White chicken lasagna recipe

This recipe was a little bit labor intensive, but ohhh was it worth it! I made my own white sauce, PACKED it with veggies, and added cheese cheese and more cheese. So good. 

What you'll need: 

9 lasagna noodles (make a few more if you tend to break some while they cook)

1 chicken breast

1/2 cup thawed frozen spinach

6-7 baby bella mushrooms, sliced

1/2 small onion, chopped

1 cup chicken broth

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp flour

1/2 cup milk

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1. Cook lasagna noodles according to package. Also cook chicken by steaming it in a shallow pan with about 1 inch of water, covered, until cooked through. Seasoned with a sprinkle of salt, pepper and garlic salt. When cooked, shred chicken with a fork and set aside.

2. In another skillet, cook your mushrooms and onion until tender and starting to brown with a splash of olive oil, salt and pepper. Add spinach and garlic to veggies and cook for another minute. Now add your butter to the veggies, let it melt, then add the flour. Stir and cook for 3-5 minutes. Now you can add the broth and let the sauce simmer and thicken. Turn the heat down to low and add milk and 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese and 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese. Stir until cheese is melted. Sauce should be thickened a little bit but it will still be slightly runny, it is not a thick sauce. It thickens when it is baked. 

3. Finally add your shredded chicken to the sauce and you are ready to start building your lasagna. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare a glass baking dish by spraying it with cooking spray and spreading about 1 tbsp of your white sauce on the bottom of the pan. Now start with layering 3 lasagna noodles on the bottom of the pan followed by 1/3 of the white sauce mixture and then 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese. Add another layer of noodles, another 1/3 of the mixture, another 1/2 cup mozzarella. Do one more layer, this will be your top layer. Add the remaining 1/4 cup parmesan to the top of the lasagna and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the cheese on the top is melted and golden brown. 

Phew! That was a lot of work! Promise you the first bite will make it all worth it though. Oh, and we ate it with a bosco stick, man those things are good!

 

I made lasagna soup!

So somehow I totally forgot that I had this recipe "on deck" and so I went wayyy too long without trying to make it. What is kind of funny about it is that I just woke up one day and was like "I have this brilliant idea to make lasagna soup"....well needless to say it wasn't something I came up with in my sleep, it must have been my subconscious telling me "you need to make this because it is going to be delicious."

So anyways, I made the lasagna soup and it was great. Couldn't have been more perfect for this bitter cold February day.


What you'll need:
1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 large zucchini, cubed
1/4 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
1 can (10 oz) diced tomatoes
1/2 cup salsa
1/4 cup tomato paste (I didn't have any so I used pizza sauce....)
3-4 cups low sodium chicken broth
1/2-3/4 cup uncooked whole grain spiral pasta
shredded mozzarella cheese
parmesan cheese
fresh basil
thyme
oregano
rosemary
red pepper flakes

1. Brown your ground beef in your dutch oven or large pot, once cooked through drain fat from meat and return to pot. Add chopped onion and zucchini and cook over med-high heat for about 3 minutes, until tender. Add garlic and a pinch of salt and pepper and cook an additional minute. 
2. Add chicken broth, tomatoes, tomato paste, salsa, a sprinkle of parmesan cheese and your herbs (about 1/4 tsp each). Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer, let simmer for about 20 minutes. While soup is simmering cook your pasta according to package instructions. I left the pasta slightly al dente and then added it to the soup and let it continue to simmer for about 5-10 minutes to finish cooking the pasta.
3. Once the soup is done simmering and pasta is completely cooked through serve soup with a sprinkle of parmesan and mozzarella cheese on top.

We ate this with a bosco stick and it was perfection.

Enjoy!

Lasagna soup recipe

Here we have another recipe from Taste of Home magazine. After reading the recipe I really didn't feel like this soup was the ingredients that I would have in a lasagna so that left me a little bit confused. I think I would either have to change the name of this or change some ingredients...to be determined. Either way the soup itself looks really good, as you can see.

What you'll need:
1 lb lean ground beef
1 large green pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans (14.5 oz each) diced tomatoes
2 cans (14.5 oz each) beef broth
1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce
1 cup frozen corn
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 tsp Italian seasoning
2 1/2 cups uncooked spiral pasta
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

1. In a large pot cook beef, green pepper and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink, breaking beef into crumbles. Add garlic and cook 1 minute longer. Drain then return to pot.
2. Stir in tomatoes, broth, tomato sauce, corn, tomato paste, Italian seasoning and a pinch of pepper. Bring to a boil. Stir in pasta and return to boil. Then reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 10-12 minutes until pasta is tender. Finish with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese on top.

So my beef with this is that I do not make lasagna with corn or green peppers. I make it with zucchini, but I don't think that would hold up well and I don't like mushy zucchini at all. So my suggestions would be to go with asparagus and corn, mostly just because I prefer asparagus over green peppers. Maybe stir in some mozzarella cheese in the soup too...love my cheese!!

Seems basic enough! Could be a really great cold weather dinner I think.