Baked Rotini Lasagna

I love lasagna.  I love spiral noodles.  So I thought I would take the ricotta/mozzarella and pasta sauce and combine them to make the best possible lasagna/rotini dish.  HA.  Actually, I forgot lasagna noodles and only had rotini in the pantry.  It turned out reallllly good, and it was so easy.  Here is the result:

RECIPE

1 pound ground beef, cooked and drained
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon crushed garlic
1 can tomato sauce
1 BIG can heavy tomato puree (Clasico)
Spices - crushed red pepper, Tony C's, garlic, S&P, cayenne
1-2 cups water
2 cups Mozzarella cheese
1 Ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1 box Rotini (or any other favorite noodle - bow tie would be good), cooked and drained
3-4 tablespoons breadcrumbs
3-4 tablespoons mozzarella

In a saucepan, heat your oil and saute the garlic.  Add in the tomato sauce and tomato puree.  Slowly add in your water (I used 1/2 increments) until your sauce reached a desired thickness.  Add in your spices - I used more crushed red pepper for a little spicier flavor.  Let simmer for 10 minutes. 

In a separate bowl, mix your ricotta, mozzarella and 2 eggs together.  Pour your sauce over the ricotta mix, add the ground beef.  Also, if you are into tasting things like I am, remember that there are 2 raw eggs in the mixture - I remembered that after about 3 "tastes".  Pour in your cooked pasta.  Mix well.

Spray a 13x9 with PAM to make clean-up easier.  Pour in your creation, top with bread crumbs and cheese.  Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes, or until cheese is melted and golden.

Chicken Chile Mac and Cheese

Okay, so macaroni and cheese is pretty much my favorite food.  I'm always looking for ways to spice it up a bit, so I took from a few different recipes and made this delicious creation tonight.  If you like mac and cheese, you'll definitely like this :)

I had all of this in my pantry too, even better!

Ingredients:

1/2 16 oz bag of pasta of your choice
8 oz Velveeta, cubed
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 10 oz can of Rotel with green chiles
2 cans of chicken (~3 cups worth, can use fresh cooked chicken as well)
1 green bell pepper
1/2 medium onion
chili powder
ground cumin

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Put a pot with water on to boil and cook noodles as directed.

Dice green bell pepper and onion.  Heat a Dutch oven on the stove.  Add oil.  Once hot, add onion and pepper and cook about 5 minutes.

Add Rotel and cubed Velveeta.  Be sure to stir constantly so the cheese doesn't burn.  Once the cheese is melted, add in chicken and cream of mushroom soup and spices.  Add in cooked pasta and mix thoroughly.

Empty mixture into a greased pan (I used an 8x8) and sprinkle cheese on top.  Cook 25-30 minutes until bubbly and melted.

happy eating :)  xoxo b

Garlic Cheddar Biscuits

I got these from Pinterest, they were soo good.

RECIPE

2 1/2 cups Bisquick
4 tablespoons cold butter (cubed)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
3/4 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

butter glaze
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1-2 tablespoons SMSS

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease your cookie sheet (I just used PAM).

Combine Bisquick with your butter - use a fork to mix the butter up.  There should be small chunks of butter in your mix.  Add remaining ingredients until just combined - do not overmix.

Drop by spoonfuls (large spoonfuls) onto your cookie sheet, it should yield 12.  Bake for 11-13 minutes.  While your biscuits are baking, combine ingredients for your glaze.  Once biscuits are done cooking, brush the glaze on with a pastry brush.  Sprinkle with kosher salt.

Fried Catfish

I was hesitant... but, it turned out really, really good.

RECIPE

4 whole catfish
buttermilk
2/3 flour and 1/3 cornmeal
Tony C's
S&P

Rinse your fish.  Pat them dry and soak in buttermilk for 20-30 minutes.

Placing your flour and cornmeal in a ziploc, evenly coat and batter your fish.

Ready to fry!!

These fish take about 8-10 minutes to cook completely.

Barbecue Sauce

I've been looking for a really good barbecue sauce recipe.  After looking at about 10, I decided to go for it without a recipe.  I didn't measure, so the ones below are just estimates.  When I make another batch, I will make sure to measure it out so I can update this, oops.  One note, make sure after dicing your jalapeno, not to rub your lips or eyes.  It burns.  I guess that is just common sense though...

RECIPE

2 tablespoons olive oil
1-2 teaspoons minced garlic
6 oz. tomato paste
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
4-5 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons molasses
3-4 tablespoons Worcestershire's sauce
2-3 tablespoons spicy brown mustard
4 tablespoons honey
S&P
Tony C's
1 teaspoon oregano
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 teaspoons paprika
1 jalapeno, diced

In a saucepan, heat your oil, add your garlic.  Once browned, add your brown sugar and molasses.  Mix until dissolved.  Add remaining ingredients, simmer for 20 minutes.  So easy!

 Put on top of a pulled pork sandwich!!!

Pulled Pork

I've been wanting to make some homemade BBQ sauce, and I had a pork loin in the freezer.  Perfect combo.  I reverted from my typical pulled pork in the crock pot and baked it this time... so much better!  When I took it out of the oven and poked it with my fork, it fell apart.

RECIPE

1 pork loin
SMSS
Tony C's

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Lay out two sheets of foil, on top of each other (this will just help strengthen the foil and prevent steam from escaping).  Place your pork loin in the center of your foil, coat with SMSS and Tony C's.  Flip over and repeat.  Bringing the top and bottom pieces of foil together, create a seal, repeat with the ends of the foil.  It should look like this when finished:

Place on cookie sheet and bake for 3 hours.  It should look like this when done!:

 Chop it, dice it, shred it!

Empanadas

These were so easy to make AND you can either bake them or fry them.  These aren't traditional, more like a "white girl's" version...

RECIPE

2 pie crusts
1 pound ground beef (chicken, steak or pork would also be good)
3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
3/4 cup cheese (I used cheddar, mozzarella and parmesan)
SMSS
Tony C's
Cumin
Garlic Powder
Onion Salt
oil

Roll out your pie crusts - don't get it too thin to where it will break.  Using a round cookie cutter (or the open end of a glass), cut your crusts into as many rounds as possible.  Place on a cookie sheet, layered with wax paper to prevent sticking and refrigerate.

Meanwhile, cook your potatoes in 2 tablespoons of oil, add your spices as they cook.  

Drain potatoes, place in a separate dish.  Cook off your ground beef, return potatoes to pan.  Add cheese and mix well!!

Remove your rounds from the refrigerator.  Place one tablespoon of your meet and potato mix in the center of the dough, fold over and pinch sides together.  Using a fork, press gently on the edges of the empanada to make sure it is sealed!  In a pan (or deep fryer, or you can bake them in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes), heat 2 tablespoons oil.  Place your empanadas in hot oil, cooking about 2-3 minutes per side.  

I topped mine with hot sauce, sour cream and jalapeno sauce.

Enchiladas

Becky sent me a jar of green chiles and they had to be used within 3 weeks of opening.  I had about half a jar left so I decided to make some enchiladas with homemade enchilada sauce!

RECIPE

sauce
2-3 cups green chiles
1 can red chiles (optional)
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
2 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons flour
Frank's Red Hot
SMSS
S&P
Red pepper flakes

In a saucepan, heat olive oil and garlic.  Add your green chiles, hot sauce and seasonings.  Add your chicken broth and flour and whisk to prevent flour from lumping - let simmer for 10-15 minutes.  If not thick or thin enough add more flour or broth, respectively.

enchiladas
enchilada sauce
3 chicken breasts, cooked and diced (I poached mine in chicken broth)
13 corn tortillas
shredded cheese
**oil** (see note below)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  

Pour your enchilada sauce in a shallow bowl, big enough to fit your tortillas.  In a 13x9, spread a thin layer of enchilada sauce - just enough to cover the bottom of the pan.  Taking the first tortilla, dip both sides in your enchilada sauce, fill with chicken.  Roll it up and put in your baking dish.  Repeat x13.  Cover with cheese and remaining enchilada sauce.  Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until cheese is completely melted and the top is golden brown.

**Note for corn tortillas, I fried mine in a little oil before using.  This will do two things, keep tortillas from falling apart AND reduce the cook time needed**

Smoothies

When Emmy just visited me, she made me make her a smoothie for breakfast everyday- just call me Jamba Juice :)

Ingredients:

Yogurt - I vary between nonfat plain or vanilla, whichever brand is on sale- plain has less sugar, but vanilla tastes better.  I buy them in the big containers and since there are usually 4 servings I try and get 4 smoothies out of each one.

Frozen fruit tropical smoothie blend from Costco- but any frozen fruit will do
1 banana- a must!  Banana makes such a difference, maybe because it's my favorite fruit...
2 tsp flax seed- you won't be able to taste this, just for an added punch of nutrients
A squirt of agave nectar or honey for sweetness

Directions:

Put the yogurt into the blender and add the fruit on top.  I like to let it sit for about 10-15 minutes to give the fruit a chance to thaw.  This isn't necessary, it just makes it easier to blend.  Add the flax seed, agave/honey and banana.  Begin to blend starting with the ice crushing function on your blender. Add small amounts of water as you blend to achieve desired consistency.  Pour into a glass and enjoy!

Tip- when fruit goes on sale in the market, I'll buy in bulk and make my own freezer ready made mixes.  The season will determine the types of fruit but right now I have strawberries and kiwis in Ziplock bags just waiting for a grab n'go smoothie!

happy eating :)  xoxo b

Chicken Piccata

This recipe turned out soo good!  I served it with steamed broccoli and pasta.

RECIPE

4 chicken breasts - pounded out thin
flour
2 lemons
S&P
oil
garlic (about 1 teaspoon)
1 cup chicken broth
3 tablespoons butter, softened

Preheat oven to 200 degrees - put a 13x9 baking dish in to heat.

Cut one of your lemons in half lengthwise.  Cut ends from one half and slice into 1/4 inch pieces.  Juice your remaining half and whole lemon, set to the side.

After pounding your chicken, season with S&P, coat evenly in flour and shake to remove excess.  Heat your skillet on medium high heat for 2-3 minutes before adding oil.  Once hot, add 2 tablespoons oil, let heat for 2-3 more minutes.  Place two pieces of chicken in the oil, do not move them around, let cook for 2-3 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Flip and repeat.  Note: it is important to not move them so that the breading stays intact.

Once your first two pieces are done, place in the 13x9 in the oven to keep warm.  Add 2 more tablespoons of oil to your pan, let heat.  Add remaining two pieces of chicken, following the same process as above.  Add to 13x9 pan.

In your now empty pan, add garlic and cook for 15 seconds.  Add stock and lemon slices, increase your heat to high.  Make sure to scrape the bottom of the pan to prevent burning.  Simmer for 3-4 minutes, or until the liquid begins to reduce.  Add your lemon juice and simmer for 2 minutes.  Remove pan from heat and add your softened butter to thicken your sauce.

I just removed the 13x9 from the oven and poured the sauce directly over the chicken!

Baby Back Ribs

Yum....

RECIPE

1 rack baby back ribs
S&P
SMSS
Meat Tenderizer
Smoked Maple seasoning
Chopped/minced garlic
Onion Powder
Tony C's
Honey
1/2 can beer
BBQ sauce
Butta

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place your ribs on foil and season them with spices and garlic.  Drizzle with honey.  Wrap them up tight so that no steam can escape in the oven.  Bake for 2 hours.

Before and after!

Once they are out of the oven, unwrap them and place directly on the grill (gas grill on low OR if using charcoal, let coals die down so they aren't scorching.  In a small saucepan, heat up your beer, BBQ sauce (about 3/4 bottle), chopped garlic, 2 tablespoons butta.  Once warm, brush the sauce over your ribs.  Continue to grill until sauce is slightly charred on your ribs - about  minutes.

Grilled Artichokes

We tried grilling artichokes a couple of days ago - they were awesome!

RECIPE

Artichokes - try to keep as much stem as possible (it is a continuation of the heart)

Olive Oil

S&P

SMSS

Tony C's

Lemon Pepper (or any of your favorites)

Melted butter

Before grilling your artichokes, make sure you cook them! If not, they will burn before they finish cooking on the grill!  I steamed mine (about 20-30 minutes) but you can bake them as well (about 1 hour).  Once they are cooked, cut in half lengthwise.  Make sure your knife is VERY sharp.  Drizzle them in olive oil and season to your liking.  

When you put them on the grill, they only take 2-3 minutes per side!  I brushed them with some melted butter as well.  

Mediterranean Easter Feast

Emily has once again conceded defeat... That puts us up 2 to 1 in the battles!

Up next: Battle of the Mediterranean Easter Feast.

Stay tuned to find out how it all shakes down.


happy eating :)  xoxo b

Battle of...Lasagna!

 We decided to take on an ambitious menu for this challenge:

Olive Garden bread sticks- see Emily's previous recipe
         (only change was exchanging Santa Maria Style Seasoning instead of Tony C's)
Strawberry Pecan Poppyseed Salad
Spinach Mushroom Ground Beef Lasagna
Chocolate dipped kiwi Popsicles with Blueberry Lemon Sorbet
          (we didn't get to the sorbet though due to Clinton having to leave)

AND the secret ingredient: homemade cheese!!

That's right people, we made our own mozzarella and ricotta cheese for our lasagna and it was sooo good!  I bought a kit a few weeks back and have been very excited to try it out.  Even better, it makes 30 ~1 lb of cheese total!

Just add milk, sort of...

This awesome kit includes all the ingredients you'll need except for milk:

Vegetable rennet tablet
Citric Acid
Cheese Salt
Dairy Thermometer
Butter Muslin cloth

In addition to the gallon of milk- must be not ultra pasteurized,  you'll also need a stainless steel large pot, or at least one that is not cast iron or aluminum.  A slotted spoon, colander, microwave bowl should also be on hand as well as rubber gloves.  Don't skip on the rubber gloves like we did unless you want to burn yourself because it's smoking hot!

Ricki's 30 Minute Mozzarella  (~3/4 lb.)

1 gallon milk- not ultra pasteurized we used Vitamin D milk for the added flavor
1 1/4 cup cool water, chlorine free- We used my Brita filter
1 1/2 tsp. citric acid
1/4 rennet tablet (wrap the rest in plastic and store indefinitely in the freezer)
1 tsp cheese salt

1. Dissolve 1/4 rennet tablet into 1/4 cup of cool, chlorine free water.  We used a small bowl.  Stir and set aside.
2. Mix 1 1/2 tsp into 1 cup cool chlorine free water until dissolved.  Pour into pot.

Citric acid into water

Milk into the pot

3. Pour 1 gallon milk into pot and stir in vigorously

Stir!

                                   

  4. Heat the milk to 90 degrees while stirring.

90 degrees, ready!

5.  Remove from heat and slowly stir in the rennet solution with an up and down motion for 30 seconds.

Up and down with the slotted spoon 

6. Cover the pot and leave undisturbed for 5 minutes.  We left ours for about 10

7. Check the curd.  It should look like a custard with a clear separation between the whey and the curds.  If it's still milky with no separation, let sit a few more minutes.

8. Cut the curd with a knife that will reach the bottom of your pot.

Little miss moffet sat on her toffet..

eating her curds and whey?  very strange 

9.  Place the pot back on the stove and heat to 105 degrees while slowly moving the curds around with your spoon.

10. Take the pot off the burner and continue slowly stirring for 2-5 minutes (the more time you spend the firmer your cheese).

11.  Pour off the floating whey using the cheese cloth.  We tried this without the cheese cloth for the mozzarella but wised up for the ricotta- use the cheese cloth!!

Ladle your curds into a large microwave safe bowl.  Drain off as much whey as you can without pressing the curds too much.  USE THE GLOVES!

Microwave for 1 minute.  Remove bowl and drain off more whey if necessary as you fold the curds together into one piece.  Add the cheese salt here.

Microwave another 30 seconds.  Drain again and stretch the curd.  It must be 135 degrees to stretch properly, so if it isn't hot enough put in for another 30 seconds.

Stretch the cheese until it's firm and shiny, like taffy!  The more you work it, the firmer it will be.  You can taste it now too, delicious!

Form your cheese however you'd like (ball, braid, mini balls, sticks) .  When finished submerge into cold water for 5 minutes and then ice water for 15 to cool it.  We just stuck it into the freezer and it was okay.

Yay we're cheesemakers!  It'll store up to 2 weeks in the fridge in saran wrap, or you can freeze and re heat for a later date.  We didn't have to worry about that as there were no leftovers!

Curds 

Into mozzarella!

Ricki's Whole Milk Ricotta  (~1 1/4-2 lbs.)


1 gallon whole milk- not ultra pasteurized
1 tsp. citric acid
1 tsp. cheese salt.

Now we're old hands at this and have a clue what we're doing so the ricotta was much easier!

1. Pour the milk into your pot (we used the same one as the mozzarella), add the citric acid and salt.  Stir.

2. Heat the milk to 195 degrees.  Keep stirring or else you'll scorch it.
3. When the curds and whey separate, turn off the heat and let sit for 5 minutes.

4.  Line a colander with the butter muslin aka cheesecloth and gently pour the pot into the colander.

Curds and whey into the colander

Draining

5.  Tie the cloth into a bag and hang for 30 minutes depending on desired consistency.

6. After draining, the cheese is ready to eat!  Again, this will keep up to 2 weeks or you can freeze it.

CHEEEEEEESE!

Next: Lasagna!

1 lb. ground beef
1 package frozen cooked spinach, thawed
1 cup shitake mushrooms (Costco re hydrated kind)
2 green chiles
Marinara sauce
Homemade mozzarella
Homemade ricotta
~9 lasagna noodles

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Put a large pot of water on to boil.

Cook the onions in basil olive oil and garlic for about 5 minutes.  Add the ground beef and brown.  Add spinach, chiles and mushrooms, cook for about 10 minutes to warm through.  Drain off the grease.

Pour sauce into 9 x 13 pan to cover.  Layer 3 noodles, then top with filling, shredded mozzarella and ricotta and more sauce.  Continue with this pattern until out of noodles.  Top with more cheese and sauce.

Ready to bake!

Cook for about 35 minutes in the oven, until nice and bubbly.  Enjoy!  

Chocolate Dipped Kiwi Popsicles

Ingredients:

As many kiwi's as desired ( I made 4 and used 2 kiwi's)

Popsicle sticks

semi sweet chocolate chips

Cut kiwi's into desired shapes.  Stick Popsicle sticks into pieces.  Be sure the kiwi is thick enough.

Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave for 15 seconds at a time until completely melted.  Add water to help with consistency.

Dip kiwi on stick in chocolate until covered.  Place on wax paper and let sit until the chocolate hardens to make it easier to move them.  Put in freezer until frozen, yum!

 Whew!  Dinner was delicious, we should have let the lasagna sit before cutting into it but we we were hungry!  And I think we may have the upper hand with the home made cheese...

happy eating :)  xoxo b