Ravioli and Escarole Lasagna

I’ve been thinking more and more about cutting red meat from my diet. It really won’t affect me all that much. Looking at this week so far, I haven’t had red meat. The last time I had red meat was last Wednesday when we ate tacos. Of course considering how little I eat red meat (remember I think steak tastes like liver, so I avoid that almost always!), it probably doesn’t matter whether I eat the occasional bit of ground beef. Pork would be harder for me to give up. I love pork sausage, pork roll, bacon, ham steak, pulled pork, and the Carnitas at Chipotle. This would be a major sacrifice and I just don’t think I could do it. Have any of you cut things out of your diets (for non health reasons) that you thought you couldn’t give up, but you made it through? BTW I’m seriously not cutting out pork. Don’t even ask me about it!



Ah, dinner. I had been feeling sick during the day yesterday and I was very concerned that I wouldn’t be able to eat dinner. Less concerned about my food intake and more concerned that I wouldn’t have a blog post for you all. (See how much I love all of you!) Luckily my sickness turned and I was starving. I wanted to make something interesting, but easy for everyone. I’m still on my lazy kick. Don’t judge me too harshly!  The only way I can continue cooking most every day is if I am allowed lazy weeks.  So, Ravioli and Escarole Lasagna (from Everyday with Rachel Ray) was what was for dinner last night. There are times when it’s just easier to substitute ingredients rather than waste what you already have. I had spinach left over from the lentil soup, so I used that instead of escarole. (Both leafy greens, what’s the difference!) You are probably thinking, how in the world is lasagna for the lazy cook? This lasagna is perfect for the lazy cook! It’s only 5 ingredients and those are ravioli, escarole (spinach), 1 24 oz jar of red sauce, Italian sausage, and mozzarella cheese.


All you do is take the sausage out of the casing and cook it over medium heat (crumbling it as you cook) , until it’s no longer pink. Take it out of the pan (I drained the grease out of the pan, it’s not required) and then put the escarole/spinach in with some salt and pepper. Cook that until it’s wilted. Take the jar of red sauce and spread it in the bottom of a casserole dish, layer the ravioli next (I used the refrigerator kind), then sausage, escarole/spinach and the cheese on top. I’m pretty sure I didn’t use as much cheese as suggested (16 oz) that just seems like way too much even for a cheese lover. You pop that in the oven at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes, let it cool for about 5 minutes and there’s your dinner!

Final Proguct:

This was good. It could have been better. When I was eating it I wasn’t sure what I didn’t like about it, if it was the jarred sauce (which I don’t use often) or the sausage. Anthony told me it was the sausage, there was just too much of it. I used 4 links, which was a little over a pound. I didn’t want to waste any. Think I might only use 3 links next time and freeze the extra one. This meal would be a good addition to a weeknight menu, as long as you used less sausage. This will also make for good leftovers.


Tonight I won’t be cooking. We are going to The Owl House. Figure I might as well review the food we have on Facebook tomorrow. It’s a pretty cool place. This weekend I’m really planning on challenging myself by making risotto with asparagus. To say I’m nervous would be an understatement. After work today I might actually run to Wegmans and get a frozen pizza just in case!

Ravioli with Sage-Walnut Butter and Curried Eggplant, Chickpeas and Spinach

Day 21-Have I told you recently that I can’t cook? Nothing really turns out the way it’s supposed to. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. Ok, I guess I can’t say nothing turns out right, but most of it doesn’t. It’s not pretty. There has to be a better way. The better way for me would be if Anthony could cook every night or if I won the lottery and could hire a cook.

My most recent foray into cooking wasn’t the worst of the worst. It just didn’t taste like what I thought it would taste like. I made Ravioli with Sage-Walnut Butter. That sounded good to me. Of course I forgot that Anthony can’t eat most nuts without having an allergic reaction. Oops!! He is going to have to help me start picking out recipes for the week. Otherwise I end up with a bunch of stuff that he doesn’t like!

Anyway so in my mind this was perfect. We are trying not to eat red sauce, because we both get bad heartburn from it (we're old, what can I say!). Sage-walnut butter sauce sounded like a good alternative to red sauce or pesto, which is what I normally use on pasta. I did not make my own ravioli, let’s be realistic! The creating this meal description will be boring so I’m not going to bother with it, I’ll just say it went fine. For a second I thought the butter was going to burn, but I was able to save it just in the nick of time. I did burn the balsamic syrup a little bit, but not in a way that the dish was ruined.

Finished Product:

The main problem with this dish is that it was sweet. We are more of savory people when it comes to entrees. I didn’t realize that the honey would make it so sweet and then the walnuts also made the dish sweeter. So unless you are into eating sweet for dinner, this recipe just doesn’t work. Sorry Food Network Magazine. I’m not impressed. I won’t give up on you yet though. I’ve got another recipe I plan on using this weekend from the same issue, a squash soup.

Ok so I know in the beginning of this post I sounded hopeless. It wasn’t the above recipe that did me in. It’s a recipe that I made last night and will post about tomorrow. It was just a complete disaster. That put me into another funk, which I really didn’t want to have happen. I’m trying to be positive and optimistic about cooking, but even entering the kitchen with a smile on my face didn’t help last night. More on that tomorrow.

Oh yeah last weekend while Anthony was away I decided to cook a dish with eggplant, since he doesn't eat eggplant. I found the recipe for Curried Eggplant with Chickpeas and Spinach on Food & Wine, so I figured it had to be pretty tasty. Once again the cooking process went well. The only part of the recipe I struggled with was mashing the garlic into a paste. As hard as I tried using many different tools, I could not mash the garlic. Anyone know how to accomplish this? I'm not sure if not making the garlic into a paste was where I went wrong with this dish. After roasting the vegetables for 30 minutes with a garlic, curry powder, and veggie oil coating everything looked okay. Once I had everything plated (I made basmati rice and Naan bread to go with it) it still looked really good. First bite, yuck! Fail! I mostly completed the recipe the way I was supposed to and yet these vegetables had no flavor. It was the most bland thing I have ever cooked! What a disappointment! I love having vegetarian dishes when Anthony is away and had really been looking forward to the eggplant.

Final Product:

I'm really hoping with these two recipes that it was the recipe and not me that made these meals not good. Although when you see my next post, you might think it's all my fault. Until then...keep cooking!