baked pasta, better than normal

both boys liked it a lot
so you know its good

Baked pasta (yes, there are a lot of steps)
make sauce and tofu at same time with noodles while cutting up vegetables to steam. good luck.

Sauce
same sauce thats on here a hundred times. but this time I mixed it with a white sauce. here are both:
red:
2 cans chopped tomatoes magic bulletted
1/2 onion
3 cloves garlic
a bunch of basil from back yard, or just shake some in
salt and pepper
a sprig of rosemary from the back yard
1 teaspoon of sugar
a few shakes of parsley
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

saute onion
add tomatoes and everything else
simmer until tasty

white sauce:
2 tablespoons butter
4 teaspoons all purpose flour
1 and 1/4 cup milk (I used rice milk, which takes longer to thicken and tastes sweeter in the end, your milk is up to you)
salt, pepper, 1 clover of garlic
melt butter (Med low heat)
put in flour and stir whole time, about 3 min
pour in milk, turn heat up to med high and stir
it will start to boil
keep stirring
add garlic and salt and pepper
keep stirring (seems like it should be getting thick by now...I get impatient, clyde comes and stirs for me, because I cannot wait. It takes a while)
should be getting thicker
Keep stirring
thick. taste it occasionally. I quit when its good

Tofu:
Clyde thinks the tofu in this dish wasn't suited. So its a work in progress. Its the same tofu I always make. Suggestions?

Then I cut up a pretty good amount of mushrooms, a lot of broccoli and cauliflower.
you want a lot
you can add squash, or eggplant. you know, whatever.
I put it in the strainer and put it over my boiling pasta water (I used penne for this dish) while boiling my pasta until its kind of soft.
giada puts her vegetables in a 450 degree oven with olive oil and roasts 15 minutes. I have done this and its good, but you know, time consuming.

Combine sauce, noodles (I used a whole box), vegetables, and about 1 cup of mozzarella cheese, and the not-fitting tofu. mix and put into a casserole dish. I put small chunks of butter spaced out on top and a layer of parmeasean on top.
bake in a 450 degree oven for 25 minutes.

Breadsticks

Well I tried Minestrone and breadsticks.
Only the breadsticks are worth commenting on.
I guess I wasn't trying them. We eat these all of the time.

Breadstick Ingredients:

1 and 1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons of sugar
1 and 1/2 cup baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
2/3 cup milk (rice works fine)

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl.
Stir in milk.
This dough is very wet at this point, so put it on a surface and kneed in a lot more flour, until you can work with it.
Roll it out (might still need to add flour) I find a little thick is better. Skinny ones get really crisp quick
cut into breadstick shapes and put on baking sheet.

Topping:
I like to mix 2 tablespoons of softened butter with
2 cloves of garlic chopped and
1 or so tablespoons of Parmesan cheese (fine, I just pour it in)
I mix this inside my magic bullet and make a spread that I put on top of the sticks.

They go into a 450 degrees oven for about 10-15 minutes depending on thickness, check the bottoms

Lasagna rolls

First the sauce
Ingrediants:
2 cans pureed chopped tomatoes
2 cloves chopped garlic
1/2 onion
1 teaspoon sugar
salt and pepper
about 10 leaves of basil
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Saute onion until clear. Add tomatoes and spices and let sit with top on for at least 1/2 hour.

Next the tofu:
Take firm/ extra firm tofu, drain in sink.
I find that cutting into strips helps when pressing, and the less water in the tofu in this dish the better.
To Press: take baking pan, put big clyde shirt in it, lay strips of tofu down, lay bottom half of clyde shirt over it, put another baking pan on top, and add weight.
About 1/2 hour later take tofu out, and mash with hands until tofu is consistency of ricotta cheese.
Add 1 teaspoon of garlic powder, salt, pepper, and about 1/2 cup of tomato sauce.
Set aside until its time to put it together.

Its up to you for filling. This time I steamed Broccoli and Mushrooms over my pasta water. but all veggies are good in this. The more the better.

Cook 8 lasagna noodles until done, they will not cook longer in the over.

Assembly and Ingredients of Lasagna rolls

8 cooked lasagna noodles cut in half
Tofu filling Mixed with cooked (or raw) veggies, and 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese (or more if your like rubbo)
The rest of your sauce.
1/2 cup of mozzarella and 1/2 cup of Parmesan for top
Take casserole dish and pour about 1/2 cup of sauce on the bottom, so sauce is covering the bottom.
Take half noodle, put filling on one side, wrap the other side around so you have a tube. Finish filling up the noodles and line up the pan as tightly as possible. I just put extra filling right on top.
Put the rest of the sauce on the top
put the Mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses on top
bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes until that parm is golden

I'm so full right now

OK last nights meal was all right, but it took so long to make with so little return that I am afraid to put it in here in fear someone will make it. So lets pretend like yesterday never happened and move onto today.
basic, good baked pasta
But I didn't make that, I made a version of it. Here is the original recipe, then I will give what I did:

Baked pasta with roasted veg.

1 red pepper
1 zucchini
2 mushrooms
1/2 onion
1/8 cup oil
1/8 cup parm cheese
1/2 pound penne
1 and 1/2 cups sauce
1/4 cup moz. cheese
3/4 cup white beans
1 table butter

On baking sheet toss veggies in oil oil, salt and pepper, and Italian herbs
roast on 450 for 15 minutes.
Boil penne until aldente (want it still hard).
toss with veg, cheese, maranara, and beans and pour into casserole dish.
top with parmeasean cheese and butter and bake for 25 minutes.

So this is what I do usually but with more sauce, different vegetables, and tofu instead of cheese. but i had leftover spinach and fake ricotta (tofu that has been pressed and crumbled to resemble the texture of ricotta) from last nights meal so I included that. I was late coming home tonight so instead I just heated up last weeks sauce and added one more can of magic bulletted tomatoes, basil, salt, and garlic and heated it up. Then I sauteed (not roasted) 1 portabello mushroom, 1/2 zucchini, I can't remember what else... and combined the sauce, the spin tofu mix, a handful of cheese, and vegetables together and cooked. it was still a little bland. feta picked it up somewhat nicely though. if you like spice I can imagine red pepper flakes working in there.