Fall Food Challenge

Recently Pam over at "Helmet or Heels"  issued a Fall Food Challenge:

Quote:  " I thought I’d throw out a challenge to see what Fall food you like too "

While during the Summer we try to eat lighter, Winter time turns our thoughts to things like: Shepard's Pie, Pulled Pork, Spare Ribs or something like this

We had left over Lasagne Noodles from the weekend so I decided to prepare this for dinner.   I picked up a few tins of tomato sauce and a package of lean, ground beef.   I am  an improviser so I just go with the flow and add what I like.    I bought just under 2 lbs of the ground beef .   Brand of tomato sauce is not important, I usually just buy what is on sale or most economic for the size

I love onions so I used my Cuisinart and to cut them into micro pieces.   I first cut both ends of the onion and then removed the outer peel, then cut into smaller sizes before putting into my Cuisinart

I added a splash of oil and cooked the onions a bit on low heat

I am not the cook in our family.  I am more of a baker as that was my hobby many years ago.  It would surprise many to know that all these appliances are mine and I was the one who purchased them.  That is my Kitchen Aid Mixer and beside that is my bread maker.  Yes, I also make bread and cinnamon buns from scratch and my specialty was Cream Puffs in my previous life before I decided to go riding on Saturdays, rather than staying in the kitchen

Eventually the onions were ready to receive the lean, ground beef

I kept the heat on medium and kept mixing constantly to make sure it didn't burn on the bottom

I also love tomatoes but I only had one so that's all I used.  I cut it into small cubes

It looked like my ground beef was cooked so it was time to add the tomato sauce

After the sauce was brought up to temperature, I added a second tin

then it was time to add my diced tomatoes .   Now comes the good part, I get to taste test . . .

We decided a long time ago to not use so much salt, but I did add some Garlic granules

I mentioned before that I am not the cook in the family so I didn't know where our larger pans are and all I could find was this small one, so it had to do.  I started to ladle some sauce into the bottom

Then I started to layer my creation with lasagne noodles, alternating with sauce 

Soon enough I had a few layers of lasagne noodles sandwiched with my beef tomato sauce, and I still had sauce left over for lunch

I didn't have any mozzarella so I grated some other cheese that we had in the fridge.

Here is my lasagne, cheese on top ready to go back into the oven.   325° for about 20 minutes, time enough to melt the cheese on top and warm up the filling

Here we are putting my lasagne into our new gas oven




















I set the temp for 325°F and the timer for 20 minutes and just wait for the buzzer

I took today off work and Mrs Skoot arrived home just in time.  Here is what it looks like right out of the oven

Here we are all plated up, ready to have our dinner

I've already had two helpings and we hardly put a dent into the lasagne pan.   We will have enough for another dinner and lunch.

Ingredients:

Lasagne noodles, amount depending on no of layers
2 tins  tomato sauce  
1/2  onion
2 tomatoes, diced (optional)
1-1/2-2 lbs lean ground beef
a small pile of mozzarella cheese, topping
season to taste