Lasagne lunch

We went to see some friends last night and made sushi. I'm so annoyed - I didn't take my camera and they'd left theirs at work so I've got no photographic evidence. It was really fun - we made california rolls with salmon, tuna, avocado and fish sticks and sesame covered ones with the rice on the outside as well as nigiri and dipped the lot in soy sauce and a pretty vicious wasabi. We were pretty full after our sushi and a couple of spring rolls, but it was just the starter, and then we had noodles in home-made black bean sauce with scallops and prawns (fabulous - my two favourite shellfish). Then, although we were really stuffed, we all managed a bit of homemade treacle pudding with cream. We practically rolled home, our stomachs groaning, but it was such wonderful food we couldn't help but find our eyes were bigger than our bellies.

Anyway there was no need for breakfast this morning, but we had a friend coming round for lunch so by 12.30 I had to face the food. I cooked lasagne again as it seemed an easy option and we had it with salad with a mustard and garlic dressing and a bottle of fruity red wine. I'd made some more chocolate cakes on saturday to take to our friends so they did for pudding.

Homemade lasagne

It's strange but I don't think I've ever made lasagne before. I think it's mainly because I'm too greedy when I'm making a meat sauce like bolognese and I want to eat it with spaghetti or something quick. And I do love a good spaghetti bolognese.

But tonight I fancied making lasagne, so I went out and bought some Sainsbury's organic (no need to precook) lasagne sheets. I made a big bolognese with a kilo of beef and the usual veg, the rest of pack of bacon, red wine and a couple of 'secret' ingredients (worcestershire sauce, a dash of balsamic vinegar, tabasco, a few crushed chillis, a bouquet garni) - everyone has their own special bolognese recipe, I suppose, and mine varies slightly with my mood. Anyway, I added some parmesan to the white sauce to give it a cheesy edge and layered it up with the pasta (dipped into some hot water first to give it a head start) and the meat mixture then let it bubble with some parmesan on the top for extra browning.

Happily, it worked brilliantly and wasn't half as much effort after the meat stage as I thought it might have been before I started. There's something about lasagne that's so comforting so I'm sure I'll make it again soon. In the meantime I've got three pots of bolognese to freeze for quick suppers.

M&S lasagne with tenderstem brocolli

As I mentioned in my last post, we were going away for the weekend... we'd planned to arrive at the seaside late on Friday night so I wanted to get a fast, filling meal that we could just shove in the oven when we got there. Things didn't go to plan and we ended up getting to the coast on Saturday morning so this was our lunch - M&S lasagne with tenderstem broccoli. The lasagne was good for a shop-bought version, but of course homemade is much better. The broccoli was great - much better than the boring usual version as I really like the slightly crunchy stems and sweet flavour. It did the job and filled us up so we were ready for our afternoon's work...