Tasty Tuesday: A Mingle Monday Crossover!

In honor of Mingle Mondays from Life of Meg, I'm giving you two recipes! The first is a recipe from one of the sites I "mingled" with! Sweet Pea Kitchen actually just posted one of my favorite recipes; Skinny Girl Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. I have actually made these cookies numerous times and they are one of my FAVORITES! They are dense and kind of a cross-breed between a cookie and cake texture which is fine by me! Go ahead and check out the recipe on the Sweet Pea site here!

As for my own recipe for the week I bring you Butternut Squash Tomato Gratin! This is a great recipe from the cookbook "What Can I Bring?" and I think it's a nice blend of summer and fall!

Serves 12

Ingredients:

1 -2 medium butternut squash
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 (14 ounce) cans diced canned tomatoes (plain or with basil, oregano)
2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded

Prep Time: 30 mins Total Time: 1 1/4 hr

Directions:
1 Place rack in center of oven and preheat to 400 degrees.
2 Using a sharp knife, trim off and discard the ends of the squash, then slice it in half lengthwise.
3 Scoop out the seeds and discard them.
4 Place the squash halves, cut side up, in a microwave oven, cover them with waxed paper and cook on high until soft, yet still firm enough to cut into cubes, about 8 minutes.
5 Place the squash on a large cutting board and let cool until you can handle it, then peel and cut into 1-inch cubes.
6 Place the squash in a 13 X 9 inch dish, drizzle the olive oil on it, then scatter the tomatoes, followed by the cheese evenly on top.
7 Bake until the cheese melts and squash and tomatoes are heated through, about 20 to 25 minutes.

To simplify it I bought a couple bags of the already cut butternut squash that you can find over by the bagged salads in the produce section. So basically, with the exception of grating cheese (which is SO hard to do), you basically dump the squash in a baking dish, drizzle olive oil, pour tomatos on top, then sprinkle cheese. Into the oven it goes! It tastes great and makes your kitchen smell wonderful as well! Bon appetit!

Tasty Tuesdays: Steak Involtini

In an effort to actually use my cookbooks and learn how to cook (one of my goals for the year), I've decided to implement Tasty Tuesdays. I'll post a new recipe that I tried to make each week and what my finished product looked like.

First up, Giade de Laurentis' Steak Involtini (recipe courtesy of foodnetwork.com)

Ingredients

Breading:

• 1 cup plain bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan

Filling:

• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan
• 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup olive oil, plus 1/4 cup
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 (8-ounce) London broil steaks, trimmed and pounded 1/8-inch thick
• 1 (26-ounce) jar marinara sauce
• Special equipment: 4 (4-inch) skewers

Directions

For the breading: In a small bowl, combine the bread crumbs and 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. Set aside.

For the filling: In a large bowl, mix together 1/4 cup of Parmesan, mozzarella cheese, 1/4 cup olive oil, basil, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Cut the steaks in half crosswise and place on a work surface. Spread the mixture evenly over the steaks. Roll up the steaks and secure with skewers.

In a medium skillet, heat the remaining 1/4 cup of oil over medium heat. Roll the steaks in the bread crumb mixture until coated and add to the skillet. Cook the steaks until brown on all sides, about 6 to 8 minutes. Add the marinara sauce to the pan. Bring the sauce to a simmer and scrape up the brown bits that cling to the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Simmer, turning occasionally, for 10 to 15 minutes for medium-well.

Remove the skewers, place the steaks on a cutting board and slice thinly. Arrange the steak slices on plates and serve with the marinara sauce.

So here's what I did differently:

• Nixed the breadcrumbs since I'm not supposed to have bread and just rubbed the whole thing in parmesan.
• I used a really big flank steak because I couldn't find London Broil. I sliced it in half (and my finger with it) and after getting a band-aid, I stuffed the whole thing with the filling and rolled it up. Since it was so big it looked like this:
• 
• So after browning all of it I realized the middle was never going to cook all the way through. I took the whole thing out and put it all in my pretty Le Creuset pan and sliced it.
• Then I heated my oven to 400 degrees and put it all in for 20 min.
• It came out looking like this:
It's not the prettiest thing to look at, but it is darn tasty! Nice mellow tomato flavor and yummy parmesan and garlic-y taste as well. Plus, I was able to make 6 servings out of it. Serve with a side of Trader Joe's Balsamic Butter Veggies and it would be a delicious meal!

Yummy Basil Dip on Glamour

Just discovered Glamour magazine has a whole set of blog posts dedicated to Afternoon Snacks! Look at their latest here!

Thought I would give you the pic to show you a taste!

Picture courtesy of Glamour.com

Mozzarella with Crazy Gremolata

Mozzarella with Crazy Gremolata

I adapted this recipe from one of Nigella Lawson’s. I made a few tweaks and I’m warning this has VERY strong flavors, but I find it delicious!

2 balls Buffalo Mozzarella

1 tsp. Red Chili Pepper Flakes

Zest of 1 Whole Lemon

1 Garlic Clove minced

4 Large Pitted Green Olives, finely chopped

2 tbs. Parsley

Olive Oil

¼ tsp. table salt

Cut mozzarella into ¼ inch slices. In a bowl mix the pepper flakes, lemon zest, garlic, and olives. Add the parsley, olive oil, and salt and mix again. Layer mozzarella on a plate and then spoon gremolata over the mozzarella. Yummy and colorful!

All my yummy ingredients

The finished product! I put mine in a tupperware container so I can pull out just a few slices at a time, but it would be a great appetizer for a party!

Deviled Eggs

I love deviled eggs. I have since I was little. Until lately they have always been a "special occasion food", eaten only on Easter or Fourth of July, but now that I am not allowed carbs I've started making them as a snack. I must say, they are a great snack that feels somewhat decadent to eat. Plus, I love the slightly retro feel of deviled eggs. At this point I make them so often I'm thinking about getting one of those cute egg trays! I take 2 halves to work as a nice, healthy, and filling afternoon snack. Below is my recipe for yummy, perfectly snack-portioned deviled eggs.

Ingredients: 3 Hard-boiled eggs

2 Tbls. Mayonaise

1/2 Tsp. Yellow Mustard

3 drops Worchestershire sauce

Dash each of salt and pepper

Paprika

Cut eggs in half and empty yokes into a bowl. Add remaining ingredients except paprika. Mash and stir together. Spoon back into empty eggs. Sprinkle VERY lightly with paprika Ta-da! You're done! So simple!

My half-mixed filling.

Fully mixed, and ready to fill the eggs!

The finished product!

Goals for the week

So, I had a couple of goals set this year that were supposed to be done weekly and 3 1/2 weeks in, well let's just say I'm at a satisfactory level. I didn't do yoga at all this week. Hopefully I will today, but even still it's just once for the week. And as for cooking once a week, I am counting the chicken I baked and then turned into Curry Chicken Salad. I also made egg salad today and am going to make this mozzarella meal later on. No cooking involved in the last one, but I'm still counting it! I'll try and post pictures soon! Still, the good thing about goals is even when you fail you can pick yourself up and try again. This next week will be better!

Learning to Cook

Cooking is one of those things I've never really learned how to do properly and have vowed for 3 years that I would finally learn. This is the year it is going to happen. I've set a goal to cook once a week and I actually have cooked the last 3 days straight. Some hits, some major misses. I made a steak today that was inedible. It was supposed to marinate in balsamic vinegar, pepper, and garlic cloves overnight. It just ended up tasting like balsamic vinegar. Disgusting. Way too strong.

On the other hand, I made some pretty decent items too. My chicken stock came out well (pictures below), and my balsamic onions and brussel sprouts with pancetta and garlic came out nicely.

I also learned a lesson about roasting chicken-5 minutes too long in the oven can make a HUGE difference. I made this amazing, velvety red wine reduction sauce and poured it over the roast chicken to discover the chicken was tough and rubbery. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. So far it's been a good learning experience.

This is the chicken stock simmering. Doesn't it look pretty?

My Roasted Balsamic Onions! So yummy!

My velvety red wine sauce!

A snack size portion of my brussel sprouts and pancetta. I realized I'm not a huge fan of the way brussel sprouts taste, but I think they look gorgeous!

The mess I got to clean up after it was all done!

So, what kitchen mess-ups have you had? Also, what do you think I need to learn to cook?