Lasagna Rolls

I'm always looking for some great make ahead meals to give myself a break in the kitchen. Here are some perfectly portioned individual lasagnas packed with 13 grams of protein per roll. These can easily be made in advance and placed in the freezer for another night like I did!

Spinach Lasagna Rolls
Servings: 9  Serving Size: 1 roll
Calories: 224.9  Fat: 5.1 g  Fiber: 3.4 g  Protein: 13.0 g Carbs: 31.5

• 9 lasagna noodles, cooked
• 10 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and completely drained
• 15 oz fat free ricotta cheese 
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 egg
• salt and fresh pepper
• 32 oz tomato sauce
• 9 tbsp (about 3 oz) part skim mozzarella cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350°. Combine spinach, ricotta, Parmesan, egg, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Ladle about 1 cup sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 12 baking dish.

Place a piece of wax paper on the counter and lay out lasagna noodles. Make sure noodles are dry. Take 1/3 cup of ricotta mixture and spread evenly over noodle.

Roll carefully and place seam side down onto the baking dish. Repeat with remaining noodles.

Ladle sauce over the noodles in the baking dish and top each one with 1 tbsp mozzarella cheese. Put foil over baking dish and bake for 40 minutes, or until cheese melts. Makes 9 rolls.

To serve, ladle a little sauce on the plate and top with lasagna roll.

Fastest Dinner Ever!

I was getting ready for work the other morning thinking what the heck am I going to make for dinner tonight! I have no idea what's in the pantry, haven't been to the grocery store yet and all the meat we have is frozen! 

I admit, even though I love to cook and bake.....I am in NO WAY organized. I rarely am prepared ahead of time for dinners, I kind of just wing it! I buy a lot of the staples and then make short runs to the store on the way home, or just find something else to make :) I'm horrible.

That's when I thought about throwing something into the crock pot so it would be ready by time I got home. Chicken tacos! This literally took me all of 5 minutes to throw together beforehand and 2 minutes to shred the chicken once I walked in the door and then it was ready to serve! 

Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos

1.5 lbs frozen chicken breasts

1 can crushed tomatoes

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 contained Philadelphia Cooking Creme, Santa Fe

1 pkg soft tortilla or hard shell tacos

Add ins - mushrooms, lettuce, salsa, avocado, cheese, sour cream, etc.

Add frozen chicken (yes FROZEN) to bottom of crock pot. Mix together crushed tomatoes, black beans and cook cream, then pour over chicken. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or until chicken shreds easily with a fork. Stir together to combine well and serve in soft or hard shell tacos and top with your favorites.

Now that's what I call a no fuss meal!

Succulent Smoothie

One word: Deliciousness! I get tired of eating yogurt all by itself and can sometimes find it hard to east just fruit alone as a snack. This is a light yet filling low-fat smoothie that is so tasty I want to make this everyday! It is under 300 calories, less than 1 gram of fat and full of nothing but good healthy stuff. It's perfect for breakfast and it actually makes enough for two if you want to share for more of a snack.

Orange-Blueberry Lassi

1 cup blueberries
1 cup calcium fortified orange juice
6 oz low-fat vanilla yogurt
1/4 tsp ground ginger
3 ice cubes

In a blender combine all ingredients until well blended. Pour into a tall glass and serve. How easy is that!

YUMMY!!!!!! I can't wait to make another one tomorrow morning :)

Breakfast for Dinner

One of our favorites meals to have for dinner is breakfast. I think breakfast for dinner might even be better than having breakfast for breakfast! ;) Dave would LOVE if I made breakfast every day of the week for dinner, however I try to make it once a week. I like making my own homemade waffles! They are very easy and taste SOOO much better than the frozen ones or the box of premade mix which taste similar to cardboard.

Note: I normally don't use this much butter, it was just for the picture!

The Basic Waffle

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1-3/4 cups milk
• 6 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs

Place ingredients in a large mixing bowl and combine until well blended and smooth. Let batter sit 5 minutes. Preheat waffle maker... spray with Pam before each use then pour 1/2 cup batter onto the center of the griddle and cook until done.

Whole Wheat Waffles

• 1- 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat four
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans, walnuts, almonds or hazelnuts (optional)

Combine and cook as directed above. Both make 8 - 6 1/2 inch round waffles

Butterbeer

In honor of the LAST Harry Potter movie just released in theaters over the weekend, I thought it appropriate to make a batch of the famous Butterbeer from Hogwarts Academy! Now we have not yet been to the new Wizzarding World of Harry Potter theme park, although Dave has been made it clear he's ready to go anytime, so I have not had the original they sell at the park. There are a multiple recipes out there for butterbeer but I chose this one because it wasn't as complicated and (from what I read) seems to be the most like the real thing.

This recipe comes from Fox News that I found on Dine & Dish. It is a creamy and buttery concoction that is definitely sweet! If you really craving something sweet then this is just right for you. I'm looking forward to trying the real thing sometime soon!

Enjoy!

Butterbeer

1 cup light or dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
6 tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar
3/4 cup heavy cream, divided
1/2 teaspoon rum extract
Four 12-ounce bottles cream soda

In a small saucepan over medium, combine the brown sugar and water. Bring to a gentle boil and cook, stirring often, until the mixture reads 240 F on a candy thermometer.

Stir in the butter, salt, vinegar and 1/4 heavy cream. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
Once the mixture has cooled, stir in the rum extract.

In a medium bowl, combine 2 tablespoons of the brown sugar mixture and the remaining 1/2 cup of heavy cream. Use an electric mixer to beat until just thickened, but not completely whipped, about 2 to 3 minutes.

To serve, divide the brown sugar mixture between 4 tall glasses (about 1/4 cup for each glass). Add 1/4 cup of cream soda to each glass, then stir to combine. Fill each glass nearly to the top with additional cream soda, then spoon the whipped topping over each.

Spicy Thai Chicken Pizza

This has been a long time coming....

I've been thinking about this pizza for months and finally got the opportunity to have made it! About a year and a half or so ago I ordered this pizza at a restaurant in North Liberty, it was so good....even the leftovers were phenomenal. I've thought about it ever since......::sigh::  Why it took me so long to make it I don't know BUT I finally did it and it was just as good as I remember (okay not as good as from the restaurant but still pretty damn good!). I've never made anything Thai prior, it was the first time I've ever used the peanut sauce, which can be found in the Asian isle. This was the first time I used the Pillsbury Pizza Crust as well, it was pretty good for a store bought dough. However I like making my own, it's more fun but I was short on time and did not prepare myself ahead of time to make this meal so we'll call it semi-homemade ;)

Thai Chicken Pizza
1 pre-made pizza crust or homemade dough
1 - 7 ounce jar peanut sauce
1/8 cup peanut butter
8 ounces cooked skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into stripes
1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1/2 green pepper, cut into strips
1/2 red pepper, cut into strips
cilantro
1/2 lime
red pepper flakes

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. I used Pillsbury thin crust Pizza Crust. Roll out dough and prebake as directed, about 5 minutes.

In a small bowl, stir together the peanut sauce and peanut butter.

Spread peanut mixture over pizza crust (I reserved about 1/4 of the sauce to toss the chicken with)

Arrange chicken, red and green peppers, carrots, green onions, and red pepper flakes over pizza. Sprinkle with cheese evenly over top.

Bake 8-12 minutes until cheese is melted and bubbly. Top with cilantro and squeeze lime juice over pizza slices then serve!

Woola...Easy and delicious! Plus you can experience with whatever toppings you want.

Strawberry Lemon Muffins

This is the first year we have fresh strawberries in the garden and they keep growing faster than we can eat! So I have been on the hunt for some delicious recipes and came across these gems. It uses one pint of fresh strawberries and a fresh lemon, however I used all my lemons for the strawberry lemonade cupcakes so I just used lemon juice out of the bottle which worked just as good!  These muffins stay nice and moist from the fresh strawberries and the glaze adds an extra touch of sweetness.

Strawberry Lemon Muffins

Makes about 20 muffins

Muffin:
2 1/2 cups four

3/4 cup sugar

2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 large egg, beaten
3/4 cup buttermilk**
2/3 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups (1 pint) fresh strawberries, chopped

Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp milk
dash salt

In a medium mixing bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Zest your lemon and add to the dry ingredients, stirring to combine. Add chopped strawberries to flour mixture and toss to coat.

Juice lemon. In another medium mixing bowl combine the beaten egg, buttermilk, oil, vanilla, and lemon. Whisk until well incorporated. Pour the wet ingredients into the flour mixture. Stir until just combined.

Line your muffin tins with paper liners then spray the insides with cooking spray. Spoon batter into the muffin tins till almost full as they don't rise up a lot.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool muffins in pan for about 10 minutes then transfer to wife rack to cool completely.

While they are still warm, whisk together all glaze ingredients and then spoon over the top of the muffins.

These muffins are great warm from the oven, but taste even better the second day. They are a great make ahead recipes.

**Baking Tip: If you don't have buttermilk just combined 3/4 cup regular milk with 2 tsp vinegar or lemon juice and let stand a few minutes to sour. Works great as a substitute!!