A Few Recipe Reviews – Lasagna Rolls Ups, Zucchini Tots and More!
About once or twice a month I get super busy with work and everything (fun) is put on the back burner. As you might be able to tell from the lack of posts recently, this has been the case. Thankfully, that doesn’t include cooking because these three males that live with me demand to eat at least three meals a day. Seriously, the nerve of some people.
As I have said before, I am all about healthy, quick, and easy and here are a few that have been put to the test the past few weeks:
Lasagna Roll Ups : This happened because I planned a big lasagna dinner to carb-load for a The Bolder Boulder (See: previous post) but when it came down to preparing it, I did not have enough noodles. And I had already gone to the grocery store THAT DAY and was not about to go back to the store that I was just at a few hours prior. damn. But I remembered this lasagna roll up pin and decided to try the concept…the recipe was mine and it isn’t much of a recipe more so eyeballing everything, I am a Rachel Ray type cook.
(source: Cooking Classy) Also note, this looks relatively mess free
It is not relatively mess-free, but it ALL SORTS OF AWESOME! It is easier to serve, it is easier to eat, it is more fun to eat, it does not fall apart like a lot of other lasagnas I have eaten and/or made, and for some reason, it is tastier. Also a bonus, it is more economical. I used a 8 noodles and fed one LARGE man (and by large I mean 6’5 large, not fat large), Matt, who is in training, myself, my BF Kelly, and both of my children. Whom, at 1 and 3 you wouldn’t think they could put it down, but let me tell you…these boys can eat more than me. PLUS, we had enough left over for the boys to eat for the next few days. Love left overs!
Zucchini Tots (source: Curious Country Cook): Let me start off by saying, zucchini could very well be the cure to world hunger.
A little TLC to a plant and that baby will give up the bounty, let me tell you!
On Monday, I made these zucchini tots only I added a mushroom to the mixture. Holy cow we they good. So good, I made them the next night too. And the biggest fan in the family, who ate six of them that first night? My almost one year old, Brody. No joke, six (6). Shoveling handfuls in his little pie hole, he couldn’t get enough. Such a satisfying feeling when that happens.
Pesto (source: Simply Recipes) I am tending my neighbors garden while they are out of town and we have been eating really well the past week. They have these basil plants that are out of control and so I gave them a hair cut and made my own pesto. It is much easier for me to make my own pesto, rather than try and find one that is sans soybean oil. Also, you can control the amount of oil you put in allowing you to cut calories. I found that I didn’t need nearly as much oil as the recipe called for (I probably used half.) This lovely garden also provided us with some lovely (organic) lettuce and so I made a Chicken Pesto Salad. Here’s a new twist on salad that you may have not thought about. Add rotini noodle to the salad and use the pesto as salad dressing. LIGHTLY though, you do not need a lot to add flavor to this salad, pesto is a potent flavor anyway. This makes the salad a bit heartier and filling and more of a meal…and is damn good.
Banana Bread made with applesauce and honey instead of sugar and oil (source: 8 Weeks To A Better You Recipes): I always have an overripe banana or two around the house so banana bread is one sweet that is around more often than not. However, I believe this is the first loaf of banana bread that I have ever thrown away. No joke, it was so sweet I couldn’t eat one more piece. And while I definitely encourage substituting the applesauce, perhaps there was just too much honey in this recipe and so I am giving this the big, ‘ole Friday Flop.
It didn’t hurt as much as this did
And while we are on the topic of sweets…..my sweet tooth has kicked in full time these days. I am “in training” which just means I am a little more neurotic about getting a run in daily. The flip side is that I need to keep my calorie intake up and while 95% of the time the food that I put into my body is fairy unprocessed and healthy, well, I do have a thing for cookie dough.
And now is one of those times that I don’t feel bad eating it. So I took to Pinterest to find an eggless cookie dough recipe that I could sneak bite from the freezer every once in a while. I found one for Cookie Dough Bites from Dear Lillie.
While I give her props for coming up with a recipe she liked, it was too sweet for me. I could taste too much brown sugar. Plus, I really like the slight bite that baking powder gives a cookie, which was left out of this recipe. And salt although seems counter intuitive to add to sweets, actually brings out the flavor. By taking those out of her recipe (although, the baking powder is not necessary so I understand why it was done) it doesn’t taste like cookie dough anymore, just really sweet flour and butter mix with chocolate chips. My thought is, why can’t you just make your own chocolate chip cookie recipe, replacing the eggs with applesauce, banana, ground flax and water or the multitude of other egg replacements? Cream your butter with whatever your replacement is and make the batter eggless that way? I’ll try it the next time I make a batch of cookie dough and let you know how it turns out. But this recipe, as it is right now, gets chalked up on the Friday Flop list too. wah wahhhh.
