Category Archives: Recipes

Baked Avocado Fries

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Summer is supposed to be coming to an end. Supposed to be. If theres one thing you should know about me is that I love the winter. I love the winter because I consider anything above a 75 to be hot. I love it when its 65 degrees out. It’s like heaven. So you can only imagine how I feel when La Jolla is in its high 80s… especially after it was able to maintain most of summer in the high 70s.

Most people wouldn’t deep fry anything in this summer heat. It’s the time for grills, barbecues, and bonfires right? Wrong! When cravings strike, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Well I never expected to crave avocado fries in the middle of this heat. I never expected to crave fries in summer in general. But of course, an avocado craving strikes. I tried taming my tastebuds by cutting open an avocado and eating it with some sea salt and a spoon. I thought that would tame my tastebuds but it didn’t. I guess it didn’t help that avocados went on sale at my local market… I couldn’t help myself.

I remember having this recipe tabbed. I was a little scared at first, but went with it anyways. All I can say is – I’m glad I did. The resulting avocado is very buttery and mellow in flavor – I recommend serving it with a flavorful aioli or (follow along me) some hummus.

Baked Avocado Fries

Adapted from Baked In

Ingredients

  • 3 ripe (but not overripe) avocados
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • Salt and black pepper
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups panko breadcrumbs, substitute with regular if you must
  • 2 Tbsp butter or margarine, melted
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • Cooking spray

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 450 F. Line a baking sheet with foil and place a wire rack on the sheet. Set aside.
  2. Cut each avocado in half and remove the pit. I removed the pit by hitting the bit with the sharp side of my chef’s knife and twisting gently. The pit should come right out, attached to the blade.
  3. Prepare three bowls. In the first bowl, place the 1/2 cup of flour and add a pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper. In the second bowl, crack the eggs and beat lightly. In another last bowl, combine the panko and melted butter and combined. Then, add garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, salt, and pepper and stir to combine.
  4. Dredge each avocado slice through the flour, and then the beaten egg. Coat thoroughly with the panko and place on the wire rack. Repeat with the remaining slices. Spray lightly with cooking spray. Alternatively place the avocado fries on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
  5. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until panko is lightly browned. Cool for about ten minutes and serve with dipping sauce of choice.

 

Guest Post: Chocolate Crinkles

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Most of my readers have figured out that I live in a college apartment, which means I have roommates. They are my victims for my famous diet.

My apartment mate, Darryl, wanted to try my diet with me: he made me chocolate crinkles. Darryl is the author of Aoifitness, a fitness blog. Ironic? Definitely. Did I care? Not after these cookies.


These cookies are not only simple but delicious. The secret was using Devil’s Food cake. Darryl left me one tip and one tip only, avoid adding too much oil, lean on the lower side: the oil makes the dough sticky and difficult to work with.

Not to worry Darryl, I’ll keep that in mind. I have an idea for cake batter flavored crinkles already… hang tight fellow readers!


Chocolate Crinkles

Ingredients

  • 1 (18 1/4 ounce) box devil’s food cake mix (Betty Crocker Super Moist suggested)
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 large eggs
  • confectioners’ sugar for rolling
  • 3/4 cup chocolate chips or M&Ms, optional

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350F
  2. Stir (by hand) dry cake mix, oil and eggs in a large bowl until dough forms. Add chocolate chips or M&Ms if you’d like
  3. Dust hands with confectioners’ sugar and shape dough into 1″ balls.
  4. Roll balls in confectioners’ sugar and place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until center is JUST SET.
  5. Remove from pans after a minute or so and cool on wire racks.

Cake Batter Flavored Truffles

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I love cake batter. Check that. I don’t think there exists and adjective that could describe towards how much I love cake batter. Its sweet, buttery, almost floral in its own way. If it wasn’t for the amount of sugar and calories I’d be consuming, I’d probably prepare some yellow cake mix and eat it like pudding.

Yellow cake offers a rich buttery taste that is addicting in its own artificial way. When I first came across this recipe for cake batter flavored truffles, I thought I must have been in heaven! My initial worries revolved around the similarity between this and a cake pop. But fear not, these truffles were pretty truffle like to me.

I served these as an ending to a italian dinner, as an accompaniment to my Dark Knight Rises Primeir night that I hosted. They were a hit. I hid a few of these babies away in my fridge for my amazing coworkers the next day – they loved it.

The original recipe called for rainbow sprinkles. I didn’t have any on hand so I substituted for non-perils. Don’t make the same mistake I did. The crunchy bears are normally pretty but not many people appreciated the crunch it added. These truffles are very sweet so make sure to keep them small! Or reduce some sugar if you’d like!

I personally don’t believe in chocolate coating. Its too waxy. I like to use baker’s chocolate and add shortening which smoothens out the melted chocolate. This helps the chocolate coat more evenly. When it stiffens up, I just zap it for 10 more seconds in the microwave and it smoothens out again.

I loved how the recipe was bake free, it helped keep my oven open when I used it to proof my bread dough. Aside from the easy procedure, the flavor was delicious. I’ve always been obsessed with cake batter. I think this is a good start for my cake batter frenzy… there will be more to come!

Cake Batter Flavored Truffles

Ingredients

For the truffles:

  • ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 ½ cups flour
  • 1 cup yellow cake mix
  • ½ cup white sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 3-4 Tablespoons milk
  • 2 Tablespoons sprinkles

Truffle Coating:

  • 16 ounces (8 squares) white chocolate chips, alternatively
  • 1 Tbsp shortening
  • sprinkles (optional)

Directions

  1. Beat together butter and sugar using an electric mixer until combined. Add cake mix, flour, salt, and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Add 3 Tablespoons of milk or more if needed to make a dough consistency. Mix in sprinkles by hand. Roll dough into 3/4 inch balls and place on a parchment or wax paper lined cookie sheet.
  2. Chill balls in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to firm up. While dough balls are chilling, melt 3/4 of the chocolate chips in the microwave in 30 second intervals until melted. Stir between intervals. Once melted, add in shortening and stir until melted. Add in the remaining chocolate chips and stir until melted. If needed, melt for an additional 10 seconds in the microwave.
  3. Using two spoons, dip truffles into melted chocolate  Place truffle back on the cookie sheet and top with sprinkles. Repeat with remaining balls until finished.
  4. Chill cake batter truffles in the refrigerator until serving.

Soft, Chewy, Oatmeal cookies

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Sometimes, I feel guilty for what I do. I bake, try out recipes, use my friends as guinea pigs, and force feed whats left of my food. My friends joke to my philosophy of dieting – making other people fatter, one person at a time. And so every once in a while, I make these cookies to make everyone feel better about themselves.

I start by gathering everything that I use on a daily basis, things like butter and sugar. Then I took some time to find the oatmeal. After all my ingredients, I started creaming the butter and sugar together. At that point, I started feeling better for my diet.

Jokes aside, this recipe makes an oatmeal cookie that is not only soft and chewy but irresistibly buttery with an ever so light dash of cinnamon circling your taste buds. Don’t go for a second thinking these cookies are healthy because they have oatmeal in them, the butter makes up for it!

And sorry friends, looks like my diet is still going pretty well! For those of you wondering, no raisins were involved in the production of these cookies. One of my best friends may or may not be able to win the pickiest eater in the Guinness World Records. Aside from an unusual distaste for raisins, the only way I can ever get him to eat oatmeal is in these cookies! Feel free to stir some in towards the end of the recipe if you feel inclined to do so. I loved these just the way they were!

One word of advice, drop these cookies further apart than you would imagine. As you can see, my cookies kind of stuck together…but I kind of liked the look!

Soft Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

Originally from Allrecipes.com, with notes

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1 cup packed brown
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 3 cups quick cooking oats

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip butter on medium high. Stir in the sugar in using the lowest speed possible then cream together on medium high.
  3. Add in the vanilla and eggs, one at a time. When everything is combined, add in the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon until mixed together. Add the oats and mix together.
  4. Drop 2 Tbsps of batter 2 inches apart from each other. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until the edges are just golden brown and the cookies are still soft. Cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes and transfer to wired rack to cool completely.

Peanut Butter Blondie Bars

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I think I’m starting to make a habit of being unprepared. I constantly plan dinners, get togethers, outings, and never think plans through. Yesterday night I wanted to try out a mushroom lasagna recipe. About 2 hours before I started cooking, my good friend Jerry kindly reminded me that I had no dessert planned. Me. No dessert.

I was devastated. Not because I had to put a dessert together, but because I actually managed to forget dessert.

After spending a good 20 seconds making myself feel bad, I quickly scrolled through my to-make list and stumbled upon this.

The peanut butter blondie bars were simple and I happened to have everything I needed. Since I was on a time crunch, I quickly pulled together all my ingredients. I started the recipe like I do with my chocolate chip cookies, whipping the cold butter with my paddle attachment. I started worrying when the butter didn’t emulsify but  everything worked out when I added in the sugar.

The resulting batter was something similar to a chocolate chip cookie dough. As I watched the batter pour into the pan, I knew that in 30 minutes, something delicious was going to emerge from the oven. 30 minutes later, I was in heaven. Almost like a reverse Reese’s Peanut Butter cup, the moist dense blondie bar captivated the crowd. This one is definitely a keeper!

Peanut Butter Blondie Bars

Originally from The Sweet Talker
Notes: I doubled the recipe, reflected below, to bake it in a 13 by 9 pan. If you prefer to make the 9 by 9 like the original recipe, halve everything or check out the Sweet Talker!

Ingredients

  • 1 cup peanut butter
  • 2/3 cup butter
  • 1 1/3 cup white sugar
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cup chocolate chips

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C ). Line a 13 by 9 pan with greased and floured foil.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitter with a paddle attachment, beat butter until fluffy and incorporate peanut butter.
  3. Gradually blend in the brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, and vanilla; mix until fluffy.
  4. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into the peanut butter mixture until well blended.
  5. Fold in chocolate chips.
  6. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in preheated oven, or until the edges are golden brown. It may seem a bit soft but it’ll finish up as it cools down.
  7. Cool, and cut into squares

Chicken Katsu

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People don’t understand that you can’t just “cook” something. Its actually kind of ridiculously hard for me to cook on whim. You see, I’m the kind of cook that has to do research before I can even cut into an onion.

But of course, I could never turn down a entree request 2 hours before a movie night, especially when I had nothing planned whatsoever. My friend Jocelyn demanded me to make chicken katsu. Secretly happy because I was having an unorganized moment, I obliged. About three seconds later, I realized I had no idea what I just got myself into.


At first I was worried about not having a deep fryer. Then I remembered that its easy to just substitute with a heavy pan, or if they have one, a cast iron skillet. If you don’t have a cast iron skilled, this may be a good time to purchase one – every good kitchen should have one!

After purchasing chicken and some other ingredients for side dishes I headed home, only to realize that I didn’t have the right bread crumbs. Improvisation! I went with italian herbed bread crumbs… and it turned out ok. The overall process was really simple and straightforward. Just make sure to watch the chicken – don’t burn it.

On another note, when I first made this katsu, I had no thermometer to test the oil temperature. So, I resorted to the same way my grandmother taught me many years ago – when the oil is heating up, stick a chopstick into it. If it bubbles rapidly the oil is ready. If it slowly bubbles or it bubbles vigorously, the oil is too cold or too hot.

This was one of the first times I deep fried something on my own. Don’t worry it wasn’t that bad. I found the easiest way to get everything done was to have an assembly line set up. Wear something long sleeved, and remember that cast iron skillets get hot. I keep a wet towel on the handle to remind me that theres hot oil.

Chicken Katsu

Ingredients

  • 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves – pounded to 1/2 inch thickness
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1 egg, beaten (I ended up needing 2)
  • 1 cup panko bread crumbs
  • 1 cup oil for frying, or as needed

Directions

  1. Season the chicken breasts on both sides with salt and pepper. Place the flour, egg and panko crumbs into separate shallow dishes. Coat the chicken breasts in flour, shaking off any excess. Dip them into the egg, and then press into the panko crumbs until well coated on both sides.
  2. Heat 1/4 inch of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Place chicken, one or two at a time in the hot oil, and cook 3 or 4 minutes per side, or until golden brown and the inside registers 165F on the inside of the chicken.
  3. Let the chicken rest on a plate while you fry the remaining pieces of chicken.

don’t burn the chicken like me!

Lemon Scones

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I never really understood the point of a scone. In many ways scones are like the sweet counterpart to biscuits or Irish soda bread. When a reader first requested scones, I was hesitant. I wasn’t sure if I was willing to make “sweet biscuits”, especially since I was never really fond of them.

I can honestly say that these lemon scones changed everything. Scones are made by combining the fats with the dry ingredients and then bringing everything together using a liquid. The little bits of butter create flaky tender crumbs that lasts till the last bite. Imagine that with the enticing aroma of freshly grated lemon zest. This recipe produces scones that aren’t overly sweet, which made a lot of my friends happy. I wouldn’t have minded dunking these in some lemon flavored glaze.

Although I’m sure that these scones aren’t the best recipe out there, they were definitely a tasty treat. These scones have inspired me to make more scones in the future, and yes fellow readers, that means more scones to come!

Lemon Scones

Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup cold butter or margarine
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • Juice and zest of 1 lemon

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
  2. Cut butter into tablespoon slices and then cut into small cubes.
  3. In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
  4. Cut in butter until mixture resembles fine crumbs. I prefer to rub the butter in gently using my fingertips.
  5. Add buttermilk and lemon juice, and lemon zest, stirring just until mixed.
  6. Turn onto a floured surface; knead gently six times. Shape into a ball.
  7. On a greased baking sheet, pat dough into a circle about 1/2 in thick and 8-1/2 in. in diameter. Using a sharp knife, cut wedges in the dough, being careful not to cut all the way through. Sprinkle with sugar.
  8. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.

Photo Guide: 30 minute chocolate chip cookies

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Chocolate chip cookies, start to finish, 30 minutes. It was about a year ago when I first posted the chocolate chip cookies that my friends talk about. Big, fat, chewy, chocolate chip cookies is what they’re called in Allrecipes.com. But of course, the ingredients are only a sliver of a recipe–the execution makes up the majority.

Over 4 years after my initial discovery of these cookies, I’ve come up with a method that lets me use these cookies as a “fallback” for almost any given situation. The techniques used in this photo guide might be slightly controversial in terms of what is “taught” or what is “standard baking”.  Throughout the years however, I’ve grown to learn that specifically for this recipe, everything I’ve done has worked… time after time.

Start by preheating your oven to 325 F. In bowl of your stand mixer, add the butter straight from the fridge. Using the paddle attachment, beat on low to break the butter up and then medium until it is smooth and creamy. Add the brown sugar and granulated sugar and cream together. Add the eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla extract and continue beating until combined. Add in the baking soda, baking powder and salt at this time too.

Here’s the second secret to speeding things up. Lower the bowl of the stand mixer and add the flour. Start the stand mixer on the lowest speed possible and slowly raise the bowl up. You’ll have to take your time doing this but using the stand mixer increases the efficiency of this process while preventing a flour cloud.

When the dough is almost mixed in but you can still see the flour, stop the mixer, lower the bowl and add in the chocolate. Repeat the process with the flour – start the stand mixer and raise the bowl slowly. You might feel a bit resistance but don’t worry its completely normal! When the chocolate chips are mixed in the flour should be perfectly mixed in as well.

Start making approximately 1/4 cup balls of dough on a baking sheet with parchment paper.

I tried fitting in 16 but they started touching, if you have smaller baking sheets I’d fit 12 on a sheet.

Bake in the preheated oven for 17 minutes or until the edges are golden brown. When these cookies first come out of the oven, the middle will be soft! Don’t worry because they continue to cook as they cool down – this is the secret to super soft cookies. If you let them cook until they are done while they are still in the oven, they will over cook as they cool down. Transfer to a wired wrack to cook. Store the cookies in a plastic bag with a slice of bread to keep them moist!

It’s been years that I’ve been baking and cooking. From jello mix to French Macarons, these cookies have followed me every step of the way; they are considered one of my few prized collections. If you get a chance I highly encourage you to try them out sometime!

Link to the original post with the recipe: https://boomieskitchen.wordpress.com/2011/06/19/chocolate-chip-cookies/

Pierre Hermé’s Lemon Macaron

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After making what was the best lemon dessert I’ve ever had, I didn’t want to just settle with a boring old tart.  I wanted to make macarons. Remember when I was trying to find the ultimate macaron recipe? Well I can’t say that I’ve found the recipe yet, but I can say that Pierre Hermé’s recipe comes pretty close. I didn’t come across Pierre Herme’s Lemon macaron when I was first making the comparison recipe. If I had made these macarons, I think my decision-making skills would have been severely impaired.

Here’s a secret to Pierre Hermé’s macarons: the shells aren’t flavored. After years of “research”, Pierre believes that the easiest way to infuse flavor into a macaron is by letting the entire cookie age and letting the flavor take over the shell. I don’t think he’s wrong – it’s worked for me so far.

Like his other macaron recipes, this utilizes an italian merengue. In fact, other than the food coloring, these macarons are indistinguishable from the pistachio macarons (as far as the shell is concerned). The filling is essentially the lemon cream, thickened with some extra almond flour. After aging in the fridge for 24 hours, these macarons seemed to be heaven sent.

As you can see from the pictures, I used the Trader Joe’s almond flour. If you’re interested in the difference compared to the typical Bob’s Red Mill almond flour I use, check out my recent post here. My friend/co-worker Melissa (shout out!!!)  mentioned that she would have preferred not seeing the brown specks throughout the cookie. As a designer and crafter that I regard highly, I can’t say I disagree.

Pierre Herme’s Lemon Macaron

Ingredients

Macaron Shells:

  • 300g Ground almonds
  • 300g Icing sugar
  • 110g Aged egg whites
  • yellow food coloring
  •  300g Granulated sugar
  • 75g Mineral water
  • 110g Aged egg whites

Lemon Filling:

Method

Macaron Shell

Pulse the the icing sugar and ground almonds and sift twice. Stir the coloring into the first portion of the egg whites. Pour them over the mixture of icing sugar and ground almonds but do not stir.

Bring the water and sugar to boil at 118C (244F). Start whisking on low when the water boils. When the syrup reaches 115C (239F), simultaneously start whisking the second portion of liquefied egg whites to soft peaks on a medium speed.

When the sugar reaches 118C, pour it over the egg whites. Whisk and allow the meringue to cool down to 50C. Fold meringue into the almond-sugar mixture. Spoon the batter into a piping bag and pipe rounds of batter about 3.5cm in diameter, spacing them 2cm apart on baking trays lined with baking parchment.

Rap the tray on the work surface covered with a kitchen cloth. Leave to stand for at least 30 minutes, until a skin forms on the shells.

Preheat the fan oven to 180C (356F), then put the trays in the oven. Bake for 12 minutes, quickly opening and shutting the oven door twice during cooking time. After 12 minutes, remove the macarons and slide the shells on to the work surface.

Filling

Fold almond flour into the lemon cream. Pipe onto a macaron shell and place another macaron shell on top, squeezing gently.

Mushroom Lasagna

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So if you followed along to my NaBloPoMo posts, you can probably figure out that I was hinting at some pasta dish with mushrooms with my post from yesterday. I don’t know about you but I’m really excited for this mushroom lasagna.

When I first started collecting recipes, this caught my attention. First of all, I love lasagna. I love the idea of combining pasta, sides and throwing copious amounts of cheese between each layer. I love the soft tender bite bursting with multiple flavors. I love the excuse to squeeze food into an entree, so I can make more sides.


With this recipe, not only do I get all the perks of lasagna, it incorporates two of my favorite italian inspirations in cooking, mushrooms and white sauce. The best part – making everything from scratch (well, not the pasta) . I thought it would be a great way to show the world that its really not that hard to make your own sauce. The recipe uses a familiar technique of a flour roux, which is used for gravies and sauces.

I used to have lots of trouble making good roux-based sauces. Past tense used to. My secret to a good roux is as followed. Heat up your liquid, make sure its at least warm and let it sit in a separate container that you can poor from easily, I used a pitcher. Make the actual roux using a one to one ratio of butter and flour. Melt the butter, add all the flour, and whisk away. Let the roux cook for a least a minute to cook out the flour flavor.

The secret to a smooth luxurious sauce, is to add the liquid in every so slightly in the beginning. I poured in a few tablespoons at first. After whisking a bit it’ll seem like lumpy mashed potatoes. Don’t worry! keep adding liquid 1/4-1/2 cup at a time using the pitcher and whisk CONSTANTLY. Soon you’ll get a thick smooth sauce on the top right. At that point it’s usually pretty safe to add all the liquid. I like to add my spices at this time and let it cook with the sauce to thicken. My favorite spice profile in this lasagna – nutmeg.

Always ground fresh if you can, but you gotta do what you gotta do!

The rest is pretty simple. Pasta, sauce. cheese. mushrooms, repeat. The best way to do this? A mini assembly line! I was a bit thirsty so I had a cup of freshly blended smoothie pulling me through the night.

Mushroom Lasagna

Originally adapted from Serious Eats, with notes

Ingredients

  • 3/4 pound dried lasagna noodles
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
  • 4 cups whole milk
  • 1 large garlic clove, minced
  • 3/4 cup unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), divided
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 1/2 pounds portobello mushrooms, stems removed, sliced 1/4-inch thick
  • 1 cup grated Parmesan

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 375°F and bring a large pot of salted water to boil. When water is boiling, add the noodles and cook according to the directions on the packaging. Drain in a colander, and then toss with the olive oil to prevent the noodles from sticking together.
  2. Pour the milk into a medium saucepan and add the minced garlic. Turn heat to medium and bring to a simmer. In a second saucepan, melt 1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter over medium heat, and then whisk in the flour. Turn heat to low, and cook, whisking constantly, for one minute. While continuing to whisk, add 1/4 to 1/2 cups of milk and whisk until combined. Repeat until you have a thick and smooth sauce. Add the remaining milk slowly while whisking constantly. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, the black pepper, and the nutmeg. Turn heat up to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, until thick, three to five minutes. Turn off the heat.
  3. In a large skillet set over medium heat, add two tablespoons of olive oil and two tablespoons of butter. Toss in about half of the mushrooms, season with salt, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms have released some liquid and are starting to brown. Remove these mushrooms and set aside. If more fat is needed, add another tablespoon of olive and butter, and cook the remaining mushrooms.
  4.  Using a large spoon, spread some of the sauce in the bottom of an 8 by 12-inch baking dish. Add one layer of the lasagna noodles, a few spoonfuls of the sauce, 1/3 of the mushrooms, and 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan. Repeat process two more times. Finally, add a layer of sauce on and top with a 1/4 cup grated Parmesan.
  5. Place baking dish in the oven and cook until the top is browned and the sauce is bubbling. Let rest for a few minutes before digging in. Season to taste with salt and pepper.