Cooking and writing are two of my favourite hobbies. No wonder then that sharing recipes, which involves both, is fast becoming my favourite third hobby. 🙂 I prefer home food over outside food and like to toss up a storm in my kitchen with dishes I find interesting. Seeing how sportingly my guinea pig family takes my food experiments I’ll give myself credit for being sensibly flavour-blessed. 😉

The apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree since A Jr has taken after me in this regard. While spending time alone in the kitchen is a no-no for him right now, he’s an incorrigible foodie who loves to discuss food. Making and writing a recipe with me for his summer homework was hence an activity he was looking forward to quite excitedly.

Not inclined to make it easier for him we settled on making Lasagna with the essential Mom/Varsh twist. We learnt our way through it and made lasagna sheets and the sauce from scratch. The kids happily rolled out the sheets while I got the stuffing done. I added paneer to the veggies to make the dish healthier.

Ingredients:

Grated cheese – 1 bowl

For lasagna sheets:

Refined flour – 1 cup

Oil – 2 tsp

Salt to taste

Water as required

For Paneer filling:

Chopped garlic – 5 to 6 cloves

Mixed fine-chopped vegetables – 2 bowls

Marinara sauce – 1 tbsp

Tomato sauce – 1 tbsp

Fresh paneer – 100 grams

Salt to taste

For sauce:

Grilled capsicum – 1 no

Tomatoes (small) – 2 nos

Marinara sauce – 1 tbsp

Salt to taste

For garnishing:

Marinara sauce – 1 tbsp

Grated cheese – as required

Chilli flakes – 1 tbsp

Oregano – 1 tbsp

Procedure:

For Lasagna sheets:

1. Take the flour, oil and salt in a bowl. Add little water at a time and knead a soft dough. Let it rest for half an hour.

2. Roll out thin sheets with the dough. Dust well with dry flour if required.

3. Dry the sheets on paper or cloth for at least an hour.

For Paneer filling:

1. Heat oil in a pan. After heating, add chopped garlic cloves and fry till it turns brown.

2. Add mixed vegetables and sauté them.

3. Add pieces of chopped paneer, mix them well and cook them for 3-4 mins.

4. Add marinara sauce, tomato sauce, salt and stir well.

5. Your paneer filling should now have a beautiful red colour.

For Sauce:-

1. Grill a capsicum till its skin gets burnt.

2. Remove the burnt skin, chop it and put in a mixer along with two small tomatoes, marinara sauce and salt.

3. It should have a flowing consistency.

Finally, for Lasagna:

1. Take a microwave safe bowl either square or circular depending upon your choice and sheets.

2. Take one tbsp of red sauce and spread it to the bottom of the bowl. Place one lasagna sheet on it.

3. Spread one tbsp of red sauce, one tbsp of paneer filling and some grated cheese on it.

4. Repeat the process and make similar layers.

5. Garnish it with one tbsp of marinara sauce, lots of grated cheese, one tbsp of oregano and one tbsp of chilli flakes.

6. Bake it in the oven for 5-6 minutes or till the cheese on the top melts completely.

Your lasagna is ready!!!

A Jr stayed with me in the kitchen throughout the making and had a bunch of smart rapid fire questions. He put all the knowledge gained to use by writing the recipe! I refined it with a few touch-ups, but it was his baby. He typed out most of the recipe for this post too. When did he grow up so much? God, how proud it makes me feel! 🙂 🙂

By the way, he loved the lasagna. The overload of cheese had him drooling even as we started layering. I loved this mom-and-son time and am planning to do it often now.

This post is published for #OpenNTalk Blogger’s League hosted by Gleefulblogger & Wigglingpen in association with SummerBarn, Vedantika Herbals, Nyassa, Explore Kids World.

I’d like to thank Swarupa Panda for introducing me on her blog. Do check out her fashion blog for some brilliant posts on the latest trends in fashion. Thank you, Akshata for commencing this blog train and setting an impressive precedent for all of us. She is a CA by profession and blogging is her passion. She is a dreamer, a storyteller and shopaholic person. You cannot miss her travel posts and the lovely pictures she shares.

Here’s a glimpse of all the #BloggerBabes for #OpenNTalk!

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