Leftovers recipe - chicken and vegetable lasagne

I must say when it comes to cooking I do like to use fresh ingredients but as mentioned before it's become important to start using everything from leftovers to the last bits left in the fridge so I have been on a mission to see how far I can take foods...from my two curries using leftover Sunday dinner to now using up leftover chicken. This is a really simple recipe which I think most of us like but twisting it to work with what I had leftover. I adore lasagne, it has to be one of my favourite comfort foods. Granted I don't cook it as much, due to the fact that when I do I eat practically the whole lot so I tend to make it every so often. Using leftover chicken and some vegetables that were in need of being used up actually turned up to be a really cheap and extremely satisfying meal, I didn't just add the chicken to the vegetables, I actually made two different layers of flavours which complemented each other perfectly and it got a huge thumbs up from my son. 

If you have any leftover chicken try out my filling, cheap and very tasty lasagne :))

Chicken and Vegetable Lasagne

Vegetable layer

1 onion chopped

3 cloves garlic chopped

1 sprig of rosemary chopped

1 tsp oregano

1 courgette chopped into quarters

1 aubergine cut into small pieces

2 peppers cut into bits

1 1/2 tin plum tomatoes 

Salt and pepper

Chicken layer

Leftover chicken about 300g

40g pancetta cubes

100g mushrooms chopped

Cheese sauce

500ml milk

2 heaped tbsp cornflour

Knob of butter

Grated cheese (to your taste- I prefer not too cheesy)

Lasagne sheets

Mozzarella - I pack buffalo mozzarella sliced 

In a pan add some oil and heat. Add the onion and cook until softened, add the garlic and cook for a further minute and then add the herbs and cook for another minute

Add the vegetables (you may need a little more oil) and cook through for around 5 minutes on a medium heat (you don't want to cook too much as you don't want soggy vegetables)

Pour in the plum tomatoes and stir through. Add a good amount of salt and pepper and stir in. Simmer for around 10 minutes and remove from the heat

In a jug add the milk and stir in the cornflour

In a small saucepan on a high heat, melt the butter and once melted add the jug of milk and stir until the sauce begins to thicken, this will be when it starts to boil. Once thickened add the cheese and stir in to melt and turn the heat down to a slow simmer for a couple more minutes and remove from the heat

In a pan add some oil and on a medium heat add the pancetta, mushrooms and cook through for a couple of minutes and then add the leftover chicken and stir through. Cook this until well cooked and heated through and then add 2 large serving spoons worth of the cheese sauce and stir through and heat for a further minute and remove from the heat

To assemble to lasagne

In a large oven proof dish pour in just over half the vegetable mixture into the bottom of the dish and place half the mozzarella over the vegetables, lay over the lasagne sheets.

Spoon all the chicken mixture over the lasagne sheet and top with more lasagne sheets.

Spoon over the remaining vegetable mixture and top with the rest of the mozzarella, lay over the some lasagne sheets and pour over the remaining cheese sauce

Pop into a pre heated oven at 180/170c fan and cook through for around 30 minutes until golden on top and the lasagne sheets have cooked through ;))