it’s all about the mini

I have always had an affinity for miniature.  When I was young and my parents would travel, they would bring me back miniatures, mostly animals.  Still to this day, if it’s good big, then mini is even better.  Miniatures are just so darn cute.  Think about it.  Kitten are cuter than cats.  Puppies are cuter than dogs (Don’t tell Coe).  Dachshunds are only cute as puppies (otherwise they are just footballs).

So, when I can make dinner small, everything is copacetic.  So Sunday night I had a few girls over for dinner.  I had the opportunity to play with some new bakeware.  My friend Megan reps for Demarle at Home.  I made cupcake lasagna in the straight side muffin tray.  These made the perfect single serving.

I may have mentioned before, but when I cook, I don’t follow recipes.  They are but mere suggestions.  My inspiration came from a few different sources, such as cupcakelab, Can You Stay for Dinner and Skinny Stove.  I had guests who are gluten free and as Skinny Stove did I used eggplant instead of noodles for about half my lasagna.  I sliced the eggplant thin with my mandolin then my biscuit cutter made the perfect round for the muffin cup.

For the other lasagna cupcakes, I used wonton wrappers as noodles.  For both lasagna, put noodle in the cupcake pan, top with a little cheese mixture, meat and sauce.  Repeat.  Top final noodle with sauce, mozzarella and parmesan.

Bake at 375 for 25 minutes until cheese is melted and bubbly.  They popped out of the silicone perfectly.

So, you want a recipe… I made 2 big lasagnas as well, so I can only give approximations.  Can you stay for dinner has a specific recipe if you need one, but I’ll give you my ingredient list.

Mix together
ricotta
mozzarella
parmesan
1 egg
handful thawed and drained spinach
Penzey’s Tuscan Sunset spice blend (generous amount)

Saute onion and several cloves of garlic.
Brown ground beef (or turkey)
more Tuscan Sunset (ditto generous)
You don’t need to add salt since your cheeses will provide that.

Leftovers were awesome cold for breakfast in the morning.  While I’m not an advocate for hiding vegetables from your kids, if you do the eggplant noodle thing, even the most adamant eggplant hater will not know there’s eggplant in there.

Enjoy-