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!

Christmas Lasagna and Homemade Sauce

I cooked once or twice over the holidays and nothing turned out horrible. In fact Anthony told me that the lasagna I made Christmas was my best one ever. The sauce came out wonderfully. It had the perfect amount of spice to it. Yum! I tried to replicate the sauce for New Year's Eve and it didn’t come out the same. Guess I should have paid more attention to how I made it Christmas. I’m a reformed sauce in a jar user. It was just so simple and cheap to buy a premade sauce. The only time I ever made sauce from scratch was when making lasagna; a recipe that I got from Rocco Dispirito and have been using for years now. It’s just a simple cheese lasagna. I’m not even sure if there is anything unique about it.

I decided not to boil the noodles this time around. If you’ve ever made lasagna and boiled noodles you know that it’s not fun. The noodles typically will start breaking once they are cooked and you just have a mess you didn’t really need in the first place. I soaked the noodles in a casserole dish of hot water until I was ready to use them. The rest is a cinch to make, you can either used jar or homemade sauce and you have to make up an egg and ricotta mix. You spread a good bit of sauce in the bottom of a casserole dish (so the noodles have liquid to cook in), add a layer of noodles, then spread on the ricotta-egg mixture, top with shredded mozzarella and grated parmesan (I grated my own parmesan, but I didn’t shred the mozzarella. I got to take some shortcuts somewhere!), top with sauce and repeat the process until you have a good solid lasagna. Stick it in the oven at 350 degrees and bake for an hour. You can cover it for 40 minutes with foil and take the foil off for the last 10 minutes if you want to. I didn’t cover mine, I don’t remember if it’s because I forgot or if it was a conscience decision.

I started making homemade sauce and used Rocco’s Mama’s Marinara recipe. Since I first started making this sauce I’ve added things to it to make it my own. The key for my sauce is chili powder, red pepper flakes, sometimes I add some Frank’s Red Hot or Sriracha, and a lot of fresh basil. The dried stuff just isn’t as good for sauce. I like sauce with a little heat behind it! Once you try making your own sauce and see how easy it is you will be a convert. Just make sure to make big batches on the weekend (it needs to simmer for an hour) and freeze for the coming week or whenever!

Some other stuff I cooked over the holidays was chicken wing dip, artichoke dip, and chili cheese dip. I also made cookies, but ran into some problems making them. Never substitute Splenda for real sugar, it just doesn’t work out well. Lesson learned.

My next post will be about my beer brewing experience. Yes, I am going to try to brew my very own Nut Brown Ale (with Anthony’s help) tomorrow. This should be an interesting event and who knows, maybe I will pick up a new hobby.

Also I’m very close to making a decision on writing a book. Do I think it will be a best seller? No, but it’s something I’ve started and stopped numerous times and I just feel like now might be the right time to dig in and start writing. More details to follow.