Throwdown - Pioneer Style

Yesterday was a good day to be in Norman, OK. Pioneer Woman spoke about being active in the media world to OU students and alumni and I had the pleasure of seeing her in person. I already felt like I knew her via her blog and I've cooked so many of her delicious buttery recipes. I got a good look at the cool boots she's giving away too so keeping the fingers crossed...

After Ree finished speaking I rushed home to get the Best Lasagna Ever started (after seeing a glowing recommendation for this lasaga on Tuesday on She Likes Purple I stocked up on the ingredients on the way home to make on Wednesday). I only made a few changes due to time constraints and the fact that I have 3 kiddos who may not like it too spicy.

I substituted Italian style sausage for the hot breakfast sausage (it was easy because the Italian style sausage was right there next to the hot stuff); I didn't cook the noodles ahead of time; I used fresh Italian parsley and I cut down the sauce simmer time to 25 minutes from 45 minutes. I was tempted to use ricotta cheese vice cottage cheese (for authenticity) but I stuck with the cottage cheese and have no regrets. It was much cheaper and the cheese didn't TASTE like cottage cheese (not that I would have minded) in the cooked lasagna.

It worked out very well because my kiddos were circling the kitchen as I was assembling the lasagna and asking when dinner was going to be ready. I let them sop of some of the meat sauce with some bread to stave off hunger pangs and THAT was delish ... like Italian sloppy joes...

Later on we watched Ree put a hurt on Bobby Flay on Throwdown and that was very inspiring for me for the next week's meals... yum!