Turkey-Spinach Lasagna

Look look look!!! Remember when I asked for recommendations on what to make? I got a couple of suggestions and actually made one! Thanks Rosy for suggesting lasagna--I was a little iffy on this one at first, to tell you the truth, because I've never been a big fan of lasagna. I don't eat beef and I've only really been around lasagna that has beef, so I didn't know if I should try to make it...but I did! Turkey-Spinach! And it was SO GOOD. It was time consuming but other than that, very very easy. And my mom was happy to have someone else cook dinner. I made this alongside some failed Oatmeal Dinner Rolls that I'll post next week, and a salad.

I wasn't sure if I should cook the noodles before, and the only lasagna noodles I had at home were no-boil ones, so I didn't know what to do, since the recipe calls for cooked lasagna. But I just stuck the uncooked noodles in and it was fine! Thanks again for the suggestion, Rosy!

Turkey-Spinach Lasagna
Recipe from Cooking Light

Cooking spray
1 pound ground turkey breast
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 (26-ounce) jars low-fat marinara sauce
1 (16-ounce) carton fat-free cottage cheese
1/4 cup egg substitute
1/4 cup (1 ounce) preshredded fresh Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
8 cooked lasagna noodles
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350°.

Coat a large skillet with cooking spray, and place over medium-high heat until hot. Add turkey, onion, and garlic; cook until meat is browned, stirring to crumble. Add 5 3/4 cups marinara sauce; cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.

Combine cottage cheese, egg substitute, Parmesan, parsley, pepper, and spinach; stir well.

Spread remaining marinara sauce in bottom of a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Arrange 4 noodles over marinara; top with cottage cheese mixture and half of the mozzarella. Spoon half of the turkey mixture over the mozzarella. Arrange the remaining noodles over turkey mixture. Top with remaining turkey mixture and mozzarella.

Bake at 350° for 50 minutes or until cheese melts and sauce is bubbly. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Dorie Greenspan's Chocolate Biscotti

I've made biscotti only once before. I really don't like having to cut it because I always make the chunks too big--previously, when I made candy cane biscotti, the candy cane pieces were too big; this time, the almonds were a little too big. So the knife kept getting stuck. Still, most of the biscotti turned out great.

This was another Dorie Greenspan Baking: From My Home to Yours recipe that you can find on Pink Stripes. I have yet to master biscotti...next time I want to make a biscotti recipe that's easier to cut!

Dorie Greenspan's Sweet Potato Biscuits

When my brother went to visit college last week, my mom was the one who drove him all day, so I told her I'd make dinner. It probably would have been more helpful if it was during one of the days where she worked, because since she took the day off to drive my brother, she actually got home pretty early. But oh well: I wanted something light, so I made Cooking Light's Chicken Cobb Salad, and made these biscuits that I've been wanting to make for a while.

I'm not a big fan of sweet potatoes, but my mom loves them. So I'm pretty sure my mom liked these, but again, they weren't MY favorite.

This recipe is from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours. Occasionally I post these recipes on my blog but I really shouldn't. Instead, you can find the recipe in that book, or from Prudence Pennywise.

This first batch I did, I rolled the dough out too thin and they turned out kind of thin, but didn't overbake and were still great:

The rest were better.
And here's the salad I made:

Congo Bars

I've been making a lot of bars lately. I made these for my younger brother, who left for a couple of days to visit a college--his first time away from home alone. I really didn't want to eat one because I wasn't feeling very good, but the instant reactions from my family (first my brother, who freaked out because it was so good, then my dad who agreed, then my mom who finally tried it and was all "THIS IS SO GOOD THIS IS THE BEST EVER" which is really good coming from her) I had to try and I agree, they are very good! I had no problem with this recipe and it was very easy. I left out the walnuts and let them cool for about 20-30 minutes before cutting them. Warm, they were delicious. I bet they'd still be AMAZING at room temperature, too, which I wanted to try but had to resist.

I'm definitely going to be making these when I get back to college. I'm pretty sure that two of my favorite people would absolutely love these!

Not sure who keeps up with my blog--but does anyone have anything they want me to try baking? Or any ideas? I have an endless amount of recipes that I want to try, but I guess I'd like some input on what you might want to see. I am definitely trying to take advantage of being at home and having all of my mom's baking utensils, and supplies are only a 5 minute car drive away instead of a 15 minute or more bus ride.

Congo Bars
Recipe from bakerella

2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 lb. light brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
11.5 ounce package milk chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

By mixer:

Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
Combine butter and sugar using a mixer until blended.
Add eggs, one at a time to sugar mixture, mixing on low in between each addition.
Add vanilla and mix.
Add flour and mix until combined.
Stir in chips and then pecans.

By hand:

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Set aside.
Stir brown sugar into softened (not melted) butter in another large bowl until butter disappears. You can use the back of your spoon to help incorporate the two together.
Add eggs one at a time to butter mixture and stir well after each egg.
Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts. Mix well.
Add dry flour mixture and stir until well combined.

Coat a 13 X 9 pan with non-stick spray and spread batter evenly into dish.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until top is golden brown. Make sure you don’t over bake.

Gingersnaps

This post doesn't have a recipe because the recipe is, according to my parents, a family secret. These gingersnaps are delicious--twenty times better than what you'd get in any store. I've made them twice, but for some reason, when I made them this summer more than half of them ended up flat enough to have holes, and burnt after less than half the time the recipe required them to be baked for. But still, the ones that turned out were very good and were a very big hit! They were perfectly thin and crispy. I just need to figure out how the butter needs to be stored, how things should be mixed, etc, to figure out just why most of them turned out to be duds.

Dorie Greenspan's Chocolate Oatmeal Almost Candy Bars

I've been wanting to try out this recipe for so long so I'm really glad I finally got to bake it! This was the second part of what I gave my mom to bring to her work party.

I had really high expectations for these bars...I guess they were pretty much met, because they were delicious, I don't really know what I was expecting. Everyone who tried them really liked them. I think I needed to chop the peanuts finer than I did. I also think I'd like them best frozen--I tried one chilled and it was pretty good, but I guess I really wanted it to taste more like a candy bar, haha.

Chocolate Oatmeal Almost-Candy Bars
Recipe from Dorie Greenspan's
Baking: From My Home to Yours
For the oatmeal layer
2½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups (packed) brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 cups old-fashioned (rolled) oats
1 cup salted peanuts, coarsely chopped

For the chocolate layer
14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
2 cups (12 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup moist, plump raisins (dark or golden)
¾ cup coarsely chopped peanuts, preferably salted

Getting ready
Center a rack in the oven, and preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter a 9-by-13-inch baking pan, and place the pan on a baking sheet.

To make the oatmeal layer
Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until it is soft and creamy. Add the brown sugar and beat for 2 minutes, then add the eggs, one at a time, beating for a minute after each egg goes in. Beat in the vanilla. The mixture should be light and fluffy. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing just until they disappear. Still on low speed, or working by hand with a rubber spatula, stir in the oats and chopped peanuts.


Set aside 1½ to 2 cups of the mixture, then turn the remaining dough into the buttered pan. Gently and evenly press the dough over the bottom of the pan. Set aside while you prepare the next layer. To make the chocolate layer
Set a heat-proof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Put the condensed milk, chocolate chips, butter, and salt in the bowl and stir occasionally until the milk is warm and the chocolate and butter are melted. Remove the bowl from the pan of water and stir in the vanilla, raisins (if using), and peanuts. Pour the warm chocolate over the oatmeal crust, then scatter the remaining oatmeal mixture over the top. Don’t try to spread the oatmeal, and don’t worry about getting the topping even — this is fun, remember? Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown and the chocolate layer is dull and starting to come away from the sides of the pan. Transfer the baking pan to a rack and cool for about 2 hours. Run a blunt knife between the edges of the cake and the pan, and carefully turn the cake out onto a rack. Turn right side up, then refrigerate for at least 1 hour before cutting.
Cut into 32 rectangles, each roughly 2¼ by 1½ inches. Makes 32 bars.

Serving: I think these are best served cold from the fridge, although my husband likes them straight from the freezer, cut into slivers. Before you chill the bars, though, have one — you might find you like them best at room temperature, in which case you’re lucky: You can start enjoying them sooner.

Storing: Wrapped well, these will keep for about four days at room temperature, 1 week in the refrigerator, or up to two months in the freezer.