Caprese skewers

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving dinner was fantastic!

I served the usual - turkey, corn, carrots, etc - but I also threw in a little Italian with parmasan-crusted green beans, my harvest lasagna and for an appetizer - caprese skewers.

Couldn't be easier, or tastier:
Grape tomatoes
Fresh basil leaves
Mozzarella balls

All impaled on a long toothpick. A caprese salad in one yummy bite.

Summer Series: Too Hot to Cook - Part 1: Panzanella & BBQ Tofu

I'm attempting a summer-long series inspired by my lack of desire to do lots of prep work or stand over a hot stove as temperatures hover in the 90s.

Last night, I made a Panzanella salad and BBQ tofu strips (which I just called "BBQ strips" until my 3-year-old declared them a winner) with a side of sliced avocado. Simple, not a lot of prep and perfect for a hot summer evening. Honestly, I would eat just the salad for dinner with some sliced avocado, but for the kid's sake, I wanted to round the meal out.

For the BBQ tofu, I followed this recipe from my BBQ Tofu Sandwiches.

Panzanella Salad
Ingredients:
(all vegetables are approximate)
5 nice-sized tomatoes, cut into a large dice
1 English cucumber, cut into a large dice
1/2 red onion sliced thinly
1 loaf of yummy bread (ideally getting stale, but if it's not, that's okay!), cubed - I used ciabatta
1/4 cup vinegar (red wine or balsamic)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 (small) clove garlic, minced or grated on the microplane
salt & pepper to taste
1 handful basil, chiffonaded

Directions:
If your bread isn't stale, set your oven to 200 and put the cubes on a cookie sheet and let them dry out for about 40 minutes. Once that is done, continue with the recipe.

In a measuring cup, measure out the vinegar and oil, add the garlic and salt & pepper and mix together.

Put the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and mix together. Add the dressing and toss and toss and toss. Then refrigerate for at least an hour to let the dressing soak into the bread.

Add basil and toss again just before serving.

Pizza salad

I saw this recipe from the June issue of Good Housekeeping and knew it would be a great summer meal!

I used sourdough English muffins instead of pizza crust, since it's what I had on-hand. The muffins were cut in half, sprayed with oil olive, topped with garlic powder and Parmesan cheese, and baked at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes.

I followed the rest of the recipe pretty closely and it turned out great! I served baked asparagus topped with Parmesan cheese on the side.

I think next time I make this, I'll add black olives to the salad, and maybe some fresh basil.

Broccoli galette

This is a really tasty recipe from VegetarianTimes.com.

Rather than store-bought crust, I made my own pizza dough with the help of the free online Craftsy class Perfect Pizza at Home

Loaded Pasta

This started off as ziti, but I didn't have any ziti. And I wanted to add some "meaty" tempeh. And spinach. All amounts are approximate, because I didn't measure anything

1 recipe of cashew ricotta
2 cups marinara sauce
3/4 lb pasta, any short shape (I used fusilli)
1/2 recipe of tempeh from here, minus the fennel & red pepper flakes
1/4 cup frozen spinach, defrosted

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375.

Cook pasta according to instructions (I had it going while I cooked the temeph to save time). A little at a time, incorporate all ingredients into a large casserole dish until it looks yummy and delicious.

Bake for 30 minutes, until the top is nice and crunchy.

Serve with kale chips or any other delicious greens you have on hand.

Lasagna Bites (an interpretation)

I was inspired by this idea I found on Pinterest. I couldn't find vegan wonton wrappers, but I've been on a puff-pastry bender lately and decided that would be a suitable substitution. It was! They were missing the crunchy bite of the wontons or the yummy crispy lasagna noodles at the edge of the pan, and they didn't quite stay closed during baking, but YUM.

Squash and Bean Bolognese

A different take on regular spaghetti...
I found the bean mixture recipe at EatingWell.com.

Then, rather than using regular ol' noodles, I used spaghetti squash - almost as easy to make as regular spaghetti!
1. Cut squash in half lengthwise. Place face down in a baking dish in 1 inch of water.
2. Bake for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Let cool for about 10 minutes.
3. Stand one half on its end. Take a fork and scoop out the pulp and seeds gently and trash it.
4. With the fork, scour the inside of the squash - it comes out in noodly strips!

Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese

I love fall produce! Here's a really tasty pasta made with a creamy butternut squash, from Better Homes and Gardens:

And if you're looking for a spooky pairing in time for Halloween, be sure to check out Joe's Halloween Wine recommendations!

Baked Polenta with (vegan) sausage and artichoke hearts

A very friendly cashier at Trader Joe's suggested this recipe to me. I made a few adjustments, to suit my taste, and it was great!

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 white onion, thinly sliced
• 1-2 vegan sausages (I like Tofurkey's Italian flavor), chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
• 3/4 cup marinated artichoke hearts, coarsely chopped
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 tube (18 ounces) prepared polenta, cut into 1/4-inch rounds
• 1/3 cup vegetable stock
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley (optional), coarsely chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium. Add onion and cook until softened, 5 minutes. Add sausage and cook, until heated through. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, 30 seconds. Remove skillet from heat and stir in artichokes; season with salt and pepper.
2. In an 8x8 baking dish, layer polenta rounds and spoonfuls of sausage mixture. Pour stock over top and bake until bubbling and polenta is pale golden, 20 to 25 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Caprese Pizza

Oh, pizza, how I love thee. I'm always craving pizza. Could eat it every night of the week if I had no self-control. One night, I was itchin' for something a little different, and came up with this caprese pizza: Throw these Ingredients on top of pizza dough/crust Pizza dough or crust Basil pesto Sliced heirloom tomatoes Fresh soft mozzarella Fresh basil leaves Bake for about 20 minutes and enjoy!

Italian Meatloaf

May is a very busy month for me with all kinds of traveling for work. Thus, Joe is left home alone to fend for himself. If I have time between trips, I try to prep a meal or two for him so he'll still have some sort of homecooked meal while I'm gone. So at his special request before one of my trips, I whipped up an Italian meatloaf.

Ingredients

• Ground beef (enough to fill a meatloaf pan)
• Sliced pepperoni
• Mozzarella cheese
• Bread crumbs
• Spaghetti sauce
• 2 eggs (or egg-replacer equivalent)

1st layer: In a large bowl, mix together beef, crumbs and eggs. Grease your meatloaf pan, and line the bottom with a third of the mixture.

2nd layer: Spread pepperoni and cheese and sauce, completely covering the beef.

3rd layer: Add another third of the beef mixture.

4th layer: Spread pepperoni and cheese.

5th layer: Top with remaining beef, sprinkle with cheese, and a few tablespoons of sauce.

Bake at 375 degrees for 50 minutes, or until meat is longer pink on the insider.

Gnocchi with Zucchini Ribbons

I have a weakness for pasta. It's just so yummy! So I'm always looking for a new pasta combination to keep it interesting.

I found this recipe from EatingWell.com and I was not disappointed.

Veggie Pasta bake

Pasta makes everything taste better!
Here's a recipe to use up a bunch of your stock veggies before they go bad.

As I was thumbing through the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens, I came across this recipe I had to try. Here's the recipe, with a few of my alterations:



Ingredients
2-3 cups penne pasta
2 1/2 cups cauliflower, chopped
1/4 cup onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 carrots, sliced
10 cups kale
1 cup frozen veggie mix (carrots, peas, etc)
Butter
Flour
Salt/Pepper
1 cup milk
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Parmesan cheese

1. Cook pasta according to instructions. Add cauliflower during last 5 minutes of cooking. Drain.

2. In a large pot, heat olive oil and cook onion and garlic for ~2 minutes. Add carrots and cook until tender. Add kale and cook until wilted.

3. Combine pasta and cauliflower with the kale mix and mixed frozen veggies in a large oven-safe bowl (like Corningware).

4. In a small pot, melt the butter and stir in 2 tbsp flour, and a dash of salt and pepper. Add milk and stir until thickened. Add cheese and cook until melted. Stir this mix into the pasta and veggie bowl.

5. Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes covered. Sprinkle with Parmesan and bake for 5 more minutes. Serve.

Bubble Up Pizza Casserole

I stumbled upon this recipe and met it with a unique mixture of disgust and desire. Made it vegetarian and took out the store-bought biscuits, plus a few other changes along the way.


Stephanie's Bubble Up Pizza Casserole

INGREDIENTS

• 1 Tofurkey Meatless Italian Sausage, chopped
• 1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/2 c sliced mushrooms (I would have used more, but that's all I had. But they were shiitake! Mmm)
• 1/2 tsp dried Italian seasoning
• 1 jar Trader Joe’s Fat Free Pizza Sauce (I used almost the entire jar)
• 1 pizza dough (I'd planned on using homemade, but didn't have any on hand, so I grabbed a pre-made one from Trader Joe's)
• 1 c Finely Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

INSTRUCTIONS
1.  Preheat oven to 375 and grease a 9×13 dish. 
2.  Heat a splash of oil in a large frying pan.  Add sausage and brown, then remove/set sausage aside.
3.  Add vegetables (and another splash of oil) to pan and cook until soft, approximately 5-7 minutes. Add spices, spaghetti sauce, and sausage. Mix well and remove from heat.
4.  Coat the bottom of your pan with pizza dough.
5.  Spread half of the sauce mixture over the biscuits. Sprinkle with half of the cheese. Repeat layers.
6. Bake for 23-28 minutes or until golden brown. Cut into squares and ENJOY!

Pizza breadsticks

Because we haven't given our daughter cheese yet, including her in family pizza night has been a challenge. She's too small to really handle a slice and her cheeseless pizzas become bread with a side of mixed vegetables all too quickly. Guess which half of that equation gets ignored. So I made breadsticks with the veggie goodness baked inside and provided some sauce on the side for dipping.

Using my go-to dough recipe (also featured here), I added a bit of each veggie we used to top our pizza (on this day it was onion, spinach and green pepper) and mixed it right into a hunk of dough. Cooked that dough alongside our pizza and let it cool enough for little hands and little mouths.

"I Don't Feel Like Grocery Shopping" Pasta Primavera

We decided it would be more fun to spend the day playing with our lovely daughter, taking her swimming and meeting a friend's two-week-old son than driving to the grocery store and picking up food. So we had to make do with what was in our (very bare) cupboard. But the result was tasty!


Ingredients:
- 1-2 bags of frozen mixed veggies (I used a blend of zucchini, yellow squash,  carrots, green beans, onions, and red pepper, plus the end of a bag of peas, as well as some fresh carrot, because we had a ton in the fridge)
- 1 package of pasta (I used spaghetti)
- Garlic & Oil. I more or less followed this recipe, leaving out the red pepper flakes (because there was already more than enough red pepper in the meal for my taste) and lemon juice (because someone had used all of the lemons to make lemonade)


Directions:
- Cook pasta according to directions, drain
- Cook garlic & oil according to above recipe or however you feel like it
- Steam/sautee/otherwise heat veggies until heated through and tender.
- Mix it all together, top with Parmesan, if desired.

It was a pretty good choice for the heat, because everything cooked at the same time and it all cooked quickly, so I could make the heat go away fast.

Eggplant Parm

I was a horrible vegetarian. I didn't like mushrooms, squash, zucchini, or eggplant. I've been working on that I love them all - except those evil evil mushrooms. We will never be friends...

Anyhow, Here's my take on a classic Italian veggie dish:



Ingredients
1 large eggplant
Olive oil
1/2 cup cornmeal
Dried oregano
Fresh basil
Parmesan cheese
Cooked pasta and sauce

1. Cook pasta according to package instructions.
2. Slice eggplant lengthwise about 1/4 inch. On a plate, combine cornmeal and oregano. Coat each side of the eggplant in in mix.
3. Heat oil in a pan. Cook eggplant until slightly browned on each side.
4. Lay eggplant on top of pasta and top with the rest of the ingredients.
And enjoy!

Pasta Primavera

A super easy, and surprisingly filling, pasta dish from VegNews.



Ingredients
Olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp lemon juice
8 oz pasta of choice
2 small yellow squash, cut into 1/2 inch slices
1 medium orange pepper, cut into 1 inch pieces
3 cups broccoli florets
2 cups halved cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup green onions, chopped
1/2 cup fresh basil, torn

1. Cook pasta to package directions. Add squash and bell pepper and cook for 4 minutes. Add broccoli and cook for 3 minutes. Drain.
2. Stir in rest of the ingredients. Heat until tomatoes are warm. Top with favorite cheese.

It's that simple!

Skillet Pasta & Flounder

I always try to grab the Whole Foods newsletter "The Whole Deal" when I'm there, mostly for the coupons, but also to check out the recipes. While I don't usually end up trying the recipes, every once in a while something will strike my fancy. Recently they published a matrix for making simple skillet meals using beef, turkey or tempeh. Each of the five options (Irish, Cajun, Asian, Tex-Mex and Italian) have their own seasoning, veggies and serving options, but the same basic directions. To see of all of the possibilities, click this link and scroll to the bottom to download the PDF. I decided to try the Italian one, because I'm not adventurous. But I did substitute two cans of navy beans for the beef/turkey/tempeh. So I guess I'm a little adventurous.

Ingredients:
Seasoning: 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning + 8 thinly sliced, oil-packed sundried tomatoes
Veggies: 1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes + 1 bunch thinly sliced lacinato kale (tough stems removed) [I don't know what lacinato kale is, I just used the regular kale that my store had] + 2 tsp chopped garlic
To Serve: Spoon over or toss with 3/4 lb pasta, cooked and drained

Directions:
1. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.
2. Add 1 lb lean ground grass-fed beef, along with any seasoning(s)
3. Break up beef with a wooden spoon, browning it until cooked through and any liquid has cooked away, about 10 minutes. [or until everything's hot and you don't want to burn it]
4. Stir in veggies and cook until just tender and heated through.
5. Serve as suggested.

My husband took advantage of some well priced flounder fillets. He lightly coated each side with
canola oil, garlic, oregano and basil and a little lemon juice, then baked them at 400 for 8-10 minutes.

Harvest lasagna

I'm a pasta lover. Can't help it. So I've been thinking of a way to make a seasonal pasta dish and it hit me - an autumn-themed lasagna.



Based on my recipe for lasagna rolls, I chose a more harvesty-type filler:

Wheat lasagna noodles
1 cup shredded Red beets
1 cup shredded Butternut squash
1 cup shredded Sweet potato
Ricotta cheese
Mozzarella cheese
Spaghetti sauce
Pumpkin/squash seeds
Pecans, chopped

1. Mix together the shredded veggies. Add a bit of olive oil if it's too dry.
2. Lay out noodles and spread with cheese and the veggie mix.
3. Roll up and place in a casserole dish, with the bottom covered with spaghetti sauce.
4. Drop a few spoonfuls of sauce on top of each roll. Top with a bit of mozzarella cheese, and the seeds and pecans.
5. Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees covered with foil, then for another 15 uncovered.

And enjoy with your favorite sidedish! I prefer a spinach salad with cranberries and walnuts.