Bloggy Goodness

Introduction
Since I follow so many blogs, I thought maybe I should try starting one of my own. A real one: not one of those "this is what I did today down to what I ate for dinner" sort of affairs.
Just kidding, it totally is that kind of blog. The idea of wandering around the grocery store with no solid plan as to what I will be eating for the next week terrifies me, so every Thursday or Friday I decide on the next week of meals and derive a shopping list from it. That is what I have decided to blog: my weekly meal plans. I will also be throwing in some recipes and other good stuff. I'm hoping that doing this will help keep me accountable and give some incentive to remember things like the dinner plans I forgot about when planning for this past week. This week was pretty much a wash. But hey, it's water on the bridge! And I made a pretty sweet lasagna... at least, I assume it is pretty sweet. I haven't gotten to eat it yet.

The Lasagna
This Friday, like many Fridays, one of my boyfriend's* coworkers is coming over for dinner and to watch Dollhouse. I had decided to make Lasagna, because it is delicious. I made it a day ahead because I knew I had no chance of preparing a lasagna (~2hrs + dishes) and having the apartment ready for a dinner guest in the two hours I had between getting home from work and our guest's arrival. I prepared the lasagna last night and it is now sitting merrily in the refrigerator. When I get home, I will pop the lasagna in the oven, tidy up, and toss some croutons and grated parmesan over bagged salad. Voila.
The recipe I use is a bastardized version of Linda's Lasagna from AllRecipes.com. As I recall, I chose that recipe because it was rated second to and had far less ingredients than "World's Best Lasagna", and also because I like alliteration. The changes I made are pretty minor, for example: I substituted minced garlic for powdered and vodka for water, and changed the method to use only one pot. Sounds good to me.

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 pound groud pork or sausage meat
  
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 (~175 ml) cans tomato paste
• 1 (~500 ml) can tomato sauce
• 2 roma tomatoes (chopped)
  
• 1 cup vodka
  
• Several cloves of garlic
• 1 pkg chopped, frozen spinach (thawed)
  
• 454 grams ricotta cheese
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 egg
• 9 lasagna noodles (I use 6 regular 3 spinach for kicks)
  
• 1 pound shredded cheese (or more if you really like cheese)
  

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain. Pull the pasta out of the pot and set aside for later.
2. In that pot over medium heat, cook beef until brown. Drain. Throw in some onion and cook until onion is translucent. Then add tomato paste, tomato sauce, tomatoes, vodka, garlic, and whatever other spices suit your fancy. I like basil.
   
3. Cook over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil. Let simmer up to an hour, but really, losing 20 minutes simmer time wont matter all that much.
   
4. While sauce is simmering, blend ricotta cheese, spinach, Parmesan and egg until smooth. Set aside.
5. Now might also be a good time to grate all that freaking cheese.
   
6. Spread 1 cup of sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish and cover with 3 noodles.
7. Cover noodles with one-third of remaining sauce. Add half of ricotta mixture on top, then half the mozzarella.
   
8. Place another layer of noodles and one of sauce over the mozzarella; top that with the the other half of the ricotta. I use the spinach noodles in the middle.
   
9. Top with remaining 3 noodles and remaining sauce.
   

If you're preparing ahead, at this point you will throw a lid or some saran wrap over your dish and put it in the fridge for another day.

To Serve: Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top and bake 15 minutes more, until golden and bubbly.

Huzzah! Delicious, delicious lasagna. It makes badass leftovers, too.

Edit: 
Badass Leftovers!!

Until 10 minutes from now,
Emily



*More on that later!