Simple lasagna

So Jeff had the honour of being asked to cook at a chefs luncheon Sunday afternoon, and I had the honour of being invited to eat all the glorious food cooked by amazing Winnipeg chefs. Here is the dessert he created and prepared. Roasted pineapple creme brûlée, pitachiso caramel icecream on a crumble of banana chips and brandy crunch, pineapple whipped cream, berries, caramel gel and short bread. It was so nice to be there to witness everyone throughly enjoying his dessert. I was super proud.That was Sunday so Monday morning this mama was on duty. I had a 6am date with this dude and Bob the builder!

After work Monday I made a giant pot of vegetable and sausage pasta sauce.

I pretty much always start out the same way for everything; onion, garlic, celery and carrot. With a fair amount of basil olive oil I sautéed these ingredients together with salt and pepper. I sometime don't say it on my blog but I use a lot of salt and pepper in my cooking. I've learnt from the best; we don't even put salt and pepper on the table; seasoning at every stage of cooking adds layers of flavours.

I added in four links of sausage; I took them out of their casings.

Next I added 1 can of crushed tomatoes and 3 jars of good tomato sauce ( rinsing the jars with a little bit of water and pouring that into the sauce). I love when Costco has this Paul Newman 3 pack  of tomato sauce on sale, I stock up and save the jars for canning season.

I added some chopped fresh rosemary and parsley and about 1&1/2 cups of red wine.

I gently stir that together and I let this simmer on low for two hours with the lid on. Now at this stage you could use this sauce for any number of recipes but I had been craving lasagna.

Now the easy part.

I layered the sauce, dried noodles, the sauce, fresh spinach, crumbled feta, mozerella cheese, dried noodles, the sauce, dried noodles, the sauce and topped it off with lots of mozzarella cheese. There's no science to this but I did make two lasagnas with one box of noodles. One for now and one for the freezer, or whoever needs a meal!

I put this on a sheet pan just in the case it would bubble over and baked it at 375 for an hour.

When we got back from walking Aubrey home from school the house smelt amazing. 

Dinner is served!

Since the lasagna was packed full of veggies I was able to serve it solo. What an easy meal. 

So glad it was a winner, so glad we have left overs and so glad I have another in the freezer to bake. 

Breakfast blender pancakes, soup, chocolate peanut butter smash cookies

I thought I'd give you a glimpse into our Saturday. We started off with breakfast. I found this intriguing recipe of blender Apple pancakes. Anytime I only need to dirty one dish I'm game.

I did peel and core my apple but I just threw everything else in as the recipe stated. 

As I let the batter sit it thickened up quite a bit. I would wait even five minutes next time before cooking the pancakes.

At our house pancakes are incomplete without whipped cream; well anything is incomplete without whipped cream according to Aubrey!

I love sitting  around the kitchen table as a family, especially with a yummy breakfast that took no time at all!

Next I decided to make soup for the busy week ahead. I sautéed onions and celery with basil olive oil.

I had some tomatoes that we're getting soft so I cut them in half and roasted them in the toaster oven with garlic and olive oil.

I added diced carrots and the chopped roared tomatoes and garlic.

I added in some dried Italian seasoning and then a few cans of beans that I had one hand. All of a sudden I found myself switching gears from an Italian soup to more of an ethnic take on things.

I added two packages of onion soup mix and   8 cups of water.

At this point I was feeling like it needed to be bulked up so I added in diced peeled potato.

After a taste I realized the beans had made the flavours a little muddy; so I added yellow curry powder to brighten things up. That did just that! Phew! Sometimes I win and sometimes I lose...win!

Aubrey was a big fan of the soup, it was even "share" worthy. That's always nice when you make 6 litres of it! 

Next we thought, cookies! Jeff had been requesting this family favourite.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/10064/magic-peanut-butter-middles/

You essentially make two batters and wrap the chocolate batter around the peanutbutter batter. I find my two different size scoops help in making these.

Aubrey loves smashing the cookie balls. She dipped a glass in sugar and pressed each cookie ball flat.

Liam always wants to help....soon Liam soon!

Saturday was full of fun but I find myself having to say 1 Corinthians 13 to myself at least once a day!  Even the good days require Gods strength to love...and love well.

These two are a daily reminder of my greatest blessings!

These are the cookies after 20 minutes of baking at 375F. I feel like I made them too big and that is why I had to bake them so long. They'd be much better as a smaller cookie. I guess I'll just have to try this recipe again sometime soon!

Well there you have it!  A day in the life of the Cameron's.