Eggplant Lasagna

We miss Italian food, eating Paleo all the time. But I figured out how to get around it! Eggplant makes for perfect noodle substitute, as long as you peel it.

Ingredients:

One large, fat eggplant, peeled and sliced very thinly (use a mandolin if possible)
1 pound (or a little more) ground beef
1 small onion, chopped
1 tsp minced garlic
1 small can of tomato sauce
1 16-oz package of shredded mozzarella
2 lb tub of ricotta cheese
fresh oregano
salt and pepper

Peel and slice the eggplant while you brown the ground beef in a saucepan along with the onion and garlic. Once the meat is browned, add the sauce, dash of salt and pepper, and a small bunch of fresh oregano (or 1/2 tsp dry), and stir together well on low heat. Turn off heat, and spray olive oil into bottom of large glass baking dish. Mix the ricotta and a handful of mozzarella in a big bowl together.
Time to start layering!
Spread a layer of meat sauce on the bottom of the dish, then top with a layer of eggplant.
Spread a layer of ricotta on top of that, followed by a final layer of meat sauce and another layer of eggplant.
Spread the rest of the ricotta on top, then a final layer of eggplant, topped with the rest of the bag of mozzarella.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes, and enjoy!

**QUICK POST NOTE** After cooking this, I realized it was a bit too cheesy, so maybe next time only 1 pound of ricotta is necessary :P

Amazing Apple-Pork Meatballs With Sweet Sauce

I found a turkey recipe in a magazine that sounded good, and then I realized I only had maybe half the ingredients it called for. So I BS'd my way through the entire thing, making this an almost paleo recipe to boot. These are by far one of my greatest creations!

Ingredients for Meatballs:

2 pounds ground pork
1 large/ XL egg
2 apples, grated
1/4 cup bread crumbs (or almond flour if you have it; not only does it taste better, it's Paleo)
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp dry thyme
1 tsp parsley flakes
1 Tbsp fresh (or 1/2 tsp dry) oregano
1 large shallot, minced

Crack the egg into a large bowl. Grate the apples over that.

Add all other ingredients (mince the shallots as small as you can before your eyes water up) and mix it all together well with your hands.

Form meatballs and bake at 350 degrees F for 30-40 minutes, but check them at 25 minutes; they are done when they are brownish gold on the outside and feel solid.


Ingredients for Sauce:

1/2 cup apple sauce (natural unsweetened is best)
1/4 cup Pure Maple Syrup
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

Mix all ingredients in a small pot and cook on low while the meatballs cook; keep warm and spoon over meatballs after they are on the plates.

Cheese and Spinach Tart

I got this recipe from Parents magazine, and messed with it just a little bit for dinner last night. It was pretty easy, but all together took about an hour to make.

Ingredients:

2 small onions, diced
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 9-inch frozen pie shell
1 cup reduced fat milk
1 cup part-skim shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 tsp garlic powder
3 large eggs
1/2 tsp parsley flakes
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1 10oz package frozen spinach, drained and squeezed of water

Preheat over to 350 degrees F. Heat oil in a skillet, and add onions. Cook on low to medium heat until caramelized.

Prick pie shell with a fork and bake for 10 minutes. When onions are done, take off heat and let cool a few minutes. Mix all other ingredients in a large bowl, then add the onions.

Pour into cooked pie crust and bake another 45-50 minutes or until firm. I served this up with some of my Easy Lemon Pepper Fish.

Easy Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

So I've been using jarred spaghetti sauce for about 4-5 years now, and finally thought I'd try a cheaper way out. The baby is 15 months old now, can you believe it? So I am able to sit her in her play area and let her watch one of the Your Baby Can Read dvds while I prepare a meal. Since I just threw this one together in the crock pot, it took no time at all and will be very easy to throw together come dinnertime.

Ingredients:

1 14oz can tomato sauce
1 14oz can diced tomato (mine was flavored with olive oil and garlic)
1 pound ground meat (I used turkey this time)
1 can artichoke hearts or quarters
2 fresh scallions/green onions, chopped
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 Tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp seasoned salt
a few shakes of seasoned pepper and onion powder
1 Tbsp each fresh chopped sage and oregano
1/2 tsp fresh thyme

Throw all ingredients into the crock pot. Mix together if you can; my ground turkey was still partially frozen when I put it in so I'm going to have to stir it all together in a few hours once it's cooking. Cook in slow cooker on low for 6+ hours or until dinner, then serve over freshly cooked pasta of your choice.

Roasted Rabbit with Sangria Sauce

This is a long, complicated recipe that my father-in-law came up with and asked me to share because of how interesting it is. He was given a rabbit by a hunter friend, and had also made sangria the other day. He decided to combine them and discover a new flavor. You can purchase rabbit at specialty butcher shops; it's a very lean meat that tastes similar to chicken.

Sangria Sauce Ingredients:

1 green apple, chopped
2 oranges, eighthed
1 white nectarine, chopped
1/2 cup blackberries
1 red pear, chopped
1 bosc pear, chopped
1 stick cinnamon
spice pack: 4 whole allspice and 6 cloves (use a tea ball or something)
1 inexpensive bottle of red Zinfandel wine

Mix all together in a pitcher and you have Sangria. Have a drink or two! Then use the rest to make the sauce. Instructions below.

Stuffing Ingredients:

Center chunk of celery (leftover celery) or about 1 1/2 celery stalks, chopped
1 bosc pear, sliced in 1/2-inch thick wedges
1/2 cup sweet onion, chopped into chunks
1/2 cup seasoned stuffing
3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/8 tsp paprika
salt and pepper

Spritz salt and pepper inside body cavity of rabbit. Mix all other ingredients in a bowl and spoon as much stuffing as you can fit into the cavity of the rabbit. Lay pear slices on top to cover gaps in the opening, then truss the cavity shut with skewers or trussing thread.

Rabbit:

One 3-4-pound rabbit, thawed if frozen
salt and pepper

Once rabbit is trussed closed, sprinkle salt and pepper all over the skin.

Lay legs-up in roasting pan and roast at 350 degrees F for 1- 1 1/2 hours, or until meatiest part of the rabbit reaches 160 degrees F. Cook sangria sauce/reduction as soon as rabbit is in the oven, then baste the rabbit once about halfway through cooking.

Sangria Marinade/ Sauce:

1/8 tsp ground coriander seed
pinch of saffron
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/8 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp/2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 cup of fruit from the sangria (include a few blackberries!)
1 1/2 cups of sangria liquid
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup minced onion
1 Tbsp honey

Drip oil into a large frying pan on medium heat. Add onions and brown slightly. Pour in sangria liquid and bring to a simmer. Add garlic and fruit and stir well, simmering on low heat. Add spices and garlic and stir well again. Allow to simmer on low-medium heat until liquid is reduced by half, then add the honey. Let reduce to about 1/3 of the original amount of liquid, then take off heat and let sit until rabbit is done.

Use to baste rabbit halfway through, then save the rest as a topping sauce for the done rabbit meat.

Serve with rice and a green vegetable. Delicious! Serves 4-6 people.

Stuffed Bell Peppers

I got lucky...I put the baby down for a quick nap and managed to get all this put together while she slept. Except the rice...I had to start that early since it takes 40 minutes to simmer. And I recommend you buy at least 5 peppers...my 3 were not nearly enough for the amount of stuffing I had.

Ingredients:

1- 1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
1 cup brown rice
1/2 sweet onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
5 varied colored bell peppers
1 can tomato puree
1/4 tsp seasoned salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1 Tbsp dried parsley
shredded mozzarella (I forgot to buy and had to pull apart a cheese stick)

Prepare 1 cup of rice (1 cup dry rice, 1 3/4 cups water, bring to a boil then turn down and simmer 40 minutes). When rice is almost done cooking, brown the ground beef in a large skillet. Push meat aside after it starts to brown and throw the onions and garlic in the pan as well.

Once meat is browned, combine ingredients from frying pan with rice in a large bowl. Add tomato puree and all spices; mix well.

Cut off tops of bell peppers and scoop out the insides.

Fill each pepper bottom with the stuffing mixture, then top with a bit of cheese. Bake at 350F on a large cookie sheet for 20 minutes.

Veggie Pancakes

I'm squeezing the cupboards now, really. I have enough actual food for one more meal this week, and I'm trying to hold out til Saturday when we get paid. So you know all those "staples" I told you to keep in the cupboard? Yeah....that's all I had left. My fridge is bare. I actually went digging around on the interwebs to find the idea for this recipe. I made it my own (out of necessity as I lacked several of the ingredients), and the baby had fun watching me shred potatoes from her high chair.

Ingredients:

2 large red potatoes, washed and shredded
1 sweet potato, peeled and shredded (you may only want to use half the potato and save the rest for later)
1 large shallot, minced
3 large branches of broccoli crowns (just the little individual treetops, not the whole head), chopped fine
7 baby carrots or 2 large carrots, peeled and shredded
2 eggs, slightly scrambled
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp parsley flakes

Combine vegetables and eggs, mixing well.

Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then add to wet vegetable mixture and stir all together well.


Spray a generous amount of olive oil into a large skillet and heat on medium. Drop fat spoonfuls of the mixture into the pan, frying until browned on both sides, about 6-8 minutes per side.

Makes 4-6 servings. I ate three and was stuffed. I impressed myself with how tasty this was, and patted myself on the back for finding something to make with nothing but vegetables and eggs.

It took about 30 minutes to make just because of shredding the veggies....do you have any idea how hard it is to shred baby carrots without cutting your fingertips?
Note: Don't worry about the outside looking a little crispier, as long as the pancakes are cooked all the way through! You don't want to be eating any undercooked parts because of the raw egg. Believe me, it'll give you really bad gas.

Easy Beefy Noodles for Two

I took a walk in the sunshine with the baby today and stopped at the market down the road to pick up some cabbage for tomorrow night. While there, I perused the meat section, mostly out of curiosity as this was one of those hole-in-the-wall markets rather than a big chain. I found a package of lean ground beef, just under a pound, for a few bucks and picked it up. Then, with the baby enjoying playtime in her playpen, I whipped this up in about 15 minutes.

Ingredients:

About a pound, or a little less, lean ground beef
3/4 to 1 cup milk
1 tsp parsley flakes
1/4 tsp seasoned salt
1/8 tsp. ground black pepper
2 Tbsp. flour
Half a bag of egg noodles

Brown the ground beef in a large frying pan on medium heat, breaking into smaller pieces as it cooks.

Start cooking the egg noodles in a separate pot as you cook this; it helps if you start the water boiling before you begin to prepare the meat. Drain the meat if you want; I didn't, but I like animal fat. Once the beef is mostly cooked, add all other ingredients and simmer on low until egg noodles are done.

Drain the water out of noodles and fill two bowls, topping with the meat mixture. Serves two, and kinda tastes like Hamburger Helper only without all the processed crap. I recommend also serving a side of greens or something for fiber intake. Quite tasty, and easy.

Roast Boneless Leg of Lamb with Roasted Vegetables

Lamb again! I know, I know, but that's what my husband pulled out of the freezer last night to thaw for today. It was still a bit frozen in the middle but I can just cook it a little longer. We allow ourselves the luxury of lamb a few times a month if we can find a good cut, and a pre-frozen, vacuum-packed boneless leg of lamb is usually easy to come by, for around $12.
Tonight's vegetables were a motley of what I had available between the potato cupboard and the crisper drawer in the fridge. For example, the only reason there is any green in the dish is the fact that I had some scallions and half a green pepper hanging around since last week and I wanted to get rid of them. The others are a normal staple of what I put into the roasting pan: carrots, potatoes, onion, and garlic. Zucchini or yellow squash makes a tasty addition as well. Use whatever vegetables and legumes you have available, but these worked out great for us this time around.
Incidentally, I feel like I'm cheating you again, because my daughter decided to nap just in time for me to put dinner together. This takes about 20 minutes or so to prep, and you should thaw the lamb at least the night before in the refrigerator.



Ingredients:

Boneless leg of lamb
2 sweet potatoes/yams, peeled and cubed (this is the hardest part)
4-5 red potatoes, washed and cut into quarters
1 lb. bag of baby carrots
1 sweet onion
4 fat cloves of garlic (or smaller ones to equal that amount), chopped
Other/optional veggies such as bell pepper, zucchini, squash, scallions
Balsamic vinegar
Lawry's seasoned salt
Black pepper, ground
Rosemary
Cinnamon
Parsley flakes
Olive oil (This Sprayer works great)

Preheat oven to 425F and make sure the top rack is near the middle of the oven. Spray or drizzle olive oil on bottom of roasting pan. Rinse lamb leg under warm water, then place in center of pan. Arrange/scatter the chopped vegetables and carrots around the lamb, mixing them together. Spray/drizzle all over with olive oil. Shake seasoned salt and pepper over all, to whatever amount is your liking. Drizzle balsamic vinegar over the lamb, then top with rosemary. Sprinkle cinnamon on the bits of sweet potato that you can see (don't go digging for them, but this is my secret to sweetness) and sprinkle about a tablespoon of parsley over the vegetables (this counteracts the gassiness of the onions and garlic).
Place pan into oven for 15 minutes, enough to brown the lamb, then turn down to 325F for another 50-65 minutes. Cut into lamb to check for doneness; using a meat thermometer almost always makes you overcook it and lamb is best when it's pinkish red in the middle.

And just for the record, I can't even remember how I managed to cook without a good roasting pan. I'm in love with this Roasting Pan I got as a wedding gift last year.

Rack of Lamb

Last night's rack of lamb ribs was soft and succulent. It was a little raw in the middle, since my husband prefers his meat rare, but lamb is very tasty rare so I enjoyed it as well. We had both snacked earlier and were feeling lazy so the only side dish was a pack of Green Giant buttered sweet peas, but we each got four lamb ribs and were sufficiently satisfied with those two and the addition of a piece of Nutella-covered toast for dessert. My measurements are approximate, mind you, as it's usually a dash here or a shake there. Thankfully, this time he was home early enough to watch the baby for me while I cooked dinner; she is notorious for waking up from her nap just in time to keep us from eating. Sorry for the image; I had to draw it since I forgot to take a photo of the lamb.



Anyway, here's what I did for the lamb:

Ingredients:

Rack of lamb (thawed if previously frozen)
balsamic vinegar
Lawry's seasoned salt
pepper
rosemary (dry or fresh, either works)
roasting pan with drip rack


Turn your broiler on high. Pull the lamb out of the package and rinse it off under warm water. Make sure the drip rack is in the bottom of your roasting pan and spray it down with cooking spray (I use canola oil spray). Lay the rack of lamb on top of the drip rack meatiest side up and sprinkle balsamic vinegar over the meat, about 2-3 tablespoons full. Then shake enough seasoned salt to cover the meat with a light dusting, and do the same with the pepper. Sprinkle a tablespoon of rosemary over the lamb, spreading it out, then rub all the spices into the meat gently. Broiling time will vary on the thickness of the meat on the bones and how you'd like your meat cooked, but for medium-rare it's about 7 minutes on the top (meatier side) and 4 minutes on the bottom.
Cook up whatever you want for side dishes and enjoy!

Introduction... a.k.a. The Beginning

My friends and family all tell me I'm a great cook, and the fact that my husband has gained about 40 pounds since we've been together only supports that assumption. I have my mother to thank for most of it, but I've gotten cooking hints from my father and both grandmothers as well over the years.
Now that I've had my baby and am home most of the time, making dinner for myself and mu husband is hectic enough. Heaven forbid anyone decides to join us! It is especially difficult to cook with a three month old girl in the house, as her attention span for watching me cook dinner from a bouncer seat is limited and she is very demanding of your attention. I once had to chop vegetables for a beef stew while trying to see around her as I wore her on my chest in the baby carrier.

At any rate, I decided that during her naptime and around my other writing projects, I would share some of my recipes. I do work out of several cookbooks, which I will credit if need be, but most of the time I make the recipes my own by removing or adding ingredients, and sometimes I just make up the recipe as I go with whatever substitutes I have in the house. My not working has put us on a budget where our only real luxury is a decent meal in the evening.
We have a rack of lamb ribs in the fridge right now that Jason (my husband) got as a birthday gift two days ago, which is probably going to be our dinner tonight. I'll share whatever recipe I come up with tomorrow, so each day's blog will be about dinner the night before. Until then, I'll leave you with the recipe for Bourbon Balls I made this past weekend and my helpful hint for trussing a turkey that I came up with at this year's Thanksgiving.

Bourbon Balls

Trussing a Turkey with Needle and Thread

P.S. Go ahead and skim through my eHow profile to see a few other choice recipes in articles I've written