Chicken & Spinach Lasagna Rolls

This was something a little different for the Mo'Betta household.  My kids don't really care for sauce on their pasta (I know, weird right?), so I generally don't bother making lasagna or other pasta dishes.  However, when I saw this recipe for Cannelloni from Chocolate and Carrots, it sounded really good and I thought I would give it a try.  I was hoping the kids wouldn't pay any attention to the green specks throughout, but, yeah, you can imagine how that went over.  Something like "ewwwww, what's that green stuff? Did you put spinach in this? (said like it is cyanide) It has sauce on it.  I don't like sauce.  I don't like spinach.  Can I eat a bowl of cereal?"  My response "Where's my glass? Where's the wine? I need more wine!"  Don't you wish you could have dinner with us?!  And I wonder why I have GERD.

Anyway, some of you may have families that would actually enjoy this...

• 1/2 pound of cooked chicken breasts, shredded
• 1 package of chopped frozen spinach, thawed and drained.
• 15 ounces part skim ricotta cheese
• 1 cup grated Italian cheeses (mine included parmesan, mozzarella and asiago cheeses)
• 1 egg *I used a "flax egg" to help bind everything together, in hopes that my son would eat this. He didn't, of course.
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 1-1 1/2 boxes of whole wheat lasagna noodles
• 1 cup of grated asiago cheese
• 1 1/2 jars of your favorite marinara sauce

In a bowl, mix the chicken, spinach, ricotta, Italian cheeses, *egg, garlic and pepper. Set aside to use as the filling.

Spread a layer of sauce in a 9 x 13 casserole dish, sprinkle some asiago cheese.

Boil lasagna noodles until they are al dente.

The original recipe says to "put about 2 tablespoons of filling at the end of each lasagna noodle, roll up, and place, seam-side down in the dish. (You can use your best judgement on how much filling to put in your noodles.)" I found it easier to just do it like this....

Top with the remainder of your marinara sauce and sprinkle with more cheese.

Bake at 350° for about 45-60 minutes, or until the cheese has melted and it’s hot throughout.

I thought this was pretty good, but not great.  For me, it needed more cheese (b/c I can never have enough cheese!) and I wish I had used more garlic.  I only used 1 clove, which wasn't very much, and the recipe called for a tablespoon.  I don't really care for a lot of garlic, so I always scale it back, but I definitely should have used more for this.  And I didn't use a great marinara sauce...I just used the Heart Healthy, No Sugar Added jarred spaghetti sauce I had in the pantry.  So, I'm pretty sure it was me and not the recipe - which comes as no surprise here.  Fresh herbs would have been yummy too.  I can't wait to get the garden going...I think I can finally start planting this week.  Maybe.  The weather has been whacked.

I hope everyone had a great weekend, and is getting through their Monday!  I have to go get a lovely crown put on....and no, unfortunately not a jeweled crown to place upon my princess head.  I went for 38 years without cavities, and now my teeth are having issues.  What's up with that?  First gray hair in my eyebrows and now this?!  Getting old kinda sucks.  Of course, as my 8 year old pointed out... I AM middle-aged.  Gotta love kids ;-)

Go HERE to see who I'm linking up with this week and to get more great recipes and craft ideas.  You wouldn't believe the talent that is floating around bloggy land!

*Update 5/15/11 - linking up with Eat at Home for ingredient spotlight CHEESE :D  One of my favorite things!