I don’t know about you-but being of a “desert people“, this cold weather has me craving warm and spicy soups, stews and pasta dishes.  Not that I don’t have one hand on my bottle of cholula at the start of most dinners and several breakfasts anyway, but this time of the year-even moreso.

Take the other night-our son and daughter-in-law were coming over for dinner and I decided to made a non-dairy lasagna, salad, garlic bread and what I decided to call “tropical chocolate chip” cookies for our meal.

Can you guess what went into my pasta sauce?  Yep,  a heaping tablespoon of cholula.  I’ve found that I like this brand and tapatio best.  They‘re both a bit “thicker” and the flavor is quite a bit better than the very popular tabasco sauce.

Another thing-as you’ve garnered through these columns, I like to streamline everything-so I do not pre-cook the noodles.

I simply take my now empty jar of sauce and fill it half way with water and gently pour it into the waiting lasagna before baking.

It bakes covered for about an hour and then I uncover it for the last 15 minutes-same as you would do the any other pan of this casserole.  While it sits for the required 15 minutes before serving-I pop in the loaf of garlic bread to warm/toast (your preference).

Everyone has their own favorite versions of lasagna-please, share yours this week!

As for the “tropical” version of my chocolate chip cookies-come back on Friday!