Posts Tagged ‘Spaghetti Sauce’

This was a shopping day for me, and an eating out day for Mike. He bought lunch for himself and a friend who was helping with the workshop. Fair trade. Their lunch (at Wendy’s) cost about $16 (no receipt since he didn’t realize the contest was still in effect).

My shopping took me to Sam’s Club and a quick stop at Harris Teeter on the way home. Sam’s was to pick up sandwich rolls, sliced ham, cream, milk and a big bag of pre-cut salad (2.77 for 3 lbs). I spent $19.05 there. At Harris Teeter I stopped to pick up some Pepsi for my husband’s helper and splurged on a few pounds of cherries (on sale for 1.77/lb) for a total of $7.76.

Before I left to go shopping, I threw the ingredients for a loaf of bread into my bread maker. I use an easy potato bread recipe, and in this case, shaped it into a large, oblong loaf. I love the added body the potatoes create.

For dinner I made a no-boil lasagna recipe, using some homemade Italian sausage for the meat. I think sausage, instead of hamburger, makes all the difference in lasagna. With the lasagna we had a tossed green salad, fresh homemade bread, and green beans straight out of the garden. Yum!

Virginia’s Easy Lasagna

1 lb Italian Sausage
2 Eggs
1/2 tsp Salt
3 cups Spaghetti Sauce (large can)
1-1/2 cups Water
15 oz Ricotta
8 oz Mozzarella Cheese — shredded, DIVIDED
1/2 cup Grated Parmesan
1/4 cup Parsley — chopped
1/4 tsp Ground Black Pepper
8 oz Lasagna Noodles — 9 pieces, uncooked

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large sauce pan, brown meat; drain. Add spaghetti sauce and water; simmer about 10 minutes.

In medium bowl, stir together ricotta, one-half mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, eggs, parsley, salt and pepper.

Pour about 1 cup sauce on bottom of 13 x 9 inch baking dish (spray with Pam for easy clean up). Arrange 3 UNCOOKED pasta pieces lengthwise over sauce; cover with about 1 cup sauce. Spread one-half cheese filling over sauce. Repeat layers of lasagna, sauce and cheese filling. Top with layer of lasagna and remaining sauce; sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese.

Cover with foil and bake 45 minutes. Remove foil; bake additional 15 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.

Easy Potato Bread

3 oz water
6 oz milk
1/4 cup instant potato flakes
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp salt
1-1/2 tbsp sugar
3 cups bread flour
2 tsp Yeast, Active Dry

Put ingredients in bread machine in order listed. Set machine for 1-1/2 lb, dough setting. Start.

When the dough is ready, take it out of the machine and set it on a floured counter to rest for a few minutes.

Shape into an oblong loaf.

Let rise for 35 minutes in a warm place.

Bake for 20 minutes in a pre-heated 375° oven.

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As usual in our house, breakfast and lunch are whatever each member of the family prepares for his or herself.

I decided that today I wanted a little red meat, so I planned a shopping trip. So, for day 2, spent $39.97. I got 7.5 lbs of hamburger, 5 sirloin steaks (we ate 4, one is in the fridge), 2.6 lbs of peaches, 3.1 lbs of cherries, one pkg of hot dog buns, one gallon of whole milk, ten 6 oz yogurts, two 10-pks of crystal light singles, and an 8-pc. package of roasted chicken pieces.

Along with the steaks we had a pasta salad (hubby made it) which used a bag of (free after coupon) Wacky Mac, part of a bottle of (free after coupon) balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing, some leftover olives and bell pepper from the homemade pizza on Sunday. Boy, was that delicious!! We also had microwaved corn on the cob, which I’d picked up on Sunday at Walmart for 25¢ each.

If you really want to learn how to grill a perfect steak, get the book The Cook’s Illustrated Guide To Grilling And Barbecue. Seriously, it’s wonderful and gives directions for both charcoal and gas grills. I am the grill master in my house now.

The other order of the night was to boil the hamburger, bag it and freeze it. Yes, boil it. It’s a perfect way to get dinner on the table FAST. I use it for tacos, spaghetti sauce, hamburger helper, shepherd’s pie, sloppy joes, and in any other recipe where you “brown 1 lb. hamburger.” One pound of hamburger equals approximately 2 cups cooked.

After cooking, draining and bagging the hamburger, I let the pot of fat and water cool a bit and skimmed off the fat, strained it and put it in the fridge. Tomorrow I’ll “render” it again (basically put it in a pot of water and boil it to make it easier to strain a second time). If I were using it for suet, I would be happy with having strained it once. But I plan to make soap with the tallow, so I want clean fat.

I’m done in the kitchen for the night and probably won’t do any cooking tomorrow since I have several meetings and a bunko game.

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