Pita Bread

I finally tried making pita bread! It's pretty easy. I found the recipe on allrecipes.com. Here's the link:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Whole-Wheat-Pita-Bread-2/Detail.aspx

For the first batch, I tore the dough off in handfulls and rolled them out pretty thin. I did not let them rise before baking them. The recipe says to bake them for 8 minutes, but this produced frisbees that ended up out in the yard. So, I tried baking them for only 3-4 minutes on my stone and that went better.

For the second batch, I didn't roll them as thin, and let them rise a bit before baking. This produced the "pocket".

A recipe that I will now use more often.

Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes

We had a frozen meatloaf which only required thawing and re-heating.

I served it with cabbage mashed potatoes.
For these, I sauteed fineley chopped cabbage (add onion and mushrooms if you'd like) until soft, then added the boiled potatoes and mashed them all together.

This was a meal Leesha had requested and she wanted it served with corn. I don't usually serve corn and consider it a vegetable, but with the cabbage, we had our serving of veggies. Leesha didn't even notice the cabbage.

Stir Fry

I love the bags of frozen stir-fry vegetables and bottled sauce - a much easier way to enjoy stir-fry.

Veggie Lasagna and humus

A new venture!

A disclaimer:

In all honesty, I rarely measure. So, measurements are usually approximate.

It's nearing the end of "Meatless March" at our house. The month has gone well, I'd say. Leesha came home from her dad's saying she'd had a burger on Saturday and felt like throwing up afterwards. We'll see how we take to meat again next week.

So, today, I wanted to roast garlic to make some more humus. I decided I'd try to roast the onion too. As long as I was at it, I roasted some tomato for our veggie lasagna for dinner.

I set the oven to 405, wrapped the unpeeled garlic cloves in foil, put some olive oil on the sweet onion and quartered tomato and let them bake for 40 minutes (the tomato was only in for about 20 minutes though).

The lasagna:

sauce: (I let this simmer for a while after mixing)

generic store bought spaghetti sauce

a little bit of steamed cauliflower

3 shredded zucchini

1 roasted tomato

some roasted sweet onion

a few cloves of roasted garlic, mashed

Cheese mix:

about 10 oz. soft tofu

15 oz. ricotta

2 c. shredded mozarella

2 eggs

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. pepper

enough parsley to add some color

(I've tried spinach in this mixture, but have finally learned my lesson that I don't really like frozen spinach - maybe I'll try again in the future)

Layer uncooked lasagna noodles, sauce and cheese mixture until you run out. Add 1/2 c. or so of water to help noodles cook.

Cover with foil and bake at 350 for about an hour.

Humus:

blend in food processor:

1 can of garbanzo beans (drain, but save liquid)

1/2 cup tahini (for Twin Cities folk, this is super cheap over at Holy Land)

2 T lemon juice

1/2 roasted sweet onion

5 cloves roasted garlic

2 t. olive oil (for Twin Cities folk, this is cheap at Trader Joes, and probably Holy Land too)

2 t. ground cumin

1/2 t. paprika (my recipe calls for cayenne, but I haven't gotten that yet)

1/2 t. salt

enough of the liquid saved at the beginning to give it a good consistency

When I made a batch on Sunday, I used a package of pine nuts which I'd roasted, as well as raw onion (half sweet, half white) and that batch was good.

Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

Not a big hit, sorry, Kraft has my vote on this dish.

from Betty Crocker

heat oven to350

Boil to desired tenderness, then drain:

2 c. elbow macaroni

While pasta is boiling, in 3 qt. saucepan, over low heat, melt

1/4 c. butter

Stir in:

1/4 c. flour

1/2 t. salt

1/4 t. pepper

1/4 t. dry mustard

1/4 t. Worcestershire sauce

Stir and cook over low heat until mixture is smooth and bubbly, remove from heat.

Add:

2 c. milk

Heat to boiling, stirring constantly, boil 1 minute.

Add and stir until melted:

2 c. shredded cheese

Combine cheese mixture and pasta. Turn into ungreased 2 qt. casserole dish. Bake uncovered for 20-25 minutes.

Vegetable Soup

from my friend Jeanelle

Combine in slow cooker:
1 can black beans
1 can corn
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can diced tomatoes with green chilies
1 can Minestrone soup
package frozen mixed vegetables

Cook on High3-4 hours, or longer on low

Esau's Lentil Soup

or Mjeodrah

from my "Fix it and Forget it" cookbook

Saute in 1 T. olive oil:

1 c. chopped carrots

1 c. diced celery

2 c. chopped onion

(I usually use a lot more veggies)

When these veggies are soft, transfer them to the slow cooker.

Using the same skillet and another 1T. olive oil, brown until dry

2 c. brown rice

add to slow cooker

Finally, add and stir:

6 c. water (I use prepared bullion)

1 lb. rinsed and drained lentils

Cook on High 6-8 hours

The cookbook suggests it be topped with a garden salad and vinaigrette. I like it plain with some fresh Roti or Nan from an Indian restaurant, or I'll make whole wheat pitas.