Three Cheese Lasagna

The best part about this recipe is that it makes one for now and one for later!

Lasagna is one of those foods that can look kind of intimidating because of all the layers and ingredients. But really its a simple dish to put together once you know how! Also, it freezes well and makes for great leftovers. It is also a fantastic dish to make for a friend who just had a baby!

She just made a human. She shouldn't have to make dinner.

Making Martha: Ginger Chicken Stir Fry

This was devoured in probably under 20 minutes...

So while this recipe technically falls under 'Making Martha' as it is from one of her cookbooks, it's actually one of the few recipes that doesn't leave out vital steps or assume the home cook had, say, about 2 years in an elite French cooking academie. But that might be because this is from the editors of Martha Stewart Living (read: minions) and so is for us neophytes...

All that being said - its flipping delicious. I was straight up surprised at how yummy this dish is. And so with no further ado here is my take on this dish. (Obviously this is not wholly my recipe but I did add all the detailed steps I used)

Semi From Scratch Chicken Teriyaki

We eat this dish a lot around here

I love LOVE LOVE takeout. Only its kind of bad for you. And it gets very expensive. So I'd been trying to learn to make homemade Asian take out for quite awhile now. I still have loads to learn but I have managed to make some delicious Teriyaki.

Its semi from scratch because I do use pre-made Teriyaki sauce as my base - eventually I'm going to upgrade to totally from scratch, but this will do for now.

However, even more than the sauce, the technique is important. Its all about cooking the chicken fast and getting that perfect serving of fluffy white rice. I've made this recipe about a dozen times and it has yet to fail me.

Make sure you read through the instructions carefully BEFORE you cook though - it's all about how you cook your meat!

Making a Homemade Pizza - Dough Recipe Included

Its making me sad that there isn't any left in my fridge :(

So I found out something new today: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is back. Not the movie with Megan Fox, I knew about that one...

I think it's safe to say they're heading in a different direction...

This one's on Nick Jr or something and LuLu told me all about it. She was so excited I didn't quite have the heart to be like, ya girl I know all about TMNT.  Anyhow - obviously Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles made me think of pizza so I figured it was a good a time as any to get a post on making pizza together.

You can't argue with that kind of logic

Hubs and I made our weekly trip to Half Price Books and I found this gem for about $7.00: Pizza by Pete Evans and it is from his recipe I adapted my own. 

Garlic Knots: The Stupidly Easy Way

Very Simple Gah-lick Knots with Classic Spaghetti and Meatballs

So there are two ways (ok, probably there are more out in the world) of making garlic knots, the hard way or the easy way.

I chose this one because it was by far the weirdest choice... The Godfather was a little too expected...

Easy and Delcious Marinara Red Sauce

Good Old Fashioned Spaghetti and Meatballs

EASY AND DELICIOUS MARINARA SAUCE

I've loved Italian cooking forever but would always use jarred tomato sauces because I felt like making my own was too hard. I was intimidated. But the more I'd read about canned/processed foods the more I felt motivated to try to make as much as I could from scratch. I was really surprised by how easy it is to make good red sauce. Red sauce that tastes a heck of a lot better than the jarred stuff.

A couple notes:

1. Good sauce takes a long time. I let mine cook on the stove for a 1 1/2 - 2 hours.
2. When I did the test run recipe last night I did not have fresh herbs - they are better. If you have fresh herbs, use them.
3. One day I want to make red sauce without any cans from tomatoes I've grown myself. Emphasis here on 'one day' as that is probably wildly optimistic.
4. Unlike baking there is a lot of wiggle room here! Make it suit to taste! If you want more of a flavor - add more! Less? Decrease it! Add stuff in! Go wild.

Ridiculously Easy Balsamic Green Beans

Simple Balsamic Green Beans

(shown with Lemon Chicken with Tarragon and Wine Sauce and Zesty Roast Potatoes)

When I say simple...I mean simple. Like you are going to have to work hard to mess this up.

Lemon Chicken with Tarragon and Wine Sauce

Lemon Chicken with Tarragon and Wine Sauce

Time - Prep: 30-40 minutes, Baking: 40 minutes

(shown with Zesty Roast Potatoes and Balsamic Green Beans)

Sounds gourmet, no? That's probably because it involves the spice tarragon which many of us don't keep stocked in our pantry cabinets. Which is a shame because tarragon is to chicken as peanut butter is to jelly...as Romeo was to Juliet (without the death)...as bacon is to my husband. They gel, what can I say?

While it is not 'gourmet' as far as technique goes, this is what I call a 'Weekend Meal' because it does take a lot more prep work than other weeknight meals.

It also happens to be completely ridiculously delicious.