Roasted Garlic & Rosemary Sourdough Focaccia

Who else remembers the 80's and 90's when pasta was "health food"?  Carbs were our friend, they gave you energy, and places like Olive Garden & Carrabba's were "fancy international dining".  (At least, they were if you lived in rural Missouri, where the fanciest restaurant in town was a Dairy Queen, and you had to drive 40 minutes in any direction to find a sit-down dining chain). 

I will never not love and defend pasta, which is fine in moderation, like everything else.  In our house, we have some form of pasta at least once a week.  And this particular week, we wanted to channel our "fancy Italian" youth and make some sourdough focaccia and dipping oil to go with it.  We used this recipe from The Perfect Loaf as our base.

For toppings, I saw several recipes that recommended sticking unpeeled garlic cloves around the top, noting that leaving them in the peel would allow them to roast without burning. This worked VERY well--once the bread has cooled a bit, you can remove the cloves, which pop out of the peel easily, and then stick the now-unpeeled cloves back into the bread.  We also had red onion and fresh rosemary, and I included some coarse kosher salt over the top as well.

We served this the first night with a delicious, creamy entrée of Italian Sausage Orzo from Salt & Lavender (note: we used chopped kale rather than spinach because it's what we had on-hand).

The leftover bread was noshed on throughout the rest of the week, sometimes with just a little olive oil, salt & pepper, and sometimes with a fancier dip comprised of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, grated parmesan, minced garlic, red pepper flakes, and Italian herb blend, similar to this recipe.

What I've Been Cooking Lately

Honestly...I haven't been cooking that much. At least, not trying out new recipes, since we bought the new house.  We've had pizza over the last few weeks more than I care to admit.  I have been able to find time to test out a few new recipes over the last few months---I just haven't had time to blog about them individually.  So here I'll share my results, along with a link to the original recipe I used, and then note any changes I made.

Roasted Asparagus & Mushroom Carbonara

This is probably one of the most delicious things I've made myself in a LONG time.  And it was pretty darn easy to make.  One day, when I have free time again, I WILL be making more of this.  No tinkering with the recipe--original turned out great. I was nervous about using raw egg in a sauce but it was totally amazing.

Roasted Red Pepper Sauce with Zucchini Noodles

I tinkered with this one a lot, but still really liked the results.  The original recipe here is vegan, but we used regular milk. I didn't have tahini or almond butter, so I used peanut butter, and tossed in some grated parmesan to help thicken the sauce.  I also added a few dashes of Tabasco Chipotle Sauce for some heat and smokiness.  Finally, we added smoked sausage for protein.

LOVE my veggie spiralizer.

One Pot Spaghetti

Saw the Video for this on my Facebook feed and thought a) that looks easy, and b) I've got a ton of basil & tomatoes to use up.  It was very easy, and delicious.

Sweet Potato Quinoa Patties

We made these while doing a one week Daniel Fast, and they were super tasty.  I will probably make them again, but use egg as a binder, since they were kind of crumbly (couldn't use egg during the Fast).  We definitely had to let them cook longer than what the recipe calls for to get them crusty enough on one side so that they could be flipped without falling apart (I'd say 4-6 minutes per side, rather than 2 minutes, but if you use egg as a binder that might change the cook time.  Just make one first as a tester to figure out the times, and then fill your pan with patties after that.)

Served with a side of garlic green beans.

French Onion Soup

This was to satisfy a craving, and can only *sorta* qualify as semi-homemade.  I had some canned French Onion soup, but wanted to step it up, so I sauteed some fresh onions first to caramelize them, then added the canned soup and brought it to a boil.  Then I preheated my broiler, and set two ramekins on a cookie sheet.  I cracked open a raw egg into each of the ramekins (a weird trick one of my Louisiana buddies taught me), added a little pepper, and then gently ladled the hot soup over the top of the egg (the heat from the soup & broiler will cook the eggs).  

Next, I placed a 1 inch slice of french bread onto the top of the soup, and topped with 2 slices of Swiss cheese.  Broiled just until the cheese was melted, and then, devour.

Basil Kale Pesto & Italian Sausage Pasta

Last week I picked up some kale at the store...this bunch was MASSIVE.  Like, wouldn't even fit in the crisper drawer of our fridge massive.  I froze about half of it to use later on, made a batch of Zuppa Toscana with some, and then put most of the rest of it into this pesto. I've made a kale pesto before, but since I have basil in my garden this year, I figured it would be pretty tasty to use both together!  

This was a super-easy dinner to throw together after work.  I had the sausage cooking on one burner, the pasta water going on another, and then the pesto being blended in the food processor, so you can really work on all the elements at once.

INGREDIENTS: (makes 6 servings)
1 lb italian sausage, without casings
10 oz bowtie pasta
1 tsp salt
2 cloves garlic

pesto:
3-4 leaves fresh kale, stems removed
1 loose cup of fresh basil (~10-15 leaves)
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4-1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated

DIRECTIONS:
In a large skillet, cook the sausage until fully browned.  Drain the fat.
At the same time, start a pot of water for the pasta, and season with the salt and garlic.  When it's up to a rolling boil, add your pasta and stir occasionally. Boil your pasta 'til al dente.

Meanwhile, in a food processor, combine the ingredients for the pesto and then blend until the kale & basil are finely minced and everything is combined into a big beautiful green mush. Should be a slightly thin paste.  Season to taste, as kale can be a little bitter--the lemon juice will help to offsite that.

When the pasta is finished cooking, drain the water, and then combine all ingredients (pasta, sausage, and pesto) in that pot.  

Garnish with extra parmesan, cracked black pepper and some basil chiffonade, if you're feelin' fancy.  Serve with a side of bread, or salad, or both if you're wild & crazy like that.  Enjoy!

NutriFacts: (per serving)

• Calories485.3
• Total Fat26.8 g
• Saturated Fat10.5 g
• Polyunsaturated Fat4.0 g
• Monounsaturated Fat17.8 g
• Cholesterol60.6 mg
• Sodium1,153.6 mg
• Potassium394.8 mg
• Total Carbohydrate41.8 g
• Dietary Fiber3.6 g
• Sugars2.5 g
• Protein20.1 g

Zucchini Pasta

I grew up in the era when pasta was good for you.  “YAYYY CARBS!!!” we would scream in Health Class. (This is a lie. I’m pretty sure I didn’t actually know what a carb was until I was halfway through college.)  But anyway, pasta was totally acceptable and not at all the evil monster it’s portrayed as today.  My dad would drive us 45 minutes to the nearest “big city” (Missourites: I’m talking about Jeff City.  Feel free to snicker now.) once a year for Olive Garden’s Never Ending Pasta Bowl Feast.  Hamburger Helper was a staple in our house.  Spaghetti was one of the first things I ever learned to cook from scratch (though my earliest memories of helping my mom “cook” always involved Jiffy cake & cornbread boxes). 

When you grow up with that sort of mindset, it’s REALLY hard to break away and start thinking of pasta as something that should be moderated…heaven forbid be left out of one’s diet altogether.  But alas, I am an adult, and I am old enough to understand that MAYBEEE we should be dining on dishes that are a bit more veggie-and-protein-dense than my beloved trough of fettuccini alfredo from the O.G.

So when a friend who had recently decided to do the low-carb thing told me about the Veggie Spiralizer, I figured it was worth $15 to try it out.  Especially since we were growing zucchini in our container garden this year, and I am typically very boring with zucchini—either sautéing it with garlic & parm, or baking it into bread.

We threw this recipe together after a long day, and I’m a LITTLE proud that so many of the ingredients came from our garden—the zucchini, the tomatoes, the basil, rosemary…

This recipe can be Paleo (if you use the right sauce) and even Whole-30 approved (if you use a pasta sauce with no sugar and nitrate/sugar free bacon, and leave off the cheese).

 INGREDIENTS: (makes 2 servings)

1 zucchini, spiral sliced into noodles

olive oil

1 sprig rosemary

1 tsp garlic, minced

1/2 jar of your favorite pasta sauce (we used Bertolli’s Organic Olive Oil, Basil & Garlic sauce)

small handful of fresh basil

2-3 slices bacon, cooked & chopped

1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered

1 green onion

1/4 cup shredded parmesan (I get Priano from Aldis—great quality & CHEAP)

 

DIRECTIONS:

Spiral-slice your zucchini.

Then add your noodles to a large skillet w/olive oil, rosemary & garlic over medium heat, tossing/stirring frequently for about 5 minutes.

Then add the pasta sauce and tomatoes to the pan, lower heat to medium-low to heat the sauce.

Add the basil (julienned) near the end so it doesn’t get bitter.  Then transfer into two bowls, top with the bacon, cheese, & green onions (and the rosemary sprig for garnish). 

NUTRIFACTS:

 Calories 269.2

  Total Fat 15.2 g

  Saturated Fat 4.9 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 0.3 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 2.1 g

  Cholesterol 18.6 mg

  Sodium 909.0 mg

  Potassium 627.3 mg

  Total Carbohydrate 20.7 g

  Dietary Fiber 6.1 g

  Sugars 13.6 g

  Protein 11.1 g

Daniel Fast Day 16: Avocado Pesto, & Baba Ganoush!

Today’s Devotion: “Don’t Forget Who You Are-- James 1:23-25 ‘For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

You have come too far to get off course now. You have seen the hand of God (His power) & you have seen the face of God (His presence). You can’t allow yourself to forget who you are. How can you do that? By not continuing to look into the law of liberty. Freedom comes when we realize what Jesus has done for us. When we know what the word says about something we have something to stand on. Kenneth Hagin said years ago, “Faith begins where the will of God is known”, we have to know who we are in the Lord for faith to be established in our hearts & that knowledge comes from the word. It declares, you are more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus, you’re the head & not the tail, above & not beneath, the righteousness of God in Christ, this is how our faith comes forth so forget anything else you have heard that is contrary to what the word says. The word is the truth, nothing else matters.”

This morning I faced a few challenges—we’ve officially run out of “breakfast proteins”.  By which I of course mean peanut butter. (Okay, so this is an exaggeration—we still have oatmeal.)  In fact, we’re running low on many of the items we bought specifically for the Fast:  AllFruit jam, PB, hummus, flatbread, to name a few.  With only 4 days left we don’t necessarily want to “stock up” on things, but all the same…we have to be able to make it through the next four days!  We may have to get creative.

Today I also had to do some field work for the first time in a few months, so I was a little concerned about the challenges that would present—mainly, if we didn’t finish up in time, what was I going to eat for lunch?  Typically when I have field work, I grab food from whatever restaurant or fast food place is close to my site, or bring a sandwich with me.  But sandwiches aren’t really easy on the Fast…especially when you ate your last piece of bread for breakfast, and don’t have a protein (hummus) to spread on them.  I threw together some pasta last night and just prayed that we would finish up in time for me to eat back at the office.  Thankfully, everything went smoothly and I was back in the office by 2pm, nommin’ down on a late lunch.

Breakfast:  ½ piece whole wheat flatbread, 1oz bag of peanuts, 1 cup pineapple, and a few grapes

Lunch: Cilantro-avocado pesto pasta w/sautéed mushrooms & onions

INGREDIENTS: (makes two servings)

Sauce:

• 1 avocado
• ½ bunch cilantro
• 2-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp onion powder
• Juice of ½ lemon
• Salt & pepper to taste

 

• 2 servings whole wheat pasta, boiled
• 4 oz portabella mushrooms, sliced
• ¼ onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• ½ tsp basil
• Salt & pepper to taste
• 1 tsp olive oil

DIRECTIONS:

Puree the avocado, cilantro, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, & onion powder in a blender or food processor until smooth.  Meanwhile, sauté the mushrooms, onions, seasonings, garlic & olive oil together in a large skillet until tender.  When the pasta is cooked and mushrooms are tender, combine, toss, and serve!

Dinner:  I bought an eggplant last week, so I decided to try to make baba ganoush for the first time.  Such a fun word.  Always makes me think of Wedding Crashers.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 eggplant
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp smoked salt (if you have it)
• 1/8 cup tahini (if you have it—you can omit if you don’t)
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 clove garlic
• dash of chili powder (I used chipotle for the smokiness)
• 1/3 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Tbsp dried parsley or cilantro, or about 1/4-1/2 cup of fresh

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 375F.

Char the skin of the eggplant over your gas burner, or under the broiler if you don’t have a gas stove (about 5 minutes per side if you’re using the broiler).  Then roast the eggplant on a cookie sheet for about 20-30 minutes or until tender (easily pierced with a paring knife.

Remove the skin and place the flesh into a food processor along with the remaining ingredients and pulse until smooth.  Drizzle with additional olive oil and garnish with lemon or olives.  Serve with pita (if you’re not on the fast), tortilla chips or crackers (if you are).  

Since we already had the chips out, we also finished off the last of the veggie chili…like cheeseless nachos! 

 

Daniel Fast, Days 3 & 4: Morning Infusions & Vegetable Spaghetti!

Day 3: Wednesday
Today’s Devotion – “This is the 3rd day of your fast. Three is the number of resurrection. It’s Jubilee & all can be freed to return to their original families.( Lk.4:18-19) The beggar (poor), the brokenhearted, the bound (captive), the blind, & the bruised can now return to their original state. Jesus has paid the redemption price for all to be free. Embrace your new found freedom, the chains are broken & the things that have held you in bondage are removed. Stand up tall & face this day with a new perspective, a bold confidence that says, “If God Be For Me, Who Can Be Against Me?”
Indeed, today was much easier!  No craving for coffee, no hunger pangs when I smelled my coworkers’ cooking their lunch (my office is all of 10 feet from our kitchen).  Perhaps the chains of bondage are removed!  Even with 18 more days ahead, I know we can do this.  This is not a diet, or some “cleanse”…this is a spiritual commitment.  I think that’s hard for some to comprehend.  I’ll mention I’m doing the Daniel Fast and it seems to translate as “you’re trying out a vegan diet”.  When I mention the things I can’t have, they suggest soy cheese or agave nectar or Boca burgers… but that’s not the point.  Yes, I realize that there are replacements out there for everything under the sun, but if all you’re doing is “replacing” the things in your diet with fake versions, it’s not really a fast.  It’s like you’re trying to outwit God, or “bend” the rules to make the fast comfortable for you.  But it’s not supposed to be easy, or comfortable.  It requires a commitment, and sacrifice on your part.  And you really have to enter into the fast with a heart for God and the challenge ahead, otherwise you WILL be tempted to bend the rules.
Our weather is bleak & cold & snowy this week, and not having something hot to drink in the morning really wore on me today.  So I decided to make an apple & cinnamon infused water.  I put ½ apple and a stick of cinnamon into a big insulated mug, and then filled it with hot water before leaving for work.  By the time I got here, the water was nicely infused!  However…the cinnamon is a bit overpowering for my taste.  Next time, maybe only half a stick.

Breakfast: Flatout MultiGrain Flax wrap w/natural peanut butter, banana & strawberry (makes me feel like a kid!)

Lunch: More avocado salad & applesauce

Dinner:  Here’s a challenge.  Wednesdays, as you well know, are Trivia Night, where we typically head down to our favorite watering hole, and enjoy some tasty Irish grub.  However…ehhh….pretty much nothing on the menu is Daniel Fast friendly.  I don’t have time to run home on Wednesdays, so it meant either bringing dinner to work with me, or finding a spot to eat out.  Thankfully, several Pinterest searches recommended Chipotle being Fast-friendly.  And then…there’s Qdoba!  Which, if you’ve never been there, is almost exactly like Chipotle but with a few extra options.  I used the Nutrition Calculators on their websites and determined that if we went to Chipotle, we’d have to get a Burrito Bowl since they don’t have a whole wheat tortilla.  BUT, Qdoba does…and, with the same ingredients, the sugar content at Qdoba was lower than Chipotle, meaning Qdoba was less likely to have added sugar into their salsas and fillings.  So we did Qdoba.

YUM.  But…here’s the thing…I don’t know if you’ve ever eaten at a Chipotle or Qdoba, but the portions are HUGE.  One veggie burrito (wheat tortilla, brown rice, black beans, fajita veggies, lettuce, pico, corn salsa, & salsa verde) = 680 calories.  That’s with NO meat, cheese, or sour cream.  So if you’re gonna go there, PLEASE share with someone (like we did—we just split it) or take half home.  Seriously.  Otherwise you WILL be in pain later.
And then…there’s trivia.  Where our teammates are chowing down on a delicious burger or roast chicken dinner, and sipping on cold brew.  It’s challenging to be around, but we survived with only a few pangs of envy.  And we even won 3^rd place!
--
Day 4: Thursday
(Since I got home late on Wednesday, I’m combining these posts.)
Today’s Devotion: “Day 4: A Time to Be Creative” 2 Cor.5:17 ‘Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.’  Four is the number for Creation. The 4 corners of the earth are north, east, west, & south. This gives us the acronym News. News always travels faster when something incredible has happened. Your new life in Christ needs to be proclaimed throughout the earth. Be creative, innovative, & allow a God idea to break forth out of you that will change somebody’s world. It’s a new Day!
Alas…it hasn’t been a very creative day.  It’s been a day of billing clients, actually, which is not terribly creative at all. That does frustrate me at times about my job—it’s a science job, full of data and facts & no real frills.  Some days the artsy side of my brain gets really antsy because of that.  There are days I miss working in the media (TV, newspaper), because it was a creative job.  We “made” the news. I assembled commercials. I took pretty photos and put them in the paper. I wrote articles that used alliteration and got to be subjective, share my opinion. 
BUT…that’s why I have this blog.  Even when we had The Scoop open for the season, I couldn’t let this refuge go fallow.  This is my creative outlet now.  That, and my kitchen!  I love thinking up new recipes, and scouring the interwebz (aka Pinterest) for ideas.  Today, the Hubs emailed me at work and asked that I “please make a big batch of something hearty tonight so we can have leftovers for lunch tomorrow”.  With our restrictions, that means a whole wheat pasta dish or meatless chili….or….OOORRR…. are there other things?  Something with marinated mushrooms!  Ooh, quinoa!  Maybe some pasta e fagioli?  Maybe it’s weird, but I love spending my lunch hour figuring out what I want to make for dinner.
Another cold day today, so this morning I just did hot water with some lemon slices in it.  PERFECT!  So good, I had two more glasses that way.  There’s something about snow on the ground that just DEMANDS a warm cup in your hand!

Breakfast:  Two oat-raisin pancakes with all natural peanut butter, like a sandwich (VERY filling! I highly recommend!)

Lunch: 1 tomato, 1 cup carrots, 2 tbsp garlic hummus (oooh….need to roast some garlic!!!), and a half of a whole wheat flatbread

Afternoon Snack: Applesauce
Dinner:  We decided to go with pasta!  I did my basic spaghetti recipe, but replaced the meat with some dark red kidney beans.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 onion, diced
• 2 cups mushrooms, diced
• 1 bell pepper, diced
• 2 tbsp minced garlic, divided
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp dried rosemary, crumbled
• 2 tbsp Italian seasoning
• 2 Dorot cubes basil
• 1 can dark red kidney beans
• 1/2 box whole wheat spaghetti
• 2 cans tomato sauce w/ oregano & basil
• 1 can diced tomatoes w/garlic & onion
• 2 tsp Cajun seasoning
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

Directions:
While you’re boiling your pasta, in a separate pot sauté the mushroom, garlic, onion, and bell pepper in the olive oil.   When the pepper & onion are soft, add the beans, tomato sauce & tomatoes and seasonings.   Season to taste.

When the pasta is done, mix it into the pot & serve!

I miss parmesan…but otherwise it was pretty tasty!

NutriFacts:
Calories 286.4
 Total Fat 3.5 g
 Saturated Fat 0.5 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.5 g
Monounsaturated Fat 1.8 g
Cholesterol 0.0 mg
 Sodium 2,326.8 mg
Potassium 294.9 mg
Total Carbohydrate 56.8 g
Dietary Fiber 12.8 g
Sugars 9.0 g
Protein 12.1 g

CopyCat recipe: Famous Dave’s Mac & Cheese.

In case you weren’t aware, I am a carb fiend.  And a cheese fiend.  Ooey gooey mac-n-cheese is one of the world’s most perfect foods.  And in my opinion, Famous Dave’s is one of those places that has improved upon this delectable dish…

…by adding two of my other favorite foods: Jalapenos & corn.

Alas…who has the time or funds to visit Famous Dave’s every time you get a hankering for amazing cheesy mac? Not I.  In fact, we (tending to be a bit on the cheap side when it comes to dining out), usually only make it to F.D’s once a year, on “Dave’s Day”…when fellas who are fortunate enough to have the name Dave get a free entrée…and The Hubs AND his best friend are both Daves.  So there ya go.

Thankfully, it is wickedly easy to replicate this tasty bite at home.  You COULD make it totally from scratch if the notion moved you… or you can go to the other extreme and buy a tray of Stouffer’s and just add some jalapenos & corn to it. 

Me, I like to swing somewhere in the middle of that.  And earlier this month, we had a Grillmaster Potluck at work the other day…and what goes better with burgers and brats than some mac & cheese?

Ingredients (makes one 9x13” pan):

2 boxes premium style mac-n-cheese (ie, comes with the packet of cheesy sauce, rather than the powder. Velveeta is recommended)

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

2 tablepoons barbecue sauce

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper

4 ounces shredded cheese (I recommend pepper jack)

1/4 cup Parmesan

1 1/2 cups sweet corn niblets

2 jalapeños

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

Topping:

1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs

1 tbsp butter, melted

 

Directions:

Heat the oven to 350F.

De-seed the jalapenos, then place on a cookie sheet and roast in the oven for about 15-20 minutes.  This softens the pepper and gives it a more smoky flavor, in my opinion.  Once they’re out of the oven, remove the peels (they should blister and will come off easily) and dice.

Prepare the boxed mac & cheese as noted on the package in a large pot.  To this, add the salt, pepper, mustard, shredded cheese parmesan, corn, diced jalapenos, and parsley.  Stir well, and you can add more salt or pepper to taste at this point.

Pour the mac mixture into a lightly greased 9x13 pan, and then top with the breadcrumb mixture.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until the crumbs are golden.

I made one full tray for our work potluck…but made a couple small servings for the Hubs & I to enjoy that evening. YUM!

NutriFacts: (Makes 16 servings)

Calories 211.6

  Total Fat 8.1 g

  Saturated Fat 1.7 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 0.1 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 0.3 g

  Cholesterol 11.2 mg

  Sodium 205.9 mg

  Potassium 55.4 mg

  Total Carbohydrate 6.7 g

  Dietary Fiber 0.6 g

  Sugars 1.8 g

  Protein 4.0 g

Super Cheesy Lasagna…with a surprise.

Earlier this week I showed off the SuperAwesomeGorgeousAmazing casserole dish that my friends Kathy & Matt gave The Hubs & I as a wedding gift:

This gorgeous handmade ceramic dish came from Judy At The Rink on Prytania, which specializes in local artistry & creations.  Check out those awesome lil’ fleur de lis!!!!

Kathy was my very first New Orleans friend, as she was also my very first New Orleans coworker, and she took me under her Obi-Wan-like Wing O’Cheese, and schooled me in the ways of cheesemongering.  Which was not a word until just now.  Use it: be a trend setter.

Our former home-away-from-home, the cheese & gourmet meats counter at MWC Metairie.

After I finished gushing over how gorgeous this dish was, Kathy made me promise that the first dish I made in it had to be super-cheesy, in homage to our fromage-y friendship.

So, after sorting through my Pile O’ Super-Cheesy recipes, I decided upon something with layers and layers and LAYERS of cheese: LASAGNA!

Mozzarella, parmesan, and ricotta* cheese…THREE kinds of cheese! How’s that, K-Rod???

*note: the below recipe uses an alternative to ricotta.  Just FYI.

PLUS…this lasagna has a fun lil’ not-so-secret ingredient: Beet Greens. 

For reals.  My friend Babsy grew beets in her garden and provided me with a bunch.  The beets themselves got roasted with some other root veggies, but Babs told me that the greens can be cooked down & essentially taste like spinach.

People put spinach in lasagna all the time…so why NOT a super green like beet tops?  The greens have a mild flavor like Swiss chard, and are chock full of vitamins (A, C, K, E) and minerals (calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, and potassium).

Got a finicky kid who doesn’t like greens? MIX IT INTO A LASAGNA.  Along with a crap-ton of other veggies (onions, bell peppers, mushrooms).  Amid all that delicious pasta, tomato sauce and CHEEEEEESE, who would notice?

Do you see any veggies in there?  Because I sure don’t.

Most lasagnas utilize a 9x13 pan, but our pan is about an 8x8.  However, the amount of meat/cheese mixture I made for this recipe would pretty easily fill a 9x13 pan.  We had meat/sauce left over & ended up using it to make spaghetti later in the week.

The 8x8 pan makes about 4 servings.

Ingredients:

About 4 whole wheat lasagna noodles, cooked & cut in half (the 8x8 pan has three layers of noodles, and it takes just a little more than 1 noodle halved to cover it.  The fourth noodle is for filling gaps.  If you make a 9x13 pan, cook 6 noodles & don’t halve them)

1 tbsp olive oil

1 bunch beet greens, chopped (tops of about 3 beets, washes & minced)*

1/2 onion

1/2 bell pepper, diced*

3 cloves garlic, minced

4 oz mushrooms, washed & sliced*

1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce (we like Prego, Roasted Garlic & Parmesan, or the Italian Sausage & Garlic)

1 small can diced tomatoes, drained* (I prefer the garlic & oregano infused version)

0.5 lb Italian turkey sausage

1/2 pound small curd cottage cheese (or ricotta if you have it—we didn’t)

1 egg

1.5 tsp dried parsley

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried basil

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/4 cup  grated Parmesan cheese

8 oz shredded mozzarella

* Any of the Veggies are entirely optional, but I like to add them for the extra healthfulness factor and to make this more of an “all-in-one” meal. If there’s anything you don’t like in this recipe, feel free to remove it, or double up on one of the other veggies.  I won’t know, and I won’t hold it against you.

 

Directions:

In a medium sauce pan, boil your lasagna noodles (OR you can use the No Boil type noodles & save yourself a step.) Then set aside to drain.

Grab two skillets (or a skillet & a sauce pan/wok, if that’s what you’ve got).  In the larger cooking vessel, heat your olive oil over medium, and sauté your veggies & garlic until softened, then add your pasta sauce.  You might not need the whole jar, so just add ‘til you’re happy with the consistency.  We don’t want the mixture to be too saucy, or too dry.  In the other pan, brown your meat.

In a small bowl, combine the cottage cheese, egg, parsley, oregano, basil, salt, pepper, & parmesan.

When your meat is fully browned, add it to your sauce/veggie mixture.

And now, we begin the layering. Start by putting a few tablespoons worth of sauce in the bottom of the pan to make sure your first layer of noodles don’t burn or stick to the pan.  Then layer to match the following pattern:

(listed from top down, i.e. read from the bottom up):

last of the mozzarella
1/4 cup sauce
layer noodles
1/2 sauce/meat mixture (reserving 1/4 cup for the top)
1/3 mozzarella
1/2 cottage cheese
layer noodles
1/2 sauce/meat mixture
1/3 mozzarella
1/2 cottage cheese mixture
1 layer noodles
2-3 tbsp sauce

VOILA! (PS—you can totally sprinkle a lil’ extra parmesan on top. I won’t tell.)

Now cover with aluminum foil (be sure to “tent” it a bit if your lasagna is above the edge of your pan, like mine is above.  Then bake at 375F for 30 minutes.  Then remove the foil & let bake for 5-10 minutes or until the cheese is nice & browned. 

Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting so that the layers firm up a good bit.

Then SERVE & DEVOUR!

NutriFacts: (per serving)

Calories 662.7

  Total Fat 27.0 g

  Saturated Fat 10.8 g

  Polyunsaturated Fat 0.9 g

  Monounsaturated Fat 6.1 g

  Cholesterol 119.1 mg

  Sodium 1,017.5 mg

  Potassium 271.5 mg

  Total Carbohydrate 64.7 g

  Dietary Fiber 9.3 g

  Sugars 13.3 g

  Protein 44.5 g