta
• coat the bottom of an 8x13 pan with gravy
• add a layer of noodles
• add a layer of ricotta
• add a layer of spinach
• add a sprinkle of gravy
• add a sprinkle of mozzarella
• repeat the whole layering process twice more, topping with noodles, gravy & mozzarella
• bake for 45-60 minutes covered in foil (until the last 10 or so) at 350*
• blog it and feel like you actually did something.

recession challenge: dinner for two all week from one chicken

ingredients:

• one whole chicken (i paid ~$9)
• 1 bag frozen veggie blend (i paid ~$2 for tj's organic foursome)
• 3 potatoes (i paid ~$1.15 for huge ones)
• 1 stick butter (negligible, i guess it cost me ~$0.75)
• 1.5 cups flour (negligible)
• splash of milk or cream (whatever you have)
• mirepoix (i paid ~$3, or you could chop up your own onions, carrots & celery)
• 1 pound egg noodles (i paid ~$1)
• vodka (or ice-cold water... you see where this is going right?)
• sea salt & fresh ground pepper

(see, i paid about $20, give or take, for the ingredients to feed us dinner for a week. recession-friendly! we also spend about $20 a week on produce and $15 on lunch-foods.)

prep:

• chill 1/2 the butter and the vodka/water

actual cooking (meal 1):

• roast the chicken, seasoned with s&p and rubbed with butter for 20 minutes per pound at 350*
• cube & boil 2 potatoes, skin on, until softish
• drain potatoes
• add 2-3 tablespoons butter & milk to potatoes, mash
• season to taste with salt & pepper
• nuke 1/3-1/2 the frozen veggies

actual cooking (meal 2):

• heat chicken drippings & 1/2 cup flour on medium heat, whisk until smooth, add hot water to desire thickness
• pick carcass of usable meat, set aside
• use carcass to make broth
• use chilled butter, 1 cup flour and chilled vodka/water to make pie crust
• nuke 1 potato, chill & cube
• combine gravy, frozen veggies, cubed potato, 1/3-1/2 the chicken pieces in a lightly greased casserole
• cover with crust, pierce & bake at 375* until golden brown

actual cooking (meal 3):

• use mirepoix, broth, noodles, remaining chicken & remaining veggies to make soup

meal 1 is a one-shot deal. meal 2 we haven't eaten yet, but we expect it to last 2 or 3 dinners. meal 3 should also last 2 or 3 dinners. of course, this is all dependant on how much you eat. it's not magic, ya know.

editied to add:

with the addition of a very hungry j to our meal 2 dinner, it lasted one night, and i would have known that if i hadn't blogged this meal right before we had the idea to invite him. but... since i hadn't added the rest of the frozen veggies to the soup (because i hadn't thought of it yet) and we had an onion, rice & eggs laying around the house, i managed to squeeze another pantry meal out with some yum veggie fried rice, with frozen egg rolls (also a stock pantry item in my home... don't judge).

chicken noo-noos

this recipe was developed for j, who says that chicken noodle soup is "THE DEVIL" and has some choice things to say about chicken broth in particular, i believe.

ingredients:

• 1-4 chicken breasts, depending on how into meat you are
• 2 quarts chicken broth
• mirepoix
• 1 pound egg noodles, medium or wide, but not small (and, seriously, you can't just throw pasta in there and call them noodles. NOODLES are not PASTA.)
• sea salt & ground pepper
• 1/8 cup cold water
• 1/8 cup cornstarch (or flour, i think flour might work)

prep:

• boil the chicken in broth until past done
• chill until cool to the touch
• (chop up a large onion, a couple carrots and some celery if you didn't buy your prechopped mirepoix from trader joe's)
• shred chicken with fingers or forks

actual cooking:

• lightly saute mirepoix in the bottom of your soup pot
• add broth and bring to a boil
• add chicken & noodles (yup, all of them)
• boil as long as the noodle package says to (8 minutes, i think?)
• season to taste
• mix together cold water & cornstarch (this part is key-- it won't work if you just dump them both in the pot! and make sure it's not lumpy... nobody wants a lump of cornstarch.)
• add water/starch to boiling soup and stir
• boil for at least 2 minutes or until soup reaches desired thickness

this will be even thicker the next day-- more like a casserole than a stew. in fact, i won't blame you if you want to bake it with some breadcrumbs or crushed chips on top. yum.