Welcome to our side of the fence: Saturday 5/01/10

I've been wanting to try out this recipe for what seems like ages. I thought it sounded so yummy! I wasn't aware of how much time it would take to make this though. It is VERY time consuming, but so worth it. I'll do a little better next time with prepping my stuff. I'm sure me snapping pictures almost every step of the way didn't help either. :D I realized that I forgot to take pictures of some steps, but they were simple steps that I'm sure you'll understand what to do. I wanted to hurry up and get this one posted so you all can try it out. I've had several people ask me for this recipe over the past few days. I have already given it to several people who've loved it. So...without further hesitation...here it is!

The line up for these characters are:

*12 uncooked lasagna noodles

*1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

*2 cloves garlic, minced (I used 1 tsp crushed garlic from a jar)

*1/2 cup flour

*1 tsp salt

*2 cups half and half cream

*2 cups chicken stock (I used chicken broth from a can)

*2 cups (8oz) shredded mozarella cheese

*1 cup grated parmesan cheese

*1 small onion, minced

*2 cups ricotta cheese

*2 cups diced cooked chicken

*2 pkgs (10oz each) frozen chopped spinach, thawed drained

**PREHEAT YOUR OVEN TO 350 DEGREES

Cook noodles according to package directions. I cooked mine for only about 8 minutes (al dente). I didn't want them mushy when it was all said and done.

Drain noodles and set them aside

*While cooking your noodles, you should be cooking your chicken breasts (if using fresh ones). I broiled mine in the oven for 4-5 minutes on each side (depends upon how big and thick they are). I seasoned them with a little salt and pepper. Sorry, this was one picture I forgot to take.

**Making the cheese sauce:

Take your stick of butter

Put it in a LARGE sauce pan to melt. When I say LARGE...I mean it! I had to transfer my sauce to another pot because I ran out of room!

When your butter is completely melted, you can add other ingredients...

Add 2 cloves of garlic. I didn't have any cloves. I had crushed garlic in a jar. I ended up using 1 tsp of it. You can use as much or as little as you'd like. You could probably even use garlic powder here too.

Add 1 tsp salt

and a 1/2 cup flour to the mixture

Cook until bubbly. Heat until boiling.

Next, remove from heat. Stir in 2 cups of half and half

And 2 cups of chicken stock (I used cans of chicken broth that worked well too)

Heat until boiling. Stir and boil 1 minute. (Jack was sweet and did this part for me). He heated it up slowly so it wouldn't stick to the pot and burn.

Then add 2 cups (8 oz) of Mozzarella cheese

Me adding mozzarella while Jack stirs. You didn't think I was hiding a third hand somewhere, did ya? I sure could use one sometimes! I needed one hand to take pictures!

Add 1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Adding parmesan cheese

And add your onion. I couldn't use as much as this recipe called for. When I came towards Jack with these, you should've seen how BIG his eyes got! He said, "WOW. That's A LOT of onion. Are you seriously gonna put THAT much in there?" I told him, "Of course not." I really didn't think it was all that much, but considering Jack, who's NOT an onion person. Heaven help me. I might have to break out my onion antidote if he were to eat one...lol.

Bring all ingredients to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Stir constantly until cheese melts. Remove from heat.

**You'll have to forgive me. I forgot to take a picture of the finished cheese sauce. I had a small taste of it and I forgot all about picture taking. All I can say is...WOW. Man that's good! That would be great on some fetticini or something. YUMMY!!

Spread 1/4 of the cheese sauce in the bottom of a lasagna pan or a 13 x 9 inch baking pan. Jack figured out that a 1/4 of the sauce was equivalent to roughly 1 1/4 cups. This measurement worked for this recipe.

Layer 3-4 noodles on top of the cheese sauce. I used 4 noodles for each layer.

Take 1 cup of the ricotta cheese

and spread it over your layer of noodles

**then after this, you need to add another 1/4 of your cheese sauce over the ricotta cheese, then add another layer of noodles on top of that. Then use the remaining 1 cup of the ricotta cheese to spread on top of the noodles here as well. Again, I was in a hurry because this was taking such a long time. I was trying to get this done and forgot to snap a few pictures. Sorry.

Next, layer all the chicken

and all the spinach (I thought 20 oz of spinach was too much for this recipe. Neither Jack or I are huge fans of spinach. I only used MAYBE half of what this recipe called for.)

Then add 1/4 of the cheese sauce on top the spinach. Remember...1/4th of the cheese sauce = 1 1/4 cups.

Finish with remaining noodles, remaining cheese sauce

Take a 1/2 cup of the grated parmesan cheese

And sprinkle it over the top of your cheese sauce

VOILA! Man, this thing was HEAVY!

Cover dish with aluminum foil. Cook in preheated oven for 35-40 minutes. Turn off heat. Let stand in oven without opening the door for 15 minutes more. Remove from oven and let stand WITH foil still on for 5 additional minutes. Remove foil before serving.

I even found a little extra time to get a smooch from this adorable little man. Ahhh...he makes my heart go pitter patter. :)

This is what it looked like TOTALLY finished...PHEW! We were so hungry after all that, we dug in before I remembered to take a picture! We didn't get to eat until 7:30pm. That's late for us. We had to fix the kids something else to eat because they couldn't wait. That IS a long time for a kid to wait to eat.

After Jack took his first bite, his eyes got real big and he made a funny face. I asked him what was wrong? Did it taste bad? He said, "I bit into an onion." OMG. I thought I was gonna have to get my onion antidote out again...lol. Lucky for him, it was a SMALL piece of onion. Lucky for me, he survived this tragic ordeal. He said the spinach didn't bother him as much as the onions. I didn't taste the onions, but I hafta remember...I'm not "allergic" to them! Jack admitted to me later that he really liked this recipe. He said if I could cut up the onions smaller next time, it would be perfect. That says a lot coming from him!