Bargainy

Look up there!  I've made up a word!  A word that means "sometimes you can make wonderful things for much cheaper than you can buy them!" 

I experimented in the BARGAINY creation of granola yesterday, after electing not to spend $3.50 for about 12 ounces of super plain granola.  Since I have a tree nut allergy it's difficult for me to find granola I can eat, anyway, and making my own seemed like a logical leap. 

So I purchased some ingredients, and decided I'd wing it.

I got:
1 large container of regular oats ($2.47)
Flake coconut ($1.72)
Wheat germ ($3.50)

and from the bulk bins:
Salted, roasted sunflower kernels (.84 lb for $1.60)
Soy nuts (.33 lb for $0.43)
Sesame seeds (.20 lb for $0.57)
Dried cranberries (.73 lb for $2.74)

And I already had on hand:
olive oil
brown sugar
maple syrup
honey

I'll calculate the actual cost of the granola a little later, since I didn't use all of each of the ingredients.

I did consult a few recipes before I jumped in, but I didn't follow any recipe to the letter.

First, I mixed up the dry ingredients. In my case it was oats, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, soy nuts, coconut, and wheat germ.

What I deduced here is that ingredients, and even proportions here don't really matter. Add things you think you'd like to eat. Make it sweeter or less sweet depending on your preference. It's fun! :)



Nice and Mixy!



Now for the wet part. Or as my mom would call it "something to stick it together". Every meal needs to stick together. Didn't you know this? Well my mom knows it and utilizes this method!

In the sticky department I've used about 1/4-ish cup of olive oil, 1/2-ish cup of brown sugar and 1/4-ish cup of real maple syrup. I threw about a 1/2 teaspoon of salt in this step, too.

Again, I don't think that what you use here matters that much. You can skip the syrup if you don't have it or don't like it. You could use any kind of oil and any kind of sugar. Or no sugar if you're a lumberjack or something.

I mixed those up in a little bowl, kind of like I would do for a salad dressing.



See? Looks like dressing, right? Well, sort of.



Then, I drizzled the wet mixture over the dry mixture, thusly:



It covered the top pretty much completely.

Then just a little stirring and I came out with a concoction that kind of stuck to my spoon. The spoon sticking told me that my wet-to-dry ratio was working. If it seems to dry you can always drizzle a little more of something on there to get it where you want it.



Then I spread it out on a cookie sheet, or in my case, two cookie sheets. I made a mistake here, that I wouldn't fully understand until I was finished with the whole batch. See if you can figure it out before I tell you.



A little drizzle over the top of each pan with some honey



and then into the oven the pans went. The temp was set to 250 degrees.



(The two pans, that are not the same, and also are different)



I set the timer for 15 minutes, every 15 minutes. When the timer beeped I stirred the granola and reset the timer. It was like a little dance I did.

Alton Brown's granola recipe recommended 1 hour and 15 minutes of baking, stirring every 15 minutes, so that's what I did.

When it was about ready, I took the two pans out and saw something I didn't see when they were in the funny colored oven light.

Looks like the darker pan I used cooked the granola a weence faster. One pan was a bit . . . shall we say . . . caramelized.



When we burn things in this family it takes a quorum of family members to decide what to do. So, as if there was nothing else to be done, the four of us stood around the stove top nibbling semi-burnt granola. We mostly agreed it still tasted ok. But we had to taste it some more.

And yeah, we definitely agreed, it's edible.

So I went ahead and mixed the two pans together, along with the dried cranberries I bought, and ta da! We have a finished product!



And just to be completely sure, my son and I decided we'd make a bowl with some milk, for a REAL taste test. It is quite tasty. Not too sweet, and the combination of soy nuts, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds almost tastes peanut buttery. Kind of yummy. Actually it might be really tasty with a few chocolate chips thrown in.



Ok, math time.
The tiny 12 ounce bag of granola I was going to purchase was $3.50. If you divide that out you get a per ounce price of about 29 cents.

So, was the home made cheaper?

Calculating approximate amounts of the ingredients I used, as well as approximate costs for the ingredients I already had on hand (about 1/4 of the oatmeal, all of the cranberries, just a couple tablespoons of wheat germ, and so on)

I've come up with a total price of $8.57 for my granola.

When it was all finished and bagged up, the bag weighed in at about 3 pounds.

My fancy math machine (calculator) tells me that's about 18 cents per ounce of granola.

But we should discuss something else.

The granola I was going to buy was the most basic of basic granolas. Simple oats and raisins, no nuts or added tasty bits at all. My granola is full of hearty goodness.



I most certainly could have made this cheaper as well, by narrowing the ingredients down a bit.  I could have chosen coconut OR cranberries, for example.

And since I had such success making granola, I spent the whole day today canning my own beans. Sounds totally exciting, right?

File this under: I AM NOT A SHORT ORDER COOK

It was a wise woman who once said, "Oh no, little child! YOU WILL EAT WHAT I MAKE OR YOU WILL NOT EAT AT ALL!"

This wise woman held her ground.  She taught her children to eat everything on their plates, and they never complained, and they never cried, and they never, ever, ever had even a little twinkle of complaint about anything.  It was said, throughout the land, that the wise woman's children were THE BEST children of all.  OF. ALL.

Or wait . . .

Maybe it wasn't quite like that.

This is the story of how I found myself cooking two separate dinners.

Let's go back to July of this year.  My darling 9 year old girl, who loves animals and wants to be a veterinarian, was reading her favorite book.  (HIGHLY RECOMMEND!) When, almost as if she'd had a sudden epiphany, said to me, "Mom, I was just thinking.  If I want to be a veterinarian, I probably shouldn't eat animals.  Vets don't hurt animals, they help them."

Well . . . um . . . but, you see . . .

I had to think for a second.  I reminded her that I buy almost all of our meat organic and talked to her about how organic animals are raised in a more humane way.  I told her that God tells us in the bible that animals were given to us for food.  I told her that I am always careful to choose foods that are farmed in a way that causes the least amount of environmental burden, as well as a better life for the animals.  And then I blabbed some more . . .

Then she stopped me, "Mom, it's not that I think eating meat is wrong, it's that I think that I just don't want to do it."

Faced with a sudden dilemma of choosing between explaining myself unnecessarily further (with the overtly obvious intention to push my child toward my way of thinking) and embracing my daughter's uniqueness I just said, "That's fine if you don't want to eat meat, but you still have to eat healthy."

So over the next couple of days, as she dabbled in vegetarianism, we talked about protein and what foods contain it and how much of it she needs.  And I set down a few ground rules.

1. If you're going to be a vegetarian, you cannot also be a picky eater.  This means you must eat beans, brown rice, Greek yogurt, quinoa and lots of veggies.  You won't subsist on a diet of nothing but cheese pizza and veggie burgers. (as fun as that sounds!)

2. If you're going to be a vegetarian you cannot pout and complain when you go out and there's nothing vegetarian for you to eat.  You have to be flexible.  You might attend a party that provides very few vegetarian options.  When this happens, you can not stomp around and behave as if you are entitled to special food.  Carrot sticks are your friend.  If you're not sure what will be available, you can always pack a sandwich.  (If you have to resort to your packed sandwich, eat it discreetly. Don't stand in front of everyone and bark about how you don't eat meat.)

3. If I am going to be buying specialty foods for you, you're going to eat them.  Greek yogurts cost nearly $1 a piece.  I don't want to be throwing these things away because you took two bites and decided you didn't like it. 

4. The specialty foods I buy are not for your exclusive use.  They are for our family.  You don't decide who eats them or when they are eaten.  I remember a church camp out once with a young boy who was diabetic and would have an incredibly awful tantrum any time any person drank a diet soda.  It's not cute when someone acts like a diva, no matter the reason.

After a few days of dabbling, she made the call.  She wanted to be a vegetarian for sure. 

And here I am 5 months later, still cooking a vegetarian dinner - or a dinner and it's vegetarian cousin - every single night.  All in all, it has been a surprisingly simple adventure.  It's saved us some money (meat is pricy!) and it's probably pushed us toward a few healthier choices.  The lovely lady is very confirmed in her decision.  She hasn't wavered, in the slightest.  She didn't even cheat for salami and cream cheese, or bacon, or bbq'd steaks.

Here's a meal that became a favorite of our family over the past few months.

If you want to make it you'll need:

A package of chicken drumsticks (organic)
Salt, Pepper, Garlic, Cumin, Chili Powder, Paprika, White Pepper and Chipotle Chili Powder
Naan (I got mine at Trader Joes)
Falafel (ours came frozen, also from Trader Joes, you can make it from a box mix or from scratch, if you're ambitious)
Your favorite lettuce
Shelled sunflower seeds
balsamic vinegar
olive oil

and a BBQ grill

I started with a package of chicken drumsticks. About two per meat-eater is perfect for our family.


I sprinkle one side of the meat with salt, pepper, garlic and each of these spices. You can adjust the proportions of spicy spices, to not-spicy spices to make it how you like it.

I like to do one side only, so that it doesn't get too spicy.

Now, throw the chicken on a hot grill. I do spice side up, first. My theory was that the spices would soak into the meat while the other side cooks.


Turn it over when a little bit of blood starts to run out. They will take longer than you think they should, if you're not used to cooking chicken on the bone, on the grill. These probably took about a half hour, total. (allrecipes.com says 10-15 minutes per side, too) (prep the other food while it cooks!)



When the chicken was nearly done, I moved it off the grill



and put the naan on the hot grill.  Naan is from heaven.



You'll know it is finished when it has amazingly delicious grill marks:

Keep it warm by placing it in the oven while you finish everything else up.  If you time it correctly, it should come off right when you are ready to sit and eat.
The brown rice I am serving here is from Trader Joe's and is the easiest thing ever. It comes frozen, and just needs to be microwaved for 3 minutes. Of course, you can make your own.

The falafel is similar. Trader Joes, Microwave. You know the drill. 

The salad is the best trick of all. No one will believe how simple it was!

Wash, dry and tear your lettuce into bite sized pieces.  Put the lettuce in a large salad bowl.  Drizzle with olive oil and toss.  Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and toss again.  Now sprinkle some granulated garlic, a little pepper and a healthy handful of the sunflower seeds.  And toss again.

It's good.  The sunflower seed crunch is magic.

This salad is extra good with cucumber, tomato and avocado, too.

So there it is.



Two different, but the same plates.

Pie Redux + Random things I totally love

You may recall that wonderful looking Caramel Apple Pear Bourbon Pie I made the other night. I say wonderful looking, because it had yet to be tasted, when last I posted. 

Now it is all gone - and I wish that it wasn't.  It was wonderful and delicious.  And that's what you need to know. 

I had some concerns that the pie would be too wet and that maybe the crust would be soggy, but it wasn't.  The excess liquid thickened perfectly.  I highly recommend trying something like this.  Take my idea and play with it or make up your own pie recipe.  Take a restaurant dessert you love and turn it into something you can make at home.  It will most likely be delicious!  Worst case?  You'll learn a little something about cooking!

If you're in to wonderful food
Another amazing dessert we experienced this Christmas came courtesy of my sister who *heart*s Pinterest as much as the rest of us.  She made incredibly wonderful, totally delicious, and mind bogglingly simple Dulce de Leche sauce, ALL BY HERSELF, in the crock pot.  It was exciting to be present when she opened it up and we all saw that a couple cans of sweetened condensed milk, and a crock pot can come together to make magic.  Delicious, wonderful magic.  You can find the recipe HERE, if you're inclined to try it.

Break Time
Now that Christmas is over, the kids and I have a goal.  For our Christmas break we're going to be reading The Invention of Hugo Cabret together. When my kids discovered this book in our very most favorite independent book store EVER, Sundance Books, they brought it to me immediately.  I had seen Martin Scorsese on The Daily Show a couple days before that and he'd commented about how wonderful the book was, and how his kids' love for it led him to direct the movie Hugo.  So I was excited to read the book, right off the bat.

Then I opened it.

And then I cried.

I wish I was exaggerating, but I'm not.  My eyes totally welled up at the extreme level of loveliness that oozes from this book.  You NEED it.  You need it right now.

As soon as we're all done reading it, we'll be going to see Hugo in the theaters!  Hopefully this whole plan will come together nicely by the end of this week.  Can not wait!

Speaking of movie trailers
I have a thing for documentaries.  I watch a lot of them and I can't stop watching them and I can't stop talking about them.  The other day I caught up on new doc trailers.  I am now officially excited to see this movie (kind of seems to be akin to Winebago Man) and the feel-warm-and-squishy-all-over trailer makes me excited to see this one, too.  Both have already been released, but since I don't live in a big city, I have to wait until Netflix has them for me to see.

Some day I'll open an art house cinema and you can all come to my place to watch documentaries every Friday night.  I'll make tamales and we'll have Perrier and pretend to be fancy. 

If you want to watch a documentary
I recently watched Senna, which was wonderful.  It is a nearly narration-free, super real, look into the life of Formula One driver Ayrton Senna.  It is available on Netflix live streaming.

The kids and I also watched the 1996 film Microcosmos.  The entire film is shot in extreme close-up, with tiny cameras and tons of time-lapse footage of bugs of all kinds, going about their daily business.  It has very little narration and the kids and I loved it.  (Fair warning, you will see a pair of slugs and a pair of ladybugs getting a little personal at some point in this film.)

Also
The kids put their Grandma money together to purchase a Kinect (we already had the xbox) and we spent our Christmas Eve dancing up a storm.  Just Dance is quite possibly, the most fun game ever.

I hope you all had an amazing Christmas!

Step 2: Keep it Interesting

It's easy to talk about cooking dinner more often.  Not so much easy to do, especially when you're a restaurant addict like me.  My solution to the whole "I'm sick of cooking dinner" problem was to stop skimping on groceries.  I was raised by an amazingly thrifty mother who taught me the ins and outs of saving on groceries.  I know how to pay attention to prices and stock up.  I can cook cheap meals and make things last.   But I just can't keep on doing it, you know?  Halfway through week two and I'm signing my name to a $50 dinner out. 
Nowadays, I try to only buy good food (Diet pepsi and kraft mac and cheese, notwithstanding!)  Organic produce is a great place to start, and of course we already talked about my adoration for wonderful bread.  When we eat meat, it's usually chicken, usually that chicken is organic, and in drumstick form.  (Much cheaper than organic chicken breast!)  Having lovely ingredients in the house keeps me inspired, and keeps me feeling kind of restaurant-y.  There is a fine line between improving your grocery selections and pressuring yourself to have The World's Best Cart at Whole Foods.  I've done it to myself too many times, and I don't recommend it.  Use what you have.  Organic is better for our planet and health, but if you can't afford it or don't have access to it, just let it go, and use what you have. 

So with all this in mind, we have tonight's dinner.  Something that I've never made before, but it came out great and was liked by all!

Pasta Primavera!

You'll need:
1 - 1lb box of pasta, I used bowties
Fresh veggies, whatever kind you like.  I used
1 red pepper
1 package of mini zucchini (Trader Joe's) Probably equivalent to 2 regular sized zucchini
1 package mushrooms, sliced
1/2 an onion
1 scallion
Garlic
Salt
Pepper
Butter
Olive Oil
Chicken or Veggie stock
Milk (Cream if you're fancy)

Fill a large stock pot with water and put it over high heat to boil.  While it heats up, start prepping your veggies.  I diced my peppers into 1cm square-ish pieces, finely chopped the onion, sliced the mushrooms and cut the zucchini into 1" chunks (I'd do large slices on an angle with regular zucchini)



Start a large skillet with a pat of butter and a tablespoon of olive oil, over medium heat.  Once it is hot, throw in the onion and pepper.  I personally prefer my onions and peppers well cooked and without too much crunch left in them, if you like yours crunchier you might consider waiting until later to start your vegetables.  Sprinkle the whole party lightly with salt and black pepper, and add a little garlic, too. 

Keep an eye on your water and put the pasta in once it is rapidly boiling.  Stir, stir, stir.  Oh, and salt the water, too.  Lower the burner under the water to medium.

After the peppers and onions are soft and bubbling in some of their own juices, add the zucchini.  Zucchini looks yummiest when it has some caramelization on it's fleshy parts, so it's best to add it to the pan, give the pan a little shake, and then leave the darn thing alone for a couple minutes.  Too much stirring too early on will mess it up.  Watch the heat, though, you don't want to burn it.  Adjust the heat as needed.

Once the zucchini has a little color, add the mushrooms and scallions.  When I added the mushrooms I added another couple tablespoons of oil as well.  The pan will now be sufficiently crowded and your house will smell like amazing.

(Your noodles might be done.  Consider checking them now.  Your veggies can sit and simmer while you deal with the pasta.  If they aren't done, they probably will be soon.  Take thepasta off as soon as it's al dente.  The veggie part of this recipe is VERY forgiving and can sit on the stove for a minute just about any time during the cooking process.)

Once the mushrooms are looking mostly cooked, add your stock.  I used about 3/4 cup of homemade chicken stock.  I cannot recommend home made stock enough.  It will change your life.  But I also understand that there isn't always time or inclination to make it yourself, in which case, store bought works well, too. 


Once the stock is hot and bubbly, add about 3/4 cup of milk or cream.  I used 2% milk.  Cream would make the meal a lot richer and probably quite delicious.  Milk was perfectly adequate, though.  Stir the whole situation together and taste the sauce.  You'll probably need a little more salt, pepper and garlic now. 

Leave it to simmer for a few more minutes. 

While the veggies simmer and the noodles hang out, open a can of refrigerator biscuits.  (Old habits die hard, I'm sure there's some less processed alternative, but this is what I had on hand)

Spray 6 cups in a muffin tin with nonstick spray.
Rip or cut each dough round in half
Drop 2 dough halves in each cup
Drizzle (ever so lightly) each cup with a teensy bit of olive oil
Sprinkle each cup with fresh parmesan, garlic powder, salt and pepper
Place the rest of the dough pieces on top of the parmesan sprinkled dough - you might have an odd number in which case you can rip the remainders into quarters to make each dough/cheese conglomeration roughly even in size.

Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes (when you put your bread in, put the pasta and veggie mixture together and stir it all together.  Add a little parmesan and taste again.  You might want a little more salt and pepper)

I didn't time this, to be honest, so I recommend maybe ignoring my time suggestion and just watching these yourself.  When you smell them, check on them.  If they're still totally white on top, but kinda brown on bottom you can switch on your broiler and let the tops brown.  Once again, be careful with the broiler.  It goes from lovely browning tool to evil dream crusher in about a half second. 



Now it's time to call the little ones to the table.  Make them pour the drinks and get the silverware! :)

Enjoy!

I need better food styling here, this makes it look like it wasn't very veggie heavy, but it was.  It was actually a perfect balance of veggies and noodles.

Step 1: Cooking Dinner

Long before I ever entertained the idea of giving up my business, the first step I took toward getting back to the mom and wife I wanted to be, was making a plan to cook dinner more often.

I have always loved to cook, but I REALLY love to eat out.  Probably more than I should even admit.  Even today, eating out is my largest vice, and I imagine it probably always will be. 

Because of his work schedule, my husband is only home at dinner time once or twice a week, so I had always figured cooking dinner didn't matter.  The kids and I would eat out, or grab something easy, and he could get himself food when he was hungry.  Our method kept us all happy for a time, until he finally told me that he wished I would cook dinner more often. 

I think I replied with something along the lines of, "What do you care?  You're never here at dinner time." 

You know, because I have a wonderful way with words. 

But he said he didn't care.  He'd warm it up when he got home, but he just loved the idea of coming home to a plate of food. 

And I guess I couldn't argue with that.  It made sense after all, that something I made with my hands,  would make my family feel a little bit more loved.  I guess the fringe benefit is that I feel loved, and needed, and useful, too. 

So, with all this in mind, how about a recipe?

I love to make up my own recipes, which I have learned is a bit much in the pressure department.  (My new job is to figure out how to stop putting so much pressure on myself!)  But, I finally have a good repertoire of recipes that are simple and healthy and delicious.

Cast your gaze upon the wonderfully delicious White Lasagna with marinara and AMAZING bread:




The prep on this was really simple, and you can modify it to fit your needs.

Ingredients:
-1 box of oven-ready lasagna noodles (but it never hurts to have a second box on hand, just in case)
-1 15oz container ricotta
-Mozzarella - I use fresh wherever possible.  I usually buy one container of perlini (pearl-sized mozzarella balls) for ease of prep.  Of course, you can buy a bag of already grated mozzarella or grate your own, or slice the larger balls of fresh mozzarella, too.
-Parmesan cheese (any kind works, but I like fresh best!)
-Minced or granulated garlic, as well as salt and pepper.
 -Fresh spinach leaves washed and ready to go
-Marinara sauce - whatever kind you like - if you have homemade, you rock and I want you to teach me how to make it.
-2 cups of fresh White Sauce

Don't know how to make White Sauce?
My quick instructions are as follows:
Make a roux by melting a couple tablespoons of butter in a pan, and adding an equal amount of flour to the melted butter.  Let the roux bubble for a couple minutes, whisk it well so you don't have any lumps.  Pour a bit of milk in.  In this case I used about 2 cups.  Whisk some more.  Add whatever you'd like to add to make it taste yummy.  Your options include garlic, salt, pepper, Parmesan cheese (or any kind of cheese, for that matter).  Taste it and make sure it's good.  A truly delicious white sauce will be perfectly salted, and usually it takes a little more salt than you think it will.  Bland white sauce is, well, bland.  The roux you made at the beginning will thicken the sauce.  If it gets too thick, add a little more milk.  You will use this recipe a lot, so it's a good one to know and use and practice often.  Make this before you start the rest of your lasagna prep and set it aside so it is ready when you need it.

Instructions:
Spray a 9x12 baking dish with nonstick spray.  Start by placing one layer of the oven-ready lasagna noodles in the pan.  Pour about 1/3 of the white sauce over the noodles.  Next, put a layer of spinach leaves down.  Do this to your taste, some people like more, some like less.  I do two good-sized handfuls. This is your first layer.

The second layer will be a cheese layer.  Start with another layer of pasta, then add the ricotta.  It can be somewhat challenging to spread the ricotta evenly, but there are a few tricks.  I usually scoop out about 4-5 large dollops and drop them, evenly spaced, onto the pasta and then spread them out with a silicone spatula.  You can also add a couple tablespoons of milk (or marinara sauce when making traditional lasagna) to the ricotta and stir it in, to thin it and make it easier to spread.  Once the ricotta is spread, spread the mozzarella, then sprinkle Parmesan.  I usually sprinkle granulated, or fresh minced garlic on every other layer, pepper on every other layer and salt only once during prep.  Now is a good time to add some garlic and pepper.  This is your second layer.

The third layer will be a repeat of your first: pasta/white sauce/spinach
(make sure you save some white sauce for the top layer!)

The fourth later will be a repeat of the second: pasta/ricotta/mozzarella/Parmesan/
 (It is very important that you reserve some mozzarella and Parmesan for the top layer!)

On this particular day I had the perfect amount of ingredients to do a perfect four layer lasagna.  This does not always happen.  You can wing it when you start to realize your ingredient balance isn't working out, that's why it never hurts to have a second box of lasagna noodles on hand.

To finish your lasagna, add the final layer of pasta to the top of the pan, pour the remaining white sauce over the pasta and sprinkle the reserved mozzarella and Parmesan and lightly salt, pepper and garlic the top.

Cover the pan tightly with foil.  This is important because the trapped steam is what will ultimately cook your noodles.  Bake at 350 degrees f for about 40 minutes.  Check it by piercing with a fork or butter knife.  If it feels tender, I usually cut a small bite from the edge and taste it.  The cook time on this is pretty flexible and can vary based on the kind of pasta you use.  If it isn't tender when you check it, throw the foil back on and cook it for another 10 minutes, then check again.

When the pasta is tender remove the foil and allow the top to brown for 5-10 minutes.  It will get bubbly and golden and lovely. 


While your lasagna bakes, warm the marinara on the stove top and prep your AMAZING bread.

For the AMAZING bread, you'll need:
-1 loaf of delicious bread.  I like Pugliese or Ciabatta or really anything yummy looking in your grocery store's bakery department. 
-Olive oil
-Salt/pepper/garlic

Instructions:
Slice the bread about 1 1/2" thick.  This makes for a great crunchy-to-soft ratio.  Lay them out on a baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil.  Do this a little while in advance so the oil can soak in really good.  Sprinkle each slice with a tiny bit of salt, fresh black pepper and garlic (right now I'm using up a giant container of granulated garlic from Costco, but you can use fresh garlic, too!)  I make this same bread without garlic sometimes, too, which is also delicious.

Just let the bread sit there while your lasagna is baking, and when you take the lasagna out, change the oven to broil, and put the bread in.

Now: watch.  While you cut servings of lasagna, keep an eye on the bread.  Don't burn it or you will cry.  Believe me, I have cried over burnt bread more than once in my life.  It will probably take about 6 minutes or so to get nice and golden.  There is a VERY fine line between done and burnt.  Once it looks a little bit golden, start watching it like a hawk.

Here is another photo of my plate, with a better view of the aforementioned AMAZING bread:


Serve the lasagna with the marinara drizzled over the top of it.  Use meat sauce if you prefer a non-vegetarian dinner.  Have a piece of your AMAZING bread on the side.  Green salad is an excellent accompaniment to this meal, as well.

Enjoy!  Everyone in our family loved this meal.  One 9x12 pan fed the four of us for two meals.  My kids eat adult-sized portions now, so it might even feed your family for more than two meals.

The bread, of course, is gone in one meal.  No one can keep their fingers off of it.