Meatless Meal: Spinach & Portobella Mushroom Lasagna

In an effort to keep our diet balanced, I try to make at least two meatless meals a week.  Tonight's selection was a hearty spinach and Portobella mushroom lasagna.  This dish has quite a few components, but comes together fairly quickly!  One thing that makes it simple is the use of no boil noodles.  A lesson I learned was after sautéing the vegetables be sure to drain th well or else your sauce will thin out greatly as you can see in the picture above.  This was a great meal all-in-all and I will keep it on my short list of meatless recipes!!

Spinach & Portobella Mushroom Lasagna:

Ingredients:

2 tbps oil

1 med onion, diced

1 pound portobello mushroom caps, sliced

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 (16-ounce) packages fresh baby spinach

1⁄2 cup water

2 lg eggs, lightly beaten

1⁄3 cup chopped fresh basil

1 tbsp  dried oregano

1⁄4 tsp black pepper

1⁄4 cup skim milk

1 (15-ounce) container part-skim ricotta cheese

4 cups marinara sauce

cooking spray

16 no-boil lasagna noodles

8 ounces part-skim mozzarella cheese, shredded (about 2 cups)

1⁄4 cup (1 ounce) grated fresh Parmesan cheese

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375*F. Heat a large pot over medium-high heat. Add oil to pot. Add onion; sauté 2 minutes. Add mushrooms; sauté 3-5 minutes. Add garlic; sauté an additional minute. Transfer mushroom mixture to a bowl. Return pot to heat; add spinach and 1⁄2 cup water. Cook 4-5 minutes or until spinach wilts, turning with tongs. Add cooked spinach to mushroom mixture. Stir vegetable mixture until blended. Combine eggs and next 3 ingredients in a bowl. Stir in milk and ricotta cheese. Pour 1 cup pasta sauce into bottom of a greased 13-inch x 9-inch baking dish. Arrange 4 lasagna noodles over sauce. Top with one-third of ricotta mixture, one-third of vegetable mixture, and 1⁄3 cup mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers twice with sauce, noodles, ricotta mixture, vegetable mixture and mozzarella cheese. Spread 1 cup sauce over mozzarella. Arrange 4 noodles over sauce. Top with 1 cup sauce, 1 cup mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese. Cover with foil coated with cooking spray, coated side down. The cooking spray will keep the cheese from sticking. Bake at 375 for 50 minutes. Remove from oven, and let stand 10 minutes before serving.  Enjoy!

Roasted Balsamic Brussels Sprouts

It is 5am and I have a bit of time before I need to hit the showers so I thought I would post this yummy recipe that I made last night!  This is a quick and easy side dish that can be done in about 45 minutes!  I used pre-packaged bacon pieces and Parmesan.  If you cooked your own bacon and shredded parm, the time would be a bit longer.

Balsamic Roasted Brussels Sprouts:

(Serves 6)

2 lb Brussels sprouts

1/4 cup Oil

2-3 tbsp Balsamic Vinagrette

1 tsp Garlic powder

Salt & pepper to taste

2 tbsp chopped bacon

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.  Clean, trim off ends and halve the Brussels sprouts.  Place the sprouts on a baking sheet and toss with the oil and balsamic vinegar.  Sprinkle on the spices and toss again.  Bake for 10 minutes and then move the sprouts around on the baking sheet.  Bake another 10 minutes and toss again.  Sprinkle on bacon and Parmesan and bake for an additional 10 minutes.  Serve immediately & enjoy!

Bourbon Glazed Carrots

As many of you know, we recently sold our home snd moved into a rental while we build a new home.  Between the move, school activities & work, I haven't had much blogging time!  I opened my box of cookbooks over the weekend and started to get into some serious meal planning again.  One of the recipes I chose for the week was the Pioneer Woman's Whiskey Glazed Carrots.

I modified the recipe and used a bourbon liqueur that I had on hand because the only whiskey in the house is a bottle of 12 year old Jameson's reserve that my sister gave my husband.  He would not have been too happy if I used it in a recipe! ;-). 

This recipe only took 30 minutes and was super tasty!  I started out gathering & prepping all the ingredients ,  

Melt a. 1/2 stick of butter and toss in carrots .  Cook for 5-6 minutes and remove from the pan.

Add the alcohol and cook it for 2-3 minutes.  Add the other 1/2 stick of butter and melt. Lastly, add the brown sugar.  Stir constantly for about 3 minutes before. 

Adding the carrots back into the pan.  Cover & let cook on low for  5 minutes.

Uncover and cook got an extra 5 minutes.  Enjoy!

Kids Cooking: Nutella Krispie Treats

A couple of weeks ago, I saw this yummy recipe on The Pioneer Woman!  I knew that I had to make them when my kids stopped in front of the tv when Ree was mixing in the Nutella. :o). Rice Krispie Treats are a fun and easy recipe for kids to make with some adult supervision around the stove.  We used Ree's recipe with no changes & it took about 15-20 minutes in total to make.  

Nutella Krispie Treats originally posted by Ree Drummond

Start by chopping up pecans.  I use a nut  grinder which is kid friendly .

Butter up a 9x13 pan and set aside.

Melt semi-sweet chocolate.  I make a double boiler with a bowl over a sauce pan of boiling water,

Melt 4tbps butter over medium heat & then add large marshmallows.  Stir constantly to prevent burning.  When the marshmallows are about half way melted, add in the Nutella.  

Add 2 tbsp butter to the marshmallow mixture at the end of the cooking time.

Fold the marshmallow mixture into bowl of Rice Krispie cereal and work quickly to mix it all together.  Add the nuts & mini- marshmallows.  

Press mixture into the buttered 9x13 pan.    Finish by drizzling the melted chocolate over the pan of treats.  

Lastly, let the kids have the left over chocolate and be prepared for a mess :o). My boys gave me chocolate kisses as payback for all the times I leave lipstick on their cheeks!  Love my boys & am so happy to share the kitchen with them!