First off Happy official New Year!
Luke and I got to ring in 2017 AND celebrate a friend’s birthday at a gorgeous cabin “up north” (aka Northern Minnesota).
We spent our weekend eating, drinking, exploring, and overall celebrating all while in comfy clothes next to a fire. It was perfect!
I agreed to make a couple of meals, and knowing that refrigerator space would be at a premium (got to have room for beer right?!) and that we would likely be either hungover or consuming adult beverages, I wanted to keep the prep work to a minimum.
For breakfast I decided to make these yummy ham, cheese, and spinach puffs from eatwell101.com. I made these little suckers in advance the week before and froze them. Then to add a little more protein, I also cracked an egg over half of them. I thawed them overnight, so all I had to do that morning was heat them up at 350 degrees and bake for roughly 20 minutes. They were a great use of leftover Christmas ham and went over well! Without the egg they would also make a good appetizer 🙂
Tip: layer tinfoil on the pan if you crack the egg and spray well as it can get quite sticky).
I completed the spread with a run to Costco – fruit, bagels, and muffins. Easy to grab and low maintenance!
For Dinner I decided to make Roxie’s famous lasagna (my mother-in-law). We needed something hearty to prepare for New Years Eve and I wanted to feed 14 people without breaking the bank so lasagna worked-out perfect. Plus per my advance prep theme I could make it in advance and freeze it. The nice thing also about Minnesota is that we could keep the lasagna outside then set it out the morning-of to defrost….there are some perks to this tundra!
I made two different kinds – Traditional beef marinara and Turkey Pesto. I served it with two loaves of Costco asiago bread and a salad bar (Arugala mixture, goat cheese, bleu cheese, cheery tomatoes, diced peppers, green onion, etc.).
I will say the salad bar was raised-up a notch thanks to my sister’s AMAZING balsamic dressing recipe. People who don’t even like salad were eating it thanks to this dressing. For those who don’t know, my sister is a true chef – she just combines things and it works, whereas I need recipes. I texted her for this recipe and she was like oh just combine a few ingredients and voilà…needless to say I made her breakdown portion sizes for me 😉
Lasagna
Credit: Roxie Fox
For the meat sauce:
– 1 1/2 lb lean hamburger
– 1/2 lb italian sausage
– 1 large onion, chopped
– 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
– 1 1/2 to 2 tsp salt
– 1 tsp ground pepper
– 1 tsp oregano
– 1 tsp parsley
– 1 Tbl basil
– 2 cans (14 1/2 oz) whole tomatoes (do not drain)
– 2 cans (6 oz) tomato paste
For the cheese layer:
– 2 eggs, beaten
– 1/2 tsp pepper
– 2 Tbl parsley
– 1/2 Cup parmesan cheese
– 1 lb (divided in half) mozzarella cheese
– 24 oz ricotta or cottage cheese
– 12-14 lasagna noodles
Directions:
– Cook hamburger, onion, sausage & garlic until meat is browned over medium heat, drain
– add salt, pepper, oregano, basil, tomatoes, & tomato paste – stir until mixed well, cover & simmer for 1 hour
– cook lasagna noodles, drain, & set aside
– spray 9×13 inch pan and preheat oven to 375 degrees
– combine cottage cheese/ricotta cheese, eggs, pepper, parmesan cheese, & 1/2 lb. of mozzarella cheese
– in a pan layer noodles, meat sauce, & cheese mixture. Repeat layer.
– top with 1 layer of noodles and sprinkle evenly with remaining mozzarella
– cover and bake at 375 degrees for 40-60 minutes
Modification options:
– I rolled the lasagna noodles so each noodle made one roll-up – this makes the lasagna easier to serve. To make two batches (24 pieces of lasagna) it took a double recipe of the meat sauce and a triple recipe of the filling.
– I ran out of ricotta cheese, so I used greek yogurt in one batch to keep it creamy. It still tasted fine!
– To make a ground turkey pesto version, I subbed the meat with ground turkey, and replaced the tomato paste and one can of the tomatoes with Kirkland (Costco) pesto. It was SUPER flavorful! I also added a bit of pesto to the cheese mixture for added flavor as well.
Balsamic Dressing
Ingredients:
– balsamic vinegar
– olive oil
– dijon mustard
– garlic, oregano, basil to taste
Combine 1 part balsamic vinegar to 1 part olive oil (slightly more olive oil) and add Dijon mustard to taste.
I used 1/4 cup balsamic to 1/3 cup olive oil with 1 Tbl Dijon mustard and tweaked from there.
Add garlic, pepper, oregano, etc. per your preference
As a side note – we ate those champagne jello shots I posted and they were awful (I mean strong, but tasted terrible!). I am going to make it my mission to find a better recipe for you guys!
But overall it was a great weekend – I loved catching-up with my friend from growing-up, Greta, and enjoying the Minnesota winter for a change.
Cheers to 2017!
Megan
Very Merrily Fox 
What a nice spread, yummy yummy, got me all hungry and I just had lunch, I’ll save this post for future reference! :))
LikeLiked by 1 person