Lasagna

I love making homemade lasagna.  The recipe is so easy and so good.  First I start out by sauteing an onion, then brown a pound of meat (sometimes I use beef and sometimes I use turkey), then I add tomato paste and tomato sauce, and then add spices (oregano and basil) and let simmer for about 30 minutes.  In a lasagna pan, I layer dry lasagna noodles, the finished sauce, ricotta cheese (I used to use cottage cheese, but have switched to ricotta for the better taste), and shredded mozzarella cheese and repeat.  On the third layer, I put parmesan cheese on the top.  Cover the lasagna with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees for 2 hours, uncover for the last 15 min to get the top brown and bubbly.

Apple Pumpkin Soup

I had a leftover roasted pumpkin from the pumpkin pasta so I found this recipe for apple pumpkin soup.  I also had leftover leeks, so I used those too.  I chopped up an onion and the leeks really small and sauteed them.  Once they were translucent, I added the chicken stock, pumpkin, and apple.  I let simmer for about an hour so the soup could thicken.  The soup was amazing.  I added some cream to the leftover soup and that made the already amazing soup even better.

Key Lime Pie

Easiest Key Lime Pie thanks to my Kitchen Aid Mixer.  This pie was made with a frozen lime drink concentrate can, a can of sweetened condensed milk, cool whip, and one package of vanilla jello pudding.  Mix all ingredients in the Kitchen Aid Mixer and then pour into a premade graham cracker pie crust, then freeze.  This pie is amazing.  Of course you could dress it up with whip cream and lime wedges or slices, but I was ready to dig in.

Pumpkin Pasta

I love Fall, it's the only time in Houston when you're able to spend time outside.  I cooked my first ever pumpkin.  I got an organic sugar pumpkin from Whole Foods about the size of your head and bright orange.  I cut the pumpkin in half and proceeded to skin it, which was no easy task.  I think it took about 30 min just to skin half of the pumpkin.  Once I removed the skin, I cut the pumpkin in the bite size chunks that I could boil.  In a saute pan, I sauteed an onion.  Once the onion was translucent, I added the pumpkin and chicken stock.  While the pumpkin was simmering, I cooked half a pound of rigatoni to add to the pumpkin mixture.

Breakfast Bar Cookie

I had a box of Cheerios in my pantry that I had never opened, but didn't want to waste.  To use up the box of unopened Cheerios, I came up with breakfast bar cookies.  Ingredients include the box of Cheerios, craisins, banana, oatmeal, a little peanut butter, and your typical cookie ingredients.  They taste just like a breakfast cereal bar.  I eat them in the morning.