Garden Pasta

This is virtually the same as my tomato artichoke pasta recipe, but I added a few new ingredients.  I was inspired by a meal I had at Jason's Deli: Zucchini Garden Pasta.  So this is my rendition of that meal.

First I chop up some zucchini or Italian squash, tomatoes, and artichokes.  While I'm chopping these, I heat some olive oil with garlic powder and oregano in a sauce pan on low-medium heat.  Once the oil is hot, I add the chopped vegetables to the pan, along with some spinach.

While the vegetables saute a little, I cook some noodles, occasionally tossing the vegetables so that they don't burn.

Once the pasta is done, I mix the pasta and veggies, add a little parmesan cheese, and if needed, add a little more of the olive oil, garlic, and oregano sauce from the pan.  And voila, a simple, easy, and healthy meal!

Ingredients (makes about 2 servings):
Note: these ingredients are estimates, because this recipe does not need to be precise at all.  All measurements are simply to taste.  Here are some recommendations on amounts:

• 1/2 c Italian squash/zucchini
• 1/2 c tomato
• 1/2 c artichoke hearts
• 1/2 c spinach leaves
• 1 tbs oregano
• 1 tbs garlic powder
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 1 c pasta
• 1/4 c parmesan cheese

Directions:

• Heat the olive oil, oregano, and garlic powder in a sauce pan over low to medium heat.
• Chop the squash/zucchini, artichoke hearts, and tomato, and add them to the heated oil with the spinach leaves.
• Cook the pasta according to the package directions.
• Drain the pasta and mix with the vegetables and leftover olive oil sauce.  Sprinkle parmesan cheese over the pasta and serve while hot.

Inspired by: Jason's Deli Garden Zucchini Pasta.

Pictures will come soon!

Zebra Chocolate Chip Cookies

I call these zebra chocolate chip cookies because they use both white and milk chocolate chips.  I took the Nestle Tollhouse recipe and edited it to my liking, mainly by adding more chocolate!  Their recipe calls for nuts, but I prefer my chocolate chip cookies without nuts, so I substituted the white chocolate chips in their place.

The ingredients I used are pictured here...minus the chocolate chips!

Mixing them all together with a hand mixer and adding the chocolate chips, I decided that there weren't enough chocolate chips to have some in every cookie (the original recipe calls for 2 cups total of chocolate chips, so I put 1 cup semi-sweet and 1 cup white into the batter).  So I doubled what Nestle recommended so that it looked more like this.

I then popped them in the oven, and 10 minutes later was rewarded with these beauties!

They were delicious - I brought them to work and my coworkers agreed that they were awesome!  So here's the recipe!  Warning: this recipe makes about 60 cookies, so unless you're baking for a large family or a party or something involving lots of people, you probably want to reduce the quantities!

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 c all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 sticks butter, softened
• 3/4 c granulated sugar
• 3/4 c brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 c semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 2 c white chocolate chips

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 F.
• Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.  
• Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract in a large bowl until creamy.  Add the eggs one at a time and beat them into the mixture.  Gradually beat in flour mixture.
• Add the chocolate chips (both white and semi-sweet) and mix well.
• Drop tablespoon-sized drops onto baking sheets.
• Bake for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown.  Allow to cool for 2 minutes on baking sheets, then transfer to cooling racks.

Inspiration from: http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/18476/Original-NESTL%C3%89-TOLL-HOUSE-Chocolate-Chip-Cookies/detail.aspx

Lasagna

This is my mom's famous lasagna recipe.  It is the best lasagna I've ever eaten, hands down.  I never order lasagna at restaurants because I know it will never be as good as this lasagna. Seriously.  This recipe makes 2 trays worth of lasagna, mainly due to the sauce, but you can make only 1 tray and freeze the leftover sauce, or you can do what I do and make 2 trays and freeze the leftover lasagna.  I don't bake the second tray until I'm ready to eat a piece - I just stick it straight into the freezer after assembling it.

It's fairly simple: meat and mushrooms for the tomato sauce, cottage cheese (which is much better for you than ricotta), mozzarella, and parmesan to be sprinkled on top.

First you need to brown the ground beef in a sauce pan.  Put the tomato paste and chopped tomatoes in a pot to simmer, and chop some mushrooms while the meat browns.

Once it looks like this, add it to the tomato sauce with the chopped mushrooms.  Add garlic powder and oregano to season.

The sauce should look something like this.  Once the sauce is assembled and simmering, cook the noodles.

After the noodles are cooked and drained, it's time to assemble the lasagna!  First place down one layer of noodles.  Spread 1 large spoonful of sauce over the cottage cheese.  I use a large serving spoon heaping with sauce.  It should look something like this:

Add 1 large spoonful of cottage cheese and spread over the sauce, so that it looks about like this:

Add a layer of shredded mozzarella on top, then start again with the noodles and repeat.

After the second layer of noodles, sauce, and cottage cheese is complete, it should look something like this:

Add the remaining mozzarella cheese on top, then sprinkle generously with parmesan cheese.

Bake it in the oven at 375 F for 30-35 minutes.

And you're done!  It goes well with garlic bread and a side salad, and any leftovers can be frozen and easily reheated in either the microwave or oven.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 28 oz can peeled crushed tomatoes
• 1 12 oz can tomato paste
• 1 tbs oregano (appx - add to taste)
• 1 tbs garlic powder (appx - add to taste)
• 1 container of chopped mushrooms 
• 1 package lasagna noodles
• 6 cups grated/shredded mozzarella
• 2 24 oz cottage cheese (low fat)
• 1 c grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 375 F.
• Brown the ground beef in a sauce pan.
• Put the tomato paste and crushed tomatoes into a pot and let heat while the beef browns.  Chop the mushrooms.
• Add the ground beef and mushrooms to the tomatoes and let sauce simmer.
• Cook the noodles per package instructions.
• Drain noodles and assemble the lasagna as follows:
• Layer of noodles
• Spoonful of sauce spread evenly over noodles
• Spoonful of cottage cheese spread evenly over sauce
• Mozzarella cheese spread evenly over cottage cheese
• Depending on the size of your lasagna tray, this makes 2-3 layers.  Sprinkle parmesan cheese on the top layer.
• Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes.  Alternatively, you can cook in the microwave on power 7 for 15-20 minutes, but the oven tastes better in my opinion.

Inspiration for this recipe comes from my mom :)

Pesto Ranch Chicken

Here's a delicious slow cooker recipe that's really easy and makes a fantastic dinner!  The recipe I borrowed is intended to serve 8, but I've modified it to serve 2 and make extra sauce, because I love soaking up extra sauce with noodles, rice, or bread rolls after a meal is over.

This recipe requires only 4 ingredients! (The chicken is already in the crockpot in this picture)

You simply add all of the ingredients into the crockpot, stir them up a little, then let them cook, and about 6 hours later you have tender, flavorful chicken breasts that go perfect either over noodles, over rice, or as the original recipe website suggests, with mashed potatoes and a salad.

Unfortunately I do not have a photo of the finished meal on a plate - I live in Oklahoma, and this meal happened to be what I ate on the day that one of the many F5 tornadoes we've been unlucky enough to get this summer touched down way too close to home.  So after work I ran home, scooped it quickly into some tupperware as the sky turned darker and greener, and drove quickly to a building with a basement just as the sirens went off!  I will try to put a picture of the finished meal up next time I make this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken breasts
• 3 oz pesto sauce
• 1/2 packet dry ranch seasoning
• 1/4 c chicken broth

Directions:

• Place all of the ingredients into the crockpot.  Stir to mix the flavors and coat the chicken.
• Cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 6-8 hours.

Inspiration from: http://picky-palate.com/2012/09/20/pesto-ranch-crock-pot-chicken-thighs/

And if you would like to donate to the relief efforts of one of the devastating tornadoes that recently hit Oklahoma, please do so here: https://servemoore.com/give/

Tomato and Pesto Grilled Cheese

This is a recipe for a grilled cheese that does not involve any butter!!! I repeat: no butter!!! Woohoo for healthy eating!!!  I use olive oil as a healthy substitute, and it tastes excellent.

I decided to take a normal grilled cheese and upscale it by adding some tomatoes and pesto sauce.

I also use muenster cheese instead of the typical American cheese.  I've also made it with mozzarella, which is really good too.

I like to assemble it before placing it into the pan, and I don't add butter or olive oil at all.  Instead I just let the bread soak up the olive oil from the skillet.

I cook it open-faced for a few minutes to let each piece of bread soak in the olive oil individually.  

Then I put the piece without the tomatoes on top of the piece with the tomatoes (it's much less messy that way!) to let the sandwich pieces all melt together.

This recipe is super easy and quick - I've been making it during my lunch breaks from work, and it is definitely a favorite.

Ingredients:

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 2 slices whole wheat bread
• 1/2 of a tomato
• 1-2 slices cheese - my favorite kinds are mozzarella or muenster
• 1 1/2 tsp pesto (appx)

Directions:

• Heat the olive oil in a skillet on low to medium heat.
• Slice the tomato into thin slices - about 4 small slices will fit on one piece of bread
• Lay 1 slice of cheese onto a piece of bread, then layer the tomato slices on top of the cheese and place in the skillet.
• Spread the pesto onto the remaining slice of bread (optional: if you want 2 slices of cheese, add the second slice on top of the pesto)
• Place the second piece of bread in the skillet as well.  Let the sandwich sit open-faced for a minute or two.
• Put the pesto-covered bread on top of the bread with the tomato slices and let the sandwich melt together. Flip the sandwich after 2-3 minutes to prevent one side of the bread from getting burnt.
• After about 5 minutes or so, the cheese should be melted sufficiently and the sandwich is ready to eat.

Baked Stuffed Chicken

So I haven't been cooking or baking much lately, largely due to the devastating tornado that ripped through Moore, OK on May 20th.  I live about 10 minutes away from the tornado, in fact I was supposed to be at the bowling alley that no longer exists three hours after the tornado hit.  So naturally, I did what any normal person would do and spent all of my free time volunteering, helping out with the clean-up efforts.  Now, they're using the heavy equipment to clear away the trash from the streets, so I'm staying out of the way and rewarding myself with a nice, "fancy" cooked meal.

Tonight's gourmet dinner (gourmet in comparison to my usual meals of late: toast and pizza haha) is baked chicken stuffed with mozzarella and pesto.  I laid out thin chicken breasts.

Then I spread a fine layer of pesto and mozzarella cheese on top, and rolled them up.  

I dipped them into a beat egg and bread crumbs before putting them into a casserole dish.  Finally I topped the dish with parmesan cheese and let it bake for 25 minutes at 375 F.  Here is the finished product:

It tasted fantastic :)  Could be served with a nice vegetable or salad, and pasta, rice, or mashed potatoes!  This could also be an upscaled chicken parmesan recipe if you throw some sliced tomatoes and fresh basil into the casserole dish before placing it into the oven.

Baked Stuffed Chicken

Ingredients:

• 2 large chicken breasts, flattened
• 1-2 tbsp pesto sauce
• 1-2 tbsp mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 c bread crumbs
• 1 large egg
• 1 tbsp parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F.
2. Trim the chicken breasts of any fat and flatten them with a meat mallet.
3. Spread a layer of pesto across the top of each flattened breast.  Then sprinkle a fine layer of mozzarella cheese on top of the pesto.
4. Fold the chicken breast over in half.
5. Dip the chicken breast into the beat egg, then dip into the bread crumbs.  Place into greased casserole dish.
6. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top of the chicken breasts.
7. Bake in oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown.
8. Serve hot and enjoy.

Inspiration from: http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2005/04/chicken-stuffed-with-pesto-and-cheese.html?m=1

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

I've been in a baking mood, and now I finally have an excuse to bake something!  Tonight I'm going to a friend's house for dinner which is the perfect excuse to bake a dessert.  Then, we're having a tornado safety party since I live on the upper floor of my apartment and no one lives below me - my wonderful friend is giving me shelter so I am repaying her kindness in the form of cupcakes.

Snickerdoodle cookies are my absolute favorites, so when I found a snickerdoodle cupcake recipe I couldn't resist trying them out.  I used two different recipes for inspiration, one for the cupcakes and a different one for the frosting, and made very minor alterations to each.  They tasted fantastic - I highly recommend this recipe!

So for the cupcakes, I used the following ingredients:

Yes, the milk I used is coconut milk rather than normal milk.  I'm not a milk drinker, so I don't like to buy milk for baking only to throw away the leftovers.  However I make curry a lot, so I usually have coconut milk around the house.  You could barely taste the coconut in the cupcakes - it simply made them a tiny bit sweeter.  However, you could definitely substitute the coconut milk for regular milk, soy milk, almond milk...whatever you prefer.

I mixed all of the ingredients into the batter, then started pouring them into the cupcake liners.

While the cupcakes were baking, I started making the frosting.  I used:

The granulated sugar made it a little harder to get the fluffy frosting texture, so I added almost double the amount of half and half to make it less grainy.  If I had remembered to buy powdered sugar, it probably would've gotten a better texture with less half and half, so I recommend using powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar.  Also, milk works well as a substitute for half and half.  The half and half only makes the icing a little richer.

I mixed all of the ingredients until I had the following texture...

...then piped the cupcakes using a super high-tech piping technique of a Ziplock baggie with the corner cut off.

And voila! Finished cupcakes :)

My decorating skills are sub-par at best, but I see it only as a sign that I need to make more cupcakes to practice on :)  They tasted absolutely delicious, so that's all that really matters in my opinion!

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes:
(makes about 28 cupcakes)

Ingredients:

• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1½ cups cake flour, sifted
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1¾ cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1¼ cups coconut milk

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.
• Whisk the flours, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl.
• In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla and mix well.
• Add in the dry ingredients and the milk and mix well.  Alternating adding some dry ingredients with some milk helps it mix better.
• Fill each cupcake liner ¾ full of batter and bake for 18-20 minutes.
• Allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

Inspiration from: http://www.annies-eats.com/2010/11/12/snickerdoodle-cupcakes/

Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients: 

• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3¾ cups powdered sugar
• 3-4 tbsp half and half
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions:

• Blend butter until fluffy with hand mixer.
• Add sugar, 3 tbsp half and half, and vanilla extract. Blend lightly.  Add cinnamon and continue mixing until sugar is well incorporated.
• Keep adding half and half until frosting is fluffy and the desired texture.
• Pipe frost the cupcakes once they are cooled.
• Garnish with sprinkled cinnamon, if desired.

Inspiration from: http://www.justapinch.com/recipes/dessert/cake/snickerdoodle-cupcakes-w-cinnamon-buttercream-frosting.html