This week I made lasagna. My husband had a choice between spag bowl, cottage pie, or lasagna, and he chose lasagna because it is his absolute favorite. It is a little bit of a labor of love because there are so many dishes going on and lots of washing and three different things: making a sauce, making the mints, and then assembling.

But every now and again I don't mind doing it.

And besides, I'll do it on a day when I don't have much going on in the morning, and then it just goes into the oven, and then I cook it, and then it's basically ready for whenever he gets home.

And I made myself a salad with just all the leftovers in the fridge. I had leftover rotisserie chicken, and then I had lots of salad stuff, and that was it.

A Childhood Lasagna That Changes With the Pantry

This recipe is kind of from my childhood again. We grew up eating lasagna. I've also just changed it every now and again depending on what I've got.

If I've got cream, I'll use cream to make the white sauce. If I have tin tomatoes with herbs, I'll do that, but if I don't, then I'll just use normal tin tomatoes.

And also depends on what spices I've got; everything gets thrown in there. I'd say it's probably just a little bit different each time, depending on what I've got. And also depending on the actual ingredients that I use.

Worcestershire, Cumin and a Packet of Tomato Puree

Some good olive oil. I then used organic mints. I used some dry Italian herbs, some onion powder, and cumin.

Sometimes I add smoked paprika, but I didn't add it this time. I added Worcestershire sauce, a little bit of soy sauce, salt, and pepper to the mince. Then I added a tin of whole tomatoes.

I added a packet of tomato puree, Worcestershire sauce, and then I let that go. I let the mince go for about 20 minutes on low heat.

Then I made a white sauce, and that's just butter, and then some olive oil, then flour, and then I use low-fat milk. And if I've got cream, I'll top it up with cream, or I'll just thin it out with some water, salt, and pepper.

Sometimes I put some English mustard in there, and then uncooked pasta sheets, and that's it. And then my husband and my son like grated cheese on top, and I'll just use a white cheese that I've got or a mozzarella, and they eat it as is.

Browning the Mince, Then the Butter and Olive Oil

I start off by making my mince. And with this one, sometimes I'll throw in some onion and some garlic into my food processor with some carrots and some celery. But this time I didn't have anything, so it just went straight into a hot pan with some olive oil.

I browned the mince to get a nice and caramelized flavor. And then into that I added cumin, onion powder, and garlic powder. I also had some Italian herbs that went in there, and I cooked that off a bit to get some of the moisture off.

Then I added a tin of tomatoes and also a packet of tomato puree. Cook that down a little bit, and then I added some salt, pepper, and let that go. I then sort of throw in Worcestershire sauce and add maybe even a little bit of soy sauce; sometimes I add some Marmite in there, or sometimes even a beef stock cube, and then fill it up with a little bit of water, and then I let that simmer on low heat for about 20 minutes.

Once that's made, I then take it off the heat, and I start on to my next thing, which is the white sauce.

I start with a big blob of butter, and then I add some olive oil to that also. This just prevents the butter from burning. Then, off the heat, I add some flour, and then I just cook that flour out, and then off the heat again, I add my milk, and then I let that get quite thick, and then I add some water, or I'll add cream if I've got cream here.

Then that just gets seasoned with salt and pepper, and there you have it.

The trick with the lasagna is that it needs to be quite wet because even if you're not putting a lot of pasta sheets in, that pasta really soaks up all the liquid. And the last thing you want is a dry lasagna, according to my husband.

Then I do the layering. I get a baking tray or dish, and I start, and I can never remember which way to do it, which goes in which, so I always have to read the directions. But it's white sauce, then I put my uncooked pasta sheets down and then mints, and then you continue until you get to the top and you finish with mints and some white sauce.

As you can see, I also had to break the lasagna sheets to fit into the dish. So you don't need to be careful about stuff like that when you're making lasagna because you won't see that once it's cooked.

Foil First, Then Rest It for 15 Minutes

Tips here for a lasagna: you've got to cover it with foil for the first half, and then you uncover it and take the foil off for it to get a golden top. And definitely let it sit for 15 minutes before cutting, just so that the layers hold together nicely.

You could swap the beef mince for any type of mince. So turkey, lamb, pork, that's absolutely fine. And I have once made a lasagna, but I haven't used any lasagna sheets, and I've just made it with veggies, so thin-sliced zucchini, or aubergine, and or you could use a spinach lasagna also, the spinach sheets.

And yeah, sometimes you can swap one layer of béchamel for, maybe, if you wanted to do protein, you could do cream cheese; you could beat an egg into the cheese layer, which I've done also. You can do all sorts of things. You can completely swap the mince for brown lentils and mushrooms, and then you can add spinach and butternut.

Leftover Lasagna on Toast for Breakfast

My husband ate it, and my son did, too. And there's never any arguing over eating the whole thing because they both love it. And then leftovers get taken to work the next day, or they go in the fridge, and then my husband will even have the leftovers on some toast for breakfast.

You can't freeze this lasagna, though, unfortunately, because those pasta sheets just don't make it through the freezer.

Lily and Lola also get their little treat of some cheese at the end.

Cooking It the Day Before a Crazy Tuesday

It's a good meal to make a day before, even if you know that you're, make it on a Monday if you know your Tuesday is absolutely insane. Because you could cook it up, and this is what I do. I actually basically have it all cooked already in the morning.

I'll make it the day before, and then it goes in the oven in the morning while I do some work, and then basically it's ready. So by the time dinner comes round, whoever's eating it at what time, I just have to cut out some of it from the dish and then heat it up, heat it up in the microwave.

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