Make Ahead Magic-in the form of turkey lasagna rolls

School will be starting for our family in just 9 days. That means homework, girl scouts, sticking to routines that were abandoned for summer fun. Since my husband is a teacher that means early morning out the door for him and endless meetings for him after work. Oh, and dance and piano lessons thrown in for good measure.

None of this is unique to our family-I have friends that hold multiple jobs, work weekends or have boatloads of children...In honor of all of us and how easy it is to grab takeout I am going to try to focus some effort on providing some make ahead deliciousness that goes beyond the standard baked ziti or mac & cheese. Something you can pull together on the weekend and enjoy it during the week.

Tonight I was inspired by my friend who is making lasagna...something I don't do well. I keep seeing lasagna roll ups and that seems a little more my speed...With that I give you Turkey Lasagna Rolls....

Turkey Lasagna Rolls

1 lb Ground Turkey
1 clove crushed garlic
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

8 lasagna noodles (not the "no need to boil" style-get old fashion boil ones)
1 15oz ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated pecorino romano
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1 egg
1 tablespoon shredded fresh basil or 1 teaspoon dried
Dash of black pepper
1 jar of your fave spaghetti sauce

1. As your water boils for the noodles brown the turkey. Mixing in the garlic and Italian seasoning.

2. Coat bottom of 13x9 baking dish with thin layer of sauce.

3. Cook noodles in boiling water-under cook them. Mine called for 10 mins and I took them out at 8-you want them to roll easily.

4. Mix ricotta, 1/2 cup mozzarella, egg, basil, 1/4 cup pecorino and black pepper to combine.

5. Remove noodles from water, place on a board, patting dry. Spoon a little sauce along the length of each one, then ricotta mixture and finally ground turkey. Remember, you need to roll these so don't overfill or the filling will all ooze out the side. Roll each noodle and place seam side down in prepared baking dish.

6. Cover the dish with remaining pecorino and mozzarella. Cover dish with foil and refrigerate up to 2 days. Bake at 350 degrees until hot and cheese bubbles-about 25 minutes.

Leftovers will keep 2-3 days....This recipe doubles/triples easily and is open to all sorts of variations-beef, veggie, alfredo sauce etc...

Mingle Albany

Mingle opened on Delaware Ave about 6 months ago in the former home of The Bagel Bite (yes, I know other eateries have been there in between...but Bagel Bite was longest). I checked their menu out ages ago and was a little on the fence as it was heavily a Korean menu. Korean is not one of my favorites so I wasn't sure....I was happy that a new restaurant had opened though so to show my support of a new locally owned joint I "liked" them on Facebook. Glad I did, I saw their menu grow and evolve into one that still has a long list of Korean specialities but also has daily specials, southern fare and has made a committment to source as much food as they can locally. Tonight along with Michael and some friends we finally checked it out...and....we loved it! and c They redid the interior with sage colored walls and a few well chosen art pieces. The booths are gone and the far wall is one large comfy polished wooden bench seat. The bar is still there and apparently there is a backroom for seating, but I never made it beyond the main room which must easily seat 40+ people. We began with drinks-Sangrias and beers for the rest. I went with the Strawberry Basil Lemonade. The drink was made with rum and went down like a virgin cocktail-sweet with a mild spice from the basil. I could have drank several more of these! For apps Michael and I shared the jerk wings and the cheese pate plate. The jerk wings are spicy and come with homemade blue cheese. They are baked not fried. My only (minor) complaint was that the skin wasn't too crispy on them...The flavor won me over though. The cheese pate is a mix of several cheeses from The Cheese Traveller next door. It is served with bread from All Good Bakery and an assortment of fruit. The cheese had a slight horseradish tang. We ordered the small size and it was too much! (Leftovers...) I had a hard time picking an entree, but settled on the smaller portion of the chicken and chorizo creole over rice. Fresh veggies, chicken and chorizo mounded over rice with a mildly spicy sauce. Fantastic flavor, hand cut veggies, perfectly moist chicken.. The rest of my table loved their food as well, and we did a good job sampling the menu-Lamb, Korean tacos, kimchi miso soup etc... Our bill for 4 including 4 beers, 2 sangrias and 1 mixed drink was about $200 w/tip. Notes-many dishes come in half portions....some dishes come spicy or "chef spicy" so you can select your degree of heat...they have a great craft beer and wine menu...the service was fantastic. Go Mingle!