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Vegetarian Lasagne Roll-ups for Gods and Goddesses is an entree in the Passioante Cooks cookbook and it's FREE!

In a bid to eat healthier, I found a lasagne roll up recipe, tried it out and loved it. I made a few changes to make it an even healthier option and loved that one as well and am now sharing it with everyone else - enjoy!

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My Vegetarian Lasagne Roll-ups for Gods and Goddesses is in the entree section and I made a batch the other night for some meat loving friends and it went over well.

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It's That Time

Because I don't cook, my cutie and I made a deal when we first got married: Every year I would learn and master one dish.

While it hasn't been easy, I've done it, and this year it's a Roasted Chicken. There were others I tried and would have added, but they were really just very slightly different [as in chicken taco vs beef taco and the cutie did bbq the chicken] from something I already knew how to do. The chicken thing has been all right to do and I can usually make a fried rice and chicken korma with the left overs - three meals, done! I like those numbers.

The recipe I followed was found on eHow.com and is called 'How to Cook a Whole Chicken: Best and Simplest Way Ever'.

Love the internet.

Here's the basic instructions:

* Preheat over to 400/F
* Clean out and dry off your chicken
* Spread about 2-3 tablespoons of butter [or olive oil] all over with you hands
* Salt and Pepper the outside and some on the inside as well
* Rosemary and/or other herbs can also be added
* Place chicken breast up on a rack, resting inside a roasting pan, and cook

Timing is 65 minutes for a 3.5 lb chicken and 8-10 minutes for every pound over that.

What I did was cook for the 65 minutes, then turned the chicken so breast was down, and cooked for another 10 minutes. Moist and delicious.

So go forth and cook a chicken, make multiple meals from it, and relax with a book while it's all going on. Enjoy!

Thank you to The Broke-Ass Bride for the cute pic!

Finally, success in the kitchen!

May's InStyle magazine had a recipe for Vegetable Lasagne Roll-Ups [with Vegan Alternative] from a Lea Michele & Edith Sarfati. It looked interesting and so last night, I played with it, and was successful!

First of all, let me explain what I mean by "successful". The final product was something that both I and the cutie liked enough to make it again. Because we both like different foods, trust me when I say this doesn't happen often. So, here are the details of what I made:

Ingredients
Whole Wheat Lasagna Noodles
Broccoli
Carrots
Extra Firm Tofu [cubed]
Oregano
Basil
Shredded Italian Three Cheese [provolone, mozzarella, and parmesan]
Tomato and Basil Sauce

Instructions
• Preheat oven to 350
• In a skillet, heat olive oil and sauté chopped broccoli and carrots until soft, put in bowl and add spices to taste, and cool.
• Cook 6 noodles, drain, and lay flat on cooling rack.
• Add tofu and cheese to cooled veggies and gently stir together.
• Place a noodle on a firm surface and spoon mixture down the center, leaving an inch free at either end, and don't put so much it spills over the edges. Roll tightly and place in a 8" baking dish.
• Pour some sauce over the top and cook for 45 minutes.
• Take out, pour rest of sauce over the top, add more cheese, and back for an additional 15 minutes.

What I did wasn't that different from the original recipe, but it was tasty, and I don't normally eat tomatoes. Now, what I'll do differently next time is to add more cheese into the mix and play with the veggies. Broccoli and carrots were nice, but could be a place to experiment. I'd also sauté the tofu with the veggies - just give them a little more flavor, although they were pretty tasty. The last thing I'd do is seek out some ricotta cheese to include in the mix. When shopping for this meal, I did set out to go healthy, so the cheese [low milk fat and no lactose] and sauce [low sodium] I chose were just that – which isn’t easy, so look hard.

I served it with lightly steamed summer squash and sprinkled with a little parmesan. I ate one roll up, the cutie had two, and is having one and a half for lunch today and tomorrow. Personally, I'm all for getting three meals sorted from about 20-30 minutes of work.

There you go - a tasty yet healthy dish that took no time or skill to make.

I cooked!

Ok, earlier this week I told the cutie I'd come up with 3 things to cook when he returned home and he was excited.

Deviled Eggs
Mince and Dumplings
Peppermint Brownies

So yesterday I started with the last one, nothing to heavy and a treat for later. After 3 trips to the market and 1 to the shops for a hand mixer [yeah, I know, who lives in a country for almost 10 years and doesn't own a hand mixer, that would be us], two phone calls to Mom and big sis for help [salted vs unsalted butter], they were in the oven when the cutie came home. After the usual welcome home "things" he lovingly called me a fraud.

Apparently he thought I was cooking from scratch and my Peppermint Brownies mix was bought from William Sonoma [add eggs and butter, the latter of which I messed up], although it was my idea to add a dollop of whipped cream and sprinkle the accompanying Peppermint Snow on top.

Nevermind, the other two things I'll make this week are from scratch :-)