Squash In My Garden - Wordless Wednesday

Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole
All Photographs Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole

Zucchini Lasagna Recipe

Our Dinner tonight!

I don't usually write recipes on my blog here, but these are timely, as summer squash is plentiful this time of the year. The cost of food in the store has gone up so much, that I try to keep the cost down and love the idea of finding tasty meals made with cheap cuts of meat. Neck bones or very small packages of bones with a tiny bit of meat. I got a lot of meat off a cheap package of pork neck bones. I am going to be experimenting with more of these.

The meat in this recipe can be ground beef, pork, lamb, sausage, whatever you have and how much you like. Or the meat can be pork, beef or lamb neck bones.

Pork Neck Bones Are A Frugal Bargain!

Brown ground meat in your skillet, or if using meat bones, put the meat in your cast iron skillet and cover with water. Let it simmer, covered, for an hour or so till tender. Then split the bones apart and scrape and cut the meat off them.

1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 4 ounce can tomato paste
1 clove crushed garlic or 2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon basil
2 beef bouillon cubes

Simmering Sauce

Pour the sauce ingredients into the skillet that you simmered the meat in, leaving the water that it was boiled in and heat. Then add the meat and simmer for an hour or more. The longer it simmers the better it gets. If you are using ground meat, drain the grease off first. If you want to get more grease off, rinse the meat with water and drain or pat dry with a paper towel. I only do that if the ground meat is really greasy.

Mixing Cottage Cheese With Seasonings & Eggs

While the sauce is simmering, mix the following ingredients in a bowl:

4 cups cottage or ricotta cheese
2 large eggs, beaten
¼ cup Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons parsley
½ teaspoon salt
Mix all together and set aside.

Zucchini Replaces Pasta Wonderfully!

1 -2 zucchini sliced, this again, can be whatever vegetable you want and how much you want
3-6 cups of grated cheese, such as Mozzarella, Cheddar (what I use), whatever you like

Put the sauce in bottom of the pan and then a layer of zucchini slices. I use a cast iron frying pan and I will be cooking this on an open fire. It can be baked in an oven.

Cover that layer with sauce, add a layer of the soft cheese mixture, then shredded cheese.

Add another layer of zucchini, more sauce, a layer of soft cheese and shredded cheese I only did two layers because of the size of my pan, but three layers would be good. You may have to increase the amounts of the other ingredients depending on your pan size.

It really doesn't matter what order you put your layers in, though you do want to end up with sauce on top and shredded cheese on top of that.

If you are baking this in your oven then cover lightly with aluminum foil and bake at 350 F for 45 minutes (serves 8).

Bubbling Nicely!

If cooking on a open fire like we did, make sure you made it in a large cast iron skillet or Dutch oven. 

Cast Iron Cooking On A Open Fire!

My Dutch over is not large enough for this. Then cover it with another large cast iron skillet, lid or aluminum foil. Place it on the coals and let cook undisturbed. Remember when cooking over an open fire you have to keep an eye on it or the bottom can become charred. Mine did, but this is the way my husband likes it. I am lucky as this way if I burn something I can say I did it on purpose for him. One of my wifely tricks.........

Finished!

Now is the time everyone can dig it! You can adjust this recipe any way you want. In fact, use your own recipe for lasagna and use noodles...........we do try not to eat white flour or processed foods, so the replacement of vegetables from the garden for those store bought products is not only frugal, but healthy!

Enjoy!

Cooking outside makes meal time so much easier in the summer time. Since I do most of my cooking on a wood cook stove, this give me a break. My husband watches the food cooking outside for me. I just have to prepare it and clean up. I can clean up a bit, while it is cooking. Keeps the house cooler too, especially when it is hot and humid. 

Copyright © 2010 Kathleen G. Lupole
All Photographs Copyright © 2010 Kathleen G. Lupole
Updated 2015

My Favorite Squash Casserole!

This Can't Be Squash Casserole!

This is one of my favorite recipes. I don't always follow this recipe if I don't have or can't find the right ingredients. So you don't have to follow it exactly, it is just a basic recipe that you can add something here or take out something there. That's the kind of recipes I like. For our family reunion I had to make it with broccoli as none of my stores had summer squash or zucchini available. I leave out the onions and use the cream of chicken soup. My husband doesn't like either.

This Can't be Squash Casserole

4 pounds yellow squash, cooked with salt,

well drained, mashed

1/2 stick butter or margarine

1 medium onion, chopped

1 cup bread crumbs, (seasoned

preferred, but not necessary)

1 can cream of mushroom, celery or chicken soup

2/3 soup can milk

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup Cheddar cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

Cook the onion in the butter just till tender. Combine all ingredients until well mixed. Spray 9 x 13-inch pan with nonstick spray, spread mixture evenly in pan. * (Can be covered and refrigerated several hours or overnight at this point.)

Bake uncovered, in 350 to 375 degrees F* oven until lightly browned on edges and bubbly, about 45 minutes to an hour.

Cooking Over An Open Fire!

Today since I had so much zucchini in the garden, I made the casserole with two big ones and it was great. I cooked it outside over the open fire that my husband built, as soon as he heard me say I'd make that it, if it wasn't so hot to use the oven. So I put it in my cast iron chicken fryer and that worked great over the fire. I wanted to add here that the recipe called for baking it uncovered in the oven, I baked it covered over the open fire. It worked.

Took the lid off to show how it was browning nicely!

We like to cook outside over an open fire anytime. Winter or summer. It keeps our kitchen cooler, even though it definitely is not cooler today. I love to use my cast iron cookware on the open fire as it is very good for cleaning the outside of the cookware by being in the fire. Besides it has that good flavor of the wood fire smoke added to it. Very tasty! Next time I need to make two with these two hungry men here!

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole
Photographs © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole