Friday, January 28, 2011

Cooking for 2

Since Jack and I have gotten married, I try to cook at least every week night.  It has been fun learning new things and trying new recipes.  I love finding recipes in all of my wonderful cookbooks and on the internet.  The only problems I seem to run into is that sometimes when I get home from work, I don't want to make something that is going to take an hour and a half to prep and an hour or more to cook.  I like 30 minute meals.  Instant, easy.  I also run into the problem of cooking for two.  Jack normally will take leftovers to work.  I think I have mentioned before I am not much of a leftover girl.  But sometimes you don't want left overs.  You don't want a ziplock container of leftover chicken enchiladas in your fridge just sitting there for three days.  And unfortunately, I am one of those people that feel guilty when I throw away food.  I mean hello, there are starving children all over the world and I had to call a plumber because I threw away so much left over spaghetti down my garbage disposal.  It just makes me feel bad.

One of my "go to" websites for EASY recipes is kraft.com.  You can sign up and they will email you recipes and tips for parties, etc.  Most of their recipes don't have a ton of ingredients, which is nice when you are trying to save at the super market or even if you are just trying to make a quick meal.  The following recipe was sent to me today and it looked so wonderful and it is made to serve TWO people, so I wanted to share.  This recipe calls for ground beef, but you could always substitute for ground turkey meat or even some assorted fresh veggies like squash or zucchini.  You can use whole wheat lasagna noodles and fat free cream cheese as two easy ways to "health it up."  The possibilities are endless.  Enjoy!

Lasagna Bake for Two

Lasagna Bake for Two recipe
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kraft

what you need

2 lasagna noodles, uncooked
1/2 lb.  extra-lean ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onions
1 clove  garlic, minced
1 cup undrained canned diced tomatoes (about 2/3 of 14.5-oz. can)
2 Tbsp.  PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese Spread
4 cups loosely packed baby spinach leaves
1/2 cup  KRAFT Finely Shredded Italian* Five Cheese Blend, divided

make it

HEAT oven to 350ºF.
COOK noodles as directed on package, omitting salt.
MEANWHILE, brown meat with onions and garlic in large nonstick skillet. Add tomatoes and cream cheese spread; cook and stir 2 to 3 min. or until cream cheese is melted and mixture just comes to boil. Add spinach; cook and stir 1 min. Remove from heat, add 1/4 cup shredded cheese; stir until melted.
DRAIN noodles. Spoon 1/3 cup spinach mixture into each of 2 (2-cup) ramekins; top with noodle, letting excess noodle extend over rim of ramekin. Top each with 1/3 cup spinach mixture; fold noodle back over dish to cover filling. Repeat until all filling is folded between noodle layers; top with remaining shredded cheese.
BAKE 20 min. or until heated through. Let stand 5 min. before serving.

1 comment:

  1. I get those emails too! The difference is that you actually make them.. wife of the year.

    ReplyDelete