Meatless Lasagna, French Bread and Homemade Twix Bars

I'm beginning to think that I have some sort of sick compulsion to upset my kids, because I served a meal with ricotta for dinner last night AGAIN.  The fits that were thrown were epic, they will go down in our family history as The Great Ricotta Tantrum of 2011.  The problem is, I really love ricotta, and lets face it, I'm a selfish person.  So last night I made a meatless lasagna.  I just played around with my regular lasagna recipe and added some veggies to it that I thought my kids wouldn't mind eating.  Boy, was I wrong!!  My husband and I loved it, but the kids kept saying things like "What's this green leaf?"  "Are there tomato chunks?  I see tomato chunks!!!"  "What are those green things?"  and the ever popular, "Where's the meat?"  Kids, I am so, so sorry that I am trying to cut meat out of our meals ONE DAY A WEEK.  That's it, one day.  Give me a break!  Thank goodness they like bread, they inhaled it once it came out of the oven!  I bribed them into eating half of their lasagna by telling them they couldn't have any dessert unless they did.  As soon as I said that they started eating away, because our dessert was incredible.  Homemade.  Twix.  Bars.   Yes, you heard right.  I'm not going to lie and tell you they come together in a snap, because they're a TAD time consuming, but worth every minute.

Meatless Lasagna

Ingredients:

3 tbsp. butter

1 cup grated carrots (about 4)

1 cup frozen spinach, thawed

1 bell pepper, finely diced

Minced onion (I have a hate/hate relationship with onion so I don't add this, add however much you want)

You can add any other veggies you want!

2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 (28 oz.) crushed tomatoes
2 (6 oz.) cans tomato paste
2 (6.5 oz.) cans tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp. white sugar
1 1 /2 tsp. dried basil leaves
1/2 tsp. fennel seeds

1 tsp. Italian seasoning

1 tbsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
4 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
12 lasagna noodles
15 oz. ricotta cheese

1 egg

1/2 tsp. salt
3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Melt butter in pan.  Add vegetables and saute until soft.   Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce and water.  Season with sugar, basil, fennel seeds, Italian seasoning, 1 tbsp. salt, pepper and 2 tbsp. parsley.  Simmer, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil.  Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes.  Drain noodles, and rinse with cold water.  (or you could skip this whole step and use the no boil noodles, do it, for the love of everything easy, DO IT).  In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg, remaining parsley, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

To assemble, spread 1 1/2 cups of sauce in bottom of a 9x13 inch baking pan.  Arrange 6 noodles lengthwise over sauce.  Spread with one half of the ricotta mixture.  Top with a third of the mozzarella cheese.  Spool 1 1 /2 cups of sauce over mozzarella and sprinkle with 1/4 cup Parmesan.  Repeat layers, and top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.  Cover with foil.

Bake for 25 minutes.  Remove foil and bake an additional 25 minutes.  Let cool for 15 minutes before serving.

(Disclosure:  the bread is supposed to rise for 1 hour, I was impatient and only let it go 15 minutes, hence the small loaf)

I love this recipe.  It makes 2 big loaves of bread and you mix it all in one bowl.  It's so easy.  I use this cool pan to cook the loaves in, but you also can just use a baking sheet.

French Bread

Recipe courtesy of Denise Giles

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups warm water

2 tsp. sugar

2 pkg. yeast

1 tbsp. salt

2 tbsp. cooking oil

6 cups flour

Directions:

Important - use a silver metal bowl and wooden spoon!!!!

Put yeast and sugar in bowl and stir.  Pour warm water over and let stand 5 minutes until it's all bubbly.  Add salt, oil and 1 cup of flour.  Mix together.  Stir in remaining flour.  Leave spoon in bowl and cover with a towel.  Let it rest for 10 minutes.  Stir again.  Repeat this 3 times.

Put dough on floured surface, knead very little.  Divide dough in half.  Roll into a rectangle, then roll it up.  Tuck in the ends.  Lift it up and slam it down on the counter to get the air out (also this makes you look really cool and like you know your way around the kitchen, very impressive to the kids).

Grease cookie sheet and sprinkle with corn meal.  Place bread onto baking sheet or your handy dandy french bread pan.  Let rise for 1 hour with towel over.  Cut gashes at angle on top of bread.

Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes.  After removing from oven, put some butter on the top of the bread.

Homemade Twix Bars

Recipe courtesy of Not Without the Salt

Ingredients:

Shortbread
5 1/2 ounces (1 stick plus 3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups cake flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons ground rice (rice processed in a spice grinder until it is able to pass through a fine sieve to remove chunks)* (I DID NOT ADD THE RICE - Kathee)
Make the Shortbread:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 9-X-13-inch baking pan with pan spray and line with parchment paper. Spray the parchment.
In a large bowl  cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Gradually add the flour, ground rice and salt and allow the dough to come together. The dough will be crumbly but should hold together when you squeeze it.
Press the dough evenly into the bottom of the baking pan. Place in the oven and bake for 12 minutes. Rotate the pan from front to back and bake for another 10 minutes, until the shortbread is a deep golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a rack to room temperature.

Meanwhile, prepare the ….
Caramel
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/4 teaspoon salt plus more for sprinkling over the caramel layer
Make the Caramel:
Combine the sugar, golden syrup, water, and lemon juice in a large saucepan. Remove any sugar crystals from the sides of the pan by wiping down the sides with water. You can use your hand or a pastry brush. Place the pot on medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Wipe down any stray sugar crystals that appear using a very clean and wet pastry brush. Do not stir from this point on. Keep an eye on the pan. The mixture will be very bubbly.
When the sugar syrup starts to turn golden brown insert a candy thermometer to check the temperature. When it reaches 300°F, remove the pan from the heat and let it sit for 1minute, or until the bubbles subside. Carefully whisk in the heavy cream. Stir until smooth, then whisk in the condensed milk. Add the salt.  Whisk until smooth.
Return the pan to the heat and stir constantly over medium heat until the caramel reaches 240°F. Remove from the heat and pour over the shortbread. While the caramel is warm sprinkle the surface with the best quality salt you have. Kosher is fine, Fleur de Sel is better, Maldon would be my preferred choice.
Allow to set. This will take about 2 hours.
Once the caramel layer has cooled prepare your …
Chocolate Glaze
6 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (Bittersweet chocolate chips also work)(I USED SEMISWEET BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT I HAD ON HAND - Kathee)
2 tablespoons butter
Melt the chocolate and butter over a bain marie or in the microwave. If using the microwave melt it slowly – in 30 second intervals. Stir well after each interval.

Once completely melted pour over the caramel.  Using an offset spatula, smooth the chocolate in a nice even layer.

Place in the refrigerator to set. They cut best when chilled.

Cut into desired shape and size. Serve.