Simple Fruit Salad

This is a very simple fruit salad recipe that you can change everything to suit your mood.

You’ll need:

1 Apple
1 Mango
2 bananas
Grapes
Yogurt (32 oz container, used roughly half)
Granola

How to:

Simply cut the bananas in thin slices and throw in your bowl. The apples can be cut into slices and then diced. Grapes, wash as many as you like and toss in. Mangoes can also be sliced and then diced, but beware, my pinky can tell you they are not very nice about you cutting them up.

Next, add your yogurt, whatever flavor you want, and mix until evenly coated. Toss in the granola for a crunch and mix it in. Add more yogurt if you need to. Everything should have a nice even coating of yogurt that shouldn’t take away from any of the flavors. Refrigerate until you’re ready to pull it out for a snack or dessert.

This can also be made on a smaller scale. This made more than 4 regular servings. Granola does get mushy after awhile, but you can always throw fresh in or just add it when you’re ready to serve it.

Variations:

Try adding in strawberries and other fruit. Experiment with using a different flavor of yogurt and different types of granola.

Close Enough Lasagna

I love lasagna. I said it. It was always a treat when my mom would make it. It just never lasted long enough in the house. I’ve been out of the house for 4 years now and this was my attempt to make some kind of a lasagna. I think it’s close enough. Tastes pretty awesome.

You’ll need:

Ham for dicing (I used some turkey ham)
Salami (to shred)
Butter
Tomato sauce (2 cans or 1 can sauce and 1 can paste)
Vegetables (to go in your sauce or use vegetable seasoning)
Shredded cheese (whatever you like, I used 3 cheese with a touch of Philadelphia cream cheese)
Parmesan cheese
Lasagna noodles

How to:

Preheat your oven for 400°F. I used a 13×9 pan and needed 6 lasagna noodles for top and bottom. Obviously you can make as many layers as you like, I just did the one. So boil your noodles and set your bottom layer down.

For the filling, I diced up 2 slices of the turkey ham I had on hand. I took a small sauce pot, threw in some butter to melt, and tossed in my meat. I shredded some sliced salami I had on hand and tossed that in after. Next, I added some vegetable seasoning and a bit more minced onion. You can dice up some onions and peppers to be sauteed in with them, I just didn’t have any. Or you can cheat and throw in a jar of veggie spaghetti sauce. I didn’t have that either. So when you’re pleased with the outcome of meat and possibly veggies, throw in a can of tomato sauce to be mixed in and heated. As I mixed, I added in some more seasoning and some salt and pepper. I had the no salt tomato sauce so salt was definitely needed. I prepared about a half a cup of Parmesan cheese and tossed it in the mix. When you’re satisfied with your filling, take it off the heat and let it thicken a bit.

Now the assembly. With your bottom noodles laid down, spoon your filling on top and spread it around. I sprinkled some more Parmesan cheese on top before laying down my top, or your lining for another layer. If doing more layers, just repeat.

Finally the topping, I didn’t have another can of tomato sauce so I had to improvise with a can of tomato paste. I thinned it out with some water and added my veggie seasoning. Again, you can use a jar of tomato sauce for this. Spoon that on top of the noodles and spread it out. Next is the best part. Sprinkle your shredded cheese all over the top. I threw in some more Parmesan cheese for good measure too.

Now pop that in the oven for about 10 minutes at 400°F to warm it through and melt the cheese. Take it out and enjoy after.

That would be the bottom noodle that slid out from the bottom in the lower left corner.