Thanksgiving Dinner Lasagna

I’m on a roll, creating new meals with lasagna noodles. Tonight’s is a variation of Thanksgiving Dinner all combined into an easy and delicious noodle dish. Using vegetable broth instead of chicken or turkey, would make this a great vegetarian dish.

Ingredients:

• One box no boil lasagna noodles- I used a 9X9 pan so only needed half a box
• 1 sweet potato- peeled and cooked -I cooked mine in the microwave
• Teaspoon minced garlic
• 4 ounces cream cheese
• one can chicken or turkey broth
• one can cream of mushroom soup
• One jar turkey gravy
• One box stove top turkey or chicken stuffing, Prepare as directed but use broth in place of water
• 1 can cranberry sauce (I used about 3/4 of a can)

1. Mix 1/2 cup broth, jar of gravy and can of soup. Set aside.
2. Mash sweet potato with cream cheese and garlic in a food processor or mixer. Set aside.
3. Open the can of cranberry sauce.
4. Pour small amount of soup mixture into a 9” square pan or 9X 13” pan. Set down a layer of noodles. Add a layer of the stuffing, sweet potato mixture, and top with 1/3 of the cranberry sauce. Pour broth mixture over it. Repeat several times until you run out of ingredients. As these were thick ingredients, I think I made four layers when I ran out and reached the top of the casserole dish.
5. Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Let cool for fifteen minutes to firm it up.

I didn’t have enough liquid so my top layer of noodles didn’t soften.  I removed the noodles before taking the picture. I think it’s actually tastier without the noodles as the final layer. Make sure you use foil though so it doesn’t dry up.

Twice Baked Mexican Casserole

Here is another quick and easy meal, perfect for weeknight or weekend dinners.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Ingredients:

• 1 batch cooked cornbread. I used a box of Jiffy mix, baked in a bread pan, but you could buy it already prepared.
• 1 cup salsa divided in half.
• 1 can fat free refried beans
• about 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 3/4 cup beef broth

In small bowl, mix broth, 1/2 cup salsa, and refried beans

Crumbled  1/3 of the cooked cornbread into the bottom of a 9″ casserole dish. Add a layer of 1/2 the bean mixture. top with 1/3 shredded cheese. Another layer of 1/3 crumbled bread, then 2nd half of bean mixture, then 1/3 cheese.

Final layer will be last 3rd of crumbled bread, remaining remaining salsa, last third of cheese.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and blended together. Serve warm plain or with sour cream.

Enjoy!

-Tracy

Autumn Lasagna

Autumn Lasagna

Ingredients

• One box non cook lasagna noodles
• One large onion diced
• Butter to cook onion
• 3 sweet potatoes
• Teaspoon minced garlic
• 4 ounces cream cheese
• one can chicken broth
• one can cream of mushroom soup
• teaspoon of salt
• ½ cup Marsala wine
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• about 3 tbl hot Saigon Sizzle Stir Fry sauce

 

1. Mix broth and soup, wine, lemon juice, and Stir Fry sauce in a pan and heat through.
2. Cook sweet potatoes (I did it in the microwave). Peel them and place in food processor, with cream cheese, salt, and garlic. Whip together.
3. Pour small amount of soup mixture into a 9” square pan or 9X 13” pan. Set down a layer of noodles. Add a layer of the potato mixture, and top with onions. Pour broth mixture over it. Repeat several times until you run out of ingredients.
4. Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Let cool for fifteen minutes to firm it up.

 

 

Newest Sale-Cellar Door Anthology

I was recently asked to submit a story for an anthology called Cellar Door : Words of Beauty, Tales of Terror, edited by Shawna L. Bernard.  The submissions requirements asked that the story (or poem, or photograph) involve a cellar door. I instantly thought of a story I’d written years before, entitled, “Visions of a New York Loft.” This is one of my favorite stories. It’s an intense, claustrophobic tale of a woman trapped in her home by her husband.

Though this story is one of my favorites, I’d never found the right home for it. I know it was a good and psychologically disturbing story, but no one else’s guidelines ever fit. I submitted it to the editor Shawna L. Bernard, and her acceptance was almost immediate. It was PERFECT for the anthology, she wrote.

This experience is a good lesson for any writer. Often I write stories from my heart, without a market in mind. I’ve sat on stories for years waiting for just the right place to send them. The same holds true for partial stories. Often I have started a story, only to give up on it after a page or two so. When that happens, I save the stories in a folder called, “WIP.” More often than not, I later hear about a call for stories,  and dig through that folder. Next thing, I have a story starter.

The Cellar Door Anthology is a beautiful collection described as, “Cellar Door… Linguists call it the most beautiful phrase in the English language based solely on the way it sounds. But as you can imagine, what it represents may be something far more sinister. In a spectacular display of poetry, artwork, fiction, and photography, the talent of fifty contributors is showcased within these pages. Voices from behind cellar doors all over the world come together in unison to whisper in your ear…can you hear them? Are they knocking on your cellar door? Edited by Shawna L. Bernard, each piece in this anthology has a beautiful title intrinsically connected to the tale that follows, and a door will be the common theme which connects the widely varied styles, genres, and stories told. Will you take your chances and find what’s lurking behind your cellar door?”

Pick up your copy HERE, at the new discounted price.

Tracy

For more fiction by Tracy, please visit her AMAZON PAGE.