La La Land, Here we come - oh and Lasagna!

Today, the man and I are headed to Los Angeles!  Back to the place we met and fell in love :>) haha!

So young!

It will be nice to be back in California for a few days, though.  Considering it's 19 degrees in Nashville and mid 70's in L.A.......it will be really nice!  I'm especially excited to FINALLY get to see my sistah's new apartment!

image

Yes, please!  Ahhhhhh Venice beach - hard to believe this used to be our front yard.  Why did we move away, again?  

 It's going to be a busy weekend...tonight as soon as we land, I'm running to a girls dinner while Billy hangs with the boys.

I'm sure there will be NONE of THAT going on ;>)

Tomorrow we have all sorts of wedding "stuff" to do with my dear friend Ali, who is getting married in July!  Tomorrow night is the engagement party we are hosting for her and her groom-to-be.   Sunday will be breakfast with Billy's parents who are also in L.A. for the weekend, then taking Billy to the airport (work just gets in the way of these things :<().  Then I'm spending the rest of the week with Kacey doing all sorts of California things I never get to do anymore...

Anyhoo, I thought I would post a delicious lasagna recipe I made Monday night that we ate ALL week (it makes A LOT).

Enjoy :>)

Chicken and Arugula Lasagna

1 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 lb of ground white meat chicken

1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

salt and pepper

1 garlic clove - chopped

1 tbsp dried basil

2 eggs

2 15 oz containers part-skim ricotta

1/2 cup shredded Parmesan

handful of shredded mozzarella cheese

4 cups prepared Marinara sauce

12 cooked lasagna noodles

1 bag baby arugula, steamed and drained

1.) Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.  Heat the oil in a large skillet over med-hi heat. Season the ground chicken with the red pepper flakes and salt and pepper.  Add chicken and garlic to skillet and cook until done.  Remove from heat and set aside.

2.)  Combine the basil, eggs, ricotta, and Parmesan in a large bowl.  Season with salt and pepper.

3.)  Mist a 13x9 inch baking dish with cooking spray.  Spread 1/2 cup of marinara on the bottom of dish.  Arrange 4 cooked noodles over the sauce and top with half the ricotta mixture, half the chicken mixture, and half of the arugula; top with 1 cup of marinara.  Repeat layers ending with noodles and remaining marinara.  

4.) Sprinkle a handful of mozzarella cheese and some Parmesan on top.

5.) Cover and bake 45 minutes.  Let lasagna stand for 10 minutes before serving.

It is really light and fresh tasting!  I made my own marinara over the weekend for pizza and chicken Parmesan, so I just used that for this dish.  But any marinara would work!  I also sprinkled a little garlic salt on each layer - because I really love me some garlic salt :>)

xo,

k