Pizzaaaaaaaaa

I followed the recipes from John & Elana Talk About Food.

Let's check on the dough my boyfriend started:

And here are the carmelized onions:

Here is the final rise of the dough:

And the dough is rolled out and covered in Gruyere cheese:

 And here are the carmelized onions:

Done!  It was tasty, but I ended up adding garlic powder to more zing.

And I also made a sundried tomato and basil pizza:

Next time I used sundried tomatoes I'll put them under the cheese so they don't burn to a crisp :(

And here is my boyfriend's carmelized onion, gruyere, and chicken pizza:

Pasta With Tomato Cream Sauce

I got this delicious recipe from The Pioneer Woman and you should go right here to see her pictures because they are much, much, much better than mine.  Also her blog is pretty much my favorite everrrrrrr.  (Every time I try to add her to my blog-roll at the very bottom on this site it doesn't work.  Conspiracy against Pioneer Woman?  I think so.)

1. Cook onions and garlic in olive oil and butter.  Next time I'll choose either butter or olive oil, I think both were unnecessary:

2. Add in two cans of tomato sauce (I used 1 can sauce and 1 can tomato puree because I wanted a thicker sauce):

 4. Mix it all up:

5. Add in some pepper and a bit of sugar:

6. Let it cook down for 20-30 minutes (check out that steam!):

7. Add in 1 cup heavy cream (I used 1/4 heavy cream and 3/4 half & half):

8. Swirl it around to make a gorgeous shade of orange:

9. Add in lots of parmesan cheese:

10. Add in your chosen cooked pasta and mix well:

11. Add fresh basil on top when you serve it.  Please, please, please do this step!  The taste of fresh basil complements the sauce PERFECTLY:

Pasta With Tomato Cream Sauce
from The Pioneer Woman

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons Butter
1 whole Medium Onion, Finely Diced
4 cloves Garlic, Minced
2 cans (15 Ounce Each) Tomato Sauce Or Marinara Sauce
Salt And Pepper, to taste
Dash Of Sugar (more To Taste)
1 cup Heavy Cream
Grated Parmesan Or Romano Cheese, To Taste
Fresh Basil, Chopped
1-½ pound pasta

Preparation Instructions

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.

2. Heat butter and oil over medium heat. Add onions and garlic and saute for a minute or so.

3. Pour in tomato sauce and add salt, pepper, and sugar to taste. Stir and cook over low heat for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4. Remove from heat and stir in cream.

5. Add cheese to taste, then check seasonings.

6. Stir in pasta and chopped basil and serve immediately.

Quiche

I decided to try making a quiche.  And oh man, was it yummy!  I'll definitely be making it regularly.  I had to do 2/3 the recipe because my crust wasn't big enough to begin with and then shrunk when I cooked it by itself (this is where the other half of the tiny pie dough went!).

Here is the recipe from food.com

Quiche

1 1/2 cups shredded cheese
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
9 inches unbaked pie shell

anything else you have on hand and want to add (the original recipe & the comments have lots of good suggestions)

1. Lightly beat eggs. 

2. Add milk, flour, & cheese, mix well (and anything else you're adding in).

3. Pour into unbaked pie shell.

4. Bake at 350* for 50-60 minutes or until set. (I recommend covering the crust edges with foil for the first half hour to prevent burning)

And here are the pictures!

1. Crust ready to go:

2. Some of the recipe comments said to pre-bake the crust to stop it from getting soggy.  So I put it in the oven with the tiny pies.

3. Here it is full of yummy egg-y goodness.  I put in slightly carmelized onions, broccoli, sundried tomatoes, and regular tomato.  Also instead of just cheddar cheese I also used smoked gouda and havarti.

 

4. And here it is ready to eat:

Man, it was gooooooood!  I also made plain biscuits to go with the quiche and I ate mine with strawberry jam.

Fancy Boxed Mac and Cheese

We have a bunch of Annie's white cheddar mac and cheese that I bought at Target when it was on sale for $1a box.  My boyfriend isn't a big fan of mac and cheese so I wanted to make it a bit fancier and yummier.  This is what I came up with!

Fancy Boxed Mac and Cheese
1 box mac and cheese
1 cup broccoli
1/2 cup sundried tomatoes
1 cup shredded cheese
1/4 cup Panko breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
little bits of butter

1. Make a box of mac and cheese according to directions.

2. If you're making Annie's mac and cheese you'll mix the powder with 1/4 cup milk (actually this seemed a bit watery and I'll use less next time):

3. While the water is boiling steam broccoli:

4. Chop up the broccoli into bitesize pieces.
5. Drain the macaroni.  Put it back in the pot.

6. Add the chopped up broccoli, some sundried tomatoes, and some shredded cheese (I used 1/4 cup havarti and some parmesan but next time I'll use a bunch more) to the noodles. Mix until the cheese is melted.

*7. Mix together the topping. I used Panko bread crumbs because I have seen 2 mac and cheese recipes using it as a topping recently and because I first heard about it in Cooking Light magazine and am therefore convinced it is healthier even though I haven't compared nutrition facts. I'm glad that I used it because it added a really nice crunch to the soft mac and cheese.

8. Sprinkle the topping over the mac and cheese.  Add a few bits of butter.

9. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 12 minutes. 

 10. Enjoy while feeling fancy!

*I don't know why step 7 and the picture below turned white and I can't figure out how to fix it.  Sorry!

Broccoli Cheese Wild Rice Casserole

 
I invented this recipe myself when I lived in my first apartment in college.  I have always enjoyed cooking and cooked a fair bit in high school, but I really got into it once I was responsible for all of my own food.  This is a good recipe to modify based on your own likings, leftovers, and current pantry holdings.


I served this with the rest of the buttery biscuits that I made to serve with the Tuscan White Bean Soup.


Broccoli Cheese Wild Rice Casserole
1 box Uncle Ben's wild rice
1 can cream of celery soup
1 can cannelini/white bean/navy beans, DRAINED & rinsed

1 broccoli tree, diced up to be bite-size, about 2 cups (use as much of the stem as you like, in a casserole it's easy to sneak in lots of stem along with the florets)

some frozen spinach, drained & chopped - I include this whenever I happen to have some in the freezer

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I always use white cheddar)

1/4 cup grated fresh parmesan

1/8 stick of butter
1/3 cup chopped onions
2 cloves garlic, minced (about 1 tablespoon)
sprinkle of cayenne pepper
cheese to sprinkle on top

Here is everything you need all together!

1. Make wild rice according to package directions.  Preheat oven to 350.

I like Uncle Ben's wild rice because it comes with a seasoning packet which is very delicious.

Vegetable Fried Rice

My boyfriend also likes baking and cooking.  He doesn't cook dinners that often, but when he does, it's generally a variation of fried rice.  He was the one who introduced me to it as something you could make yourself.  Here is a vegetarian version, but he likes adding bacon or chicken (though between the eggs & edamame adding extra protein shouldn't be a concern).  I try to keep it healthy by using brown rice, lots of veggies, and as little oil and soy sauce as I can stand.  Though I pretty much always end up using all my daily allotted sodium and then some whenever I have fried rice.

Vegetable Fried Rice
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup onion
2 eggs
1 cup mixed frozen veggies
1 cup frozen broccoli
1/2 cup frozen edamame beans  --these are soybeans and are a very healthy source of protein (more detail below)
2 cups cooked brown rice
light sodium soy sauce to taste

1. If you're like me you'll have to start off by cooking yourself some rice.  One of these days I'll plan ahead and actually have leftover rice that I need to use and make fried rice the traditional way.

2. I put the frozen veggies in the pan with no oil and cover it with a lid and let the veggies steam themselves for a few minutes.  When they're done put them on a plate and cover it with a pot lid to keep them warm while you cook the rest. (Technically the frozen edamame should be cooked in a boiling pot of water for several minutes, but I don't bother because I'm lazy.  Warning: the lazy methods leads to the edamame being mildly crunchy.)

3. Now it's time to cook the eggs.  Scramble the 2 eggs and cook them with the onion in 1 tbsp olive oil.

4. When the eggs are done, add the veggies back into the pan along with the cooked rice.  Add 1 tbsp olive oil and soy sauce to taste.  Mix it all around and cook it for a few more minutes.

 This isn't nearly enough soy sauce. For me.  I add more on my plate.  My boyfriend has more sodium self-control than I do.

*Edamame Info:  You can buy it at Target.  For some reason the Archer Farms calls the shelled version (trust me, you don't want to deal with the shells) mukimame, but it actually is edamame. Look:

Broccoli Cheese Pasta FAIL

At Target this week I treated myself to some delicious, fancy, & expensive cheeses.   I bought some smoked gouda and creamy havarti.  I used some of it in my Fancy Grilled Cheese and then I used more of it in a broccoli cheese pasta that I invented myself.  However, it didn't go well enough for me to share the recipe with anyone.  I tried to make a cheese sauce......and it failed pretty epicly.  My boyfriend and I ate it anyway (with sundried tomatoes!  Lately I've been throwing them in to everything I can) and it tasted pretty good.  But all I'll do is show you a picture:

*Please note how it looks like there is no cheese in the bowl.  This is because instead of being a sauce that coated everything as I had planned, the cheese stayed in chunks that are hidden in that shot.

I also made Incredibly Delicious Cheese Garlic Bread to go with it that certainly did not fail.  It was indeed incredibly delicious.  Though after making it, I think calling it "Cheese Garlic Butter Bread" is a more fitting name.  I ate the leftovers for my lunch today.  No, not the pasta leftovers.  The garlic bread leftovers.

Behold!:

Easy Yummy Dinner

*I forgot to take a picture of my casserole, so here is one off of food.com


I thought I'd share what I made for dinner tonight because it was easy, yummy, healthy, and I got 4 dinner servings & 2 lunch servings out of it.  Also, it is made of cheap ingredients, which is always a plus.  I modified this food.com recipe.

Mexican Vegetarian Casserole

2 cups cooked rice
1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained & rinsed
1 can (15 oz) corn, drained
1 (8 oz) carton light sour cream - I mixed it in, but I'm considering leaving it out next time and using it as a topping
1 cup salsa
1 1/2 cups reduced fat shredded cheese - I used a pre-shredded mexican blend
1/3 cup chopped onion
sprinkle of cayenne pepper, depending on how spicy you want it
sprinkle of taco seasoning, depending on how spicy you want it
1/2 cups reduced fat shredded cheese to sprinkle on top
1 can black olives for topping
tortilla chips for a crunch while you eat : )

1. Preheat oven to 350.  


2. Mix the first 9 ingredients together in a large bowl.  


3. Spray the casserole dish/es with Pam.  


4. Spread the mixture into the dish and sprinkle with 1/2 cup of shredded cheese.  (I used a 5x9 casserole dish and an 8x8 casserole dish. I cooked one and put the other in a freezer for another night. I covered it with foil, pressing it down so that the foil actually touched the food and then put it in a freezer bag or put the dish's lid on it).  

5. Bake for at least 25 minutes, or until the liquid is cooked off or you will end up with a very soupy dish (your liquidiness will vary based on your salsa, sour cream, etc).  Serve with olives, (sour cream if you didn't mix it in), and tortilla chips.  The chips add a nice crunchy texture to the smoothness of the casserole.

6. When you cook the frozen one it will take longer than 25 minutes.  (I haven't done this yet so I'm not sure, just keep checking for the top to be a bit brown and the liquid to have bubbled away).


My boyfriend and I each ate dinner and there is enough leftover for one lunch.  And this was only half the recipe!  The other half is in the freezer for next week.