I make lunches for myself at work attempting to have better food and save myself some money.  A pan of lasagna will feed me nine times and microwaves extremely well, which is the method to apply heat to food at work.  I have tried many variations.  This one is fresh with several ideas I’ve never seen elsewhere.  Anyways on to the recipe.

Ingredients:

• Two bottles of your favorite pasta sauce
• 1 24 oz container cottage cheese
• 1 7-9 oz package sliced roast beef
• 1 7-9 oz package sliced ham
• 1 7-9 oz package pepperoni
• 1 lb of your favorite summer squash
• 1 large fresh tomato
• 2 Tbsp sriracha sauce
• 2 Tbsp minced garlic
• 10 dry lasagna noodles

Instructions:

1. Mix pasta sauce, cottage cheese,  garlic, and sriracha in large bowl.
2. In 9 x 13 pan place 2 cups  of sauce mixture over bottom of pan.
3. Next place 5 lasagna noodles over sauce with slight overlap.
4. Place about half of your roast beef over noodles in thin layer.
5. Next do the same with the ham over the roast beef.
6. Do the same with the pepperoni over the ham.
7. Slice your summer squash the long way into thin slices.  I used a mandoline.
8. Make a layer of the summer squash over the pepperoni.
9. Repeat a second time with 3 cups of sauce, followed by noodles, followed by what you have left of the meat, followed by the summer squash.
10. Place the rest of the sauce on the top.
11. Place slices of your tomato on the top.
12. Place in a 350 degree oven for 125 minutes.
13. Note:  you may wish to place a large cookie sheet under the 9 x 13 in order to keep your oven clean.

Now that I have apple butter and since I have a lot of it, I’d like to find something to make out of it.  I was going to my standbys and thinking ice cream and cereal bars.  Anyways my only complaint with these is they make your jaw sore if you eat a bunch.  The flavor is excellent.   Anyways on to the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup Apple Butter
• 3/4 cup Cajeta
• 1/2 cup white Karo syrup
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 6 cups rice chex
• 6 cups corn chex
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Instructions:

1. Place cereal and pecans in large bowl.  Mix well.
2. Place butter in medium saucepan and melt.
3. Add Karo syrup, cajeta, and apple butter.
4. Bring to a boil and boil about 7 minutes.
5. Allow to cool slightly.
6. Pour over cereal and pecans coating evenly.
7. Now you need to dry out the bites.  For this I used a food dryer.  I would think you could also use a big pan and cook it on a low oven temperature like carmel corn.  In my experience the oven method is more likely to burn, and I have a food dryer and patience.  Ii will continue the rest of the recipe the way I did it.
8. Using a screen on each shelf of your food dryer, place a thin layer of the coated cereal on each shelf.  The entire batch should fit on 4 shelves.
9. Dry on 115 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 to 24 hours, or until desired texture.

I like to experiment with jams and jellies with an outlook into candy and other sweet creations.  I live in Texas where they don’t grow one apple except maybe in a greenhouse.   However a coworker told me apples were priced well a couple of weeks ago.   So I decided I was going to try apple butter out.  I had had it in a breakfast restaurant once or twice, but that was my only exposure to it.   I read through about 5 recipes that came to the top of my Google feed.  This is what I came up with.  I think it’s excellent, but in all honesty I didn’t grow up on the stuff.  Anyways on to the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 4 to 5 lbs of apples – I used Kanzi – was looking for tart
• 2 cups orange juice
• 3 small limes
• 2 Tbsp molasses
• 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• Water

Instructions:

1. Core apples and cut into eighths.  I left the skins on for flavor, but if not to your taste they could be removed.
2. Place apples, orange juice,  and juice from limes in large pan.
3. Add water to pan to cover apples and boil at medium heat until soft.
4. Take immersion blender and blend until smooth.
5. Reduce heat to low and add molasses, sugar, cinnamon,  and cloves.
6. Stir to incorporate spices.
7. Reduce by about half, or until mixture has the texture of butter.  This will take a significant amount of time.
8. Remove from heat and package as you prefer.