Use It Up Days 11-13: Lasagna Rolls

Do you like how it took me a week to progress one day in my series?  It's ok - it's been a full week.  We chose a name for our new baby girl.  Coming Soon: Naomi Kate!  We started painting the playroom upstairs (so we can set it up, so we can clear out some stuff from Malachi's room, so we can redecorate and reorganize Malachi's room to accommodate a baby sister, so we can paint, so we can....I'm exhausted).  Jeremy and I had a for-real, awesome date.  Mom, Malachi, and I spent a day visiting my grandmother and shopping and eating.  And on the downside, we've been sick in this house (still) and it's been pretty yucky. People in town have had this same sickness for weeks and even **gulp** months on end.  I refuse to even consider that I might still feel like this 2 or 3 weeks from now.

Back when I made lasagna two years ago, I ended up with something like 4 leftover noodles.  They sat in my cabinet forever and simultaneously took up space and got on my nerves.  They even moved with me when we moved to our new house.  Seriously?  But I didn't want to waste them.  When I made lasagna this year, I ended up with 12 or so leftover lasagna noodles, and absolutely no desire to make lasagna again for a long time.  So I was excited to find a way to use up the noodles during my little experiment.  Sadly, I didn't use them all up, but I did end up with a recipe that I like and a way to use them up the next time we want a repeat of this meal.  That's been a cool part of this project - not actually using things up, but at least knowing what I am going to do with the leftovers in the future.  It's nice to have that kind of confidence and to feel like my leftovers have a higher purpose in life than growing freezer burn.

I also think I've become a little more creative about how to use up leftovers, or maybe just more intentional about doing it.  I don't like leftovers much - honestly, I am not big on eating the same thing more than once in a week.  But I have gotten a little more creative, and that's been a cool thing to see develop.  I feel like I haven't thrown as much away, and I also haven't cooked quite as much because we've been trying to have leftovers for dinner more often when things are close to the end of their shelf life.

I'm still catching you up on my last week of "Use it Up," but I am actually currently planning my shopping trip for my first real trip to the store since we started.  Yay!  I'm pretty excited.

Day 11 was lasagna rolls (below).  Day 12 was leftovers.  Day 13 I made chicken noodle soup because I was desperate.  

Lasagna Rolls
Inspired by this recipe.

• 9 uncooked lasagna noodles
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups ricotta cheese
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 3/8 cup Parmesan cheese (and yes, you can just round it up to 1/2 a cup if you want to)
• 1 package frozen, chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 cups tomato sauce (I used leftover of this)

Cook lasagna noodles until al dente according to package directions.  Drain and pat dry.  Stir together eggs, cheese, spinach, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.  Spread about 2 tablespoons-ish cheese mixture over each noodle.  Carefully roll them up.  

Coat the bottom of a baking pan with sauce.  Place the roll-ups seam-side down over the sauce, and top with remaining sauce.  Bake at 375 (uncovered) for 25 minutes.  Top with some extra mozzarella cheese if desired, then bake another 5 minutes.

Spicy Spaghetti Sauce

I grew up in the kitchen. I come from a line of great cooks: my mom's mom (chicken parmesan), my mom (casseroles galore), and my dad (salmon with mango salsa). For a long time my mom's kitchen had a window seat where I would sit and talk while she made dinner. If you've ever read The Five Love Languages, my love language is quality time, and my mom and I spent a LOT of time together in that kitchen. I helped her to an extent, but I never learned how to make much. When my husband and I got married, I kid you not, for the first six months we ate chicken or ground beef every other night. I did different things with them, but that's about all we ate.

One of the things I admire the most about my husband is that he doesn't complain. Like, ever. Not about his job, not about my food, not about the weather, nothing. I knew I wasn't a great cook, but not because he told me. But then one day after we were married he went home for a wedding. Somehow we got to talking and I learned that he had told his mother, his mother, that I only made chicken and hamburger. He was not complaining. He actually followed up that comment with something like "But it's all really good." But, I flipped out, and my poor husband had no idea why. Not that my mother-in-law has ever given me any reason to flip out. I'm sure she just said, "I'm glad she's a good cook!" and moved on. She's great like that. But still. Jeremy grew up LOVING his mom's cooking, and I grew up hoping my husband would love mine just as much. Oh boy.

That was the moment I realized it was time to learn something new. So I did. And then I made something else. And something else. And then, as time went on, I realized that I really liked making all these new things. I gained a lot of confidence, due in major part to my husband happily eating all of my mistakes. All those years of watching my family finally paid off when I realized I knew how to do a lot more than I thought I did. And now I, who HATED cooking for so long, absolutely love it.

My mom is famous for her spaghetti - it is amazing. My husband ate it zillions of times while he was in college and loved it. I started experimenting with her recipe and doing my own variations. Then one day I changed one more thing and my husband said, "This is even better than your mom's!"

Um, WAAAAHOOOOO! He's probably the only person in the world who thinks that, but I don't care. I felt like I had arrived!

Now to this day, I can't make the food Jeremy grew up eating taste like he remembers, even when I follow the recipes to a T. And I don't expect I ever will - who can ever match your own mom's cooking, really?

Spicy Spaghetti Sauce

~1 pound of hot Italian ground sausage
~2-3 table spoons of red cooking wine
~1 16 oz. can of diced tomatoes
~1 16 oz. can of tomato sauce
~1 6 oz. can of tomato paste

And here comes the part where I guess on the measurements, so bear with me.

~1.5 teaspoons of garlic powder
~1.5 tablespoons of parsley
~1 tablespoon of oregano
~2 teaspoons of basil
~1.5 teaspoons of rosemary
~1/2 teaspoon of thyme
~1/2 teaspoon of onion powder



Brown the sausage in a large skillet with a dash of garlic and parsley. When it is almost done, add the wine. Add tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, paste, and all other spices to taste. Stir and let it simmer slowly for as long as you like. The longer it sits, the stronger the flavors will be.

After I wrote this, I went back and doubled the measurements on a bunch of the spices, and I'm still not sure it's right. Just keep tasting and sniffing.

Also, I got so excited to eat my pasta, I forgot to take a picture until it was half-way eaten. Sorry about that.