Part 2: Multi Purpose stuffing for Peppers and Lasagna

Who doesn't like Lasagna?
Well if you don't you are not American... Or Italian rather...
SO I made a little too much of my pepper filling and here it is a Thursday night. I had the great pleasure of leaving work a little bit early. I made myself a nice soup for lunch, then on my early evening fridge raid I discovered that I still had a considerable amount of cheesy goodness left and it was probably only a day away from its expiration.
LASAGNA! As Garfield would resound. That is what my brain said. But with no ground meats of any kind I was left to figure out what to do.
So, I thawed a chicken breast and went from there...
Ingredients:
- 1 chicken breast
- 1 crown of broccoli
- Pepper filling (See previous post)
- Lasagna noodles (I use whole wheat)
- Pasta sauce (I used Ragu Chunky Garden Combo, lots of veggies and no High Fructose Corn Syrup!)
- Mozzarella Cheese
- Onion
- Garlic

Preheat the oven to 350

Chop two cloves of garlic and about 1/2 of a small onion. Sweat briefly in a little olive oil in a skillet. Chop chicken into small pieces and sautee with onions and garlic. Add spices as your taste requires. I again add a little basil but not much more as the filling has a fair amount of flavor.

Take the broccoli crown and cut up and steam slightly. I prefer mine al dente, you can steam longer if you like it mushy. Add to cooked chicken on a low heat so the veggies pick up on some of that delicious onion and garlic flavor.

Boil lasagna noodles as described on the package. Make sure you salt the water so the noodles do not stick together. I like to use a "chicken fryer", a deep walled pan so that the noodles lay nice and flat. Drain and let cool for a minute.

This particular recipe works great for an 8x8 pan. Add a small amount of sauce to the bottom of the pan. Place 1 layer of noodles on top of it. Spread some of the cheese mixture (slightly heated so that it easily spreads). Spoon half of the chicken and broccoli mixture. Pour a small amount of sauce to cover the chicken and broccoli. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese over the top. Place the next layer of noodles and repeat. Place a final layer of noodles on the top.

Cover the pan with aluminum foil. Bake for 35 minutes. Remove the foil and sprinkle cheese over the top. Bake an additional fifteen minutes until cheese begins to brown.

Serve and enjoy!

PS ANY leftover sauce from the peppers or lasagna makes AWESOME dipping sauce for bread!!! It was mu leftover lunch on Tuesday at work... Two peppers and a big pile of sauce...
What can I say? I love to eat!