Hayden and Julie share recipes...pretty simple idea! And maybe some beer and wine reviews (not that we're any sort of experts, we just know what we like, perhaps you'll like 'em too!).
Breakfast is probably the favorite meal in our house, and it's not just for morning (although I did make this particular recipe in the morning). In fact, we just had breakfast burritos for dinner that I made a few weeks ago and froze. Usually Ryan is the breakfast cook, but once in a while I get myself in cooking mode in the morning. I usually make random frittata or quiche-type dishes, and just throw whatever I can find into them. I kept track of what I was doing last time, and here’s what I came up with. Oh, and it was a hit, or I wouldn't be posting the recipe!
Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
3 medium potatoes
½ red pepper, diced
1 cup torn fresh spinach
4 green onions, sliced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp fresh basil, finely chopped
salt & pepper to taste
6 eggs
1/3 cup milk
½ cup shredded mozzarella
1/3 cup feta cheese
parmesan cheese
Instructions:
1) Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F, lightly grease 9” casserole dish.
2) Heat olive oil in medium skillet over medium heat. Place potatoes in skillet, cover, and cook about 10 minutes (until tender, but firm). Mix in red pepper, spinach, onions, garlic and basil. Season with salt and pepper. Cook on low heat for 1-2 minutes.
3) In medium bowl, beat together eggs and milk. Mix in cheeses, and then potato mixture from skillet. Sprinkle parmesan cheese over the top and cook in oven for about 45 minutes, or until eggs are firm. Remove from oven and let stand for 5-10 minutes before serving.
Last weekend I went on a cooking and freezing binge. Every so often I take an entire day (or an entire weekend) and cook up a bunch of meals to freeze. I love having all this pre-made stuff in my freezer...pre-made by me, not Stouffer's or whoever else makes all that garbage. One of the dishes I made was manicotti (the recipe came via my mom from allrecipes.com...except for the freezing instructions, those are all me). Of course, as always, I didn't quite follow the recipe, so I'll do my best with measurements and whatnot. Cooking is definitely an art, not a science, and 100% depends on your personal tastes (for example, when a recipe calls for garlic or cheese, I always use more than it tells me too). But I'm really trying to pay more attention to measurements and times so that I can share these a bit more articulately here! And just a note about the photos, I had a hard time making the cooked stuff look very pretty
Ingredients:
1 (15 oz) container ricotta cheese
1 (16 oz) bag frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
½ cup minced onion
1 egg
2 tsp dried parsley
½ tsp pepper
½ tsp garlic powder
1 ½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
spaghetti sauce (see previous "Put down that jar!" post)
1 (8 oz) package manicotti shells
Instructions:
1) Preheat oven to 350.
2) In a large bowl, combine ricotta, spinach, onion and egg. Season with parsley, pepper and garlic powder. Mix in 1 c mozzarella and ¼ c Parmesan. (**If you want to freeze this, stop here and skip down to "Freezing Directions.")
3) In separate bowl, stir together spaghetti sauce and water. Spread 1 c sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Stuff uncooked manicotti shells with ricotta mixture, and arrange in a single layer in the dish. Cover with remaining sauce. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan.
4) Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 55 min, or until noodles are soft.
**Freezing Directions:
Cook manicotti shells about 2 minutes less than the instructions tell you too, until slightly softened but not fully cooked. Drain, rinse and stuff with ricotta mixture. Place stuffed shells on a waxed paper lined baking sheet, so that they are not touching. Place manicotti in freezer until frozen through. Once they are all frozen, place manicotti into a zip-loc freezer bag or other freezer-safe container.
To thaw: Place desired number of shells in the refrigerator overnight, and then continue with "Step 3" above. OR continue with "Step 3" using frozen shells, they'll need to cook longer than 45 - 55 minutes (I did mine this way and started with the shells covered with aluminum foil...but I'm not sure how long I ended up cooking them, I just kept checking them).
