Almost is good enough!

I should have blogged last night. I apologize in advance. I made some homemade white chicken enchiladas and homemade salsa that tasted EXACTLY like Chili's salsa. Good recipes. GOOD. But I didn't, so I'm sorry. I almost blogged about them last night, but in that case, almost wasn't quite enough.

There are times when almost is enough, though. Like tonight, when for some reason I am beyond tired even with a decent night's sleep under my belt. Maybe I'm just tired in anticipation of the sleepless night I feel is coming, as Dylan is apparently going to bark like a dog all night. 

Poor baby. And it's not just me. Jeff is already dozing in the recliner, and even the rabid gingers are fairly quiet. Now. And yes, I know that's not a good sign, but they're zoned into the Xbox right now. I only have a little bit of mommy guilt about that. But, in any case, I am having the kind of night where I'm tired and half-a$$ing things and not cooking much seems to be the way to go.

Time to turn to an old favorite of mine-Almost Lasagna.

This most assuredly falls under the category of cheap, easy, everybody likes, and 'makes a crapload' of food. (I realized the other day how sad it is that 'healthy' is WAY down on my list. I'm too excited when they eat ANYTHING.)

You don't need much, and you can get it all here in town. Ingredients are as follows:

12-14 oz of some kind of macaroni noodles (we like rigatoni)

1 lb ground beef OR chicken (we prefer chicken, can be made with either)

I jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce

1 bag of shredded parmesan

1 bag of shredded mozzarella

1 tub of Ricotta cheese

2 eggs

and you can chop and add veggies in if you like, black olives are a favorite here :-)

1. While oven preheats to 350, cook your meat of choice, drain.

2. Mix beaten eggs, ricotta, half of the parmesan, and some salt and pepper to taste (garlic salt is good, too)

3. Mix meat, noodles, any veggies, then add the cheesey mixture in with all of that.

4. In a greased 9x13 pan, add half of this gooey mixture. Place half of the bag of mozzarella all over the top, and half of the parmesan you have left over.

5. Add the rest of the mix, then top with remaining mozzarella and parmesan.

6. Cover with foil, bake for about 20 minutes. uncover and bake another 10-15 minutes to get the cheese all melty bubbly good. 

This is really easy, and even easier when you just throw some frozen garlic bread in the oven with it for the last ten minutes or so. As you can tell by the picture below, I'm not a true food blogger. I haven't yet mastered the art of remembering to take a picture of a dish in all its pristine, 'just-cooked' glory. By the time I do remember, there are gaping holes where my people have already pigged out, myself included. So here's what the chicken almost lasagna looks like:

Oh, yes, there will be leftovers...

 So anyways, that's my food blog for tonight. Not too much else to report on the home front at the moment. As compared to earlier, when the heathen childrens were running around fighting over MY phone. Thanks, Apple for child-addicting apps. I rarely see my iPhone these days. I miss it.

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