QUICK 'N' EASY meals

[Sassiness]

when I lived in England, and red meat was expensive as hell but chicken was cheap, we used to make chicken carbonara a lot - very quick recipe.

chicken breast (one large or 2 smaller)
few rashers of bacon
mushrooms
onion
garlic
herbs
evaporated milk OR cream (makes v rich though!)
pasta

Fry off the onion and garlic, then add the mushrooms, then add the bacon, then add the chicken. When browned, add tin of evaporated milk and leave to simmer for 10-15 mins or so (I dunno... til chicken is cooked and the sauce is reduced to a nice thick one)
Prepare pasta (pretty easy!)

Serves as much or as little as you'd like - just get enough proportions of everything to feed as many people as you need.

I've tried making it with cream, and it's nice but very very rich. Evaporated milk is a smidge healthier.

Then there's my bolognaise recipe: can be used as sauce in its own right or as base for lasagne
- roughly 400 g mince meat
- 1 large onion
- 2-3-5 cloves garlic (to your taste - I like garlic!)
- stick of celery
- dozen or so mushrooms
- large carrot
- zucchini
- some deep red wine (cabernet is better than shiraz)
- 200g tinned tomatoes (chopped is better)
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- fresh basil and oregano (especially the latter) makes it awesome

Fry onion and garlic, then celery. When softened, add mince. When browned, chuck in rest of veg, a generous dash of wine, tinned tomatoes and tomato paste. Stir well, add fresh herbs and let it simmer til veg cooked down nicely and flavours coming through.

Should make enough to feed about 5 large serves of sauce on pasta of your choice.

Pretty cheap meal and very easy to make. To turn it into lasagne, layer it between lasagne pasta sheets with cheese sprinkled between each layer, and then top with bechamel sauce and more cheese.
Sauce:
- tbsp butter (melted)
- tbsp plain flour
COmbine into paste on medium-low heat
Slowly add milk (about a cup... I think) CONSTANTLY stirring, aiming for a paste-like consistency. If you fuck it up, you can fix it just by stirring until smooth. Don't let it burn on the bottom (total prick to clean!)

My lasagne layering is:

final layer of parmasen and mozzarella cheese
bechamel sauce
pasta
*mozzarella
*sauce
*pasta

* continued for as much as you need to fill your dish.