0010. baked spaghetti

I haven't tried this one yet, but I want to. Looks yummy. Got it in my email today, and I've been craving baked spaghetti like crazy.

Basic Baked Spaghetti

Ingredients

• 3/4 pound lean ground beef
• 1 (16 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
• 1 pound spaghetti
• 1 cup shredded mild Cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In large skillet, cook hamburger until brown. Mix spaghetti sauce into skillet. Reduce heat and simmer.
2. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Mix in pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
3. Mix together spaghetti and meat mixture, pour into 9x13 pan. Top with cheese and bake for 30 minutes, or until heated through and cheese is bubbly.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving Calories: 547 | Total Fat: 17.7g | Cholesterol: 63mg

0009. Lemon Garlic Orange Roughy

PK loves orange roughy, but I've never made it before. So I jumped on SparkPeople.com to find a recipe that looked good. You wouldn't believe how many recipes there are for orange roughy! I made PK sit down with me to look through them all, and we finally decided on this one. He was a little hesitant about it because he's tired of lemon juice with fish (it's my go-to when I'm cooking fish and I tend to go a little overboard, since I hate the taste of fishy-tasting fish, lol), but the rest of the ingredients looked yummy, so we decided to give it a go. It was a resounding success. He went back for seconds and asked for thirds, but by then Monkey and I had already finished off ours. Too bad, I was really hoping for leftovers for lunch tomorrow. We paired it with rice pilaf and fresh snow peas. Nomnomnom.

Lemon Garlic Orange Roughy

Ingredients

1 lemon
2 crushed cloves of garlic
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
12 oz orange roughy
1/5 tsp each paprika and cumin
1 tsp pepper
salt to taste
1 tbsp olive oil

Directions

squeeze lemon juice into a zip top bag large enough for fish. add garlic and red pepper flakes, shake bag and marinate in fridge for 30 min. in a small bowl mix paprika and cumin, s & p; rub spice into both sides of fish. heat the oil in a large nonstick skilletover med heat. add the fish flesh side down and cook for 6 minutes. flip and cook another 6 minutes.

3 oz a serving.

Number of Servings: 3

0008. bacon cheeseburger quiche

I got this recipe from Alisha Rai on Twitter. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm pretty sure that PK is going to LOVE IT. I can't wait to try it. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to jack up the amount of bacon in the recipe since he loves it so much. Seriously, he once told me he'd put bacon on ice cream... yeah. :)

Ingredients

1 lb. very lean hamburger
1 small chopped onion
4 slices crisp-cooked bacon, chopped in bits
3 eggs
1/2 cup mayonnaise (too much! use a few squirts of Kraft chipotle mayo - nomnomnom)
1/2 cup half-n-half
8 oz. shredded chedder or swiss cheese
garlic powder to taste (optional)
white pepper

Directions
Brown hamburger in skillet with onion. Remove and mix in bowl with
bacon pieces, breaking up any larger clumps with a fork or pastry mixer
until you have a fine mix. Drain well of any excess grease and press into the bottom of a deep-dish pie pan. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine remaining ingredients in mixer bowl and whip well. Pour
mixture over beef "crust" and bake 40-45 minutes until top is browned and
"set".
Cool 15- 20 minutes before slicing. This can be packaged in Ziplocs or
plastic containers for meals quickly microwaved over the next 3-5 days. (Does not freeze well, though.

Serves 6. 2 grams per serving.

0007. Nancy's pizza lasagna

2 bags of Spiral Pasta
2 lbs beef (hamburger meat)
2 Cans Tomato Sauce
1 can Tomato paste
one jar of Pizza Sauce
6 - 8 cups of Mozzarella Cheese
1-2 bags of pepperoni (depends on how much ya want)

Large Casserole Dish

Set oven to 400F
Cook Pasta
Brown meat

Mix all sauces & Paste

Add beef (strained) and noodles
Then add the sauce combo

Spread about 1/2 of the pasta/beef/sauce combo into the bottom of the casserole dish.
Spread 1/2 of your cheese reserve on top
Then place your pepperonis

Pour on top of that the rest of your pasta/beef/sauce combo and the rest of your cheese.
Then add more pepperonis on top.

Put it in your oven until cheese is nicely melted. Top might start to turn a golden color.

0006. Mexican casserole

Ingredients

• Salsa:
• 8 plum tomatoes, halved and seeded
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
• 1 small onion, peeled and chopped
• 1 seeded jalapeño pepper, quartered
• Cooking spray
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• Casserole:
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
• 1 cup diced zucchini
• 1 cup chopped red bell pepper
• 3 cups shredded cooked chicken breast
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 (10-ounce) can green chile enchilada sauce
• 1 (4-ounce) can chopped green chiles
• 12 (6-inch) corn tortillas
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 1 cup (4 ounces) crumbled feta cheese

Preparation

• 1. Preheat broiler.
• 2. To prepare salsa, combine first 4 ingredients on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Broil 20 minutes or until charred, stirring once. Remove from oven; cool slightly. Place tomato mixture in a food processor; add cilantro, lime juice, and pepper. Process until smooth. Set aside.
• 3. Preheat oven to 350°.
• 4. To prepare casserole, heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Lightly coat pan with cooking spray. Add 1 cup onion, corn, zucchini, and bell pepper; sauté 6 minutes or until tender. Add chicken and next 5 ingredients (through green chiles); sauté 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Remove from heat.
• 5. Spread 1/2 cup salsa over the bottom of a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Arrange half of tortillas over salsa. Spoon 2 cups chicken mixture evenly over tortillas. Top with 3/4 cup salsa. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of each cheese. Repeat layers, starting with remaining tortillas and ending with remaining cheeses. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes until bubbly.

Sidney Fry, MS, RD, Cooking Light
JANUARY 2011

0005. pumpkin spiced latte - crockpot

Spiced Pumpkin Latte Ingredients

• 4 cups of Unsweetened Coconut Milk (or 2 cans of coconut milk) [Note: If using homemade coconut milk, make extra thick and strain well for good flavor and texture]
• 1/4 cup canned pumpkin without added sugar
• 2 tablespoons of natural vanilla extract
• 1/2-1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice ( or 1/2 tsp cinnamon and a sprinkle of cloves and nutmeg)
• 1 cup of strong coffee or 3/4 cup espresso
• Heavy cream for whipping (optional) [note: can also use the cream that accumulates at the top of a can of coconut milk.

How to Make It:

1. Pour all ingredients except heavy cream into crock pot.
2. Use immersion blender or whisk to mix well.
3. Turn crock pot on high for 2 hours until hot and flavors are incorporated.
4. Whip cream in blender or by hand with a dash of vanilla and top lattes (optional)

Notes:

• This can also be heated on the stove top for a faster version, though the spices don’t incorporate as well and it tends to thicken.
• For times when you will want it out for longer than a couple of hours, just use the “low” or “keep warm” setting instead of high.
• If you are using canned pumpkin and won’t use the whole can, freeze the rest in ice cube trays and keep in a bag for future batches.

This was gross no matter what milk I used. Don't even bother.

0004. biscuits & gravy

Normally, when I make biscuits and gravy, I take the easy way out: I pop open a can and toss them on a cookie sheet. Yes, I'm lazy. What? Making biscuits takes time. And your hands get all sticky when you knead the dough. But there's just something about making them yourself.

Anyway. This morning, we didn't have any biscuits in a can, and I had a

hankering for biscuits & gravy. So, I pulled out the box of Bisquick - the Heart Smart version, thank you very much. ;)

I used 2% milk to mix the dough and managed to keep my hands as unsticky as possible... which wasn't really a great success. What can I say? When you're kneading dough, you're going to get

messy.

I used a little bit of the Bisquick mix to try to keep the dough from sticking to me too much (it didn't work entirely, but it did the job well enough that I made pretty little round circles. The back of the Bisquick box said to roll it into a log and cut it up, but that just wasn't going to happen with my particular set of skills. I figure the way it came out, everything worked out fine.

I tossed the biscuits in the oven and started on the gravy. First, I took out some Armour beef meatballs from the freezer and tossed them in the microwave for a few minutes so they weren't blocks of ice.

I chopped up the meatballs and heated them up the rest of the way in the frying pan I planned to make the gravy in so that I could use the drippings for flavor, then spooned out the meat to a waiting bowl. After, I melted some I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Light! and tossed in some flour to soak up the butter.

Then I poured in some 2% milk, but I ran out of milk. Oh, crap. I called my mom to ask if I could use evaporated milk and lo and behold, you can! Woohoo! You can add water to basically rehydrate it if the flavor is too off, but I liked the way it tasted after I added salt and pepper and tossed the chopped up meatball in, so I let it be.

I cut the biscuits in half, poured the gravy over the top (or in my husband's case, put butter on the biscuit, then put the gravy on top - he does so love his butter) and served while they were steamy hot. I had a big glass of water with mine because I'm on a big water kick. Monkey had lemonade with hers because that's all she wants these days.

I wish this picture were the right orientation. Even though I switched it, it won't show up correctly.