Lasagna after shoveling

A quick Google search turned up this lasagna recipe and it sounded good. Of course, I made a few modifications along the way but it did come out delicious.


Slow-Cooker Vegetable Lasagna
Yield: 8 servings

• 4 cups marinara sauce
• 8 to 9 lasagna noodles (preferably whole wheat)
• ¾ cup green peas, thawed if frozen
• 3 cups baby spinach leaves
• 3 cups sliced zucchini (from about 3 to 4 small zucchini)
• 3 cups part-skim ricotta cheese
• ¾ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• Fresh parsley, for garnish

Original recipe (and preparation instructions can be found here)
https://www.yahoo.com/food/food-slow-cooker-vegetable-lasagna-134934350.html

just turned on to cook

Steve's modifications

• The noodles were regular lasagna as that was what we had on hand and we need to clear the shelf.
• I used one summer squash (yellow) along with two zucchini to add a little color variety.
• I also used a package of the Al Fresco chicken meatballs (tomato and basil). The meatballs I sliced to make the layering easier (less lumpy).

I like this recipe as it was much easier overall. Slicing the zucchini, thawing the peas and meatballs received some forethought so they were ready when I was. Then it was a matter of building the layers in the crock pot turning it on and waiting for it be to be ready.

delicious, some for freezing and some for leftovers this week

Nothing like a one pot meal that tastes great and is healthy!

strawberries, rhubarb and nectarine crisp

I had some rhubarb to cut so I got the inspiration to do a strawberry rhubarb crisp. I went googling to find a crisp topping that was gluten free and found this recipe after searching through all the apple crisps that popped up. 

I added the rhubarb to the strawberries and nectarines. I swapped corn flake crumbs for the almond flour and used almond slivers in place of the pecans. Otherwise, the ingredient list and process remained the same.

It did come out very tasting very good!

the finished product!

Original recipe
http://minimalistbaker.com/gluten-free-strawberry-nectarine-crisp/

strawberries, nectarines and rhubarb

Ingredients

• ~ 4 cups strawberries and nectarines, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 cup gluten free rolled oats
• 1/2 cup almond meal
• 1/2 cup roughly chopped pecans
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• pinch sea salt
• 4 Tbsp cold butter (dairy free for vegan) or sub olive oil

the crumb topping mixed together

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and butter an 8x8 (or similar size) baking dish.
• Add fruit directly to the dish as you chop it and spread until flat.
• To a mixing bowl add crisp ingredients and, using your hands, mix until all of the butter is evenly distributed.
• Add to the top of the fruit in an even layer.
• Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the fruit is bubbling and the top is crisp and golden

ready to bake

Bread pudding recipe

I decided to make some bread pudding to use up the first batch of sourdough bread that did't come out too well. It is handy to have such a use for good bread (avoids waste). When I found my copy of the recipe I decided I needed to make a better copy....

the recipe has seen better days

Bread Pudding

Ingredients
Bread cubes - 2 cups
Milk - 2 cups
Butter - 3 tablespoons
Sugar - ¼ cup
Eggs  - 2
Salt - dash
Vanilla - ½ teaspoon


Process
Cut ‘old’ bread into cubes
Place in 1Qt baking dish
Scald milk with butter and sugar mixed in
Beat eggs slightly, add the salt, then stir into the warm milk mixture
Add the vanilla
Pour liquid over the bread as is

Set the baking dish in a pan containing water up to the level of the pudding
Bake in moderate oven 350 degrees about 1 hour or until knife in center comes out clean


Variations
Substitute ½ cup of honey for the sugar
Or ½ cup brown sugar to melt with the milk
Or 1 square unsweetened chocolate to melt in milk
Or add about ½ cup of chocolate chips to the bread cubes

the finished product - bread pudding

Chicken, broccoli and rice casserole

A recipe from the Sherlock Family cookbook has been kicked up a notch by adding some chicken to it. A package of Perdue "Short Cuts" works well for this. You could also prepare your own pieces with some grilled or broiled chicken breast.

1 cup raw rice
1 bunch fresh broccoli or 2 x 10 oz packages of frozen broccoli crowns
1 stick of margarine
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1 can cream of chicken soup
3/4 can (use soup can) of milk
5 slices of American cheese
Ritz cracker crumbs
1 medium onion, chopped

Boil rice and broccoli. Saute onion and celery in margarine. Mix with cooked rice and broccoli.
Place in buttered casserole. Add soup and milk. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Top with cheese and cracker crumbs. Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees F.

The before baking photo

Chicken, broccoli and rice casserole before baking

Steve's modifications

I used 2-3 tablespoons of margarine and then added some olive oil to saute the onions and celery. I made sure the celery started to get soft and didn't let the onions caramelize.

The frozen broccoli was allowed to thaw but was added without being cooked first. Baking in the oven for the hour is enough to cook the broccoli and still leave it firm If it is pre-cooked, the broccoli comes out as mush. For those who like it that way, go ahead. For those who like their broccoli a little firm, try it this way.

Adding the chicken which is already cooked doesn't change the cooking time.

The seasonings can be adjusted also. If your tastes allow for more than salt and pepper, go for it. Mrs Dash has some nice combinations that when used sparingly add a nice taste to the casserole.


The after baking photo

Chicken, broccoli and rice casserole after baking

Baked Stuffed Apples

The before baking photo. Apples cored, stuffed with raisins, and drizzled with a sweet syrup concoction.

I couldn't find the recipe I have used before so I trusted to memory and put together

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons of butter

Mixed and heated the ingredients in a small sauce pan until just before boiling. Poured the liquid over the apples, baked at 350 for an hour or until soft.

Serve warm with ice cream, or just as is.

Nothing like warm apples in the fall!


Note: if I find my 'original' recipe, I'll add it here.

Impossible quiche

A quiche is normally made with a crust. A crust that normally requires rolling out dough. It can be messy and time consuming. Someone somewhere along the way figured out that if they used a Bisquick, milk and egg mixture that it would cook to form something like a crust and be much quicker and easier to do.

There are hundreds of recipe variations on an "impossible" quiche.



What do you do regularly what can be improved to shorten the time to prepare?

Have you ever given it some thought? What do you do regularly that might benefit from an improvement?

Maybe you have the next "impossible" (fill in the blank) in you!

Sunday dinner

I combined a couple of recipes to put together a lasagna for our Sunday dinner. I added some steamed vegetables to a standard meat and cheese recipe.

It looks good and did come out tasting very well! There will be left overs so we'll eat well more than once this week.

What did you have for Sunday dinner?

Venus de Milo soup

From deep in the archives, the recipe for Venus De Milo soup that my mother had and kept in the family cookbook is still being found here. It is a good recipe and one to share. If you haven't tried it, I can say that the recipe has been tested over time and continued to be called for.

http://steves2cents.blogspot.com/2006/12/venus-de-milo-soup.html

Enjoy!

Beef Stew

One of the best parts about doing a beef stew in the bag is the no fuss, no mess clean up.

I don't mind cooking as I do like to eat well. I don't mind clean up but some meals can certainly be messier than others.

This one is easy to put together. About 15 minutes to prepare the potatoes, carrots, onion and other ingredients for the bag. Then about 90 minutes to cook. About 5 minutes to rest before opening the bag and enjoying a good tasting meal.

What is one of your easy to cook meals? Please share.

Back to school routines

This last Sunday before school opens for the new school year, I return to my cooking routine. You may recall that Dolores and I divvy up our household duties. To help her prepare for her kindergarten student friends, I do the food shopping and cooking on the weekends. During the summer, she returns to the kitchen to keep her touch up to speed. With school opening Tuesday, the teachers reporting on Monday, I returned to my cooking today.


So what's for dinner?

A fine meat loaf (recipe here)
3 bean salad (recipe here)
Steamed summer squash

My modifications

On the meatloaf, I used Progresso Italian Seasoned Bread crumbs in place of the plain.

On the 3 bean salad, I used black beans in place of the garbanzo. I did follow their suggestion to use cannellini white beans allow with the red kidney beans.

What are you doing for dinner?

floor washing break: banana bread

floor washing break: fully domestic today banana bread just came out of the oven, originally uploaded by shersteve.

I was fully domestic on Friday. Just before washing the floor, I put together my newly modified banana bread recipe. During one of the breaks, it was time to come out of the oven. It tastes as good as it looks.

The most recent modification to the recipe already posted here is to add one 6 oz container of low fat yogurt to the ingredients and bake for 70 minutes (not 60 as previously noted). You can add the yogurt in alternating with the flour and banana, or add it just at the end (before either the nuts or chocolate chips).

I have experimented with plain vanilla, strawberry banana, regular strawberry and found them all worthy additions. The addition is not enough to change the flavor base. The key is that the yogurt helps the banana bread remain moist.

Breaded sea scallops ready for the broiler

Breaded sea scallops ready for the broiler. Wait didn't we do this last Friday? Y, originally uploaded by shersteve.

I divided the sea scallops into three portions, three only to ensure a single level in each baking dish.

To each baking dish, I added a couple of tablespoons of white wine, a teaspoon of lemon juice, and topped it off with some Italian seasoned bread crumbs.

In the broiler for about 6-8 minutes and served directly to the plate.

Nicely done!

How do you like your scallops?

Bay scallops dressed and ready for the broiler

Bay scallops dressed and ready for the broiler, originally uploaded by shersteve.

The portions seemed skimpy so before going into the broiler, I removed one of the dishes and redistributed the contents amongst the other three remaining dishes. Much better.

The ladies were pleased! (Except there still wasn't enough)

The scallops were dressed with lemon juice, white wine, olive oil and some fresh ground pepper.

They needed only about 7 minutes under the broiler and went directly to the plate. I had prepared oven baked onion potatoes, steamed green beans and steamed baby carrots to go along with the scallops.

I do have another batch of scallops to do this way. This did come out very well, if I must say so myself.

Oven fried chicken

Oven fried chicken, originally uploaded by shersteve.

status check; chicken looking good in the oven.

Chicken for dinner

As chief cook and bottlewasher these days, preparations for dinner are underway. Green beans are washed, ends cut and ready to steam. A small head of cauliflower also is washed, cut into florettes and are ready for steaming.

I found and modified the following Oven-Fried Corn Flake Chicken recipe.

3 pounds chicken
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons milk
2 1/2 cups corn flakes
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
5 tablespoons butter

Directions
* Crush but do not pulverize the corn flakes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Wash chicken and pat dry.
Mix together eggs and milk.
Separately mix corn flake crumbs, salt, and pepper.
Dip chicken into milk and egg mixture then into the crumb mixture coating each piece evenly.
Set in well-greased baking pan.
Drizzle with melted butter.
Bake, uncovered, for 1 hour.

The original recipe can be found here.

My modifications were as follows:

I started with 4 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs and trimmed the excess yellow stuff (fat).

I used Corn Flake Crumbs to begin with (saving the time and mess of crushing)

I used Mrs Dash's Salt Substitute in place of the salt.

I added about 4 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese

I also left off the drizzled butter. There is still enough fat on the thighs to create some juice in the tray. I don't think I need to add more.


What do you think?
How would you modify this?

Jello blocks

Jello blocks, originally uploaded by shersteve.

Growing old brings you back to youthful things. I had avoided having a colonoscopy until yesterday. The exam itself was okay, the prep was the hard part.

It takes at least 24 hours to prepare for a 20 minute exam. There has got to be a better way to prepare.

Fortunately I do like jello. Recent changes in the prep now require an avoidance of red food coloring in the drinks and jello. So orange and lime became the flavors of the day.

I made jello blocks. It is a denser form of jello. Simple to make. You reduce the amount of water by half. Everything else in the jello prep is the same. The benefit is that the jello can be sliced into blocks to become finger food. You won't need a spoon.

Join me in having a jello snack today!

Sunday dinner - Italien pork chops and rice

This week's circular from Stop & Shop included a recipe for Italien Pork Chops and rice. This is the view just as it being set to simmer for 20 minutes.

The recipe is one I'd make again. Tasted good and it was a one pot meal; great for clean up after.

Italien Pork Chops and Rice

from the Stop & Shop circular week of 11/7-11/13/08.

Ingrediants:

2 teaspoons - Italien herb spice (divided)

one quarter teaspoon salt (optional)

one half teaspoon ground black pepper

one pound pork chops (boneless or bone-in, trimmed of fat)

2 teaspoons oil

one teaspoon minced fresh garlic

one cup chopped green onions

one cup uncooked long grain rice

1 can diced tomatoes (with basis, garlic, and oregano)

one and one quarter cups of water

Step by Step:

Mix Italien seasoning, salt and pepper together. Pat dry the pork chops and coat with seasoning mix.

Heat oil in large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat.

Cook chops on boths sides until brown, about one minute each side.

Remove from skillet.

Reduce heat to medium and add onions. Cook and stir 1-2 minutes until tender.

Add garlic, cook about 30 seconds.

Stir in rice, tomatoes, water and remaining seasonings. Bring mixture to a boil.

Place chops atop rice. Reduce heat, cover and simmer gently about 18-20 minutes until pork reaches internal temp of 155 degrees F and rice is tender.

Steve's 2 Cent variations

Instead of the salt, I substituted Mrs Dash's Salt Free Seasoning Blend.

As prior recipes in the circular seemed to be lacking in spices, I was "strong" in measuring the spices this time around and it came out tasting very nice.

If you want to substitute brown rice for white, I would recommend cooking the long grain brown rice according to package directions about half the time recommended, then drain and add to this pot when the rice is called for.

If you want to subsititute one of the minute rice brands, I would only add the rice in that case about half way through the simmer period (i.e. ten minutes).

I used a deep dish cast iron skillet. It has been well seasoned and seemed to add to the flavor of the meal.

Enjoy!

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The final product - sausage ragout with linguine

The finished product didn't stay on the plate too long. We were hungry. It was good.



The recipe made enough for four so the two of us will have leftovers. I suspect the ragout will get "happier" sitting in the frig and then getting warmed up for the second and possible third time!



One change we made was to use chicken sausage to reduce the overall fat content. The second change was to use whole wheat pasta to increase the fiber content.



Both changes, at least in the first sitting, were quite good!

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What's for dinner tonight?

Doesn't this look delicious? The recipe is from the 9/14/08 Parade Magazine. Sausage ragout with linguine. Dolores and I teamed up in the kitchen to put this together.

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Recipe: Broccoli Slaw

Another good extended family gathering behind us, I realized that one of the recipes that caught great attention this time around had not been previously posted here. So without further ado:

1 to 2 large bunch broccoli, chopped
1/2 lb fried bacon (Hormel bacon bits in the jar work well)
1/2 lb purple or vidalia onion, chopped
1/2 lb grated white cheddar cheese
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp salad vinegar
golden raisins or dried cranberries (we prefer the cranberries)

Mix all together. Enjoy!

Yes, it is that simple.