TEAMS again

The guests are gone.  The kids are gone.  We have the house to ourselves!

We hosted our TEAMS meeting last night.  We missed the last meeting because we had out of town guests so it was great to catch up with everyone.  We are reading a book called Heaven in our Hands by Benedict J. Groeschel C.F.R.  It's about the beatitudes so in the "business" part of the meeting, we are discussing how we live the beatitudes in our every day lives.  The book is good.  The only challenging part is the fact that it does not have discussion questions so the couple in charge of leading the discussion has to write those--that's us next month.

I made a seafood lasagna as our main dish.  I used a new recipe so it was an experiment.  It will now be a staple in our house though.  It was delicious.  Here it is for you:

Seafood-Spinach Lasagna

(a bit time intensive but well worth it)

9 uncooked lasagna noodles (about 1/2 box)

1 Tablespoon butter or margarine

10 oz bay scallops (about 1 cup) cut into bite size pieces

1 can (6 oz) cooked crabmeat (about 1 cup)

6 oz cooked deveined peeled medium shrimp, tail and shells removed  (about 1 cup)

1 large onion chopped (1 cup)

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped (I used garlic salt)

1 container (8oz)cream cheese with chives and onion

1 container (10 oz) refrigerated Alfredo pasta sauce

1/3 cup dry white wine or chicken broth

1 container (16 oz) ricotta cheese

3 cups shredded Italian cheese blend (12 oz)  (I used all mozarella)

1 box (9 oz) Green Giant frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves  

1 egg slightly beaten

Heat oven to 350 F.  Spray 13 x 9 inch baking dish with cooking spray.  Cook and drain noodles as directed on package using minimum cook time.

Meanwhile, in 10 inch skillet, melt butter over medium heat.  Add scallops; cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly until firm and opaque.  With slotted spoon, remove to medium boil.  Add crabmeat and shrimp, cover and refrigerate.  In same skillet, cook onion and garlic 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onion is softened.  Reduce heat to low; stir in cream cheese until softened.  Beat in Alfredo sauce and wine with wire whisk.  Remove from heat.

In medium bowl, stir together ricotta cheese, 2 cups of the cheese blend, the spinach, basil and egg.  Set aside.

Spead 1/2 cup of the cream cheese sauce in baking dish.  Top with 3 noodles.  Spread half the ricotta mixture (about 1 1/2 cups) and 1/3 of the seafood mixture (about 1 cup) over the noodles; spread with 2/3 cup of the cream cheese sauce.  Top with 3 noodles, remaining ricotta mixture, half the remaining seafood mixture and 2/3 cup of the cream cheese sauce.  Top with remaining noodles, seafood and cream cheese sauce.

Cover with foil.  Bake 40 minutes; uncover and sprinkle with remaining 1 cup cheese blend.  Bake uncovered about 10 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.  let stand 10 minutes before cutting.

(I tripled the recipe for the group-- there were 10 of us and there was a bit left over.  It filled one large casserole dish but I was very generous in filling each layer.)