Lasagna Roll-ups

It seems I have been way too busy enjoying summer this week to cook or, you know, sleep. I'm tired but happy and waiting for the tomatoes to rippen. In the meantime, enjoy what looks to be my friend Maria's best effort to date--vegetarian lasagna.

There are so many things I love about Kroger (a grocery store you may or may not have in your town). The one I go to in Bloomington, Ind., was recently upgraded, so to speak. It's amazing. It's huge, they have great deals, it feels really clean and new. Their olive bar is amazing. Love it! Every month they send a coupon bookfull of recipes or household tips. This last one was perfect,"Budget-friendly vegetarian possibilities." One of the subheadings is"pack more protein into meatless meals." Seriously, just what I need. Within a week I made two meals from the book.

Growing up we ate lasagna fairly often at my dad's house. It was either pizza, lasagna, spaghetti, spaghetti pie or chicken friedrice. (Which one doesn't fit with the others?) I've only made lasagna once, despite my mom's insistence that it's a great meal to freeze and eat later. This recipe looked easy and the pictures were"cute." Yep, I pick my food based on a cuteness scale.

Vegetable Lasagna Roll-Ups: 6 whole wheat lasagna noodles, cooked al dente and drained 1 cup low-fat ricotta cheese 1/2 cup part-skim mozzarella cheese, shredded and divided in half 2 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan cheese 1 egg white, slightly beaten 1 tsp dried parsley 1/2 tsp dried basil freshly cracked pepper, to taste 1 1/2 tsp olive oil 2 cloves garlic, sliced 1/2 cup red pepper, diced 1/2 cup zucchini, diced 1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced 1 cup fresh spinach, chopped 1 1/2 cups tomato sauce Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray glass baking dish with cooking spray and lay the noodles across the bottom so they don't stick (use olive oil or cooking spray if necessary). In a medium bowl, combine ricotta, 1/4 cup mozzarella, parmesan, egg white, parsley, basil, and pepper.

Heat a skillet to medium-high heat. Add oil. Saute garlic for 1 minute. Add vegetables (I didn't have red pepper and I added onion)and saute for 3 minutes. Add spinach and saute just until spinach is wilted. Allow mixture to cool, drain well and combine with cheese mixture.

Spoon ricotta filling onto the noodles, leaving about 3 inches of space on each end of the noodle. Roll up the noodles and arrange in glass baking dish. Pour 1/4 cup tomato sauce over each roll-up. Cover and cook for 20 minutes. Remove the cover and top with remaining mozzarella cheese and bake an additional 5 to 10 minutes.

Notes: Do NOT ever, ever, ever buy fat free mozzarella cheese. Definitely an accident I will never repeat. It's disgusting. It doesn't even really melt. I love gooey, melty cheese and this certainly was not. In the before and after baking pictures, notice the cheese isn't melted on the top? Yeah, exactly.

Vegetarian Meatballs

Megan has been raving about her homemade vegetarian meatballs since I've gotten back from Africa. And if you know Meg, she on the humble/self-conscious side and would never brag about anything unless it was over-and-above delicious. Though I was out of the country, I think there are a few meatless-balls packed away in the freezer, waiting for me to steal. Meatless Meat Balls: 6 eggs 1 8-oounce package cream cheese 1 1/2 cups soda cracker crumbs (add more if needed) 1 cup portabello mushrooms, chopped into small pieces 1 cup pecan pieces, chopped 1 medium onion, minced 1.5 tsp salt Mix everything together. Form into balls. Heat oil in a large sauce pan and brown the meatballs in oil. Put into casserole dish. Cover balls with tomato sauce. Bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Good servied with spaghetti or with sauteed vegetables.

Some Like It Hot

Before going to Africa I went to this lovely place called Ohio for a culinary weekend at the Hide Away Inn. I don't want to talk about the details of the weekend--in fact I'd like to forget the details of that weekend. However, the inn was adorable and the food--oh my--I could not wait to finally have time in my schedule to make this soup and salad. Thai food usually comes with a kick that, when well done, simply wakes up the taste buds to enjoy the lime-ginger-lemongrass-curry flavors that dominate Thai dishes. I've heard it said (so I can't take credit for this analysis) that Thais have perfected the sweet-spicy-savory flavor combinations. Cucumber Salad:
1 large cucumber
3 green onions, finely sliced
1/4 cup diced red pepper (I used green bell peppers--they are half the price of the red peppers for no reason that is apparent to me)
1/2 cup of fresh cilantro (I tore my cupboard apart and still couldn't find even dried cilantro, it's fine without)
1/4 roughly chopped dry-roasted peanuts (didn't have this either)
2 tablespoons lime juice (or juice from 1/2 a lime)
2 tablespoons fish sauce (don't mind the smell, your food won't taste that bad)
1/2 teaspoon oyster paste
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon sugar

Wash and dice the cucumber. Add spring onion, peppers, and cilantro and peanuts (if you have them) to the cucumber in a large bowl.

In a separate, smaller bowl, mix the rest of the ingredients with a fork or whisk to make a dressing. If it turns out you don't have oyster paste lying around but you do have musaman curry paste collecting dust in the cupboard, replace oyster paste and cayenne pepper with curry paste (something likely to be incredibly spicy if it's anything like this curry). The substitution worked out perfectly. Coconut Lime Soup: 2 14-ounce cans of coconut milk
2 cups water
2 tablespoons minced ginger root
4 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons fish sauce (this is what Thais use instead of salt, fyi)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
dash of cayenne pepper
1 green onion, thinly sliced

Bring coconut milk and water to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Mince ginger root in a garlic press and add to stock. Stir in lime juice, fish sauce, turmeric powder and cayenne pepper. Season to taste. Add half of the green onion. Simmer soup for 10 to 15 minutes. Serve and garnish with remaining green onion.

Garbanzo Bean Stew

I thought I was going to have my Monday routine back in action: come home from work, work out, cook, watch Gossip Girl. Alas, Gossip Girl was a rerun--for the fourth week in a row! Come on people. Don't they know I need my guilty pleasures.

I suppose I shouldn't complain because the rest of my routine worked out. Dinner was great and easy. And I even managed to get over my fear of cooked spinach. Cooked spinach brings up bad a singular bad memory for me. I swear it happened, but my dad swears it didn't.

I was five and we were living in the rented house in LaVista. Mom must have been working, so Dad was making dinner or reheating something and it was, dun dun dun, cooked spinach. I swear it was so bad I gagged and threw up. Probably I just spit it out of my mouth. So I got mad at my dad, probably made some sort of fit-temper-tantrum thing and ran away from home. I only made it to the bottom of the street before Dad came and got me. All this drama over a bunch of limp spinach that (to be fair) probably was pretty bad. I had major issues with vegetables as a child. Come to think of it, this is actually a really great memory because I have always wanted to dramatically leave somewhere and have someone chase after me--just like in the movies. You could say it's a fantasy of mine. I haven't added any sort of wilted green to anything since then, even though it seems to be so popular of late. I'm over it. So mom, I think it's time that you got over your childhood fear/hatred for beans and make this garbanzo bean stew. You can work your way up to lima beans.

Garbanzo Bean Stew: adapted from Food and Wine
10 ounces fresh spinach
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 onion, chopped
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 15-ounce cans of garbanzo beans or chickpeas

In a medium skillet, bring a pot of water to a boil. Drop in spinach and simmer for 2 or 3 minutes until wilted, stirring. Drain spinach in colander and use a paper towel to squeeze out some of the water. Coarsley chop.

In a small mixing bowl, mince the garlic. Mix garlic with turmeric, salt and pepper. Add in 1/4 cup of the water from one of the cans of chickpeas. Add paprika, cumin, cloves and chile powder and blend together.

In the medium skillet, saute onions with tomatoes (undrained). Allow some of the juice to evaporate, so saute for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic mixture and the rest of the chickpeas and it's water. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer. Add the spinach and simmer for 15 minutes or until garbanzo beans are cooked through and split. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Chickpea Salad

I have this problem with wasting food. I overbuy at the grocer and then can't finish the tub of sort-of-expensive ricotta cheese, marscapone or mozarella before they are consumed by a furry, green animal (at least someone's eating it). In fact, I have a tub of cottage cheese and a tub of sour cream in the fridge that I am afraid to even touch. I push them further and further into the hard-to-reach recesses of the fridge. I feel really bad about this. It's such a waste of money and resources. Monday night was probably the worst because I discovered with one whiff that the chicken that I had procrastinated on making into something delicious had taken on an odor that threatened to curdle milk inside its carton. Because of my laziness, I had to throw away five, once good, chicken breasts. Do yourself a favor and wrap chicken separately when you freeze it. So I did what I always do and improvised. Unfortunately or perhaps fortunately, in the process I discovered a jar of mold-encrusted roasted red peppers back next to a frozen bottle of Coca-Cola. I'm pretty sure I bought that jar of peppers last summer. I'm sorry, this is what happens when you are single. You have to eat leftovers for weeks. You do also get to enjoy cookies for weeks too. Seems like a fair trade. Instead I made a chickpea salad on toast, with Laughing Cow Swiss Cheese (not to be confused with Mad Cow). This cheese is really fantastic. I think my eighth-grade French teacher Mr. Srb introduced it to me. But I rediscovered it via Weight Watchers a couple years ago.

Chickpea Salad: (inspired by/copied from Smitten Kitchen) 1 15-ounces can garbanzo or chickpeas
1/2 cup Kalamata olives, pitted and halved
1/4 cup onion (I used green onions, she used purple)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice (use the zest if you've got a whole lemon--I did not, it could go bad)
dash parsley (dried or fresh)
salt and pepper to taste

Toss all this crap in a bowl and mash it up a bit.

I deviated from the perscribed recipe by adding some capers that have been sitting in the fridge at least as long as the ill-fated red peppers had been. But capers are stored/preserved in vinegar, so they won't go bad. I'm not sure this was a good addition to the salad. Also, as you can see in the above photo, I put some roasted tomatoes on the toast in place of the red peppers. Not a good idea. The canned roasted tomatoes are tough and chewy. I remove them and all was well again.

Would Have Been Better With Shrimp

I suppose it makes sense that when you are uninspired, everything you make is also uninspired. I made an attempt to rally myself last Tuesday. I feigned excitement when I saw a photo of a delicious pasta dish. It could have been so good. I'll blame the health food market I stopped by on my way home that doesn't stock shrimp. So what we're in landlocked Nebraska? This is America, and I want my semi-exotic seafood priced at $5 a pound. I'm being sarcastic. But this dish would have been a lot better with shrimp (versus tofu). Vegetarian Pasta: handful spaghetti 2 tablespoons butter 1/2 cup onion, chopped 1 garlic clove, chopped 1/2 butternut squash, diced 1/3 cup cremini mushrooms, chopped (because mushrooms go in everything) 1 cup chicken/vegetable stock 1 cup dry white wine or marsala 1 teaspoon dried rosemary 1 cup tofu, chopped (or 1 pound already-cooked shrimp) 1/4 cup cream (to thicken) salt and pepper to taste parmsan cheese (to salvage) Start out by bringing a pot of salted water to boil. Cook spaghetti according to directions. Penne pasta would also work well with this dish. Melt butter in sauce pan on medium high heat. Saute onions for a couple minutes. Then throw in the garlic, squash and mushrooms and continue to saute for several more minutes, until the onion in translucent. Add the stock and the rosemary, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Add the wine. Simmer until squash is nearly cooked through. Add the tofu/shrimp while still on simmer. While stirring, add cream slowly until sauce thickens a bit. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Chili Is for Fall.

I knew it was coming. The outer leaves on oak trees are starting to fade to orange and then red, and there's finally got that "crisp" fall feeling when you step outside. So it is definitely chili weather. This is the chili recipe I grew up loving, straight out of a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook published back in 1975. Classic. I did have a couple issues making this ridiculously simple meal. One, I found a pound of ground beef at HyVee for a whopping $1.99. Woah! That's way less than a gallon of gas. You may be asking, What's the issue here? Well all I could think when I picked up the meat was: "This cow was abused and shot with loads of hormones, this cow was abused, this cow was abused." I felt bad. For a second. But come on, we are in an economic crisis (or so evidenced by the quarterly report on my 401k--down 20 percent for the year!!!!). Issue number two occurred while lettting the chili simmer for the allotted hour. I left it on the stove with the burner as low as I (thought I) could and settled down to watch Friends reruns. I went back to check on it after 45 minutes, and it was almost burned and parts of it were singed to the bottom of the pot. It's the stove, I tell you. I thought these burners were supposed to be the preferred choice of chefs because it's easier to control the heat. But our not-so-cutting-edge stovetop has two settings: high and off. Not to worry, I still ate the chili and it was/is still good. Megan also made chili. As she is a vegetarian, she's not going to be eating my stew laced with neglected cow meat (I don't blame her). I would argue that Megan's chili had more flavor and more kick than mine. As spices, she added a packet of taco seasoning and a packet of dry ranch mix. Good. And guilt free (unless you're talking about sodium levels). So I ate two bowls of chili on the perfect fall night. Not a bad life. Chili Con Carne: 1 pound ground beef 1/2 cup chopped green pepper 1/4 cup chopped onion 1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes 1 14.5-ounce can kidney beans, rinsed 1 8-ounce can tomato sauce 1 4-ounce can diced black olives 1 bay leaf 2 teaspoons chili powder salt and pepper to taste Brown meat. Saute onion and green pepper until soft. Add the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil and simmer for one hour, covered. The olives are optional. They're my mom's addition to this recipe.