Cheesy Lasagna & Garlic Stix!

Well I just finished adding up what I spent on the lasagna. $40.53 for 4 pans! Ouch!! You see now I remember why people just grab what is packaged at the store. Time and convenience and sometimes it isn't much cheaper making your own! lol I never look down at others who don't cook from scratch or make their own food cause I used to be in their shoes. Work, home, kids, husband. When you work out of the home, your attention is seriously divided. Those fast food lights are looking brighter and brighter and if you pick up a box of Stouffer's come home and toss it in the oven with a salad and rolls, that is MAKING dinner. haha You are a Queen.

I am blessed now to be able to stay home and take care of my family. I do feel our health has improved with cooking from scratch more often and all the fresher foods. But jee wizz I spent like 6 hours in the kitchen yesterday! Now this is no new feat for me. There are quite a few days a week I am in there for 4-5 hours or so. What I generally try to do is to make up food all at once so that I can have it later. You know, later, when I don't want to be in the kitchen at all. ;)

Here is what I spent.

4 pans of lasagna

2 20 oz packs of sweet italian sausage= $8.00
2 20 oz packs of ground turkey = $4.20
3 lb ricotta cheese = $3.99
2.33 lbs of lasagna noodles = $2.60
5 lbs of mozzarella cheese = $13.99
6 lbs, 6 oz of whole tomatoes = $3.00
10 6 oz cans of tomato paste = $3.33
4 eggs = .40 cents
1 can of Hunts spaghetti sauce = 1.00 = $40.53/ so $10.13 each.

I think next time I need to use 4 lbs of cheese and maybe half the meat! lol Oh well.
It was really good. It fed two adults, two teenagers and 3 other kids and enough for lunch for Joe today.

SO that is what I do. I will take a day when I feel like being in the kitchen, cooking, cleaning, chopping, baking, soaking veggies, etc. I will have a bunch of things I am trying to do at once. I get them done and guess what? If I did a good job I won't have to be in the kitchen the next day except to do the basics like dishes, counter, stove.

So yesterday I decided it was time to make up 4 lasagna's and some garlix stix. I went in at 10:00. I think we ate about 4:00 Now of course I didn't spend the whole time with the lasagna and stix, cause I have 5 kids underfoot and dh. Of course the first thing that happened was the 3 male late breakfast stragglers. I guess they didn't get the memo to eat some cereal and as soon as I hit the kitchen the boys were running in, I am hungry, what are you making? Etc. To their credit they were busy that a.m. cleaning the garage.

So I cut them some h.m. bread, made some eggs and sausage. My girls were supposed to be cleaning their rooms. My eldest dd lied and said her cat box was clean and in the dumpster and when i went to check it was not even done! I threatened to get rid of the cats if her box wasn't cleaned in 15 minutes and she had two days to get her room completely clean. It was awful. It was clean this a.m. :)

Anyways so little interruptions here and there and she eventually came in and grated cheese and chopped up cantaloupe and watermelon and strawberries and apples. Middle dd did not get much done in her room but read alot of good books! I will have to see if I can get a handle on that today. She did come help me with the lasagna & bread stix though.

Now I normally don't use eggs for lasagna but I seen a recipe online where they added eggs to cottage cheese and a little parmesan. It also called for whole tomatoes and tomato paste. I ran low on sauce so that is why i opened a can of hunts sauce. I really liked using the whole tomatoes and tomato paste. I think I need to cut them up a little next time. lol I had a recipe earlier in the year from someone how to make the sauce but I can't find the book I put it in. :( So I did try that. It tasted the same. We ate one and wrapped the other 3 in freezer paper. We also made 3 extra batches of bread stix to freeze as well. I am going to look for another reecipe for those too. They are good. I do like them. But finding that new bread recipe that was even better than the last one makes me think maybe I can find a great recipe for garlic bread. We'll see.

Here are some pictures. I think everyone knows how to make lasagna so I will skip any instructions. ;)Here is my blog about bread stix: Bread Stix

Do you make your own lasagna? Do you buy it from the store? What do you like to do to help with oamc? For pictures of the finished product check out the blog below.