Quick and Easy Lasagna

February vacation has officially begun! Today was just a day for laundry, dishes/cleaning off the counter tops where we seem to accumulate anything and everything, and grocery shopping. I still have about 3 loads of laundry to do too. I continuously amaze myself with how quickly I fill a laundry basket...and then wait to wash all those clothes...

While I was at Market Basket, I was frustrated for many reasons. First, they didn't have 3 things that I was looking for, which means tomorrow I'll have to run out to Shaws to find them. Second, like every time I go there, people seriously have no awareness of others when they grocery shop. Let's leave our carriage in the middle of the aisle. Let's stand right in front of three people looking for ground meet and not move when the other three people know exactly what they want and are reaching around you to get it. Let's not take a number at the deli and then get frustrated by the people who do take a number and get service before you. And third, don't send your kid, with the carriage, down a different aisle to get items and then yell from the next aisle over at the top of your lungs to check if he's alright. If you're so concerned about your 8 year-old being okay on his own in control of a carriage, then don't leave him by himself. Also, don't wear next to nothing when you're grocery shopping with your 8 year-old and newborn. And last, don't try to explain to an 8 year-old the concept of comparison shopping, why you have to buy Market Basket brand, and why mommy and daddy's salaries aren't great....he won't understand it. All he understands is that he wants Tostito's Scoops because "Market Basket chip are gross, they taste like nothing and you know it". That kid probably could've done the shopping on his own just fine.

Okay, okay, I will end my rant there. Back to the food. So, the original plan was to have ground sausage in this lasagna as well as the beef, but Market Basket doesn't have ground sausage (I won't rant again, I won't rant again...). I took the original recipe and made it a little easier, using a jar of sauce rather than fully homemade. One, to save time, and two, I have 3 jars of sauce to use at home, so that saves time and uses supplies I already have. I did add some of the ingredients of the homemade sauce to my jar of sauce, just to give it a little more flare. My favorite jarred sauce is Newman's Own Fire Roasted Tomato & Garlic. It's seriously delicious. I don't like sauces that are too tart or tangy with tomato flavor. Plain marinara does nothing for me. I need garlic, roasted tomatoes, roasted red peppers, anything with a little sweetness and flavor.

Quick and Easy Lasagna
adapted from Foodie Crush

1.5 lbs ground beef  (or 1 lb. beef and 1/2 lb. ground sweet Italian Sausage)
3 cloves garlic, pressed
1 medium yellow onion, diced
Kosher salt & fresh ground black pepper
1/3 cup white wine
1/3 cup whole milk
1 jar of your preferred sauce (or check the original recipe for making your own)
1 pkg. no-boil lasagna noodles
15 oz. ricotta cheese
1 egg
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped parsley ( I used a small handful of dried parsley)
16 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese
1 small can tomato sauce (just in case)

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In a skillet, brown the ground meet just until no longer pink. Add the garlic and cook for one minute.
3. Add in the onion, salt and pepper and cook for three minutes until onions begin to turn translucent.
4. Add in the wine and cook for three minutes or until mostly absorbed.
5. Add the milk and cook until absorbed.
6. Add the jar of sauce, cook and stir until heated through.
7. In a medium bowl, combine the ricotta, egg, Parmesan and parsley. Mix well.
8. Spread a bit of the sauce in the bottom of an ungreased 9x13 dish. **Note: I used some of my meat sauce mixture, this might be a good place to use the can of tomato sauce so you can use the meat sauce mix in the layers.
9. Lay 4 lasagna noodles on top. Top with 1/2 the ricotta mixture, then 1/3 of the meat sauce mixture.
10. Repeat with another layer of noodle, ricotta and meat sauce. Sprinkle 1 cup of mozzarella on top.
11. Place one more layer of noodles, meat sauce and the rest of the mozzarella. **Note: This is where I ran out of meat sauce mixture and luckily had a can of plain sauce in the cabinet.
12. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 10 more minutes.

 

This recipe is great if you want to make it for a quick weeknight dinner. It took me about 20 minutes of prep and then the 40 minutes to cook. I've made a couple of other lasagnas. My favorite red sauce lasagna is definitely the meat and mornay lasagna. I've also made some butternut squash ones, which I prefer.

Meat & Mornay Lasagna

Roasted Butternut Squash, Sage and Goat Cheese Lasagna

Butternut Squash Lasagna

Cherry Chocolate Kisses

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Now, most people who know me, know that I'm not a huge Valentine's day person. I think it all started when I worked at Hallmark in college and has to listen to Michael Buble and Harry Connick Jr on repeat, crooning, while I stocked glitter cards and pink stuffed animals. Every restaurant is packed or serves a "special menu" of the same foods they serve already at a jacked up price, or worse - prix fixe. A set menu of stuff that I would certainly eat, but others might not, and it's a ridiculous price. I'm all for prix fixe menus at high end restaurants where that's what they do, but not at your local dinner hub trying to be fancy.

Anyways, I do enjoy buying ridiculous gifts for people on Valentine's day. I mean, why is a stuffed bear waring boxers with hearts on it a gift anyone actually wants??? Somehow, that became a marketing ploy and people buy them as serious gifts. I don't get it.

Well, this year, Dan decided to be all super great for Valentine's day. As stated before, things have been stressful and tense at work, so he started Valentine's day on Tuesday with the lovely flowers and a bottle of rum.

Yesterday he gave me another gift that actually isn't coming until next week - stay tuned!

Then today I came home to these.

What does Dan want? To see the new Die Hard movie at the IMAX theater. We are going to see it, just not tonight. Tonight we are going to order subs and lounge around watching movies and snuggling and be grossly romantic. You should be jealous.

As per usual on a holiday, I had my kids in my vocational skills class bake up a storm and have a celebration. We made cupcakes (boxed mix), strawberry shortcakes, ice cream sundaes, another teacher made a gluten free chocolate chip banana bread, and I paired up with one of my students to make these:

They were great! I would add maybe a little more cherry flavor to the dough, maybe use an oil or extract. They were really simple and my student could be a master chef if he wanted to. Another student of mine found this recipe on Pinterest (yes, Pinterest is a classroom tool in my room!).

Cherry Chocolate Kisses
from The Curvy Carrot

1 cup unsalted butter, softened but still cool
1 cup powdered sugar
1/8 tsp salt
2 tsp maraschino cherry juice from the jar
1/4 tsp almond extract
2 and 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup chopped maraschino cherries
granulated sugar to sprinkle on the cookies
1 bag of Hershey kisses, unwrap 1 per cookie you make

1. Preheat oven to 325.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer (we used a hand mixer), beat the butter on medium speed until creamy.
3. Add the powdered sugar slowly and beat on slow speed until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
4. Add the cherry juice and extract, beat.
5. Beat in the flour. Once combined add the chopped cherries.
6. Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and place 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet.
7. Use your thumb to press the cookie down a bit.
8. Bake for 14 minutes until the bottoms are lightly browned.
9. Top each cookie with a Hershey kiss right as they come out of the oven.
10. Let cool and eat.

Chicken and Pierogi Bake

Yesterday was another long work day. After making my Cheesy Spaghetti Squash bake, I quickly whipped up the next dish which was for dinner. I think Dan has eaten pierogies once, and I've eaten them hundreds of times. I like to make them by boiling them for about 5 minutes then frying them up in some garlic and oil. MMM!

So, I took pierogies (potato and cheese ones) and jazzed them up with things that Dan and I both like, which are as follows:

- cheesy goodness
- bacon
- corn
- chicken
- garlic
- other stuff that brings it all together

This recipe is pretty easy. Well, actually, it was made easier by the fact that I had a whole pre-cooked chicken. You can prepare your chicken ahead of time, use packaged pre-cooked chicken or used canned chicken (sad face, ew). Go for freshly cooked or roasted chicken (maybe even a rotisserie). It came together in about 30-35 minutes total.

Chicken and Pierogi Bake
adapted from Dash Recipes

4 slices of bacon, chopped
2 tbsp unsalted butter
¼ cup all purpose flour
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup half & half
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp Italian seasoning
8-oz shredded Italian cheese blend (I didn't measure, I just handfulled it..that's a word now)
5-oz shredded Parmesan cheese (also not measured when I made it)
 8-oz pre-cooked chicken, diced (not measured, just used whatever white meat was left, it was just over 2 cups of diced chicken)
2 cups frozen corn
 16-oz box frozen cheese pierogies


1. Preheat oven to 400. Greased a large casserole dish lightly.
2. In a medium saucepan, cook the bacon until crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon to some paper towels to drain. Leave the bacon grease in the pan.
3. Add the butter and flour to the pan and whisk until smooth.
4. Add the broth, half & half and seasoning and stir.
5. Add half the cheeses, corn and chicken. Combine. Bring to a bubble for about 3 minutes.
6. Lay the pierogies in the casserole dish and cover with the cheesy mixture. Sprinkle the remaining cheeses on top.
7. Bake for 25 minutes until bubbly and pierogies are cooked through. Top with bacon and eat.

Cheesy Spaghetti Squash Bake

I have 3 more days until February vacation. I'm not sure they can go by fast enough. Like every vacation, I have a slew of recipes I plan on making while I'm home and have the time. I have to make sure I don't have too many yummy leftovers though... I'm getting my gallbladder out the Monday after vacation.

See ya later GB.

A couple nights per week I am usually left to cooking for one, and those nights I try to make all of the yummy (or weird according to Dan) things that he won't eat. Last night, I started roasting a spaghetti squash for a mac and cheese recipe I found, but then Dan's class got canceled. It's been a rough time at work, so we decided to use a gift card we had for Burton's and treat ourselves. And treat ourselves we did. He had a strip steak and I had a cup of butternut squash bisque and then chicken and mushroom ravioli. We ended it with a creme brulee and an Irish coffee with far too much Jameson in it. Like seriously, I was afraid of sweating out booze at my meeting at work today...


So, since the roasted squash got packed up and put in the fridge, I got to make two dished tonight. Both were very easy and very good. I made the squash to take for lunch tomorrow at work. You'll see the dinner recipe tomorrow on here.

The original recipe for this refers to it as a healthy mac & cheese, or squash and cheese if you will. I refer to it as a cheesy bake. It just doesn't even come close to the flavor of mac and cheese. Maybe if I overloaded it with cheese, but it's supposed to be healthy. As a healthy side dish or main dish for one, it's delicious. Just don't expect mac & cheese goodness.

Cheesy Spaghetti Squash Bake
adapted from Joe and Sue

1 small spaghetti squash, roasted (about 2 cups of cooked squashed)
1 tbsp. flour
salt & pepper
1/2 cup milk (I used fat free)
1/2 cup shredded Mexican style cheese
3 slices green pepper, diced
2 tbsp. frozen corn (or any veggie)
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease a small casserole dish.
2. In a small saucepan, over medium heat, whisk together the flour, salt and pepper. Slowly add milk and whisk until smooth. Cook for 2-3 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and add the Mexican cheese. Whisk until combined.
4. Combine the cheese with the cooked squash and stir to combine. Spread the mix into the casserole dish.
5. Sprinkle with diced pepper, corn and Parmesan cheese.
6. Bake for 20 minutes.

Oreo Nutella S'More Brownies

I have been telling myself that I will bake every day for about two weeks. Monday night I finally did, but only because I already had all of the ingredients at home. I knew I was starting to get a cold over the weekend, but just how bad this cold was going to get was unbeknownst to me. I can't breathe, I can't lay down flat, and I can barely taste anything, including these brownies.

I also have a secret. I've never had Nutella before...

Well, that's not entirely true. If you've ever had a Ferrero Rocher truffle, you've had Nutella, and I have eaten many of those. I've just never bought or had Nutella from the jar. I bought some last week at the store so I could try some. I didn't notice the flavor in the brownies, but then again, I'm not tasting much currently...

I also had to steal part of one of Dan's Christmas presents for this...

 

 

Yes, my mom got him a 10-pack box of Oreos for Christmas...

Oreo Nutella S'More Brownies
from Dessert Daze

3 oz. semisweet or unsweetened chocolate
1 stick unsalted butter
1/3 cup Nutella
2 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
16 Oreos
mini marshmallows or big marshmallows cut in half
chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 400 and grease a 8x8 baking dish.
2. In a medium sauce pan, melt the chocolate, butter and nutella and mix together.
3. Remove from heat and quickly mix in eggs, sugar and flour.
4. Pour 1/3 of the batter into the baking dish. Top with the Oreos and cover with remaining batter. Bake for 15 minutes.
5. Sprinkle marshmallows on top and bake for 5 more minutes until marshmallows puff and become golden and toasted.
6. Sprinkle with chocolate chips while still warm and then let cool. Cut and serve.

*** Note: Marshmallow is hard to cut through once everything cools. Good luck. Mine got messy!

They are good though, but I found that my brownies broke apart in the middle where the Oreo was. When I cut them and tried to take them out of the pan, the top would come off leaving half the Oreo and the bottom in the pan.

Maple-Dijon Pork Tenderloin

Today marks an important event in history.

I finally got to use a recipe where the skillet went from the stove top straight into the oven!

Thanks to my wonderful Christmas gift of a stainless steel cookware set, I have pans that can go in the oven, a first for me!

Not only did I get to do the whole stove top/oven ordeal, I got to de-glaze the pan. Whenever I had to de-glaze my old pans it never worked, everything just sort of stuck. Things didn't cook evenly in my old pans, and the non-stick coating would start to scrape off. So glad those are boxed up and out of my cabinets!

I didn't go fancy on the sides for this, just a steamer bag of a pasta and veggie mix I had in the freezer. My next plan is to start using up all of the marinades and dinner kits I have in my cabinets that I never use. Maybe I'll do some blogging about "off the box" recipes (that means recipes that come on a package).

You know what's great about this recipe? It's from Eating Well, which is all about healthy recipes. I also made it even healthier because I used sugar-free maple syrup. Not on purpose, it's just what I have in the fridge.

Maple-Dijon Pork Tenderloin
adapted from Eating Well

1 lb. pork tenderloin, trimmed
3 tbsp. Dijon mustard, divided
kosher salt
fresh ground pepper
2 tsp. canola oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp. maple syrup

1. Preheat oven to 425.
2. In a small bowl, combine 1 tablespoon of Dijon with a pinch of kosher salt and a pinch of fresh ground black pepper. Rub over the tenderloin.
3. Heat canola oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Brown the tenderloin on all sides, about 3-5 minutes.
4. Place the skillet in the preheated oven and cook for 15-10 minutes until a thermometer reads about 145 degrees and pork is cooked through (took me about 24 minutes as part of the tenderloin was thicker).
5. Let the pork rest on a cutting board and return the skillet to the stove on medium-high heat.
6. Add in the cider vinegar and de-glaze the pan, making sure to use a wooden (or silicone) spoon to scrape up the burnt bits. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to a simmer.
7. Whisk in the 2 tablespoons of mustard and maple syrup.
8. Pour sauce over the roast and cut and serve.

** My roast needed a quick sear (I sliced it before pouring the sauce on it, since I was skeptical about it being cooked in the thick parts). I sliced it and the pieces that needed a sear I put in the skillet with the sauce and let cook for 1-2 minutes making sure it was thoroughly cooked. The rest I coated in sauce and served!

20-Minute Chili

Grocery shopping used to be something I enjoyed. I found it somewhat peaceful and would always find new things and try and build them into my recipes. The reason it was peaceful was because I would shop at Shaws, which was quieter and less chaotic than my local Market Basket. Shaws is also much more expensive. I always said I would pay the extra price to not have to deal with absolute disaster that Market Basket always was.

Then, my town got a super Market Basket, which is the size of Shaws and finally had better food, especially better produce than the old Market Basket. It was built in a new plaza in town, where the planner clearly did not thoroughly think through the plans for parking. I've been there three times, and the store hasn't been so bad. It's busy, but it's a bigger store so people aren't always so crammed together.

Today (and I know..I went shopping on a Sunday afternoon), it was super busy. Not only was there tons of people, but they had employees stocking shelves in every row with giant carts that take up most of the space. They had almost nothing left in their meat section and almost no fresh herbs.

Today, I needed fresh herbs. I almost never buy fresh herbs, but today I needed basil, cilantro and parsley. I finally found cilantro, but in a gigantic bunch that will never get used up. My chili for tonight was supposed to have ground turkey, but they ran out. I ended up buying 93% lean ground beef (which of course cost more).

Once I got everything I needed, I kept telling myself that maybe I should go back to Shaws where it was quieter and grocery shopping didn't make me want to tear my hair out. But then when I saw the total cost of my trip, I remembered why I'm sticking to Market Basket...I spent $40-$50 less than I would have at Shaws.

Ok, end rant.

20-Minute Chili
adapted from Not Enough Cinnamon

1 lb. ground beef (or ground turkey, which is what I wanted to use)
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil for cooking
1 (14.5 oz) can corn kernels
1 (14.5 oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
2 tbsp. tomato paste
salt and pepper
pinch of red pepper flakes
1 tsp. chipotle seasoning (or any mexican style season you want)
shredded cheddar cheese (optional)
sour cream (optional)

1. Heat skillet over medium heat.
2. Add oil, garlic and onions and saute 3 minutes.
3. Add beef or turkey and break into pieces. Brown the meat for about 5 minutes.
4. Add the tomatoes, corn, beans, and tomato paste. Stir. Add in the red pepper, salt and pepper and chipotle seasoning.
5. Cover and cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. Top with shredded cheese and sour cream if desired.

I forgot to take a picture while I was cooking. I only remembered to once the leftovers were packed into tupperware, so I apologize in advance for the terrible picture below.