New Recipes....2 failure and 1 success!!

I recently tried a few new recipes. The first was Roasted Pepper Soup. I thought this recipe was quite tasty. It was a heart warming, comfort soup. The three males in our house had a different opinion. They each took one little bite of the soup and decided that was enough. I guess you sort of need to like red peppers to like this soup & I should have known better than to make it for them! Even though I really liked the soup, it made a fairly large batch and I didn't want to eat the soup for every meal for the next week. So I emailed some of my near by friends asking if they would like some free soup. I had two takers and delivered my own little "meals on wheels" the next day. They each enjoyed the soup. Although I enjoyed the soup, I probably won't be making it again. That is unless I have some red pepper loving friends come for a visit and Chad and the boys are not around. Yeah, not gonna happen!

The next recipe I tried was Mushroom and Black Bean Tortilla Casserole. In my attempt I did not use mushrooms due to our mushroom fearing boys. Instead I used two cans of black beans. The boys did not like the taste of this dish. And actually, I wasn't that thrilled with the taste either. I kept thinking, This should taste really good! We love all the ingredients. Why is the taste so off? I will try this recipe again. Next time I will make my own tortillas, they are so yummy but I just didn't feel up to making them the day I made this dish. I will also buy salsa instead of using the salsa I canned. I think this might help improve the taste. And I will bake it longer than this recipe says. Mine wasn't hot enough in the center, the cheese wasn't melted.

So I guess these recipe attempts weren't necessarily failures but they didn't work well for my family. I hope the Black Bean Tortilla Casserole is much improved the next time I make it.

The recipe I made last night was Chicken & Spinach Pesto Lasagna and it was a hit! We all enjoyed it!! I found the recipe on the back of a bag of Kroger mozzarella cheese. YUM! It makes a lot for this family of four. I ended up putting some away in the freezer.

Chicken & Spinach Pesto Lasagna

Ingredients:

12 uncooked lasagna noodles (I used 9)

3 T. olive oil (I used coconut oil)

1 cup chopped onions

3 cloves garlic, crushed

2 packages (12 oz each) frozen chopped spinach

3 cups cooked diced chicken breast meat

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

2 cups ricotta cheese (I used cottage cheese)

1 large egg

1-1/2 prepared pesto sauce,

plus 2 Tbsp

3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Spray 13x9 casserole or lasagna pan with nonstick cooking spray. Partially cook lasagna noodles according to package directions. Spread 2 Tbsp. pesto in bottom of prepared pan.

3. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook and stir onions and garlic until transparent. Add spinach; cook and stir about 5 minutes. Add cooked chicken and stir about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

4. In large bowl, mix together ricotta cheese, egg, pesto and Parmesan cheese until thoroughly blended. Add chicken and spinach mixture to bowl and stir to combine.

5. Layer 4 (3) lasagna noodles, slightly overlapping. Top with one third of spinach ricotta mixture and one third of mozzarella. Repeat layers twice.

6. Bake about 35-40 minutes or until hot and bubbly.