Zucchini/squash boats

I hope this works. It always makes me nervous when I'm this avant garde.

We had a fridge full of yellow squash and zucchini given to us via the garden of a friend of a friend.

So we decided to stuff them and make 'boats.'

NOTE: do not try this unless you've read this whole entry and I say it comes out decent. Because I'm totally making this up, with no guidance.

INGREDIENTS:
- one yellow squash
- one zucchini
- extra virgin olive oil, cold-pressed
- salt
- garlic powder
- Italian seasoning
- two Morningstar breakfast patties
- 5.2 ounces Boursin shallot & chive Gourney cheese
- one egg
- about 1 cup corn flake crumbs (or bread crumbs)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Slice squash and zucchini in half long-ways and gut out the seeds with a spoon. (feed to tortoise if you have one, they love squash guts.)

Child can then use pastry brush to coat each half with olive oil. Sprinkle a pinch of salt and garlic to each and a hearty sprinkle of Italian seasoning.

In a bowl, mix cheese, breadcrumbs and egg. Stir into a filling. Mix in broken bits of vegetarian sausage patty.

Fill boats (the squash and zucchini) with filling. Assemble the halves back to whole vegetables. Wrap in aluminum foil. Bake 45 minutes.

Another tuna casserole

Since lunch was spicy and used both meat and beans, I opted for a milder dinner. In one pan, I cooked 1 lb of egg noodles.

Meanwhile in my Le Creuset skillet, I did the following:

• Added three tablespoons butter
• about 1 teaspoon basil
• one teaspoon garlic pepper
• and some serious shaking (maybe 1.5-2 teaspoons) of the seasoned parmesan mix that came with the spinach rigatoni things from Aldi

Once the butter melted, I added:

• one cup soy milk
• one packet of cheese mix from Wegmans cheddar and shells mac and cheese dinner

While that cooked, and I stirred, I prepared about two cups cauliflower in the microwave and opened a can of tuna. Then I added them to the skillet.

• one can tuna
• about two cups cauliflower

I drained the noodles and added them.

• 1 lb egg noodles cooked.

I stirred, and added more of the seasoning

• about 1 teaspoon Aldi parmesan seasoning

Then:

• about 1/4 cup extra sharp cheddar cheese
• about 1/4 cup sour cream

Stick in oven at about 35o until the family is ready for dinner.

Starting chili

We got about a foot of snow... okay, it's probably more like eight or so inches. But that makes me want something hot and stew-like. Beef bourgogne would be fabulous, but working with what I have on hand, it looks like chili. And if I can gather the ingredients, I'd like to make the kind with cornbread dumplings...

If this link works, it should take you to my previous chili recipes:
http://angelfoodcooking.blogspot.com/search/label/chili
If not the link in the labels below for chili should help...

But let's see today...

• about a tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• about one and a half cups browned hamburger crumbles from the freezer
• one clove garlic coarsely chopped
• about 3/4 teaspoon Indian chili powder
• about one teaspoon pizza and pasta seasoning
  

That's sizzling in the pan. I added:

• almost two cups Wegmans vegetable stock

As I wait for that to boil, I'm debating between Hunts Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes or the cheap Italian style from Aldi... I'm thinking fire-roasted.

• One can Hunts Fire Roasted tomatoes

Waiting for that to boil. I'm going to boil it for about 10 minutes to reduce some of the vegetable stock. Then I'll simmer covered for about an hour. I added:

• one tablespoon cocoa powder
• about a half teaspoon four color organic peppercorns

I let it cook for about 30 minutes and seeing how it reduced down, I added:

• 1 cup thai broth (also Wegmans, I had it in the freezer)
  

Perusing my chili recipes, I'm thinking this calls for:

• one can (15.5 ounces) light red kidney beans
• one can dark red kidney beans

(I'm out of black. I love black beans.) I'm still debating whether to add corn and/or pineapple. It all depends on the flavor.

Well, my goal is always to make chili that has a nice flavor but isn't too spicy for the child. I usually only succeed in making either bland chili or five-alarm chili. Today, it seems like this concoction is three-alarm chili. So I added:

• 20 ounces crushed pineapple (minus a couple ounces for the tortoise)

Smells and looks great.

Italian Potato Casserole?

So I'm experimenting with hot lunch today.

I'm layering some sliced potatoes in the bottom of a hot skillet (with a decent amount of extra virgin olive oil). My plan is to fry them as crispy as possible, then layer Aldi's steam-in-bag Italian blend vegetables in sauce (season choice? I think that's the brand name). I will thaw two Morningstar vegeterian sausage patties and crumple into veggies. Then I will mix some bread crumbs, pasta and pizza seasoning, romano cheese, four color peppercorns and basil with a tablespoon of butter and drop those on top and heat in oven.

Right now, I've got the skillet heating, sliced potatoes in the microwave (we pre-cut potatoes in different shapes and freeze) and the steam-in-bag vegetables cooked. The oven is preheating to 400.

Okay, so for those who like an actual recipe:

• 2 morningstar vegetarian breakfast patties
• 1 bag Italian blend steam-in-bag vegetables (Aldi, Season's Choice, with some sort of tomato/olive oil sauce)
• About 2 cups sliced potatoes
• Extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon basil
• 2 teaspoons pizza and pasta seasoning
• 1 teaspoon four color peppercorn fresh-ground pepper
• 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
• 3 tablespoons romano cheese, grated
• 1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cook vegetables and sausage patties. Also precook potatoes a tad. Mine were frozen and I thawed them in the microwave and drained liquid. Crumble sausage patties in preparation. Pour several tablespoons extra virgin olive oil in large skillet. Heat, on low. Add a nice layer of potatoes, with a second layer to fill in the thin spots. Increase heat to medium. Cook until potatoes start to change color and absorb oil. Should look like starting to brown.

Add vegetables over top, spread with spatula. Reduce heat to low. In bowl, combine spices, romano and breadcrumbs. Add butter and blend with fingers.

Add crumbles of sausage across the vegetables. Then, with a spoon, sprinkle breadcrumb mix across the top of everything. Cook at 400, in entire skillet, 15-20 minutes...

Hopefully this is edible when I'm done...

Honeyed Grilled Cheese on Rye with Broccoli

I had originally hoped to make beef burgundy sometime soon... but stew is not an apropos choice when it's 90 degrees and humid.

So, instead, I used my homemade rye bread to make little grilled cheese sandwiches with white sharp cheddar and a touch of honey on one side of the bread, added right before you take the sandwiches out of the pan.

I sautéed the fresh broccoli in some seasoning I wasn't real keen on.

The recipe for honeyed grilled cheese is actual a ham-and-cheese sandwich and should be available by clicking on sandwiches.

Open Faced Meatball Broccoli Garlic sandwiches

I took the meatballs I made last night and made strange sandwiches for dinner. I cooked the leftover meatballs in plain tomato sauce with some four-color pepper and italian seasoning. While they simmered, I melted some butter (about 1/3 of a stick) and added a tablespoon or two of garlic powder and a teaspoon of parsley. I took the last few slices of the homemade French inspired cheesy bread and slathered on the butter sauce.

I broiled the bread until the edges got crispy, then I pulled them out of the oven and covered them with tiny bits of fresh broccoli. On top of the broccoli, I piled the sauce and then two meat balls. Finally, I sprinkled on grated cheddar (liberally) and returned it to the oven to bake.

Garlic Bread Pizzas (aka Veggie Melts?)

For dinner last night we had another round of my famous "French bread pizzas" which are more like veggy melts. My husband and I sliced one of my homemade baguettes in half. We melted a couple tablespoons of butter and mixed in a generous amount of garlic powder and grated parmesan. Next we sprinkled on leftover cooked carrots and raw broccoli. We seasoned those with my pizza and pasta seasoning and garlic pepper. Then we sprinkled with asiago and shredded cheddar. We cooked under the broiler until the cheese melted and the edges of the bread turned brown.

Spinach Lasagne

I did not put forth my best effort on this one. My daughter requested lasagne, and it's not one of my favorites to make, but since her father is preparing dinner tomorrow I thought it would be a nice treat for them. A hot meal when Mommy's not here.

This is a small lasagne in I believe a 14 by 9 Pyrex dish, only about two inches deep.

For the cheese filling:
about a pound and a half fresh ricotta
one can spinach
garlic powder
basil
pizza and pasta seasoning

I mixed everything together (including the liquid from the spinach) with about a tablespoon garlic powder, two tablespoons basil, two tablespoons pizza and pasta seasoning.

For sauce, I use one can (the little 8 ounce cans) of generic no salt added tomato sauce. That's why I put so many seasonings in the cheese mix. Commercial tomato sauces have a ton of salt and sugar. And they're expensive. I've tried making my own. So far, it's not worth the effort.

Some mozzarella would me nice. And of course the no boil lasagne noodles.

I poured at least half a can of sauce on the bottom of the dish, layered in a single layer of noodles and put in the other half a can of sauce. Then I plopped in half the ricotta spinach mixture, which filled about half the dish. Oops. More sauce. More noodles. A layer of mozzarella. The rest of the cheese. More sauce. More noodles. A second layer of noodles. More mozzarella, more sauce. Done.

Update: It's not my best work, somewhat bland, but edible. Easy to doctor on the table if needed. I had a small serving for dinner. My husband packed some for lunch and I had cold lasagne for breakfast. With the remaining portion, I sliced two pieces for future lunches and packed those in aluminum foil to freeze.

I like my lasagne crispy, so I took a piece the size of a loaf pan, wrapped it in foil with the seam on top, and placed it inside a pyrex loaf pan. This particular pan has a lid that I had planned to put on before I froze, but now I can't find it. My thought was to freeze in the dish, thaw in fridge, remove the lid, crack the foil and toss back in oven for another meal.