October Birthdays!

Colleen, her fiance Zach, and my brother-in-law Mark all have birthdays this week.  Of course, that just gives Grandpa and me one (or three) more reasons to party!

As I was cleaning the kitchen I noticed a bag of overripe bananas I had forgotten about.  So, I did what Grandma Jean probably would have done: Made Banana Bread!  Two loaves of it, actually.  And three mini loves of cranberry banana bread.  Again, I ask -- what the hell happened to Kiki?  Banana bread before making a dinner for sixteen and a half people?  (Gunner would be the half, but I guess I could count him as full human.  After all, he ate half of one of the mini loaves of cranberry banana bread all by himself as an appetizer.) 

This is the recipe I found on my new favorite site: All Recipes

Chicken and Spinach Alfredo Lasagna

• 1 (8 ounce) package lasagna noodles
• 3 cups heavy cream
• 2 (10.75 ounce) cans condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 large onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 5 mushrooms, diced
• 1 roasted chicken, shredded
• salt and ground black pepper to taste
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 1 bunch fresh spinach, rinsed
• 3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles for 8 to 10 minutes, or until al dente. Drain, and rinse with cold water.
2. In a saucepan over low heat, mix together heavy cream, cream of mushroom soup, Parmesan cheese, and butter. Simmer, stirring frequently, until well blended.
3. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cook and stir the onion in olive oil until tender, then add garlic and mushrooms. Mix in the chicken, and cook until heated through. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Lightly coat the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish with enough of the cream sauce mixture to coat. Layer with 1/3 of the lasagna noodles, 1/2 cup ricotta, 1/2 of the spinach, 1/2 the chicken mixture, and 1 cup mozzarella. Top with 1/2 the cream sauce mixture, and repeat the layers. Place the remaining noodles on top, and spread with remaining sauce.
5. Bake 1 hour in the preheated oven, or until brown and bubbly. Top with the remaining mozzarella, and continue baking until cheese is melted and lightly browned. 

This was the original recipe, but I read through a bunch of the reviews and decided to make some modifications. 

• Instead of the cream of mushroom soup, I used a jar of Newman's Alfredo Sauce and a can of Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup.  
• I added a package of cream cheese in place of a cup of the heavy cream.  (I once heard that the secret to awesome Alfredo sauce is cream cheese.)  

I doubled the recipe and found that I didn't quite have enough of the Alfredo sauce to cover the top layer of the lasagna.  It was a little tedious to make, but it was worth it.