So this past week i decided to try a few little things to mix things up, a lasagna, spanish chicken, a pretzel treat and stuffed french toast!
First, I made lasagna and I have only made one other lasagna in my life. it came out delicious, however, we had this huge tray that we ate on all week since we put so much effort into it and by the end of the week neither one of us ever wanted to see or hear the word lasagna ever again. Fortunately, the tiredness of lasagna went away and last week i decided to give it a try. We've eaten the small stoufers lasagnas, but they take an hour and a half to bake! who wants to wake on that on a week night? NOT I! So I set out to make a lasagna that wouldnt take too long and wouldnt kill my desire to want to eat it for 6 months.
I started out by buying the no boil noodles which i figured could eliminate anywhere from 10-20 minutes off my time. After dinner one night, since the kitchen was already messy, i browned a package of ground turkey and drained it and mixed it with a can of marinara sauce. I began to build my lasagna layers of meat, cheese and noodles BUT i had a new method. Instead of a big pan you typically put lasagna in, i used 2 loaf pans. That way we would have one for that week and one for a later date. After everything was assembled, i wrapped them both in seran wrap and foil, put one in the fridge and one in the freezer for a later date. The next day i baked the lasagna for 30 minutes and it was DELICIOUS! it made 4 nice servings, so we had a nice dinner and leftovers for lunches or another dinner later in the week!
Then on Friday i decided i would try a Rachel Ray 30 minute meal i saw her make on tv. It was Chicken Romensco and spanish kale potatoes. The recipe calls for chorizo as well but i opted to not make that part. It took me awhile. Partially because all the prep work of cutting everything (it says to cut the potatoes in half but i did chunks). Needless to say it was delicious! The kale mashed potatoes were awesome. We had a ton left over for another meal later in the week! This week i am going to make her Stuffed Sausage balls. It calls for mashed potatoes too so i might either use the ones we have or i bought polenta to make with it as well.
Lately Michael has craved something sweet at night and while we were in Chicago, Pretzel M&Ms were a regular thing for him. For a nice little treat, i made him peanut butter and carmel filled chocolate covered pretzels. I got an email for some candy recipes and as soon as i saw the name i knew i had to make them. The recipe calls for 5 cups of pretzels (which is a ton!). I opted to just fill one big cookie sheet of rows of pretzels (which is still a whole lot). First you spread peanut butter on top of your pretzel. I used twist pretzels cus they were the closest thing to a heart i could get (yes i am cheesey). Using a little spoon i could get enough peanut butter on 3 pretzels at a time. once i got a tray of pretzels covered with peanut butter i put caramel melts with some water and butter in the microwave and melted it down real well. using a spoon i put a little dollop of caramel on top of the peanut butter. Once they were all done i put them in the fridge for about10 minutes to set.
While they set, i melted chocolate chips in the microwave. the recipe called for chocolate candy coating, but for some reason HEB was out of the milk chocolate candy coating, so i used chocolate chips and it worked just fine. With a fork i took each pretzel and rolled it around in the chocolate to get it nice and covered and put them back on wax paper on a cookie sheet. Once done i put them in the fridge for about 10 minutes to set. I had a ton of pretzels, chocolate and carmel left over. I always have peanut butter on hand so it didnt really do a dent in that, but i decided to take the big messy bowl of melted chocolate that i had, and pour it in a ziplock bag. i covered another tray with wax paper and pretzels and then cut the corner off the back and drizzled the chocolate all over the pretzels. I stuck them in the fridge to set too. So we got 2 yummy treats. The pretzels with the drizzled chocolates are so good, the others are amazing, but really rich so you can only eat one or two.
paris" idea). I wanted to make him something delicious and a coworker had told me she had eaten these french toast that were stuffed with ricotta cheese and strawberry jam and that she hated ricotta cheese but that this was by far the best breakfast ever. I HAD to try it. I love french toast and i LOVE ricotta cheese.
I found a recipe on food and wine for it (amongst a million other ricotta and fruit stuffed french toasts) and the recipe seemed really easy. i decided to practice Saturday morning since he had to work. I had NO LUCK finding a good thick bread at the store, and in the bakery i could not find a good bread that was appropriate for french toast so i decided to stick with the sliced bread i had. i spread one slice of bread with ricotta and one slice with jam and put them together like a sandwich. Then in a pie plate i mixed some milk, an egg, vanilla and cinnamon together and dipped each side of the sandwich in it and then cooked the french toast on the skillet with a little butter. When done i practiced sprinkling a little powdered sugar heart on the top and jumped right on in. While it was good. it wasnt the phenomenal thing i expected. SOOO the next morning i woke up and went to whole foods hoping i could find a better bread selection. I talked to the baker and he told me to use challah bread for is thick buttery consistency. I had wanted that to begin with so YAY! i came home and went through the same ritual as before but cut the bread into a one inch slice (except this time i also had bacon cooking :) ). It came out PHENOMENAL. it came out so well i got up early this morning before work to make it again cus i love it that much! Except this morning i tried baking it instead so i could get ready instead of standing over the stove. I used fat free ricotta cheese and it still tasted great. Its sooo good you dont even need syrup!!! 
So last thing..... i found this awesome blog of this lady in New York who blogs about her daily cooking. she cooks EVERYTHING and then had a recipe section where every blog she has ever written is broken down in a category. You need a recipe for something she probably has it. Not to mention.... her blog has a cute name Smitten Kitchen!
Happy Eating!
