Zucchini Quinoa Lasagna

Ingredients:
4-5 medium zucchini, sliced into strips lengthwise
1 tbsp. olive oil 
1 small onion, diced
3 medium garlic cloves, minced
1 c. uncooked quinoa
2 c. vegetable broth or stock
1/2 c. tomato sauce
1 c. packed fresh spinach leaves, chopped
8-10 fresh basil leaves, chopped
1/2 c. cottage cheese (or ricotta, silken tofu or cream cheese)
2 c. marinara sauce
1/2 c. shredded mozzarella or parmesan cheese


Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sprinkle the zucchini slices with a little salt and layer them between paper towels to remove some of the moisture. Let them sit during the remaining steps.
In a large skillet over medium, heat the olive oil and add the onion. Saute until tender and then add the garlic, saute another couple minutes. To the skillet add the the quinoa, vegetable broth, tomato sauce, spinach and basil. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed and the quinoa is fully cooked. Remove from heat and add cottage cheese.
Coat the bottom of a 13x9 baking dish with 1 cup of the marinara. Place  a layer of zucchini over the marinara, followed by half the quinoa mixture. Repeat this layer one more time and top with zucchini and remaining cup of marinara.
Top with cheese and bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes or until zucchini is tender. Allow the lasagna to rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Notes: Sorry for the nasty-looking picture...I promise this stuff was amazing! I can't remember where I found the recipe...I ended up making quite a few changes anyway. I will definitely make it again! I think I may just chop the zucchini up next time, stir it in with quinoa and bake it like a casserole to save on time.

Double Chocolate Mini Meringues

Ingredients:
4 egg whites
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
2/3 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 c. semisweet chocolate chips, finely chopped
1/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted

Directions: 
Preheat the oven to 250 and line a couple cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Beat the egg whites and cream of tartar on high speed until soft peaks. Gradually add the sugar and vanilla, beating well after each addition until stiff peaks form and sugar is dissolved. Gently fold in the chocolate and cocoa powder just until combined. Do not over mix or meringue will begin to go flat. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls (about the size of a walnut) onto the prepared cookie sheets and bake in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes or until outside of the meringues are hard and dry. Makes 60 bite size meringues.

 Notes: I love meringues so I made this recipe up yesterday and it turned out SO yummy! They're a little dangerous because of their size...you lose track of how many you've eaten :)

Margot likes them, too!

Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies

Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. white flour
1/2 c. cocoa powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 c. butter
1 c. white sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
10 oz. jar maraschino cherries
1/4 c. sweetened condensed milk
1/2 c. semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 and grease a couple cookie sheets and set aside. In a small bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda and baking powder and set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the egg and vanilla and beat well. Slowly beat in the flour mixture until well combined.
Roll the dough into 1 inch balls (about the size of a walnut) place on the prepared cookie sheets and press a dent in the center of each ball. Drain the cherries and reserve the juice. Place a cherry in the center of each dough ball.
In a small saucepan, heat the condensed milk and chocolate chips until completely melted and smooth. Remove from heat and stir in 1 tablespoon of cherry juice. Add more as needed to make mixture spreadable. Spoon about 1 teaspoon over each dough ball, just enough to cover the cherry. You may add more juice if mixture thickens. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Cool on wire racks. Makes 30 cookies.

Notes: I bought a jar a maraschino cherries for another recipe and I had almost all of them left so I looked on allrecipes.com and found this recipe to use up the rest. I was really happy with how these cookies turned out. They are very rich but very delicious! They recipe made way too much drizzle so I cut the ingredients in half and still had a little leftover. Other then that, I wouldn't change a thing!

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
2 1/4 c. plus 2 tbsp. white flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 c. margarine or butter, softened
3/4 c. white sugar
3/4 c. packed brown sugar
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 c. (12 oz. package) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 and grease a couple cookies sheets and set aside. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl and set aside. Beat butter, sugars and vanilla in a large bowl until smooth and creamy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Gradually add the flour mixture (about 1/2 a cup at a time) mixing well after each addition. Stir in chocolate chips.
Using a medium cookie scoop, drop onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes in preheated oven, until edges are golden brown and centers are still very slightly doughy. Rotate the pans half way through baking to ensure the cookies bake evenly. Place cookies on racks to cool. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Notes: I can't even tell you how many people have asked for "my" chocolate chip cookie recipe...well, here it is! It's basically the original Toll House recipe with a few little changes. These cookies come out practically perfect every time!

Pumkpin Spice Ice Cream

Ingredients:
2 eggs
3/4 c. sugar
2 c. heavy cream
1 c. whole milk
1 c. unsweetened pumpkin puree
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. ground nutmeg

Directions:
Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Whisk in the sugar, a little at a time, then continue whisking until completely blended, 1 minute more. Pour in the cream and milk and whisk again just until blended. Next, pour about a cup of the cream mixture into a separate bowl, add the pumpkin and spices and stir just until blended. Return to the rest of the cream mixture and stir well. Transfer the mixture into your ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturers instructions. Makes 8 cups of prepared ice cream, about 16 servings.

Notes: It's 2 1/2 weeks until fall so it feels like it's time to start eating pumpkin-y things. But it is still summer so ice cream is still allowed! Man, this stuff was/is delicious! I took some to my parents' house last night just as my mom had finished baking an apple crisp. So of course, we ate it with the ice cream on top :) Sooo yummy!

It's been too long!

I miss my blog and I apologize for my lack of posts these last couple weeks! I have been in the kitchen, cooking and baking as usual...but I haven't had any "blog worthy" meals lately. I was starting to fear I was losing my touch! I don't see the point in posting the recipes of the meals we didn't love, so I won't, I will just tell you about them here. A few things turned out, which I'll post later...but here are the things that didn't work:

Baked Lemon Pasta. I was really excited to make this because it was my first Pioneer Woman recipe but it just didn't work for me! I made it for some guests so I was especially bummed it didn't turn out. I'm not sure where I went wrong but the dish came out really dry :( Pretty though!

Double Bean Burritos. I can't remember where I found the recipe for this. It was simple to make, using pinto beans, black beans and a few other ingredients but I wasn't happy at all with the texture or flavor.

Spicy Black Bean Burgers. I've been dying to try black bean burritos since we started eating vegetarian and I found this really good looking recipe on Allrecipes.com that had high ratings and good reviews. These were fairly easy to make and the flavor was fabulous...but they completely fell apart! I have no idea what I did wrong, but we could hardly eat them because they were crumbling all over the place. I'll have to try different recipe next time I guess!

I made a Pineapple Upside-Down Cake for my brother-in-law's birthday party and it was a total flop....literally! It fell apart once I took it out of the pans and I managed to put it (mostly) back together but in the car ride to the party it fell apart again, even worse than before. I think it tasted alright though!

I also tried to make Hummus for the same party and found out that my tahini paste was bad, after I was finished mixing everything, ruining the entire batch! Boo!


See why I was getting scared?? That's a lot of food gone to waste. Hopefully this won't continue happening. Oh and here's a quick little update on our month of eating vegetarian: I'm loving it (cooking it so much easier and more fun!) and I plan to continue with it for sure. Randy has really enjoyed it too, believe it or not and plans on eating vegetarian like 90% of the time :) I may post more about this later....

-Chloe'

Mexican Pizza

Ingredients:
One ball of pizza dough
16 oz. can vegetarian refried beans
1 c. of your favorite salsa
1 c. corn kernels (fresh canned or frozen)
3.8 oz. can sliced black olives, drained
1 1/2 c. shredded cheddar cheese
Shredded lettuce for garnish (optional)
Sour cream for garnish (optional)


Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 and roll out pizza dough onto a pan. Spread the refried beans onto the dough, followed by the salsa. Place the corn kernels and olives evenly over the beans and salsa. Sprinkle with cheese and bake in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes or until the crust is no longer doughy and the cheese is melted and bubbly. Slice into 8 pieces and serve immediately topped with shredded lettuce and sour cream (if using).

Notes: This pizza was like a giant tostada! Delicious. We will definitely eat this again and maybe try some different toppings next time :)

Greek Orzo Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients:
4 bell peppers (preferably orange, yellow or red)
1/2 c. orzo
15 oz. can garbanzo beans (chickpeas)
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
6 oz. fresh spinach leaves, chopped
1 tsp. dried oregano
salt and pepper to taste
3/4 c. crumbled feta cheese, divided
1/3 c. sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1 tbsp. red wine vinegar 

Directions:
Wash peppers and half them lengthwise. Remove the stems, seeds and white membrane. Place the peppers cut-side down in a microwave safe dish. Add half an inch of water, cover and microwave on high for 9 minutes, or just until softened. Drain and set aside.
Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to boil, add orzo and cook according to the package directions. Lightly mash chickpeas with a fork or pastry blender, leaving some whole.
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat, add onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add spinach, oregano and cook until the spinach is wilted, about 1 minute. Stir in the orzo, chickpeas, 1/2 cup feta, tomatoes, vinegar, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally until heated through.
Divide the filling among the streamed pepper halves. Sprinkle each pepper with the remaining 1/4 cup of feta.

Notes: Before I was a vegetarian you'd never catch me eating bell peppers but they're really growing on me and I  loved this recipe! My sister-in-law, Jessica turned me onto eating stuffed bell peppers and when I came across this recipe on EatingWell.com I knew I had to try it! The only changes I made was I added a little more sun-dried tomatoes than it called for and a threw in some black pepper with the salt...otherwise, I followed it and it was great!!

Watermelon Ice Cream Bombe

Ingredients:
5-6 c. lime sherbet
4-5 c. vanilla ice cream
5-6 c. strawberry or raspberry sherbet
1/2 c. mini chocolate chips

Directions:
Line a gallon sized bowl with plastic wrap, making sure wrap hangs over the sides of the bowl at least 4 inches. Spoon the lime sherbet into a mixing bowl and beat until smooth. Press into the sides and bottom of the prepared bowl using a large spoon or your hands. Freeze for 30 minutes. Repeat the same process with the vanilla ice cream, pressing on top of the frozen lime sherbet in a thin layer. Freeze for another 30 minutes.

Spoon strawberry or raspberry sherbet into a mixing bowl and beat until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips. Fill the remaining space in the bowl with this mixture, cover tightly with plastic wrap and freeze at least 6 hours. To unmold, remove the top plastic wrap and dip the outside of the bowl into warm water until the bombe begins to loosen, about 15 seconds. Place a serving platter over the bowl, flip over and shake to release bombe. Peel away the plastic wrap and slice into wedges with a large knife dipped in warm water. Serves 14-16.

Notes: I thought of my brother Stefan when I saw this recipe because he loves sherbet. It was his birthday and he was out of town. BUT I finally made it for him this week (only 3 months late!) and it was a hit. Everyone really liked it...including me, and I'm not the biggest sherbet fan. I had a hard time getting a good picture of the bombe. This shot is the best I could get...

Tofu Stir Fry

Ingredients:
1 tbsp. olive oil 
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1/2 c. teriyaki sauce
1/4 c. low sodium soy sauce
1/4 c. hoisen sauce
3 medium garlic cloves, minced
1 lb. firm or extra firm tofu, cut into strips
1 c. sliced carrots
1 c. snap peas or snow peas
1/2 c. frozen green peas

Directions:
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat, add the onion and saute until tender. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together the teriyaki, soy and hoisen sauces along with the minced garlic. Add the sliced tofu and toss to coat.  Add all the tofu and sauce, carrots, snap peas, green peas into the skillet with the onion and turn heat up to medium/high. Stir fry for 15-20 minutes or until most of the sauce has concentrated and the tofu begins to brown. Serve on a bed of hot quinoa, brown rice or noodles.

Notes: Randy and I were both unsure about trying tofu....but we did. And we actually really enjoyed it! The texture is different but it didn't bother us enough to go back for seconds :) You can use any veggies in this recipe! I had carrots and peas on hand so that's what I threw in.