Ravioli Lasagna

Lasagna used to be a weekend only meal for my family but it has become a weeknight favorite with this recipe. My ravioli lasagna is a variation of Rachael Ray's recipe. Her recipe is delicious but very involved. I wanted something easier that I could prep and bake in less than an hour. This is far from gourmet but delicious nonetheless. Pair it with a green salad and some crusty bread drizzled with avocado oil and you've got yourself one heck of a meal.

Ravioli Lasagna
Ingredients:
1 bag of frozen ravioli (about 25 ounces)
1 jar of your favorite tomato sauce
8 ounces shredded mozzarella (about 2 1/2 cups)
1-16 ounce container of ricotta or small curd cottage cheese
1 egg
2 tablespoons Romano cheese
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
handful spinach, chopped
1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400. Mix the ricotta (or cottage cheese), egg, Romano, black pepper and spinach in a medium bowl. Place 1/2 cup of sauce on bottom of a 3 quart casserole dish (my glass Pyrex dish works perfect). Layer half of the ravioli on top of the sauce. Top the ravioli with half the cheese mixture, sprinkle with 1/2 the shredded cheese. Repeat. Sprinkle garlic powder on top.
Cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes. Remove foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes.
Let sit for 15 minutes before serving.

Yield: 6 servings

Our favorite ravioli to use is a portabella mushroom with a tomato basil sauce. You can easily add ground beef or turkey to this dish for the meat lovers out there. A half pound of ground turkey and a half pound of Italian sausage tastes awesome with the ravioli.

15 Minute Meatloaf!

Between work, school, my kiddos and housework, its sometimes hard to get dinner on the table at a decent hour. There have been nights where its been granola and fruit, and you know what, that's okay. But with recipes like this one, its been much easier to have a heartier choice available.

The magic behind this meal is my most favorite tool in my kitchen, a pressure cooker! With the newer electric pressure cookers available its much easier to set it and forget it too! So with this magic pressure cooker, you can have your favorite meatloaf with potatoes and carrots in 15 minutes...add another 3-5 minutes and you also have gravy.

What you need:

• a 5 quart or larger pressure cooker
• about 1 1/2 pounds of your favorite meatloaf mix
• 2 - 3 medium russet potatoes, cut into large pieces
• 4 - 5 large carrots, cut to 2 inches in length
• 1 cup beef broth
• ketchup or BBQ sauce (optional)

Directions:

Add the potatoes, carrots and broth to pressure cooker.
 

A trivet or cooking rack that fits into your pressure cooker is
best but is not needed.

Form loaf onto rack, top with ketchup or sauce.

Place directly on top of potatoes. Cover pressure cooker,
 making sure it seals. Cook on high (follow the directions of your manual)
for 15 minutes, do a quick steam release.
 

Remove meatloaf and vegetables from pan, reserve
the juices for gravy if desired.

Note: When making meatloaf, I usually make 2-3 times as much meat mix. I just freeze about 1.5 pounds of mix in each freezer bag, that way all I need to do is defrost the meat, cut the vegetables and set the pressure cooker, THE BEST!