Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Two heads of cabbage in my fridge.  I don't think I have ever purposefully bought a head of cabbage.  Maybe once, back in the day, for my mom.  But now here I am all grown up and with my own cabbages.  And no, I didn't buy them on purpose.  They came in my bountiful baskets two weeks in a row.  So I came up with three recipes that require cabbage.  The first one was a success!  Stuffed cabbage rolls.  And Callen liked them, too, said he'd even want them again!  AND he ate the leftovers. True signs that he liked them.  So they are going on the blog so I can find them later and make them again.

I found the recipe here.

Ingredients:
2/3 c. water
1 c. cooked rice (the recipe called for white, I used brown.)
8 cabbage leaves
1 pound ground turkey (once again, the recipe called for beef, I never buy ground beef.)
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/4 c. onion (I omitted)
1 t. salt
1/4 t. black pepper
1 (10 3/4 oz.) can condensed tomato soup

1. Bring a large, wide saucepan of lightly salted water to boil.  Add the cabbage leaves and cook for 2-4 minutes or until soft.  Drain.
2.  In a mixing bowl, combine the turkey, rice, onion, egg, salt and pepper, along with 2 T. of tomato soup.  Mix thorougly.
3. Divide the turkey mixture evenly among the cabbage leaves.  Roll and secure them with toothpicks.
4.  In a large skillet over medium heat, place the cabbage rolls and pour the remaining tomato soup over the top.  Cover and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 40 mins, stirring and recovering with the liquid often.

Overall, I would say this recipe gets a 3.8 out of 5.0.  I think because I omitted the onions, I need some kind of spice.  Next time maybe I'll add some garlic salt, worchestershire (what the heck is the name of that stuff!?)...

Eggplant Rollatini

I am still obsessed with vegetables.  This week I decided to try an eggplant.  It was delicious!  Although the sun-dried tomatoes were a bit much for me, the rest was perfect.

I found the recipe on Pinterest.  Anyone surprised?

Overall I'd give it a 3.5 stars.  Maybe if I had used smaller tomatoes, it would have been better.

Pesto Eggplant Rollatine

Total Time: about 1 hour

ingredients:

3 T olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 medium-sized eggplants (about 3 pounds), peeled, and sliced lengthwise into 3/8-inch thick strips
salt and black pepper
2 cups marinara sauce
2/3 cup prepared basil pesto
4 ounces mozzarella cheese, grated (about 1 cup)
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 handfuls of fresh baby spinach
2/3 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes (optional)

directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease two rimmed baking sheets.

Combine the oil and garlic in a small bowl. Brush the oil on both sides of the eggplant slices and arrange them in a single layer on the baking sheets. Season with a pinch or two of salt and pepper.

Place the baking sheets side by side in the oven (if possible). Roast for 20-25 minutes, until well browned and very tender, turning once halfway through cooking. Remove from the oven and reduce temperature to 350 degrees F.
(If your baking sheets don't fit side by side, place one on the middle rack and one on the bottom rack and rotate them a couple of times during roasting.)

Spread about 1 cup of the marinara sauce in the bottom of a 9x13-inch baking dish. Spread each eggplant slice with a spoonful of pesto and top with a pinch of each kind of cheese, a few spinach leaves and a couple of sun-dried tomatoes. Roll up and place seam side down in the baking dish. Spoon remaining sauce over the rolls and sprinkle with remaining cheese.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until cheese is melted and the rolls are heated through. Serve hot.

Makes about 4-5 servings.

Nat's Notes:
1. My eggplants were on the small side, so I got all my rolls into a 2 quart (7x11) baking dish.

adapted from The Roasted Vegetable by Andrea Chesman

Turkey Stuffed Anaheim Peppers

Yes, peppers again.  I got 12 Anaheim chile peppers in my basket this week.  Had to do something with them.  And I had to make dinner for a new mom.  (In retrospect, this was not a great choice.  I wasn't aware of how spicy these peppers are.  And spice doesn't always go well with newborns.  Oops).  I found several recipes on Pinterest for these kinds of peppers and finally settled on this one.

Mine definitely did not turn out as pretty as the ones in the recipe, but were mighty tasty, albeit spicy.  I suffered through about half of one of the peppers and then wimped out and ate only the inside of the other half.  I can't take spice to save my life.

Ingredients:

1/3

cup boiling water

2

tablespoons uncooked bulgur (What the heck is this?  I looked it up, tried to find it at the store, gave up after 2 minutes, used brown rice instead).

1/3

cup frozen (thawed) whole kernel corn

1/3

cup shredded reduced-fat mozzarella cheese

1/2

teaspoon chopped fresh jalapeño pepper (Didn't have this and frankly, didn't want to buy it.  And let's be honest, I was afraid of the spice).

1

teaspoon chopped fresh or 1/4 teaspoon marjoram leaves (I used non-fresh).

1/4

teaspoon garlic powder

2

cans (4 ounces each) roasted whole chile peppers or 4 fresh Anaheim chilies, roasted and peeled*  (Roasted and peeled my own.  That took awhile...  Found the directions online somewhere.  Frankly, washed them, then broiled them for about 10 minutes, flipping them every 2-3 minutes.  The skins turned a brownish-black cover and I continued until about 60% of the pepper was scorched.  Then I put them immediately into a gallon sized baggie and let them sweat.  The directions said to leave them for about 10-15 minutes.  I left them about 2 hours because it was my nap time.  Don't judge me, I just had a baby.  When I woke up, I easily peeled the skins off.  They were ready!)

1/4

cup reduced-sodium salsa

1/4

cup plain fat-free yogurt (I didn't use this, it seemed too weird).

• 1Heat oven to 350°. Spray square baking dish, 8x8x2 inches, with cooking spray.
• 2Cook rice. Stir in corn, 1/4 cup of the cheese, the jalapeño pepper, marjoram and garlic powder.
• 
  
• 3Slice chilies along one side; remove ribs and seeds. Drain well. Stuff about 1/4 cup filling into each chile. (I overfilled my chiles and couldn't flip them upside down without a disaster.  I left them facing up and used a toothpick to hold the chiles together.)  Place seam side down in baking dish. Top with salsa and remaining cheese.
• 4Bake, uncovered, 25 to 30 minutes or until hot. (Just before serving, spoon yogurt over chilies, if using).

Overall, rating 3.5 stars.  Too spicy for me, the inside was delicious!

Healthy Banana Bread

Once again, trying to use up my produce from my Bountiful Basket, but trying to stay healthy.  So I made this healthy banana bread.

I decided to double the recipe so I could share with some friends (and use up these bananas!)  Since I only have one bread pan, I made half the batter in muffin tins and made banana muffins.  So delicious!

Ingredients

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sugar free applesauce
• 3/4 cup honey
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3 mashed overripe bananas

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan and/or muffin tins.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together applesauce and honey. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
3. Bake bread in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack. 
4. Bake muffins in same oven for 15-20 minutes.  

Rating:  3.8 stars.  In terms of health food, absolutely delicious.  Compared to banana chocolate chip bread?  Not so good.  Worth making when looking for a healthy alternative.  But won't necessarily satisfy that sweet tooth.

Monterey Chicken

Last night's dinner was a success.  It was super easy.  Callen didn't rant and rave about it like he did the other night with the last chicken dinner I made, but I liked it.

Monterey Chicken

1.  Pound out the chicken breasts until flat, then cook.  I used my George Foreman grill.  (Which, by the way, how do you even clean???  Don't get me wrong, I do my best, but there always seems to be a little left over from the last meal...)


2.  Get your ingredients ready:
     -grated cheddar cheese
     -chopped tomatoes
     -bacon bits (I cooked real bacon and tore it into pieces)
     -BBQ sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray's)

3.  Layer on your ingredients.
     -1 TBSP BBQ sauce, spread across the top of the chicken
     -1/4 c. cheddar cheese sprinkled on
     -1/4 c. tomato sprinkled on that
     -as much bacon as will fit on top of that
     (I think the actual recipe called for onions, but we don't do onions in this house)

4.  Bake at 400 degrees for about 5 mins, just long enough to melt the cheese.


Enjoy!  I pulled out some limes and we squeezed a little juice on top, which added a nice little...  what's the word, pizzazz!  (How do you even spell that?)

Rating:  I thought it was great, hubs said it was "good".  So overall, 3.7?

Tater Tots

For some reason, I always want to spell it tator tots.  Maybe because they're potatoes?  Not sure.

Anyhow, this was somewhat of a disaster.

Bake the potatoes, then grate them while they're hot.  I've tried this before and this time it went a lot better.

Then add a few things, flour, salt and pepper.  Roll them into balls, then fry them.  Seems simple enough.  However, I don't think my oil was hot enough and the balls sat in the oil for too long, cuz they from this:

to this:

They didn't stay together.  So I turned up the heat, tried the next batch

And they stayed together much better.  I forgot to take a picture of the ending, but they worked for what I need.  I plan to make a tater tot casserole tomorrow and so these are now in the freezer, waiting to go on top.  Cheese will be spread over it, so even if they are crumbly and frankly just ugly, they still taste fine.

Overall rating:  3.0 stars.  Next time I'll just buy tater tots.  Even if I am trying to save money and use up my potatoes before they go bad...

Navajo Tacos

I asked Callen a while back some dishes he remembers from when he was little.  He mentioned tamales and chicken and dumplings and navajo tacos.  Very different from what I remember.  I remember mac and cheese with tuna fish and tater tot casserole.

I made the chicken and dumplings a few days ago so now I was on to navajo tacos.

Now I've been out of town for a week so Callen has been on his own.  Which means he was ready for some healthy meals.  In fact, I am pretty sure he even mentioned the word "diet".  So I decided to make whole wheat scones.

I halved the recipe (and still ended up with 3 dozen scones).  I don't know if that made a difference, but the dough ended up very... wet.  So even though I let it rise for almost 2 hours, it didn't rise at all.  But I was out of time, so they went in the fridge anyway to cool.

I had to add a ton of flour as I was rolling it out, but it still looked like whole wheat dough.

I cut them up and then fried them.  I just used generic canola oil and it was fine.  The dough didn't really puff up like it did when I made regular scones a year or so ago.  Not sure it if was because they didn't really rise or because they are wheat or a combination of both.  They puffed a little, but not big and round like normal scones that I drool over.  Oh well.  They still tasted just fine.

Next came the chili.  Super easy and quick to make, perfect to put in the crockpot so we could go fishing and have dinner pretty much ready when we got home.  When I checked the recipe originally for ingredients I needed to buy, I missed the "chili packet" ingredient.  I guess I just thought it was "chili powder".  So I had to make my own chili packet...  I just googled it, though I can't remember what site I used.  They all look the same.  

Nice and steamy.

Just throw the chili over the scones, add a little cheese, lettuce, sour cream, whatever and done!  (Yeah forgot to take a picture of the final product.  But trust me, it was pretty).

Overall rating:  3.8 stars.  Next time I'll make regular scones.  Or figure out how to make these ones puffy.