Vegetable Lasagna

 I decided I was in the mood for some veggie lasagna. This recipe is full of yummy vegetables and it is so delicious that not even the most hardcore carnivore will miss the meat.  I used zucchini, a mixture of mushrooms, onion, garlic, tomatoes, salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper.  I sautéed all the veggies then added wine and the tomatoes and let it cook until the sauce reduced and thickened up a little.

For the cheese (because you can't make lasagna without lots and lots of cheese), I used Mozzarella slices and a ricotta/Parmesan mixture.  I used no boil noodles because that's all I could find at the store. I topped it with a little more Parmesan and into the oven it went.  I baked it for about 45 minutes and let it cool for about 15 minutes before serving.  

The servings came out perfectly - no falling apart pieces.  YAY! It turned out beautifully and was so tasty that I couldn't wait to eat it again the next day!  I served it with salad and the sourdough bread that I picked up from my trip to San Francisco.

Roasted Chicken and Butternut Squash Risotto

Since moving in, I've had to buy chicken stock.  I know, terrible!  So, I decided it was time to roast a chicken so I could use the carcass  to make stock.  I seasoned the chicken with salt and pepper and oil on the outside and underneath the breast skin, I put oil, lemon zest, fresh rosemary and chopped garlic.  I then threw the lemon halves inside the chicken for added flavor.  I roasted it at 425 for 10 minutes then reduced to 375 for about 1 hour and 10 minutes.  I let it rest for about 15 minutes and  then carved it up.  It was heavenly! I love roasted chicken!!

To accompany the chicken, I decided to make butternut squash risotto.  I've made plain risotto and mushroom risotto but have been wanting to try it with butternut squash.  It was so, so good!  It went so nicely with the chicken and it looked so pretty on the plate.  I used fresh butternut squash but you could use a bag of frozen if you were in a hurry.  I also baked the squash the day before I made the risotto and then just stored it in the fridge.  I did heat it in the microwave before adding to the risotto so it didn't cool the risotto down and prolong the cooking time.  Other than that, I pretty much followed this recipe.

For veggies, I just reheated the roasted veggies that I made earlier this week.  Dinner was wonderful!  Best of all, I get to make stock now!  WOOHOO!

One sauce=2 entirely different meals

 I made a nice, healthy meal from recipes on SparkPeople for dinner on Monday. It was seared scallops with a mint pea puree, wild rice and roasted vegetables.  It was fantastic and healthy and beautiful!  The vegetables were so a little different because they had a can of pineapple chunks (with juice) and dill weed mixed in it.  I used zucchini instead of potatoes but other than that, followed the recipe as written.  I really liked the veggies and will definitely make them again soon.
I had a ton of the puree left over, so I decided to save it and use it for dinner the following night.  Well, I had very little time to prepare dinner on Tuesday night, so I pulled out the gnocchi that I had frozen from a couple weeks ago, boiled them and tossed them in oil in the morning then left them in the fridge until dinner time.  Then, for dinner, I just had to heat the pea sauce, make and crumble bacon, sauté the gnocchi and dinner was done. I didn't have time to take a picture of the gnocchi but it was delicious with the pea sauce and the bacon garnish!  YUMM!!! For those that don't readily have gnocchi in the freezer, ready to go ;) you could use prepared gnocchi from the grocery store or sub it out for another pasta.

Healthy, pretty popsicles

I got some new popsicle molds and have been trolling the internet looking for a good and healthy recipe to try out.  Well, I found an awesome recipe from Lost Garden for popsicles that even have SPINACH in it!  Don't stop reading yet!  The spinach gives the popsicles a beautiful color and doesn't change the taste at all.  I made mine slightly different than the recipe on Lost Garden but there were minor changes - I used raspberries instead of strawberries and I used plain Greek yogurt and pure vanilla flavoring instead of vanilla yogurt and I added honey for sweetness.  They turned out FANTASTIC!  My daughter loves them (and so do I) and she's getting a bunch of fruit and Greek yogurt and only a little sugar from the honey.  I will be making these often!

Delicious Dinner Quiche

I couldn't get that stupid, horrible pie crust out of my head so I decide to make a quiche (with homemade pie crust) for dinner Thursday night. Luckily, I redeemed myself wonderfully! I used a Martha Stewart recipe for the crust and loosely based my quiche off one of hers too.  I made the pie crust dough and let it chill in the fridge for an hour.  Then I rolled out the dough (which did NOT crumble, like the last one did) and put it in the pie dish and let it sit until time to bake.  I then sliced a bundle of asparagus, shallots and mushrooms for the filling.  I sautéed them in butter until the asparagus was nice and bright green.  I let that cool then filled the pie crust wit gruyere cheese that I shredded (about a cup).
 I topped the cheese with the sautéed veggies then mixed together eggs, half n half, nutmeg, salt and pepper and poured it on top of the veggies. I placed it on a baking sheet and baked it for an hour (rotating it half way through the cooking time).  I let it cool for 15 minutes and made a lovely salad with mixed greens, broccoli, carrots, jicama, grape tomatoes and some lemon vinaigrette.  It was really such a delicious meal!  We don't normally have quiche so it was a nice, delectable change of pace.

This picture is kind of blurry but if you squint your eyes you can see the deliciousness. The crust was so perflectly flakey and yummy!  Yes, I realize it is not completely covering the pie plate.  I'll work on perfecting that next time.

Here is the link to the pie crust and the quiche recipe.

Gnocchi, fresh tomato sauce, and sausages oh my!

Wednesday night we had some good friends over for dinner- first dinner guests in our new home. I have to say, it was a huge success! I served arugula salad with shaved Parmesan and a lemon vinaigrette, homemade gnocchi with fresh tomato sauce and grilled Italian sausages. I went shopping at the farmers market for the tomatoes and arugula and it was so worth it!!

Everything was so fresh and delicious!!





I love gnocchi but it is a time consuming process to make. I started a day earlier and baked the potatoes, made the dough, shaped the dumplings and boiled them. Then I tossed them with olive oil and put them in the fridge. Early Wednesday, I blanched, shocked, peeled and diced the tomatoes so they were ready for the sauce. Then, I prepped the remaining ingredients, made the vinaigrette and had everything ready to go when our friends arrived. Once they were there, my hubby grilled the sausages while I quickly made the tomato sauce and sautéed the gnocchi. Then, I tossed it together, dressed the salad and plated everything up. It was a lot of prep work but very little to do once our guests arrived. Everyone loved dinner and we had great food, conversation and vino!

Here is a picture of the finished gnocchi but this a picture of the cold leftovers.  I didn't take a picture before we sat down to dinner.

Baking FAIL

So, I asked my husband what kind of pie he wanted me to bake and he said strawberry.  Sure, no problem.  I find a recipe for a fresh strawberry pie and get the strawberries from the farmers market then go to the store to gather the rest of the ingredients.  The problem is that I can't find regular pastry flour ANYWHERE.  I checked three different grocery stores and none of them had it.  They all had whole wheat pastry flour but I really didn't want to use it - as I was afraid it would be too dense.  I finally gave up and got the whole wheat pastry flour.  I found a recipe that was specifically for a whole wheat crust because I was afraid the ratios would be different between the two types of pastry flour.  The recipe was for a single 9" pie crust so I doubled it to make a double crusted pie.  Long story short, I doubled all ingredients EXCEPT the butter!!!  That crust was so hard that it was almost inedible.  LOL!  I was so mad and first blamed the whole wheat pastry flour until I thought about it more and realized the error was mine not the recipes.  ;)

The dough was so hard to work with because of the lack of butter.  I kept adding water but it didn't' help.  I finally gave up on the double crust and made a terrible attempt at a lattice top (which I've never attempted before).  I should have just skipped the top crust completely but my mind was set on a double crust.  It is the ugliest pie I've ever seen BUT the filling was pretty delicious.  I will try again (after my pride heals a little) and will master this stupid pie.