Almost Lasagna

I had just put my dinner concoction in the oven when  my mom called me.  I explained to her what I had made, and she was helping me name it.  I'm going to call it Almost Lasagna.  I made a casserole that is like lasagna sans any ricotta cheese or those long lasagna noodles.  And I will have everyone know that I only have two servings left in the giant bag of noodles I have!  Here goes:

Almost Lasagna

5 c. noodles, cooked
1 lb. ground beef, browned
1 t. salt
1 t. pepper
1 c. Alfredo sauce
1 c. spaghetti sauce
1 medium zucchini
2 c. shredded mozzarella
1/2 c. Parmesan cheese

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Note: I did not cook my noodles all the way because they finished in the oven.

I started my layering with a greased pan because I did indeed get more Pam this week.  Whew.  I combined the sauces into one bowl.  For anyone who is skeptical of this, trust me it's amazing.  If you don't want to or don't have one of the sauces around, just use double of the one you do have.  I poured a little bit of my new sauce on the bottom of the pan.

Next, I did a layer of noodles.

I had sliced my zucchini up into thinner pieces and made them the next layer.

Then, came a cup of cheese and more sauce.

Another noodle layer and then the beef came next.  I put teaspoons of salt and pepper into the meat.  I also had a quarter of an onion that I threw in too.

The last of the noodles went in as well as the last of the sauce.  I topped it with the last cup of cheese and sprinkling of the parm.

It went into the oven for about 40 minutes and came out beautifully if I do say so myself.  I literally just ate it and now I still have a stupid grin on my face because it was so good.  Hello, lunch and dinner for the rest of the week!  

Oh, and can I just say I was very disappointed when I went on Hulu today to watch the season finale of The Bachelorette and learned it's not airing till next week.  I am in such suspense!

Meatballs

Sunday morning naturally means meatball making, right?  Of course, and then you don't have to worry about making dinner super late tonight after work!  Thinking ahead, I learned it at college.

Want to hear a semi-bad Italian joke?  

Why are a lot of Italian men named Tony?  

When they got onto the boat to America, they had To NY (TONY) stamped on their foreheads.  

Yep, I know that was a bad one and that I chuckled.

Meatballs

1 lb-ish ground beef

1 egg

1/4 c. parmasean cheese

1/4 c. bread crumbs

1 t. garlic powder

1/2 t. pepper

any Italian herbs

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Again, I buy a package of ground beef and then portion and freeze it.  So I had this much...?

MEAT!

In a mixing bowl, combine everything!  Here are some Italian herbs that I googled because at 10am, I can't think for myself.  Oregano, basil, parsley, sage are good to throw on in.

Meat and everything else.

Once everything is well mixed, either by hand or spoon, start to form your balls.  I made smaller, bite-sized ones.  Just note, the bigger you make them, the longer they'll need in the oven.

I could totally just eat this for breakfast.

Bake you meatballs for about 20 minutes.  I cut one in half to see if they were done, as in no pink inside.

There will be little pools of fat.  You don't need to eat this.

Buon appetite!  Or enjoy later like me over some pasta with spaghetti sauce.  I'll post a picture later.

Pizza from Scratch

So my Friday nights are extremely lively out here.  I am working on a paper for class, doing laundry and just made pizza from scratch.  I'm so cool and will absolutely brag about it.

The pizza crust recipe I used is the same one my momma follows and is from Still Life Menu by Mollie Katzen.

The Crust

1/2 c. lukewarm water or milk (baby bath water temp)
1 pkg active dry yeast
1/4 t. salt
1T olive oil 
1 1/4 c (approx) unbleached white flour

In a mixing bowl, pour the yeast into the water.  Now, let it get foamy for a few minutes.  I have stressed patience in these posts but here it is definitely needed!

If it hasn't done anything chemically interesting in 5-10 minutes, stir it up a little.

Can you see the foaminess?  Not a great picture.

Add the salt to the mix, and you can also add any herbs you would like here.  I have a lemon-pepper-herby seasoning mix that I sprinkled in.  Anything that sounds Italian would probably be great: basil, parsley, something like that.

Mix and mix and mix.  Now remix!

Slowly start to add and incorporate the flour about 1/2 c. at a time.  Knead carefully with a spoon or your hands.  Things should start to look doughy and smooth.  Add extra flour if things are too sticky.  However, you don't want things too dry.

Transfer your dough to a different bowl that has the oil spread around it.  Roll the dough around the oil to keep things moist.  Cover the bowl with a towel and put in a warm area to rise.  Let it rise for about half an hour.

Now let science take over.

Walk away.  Watch a video on YouTube.  Do homework.

Come back to nicely risen dough and preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Whoa!  It grew!

Grease a pan and start to spread out your dough.  Mine magically filled my entire pan and wasn't super thin or thick.  My mom likes to put cornmeal on the bottom of the pan so things crisp up, but I don't have any.  No worries.

Perfect fit!

It's topping time!  Top your pizza with anything!  I used spaghetti sauce to get a little saucy.  I also topped it with onions, green peppers, tomatoes and mozzarella cheese.  

Feeling vegetarian tonight.

I baked my pizza for about 25 minutes to make sure the crust was done all the way through.  Now enjoy and make your roommates jealous!

Commence stuffing your face.

So Stony Brook has taught me several things, one being that hot sauce goes on everything.  Pizza, grilled cheese, cake, anything.  Just kidding!  Hot sauce and cake would be terrible.