Artichoke-Spinach Lasagna

I have yet to make this myself, but here is the recipe as emailed to me by my mother, and it was delicious when she made it (of course!)



9 uncooked lasagna noodles

1 onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped (I used the already chopped)

1 cup vegetable broth

1 Tblp. Chopped fresh rosemary (didn’t use)

1 (12 oz) can marinated artichoke hearts, drained & chopped

1 (10 oz pkg frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained & squeezed dry

1 (26 oz) jar tomato pasta sauce

3 cups mozzarella cheese, divided

1 (4 oz) pkg herb and garlic feta, crumbled



Preheat oven to 350 F. spray a 9x13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add noodles & cook for 8 to 10 min. or until al dente; drain.

Spray a large skillet with cooking spray & heat on medium high. Sauté onion & garlic for 3 minutes or until onion is tender crisp. Stir in broth and rosemary; bring to a boil. Stir in artichoke hearts and spinach; reduce heat, cover and simmer 5 minutes. Stir in pasta sauce.

Spread ¼ of the artichoke mixture in prepared baking dish; top with 3 cooked noodles. Sprinkle ¾ cup mozzarella cheese over noodles. Repeat layers 2 more times, ending with artichoke mixture and mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle crumbled feta on top.



Bake, covered, in preheated over for 40 minutes. Uncover and bake 15 minutes more or until hot and bubbly. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting. Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

Welcome to crazycatlady!

I would just like to take a moment to welcome meghan to the world of blogging :)
And also, i am very interested in this chicken pot pie recipe you spoke of...

Marinated baked chicken

This recipe is super dooper easy and yummy.

Ingredients
Bone in chicken breast
soy sauce
Italian dressing
garlic salt
oinion salt

6 (or however many you want) Bone in Chicken Breast (I leave the skin on because it keeps it moist)
Mix together 1/2 c. soy sauce and 1/2 c. Italian dressing. Set aside 1/4 c. mixture for basting.
Put chicken in plastic bag with marinade. Mariade four hours or overnight, occasionally flipping bag. Put chicken in a pan and throw away remaining marinade. Sprinkle chicken with garlic salt and onion salt. Bake at 350 for 45 min. to 1 hour, occasionally basting. That's all! YUM!

So i know you say you are no chef tasha, but i recall not too long ago you were making a bunch of totally awesome cheesecakes for your school thing. That is one thing i have never even attempted to make. You should pick out your favorite that you made and put up the recipe!

new waldorf salad

So i absolutely love a quick salad for any meal. especially when it involves fruit and veggies, which i can never get enough of. so i added some new things, to an old favorite, which was served at every family get together.

1 apple, cored and sliced
1 oranged, peeled, and sliced
grapes, halved-use as many as you like
2 celery stalks
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup toasted pecans-chopped or whole
lettuce cut up

dressing:
low-fat mayo or i prefer low-fat yogurt
orange peel
lemon juice
honey-warm in the micro for 15 seconds, it pourts better
cinnamon
salt and pepper-to taste

Chop up all the vegetables squeeze lemon juice on them, then add in the dressing, then chill for at least an hour and enjoy!
If you want a thicker consistency for yougurt, put it in a cheese cloth, tie up into a ball and but over a strainer in a medium sized bowl, over nite in the fridge. it will be like the consistency of sourcream, which is good, because after it sits in the frige for a while, it gets a little runny,so you are basically drawing out all the water.

photographic evidence

So yes i am a dork with no life and i took pictures of my food. I then proceeded to eat this things, and they were delicious.

Spinach, the uber food.

So i have been on a spinach kick lately. I got some frozen spinach and i just thaw out a little bit at a time and put it in stuff. For example, I've been really digging making omelette's with it. I just mix some of the chopped thawed spinach in with the egg and cook it that way, and just put some cheddar cheese in the omelet, and its damn good. To make it healthier i usually only use one yolk, regardless of how many eggs i am using, and just use the whites of the rest.
I also made a pretty good, cheap and simple cracker spread type thing with spinach. I got some fat free cream cheese, and mixed in some spinach, and some diced up carl buddig lunchmeat (i used the beef kind), and threw in a little garlic and onion powder. Its not too shabby, and basically everything in it is low calorie and fat. I also bought some lowfat crackers to eat with it, which aren't near as good as the regular kind, but they are decent if what you're putting on them is good.

On the subject, my mom makes this very kickass spinach artichoke lasagna which i must get the recipe for and put on here.

Creamy Black Bean Salsa

This is a super awesome dip (i know alicia can testify to this), and its mostly healthy stuff. I suppose you could make it lower fat by using non or lowfat sour cream and mayo, which i have never tried, but i honestly think it would be just as good that way, since all the veggies mostly make the flavor.

1 15oz can of Black beans, drained and rinsed
1-1/2 cups frozen corn, thawed
1 cup chopped sweet red pepper
3/4 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup mayonnaise(i use salad dressing because i hate mayo)
2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 tbsp fresh parsley (i have never used this in it because i always forget to get it)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp pepper

------------------
Combine beans, corn, peppers, onions, and parsley in large bowl.

Combine sour cream, mayo, vinegar, and seasonings, then pour over bean mixture and toss gently to coat.

Serve with tortilla chips.

Herb stuffed flank steak

I made this for the first time today, for dinner. it was a little labor intensive, but well worth it, succulent, i may say so. it's a little different because it has pistachios in it. i found this in a old cook book my dad had at his house.

1 1/2 lbs. flank steak, pounded out thin so as to roll easier.

1/2 large onion, chopped finely,
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1. cup chopped mushrooms( give or take)
fresh thyme, parsley, sage margoram,( i just used thyme and parsley, it's what i had)
poultry seasoning
1 1/2 c. bread crumbs, homemade or store bought
1/4 c. chopped pistashios
salt and pepper to taste
butter and olive oil
1 egg, beaten

First you want to pound out the steak so it's about and ince or inch and half thick. then season it with salt and pepper
saute onions, garlic with butter and oil
add mushrooms and cook for 3 minutes. mix in chopped parsley, pistachios, bread crumbs, poultry seasoning, salt and pepper to taste and the egg mixture. spread this mixture all over the flank steak. roll up and tie at 2 in. intervals. brown the meat on all sides, add1/4 c.-1/2 c. of either stock, water, or dry wine. cover and bake in oven for 2 hours at 350. Use the sauce to cover with meat, i made it into a gravy by thickening it with wondra milk, and some water to thin it out. you will want to reduce the sauce before you thicken it. and it turns out so tender you don't even have to cut it with a knife. so if you want to try a different taste, check it out. i have been trying to think of something to had that is sweet, because the pistachios are really salty, so i thought that maybe apricot preserves or orange marmelade would be could with a thin layer over the mixture before you roll it up. next time.

homemade hummus!

so this is for the blog currently about the most delicious thing on the planet! hummus! it is so friggen good!

2 cans garbanzo beans( or however much you want to use)
Tahini paste( ground seasame seed paste, it's what makes hummus, well hummus) use what you think is good.
olive oil use what u think is appropriate.
salt and pepper
garlic-either grated, which is less chunkier or finely chopped
and anything else you want to add

I have tried this recipe it's great if you have a food processor and you can just basically put everythink in there and then stream in the olive oil. it's good, healthy, natural and homemade and when you do it your self it's always better. so i hope you all try it!

hickory baked chop

ok...for us meat lovers out there...i love pork chops...any time of year...I have found the best way to bake chops in the oven in the off season.

I love to grill, ususally when I grill them I use some pre-soaked hickory wook to bring out the flavor...yum....anyways...the best way to bring out the hickory flavor by baking is by using the hickory smoked bacon slices! You can either bake it on the chop...which, i dont recommend, the bacon is usually hard to eat like that.
Or you can let it soak in the marinade....I use K'masterpiece spicy hickory...doens't have to be spicy,you can also add spice with curry, onion, garlic, sage, bacon slices, little bit of worsterchire sauce, lemon juice, and a splash of any old beer, or white wine....so good....im hungry...

Put them in freezer bags, and let soak in marinade for about 2 hours or so in refrigerator, place in oven and bake. I re-marinade them when almost done with left over mainade.

Good to have with a salad, potato, lately I've been getting into asparagus with meat..good shit yo!!

oh...and the butter i suggest...it rox....it's flieshman's olive oil butter...can get at wal mart...put some on asparagus...have a beer, and watch ANTM and eat the chop..hehe...yay for meat and beer!!!

Hummus, he didn't even know us!

Heh. So this isn't a recipe or anything, but keenan and i went to the gateway market tonight, which is kind a new fancy "foodie" grocery store in des moines, and i got these black bean and rice blue corn tortilla chips that totally kick ass. They basically taste like your normal blue corn chips, but a bit garlicky, and they have quite a bit less fat. I think Caribbean Bean is the name of the brand. I also got some roasted red pepper hummus to dip them in, which they make at the store i guess and is also quite good. So that is my food recommendation for the day.

food stuffs

So i was thinking about how we all have talked about making some sort of cookbook thing to involve in the bag, and i know we all cook and play around with stuff and sometimes come up with super awesome things or already have really kickass recipes that we could share with each other, so that is what i am making this blog for. And anything goes, even if you want to post that you melted some velveta and pickles together and it turned out awesome somehow, i want to try it. I am interested in random things with no measurements that people just throw together as well. (mostly because thats what i do a lot!) And i know a lot of us are trying to be healthier, so we can share healthy foods and tips on here. And i think it would be a nice thing for asking advice about stuff we don't know how to make. At least one of us might know. So this is my idea, let me know if it sucks or not or if you are game!