Recipe!

Good morning! I was thinking about the blog last night and realized that it's been a while since I've posted any recipes. I decided upon my mother's Chicken Lasagna. In the past months I seem to have been taking a lot of meals to people who have had babies. This is my go-to meal. It freezes really well and you can make it up without doing the final cooking, so when you are ready to eat it, it tastes fresh! On another note, this recipe uses a lot of cheese. I HIGHLY recommend grating your own cheese. Take a look at a package of shredded cheese and look at all the extra preservatives and stuff in it. It is rather disturbing. On the other hand, a block of cheese has only those ingredients you would associate with cheese. My opinion, always grate your own. It really doesn't take that much more time!

Chicken Lasagna

8 oz. oven ready lasagna noodles (I use the whole wheat kind!)
1/2 C. chopped onion
1/2 C. chopped green pepper
3 T. butter
1 Can of Cream of Chicken soup
1/3 C. milk
1/2 t. basil
3 C. diced cooked chicken (I just cook a package of breasts and chop them up!)
1 1/2 C. ricotta cheese
1/2 C. Mild Cheddar Cheese
1/2 C. Parmesan Cheese
1 1/2 C. Mozzarella Cheese
8 oz. package of mushrooms

Cook the onion, pepper, and mushrooms in the butter until tender. Stir in the soup, milk, basil and chicken to make the "sauce." Place 1/2 of the noodles in the bottom of a 9X13 pan. Cover with 1/2 of the ricotta cheese, 1/2 of the sauce, and 1/2 of the cheeses. Repeat the layers. At this point you can either wrap it up and freeze for later, or bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

I have also been experimenting with some vegetarian dishes this week. I just made up a few this morning, but have yet to try them. As soon as I do, and if they pass the taste test, I'll post those as well. I'm really trying to get a LOT more veggies in our diets and thought that sticking a few vegetarian items into our menu would be a good way to go about that. We'll see. They sure smell good!