Roasted Veggi Lasagna

I found another gem of a recipe to make with your fresh garden picks... this is the best veggi lasagna I have ever had, I will definitely be making it again.  I didn't take a picture of it, but here is the link.
Roasted Vegetable Lasagna
I made a few changes d/t what I had in my kitchen: I only had the noodles you boil so I boiled them and used them anyway and it turned out fine (my noodles were whole wheat which was also tasty), I used yellow squash instead of egg plant, and I also didn't turn the vegetables over in the middle of roasting, I only had time to roast for 30 minutes, but it turned out just fine.  So There you have it... I hope you all get to try this recipe, I L-O-V-E-D it... the roasting just gives it a great flavor.

Super Easy and Delicious Browned Butter & Mizithra Pasta

We had this at Spaghetti Factory awhile back and Brandon & I both really liked it.  It's so easy and really good - what wouldn't be good with that much butter & cheese?  We found this copy cat recipe on All Recipes but it tastes exactly the same.


1lb spaghetti noodles
1cup butter (I think we did less butter, it really doesn't need that much to still taste good)
3/4 lb Mizithra cheese (we thought this would be hard to find but it was at Winco & Safeway)

Cook noodles al dente...  While noodles are cooking melt butter over medium heat.  Stir the butter constantly until it turns golden caramel brown.  Watch it closely, it feels like you've been stirring forever then all of a sudden you look down and it's caramel and you don't want to burn it.  Let it sit for 4 minutes then put a paper towel over a bowl big enough to hold the butter and pour the butter over the paper towel - you don't want the butter solids.  Grate the cheese on the finest grater you have and mix everything together.   I hope you like it.  Not exactly a 'healthy' meal but totally worth it :)

I think it would be good with some garlic added, maybe some little chunks of bacon (yeah, we're going for health nut over here :)  )  Next time...

Blondies

Super Quick, Easy and Delicious!

Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Butter (melted)
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla
1 Box Yellow Cake Mix
1 Cup Choc. Chips

Preheat oven to 350. Bake for 15-20 minutes. I like them to turn out to be soft almost gooey, so I bake them for about 15 minutes.

Mix together melted butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla. Then mix in yellow cake mix. It will mix together thicker like a cookie dough rather than cake batter. Lastly had the chocolate chips.

Whole Wheat THICK Pizza Crust

Really this is my mom's french bread recipe but I use it for Pizza crust and if you like thick yummy pizza crust, you'll like this.  This recipe makes a LARGE and FILLING pizza... it fits in big 18 x11 (or so)jelly roll pan with 1 inch sides.

So here is the RECIPE:
2 1/2 cups warm water
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp yeast (or two of those little packets)
Instructions: in large bowl let yeast, water and sugar dissolve for 10 minutes.
Then add:
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsp oil
3 cups flour (you can use white flour but I always use whole wheat)
Instructions: stir together well in your mixing bowl, I have my kneading hook on my kitchen aid that I use for this part.
Then add:
3 more cups flour and stir and knead together until all is mixed.
Instructions: Then let rise for 20 min in a warm dry place, punch the dough down and stretch dough out to spread across your GREASED (I just use spray stuff) and then I bake my crust @ 350 degrees for about 10 minutes to give it a head start, then take it out... add all your ingredients and bake for another 15 minutes.  And your done!  It will be really lumpy... and thick but it is sooo good and really one piece fills you up. (for French bread I let it rise twice for 20-30 minutes and then just make a big ball and set it on a cookie sheet and bake it for 45 min or so.)
Topping suggestions: 
-Your favorite kind of Spaghetti Sauce (I use this because then I get all the flavors that are already in the sauce)
-Cheese (duh)
-Grilled Chicken pieces
-Spinach
-red pepper slices
-tomato slices
-and then season with garlic salt and oregano... yum.

Santa Rosa Chicken Salad

So I check the "Just Cook Already" Blog quite frequently because everytime I do I find a recipe on there that I LOVE.  This week my jewel of a find was this... 

and you can link to it right HERE.  Oh MY is it good... and Tyler LOVED it too... he even said "this can't be healthy, it tastes too good", but it is :)... Mwahahaha. Anyway try it. I dare you. Its really filling too... in my eyes this is a main dish.

Tip: I could only find the 6oz box of Uncle Bens Wild Rice so I used two of those for this recipe... but now I have enough to feed a family of 8 and there is just the two of us... so just eyeball how much of everything you need to make the size salad you want, or if you like leftovers, do what I did.  Also, I halved some green grapes and threw them in and it was a REAL nice addition. 

Easy Beef Enchiladas

I like quick easy meals and this is one that we really like.

1 lb ground beef, cooked
1 can refried beans
sliced olives
chopped onions
shredded cheese
tortillas
1 packet McCormick Enchilada Sauce (you will need tomato sauce for this sauce)

Make the sauce according to the directions on the packet. Mix the beef, beans, olives and onions together. I don't like olives and onions so I just do the beans and beef for me. Spoon about 1/3 cup of mixture into tortillas, sprinkle with cheese, roll up closing both ends, and put in a 9x13 pan. Cover with the sauce and sprinkle cheese over the top.
 If you want you can dip the tortillas in the sauce before adding the mixture and rolling it up.
This will make about 6- 8 enchiladas.
Cook at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.
These make great leftovers!

Best Frosting EVER!!

Its a simple math equation really....
2 sticks of butter
2 8 oz blocks of cream cheese
4 teaspoons of vanilla
4 oz. of white chocolate
8 Cups of powdered sugar (add more if you want thicker frosting)

Instructions: for one, it makes quite a bit, so half it if you need to. Two, the butter and cream cheese should be at room temperature... cream them together for a few minutes... then add vanilla... then (this is the part I made up... and its sooooo good)... heat up 4 oz of broken up white chocolate in the microwave for 30 sec... stir, and do for another 30 sec until you can mix it and its smooth... immediately pour into the butter/cream cheese mixture and keep that mixer ON (the white chocolate will get hard if you don't) then slowly add the powdered sugar until its at the consistency you want.  If you refrigerate it you might have to get it out and let it thaw a bit and put a mixer to it again to make it soft and spreadable.  Perfect for everything... seriously!  This is the frosting we had on our wedding cupcakes... only now there is white chocolate in it, and its even tastier now.