lasagna and Dave's greek salad

The one saving grace about fall is that now I can cook again without burning up the house.

a couple weekends ago I made a double batch of lasagna. The thing with lasagna is it makes a ton of sauce and if you buy the large ricotta/cottage cheese container you might as well use it all. the hard work is in making the sauce so I try and make a big batch and then make a couple smaller pans with it. If you had a huge family to feed maybe it would be different but with only two people I don't want to eat week old lasagna. anywhoo! I followed this recipe except I always substitute cottage cheese for ricotta (no one ever knows and its WAY cheaper) and I added a thick layer of raw spinach between the cheese layers. get your greens in!

yum yum yum! it was the perfect thing to serve on a saturday night when friends were coming into toronto late and i didn't want to have to be in the kitchen at all. I just prepped everything on friday night and threw one lasagna in the fridge and the other in the freezer. one hour to dinner time and I just popped it in the oven.

I thought with all that meat and cheese we should have some fresh vegetables so I made a batch of my dads greek salad on special request from the brother. this stuff is awesome. and SO SO easy.

Dave's Greek Salad

Ingredients:

1 large cucumber, diced

2-3 tomato (depends on the size, you want an equal ratio of cucumber and tomato) diced

1/4 of a red onion, chopped small (more if you like)

1 small container of feta cheese

1 jar of sliced black olives (forgot these in the salad in the pics, but its delish with or without them)

1 tbsp of dried oregano 

Dressing:

for my vinegar and olive oil dressings I always use 1 part vinegar to three parts oil. 

Scientifically: I maybe used 6tbsp of vinegar and half a cup of oil. 

Realistically: two glugs of vinegar and 6-8 glugs of oil. 

Easiest instructions of life: 

chop veggies, crumble feta on top. drain and add olives if using. make your dressing in a separate cup and add the oregano so it has a chance to become soft. pour over veggies. stir. EAT. 

Debate:

there has been debate in the family if this salad is even better the next day. I side with yes, because everything has a chance to mingle and the onions are softer. Other people claim the tomato becomes a little more soggy after the first day. Regardless. its a damn good salad thats SO easy to make. 

I like to eat this as is with bread to sop up the dressing or add it on top of a mixed green salad, veggies dressing cheese already to go. 

hungry yet?!