Roasted Zucchini and Eggplant Lasagna

Prep Time: ?? 
Cool Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Rest Time: 10 minutes

Grade: A-

Make Again: Yes

This is a pretty light lasagna. The recipe only use 8 oz of mozzarella and 3 oz of Parmesan cheese. There is no ricotta, which is kind of funny, because I planned on making it specifically to use up some ricotta I had in the refrigerator. Next time I'll look at the recipe.

Anyway, it is not too complicated. The prep involves chopping the onion and garlic, dicing the zucchini and eggplant and assembling everything. It takes time because you need to cool things before assembling. I did it while making some other food for the week, so it worked out fine.

This recipe is from the Oven Ready Casseroles where you
can make the dish the day before. I actually made a small lasagna in a loaf pan with 1 row of noodles, and a larger one in an 8x8 pan with 2 rows of noodles. I froze the larger one, which is not what the recipe calls for, but I'll try it.

I cooked the smaller lasagna the next day. You are supposed to add sauce before baking and cheese the last 10 minutes, but I did it all when I assembled it. It worked fine.

It was very good. It has a lot of vegetables if you include the tomato sauce, and a modest amount of cheese, so this really felt like decent fuel food to me. I may make it again. It is nice fall meal when I can still get good zucchini at the Farmer's Market.

Best Chicken Parmesan

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Salt Time: 20 min (can overlap with prep)
Breading/Cook Time: 20 min
Broil: 2-4 minutes

Grade: A-

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source:
Cook's Illustrated (March 2013),
America's Test Kitchen TV (Season 14)

This tasted great, but was a little greasy and rich, so I probably won't make it a lot. I remember a lighter recipe from the Best Light Recipe (which I don't own anymore) but I think I probably prefer that recipe. It is not super quick, but they have streamlined the recipe some so it isn't too complicated.

Make Ahead Meat Lasagna

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cool Time: 30 minutes
Assemble: 15 min
Finish: 5
Cook Time: 45-80 min (fresh or frozen)

Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Make Ahead Cook (book)

This was from the "Freezer" section of the book. I haven't really tried any America's Test Kitchen lasagna recipes (at least in a while) so I can't compare the recipe. I assume it is similar, but tweaked for putting in the freezer.

Instead of making 2 lasagnas in 8" square pans, I made 4 small lasagnas for 2 people in  4.5x8 pans. I used the foil pans and they were actually a little too small to fit the noodles in, so I softened 8 of them first in hot water so they would bend. The noodles fit in when I got higher up.

The lasagna was very good, although maybe could have used a little more salt. It was not as stable as I would like. That might be because of the pre-softened bottom noodles. Next time I will make sure to buy pans that are wide enough to handle the noodles. The pans I bought were weird loaf pans with scallops, so hopefully I can find something better that is a bit wider on the bottom.

But I probably won't make this again for a while since I have 3 frozen mini lasagnas in the freezer now. That is of course the best part of it all.

I haven't tried from frozen yet, but I have to assume it will be good. If not, I'll come back and update.

Make Ahead Spinach Manicotti

Prep Time: 35 minutes
Freezer Time: 1 hour before wrapping
Finish Time: 50 minutes

Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Make Ahead Cook (book) 

This was pretty good. I love the technique in this one, using lasagna noodles and rolling them up. It might make the meal more "carb-heavy" than some people want. I wonder if it would be possible to cut noodles in half and roll them up that way. Hmmm, I might try that sometime.

Honestly, you could change this recipe in many ways. There is a lot of cheese in here, and I'm sure you could use less and add other ingredients to increase the volume. (Vegetables, beans, meat, etc.) I will probably experiment with this one some more because it worked out really well.

The biggest pain of the recipe is freezing them individually and then wrapping up into meal size packets. But that really wasn't too hard. It is worth it to get the 2-4 meals for two people from about 40 minutes total work. The individual wrapping is great since you take out how many you want to make for dinner, and I really love that flexibility.

Ricotta Calzones with Sausage

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Rise Time:  90-120 minutes
Rest Time: 30 minutes
Prep Time: 60 minutes
Bake Time: 11-15 minutes

Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated (September 2003)


The prep time includes the rolling of the dough, and assembling. Assembling took 30 minutes of the time. It could maybe be done quicker.

I started making the filling while dough was still rising. Then I made 6 balls of dough, and did nothing during the 30 minutes rest time. Then I was able assemble the calzones. So there is a little overlap, but overall, these do take about 2.5 - 3 hours to make and bake. I had to bake in two batches because I only have a round pizza stone and they won't all fit.

The actual recipe calls for Broccoli Rabe which I did not have, so I just left that out. I'm sure it would be a nice addition though.

This recipe takes a bit of time, but it makes 6 large calzones. I managed to usually eat one full one, but was pretty hungry when I ate these. Sometimes 1/2 of one would suffice.

I froze the leftovers and reheated in the over. These were just as good as original. Actually maybe better, because there was no effort involved and we could just enjoy.

Chicago Style Pizza

Dough Time: 10 minutes
Rise Time: 60 minutes
Sauce Prep: 20 minutes
Sauce Cook: 30 minutes
Laminate: 10 minutes
Rise Time: 40-50 minutes
Assemble: 10 minutes
Bake: 20-30 minutes
Rest: 10 minutes

Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated (January 2010) 
I have always lived in Chicago-land area (and for a while in the city) so I do know Chicago pizza. I'm not partial to this style of pizza though, I like all kinds really. The one thing I would say about the style is that it has a buttery crust. Some of them seem like they have cornmeal in them, but I've heard that is not really true. I am not a purist though so I just wanted to try it and see if it was good.

It was good. Very good actually. Maybe not a true replication of any specific restaurant around here but close enough. The crust seemed closest to Lou Malnati's I thought, because of the buttery flavor.

It is a bit more work than a regular pizza, but it made two pies. I wrapped one pan in foil and froze, then baked a few weeks later. That one was as good as the first.

I thought the sauce was a little too sweet so I would skip the sugar next time or use less. Otherwise it was a very good recipe.

Pepperoni Pasta Bake

Prep Time: 27 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes

Grade: A-

Make Again: Yes
  
Recipe Source: Everyday Food (October 2012)

I liked this recipe because I made it ahead and then was able to put in the oven later. Also, I happened to have some leftover pepperoni and ricotta that needed to be used up, so this was perfect.

It was relatively simple to make considering I thought filling the shells would be a pain. I could probably make this quicker if I started boiling water sooner.

I used only 15oz ricotta which was plenty to fill the shells. I also used frozen spinach instead of the zucchini. It all worked well. I didn't have fresh basil, which would have been nice.

It got a thumbs up from my picky eater. He didn't realize that there was spinach in the shell filling.

Thin-Crust Pizza

Dough Time: 20 minutes (including 10 minutes rest)
Rise Time: 24+ hours
Prep Time: 25 minutes
Bake Time: 12 minutes


Grade: A-
Make Again: Maybe
Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated (January 2011)

This was good, but I struggled to shape the dough. I just couldn't get it to 13". I used Trader Joes' pizza sauce because I hated the sauce from the Veggie pizza a few weeks ago and this one was similar.

I think I prefer the really, really thin crust recipe from 2001 or the Pan Pizza recipe from Cook's Country, which I have made many, many times, because it is fast and really good.  So, even though I liked this, I'm not sure how often I will make it.

Baked Ziti

Prep Time: 35 minutes
Cook Time: 60 minutes
Cool Time: 20 minutes

Grade:B-

Make Again: No

Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated (March 2009)
Recipe: America's Test Kitchen TV Show (Season 10)

This was  nothing special in my opinion.  I do have to admit, however, that I used an inferior cheese which definitely affected the taste.  I chose the store brand (Safeway) cheese because it was cheaper, and then, even worse, accidentally purchased the low-fat version.  It was too salty and not creamy at all.  Now I have 8 oz left of this crappy cheese, which I won't use, just to save $1.  Oh well.

However, even without that issue, I still don't think this recipe would have been all that better than the very simple baked pasta dishes I've used before.  It uses cottage cheese, which I like, but I usually don't include ricotta in my baked ziti anyways, so it didn't solve any problems for me.  It just seems like more effort than I want for a simple pasta dish, so I probably won't make again.

Baked Penne with Chicken and Sun Dried Tomatoes

Prep Time: 38 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes

Grade: A-

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Everyday Food (March 2009)

This is a "make enough for two pans and freeze one for later" recipe, which I like when I'm busy (which seems to be a permanent state for me now.) I modified the recipe quite a bit, because I wanted to lighten it up, and also because I am very much in a use up what I have mode in an effort to be frugal.

My modifications:
~ no mushrooms (don't like)
~ used 5c. 2% milk instead of 6c. of whole milk
~ 3T of butter instead of 6T
~ used 1/2 c. of mozzarella cheese instead of 1.5c of provolone since it's all I had.
~ used a little less Parmesan

I usually don't like these dishes to be too saucy, so I knew using less of the sauce ingredients would be OK. The recipe didn't specifically say to cook sauce enough to thicken, but I cooked it longer than called for so it would thicken, since I knew it wasn't going to have as much cheese. The lighter ingredients and amounts for the sauce worked perfectly and I'll do it that way again.

I do feel like the dish could use a little more spice or flavor, which is why I give it a "-". I don't feel that this had anything to do with my lightening up the fats in the ingredients, but rather a lack of herbs or spices in the recipe. I would probably use more sun-dried tomatoes, or try adding some oregano or fresh basil next time. It wasn't completely bland, just could of used a touch more flavor, I think.

I wrapped up the second pan of this and look forward to having a no-cook meal ready for the oven sometime in the next month or two when I'm busy. I'll try to remember to update this page with how the frozen one tasted.

Freezer Update: I used the frozen half of this recipe this week. It still tasted good. The pasta did get a tiny bit gummy, but it wasn't too bad. The chicken was a little drier, but it was in the saucy pasta, so it still was fine to me. It is a little better fresh, but the convenience of having a meal without any effort was worth it, so I would definitely freeze half again.

Spaghetti Pie

Prep Time: 40 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes

Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Cook's Country (February 2006)

This one is really easy to put together. The prep isn't quick because you have to make the "crust" first after boiling the pasta, and then make the filling, but there is plenty of downtime and not much cutting going on with this one.

I did skip the ricotta layer, because I didn't have any on hand, and just used more ground beef in the sauce. It was really good, and a nice change of pace from regular pasta with sauce. An easy recipe for something a little different that still gives you traditional Italian flavors.

Lasagna Carnivale

Prep Time: 65 minutes
Cook Time: 20-25 minutes
Rest Time: 5 minutes
Grade: A-

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Best International Recipe

This recipe calls for making tiny meatballs (with a scant teaspoon of meat.) The first time I made this, I made the meatballs a little too big, which made the structure of the lasagna a little bit of a problem. I also felt like there wasn't enough tomato sauce. Overall, though, I loved it, so I decided to make this again for Christmas Eve dinner with my family.

I made one with beef and one with Turkey. I also made more sauce (50% more.) I made the meatballs a little smaller, althouth probably still a tiny bit bigger than a teaspoon. No doubt, it is tedious to roll the meatballs, but this is a great dish to make ahead, so it was done the day before the dinner, when I was less stressed. (I had some help with this, thankfully.)

The beef version was better than the turkey. The first time I did this, I used turkey and liked it, but this time I used Trader Joe's Turkey, instead of Jenni-O. I'm not sure why, but I just didn't love the flavor of the TJ turkey in this. I had added some oregano and red pepper to the turkey the first time, and forgot that this time, so maybe that was my problem.

In the end, this is a keeper recipe for me, since lasagna can be made ahead of time, and makes great leftovers.

Strata with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Sausage

Prep Time: 25 minutes
Chill Time: 30 minutes to overnight
Cook Time: 35-45 minutes

Grade: A+

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Everyday Food (December 2003)

This is another good Strata recipe from Everyday food. I made this along with the Canadian Bacon Strata for an Easter brunch and both were very well received. This one ends up almost tasting like pizza so has a completely different taste than the other one. It takes a bit more time because you need to chop and onion and brown the sausage, but still an easy dish with less than 30 minutes of work and ready to just pop in the oven in the morning.

Pan Pizza

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Rise Time: 30 minutes
Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes

Grade: A+

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Cook's Country (April 2006)

This was the best pan pizza I have ever made for sure. It is similar to Pizza Hut, but less greasy. Actually, the recipe calls for 3 T of olive oil on the bottom of each pan, but I use 1.5 to 2, which I think is a perfect amount, for a tasty crispy crust, but not greasy.

This recipe makes 2 9" pizzas, which is nice for making two different kinds. I cheat and use Trader Joe's Pizza sauce, which I think it pretty good. I prep the other ingredients during the 2nd rise, which lasts 20 minutes. The entire pizza is done in 90 minutes, which is kind of amazing actually.

Cheesy Basil-Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes

Grade: B

Make Again: Maybe

Recipe Source: Cook's Country (February 2006)

This recipe was OK, but I didn't love the chicken after it was cooked. It ends up taking longer than I wanted to put together also.