2. Boil water for pasta and cook until pasta is tender. Drain pasta.
3. In food processor, puree the spinach and onions until smooth.
4.Combine the spinach and onion mixture, eggs, feta cheese, broth, garlic salt, pepper, and rosemary into a mixing bowl. After a good stirring, pour into a oven safe dish.
5. Sprinkle breadcrumbs on top of dish and bake for 25 minutes at 350°F.
Prepare yourself for Brandon's review. I must warn you, he was in a silly mood:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. On stove top, fill a large pot with water and wait for it to boil. Once the water starts to boil, place all your chopped squash and zucchini in the pot. Cook the vegetables until tender.
2. Prepare rice according to directions on the package.
3. Puree the squash, zucchini, and onions until no chunks.
4. In a mixing bowl, combine cream of mushroom, cream cheese, garlic salt, and pepper. Once those ingredients are blended, then pour in the puree vegetables. Lastly, mix in the shredded cheddar cheese and pour all ingredients into a casserole dish.
5. Bake for 40 minutes on 350°F. Pull the casserole dish out of oven and sprinkle a small amount of cheddar cheese. Bake for another 5 minutes.
Although Brandon didn't seem to enjoy it at first, he did go up and get seconds. So, who knows? But I enjoyed this dish and hope you do too!
I apologize for the blog not being up earlier. For some reason the blogger website wasn't working this morning.
I'm pretty happy about this post because I was able to answer one of my most difficult viewer challenges yet. Do you remember?
"Long time reader, first time challenger. I CHALLENGE you to make something Brandon will like that has absolutely nothing cheese-like in it!"
I have to admit, I was pretty panicked about this one. I kept myself "Will Brandon like it if it doesn't have cheese?" Finally, I landed on an idea that I thought he might enjoy: a vegetarian chicken pot pie.
Chick pot pie
1/2 c. chopped onion
12 oz. frozen bag Lima beans
1 can sliced potatoes, drained
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 cans 98% fat free cream of mushroom
1 cup vegetable or chicken stock
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Crust:
The crust can be your special touch to the pie. I will give my suggestions, but really you could use any kind of pancake batter and truly make it your own.
3/4 c. Krusteaz pancake mix
3/4 c. water
1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients and make sure the cream of mushroom is thoroughly mixed in with all the ingredients.
3. Spray a casserole dish with non-stick spray and pour the ingredients into dish. Bake at 425°F for 30 minutes.
4. For the crust, mix together the pancake mix with water. Take the casserole dish out of oven and place spoonfuls of mixtures all over the top. Bake for another 20 minutes, until the crust is golden.
Now, Brandon isn't a fan of chicken pot pie but I think I won him over with this recipe. Halfway through the dish I noticed him staring down at his spoon as he was dissecting all the ingredients.
"This has onions in it."
"Yeah, it does."
"Hmm...it's pretty good."
And there you go readers; mission accomplished. I remember not too long ago when he thought theonions tasted like bugsand now there's really no telling where I can take him next.
In celebration, I decided to be festive and prepare a Mexican dish. This week, my ideas came from a viewer challenge:
"You know how KFC has those Chicken bowls that are really good (and really bad for you)? Well last night my wife made some chicken, black beans, and brown rice and I put it all in a bowl and put some cheese on top and it was mighty tasty. I don't know how good that was for us, but could you come up with something like that that would appeal to those with taste buds who are trying to lose weight? Also, maybe something you could substitute for the chicken since you guys are trying to be vegetarian? "
I agree that my follower prepared a healthier option to the KFC chicken bowl and I decided to use similar ingredients but added some taco seasoning and onions for a variety of flavors. My version has a little bit of a kick to it!
1 c. dried brown rice
1 packet reduced sodium taco seasoning
1/2 c. water
1/2 c. chopped yellow onions
1 can kernel corn, drained
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup
1/2 c. shredded reduce fat cheddar cheese
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare brown rice according to package. In the same saucepan as the rice, mix in chopped onions, taco seasoning, and 1/2 cup of water. Let simmer for about a minute.
Next in the saucepan, combine the corn, black beans, cream of mushroom and spices and mix until well blended. In a medium size casserole dish, pour in the Mexican rice and bake at 350°F for 20 minutes. Lastly, take the casserole dish out of oven and sprinkle cheddar cheese on top and bake at 400°F for 10 minutes. Serve with fat free sour cream and more cheddar cheese.
Speaking of viewer challenges, this is going to be an interesting one...
"Long time reader, first time challenger. I CHALLENGE you to make something Brandon will like that has absolutely nothing cheese-like in it!"
That's going to be a difficult one. That boy loves his cheese. And here's cheesy boy now with a review:
Brandon and I are planning to celebrate Cinco de Mayo tonight at a local taco shop. I guess we will have to say Seis de Mayo. Do you or your family have any traditions for Cinco de Mayo?
