For those who love cooking, Rachel Ray is a certainly a name you know. She is the queen of 30 minute meals and for those who work away from home and has to drive a bit before she can start dinner, Rachel Ray is a life saver.

Her 30 minute meals have never failed us, although I often wonder whether my product ever tastes as good as what she does. Let’s be honest, no matter how much we follow her recipe and instructions, there will always be a slight difference. There are times we taste a good food when dining with friends in somebody else’s house and you ask for the recipe. Yes, she can and will give it to you (she is a really good friend) but once you try it there is a subtle difference in what you have done or in the end result.

The only thing you probably got right was that you both wore a Fame Fabrics apron (we bought it at the same time at the same place). And it is the one thing that both our moms impressed on us when we were younger, and that whenever we are in the kitchen we should always wear our aprons. Maybe it's because we really did a lot of experimentig when we were young. And the only way we get actually close to what she (or I ) has done is when we would do the same recipe with her (or me) hovering around, telling you what you missed or what you didn’t do right.

Anyway, going back to Rachel Ray, she recently shared a recipe of Caprese Lasagna on Good Morning which she said is less than $10, it’s easy, it’s healthy, and it’s yummy and it is definitely below $10. You could take a look at the cost right below the recipe.

Ingredients
•  2 tablespoons butter
•  2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
•  2 tablespoons flour
•  1 cup milk
•  1 cup chicken stock
•  fresh nutmeg, few grates
•  Salt, to taste
•  ground black pepper, to taste
•  1 box oven-ready lasagna noodles
•  1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
•  1/2 bunch basil, chopped
•  4 Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced

Cooking Directions
Preheat oven to 375ºF.
Place a large saucepot over medium-heat and melt the butter.
Add garlic to pan and cook until aromatic, about 1 minute.
Sprinkle the flour over the butter and garlic, and cook for about 1 minute.
Whisk the milk and chicken stock into the butter-flour mixture and bring up to a bubble.
Add the nutmeg, season with salt and ground black pepper, and simmer until thickened, 3-4 minutes.

Assemble the lasagna by ladling a small amount (about 1/4 cup, just eyeball it) of the sauce into the bottom of a 9x13" baking dish and laying 3 lasagna noodles over the sauce.
Top the noodles with about a third of the sliced tomatoes, a third of the basil, 1/4 cup of sauce and about a third of the shredded cheese.
Repeat until all ingredients are used up, topping the lasagna off with a final layer of sauce and shredded cheese.

Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake the lasagna for 30 minutes.
Remove the foil from the baking dish and bake another 15 minutes until the cheese is melted and the sauce is bubbly.
When ready to serve, top with remaining chopped basil leaves.

Serves 4
Caprese Lasagna (Total: $9.35)

Cost:
$0.22 2 tablespoons butter
$0.08 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
$0.08 2 tablespoons flour
$0.26 1 cup milk
$0.72 1 cup chicken stock
$0.04 A few grates fresh nutmeg
XX Salt and freshly ground black pepper
$1.93 1 box oven-ready lasagna noodles
$2.00 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
$2.18 Half a bunch (about 30 leaves) basil, chopped
$1.92 4 Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced

Like Rachel Ray said, it's easy to do, so let us both dig in.