Tortellini Lasagna

Have you ever tried this? Made this? We really like it a lot! It's a neat variation of regular lasagna.

Ingredients:

• except, I used two jars of Marinara. I ordinarily use homemade, canned marinara, but I shared what I had canned, so I ran out for us. :(  but, I like Newman's. 
• Spinach should be thawed and squeezed to get the water out. 

STEP 1

• spread some sauce on the bottom of the baking dish

STEP 2 and STEP 3

• add half of the tortellini and half of the spinach. This is where you could add some Italian seasoning, etc. 

STEP 4

• add cheese

STEP 5

• repeat all the steps. 
• pour the remaining sauce over the top, sprinkle on a bit more cheese cause it's so yummy and looks pretty. 
• BAKE at 350 for about 30-45 minutes til it's all bubbly. 

I regret to say this. I forgot to get a pic of the lasagna when it was done. Three starving guys... you understand, right? 
We had garlic bread, fresh yummy salad and iced tea with ours. 
What will you serve with yours? 
Take a pic of the end result and show me!!

Silence and Banana Muffins

I decided to go ahead and blog right now because the boys WERE deep into their history and quiet. WERE. Wait, it's quiet again. They get into serious debates about math charts, angles-stuff I don't understand and they are debating it. So it's all quiet again in the house. I love the quiet. I think because it is such a rare sound. If I'm in the car alone, also rare, I turn the radio off. I just want to think or just be. Can you relate?


This morning, I got up a bit early and made banana muffins. I started with a recipe way back when my 20 yr old was 2 and have altered it into what I love. I'll share it with you here today. It's definitely worth trying. You may be hooked. They are the very best, real muffin I have ever had, although I may be a partial to this particular banana muffin.  :)

makes about 2 dozen muffins

4  ripe bananas

1  cup packed brown sugar

1/2  cup Smart Balance Oil 

1  large egg

1  cup all purpose flour

1  whole wheat flour

1/4  cup flax seed meal

1  tsp baking powder

1  tsp baking soda

1/2  tsp salt

1/2  cup plain or vanilla yogurt

1  Tbls vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line the muffin pans with paper liners. I spray the paper liners with non stick spray.

Peel the bananas, (put the peels in your compost bucket) break them into pieces and place in large mixing bowl. Beat with mixer until they are smashed good. Be careful, they jump out sometimes! 

Add brown sugar, oil and egg; beat until smooth.

Add flours, flax meal, baking powder, baking soda, salt; beat until smooth.

Add yogurt and vanilla ; beat until combined.

Fill muffin liners 3/4 full.  Sprinkle a bit of brown sugar and some oats on top before baking.

Bake about 25 minutes.

Cool slightly.  Eat and enjoy!!

Chicken and Dumplings!

My mom always made such delicious chicken and dumplings, the fluffy dumplings. Below is the recipe I use to make mine. And it yields about 8 servings. I'll give the ingredients first, then some instructions and pics.


For the Chicken:

3 pounds of chicken pieces (leg quarters are fine)
2 quarts of tap water (8 cups)
2 tablespoons chicken bouillon or 6 chicken bouillon cubes
1/4 teaspoon pepper or a good shaking of Adam's Beef Fajitas Season (my all purpose)

For the Dumplings:

1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup milk
2-1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon each salt & sugar

I used a pressure cooker for cooking my chicken, which is about 20 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure for a whole chicken, less time for cut up. But you can boil it and it works out just fine.

Now let the chicken simmer like that for a full two hours. Longer if the chicken was partially frozen when you put it in. You want the meat to fall off the bone. When the chicken is good and tender, remove it from the broth. Try to make sure there are no sneaky bones which have worked there way to the bottom of the broth. If you find any, just fish them out. I do this with a slotted spoon, and a fork. The chicken is hot, so be very careful not to burn yourself. Collect your chicken in a dish or bowl and let it cool down.

When the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the bones. Discard the skin and bones. If you used a pressure cooker, you will need to add about 3 cups of water, but not if you boiled the chicken. Start the broth simmering and add the de-boned chicken.

Mix up the dumplings. Add the milk and oil in a mixing bowl, then add the dry ingredients and mix well. The batter will be stiff. Using two spoons, drop the dough onto the chicken/broth. Try to keep them uniform in size for uniform cooking.

Cover pot with a lid and let simmer for 20 minutes. NO PEEKING EITHER! The dumplings cook from both the simmering broth and steaming in the pot.

Above is at the end of the 20 minutes. Nice and fluffy!! Gravy just creates naturally from the dumplings. Yummy!! 

ENJOY!!

Oatmeal Pancake Mix

Here is a reason never to buy pancake mix again!!

3 1/2 - cups old-fashioned or rolled oats
5 - cups all purpose flour
3 - Tablespoons sugar
3 - Tablespoons baking powder
1 - Tablespoon salt
1 - Tablespoon baking soda
1 - cup oil

 Grind the oats in a food processor until they are chopped fine but not a powder. Put the oats, flour, and all other dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Using a mixer, mix on slow speed, drizzling the oil into the bowl while the mixer is running. 

 
 When all the oil has been added, stop the mixer and squeeze a clump of mix in your hand. If it stays together, it is just right. if it is still crumbly, add another tablespoon of oil at a time until the consistency is correct. 

 Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks at room temperature, or indefinitely in refrigerator or freezer. 








 Batter:

whisk together 1 cup of mix, 1 cup of milk and 1 egg.  Don't worry if it seems thin at first: the oats will soak up the milk and the mix will thicken a bit as it stands. Let stand for at least 10 minutes before cooking. 

Heat a griddle, lightly greased and drop the batter onto it by heaping tablespoons to make a 3 inch diameter pancake. 

Note: 

A batch using 1 cup of the mix will make twelve 3-inch pancakes.   

Sloppy Joe's with homemade buns, fries and onion rings!!

YUMMMMY!

These were so delicious!! The buns are so super easy to make. Recipe will be at the bottom.

Alexander was the main onion ring maker; I just assisted! He dunked them in beer (Dos Equis) and then seasoned flour-TWICE! then fried them AND he only burned himself like four times on numerous items, not just hot grease!!

I peeled and cut the fries myself and we only dipped them into the beer and flour once before frying.

They were crisp, but the center was soft and just right. They are the best fries I have ever had.

I was fighting with the ice cream maker while the boys ate and came back for seconds, leaving me only two teeny rings and four fries. :( oh well...I didn't need those anyways! but oh man, that sloppy joe was amazing!!

bun recipe

1 cup water

2 Tbls butter

1 large egg

3 1/4 cups flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp salt

1 Tbls instant yeast

Combine all and mix and knead together using a mixer until it's a soft, smooth dough.

Grease a large bowl and place dough in it, cover with a towel, let rise for an hour. I put mine in my electric oven with the light on. Any draft free place will do.

Divide the dough into 8 pieces and shape into flattened balls. Place the balls on a greased baking sheet, cover, let rise 30-40 minutes until they are quite puffy.

Preheat over to 375. Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.

Remove from oven and place to cool on a rack.