Lasagna Spinach Rolls

I made this for dinner earlier this week and it was so good. What made it good was not only the abundance of cheese (mmm) but the tomato sauce was excellent too. It was Mediterranean and was flavored with all kinds of olives, which everybody loved! It’s a quick meal and I feel like it’s a lot easier to make than a full lasagna would be. Try it out!

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups of spinach, cooked and drained, and very finely chopped

A small yellow onion, chopped

2 Tbsp of Garlic butter (having garlic butter permanently stocked in the fridge is a great idea)

1 cup of Ricotta

Salt and Pepper

6-8 Lasagna sheets (depending on how big your baking dish is)

1 Can or jar of seasoned tomato sauce

1 cup of shredded mozzarella as well as some shredded Parmesan

Boil the lasagna sheets in a large pot until they are tender, but not overcooked… around 6-7 minutes. Once they are cooked, rinse with cold water and pat them dry.

While the pasta is cooking, fry the onions in melted garlic butter. Once cooked, stir in the spinach until well combined. Remove from heat. Stir in the ricotta, salt and pepper.

Lay the pasta sheets flat on the counter. Evenly place spinach mixture on sheets except for an inch or so at the end of each sheet. Roll them up gently starting by the end where the spinach is touching the edge.

Place a bit of tomato sauce at the bottom of the dish, place the rolls down side by side in the dish, coat with the rest of the tomato sauce. Finally, add the cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes in a 425-degree oven. Remove the foil and bake an additional 10 minutes in a 425-degree oven, or until the cheese is nice and golden.

Remove from heat and let sit a few minutes before serving. Slice the cheese in a way to separate each roll, and serve with a Cesar salad.

Bon Appétit!

Beef Stroganoff

This meal was so delicious and it was perfect for a weeknight. It only took 20 or so minutes from beginning to end. Any recipe that calls for noodles of some sort is always a favourite in our household, despite the fact that we may eat too much pasta! Nothing compares to how delicious it is, specially compared to rice (no offense to rice).

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp Olive oil

1 ½ Lbs of beef (I used previously frozen top sirloins) cut into smaller strips

2 Tbsp Garlic Butter

1 Yellow Onion, sliced

3 Cups of whole mushrooms (can be sliced as well but I prefer biting into them)

2 Tbsp of Tomato Paste

¼ Cup of All Purpose flour

2 Cups of Beef Broth

½ Cup of Sour cream (the best ingredient)

1 Tbsp of Dijon Mustard

A splash of Lemon Juice

Lots of Salt and Pepper to taste

A package of egg noodles (cooked)

(I added 1 cup of leftover broccoli to the pot but it’s definitely not a necessity)

Directions:

In a large pan, heat the olive oil and fry the steak strips until they are golden on the edges. Remove from heat and set aside.

In the same pan, melt the garlic butter and fry the onions until they are golden. Add the mushroom and stir over medium heat until they shrink a bit in size.

Stir the tomato paste and the flour into the mushroom. Stir until it’s all evenly incorporated, then add the broth.

Bring the whole thing to a boil, reduce to medium heat and add the steak back in. Keep on heat for 5 minutes (which is when I started cooking the pasta)

Remove the mixture from the heat, and let sit while the pasta is cooking. Once the pasta is drained, add the sour cream, lemon and mustard to the sauce and stir until it’s well combined. Serve with some grated parmesan.

Bon Appétit!

Tomato and Spinach Tortellini Soup

I recently discovered that I actually love soup. I never thought I did just because the soup I grew up with was mainly just watered down mashed veggies, not this amazing flavour explosion that it has the potential to be. The first of many soup recipes I am no doubt going to post (my dad bought me an immersion blender yesterday) is a Tortellini Soup. I read a few recipes online to get the main idea with ingredients, spices, etc. but used all the vegetables I could find to make it a bit healthier. When my brother has his first sip he said “wow, this is really good. Can you make this soup everyday, like can this be an everyday meal?” Like me, he didn’t even like soup before! Here it goes:

Ingredients: (this soup serves 8)

1 package of fresh tortellini (I used cheese-stuffed)
1 can of diced tomatoes
3 cups of vegetable broth
1 small russet potato cut into 1cm pieces
1 tbsp of Olive oil
1 tbsp of dried Basil
½ cup of chopped onion
1 clove of garlic
¼ cup of Parmesan cheese
Salt and Pepper

1. Cook the tortellini according to the packaging directions. Once drained, rinse with cold water and set aside for later.
2. In a large pot on medium heat, sauté the onions and garlic until soft/golden respectfully.
3. Add all remaining ingredients to the onions (broth, tomato, potato, parmesan), bring to a boil
4. Once boiling, turn the heat down to simmer for approximately 30 minutes and remove from heat.
5. Once cooled a bit, use an immersion blender to blend the soup to a nice smooth consistency.
6. Add the ravioli and serve ☺

Bon Appétit!

Chicken Stroganoff

Sorry for the lack of updates recently, I have absolutely no inspiration lately and had to force myself to make something remotely decent as a Mother’s Day meal for my mom because the night before I made the super delicious but extremely basic and bland “pasta with butter, cheddar and ham”. This Chicken Stroganoff recipe, which I sort of based on a few recipes I found online, is the ultimate comfort food and I ate way too much of it. I also added peppers to it so I wouldn’t have to make a vegetable dish… They are the biggest drag.



Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. All-purpose flour
2 or 3 Medium Chicken Breasts, cut into 1-2” chunks
1 Tsp. Ground Sage
1 Tsp. Ground Thyme
Salt and Pepper
2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1 Tbsp. Butter
½ A Golden Onion, chopped finely
2 Cloves of Garlic, pressed
3 Cups White Mushrooms, sliced
2 Yellow/Orange Peppers, chopped
1½ Cups of Chicken Stock
½ Cup Heavy Cream
½ Cup Sour Cream (the best!)


1. In a bowl, toss the chicken chunks with the flour, sage, thyme, salt and pepper.
2. In a deep skillet, heat the olive oil and cook the chicken until golden brown. Remove the chicken from the skillet and set aside.
3. In the same skillet, melt the butter. Add the onions, garlic and mushrooms, toss to coat. Sprinkling some salt onto the mushrooms will help them release their liquid. Saute the vegetables until they are lightly browned over low heat.
4. Deglaze the bottom of the skillet with some white wine, or some chicken broth, pour in the rest of the broth. Simmer for 5 minutes.
5. Return the chicken to the pan, add the heavy cream. (If you wanted to serve the dish with egg noodles, now would be the time to stir 3 cups of Egg noodles, with an extra cup of chicken broth!) Stir in chopped yellow/orange pepper. Simmer 10 minutes or until sauce is thickened.
6. Remove from heat, take a few tablespoons of the sauce to mix into the sour cream to prevent curdling. Once the sour cream has been mixed in with some hot sauce, stir the sour cream into the final dish.
7. You may serve this chicken stroganoff with anything. I served it with rice for my parents, but ate it with macaroni. I think the best way to eat it is with egg-noodles.



Bon Appétit!

Pasta pasta pasta

I just realized practically all my blog posts are pasta dishes, or salads with noodles in them. Whoops!

For the record, I do cook some other stuff too... It's just pasta is so soo good.

Bacon and Broccoli Mac'n'Cheese

Since it was my brother’s birthday, I asked him what he wanted me to make for him. His answer: MAC AND CHEESE! Immediately followed by my mom saying “add broccoli, he needs veggies!” Reluctantly, I added some broccoli to the dish but it wasn’t as bad as it sounds. I think the bacon had something to do with it! I just love love love this mac’n’cheese and if I could pick only one meal to eat over and over for the rest of my life, it would be this one (Minus the broccoli, of course!).



Ingredients:
4 Cups of Macaroni
2 Broccoli crowns cut into small bite sized pieces, steamed
5 Slices of thick Bacon, chopped
3 Tbsp. of Flour
2 Cups of Milk, at room temperature
1½ Tbsp. Dijon Mustard
1½ Cup of Grated Sharp Cheddar
½ Cup of Panko Breadcrumbs
¼ Cup of Parmesan
Salt and Pepper

1. Cook the macaroni 8 minutes, or until almost cooked, rinse in cold water to stop the cooking process and set aside.
2. Fry the bacon bits in a saucepan on medium high heat until nice and crispy. Remove the bacon bits, leaving as much of the bacon fat in the saucepan.
3. Add the flour to the fat and whisk until evenly pasty. Slowly add the milk while whisking. Let the sauce thicken a bit while adding the milk. (If you add the milk too quickly, the sauce will curdle in a weird non-creamy way)
4. Once the sauce is thick and all the milk has been added, add the mustard, and some salt and pepper. If the sauce is too thick, slowly add some more milk in until you’ve reached a consistency you’re happy with.
5. Add the grated cheese to the sauce. Stir while it melts.
6. Once the cheese sauce is melted, add the bacon bits and broccoli.
7. In a large bowl, mix together the macaroni and the sauce until it is evenly mixed. Pour into a casserole dish.
8. Mix the Panko and Parmesan together, and sprinkle evenly over the macaroni.
9. Cook in a 425-degree oven for 20 Minutes, or until crispy golden brown.
10. Let sit a few minutes before serving.




Bon Appetit!

Creamy Bacon, Mushroom and Green Pea Linguini

This recipe is long overdue but I was too lazy to upload the pictures to my computer. I made this for lunch over a week ago, using up leftover Ricotta from the Spanakopita I posted last week. I also had to use mushrooms because they were starting to go brown. Not that any of you needed to know that… So this is what I came up with! Enjoy.



Ingredients:
6 thick slices of Bacon, chopped
1 ½ cup Frozen Green Peas
1 ½ cup Sliced White Mushrooms
½ cup Red Onion, chopped
¼ cup Cream Cheese
½ cup Ricotta Cheese (Had there been Crème Fraiche in the fridge, I would’ve used that, but
¼ cup Parmesan Cheese
Salt and Pepper
Linguine, though I am a big fan of Farfalle (‘Bow-ties’)

1. While preparing this dish, put some water to boil and cook some pasta in a large pot. (I’m assuming that if you are reading this, you know how to cook any kind of pasta)
2. In a Wok (Incase you haven’t noticed yet, I like using woks because I don’t spill as much when I’m stirring. It’s ridiculous how much of a mess I can make), fry the bacon bits until nice and crispy.
3. Remove the bacon bits from their own fat and set them on a paper towel. In the bacon fat, fry the onions until soft and translucent. Add the mushrooms and peas and stir until both are soft.
4. Add the cheeses to the peas and mushrooms. Once they are melted, stir the bacon back into the dish. (I take the bacon out of the process early so the bacon doesn’t absorb flavors, while cooking all the ingredients in the bacon fat, because: hello! Bacon is too delicious to be overpowered!)
5. Stir the sauce into the pasta (which should be cooked by now), and serve.


Bon Appétit!

Meaty Monday

I’m all about keeping it simple when I’m too tired or lacking creativity so I ended up making spaghetti and meatballs for dinner tonight. I’ve never actually made meatballs before as I’m not much of a “ground beef” kind of girl but I’m trying to be open minded and I’m not going to lie…. These meatballs are really good! They almost rival the Swedish Meatballs at IKEA, as far as meatballs go!



Spaghetti & Meatballs
(Serves 6-8)

For the meatballs:
1½ lbs. Lean ground Beef
1½ cups Panko, or regular bread crumbs
¼ cup of Grated Parmesan
½ tsp. Garlic powder
1 tbsp. Fresh chopped parsley
½ tsp. Salt
½ tsp. Pepper
1 egg, beaten

For the tomato sauce: (I definitely got lazy/didn’t have the ingredients necessary to make a sauce from scratch)
1 large can of tomato sauce (I used a “garlicky tomato” sauce)
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp. garlic cloves, minced

1. Put all the meatball ingredients in a bowl and mix them well until well blended, using your hands works best. Make about 20 1” meatballs with your hands, place them on plate or cookie sheet and set aside.

2. In a saucepan, sauté the onions and garlic in the olive oil until translucent. Empty the entire can of tomato sauce. Bring to boil, stirring occasionally. Let sauce simmer for 10-15 minutes and add the uncooked meatballs individually, until they are all coated evenly. Cover, simmer or medium heat for 35 minutes.

3. Cook spaghetti while meatballs are cooking in the sauce. Serve pasta in bowls, and place meatballs on top. Garnish with a bit of fresh parsley and some grated cheese.



Bon Appétit!