You've Never Had Lasagne!!!

We were walking around the supermarket last week. Getting all our weekly groceries when we stopped upon the fresh ready meals. I was quite in the mood for a curry for tea but really wasn't in the cooking mood so was thinking of just buying one. Well Simon doesn't like curry so he was looking for something else. 

Hotpot, shepherds pie and then lasagne. 'I've never had lasagne before' I heard from my husband. What?! You've never had lasagne before?! How? Why?

Simon explained that because his mum didn't like pasta, they never had it and so he's never tried lasagne. He didn't even know what was in it. I was gob smacked and so took it upon myself to get all the ingredients and make my own to show him how nice they can be. 

Now before you start thinking that this is gunna be a work of art recipe, all home made, it's not. No I didn't make the red or white sauces and no I didn't mince the beef myself but I added the flavours, the oomph and the love. 

Note: We were in Asda at the time which is why it's all their products

As you can see in the picture, these are all the ingredients I used. Making home made food doesn't have to mean cooking from scratch, it can be adding your own spices, your own flavourings and doing your own take on dishes. 

A lasagne may look hard to make but it's actually quite simple. Just follow these simple steps and your done.

1. Fry the mince on a medium heat until browned and then drain off excess grease.  

2. Pour the red sauce into a bowl and add the cooked mince. At this point you can add any extras you want to. We went for finely chopped onions, mushrooms and peppers (orange peppers - read my tip at the bottom of this post) and mix together.  

3. The pasta sheets need boiling to soften. We went for fresh pasta sheets so they only needed a few minutes. Dried pasta will need longer.  

4. Now this is where we layer it up. Start by putting a big spoonful of the mince mixture into an oven dish and spread it out.  You then add a pasta sheet over the top of the mince and then a small layer of white sauce.  Keep layering it up in this order until the oven dish is nearly full and the white sauce is at the top.  

5. Finish with a sprinkle of grated cheese and place in the oven on about 180c for about 40 minutes, until the top has gone golden brown.  

6. Serve with seasonal veg or any you happen to get you hands on. This time we went for peas, carrots, sweetcorn and new potatoes.  

That's it! Lasagne made simple.  

I must admit that for my first ever attempt at lasagne, it was pretty darn good. Even the ever fussy Simon, my husband, enjoyed it and it will definitely be on our dinner table again.



Tip
Orange peppers are always supplied in the pack of three traffic light peppers pack but most of the time these are thrown away due to people not liking their taste. Did you know that orange peppers contain only 30 calories and 0 fat. They also contain 190% of the daily recommended intake of vitamin C, 2g of fibre in each one and are full of antioxidants. They are in fact the best peppers you can get. Dishes like this are a great way to slip in orange peppers as the taste is not so prominent when mixed with everything else.