Beef Stroganoff

I had initially planned to make this meal last night, but somehow the day got away from me and I was totally not in the mood to function so I cheated and ordered in. However, I woke up this morning feeling guilty for taking the 'easy' way out and decided I would make dinner for sure tonight! Of course I was still in the mood for something fairly low-key so beef stroganoff was a fabulous selection. This recipe is super easy and only takes about 20 minutes from start to finish. It's great on a cold day or when you just want something to warm your belly while you snuggle up on the couch and watch a movie. Ok, recipe time...

Recipe:

1 lb extra lean ground beef (7% fat)

¼ cup white all purpose flour
1 Bouillon (beef) powdered (if you use a cube, just crush it)
¾ tsp salt
1 pinch black pepper
2 ¼ cup whole milk

½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
¼ tsp Worcestershire sauce (optional – I don’t use it but you can)

1 pack of no-yolk egg noodles

Directions:

 

Start the water for the noodles in a pot with a little salt. While you’re waiting for the water to boil, brown the beef in a large skillet over medium high heat. Stir in the flour, bouillon, salt and pepper and saute together for about 5 minutes (or until flour is absorbed.) Gradually stir in the milk and Worcestershire sauce – if you’re using this. Bring to a simmer, stirring constantly. Cook until thickened, about 5 to 10 minutes.

By the time the meat sauce is ready your noodles should be fully cooked and ready to be stirred into the sauce. Serve it hot!

Pictures:

 This was so yummy I think I may have inhaled all of my bowl before Zach even got started on his.

Stuffed Mushrooms

I am totally exhausted from the feast that occurred yesterday and so tonight I am totally cheating and just making little appetizers! I have been craving stuffed mushrooms for months now and I finally have all the ingredients in the house so GAME ON! I will also mention that I found this recipe a year ago when I had good old gestational diabetes and I fell in love with it. If something is diabetic friendly AND this delicious - you KNOW it's totally legit!

Recipe:

36 button mushrooms (or cremini, medium size)
1/2 cup fresh chopped onion
5 oz fresh baby spinach , thinly sliced
3 oz cream cheese , room temperature
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg (optional)
1 pinch salt and pepper , to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Remove the stems from the mushrooms and chop the stems finely.

In a small skillet lightly greased, sauté mushroom stems and onion until softened, about 5 minutes (or longer if you don't like your onions to have any crunch like me.)

Add the spinach and stir until wilted, about 1 to 2 minutes. Let it cool and then mix in cream cheese (and nutmeg.)  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Place the mushroom caps in baking pan and fill them with the cheese mixture. Bake them uncovered until they’re hot through, approximately 8 to 12 minutes.

When the mushrooms are done they will be oh so tender and quite juicy inside so be ready to pop the whole thing in your mouth or if it's a two-biter have a napkin ready! Enjoy!

Pictures: 

Spinach and Cannellini Bean Dip with Homemade Pita Chips

A few years ago my sister came to visit me when I was living in Albany, New York. She had flown all the way from California and I was determined to take her to New York City - I mean she'd come that far, what's another 3 hours on a train, right? So I booked us a hotel in the city and off we went. Because we're Sicilian it seemed only appropriate that we seek out an authentic Italian restaurant - and because we were in New York City that was totally feasible. After we had been seated and our vino was delivered the waiter brought out this bread and cannellini bean dip. To be quite honest I am not sure that I had ever had cannellini beans before that night but I learned really quickly that I love them! Therefore, in the spirit of all things appetizer I decided that the perfect companion to my stuffed mushrooms would be spinach and cannellini bean dip with homemade pita chips. While this recipe is not exactly what we enjoyed in New York City it is a fabulous runner up. This recipe is incredibly easy and wont take you more than 20 minutes.

Spinach and Cannellini Bean Dip Recipe:

2 tablespoons butter

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 (6-ounce) bags baby spinach

1 (15-ounce) can cannelloni beans, drained and rinsed

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

In a large nonstick skillet heat the butter over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add 1/2 of the spinach and cook for 2 minutes until wilted. Repeat with the remaining spinach. Remove from the heat and let the mixture cool for a few minutes.

Place the spinach mixture, cannelloni beans, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper in the bowl of a food processor. Blend until the mixture is smooth. (Ideally this is the best way to make this dip – however if you are like me and do not own a food processor then you can totally just smash the mixture up using a potato masher or simply leave the recipe as is. Personally I’ve made it both ways and either one is delightful!)

Homemade Pita Chips Recipe:

1 Package of Pita Bread

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Garlic Salt

Pepper

Red Pepper Flakes (optional)

Preheat oven to 425 F

This is super easy! Just cut the pita bread up into little triangular pieces and place them on a baking sheet. Lightly drizzle the olive oil over the pita bread – not too much or your chips will be totally saturated and not so delightful. Then just sprinkle the garlic salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes if you like a little heat, lightly on top of the pita bread and bake for about 5-10 minutes. You can test them along the way to determine when they’re done to your liking.

Or you can totally cheat and buy pita chips from the store – the sea salt ones are perfect for this recipe!

Pictures:

Lemon Ricotta Cookies with Lemon Glaze

After preparing a fabulous loaf of bread and a shepherd's pie for dinner last night it seemed like a total let down not to have dessert. But what exactly do you eat after you have stuffed yourself to the brim? Something light and fluffy so that it almost doesn't count, right? And then it came to me: cookies. At the mention of someone in the mood for lemon I searched for something that I hadn't tried before and found it. Voila! Lemon ricotta cookies with this delectable lemon glaze. SOLD! So here we go...

*Note: this recipe will take you a good 2.5 hours from start to finish so plan to be in the kitchen for a while. In my experience, listening to a great music while dancing around with a spatula singing proved incredibly entertaining and I hardly noticed that the time passed.

Recipe:

Cookies:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 stick salted butter, softened

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 (15-ounce) container whole milk ricotta cheese

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 lemon, zested (optional)

Glaze:

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 lemon, zested

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Cookies

In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In the large bowl combine the butter and the sugar. Mix the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, (if you are using a mixer it should take about 3 minutes – if you are doing it by hand like I did it takes a little longer. Feel free to add one of the eggs while you are mixing as it helps loosen the dough up and make it more manageable.) Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating until incorporated. Add the ricotta cheese, lemon juice, and lemon zest (if you are using it in the cookie dough – I didn’t put the zest in the dough for mine but I’m sure it would be stellar.) Beat to combine. Stir in the dry ingredients.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Spoon the dough (about 2 tablespoons for each cookie) onto the baking sheets. Bake for 15 minutes, until slightly golden at the edges. Remove from the oven and let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 20 minutes.

Glaze

Combine the powdered sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a small bowl and stir until smooth. Spoon about 1/2-teaspoon onto each cookie and use the back of the spoon to gently spread. Let the glaze harden for about 2 hours.

Pictures:

Resting on the cooling rack - a MUST before glazing!

So perfect - I wanted to cheat and just eat it IMMEDIATELY!

This recipe can yield up to 44, but I like mine bigger so I didn't quite make that many :)

GLAZE!!!

And devour....

The perfect ending to our feast last night! These cookies were so incredibly scrumptious! They were just as light and fluffy as I had hoped, in fact they reminded me of an old recipe that my Grandmother used to make once upon a time.

**Note: Because they have ricotta in them make sure that you throw them in the fridge and cover them so that they don't go bad - I promise they are just as delicious refrigerated.

Shepherd's Pie

Let me start by saying that Shepherd's Pie is one of my husband's favorite meals, EVER. Let me also say that in the 11 years that we have been together, I have REFUSED to make this recipe for him. Mostly because of principle - I hate carrots, therefore any recipe with carrots I am just going to avoid like the plague or alter the recipe due to the fact that carrots were 'out of stock' at the commissary :) That being said, I finally caved, afterall the man did wait patiently for 11 whole years. So here it is...

Recipe:

Mashed Potato Topping:

1 1/2 pounds red skin potatoes

2 tablespoons salted butter

¼ to ½ cup of low fat milk (depending how lose you like them)

3/4 teaspoon garlic salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

4 ounces sour cream

For the Meat Filling:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

2 carrots, peeled and diced small

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 pounds ground beef (you can use lamb if you’d like to get ‘fancy’)

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons tomato paste

1 cup chicken broth

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons freshly chopped rosemary leaves

1 teaspoon freshly chopped thyme leaves

1/2 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels

1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas

Directions:

Cut potatoes into 1/2-inch pieces and place in a medium saucepan and cover with cold water. Set over high heat, cover and bring to a boil. Once boiling, uncover, decrease the heat to maintain a simmer and cook until tender and easily crushed with tongs, approximately 10 to 15 minutes. Once the potatoes are fully cooked, Drain the potatoes in a colander and then return to the saucepan. Mash the potatoes and then add the milk, sour cream, butter, garlic salt and pepper and continue to mash until smooth.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.


While the potatoes are cooking, prepare the filling. Place the olive oil into a 12-inch saute pan and set over medium high heat. Once the oil shimmers, add the onion and carrots and saute just until they begin to take on color, approximately 3 to 4 minutes. Add the garlic and stir to combine. Add the ground beef (or lamb), salt and pepper and cook until browned and cooked through, approximately 3 minutes. Sprinkle the meat with the flour and toss to coat, continuing to cook for another minute. Add the tomato paste, chicken broth, Worcestershire, rosemary, thyme, and stir to combine. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer slowly 10 to 12 minutes or until the sauce is thickened slightly.

Add the corn and peas to the ground beef mixture and spread evenly into an 11 by 7-inch glass baking dish. Top with the mashed potatoes, starting around the edges to create a seal to prevent the mixture from bubbling up and smooth with a rubber spatula. Place on a parchment lined half sheet pan on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 25 minutes or just until the potatoes begin to brown. Remove to a cooling rack for at least 15 minutes before serving.

Pictures:

*Like I said, totally not my favorite recipe I ever made but then again anything with carrots is an automatic FAIL; however, my critics Zach and Christina were incredibly pleased with the outcome so that must count for something!