Baked Spinach Spaghetti

Baked Spinach Spaghetti

• 14 oz box of spaghetti
• 10 oz frozen spinach, thawed
• 1/2 C onion, chopped
• 2 eggs
• 4 oz crumbled reduced fat feta cheese
• 1/2 c. chicken or vegetable broth
• 1/2 c. breadcrumbs
• 1 tsp garlic salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp rosemary

1. Preheat oven 350°F.

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:

Zucchini and Squash Rice Casserole

Zucchini and Squash Rice Casserole

• 1 c. dried instant brown rice
• 3 yellow squash (washed, peeled, and chopped)
• 2 zucchini (washed, peeled, and chopped)
• 1/2 c. chopped onion
• 1 can 98% fat free cream of mushroom
• 1/2 c. shredded reduced fat cheddar cheese
• 4 oz fat free cream cheese
• 1 tsp garlic salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper

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!

Chick Pot Pie

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 the onions tasted like bugs and now there's really no telling where I can take him next.

Have a great week!

Mexican Rice Bowl

Happy belated Cinco de Mayo!

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?

Birthday celebration in Nashville

This week, I decided to take a break from cooking and post pictures from our recent trip to Nashville. Brandon's birthday is April 15th and mine is April 18th and we usually try to get away from home and plan a little something to do in celebration of our birthdays. One of our favorite restaurants to go to is Maggiano's Little Italy and guess what...the closest one to us just happened to be in Nashville, TN.  We are die hard fans of Maggiano's and we will travel any distance just to get a taste. With our work schedules, we were only able to stay in Nashville for one night so we carefully planned our time together and really made the best of it! We left Oxford at 6am (and drove with the rain all the way there) and arrived to clear skies in Nashville sometime around 10am.

Brandon got Fettuccine Alfredo and I decided on the four cheese ravioli with pesto Alfredo sauce.  I hope no one was watching us because they probably would've been disgusted at how fast Brandon scarfed his food down and thought us rather odd for the huge grins we were sporting the entire meal.  To top of the meal,  Chocolate Zuccotto cake came right to our table. The cake is massive and extremely rich, but you can demolish it in minutes without thinking about what just hit your taste buds.  Layers of chocolate mousse  between chocolate cake and frosted with chocolate Ganache. Oh la la!!! We are planning a trip to St. Louis in October (for our anniversary) and just try and guess what was one of the main reasons we picked that city?  (Ok, I'll tell you- they have a Maggianos)  I can't wait!

I found a great deal on a one night's stay at the Millennium Maxwell House Hotel. Of course, the hotel had tons of music decorations and memorabilia and Brandon was pretty excited when he saw some of Bob Dylan's handwritten lyrics on display in the lobby. The hotel was conveniently located closed to downtown.

On Friday afternoon, we adventured out to the farmer's market. They had a huge selection of fresh produce and I just want to kick myself now for not getting anything and being so frugal. 

I am huge coffee fan and sucker for cute, unique coffeehouses. Well, I found Frothy Monkey and it was packed at 9am on Saturday morning. Belmont University is nearby, so the majority of customers were college aged students staring at laptops. I decided on oatmeal with fresh pineapple and granny smith apples. Along with my oatmeal, I sipped on a tasty mocha and the workers even put a pretty design in the froth. Hopefully, I'll learn to do that one day...

 The oatmeal looked so pretty once it came to the table, but I forgot to take picture.  But I did snatch a picture really quick before I devoured it.

Later on, before we left Nashville, Brandon was reminded by a good friend that Saturday was Record Store Day.  I've never seen so many people in one record store before.  It was truly an experience.  We drove all over Nashville just trying to find a record store that wasn't packed out into the streets.  Brandon did go with me to the farmers market without complaining so I was happy to be able to do something for him and watch him search for hours in old, black milk cartons for that one special record.

Thanks for taking the time read my blog and coming back week after week.  I'll cook up something yummy for you next week!

Cheese Spinach Ravioli

Cheese Spinach Ravioli

The following email was sent to me as a viewer challenge.  


"Samantha,
I have a cooking challenge for you.  As a lover of Ravioli I am wondering if you can make a healthier cheese ravioli that also tastes good.  I hope this does not require you to make your own pasta, but perhaps you could figure out some creative way around that too?  I look forward to seeing what you come up with."

I tried, viewer, to make homemade ravioli, but it was a disaster.  Just so you know, I will not give up and I'm going to try to conquer it in the next few months.  Since I wasn't able to get the ravioli working in time for this post, I had to switch to lasagna noodles kind of last minute.  Even though I was extremely disappointed, I think it turned out alright. 

8 oz lasagna noodles

 Filling

• 1 1/2 C low-fat ricotta cheese
• 3/4 c shredded mozzarella
• 1/2 c frozen chopped spinach, thawed
• 1/4 c. chopped onions
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• dash of salt and pepper

Alfredo Sauce:

• 2 C fat free milk
• 1 C chicken broth
• 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
• 2 Tbsp Parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder

Preheat oven to 350°F. Boil water for lasagna noodles. Cook until noodles are tender and drain.

In a small nonstick skillet, saute the chopped onions and chopped spinach.  A lot of flavors come out, that I really like, when sauteing the two.

Combine all the filling ingredients into a food processor (oh, how I love my food processor!) including the spinach and onion mixture. Process the ingredients until well blended. To start the ravioli process, you will need a sharp knife to cut through the pasta. On one sheet of lasagna, place one tablespoon of mixture per ravioli. You can fit three tablespoons of mixture on one sheet of lasagna. Next, place a new sheet of lasagna on top of your completed one. Cut into three squares. Continue process until mixture is done. Bake at 350°F for 10 minutes.

For the sauce, combine all ingredients in a saucepan and cook on medium heat. Whisk until the sauce thickens.

Lastly, take the ravioli out of oven and drizzle the Alfredo sauce on top. To add more flavor, I sprinkled reduced fat feta cheese--Brandon's favorite.

Here's his review:

Corn and feta cheese black bean burgers

Corn and feta cheese black bean burgers

• 1 15oz can black bean, drained
• 1 15 oz can corn kernels
• 1 egg
• 1/2 C onion
• 1 C Panko breadcrumbs
• 4 oz crumbled reduced fat feta cheese
• 1/4 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp roasted red pepper
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• a dash of salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Meanwhile, combine half a can of black beans, onion, and all the spices in a food processor. Blend until no chunks. In a mixing bowl, pour in remaining ingredients and stir in food processed ingredients. 

Start forming patties out of the mixture and arrange on a baking pan.  Refrigerate burgers for 30 minutes before baking them.  Bake for about 20 minutes.

Enjoy your burger on a wheat bun with your favorite cheese. Sweet potato fries are a great side too!  Brandon would've reviewed this but as soon as he saw burgers in the fridge (and found out they had feta cheese in it) he couldn't wait to eat them.  He showed me his famous magic trick of making them disappear before I even had time to get the camera out.  I'm pretty sure he enjoyed it, although he did say that the corn was a surprise.  I'm not sure what that means. 

I am really excited about the upcoming weekend. Brandon and I are celebrating our birthdays in Nashville and we are planning to go to our favorite restaurant (MAGGIANOS!!!).
I get way too excited about eating great food. Also, we are planning to visit a local farmer's market. I should have some extra pictures for next weeks blog.

Do you have a favorite restaurant that you would drive miles just so you could eat that one special dish?