Whats for dinner? Vegi Zuchinni lasagna

Well, I've been experimenting in the kitchen again. We will be feeding some people for a Valentine dinner soon with our church and aside from a regular lasagna I wanted to do a vegi one. No noodles, No meat.

As a first time doing this it turned out quite well, and, it was husband and kid approved too!

Ingredients
1/2 large onion, diced
6 large mushrooms, largely diced
1 medium yellow squash, diced
1 small/med eggplant diced
Garlic salt
Pepper
5-6Tbsp Olive oil
1 Jar Ragu chunky mushroom sauce
1 can diced tomatoes
1 Tbsp sugar
16oz ricotta
4oz grated Parmesan
16oz shredded mozzarella (separate 8oz to top)
4Tbsp pesto
4 Zucchini, sliced long ways about 1/8inch thick

Directions: After you cut and prep onion, mushrooms, squash, eggplant place them all in a large saucepan with olive oil, garlic salt (I eyeball this but about 2 tbsp) and pepper to taste, saute until softened but not mushy you want this to be the texture in the sauce. Add sauce, diced tomatoes, and sugar and simmer over medium heat. Mix ricotta, 8oz of mozzarella, Parmesan, and pesto in a bowl together. Coat bottom of a 9x13 baking dish with butter and line with zucchini slices, top with ricotta mixture, then with sauce, repeat and then cover with the other 8oz of mozzarella. Bake at 350 for 35minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. NOTE****This doesn't section out all pretty and perfect but it does taste really good.

Here are some photos of the prep and cooking. Feel free to comment. Enjoy!

 

 

May not section out the prettiest but it is good!

Breakfast Time! Waffles.

Lately I've made allot of pancakes, they are easy to freeze and the kids love them, especially with the addition of cinnamon/sugar in the batter and sprinkled on during cooking, YUMM! and no syrup needed with that so its an easy no mess one for my toddlers. That being said, I wanted to make some waffles, my mother in law made them some at a sleepover they had at her house recently and they enjoyed it so I thought I would try some too. After a great hit, thought I would share.

Waffles:
2C Self Rising Flour
1/3C Sugar
1tbsp. Vanilla
1tsp. salt
3 eggs, separated
1 1/4C milk
1/4C Butter, melted

Melt butter and set aside to cool slightly (to avoid cooking the eggs when adding to batter) Add flour, sugar, vanilla, salt, egg yolks and milk together in a separate bowl and mix well until no lumps. Add butter in to the batter, mix well. Beat egg whites with electric mixer until meringue texture forms, fold in to the batter right before cooking. Now time to cook them... ENJOY!

Whats for Dinner? Chicken Casserole!

So I haven't posted a recipe in a while, just haven't taken the time to do it. However, making this today I was thinking allot of my grandma and her making Chicken casserole so I thought I would share.

What you need: **for a 9x13 pan
NOTE: I will list spices but I don't measure them in this so do what looks right.

2.5lb chicken (leg quarters on bone)
1/2c olive oil
chili powder
garlic powder
salt
1 can sweet peas
1 can cream of mushroom
1 can cream of chicken
1 can of chicken broth (or a can of water and 1 bullion cube)
1 bag egg noodles
1 egg
1c bread crumbs (or saltines crushed)
3/4c shredded cheddar cheese

Lets start with the chicken, one thing I always remember about Grandmas chicken casserole is the chicken itself tasted so good, and it made the casserole even better. preheat oven to 250. Mix in a bowl olive oil, chili powder, garlic, salt and rub all over the chicken. Brown chicken on both sides in a pan (about 3-4 minutes each side) then place in baking dish in preheated oven for 1 hour. Raise oven heat to 425 with chicken still in it, bake for 15 minutes, flip chicken and bake another 10 minutes. Remove chicken and let it cool while you boil noodles in salty water. Mix in a pot cream of chicken, cream of mushroom, chicken broth and simmer 5 minutes on medium. Pull chicken off the bone. Mix chicken, cooked noodles, cream of/broth mixture, peas in 9x13 baking dish. Scramble egg in a bowl and mix into baking dish as well. Mix in a Small bowl bread crumbs and cheese and top the casserole. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. ENJOY!

And yes... you just need good home made biscuits with chicken casserole!

Graham cracker crust

Graham cracker crust:

2 2/3c Crushed Graham crackers (into fine crumbs)

1/4c sugar

3/4 stick butter melted

Mix the graham crumbs and the sugar together in the pie pan. Melt the butter and pour into the crumb mixture in the pan pressing it all together to moisten all of the dry mix. Then, press to the sides of the pan about 1/4inch thick and the to the bottom making sure to press around the edges good. Bake at 325 for 15 minutes or if your pie recipe calls for a pre-baked crust you can go ahead and fill and then bake according to the recipe.

We also like to make a chocolate one too you can find that recipe HERE. And for another variation we do oreo/graham crust, who doesn't love that combo? You can find that recipe HERE.

Oreo & Graham cracker pie crust

Oreo and Graham crackers combined in an amazing pie crust?... Ummm, yes please!

2c crushed graham crackers (into fine crumbs)

3/4c crushed oreos (into fine crumbs)

1/4c sugar

3/4 stick butter, melted

Combine dry ingredients into pie pan, melt butter and then add to dry mixture. Press together to moisten all the dry ingredients. Press to the sides of the pan first and then to the bottom, being sure to press it well to avoid crumbling. Bake at 325 for 15minutes or fill and bake according to pie recipe.

HERE is an original graham cracker crust recipe (my grandmothers very best). 
 And HERE is a chocolate graham cracker variation too. Enjoy!

Chocolate graham cracker crust

Here is a variation of graham crust we enjoy especially with a chocolate pudding pie!

2 2/3c crushed graham crackers (into fine crumbs)

2tbsp cocoa powder

1/4c sugar

3/4 stick butter

Mix dry ingredients well in pie pan, then melt the butter and pour into dry mix. Pressing and mixing together to ensure the dry ingredients are all moistened. Press to the sides of the pan first then to the bottom being sure to press well to avoid crumbling. Bake at 325 for 15 minutes or fill and bake according to pie recipe. 

Also, I would like to share our original graham cracker crust HERE and our oreo/graham cracker crust HERE. Enjoy!

Easter or Spring Cake. Fondant rabbit and flowers.

Easter/Spring Rabbit in flower garden cake.

So I'm a little behind on some blogs here but hope to catch up soon, it has been a full few weeks for us, moving, lots of Dr. trips and some time with family.

With my love of cake decorating I thought I might share this adorable cake that I made for our Easter dinner. While I wasn't sure which kind of cake to make I was looking at pictures online and my daughter saw a rabbit on a cake on the computer and said "make rabbit momma".   So, that is what I did, and what fun it was. Especially when she saw the finished product, she still talks about it weeks later :)

Here is an awesome recipe for Marshmallow Fondant, you can use a pre-made fondant  but this fondant taste great and we all love it, so simple and cheap.

4C Powdered Sugar + extra for kneading and counter

4C mini marshmallows

2tbsp water

coloring and flavor if desired

-----In a large microwave safe bowl heat marshmallows and water for 20-30 second intervals until thoroughly melted. If you want to add flavor add at this point 1-2tsp (though in my opinion it isn't necessary), also, this is where you will add the coloring (you will need to make it darker than your intended color because adding the powdered sugar will do quite a bit of lightening to the color). Another option is making this white and breaking off pieces and adding 1 drop at a time of gel food coloring and kneading into fondant until desired color. Now, add the powdered sugar and mix until you can't stir with spoon any more then pour out onto a powdered surface with powdered. sugar and then dust the top too. Work together and kneed until it is smooth. This is going to be sticky and messy :) Roll out on powdered surface for making cuts or covering things, or break off pieces to mold into animal at this point.

NOTE: If ever the fondant becomes too sticky to handle or form then just dust with a small amount of powdered sugar.

First I made fondant flowers a couple weeks ahead of time so they would have time to dry out completely and be easy to handle. Here is a great flower mold sold by Global Sugar Art, it creates such adorable, medium sized flowers for any and all baking projects and I LOVE it. When I started with the cake I also wanted a few sizes of flowers so I purchased this plunger set, also from G.S.A. and used the largest one and the second from the smallest as cutters for the fondant. When using these plungers they also will fit into the same mold to imprint the design on all the flowers. Just cut out the flowers then press in mold (you may need to use a toothpick to get them out but I found they popped out easy on their own) lay upside down on a paper towel to harden up. Once they dry out you will need to paint them with a SMALL amount of water with a new paint brush or use one that you have from Wilton or like company. You will need to do one side, let dry wet side up then do the other side because they will be really sticky on the wet side and will get stuck to the surface you lay them on as they dry. Once both sides are painted and dry you can place in an air tight container and keep for up to 3 months. When applying to cake if you are putting it on fondant you will just need to wet it lightly to make it sticky so it will adhere to fondant, no need to do this if placing on regular icing.

 

Next, I made the rabbit and I can't tell you how much fun I had creating this little guy. I can't tell you much how I did this, I do most of my molding by looking at pictures or what not and working on it as I go. I made the body, the ears, head, legs, and tail. This is where you will need to do and impressions like in the feet or wherever because once it dries it will be much harder. These were all made out of white and the color on ears was molded separately and placed on using a little water as the glue. You will need to take a toothpick and stick it about half way in the ear in the middle pressing your fingers on each side of the ear to make sure it doesn't protrude thru. How I did it was I let all these things dry (only because I work in between my kiddos naps most times) then I made the eyes, flower (made this rolling out a small, long oval shape and rolling up and pinching bottom), and the leaves and glued all on with a small amount of water. The ears you will press the 1/2 of the toothpick not in the ear into the head of the rabbit. Paint down the rabbit once all pieces are together with a small amount of water to dissolve all powdered sugar and clean up. Let this dry on a paper towel for several days if possible (if not it should be fine to place on cake already).

 


And if you were wondering, the cake was AWESOME, what a hit! Especially the kids, they all shared the rabbit and wanted the piece with lots of flowers. Since the fondant was marshmallow fondant it taste yummy!

Cooking with love...

Today I wanted to share something for those wondering why they "can't" cook. See, I've always been taught cooking skills from my mom to my Grammy and my grandma and now I am still learning from my mother-in-law and her mom as well. Skills in the kitchen are not just being able to follow recipes it is learning what goes with what, what the people you are cooking for enjoy and yes, I believe you can "cook with love". Going back to the first thing I can remember learning how to cook without a recipe or anything was my grandmas biscuits, I still don't have a recipe and I will always think grandmas are better but I remember being so young sitting on the counter getting so excited to learn and to cook with her. Thinking about it, as a matter of fact makes me tear up a little. She and my papa are recently in a home for Alzheimer's due to my papa's memory not being where it should and one of the biggest things that broke both her heart, and his was that she couldn't cook anymore. They don't have a kitchen just a little kitchenette area and for the past 60plus years my grandma has prepared 95% of their meals, also serving my dad and his 5 brothers and she hates not being able to do so anymore. Growing up, and still she continues to be an inspiration to me in cooking and crochet and overall being an amazing wife, mother and christian lady. In my life I've been blessed with many godly women, my Grammy and my mom have always been such great examples as well. You see we traveled allot and my mom and I were always great friends and her personality and creativity have ever so much worn off on me and I couldn't be prouder. She showed me so many everyday skills and traits that have helped and continue to do so each day. The keeping up with toddlers, housework and everyday activities is something learned and my mom was an amazing example of how to do it all. And Grammy and my mom both showed me how to do cakes, one of my most enjoyable things to do is experiment and create awesome cakes/cupcakes and so on, and I learned what I know from them. 

You see, cooking is not and never will be just about the ingredients, it is about the enjoyment that goes into it. Some nights my husband cooks, he enjoys it and I enjoy the break from time to time but cooking is and always will be a favorite activity to me. My daughter already loves it too, I mean who doesn't. If you take time to learn and create you will be able to come up with amazing dishes too. What makes cooking enjoyable is seeing and tasting the finished product and being satisfied (and sometimes tasting along the way) and I'll always believe that cooking can be taught and creating things in the kitchen you can learn thru love and enjoyment of cooking. Yes, cook with love, with your heart :) and never, NEVER give up or think you are hopeless, I'm sure even the best cooks have meals that just don't come out right sometimes, I know I do and it stinks but I know how fun it is when things come out right so I keep on trying.

Keep cooking everyone and check out some of my recipes I've shared along the blog. :)

What's for dinner? Spinach lasagna

Spinach lasagna is one of my husbands absolute favorite meals, AND one of the few meals he really enjoys without meat involved. One thing he has always liked is creamed spinach and we all love pasta so one day out of pure boredom in the "usual" dinners we have I wanted to try something different and this is what came out. This was probably 2 years ago and he still asks for it rather often. Also took this to a church fellowship at our great little country church and despite my being hesitant to take it (not like spinach is a universal favorite food) my husband told me I should cause it was really good and it was ALL gone. Had many people comment on how much they liked it which made me feel awesome cause I get such enjoyment out of cooking for people and it is the icing on the cake when they really like it. And, this week my husband had a birthday so I was asked to make it again for him and I finally wrote it all down to get a recipe for it. Also, this is a favorite of my kids too, they love anything with cheese, noodles and mushrooms!

Here I'm going to give you a list of all the ingredients then I'll separate it out to the sauce, filler to make it easier when you are making it. It may seem like allot of ingredients but it is really easy to make, trust me, with two little ones I love me some easy meals.

This is for a 9x13 pan

Combined list of ingredients:

About 8-12 lasagna noodles broken to pan size

1 lg onion, largely diced

12 oz (approx 4c) mushrooms roughly chopped

1.5 tbsp + 1tsp garlic salt

2.5 tsp nutmeg

1.5 tsp chili powder

5-6tbsp olive oil

2tbsp minced garlic

2 10oz blocks frozen spinach (or about 5c fresh)

 2.5tbsp butter

2.5tbsp flour

3.5c milk

4tbsp Parmesan + extra for topping

1/2tbsp salt

6 1/4c mozzarella

Here are the ingredients separated out and the directions:

Boil Noodles to al-dente, set aside.

 

Sauce:

2.5 tbsp butter

2.5 tbsp flour

3.5c milk

4 tbsp Parmesan

1/2 tbsp salt

1 tsp garlic salt

1/2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp nutmeg

Melt butter in sauce pan until bubbly then add the flour whisking quickly keeping it on the heat. Once it starts to thicken (which will happen quickly) and turns a light brown color add the milk and quickly whisk so there are no lumps. Stir in salt, garlic salt, chili powder, nutmeg and cheese and continue to cook over medium high heat. Stir frequently. The sauce will act similar to gravy and will thicken while cooking until removed from heat so once it reaches a smooth consistency and the thickness of an Alfredo type sauce remove from heat.

 

 

Filler:

1 large onion, largely diced

12oz mushrooms (about 4c)

1.5tbsp garlic salt

1.5tsp nutmeg

1tsp chili powder

5tbsp olive oil

2tbsp minced garlic

2 10oz blocks frozen spinach thawed or about 5c fresh

In a large saucepan saute the onions and mushrooms with the olive oil until onions are translucent and mushrooms start shrinking and are tender. Add spinach, garlic salt, chili powder, nutmeg, minced garlic and cook together about 5-10 minutes. Stirring frequently. 

 

Now for the fun part, putting it together. :) 

This is the order of layering:

-2/3c sauce to cover bottom of 9x13 glass pan

-Noodles

-2/3c sauce

-1/2 of the filling

-2c mozzarella

-Noodles

-2/3c sauce 

-Second 1/2 of filling

-2c mozzarella

-Noodles

-Remainder sauce

-2c mozzarella

-Sprinkle Parmesan on top.

 

 Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until lightly browned.

(If coming from the fridge like I suggest below, increase cook time about 15 minutes)

Now if you are anything like me, you like things that are easy to make ahead of time and throw in the oven when it is time for dinner. I've been blessed with 2 great nappers, both of my kiddos take about a 3 hour nap in the afternoon, and at the same time too, how awesome is that? It gives me great "chill" time for cleaning, cooking and prepping supper, reading, crochet, crafts, or whatever I decide I want to do. This is one of the meals I love because I can prep it and have it in the fridge ready to go in the oven when my husband gets off AND have the kitchen cleaned and dishes from cooking done for easy cleanup later.

 

 

Ta-DA! A clean kitchen with lasagna prepped!

You could make this a day or two ahead of time and have in the fridge, if you do I'd suggest increasing the cook time about 15 minutes to make sure it heats thoroughly.

  

ENJOY!

What's for dinner? Spinach and parmesan stuffed chicken

What's for dinner? Spinach and Parmesan stuffed chicken breast.

My hubby LOVES spinach so we use it often, fresh, frozen, he'll eat it!

Ingredients:

3 large chicken breast butterflied and pounded

1/4c olive oil

1tbsp garlic salt

1/2c chopped fresh parsley

2tbsp minced garlic

1tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp lemon zest

1 1/2tbsp chili powder

1tsp nutmeg

1box frozen spinach (10oz) thawed and drained or about 2 cups fresh

1 5oz bag Parmesan cheese shredded

approx. 2 tbsp salt

Below is a picture of the marinade. Mix the Olive oil, garlic salt, parsley, minced garlic, lemon juice, zest, chili powder, nutmeg together. Marinade for a couple hours if you can if not just rub into chicken well in the beginning of the cooking process.

 

Below is chicken butterflied and to the side is where I was starting the marinade. 

  After you cover the chicken in the marinade, lay the chicken with the cut side up and spread a thin layer of the cheese then place the spinach on top. Evenly sprinkle the salt on top of the spinach then top with the rest of the cheese and fold over pushing as much in between the two sides of chicken as you can. This wont be perfect, and it doesn't have to be. Bake at 375 for 45minutes.

 

ENJOY! 

Healthy Cheese-it Crackers... with carrots!

 Healthy Cheese-it Crackers... with carrots!

Toddlers L-O-V-E cheese crackers. At least any I've ever known do. And lately, I've been trying to find healthy alternatives to the little snacks of the kids. No preservatives, who doesn't love that? Adding vegi's where they wont even know they are eating them, even better!

Ingredients:

1/2c shredded carrots

3/4c shredded sharp cheddar (you can substitute mild if you want)

1c All Purpose flour plus extra for kneading and flouring surface (substitute wheat or gluten free if you prefer)

4tbsp butter softened

3-4tbsp water

3/4tsp salt  (plus extra to salt dough before baking)

Mix shredded carrots, cheese, flour, salt and butter in a food processor or ninja. Pulse until little balls form. Add water 1tbsp at a time while pulsing until dough starts to form a ball. On a floured surface sprinkle dough with flour to keep it from being sticky and knead a few times. Place ball in the fridge for 20 minutes wrapped in plastic. Roll dough out to 1/4 inch thick, salt top of dough lightly using a pizza cutter cut crackers into squares or use a mini cookie cutter if you have one. Place on a foil lined baking sheet and bake at 375 for 8-16 minutes. The large span in baking time is because I baked mine around 8 minutes so they wouldn't be real crispy or crunchy because my son is a little younger and I feel more comfortable with them being softer. If you want them to be softer then stick with about 8-9 minutes, but if you want crispy crackers bake them about 12-16 minutes. Keep an eye on them though and the longer you bake them the darker the color will get. Mine puffed up a little too but they were GREAT and the kids absolutely love them.

All ours were different shapes and sizes cause miss Annabelle was having a blast helping!

 

Crafting and Cooking. The story of my week.

Last week I had a blast, I got to try some things in the kitchen I've been wanting to try, I was able to craft some new crochet projects and I also got some great quality time with my niece, nephew and sister in law. Here is a look at my week, my latest projects (the successes and the failures as well), enjoy and maybe you can take something from this and enjoy some new ideas with your family. Oh, and I'll be sharing the recipe that worked soon so keep an eye out!

Well, here goes, I want to start with my favorite, I think, I can't really decide this week was so much fun. This was my daughters favorite too though by a long shot, HEALTHY cheese crackers, she helped make them and was so excited as they came out of the oven. Cheese crackers are most definitely a favorite with most kids, especially mine. These have very few ingredients including grated carrots that create a great filler and integrate vegi's into a wonderful kids snack. The recipe will be up soon so check it out, they are GREAT!

The first thing I tried was homemade gummy candies for my daughter since she loves them so, I was so excited about this, it is healthier and cheaper. Juice, gelatin, just some simple ingredients. Well, this I will say was in fact the project that FAILED this week. Not that I'm giving up, I'll be finding a recipe that works and hope to soon but they were gooey and sticky, my daughter is quite the prissy little thing so anything that makes her hands dirty she doesn't like to touch. Also tried with my son, since he doesn't care if he gets messy and he didn't like it. I don't know why but it just didn't work, hopefully the next attempt will!

 

The next thing I want to share is homemade Velveeta, (this recipe will also be up on the blog soon) my husband LOVES Velveeta cheese dip, but have you bought that stuff lately? It is HIGH, seems like the prices keep going up and up! Well, this was something extremely fun for me, not only does it give my husband something he really likes for a little cheaper and to us an even better flavor but, it is much healthier too, no preservatives all real ingredients! 

Apparently I didn't take a picture of the finished product, sorry!

Next, I crocheted a really cute bow holder for my niece for her birthday to go with some bows I had crocheted for her. See, I have been doing so many different projects, including a hello kitty hair bow I made for my daughter who is slowly becoming a great fan of all hello kitty products. My grandmother taught me how to crochet when I was younger and I regret not taking more of an interest until lately, see, I have gotten pretty good at this and enjoy making things without patterns and with them. This bow holder that I didn't have a pattern for turned out really well and I hope to get it pinned down to stitch numbers and all so I can post the pattern soon as well as the bows that are on it.

 

And, last but not least, although I enjoyed all my new experiments with crafting and cooking, this picture below sums up the greatness of my week last week. My daughter, niece and nephew were all so tired from playing together that they actually decided to tell us "night night" and go pretend to sleep in my daughters room. They weren't actually sleeping but they were so sweet together and such a joy to be able to watch them together, if only my son was in this picture too! 

Left daughter Annabelle, Middle Luke, Right Julia