Chicken-Spinach-Mushroom-Alfredo-Extra Cheese Lasagna

Every once in a while, I hit the Mommy jackpot with a dinner meal. Tonight was one of those nights. I can happily report that my 12 year old who can never, ever, ever, never manage to finish a meal did in fact finish his dinner and asked for seconds. Score!!

The upside is we will get to enjoy this meal again for lunch tomorrow (and probably the two days following), but the downside is...there was enough to feed a small army.

This is comfort food to the 10th power.

Seriously.

And it has spinach.

Seriously.

Ingredients:

2 - 13 oz cans cooked chicken breast, drained

2 jars prepared Alfredo sauce

1 large container, small curd cottage cheese

1 package frozen spinach, thawed and drained

1 small can of mushroom stems and pieces, drained

1 lb of shredded Mozzarella cheese

shredded Parmesan, Asiago and Romano cheese blend

1/2 package of oven ready, no boil lasagna noodles

Italian seasoning blend - to taste

garlic blend seasoning - to taste

1 - Prepare baking stone or pan with cooking spray

2- Combine 1/2 cup of Alfredo sauce with 1/2 the container of cottage cheese and 1st can of chicken. Spread over bottom of baking dish.

3- Cover chicken-cheese mix with drained spinach and drained mushrooms. (Our mushrooms were only on half - otherwise my 16 year old would never speak to me again)

4- Top vegetables with 1/3 of the shredded Mozzarella cheese and a portion of the Parmesan cheese blend. Sprinkle lightly with Italian seasoning blend and garlic seasoning blend.

5- Next, add the first layer of bake-ready lasagna noodles.

6- Combine remaining cottage cheese, 2nd can of chicken, and 1 jar of Alfredo sauce. Spread over lasagna noodles.

7- Cover with more shredded cheese, (leaving enough to cover noodles a final time.)

8- Add additional seasoning if desired, final layer of noodles, then top with last of the shredded Mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese blend. Top with seasoning before baking, if desired. (I definitely added more seasoning.)

9- Cover with foil and bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes.

We served this delicious lasagna with fresh bread and a Bacon-Caesar salad.

And lucky for me, more Chicken-Spinach-Mushroom-Alfredo-Extra Cheese Lasagna for lunch tomorrow!!

That's okay, I do not mind at all!!

Spinach & Ham Stromboli

Ingredients:

1 refrigerated pizza crust (roll form)
1/2 cup fresh baby spinach
3-4 slices provolone cheese
4-6 oz sliced deli ham
3/4-1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup sliced red onion
**Italian seasoning blend**

* Unroll pizza crust unto baking pan or stone

* Put baby spinach leaves down the center of the dough, lengthwise

* Top spinach leaves with provolone slices

* Top provolone with ham slices

* Top ham with shredded mozzarella

* Top mozzarella with red onion slices

* Lightly sprinkle with Italian seasoning blend

* Bring sides of pizza dough over the middle (fillings) and seal in the middle, by overlapping or squeezing dough together...if desired turn stuffed dough seam side down

* Sprinkle outer side of dough with additional Italian seasoning if desired

* Bake in preheated 350 degree F oven for 35-40 minutes

* Allow to rest about 5 minutes after removing from oven....slice and serve

Sourdough Garlic Croutons

The sourdough bread I baked last Saturday needed to be used up.

Instead of letting it go to waste, I decided to use it to make croutons.



After for looking online for crouton recipes, we finally decided to kind of use bits and pieces of each recipe to make our own.

We started by preheating the oven to 300 degrees F.

So we sliced the remaining loaf of bread into 1-inch slices.

Next, we gathered the ingredients to finish the croutons:

1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 cup butter (or margarine) melted
1/2 cup minced garlic
Italian seasoning mix*



Mmmmmmm, garlic!



In one small sauce pan we combined the olive oil and garlic and simmered for approximately 10 minutes.

Next we added the melted butter and mixed it until it was completely combined.

While I was mixing, Jon diced the slices of bread.

He did a really good job. Knowing my track record in the kitchen today I probably would have cut my fingers. Or something.




In a big mixing bowl, we tossed the bread cubes in the oil/butter/garlic mixture.

Then spread the drowned bread cubes were dumped onto the cooking stone. Once on the baking stone I sprinkled them with Italian seasoning mix. More or less according to your tastes. Ours were pretty strong.

After I cooked them for 5 minutes in the oven, I decided to switch them over to a wire rack over a metal baking sheet. That would allow the excess oil and butter to drain.

My advice - go straight to the wire rack over the metal baking sheet or baking stone.

I should have.



In the end, they cooked in the oven for 25 minutes at 300 degrees F.

Within 2 hours they were half gone.

I'm afraid to go see if there are any left now.

The boys are on fall break right now and no food is safe in our home.

At 10:30 this morning I caught the middle one making himself a cup of coffee.

At least now I know why I'm out of coffee...I'm really just glad it wasn't me that drank it all!!