Cream-less Alfredo

I wanted to make an alfredo dish for dinner tonight using our leftover broccoli and asparagus that was on its last leg. Unfortunately it is a Sunday (we don't shop on the Sabbath) and I didn't have whipping cream, cream cheese, or half-in-half in the house, so I knew it would be a BIT tricky. Luckily, thanks to my good friend the Internet, I was able to find this recipe and it actually turned out really well. Plus, it's got to be a lot healthier than regular alfredo sauce, so that is a plus! Oh, and sorry, no picture of this one!

Original recipe, here (randomly). It sounds like it is from The Good Housekeeping Step-by-Step Cookbook.

Ingredients:

• 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 cups skim milk (I used whole because we had some and I figured it would be closer to cream)
  
• 1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
• 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a 12-inch skillet on med-high heat, add onion and garlic and cook until golden.
   
2. In medium bowl, whisk together the milk, broth, flour, salt, and pepper until well-blended. Stir the mixture into the skillet, turn heat to high, and cook until the mixture boils and thickens.
   
3. Stir in the Parmesan cheese.
   
   This is enough sauce to coat a one lb. box of fettuccine when it has been cooked.

Crazy Bread Sticks

I got this recipe from my friend, Anah, and I hope she doesn't mind that I am posting it here. I have made these a few times and like them because, not only do they taste good, they are fairly quick and easy. Plus, every time I have made them (whether a 1/2 batch for just Jeff and I) or a full batch when I've had a handful of people over, they are ALWAYS gone that night. No leftovers! [And, unfortunately, I can't keep the picture from being sideways!]

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 c warm water
• 2 Tb sugar
• 2 Tb yeast
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 c flour (*every time I have made these, they have been pretty sticky, so I might try more flour next time)
  
• 1/4 c butter
• garlic salt or parmesan cheese, optional
  

Directions:

1. Dissolve water, sugar, yeast, and salt together. Mix in flour and let sit for 10-20 minutes.
2. Dump onto a floured cutting board and flatten with hand. Cut into strips with a pizza cutter. (Because of the stickiness, I don't use a rolling pin and I often end up forming the bread sticks with my hand. They don't look the greatest, but they taste good!)
3. Melt butter and pour onto large cookie sheet, reserving about 2 Tb.
4. Place strips on cookie sheet. Brush tops with a basting brush dipped in the remaining melting butter. Sprinkle with garlic salt or parmesan cheese, if desired. (You can also add the garlic salt to the mixed butter and spread it on that way.)
   
5. Let raise an additional 15 minutes.
6. Bake at 375 for for 20 minutes.

Cheesy Vegetable Lasagna

Lest you think I dropped off of the face of the Earth or stopped cooking, don't worry, I didn't! Earlier this month, I was trying to decide what to do with all of my veggies and stumbled across this recipe and made a few modifications. Since I'm borderline vegetarian at times, I loved it. My husband thought it was ok until he had some leftovers the next day and then he thought it was really good! It reheated REALLY well. Next time I think I'll add more tomatoes because they really added a nice flavor. Yum!

Original recipe, here.

Prep Time: 35 min
Cook Time: 45 min
Ready In: 1 hour, 20 min

Ingredients:

• 12 lasagna noodles
• 2 Tb olive oil
• 2 heads fresh broccoli, chopped (I think I only used one since it was big - I also used a food processor)
• 2 carrots, thinly sliced (I used a food processor for this too)
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 green bell peppers, chopped
• 2 small zucchini, sliced
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 cups milk
• 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese, divided
• salt, to taste
  
• pepper, to taste
• garlic powder, to taste
  
• basil, to taste
• oregano, to taste
• crushed red pepper, to taste
  
• 2-3 cups of fresh spinach (the recipe called for frozen, but I used fresh and just guessed how much to use.)
• 1 (8oz) container small curd cottage cheese
• 24 oz ricotta cheese (I used less ricotta and more cottage cheese, since it is cheaper. Even then, I think I used less cheese overall and it was still plenty.)
• 2 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided (I don't think I used this much. I just kind of guessed and used what I had on hand. I did use some mozzarella and some Italian blend, including Parmesan, but it was all kind of guesstimated).
• 1 tomato, sliced (I added this per one of the suggestions and in the future would probably add more tomatoes and include them between the layers.)
  

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish. (I used a foil-lined stoneware casserole dish that I had. This makes a really big lasagna, so I'm not sure a regular 9x13 would be large enough.)
   
2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add lasagna noodles and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
3. Heat 1/2 of the oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium heat. When oil is hot add broccoli, carrots, onions, bell peppers, and 3 cloves of garlic. Heavily season veggies with basil, oregano, salt (several large pinches), pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes. Saute for 7 minutes; set aside.
4. Heat remaining 1/2 of the oil and add zucchini with remaining 2 cloves of garlic. Season the same way as the other veggies, saute, and then set aside.
   
5. Place flour in a medium saucepan and gradually whisk in milk until well blended. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook 5 minutes, or until thick, stirring constantly. Stir in 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, and garlic powder (to taste) [can also add a little butter]; cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in spinach. Reserve 1/2 cup spinach mixture. In a small bowl combine cottage and ricotta cheeses; stir well.
6. Spread about 1/2 cup of spinach mixture in the bottom of the prepared pan. Layer noodles, ricotta mixture, vegetables, spinach mixture and 2 cups mozzarella cheese, ending with noodles. Top with reserved spinach mixture, tomatoes, 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese and 1/4 cup parmesan cheese.
   
7. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until lightly browned on top. Cool for approximately 10 minutes before serving.

Serves: 12

Tex-Mex Turkey Soup

Several weeks ago, in an attempt not to waste all of the leftover (but still unfrozen) turkey from Thanksgiving, I whipped together this tasty dish. Jeff LOVED it and so did I. It's a great way to use up leftover holiday turkey, but I'm sure it would also taste great with chicken. Have I ever said how much I love homemade soups?!

Original recipe, here.

Prep Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 40 min
Ready in: 50 min

Ingredients:

• 1 Tb olive oil
• 1/2 c minced onion
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 4 c water
• 1 (10.75 oz) can condensed tomato soup
• 1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes
• 1 c salsa
• 4 c shredded cooked turkey
• 1 Tb dried parsley
• 3 chicken bouillon cubes
• 1 (14 oz) can black beans, rinsed, drained
• 1 (14 oz) can corn
• 1/2 c sour cream
• 1/4 c chopped fresh cilantro

Toppings

• tortilla chips
• chopped green onion
• shredded Cheddar-Monterey Jack blend
• fresh cilantro
• sour cream
  

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add minced onions and cook until onions begin to soften, about 4 minutes. Add garlic, chili powder, cumin and oregano and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
2. Stir in water, tomato soup, diced tomatoes, salsa, shredded turkey, parsley and bouillon cubes. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes or until bouillon cubes dissolve. Add black beans, corn, sour cream and cilantro. Simmer for 20 to 30 minutes.
3. Serve soup with crushed tortilla chips, chopped green onion, shredded cheese and additional cilantro and sour cream.

Pumpkin Pie Bites

I've been in a bit of a cooking funk lately due to the first trimester of my pregnancy. Luckily (or unluckily for my pregnancy weight gain), as the holidays approach, I am finally starting to feel like cooking again. Tonight my husband and I made these little treats for a work meeting he has tomorrow. They are SO cute, SO easy, and SO tasty! The website I found this recipe on may just be my new favorite place. I'm typically not much of a baker, but she seriously makes some SUPER cute stuff!

Original recipe, here.

Ingredients:

• 3 refrigerated ready-to-roll pie crusts (the original recipe only calls for 2, but we had so much extra filling, that we used 3.)
  
• 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Use cookie cutter to cut approximately 12 shapes from each pie crust. You will need to roll the dough thinner than it comes out of the box. (We were able to get a few extra.)
3. Press dough shapes into a 24 cup mini muffin tray.
4. Apply egg whites from one egg to the top edges of each pie.
5. Mix cream cheese, sugar, canned pumpkin, remaining 2 eggs, vanilla and pumpkin pie spice together until thoroughly combined.
6. Spoon mixture into each pumpkin-shaped pie crust, until full.
7. Bake for 12-15 minutes.
8. Remove pies to cool and repeat with second pie crust. Place the muffin tray in the freezer to cool it quickly for re-use.

Makes: 30 mini pies. Keep refrigerated.

Yum!

Chicken Enchiladas Verde

I can tell I am starting to get more confident in my cooking because I am getting better at improvising (even though it was just enchiladas, which are pretty straightforward) . After making salsa verde using our tomatillos, I wanted to find a meal I could incorporate it into. I used my favorite allrecipes.com to find a few recipes and then blended them together, using what I had on hand, to make these. They turned out quite tasty and I wouldn't be surprised if my husband took the leftovers to work for lunch tomorrow. That is always a sign of a great meal - if my husband can eat it the very NEXT day for lunch. (And sorry this picture isn't the best. It mostly looks like a ton of cheese, but really they were good, I promise!) The sad thing is that I used cheddar cheese and an Italian cheese mix to make these. During dinner my husband asked if I had used our monteray jack cheese (he thought it tasted like I had because of the salsa verde flavor). I had completely forgotten that we had some! Oops!

Recipe adapted from this and this.

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breast halves
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1/4 white onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 teaspoons salt
• Green Salsa - recipe on this site, here.
• 1/2 c sour cream
• 2 c cheese
• 4 large flour tortillas
  

Directions:

1. In a saucepan, combine chicken breast with chicken broth, one quarter onion, a clove of garlic, and 2 teaspoons salt. Bring to a boil, and then boil for 20 minutes. Set chicken aside to cool, and discard onion and garlic. When cool enough to handle, shred chicken with your hands.
2. Preheat oven to 350F.
   
3. Coat 8x8 inch baking dish with enough green salsa to cover the bottom. In a small bowl, stir together sour cream and 1/2 of the green salsa.
   
4. In each tortilla, spread chicken, sour cream and salsa mixture, and top with cheese. Roll up and place in dish with seam on bottom. When all tortillas are filled and rolled, add remaining green salsa over the top and top with cheese.
5. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until the enchiladas are browned and heated through.

Serves: 4

Green Salsa

Our tomatillo plant is finally producing, so I wanted to find a great recipe that could use them. This green salsa turned out great and I used it to make chicken enchiladas. Yum!

Original recipe taken from "Vegetarian Classics" by Jeanne Lemlin.

Ingredients:

• 12 oz tomatillos (about 18 small golf ball sized, or 10 medium)
• 1 very small onion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped (wear rubber gloves)
• 1 Tb lime juice (just under 1 lime)
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 Tb minced cilantro
  

Directions:

1. Remove the husks from the tomatillos, then rinse under cold running water to clean off any sticky residue. Place in a medium-size saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, lower the heat to a lively simmer, and cook 10 minutes, or until softened. Drain thoroughly and let cool.
2. Place the onion, garlic, jalapenos, and lime juice in the container of a food processor or blender and pulse a few times until coarsely chopped. Add the tomatillos and process until finely chopped but not completely smooth. Scrape the mixture into a bowl.
3. Stir int eh suger, salt, and cilantro. Serve at room temperature.
   

Makes: 1 2/3 cups