3 Cheese and Broccoli Lasagna

Years ago I found a recipe for 3 cheese pasta pinwheels. I think it was in a Kraft magazine. We love it. I had all the ingredients on hand, but didn't really feel like doing the work that was involved in the original recipe. So, I wondered if I could skip the work of precooking the noodles and filling it with the filling and then cutting them in half and adding sauce and cheese. So, I did my own little cooking experiment, and it worked out great. 3 cheese and broccoli lasagna was born! We won't call it vegetarian as some people in my family(won't mention any names) get scared when meat is missing! The ingredients are shown above. The assembly, I did as follows.
Your favorite sauce on the bottom of the pan, maybe a 1/3 a jar? Then I layered some lasagna noodles(I love oven ready!). Next I added one egg and some salt and pepper to the container of cottage cheese. I layered the whole container of the cottage cheese mixture on the next layer and topped it with broccoli.  Next another layer of noodles topped with the rest of the sauce and mozzarella cheese.

Cover with foil and bake at 375 for 35-40  minutes. Remove foil and let bake for  5-10 minutes more until nicely browned.

Let sit for 5 minutes.....enjoy!

    

I've got lots of sick people....I mean noodles

We seem to be smack dab in cold season at our house. One by one, week by week, a new person has caught this awful cold. Both the kids have had it, now our home stay has it.......that only leaves hubby and I. So, today I pulled out the handy daddy home remedy, chicken soup. I have learned from our dear house guest that pe-tsai(a Chinese cabbage) makes a lovely addition to our soup! But, I am getting ahead of myself. First, I must give credit where credit is due. I was blessed to have an aunt and uncle let me live with them in my senor year of high school. My aunt made the most fantastic soup, and from her I learned to make easy, quick scratch soups!

Yummy Chicken Noodle Soup

To start you can use your leftover chicken(or turkey) carcass. Put in in lots of water, bring to a boil and then let simmer as long as you can. If you don't have a chicken carcass(I like to have chicken noodle soup shortly after roasting a chicken, when I menu plan)you can take two boneless skinless chicken breast and put it in the water. At this point I add some onion, chopped and some minced garlic(garlic is a food group at our house and I like to buy the big minced garlic at Costco). I learned years later that my other auntie was amazed that I wasn't adding star anise, which she believes makes the soup! So, I always add a few stars! Then I generously salt and pepper it and let it simmer. About an hour later, I toss in spaghetti noddles, that I have broken up. Today, there was broccoli hanging around so it went in the pot, but it can be celery, or frozen corn, whatever you fancy! Next, I cut up some Chinese cabbage and some cilantro(I just love cilantro). Throw it all in and then test in 10 minutes to see if the noodles are soft. Taste for saltiness and viola! Homemade cold(I mean cough cough) comfort food!