Food Film Fiction: A yummy meal

I am late in writing this post because I went to visit my parents for a week. I hope you enjoy!

A few weeks ago I experimented by making my own lasagna recipe, a small salad with a lemon, olive oil dressing, and finished with a plum apple crisp. Yum.

By the way...I didn't do a lot of accurate measurements for the lasagna...sorry! But I encourage you to try and make it to your liking! I'm still learning that I need to write down how much of an ingredient I added. :)

Lasagna:
Preheat oven to 375.

First thing I did was sauteed a bunch of mushrooms, one orange bell pepper, one onion, and added a couple cloves of garlic at the end. You don't want to add the garlic too early or it will burn.
I had never added mushrooms before, and it was amazing! Gave the sauce an extra meaty texture.

Next add the meat. I used about a pound of ground beef. Salt and pepper the meat.

While the meat cooked, I made the cheese filling. I used cottage cheese and ricotta, plus one egg. Make sure to season the filling with salt and pepper! This part was a bit hard...I didn't want to taste the mixture because of the raw egg. So next time I'll taste before I add the egg. This layer can be really blah if not seasoned correctly.

Inside the filling I added fresh herbs. I used parsley, oregano, thyme, and basil. Reserve some of the herbs for the meat sauce.

Next I decided to add some tomatoes to the sauce.

Then I added the marinara sauce. Next time I will add the whole jar, and maybe more than that. When the lasagna was done it was really good, but I would have liked it a bit more saucy. It can become really dry in the oven.

Then I grated up some mozzarella and parm cheese. It took forever...but freshly grated is sometimes better.

Now comes the assembling! I use the no boil noodles...they are awesome.

Put some sauce on the bottom of the pan.

Begin layering :)...For some reason my noodles never line up pretty in my dish. Oh well...

I baked the lasagna at 375 degrees for 40 minutes with some foil on. Then take the foil off and cook it for another 10 minutes. Make sure you let the lasagna sit for ten minutes before serving.

I was proud of this lasagna. I thought it was pretty! My husband ate it everyday for about a week...mainly because I was out of town and he had no one to cook for him. :)

Lemon Olive Oil Dressing:

So easy, healthy, and yummy! Squeeze one lemon in a bowl, drizzle in olive oil, add salt and pepper. Whisk and enjoy!

Plum Apple Crisp:

Preheat oven to 375 and bake for 30 minutes.

I had a few plums that I needed to use. My mom helped me blanch them...first time I've ever tried that! My mom is awesome. :)

Poured boiling water over the plums...

Then fetched them out...

Dropped them in cold water...this stops the cooking process.

Then we peeled the skin off and diced them in cubes. Also peel and dice the apple.

Butter whatever dish you want to use and add the fruit.

Then make the topping. This is my favorite part! I got the topping recipe from my friend Tammy Weaver.

Topping:

3/4 cups brown sugar.

1/2 cup flour.

1/2 cup quick oats.

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon.

3/4 teaspoon of nutmeg.

1/3 cup butter, softened.

Pour the topping all over the fruit. I also dolloped some butter on top of the topping...there was no reason to do this, except that butter is delish, and maybe would make it brown beautifully.