I was really happy with the results of this recipe, but a little frustrated with the actual cooking. The noodles stuck together in big clumps and were quite difficult to get apart. And then the clumps cooked much slower than any noodles that did manage to stay separate. I don't know if the problem was my noodles, the way I broke them up, or the fact that my sauce was already boiling by the time I added them, but it was quite annoying! I think next time I'd try using a bag of the small "lasagna" noodles instead to see if that helped at all. Still... I can't argue with the results. This was excellent!

Skillet Lasagna

Slightly adapted from Budget Byte$

Ingredients

• 250g sausage meat¹
• 2-3 tsp. garlic paste
• 650-700mL tomato pasta sauce²
• 1-2 c. water
• 1/2 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 9 lasagna noodles, broken into 5cm pieces
• 1 c. ricotta cheese³
• 1/4 c. grated Parmesan
• 1 large egg (optional)⁴
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/2-3/4 c. grated mozzarella (or other melty cheese)

Directions

1. Cook the sausage over medium heat, breaking it up as it cooks.
2. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or two.
3. Add the pasta sauce, 1 c. of water, and Italian seasoning and stir to combine.
4. Add the noodles, being careful to make sure they don't clump.
5. Cover pan and bring to a boil.
6. Stir, reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until noodles are almost tender (~12 minutes), adding more water as needed to keep sauce moist.
7. Meanwhile, combine ricotta, Parmesan, egg, and a little salt and pepper and mix well.
8. Stir the pasta again, adding a little more water if necessary.
9. Dollop the ricotta mixture on top, cover, and simmer until heated through (~5 minutes).
10. Sprinkle with mozzarella and place under broiler until cheese is melty and lightly browned (2-3 minutes).

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¹ I only used 125g of sausage for my rendition because I was tossing in ~400g of homemade bolognese along with the 420mL of canned pasta sauce. ^Back
2 My can of pasta sauce was only 420mL so I added ~400g of frozen bolognese that we had in the fridge. I know that adds up to more that adds up to more than 700mL (if you assume that the sauce is mostly water and thus you can use weight to estimate volume), but since the bolognese had a bunch of meat in it, I figured it was less... saucy than plain pasta sauce, so I probably worked out about right for the sauce volume. And the extra meat in the sauce helped to make up for the paucity of sausage since I didn't have the full 250g on hand for this. ^Back
3 I think you could probably get away with using less ricotta than this, but I didn't want to have a partial tub left over so I just followed the recipe an used it all. ^Back
4 The original recipe didn't call for an egg, but the ricotta mixture was too thick to dollop easily and I usually add an egg to my "traditional" lasagna, so I tossed one in. ^Back

I found some short-dated cream on sale and got excited about the chance to make another lemon dessert. As usual, it's not particularly budget friendly, despite coming from the Budget Byte$ blog and even with the assumption of free lemons. Beth figured it would cost just over $4 to make this pie. With lemons accounting for just over $1.50 of that cost. I figured it costs just over $9 to make here (assuming full-price cream, but zero-cost lemons). So, I mean, I guess it's still pretty good when compared to the cost of buying a dessert at a bakery or restaurant, I'm just always a bit shocked at the delta between her prices and ours.

Lemon Cream Pie

Slightly adapted from Budget Byte$

Ingredients

Crust

• 2 c. vanilla wafer crumbs
• 2 Tbsp. sugar
• 90g butter, melted

Filling

• 1 can (~400mL) sweetened condensed milk
• 1 Tbsp. lemon zest
• 1/2 c. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 250-300mL heavy (35%) cream

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Combine the cookie crumbs, sugar, and butter and mix well.
3. Press into a 23cm (9") pie plate.
4. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 10 minutes.
5. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
6. Combine the sweetened condensed milk, lemon zest, and lemon juice.
7. Whip the cream.
8. Stir about half of the cream into the lemon mixture, then fold in the remaining cream.
9. Pour the filling into the cooled pie crust, cover, and chill until set (~2 hours).