Spinach Lasagna Roll-ups and Wuthering Heights {Not necessarily in that order}

This weekend I was in the mood to make something delicious, filled with gooey cheese, and comforting. Out here in the wilds of Wyoming we have been encased in fog all day, and it gives me the feeling of being enmeshed within a Wuthering Heights chapter. I look out of the window, and I see the dark, brooding fog that so envelopes the Brontë sisters’ books. This day is definitely a t Brontë type of day, complete with the cotton-candy fog that densely sticks to me. I almost expect Heathcliff to come riding out of the fog on a black stallion.

Wuthering Heights aside, I decided that this was a perfect day to stock the freezer with meals for the week ahead. During the week, I am so busy that it is tough to get good meals cooked–and so I spent the morning cooking up a storm, and filled the freezer with homemade chicken pot pie, beef pot pie, and lasagna roll-ups. Natch.

Here is the recipe I used for the lasagna roll-ups, modified by me.

Gather together all your ingredients. I used ground turkey instead of beef, to keep things a bit healthier. You can also use ricotta cheese instead of cottage–entirely your preference.

After you have gathered together all of your ingredients, boil the lasagna noodles until they are cooked fully through {but not soggy–ick}.

You will also want to cook a nice big bunch of baby spinach to put int your ricotta mixture later. Do not be afraid of cooking too much spinach as it cooks down, a lot. Be lavish with your spinach! Use it up! Be brave! 

 

While the noodles, and the spinach is cooking, go ahead and chop up your onions, and garlic, and cook them in your skillet with a bit of olive oil, until they are golden brown.

 

Check out this enormous garlic I bought at the store! Elephant Garlic. Never heard of such a thing. The cloves are as big as pearl onions. I bought it because I liked the packaging. They always get me, those sneaky advertising-types.

Okay, back to the recipe. After you have cooked your onions, and garlic in the olive oil until they are done, add in your ground beef, turkey, or sausage {whichever you prefer}.

While the meat is browning, drain your noodles, and lay them out flat on cookie sheets. Even though you are very busy, do not let them cool in the collander for long, because they will begin sticking together, and will be near impossible to pry apart, and lay out flat like this. How do I know this? Well, let us just say that there is a reason that some of the noodles look like they were savagely torn apart by a red-faced woman muttering to herself all the while.

After you have lined up all the noodles on cookie sheets, check on your meat, and when it is done, drain the fat out of it, and then add in your can of tomatoes, tomato paste, salt, pepper, and parsley.

Stir all of that deliciousness together, and then cover it, and let it simmer for thirty minutes.

While it is simmering, combine your cottage or ricotta cheese, parmesan, two eggs, parsley, salt and pepper.

Then, take your spinach {remember when we started cooking that way back when?}, and add that to your cheese mixture.

 

When the sauce is done, you will be ready to start assembling your roll-ups! Grease a 9 x 13 inch pan with cooking spray, or a bit of olive oil, and spread a small amount of sauce in the bottom of it. Then grab a helper or two. This is a fun job that young kids would enjoy helping with.

Take one noodle at a time, and put a few spoonfuls of the cheese mixture into it, and then roll it up loosely. Just embrace the messiness. There is no way to be neat, and precise about this step so just go with it!

Place the rolls of lasagna in the pan side by side, and be sure that you spread that bit of sauce in the bottom of the pan for extra goodness!

I fit sixteen in a 9 x 13 inch pan, and I still had a bit of extra room so I made a long, burrito-type of roll at the end. Doesn’t it look delicious?

Spread the meat sauce on top of the noodle roll-ups.

And then cover that dish with oodles of shredded mozzarella, and Parmesan cheese. Oh, yes.

Then you can pop that dish into the oven right away, or freeze it. I stuck mine straight into the freezer, and included the handy-dandy directions on the top {because I know I will not want to look it up in a week or so}.

There you have it, a delicious, and healthy lasagne in your freezer! And I made all of that in under an hour. So grab your noodles, turkey, and tomatoes–and start cooking!