Eatin' Good In The Neighborhood...

and I'm not talking about Applebee's! Applebee's does have some good eating, though! This is a recipe I took from my 9x13 The Pan That Can cookbook. I made this one night last week and we had an unexpected dinner guest join us, not a problem. I just boiled a few more parsnips as a side dish and everyone liked supper.

Cajun Chicken Lasagna

16 dried lasagna noodles

1 pound cooked andouille sausage or smoked pork sausage, quartered lengthwise and sliced (I used bulk pork sausage that the King and his step-Dad made)

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 3/4-inch pieces

2 to 3 teaspoons Cajun seasoning (I used 3 heaping teaspoons)

1 teaspoon dried sage, crushed (I didn't have any sage, used poultry seasoning instead)

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped celery

1/4 cup chopped green sweet pepper (is there a difference between a green pepper and a sweet green pepper? If there is - I don't know which I used, but it was green)

6 cloves garlic, minced

2 10-ounce containers refrigerated Alfredo pasta sauce *

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (6 ounces)

*I made my own Alfredo sauce. When I got to this part of the recipe, I substituted 1/4 cup butter, 8 ounces cream cheese and 1/2 cup milk for the jar Alfredo stuff.

1. Lightly butter a 9x13-inch baking pan or baking dish; set aside. Preheat oven to 350* F. Cook lasagna noodles according to package directions; drain well. Rinse with cold water; drain well. Place lasagna noodles in a single layer on a sheet of foil; set aside. (Putting noodles on a sheet of foil is too putsy for me, I left them in the strainer until I needed them and supper still tasted good! But if you want to lay them out on a sheet of foil, have at it.)

2. In a large bowl combine sausage, chicken Cajun seasoning, and sage. In a large skillet cook and stir chicken mixture about 8 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Using a slotted spoon, remove chicken mixture from skillet, reserving drippings in skillet. Set chicken mixture aside. In the same skillet cook onion, celery, sweet pepper, and garlic in drippings until vegetables are tender. Return chicken mixture to skillet; stir in half of the Alfredo sauce and the Parmesan cheese.

3. Arrange four of the cooked lasagna noodles in prepared pan or dish, cutting as necessary to fit. Spread with one-third of the chicken-vegetable mixture. Sprinkle with one-third of the mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers two more times, starting with noodles and ending with cheese. Top with the remaining cooked lasagna noodles. Carefully spread remaining Alfredo sauce over.

4. Bake, covered, about 1 hour or until heated through. Let stand for 15 to 20 minutes before serving.

Makes 12 servings.

*I did not end with noodles and Alfredo sauce, since I had all of the Alfredo sauce with the chicken and sausage. My last layer was mozzarella cheese.

If you try this out, let me know what you think. Our Princess was not home for dinner the night I made it, and it was all gone by the time she got home, so I am going to make it for us again tonight!

School is closed today due to the weather! I don't know as if I remember ever having a snow day this late in the season. I think the students will take them when they can get them though! It is still snowing out now, but we are only supposed to get another inch. Trucker said we had ten or twelve inches of snow in the yard since Sunday night! Spring in the northwoods, gotta love it! Tomorrow they are predicting 49* and sunshine, that will make the snow start to disappear again.