Spinach Lasagna Rolls with Bechamel Sauce

It’s that time again, time to use up what I’ve got in the pantry and fridge. I always end with lots of leftover half boxes and bags of things in the cabinet, or things that I’ve bought and just forgot about. The result of this is having crammed cabinets. So I’m trying to use up some of those things in our meals this week. I’ve had a box containing exactly six lasagna noodles in the cabinet for a few months now.  It was leftover from when I made a lasagna sometime ago. Now you can’t make a real lasagna with only six noodles so I decided to make lasagna rolls. When trying to think of what to roll inside them, I automatically assumed I would make a ricotta filling and then remembered I had half a bag of baby spinach in the veggie drawer of the refrigerator. So I decided to chop that up and mix it in. I had never made a bechamel sauce, but knew it wasn’t difficult so I decided to do that instead of a marinara sauce. It turned out amazing! My husband and I both enjoyed this dinner. It was a bit time consuming because there are a few steps involved but definitely something I would make again.

Spinach Lasagna Rolls with Bechamel Sauce

For the lasagna rolls:

6 lasagna noodles
1 15 oz container part skim ricotta
1 egg
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 cup chopped baby spinach
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Begin by boiling the lasagna noodles whole, in salted water for 8-10 minutes. They should then be pliable but not quite done. Remove them from the water and lay on a lightly oiled baking sheet to prevent sticking. Mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl and then spread 2-3 Tbsp of the mixture onto each lasagna noodle and roll. Place in a greased baking dish with the open end of the noodle down.

For the bechamel sauce:

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 1/4 cups milk, heated
• Salt
• Freshly ground pepper

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Stir in the flour and cook, stirring constantly, until the paste cooks and bubbles a bit, but don’t let it brown — about 2 minutes. Add the hot milk, continuing to stir as the sauce thickens. Bring it to a boil. Add salt and pepper to taste, lower the heat, and cook, stirring for 2 to 3 minutes more. Remove from the heat. To cool this sauce for later use, cover it with wax paper or pour a film of milk over it to prevent a skin from forming.

Source for bechamel sauce: Epicurious

Pour the bechamel sauce over the lasagna rolls. Top with shredded mozzarella and parmesan cheeses if desired. Cover the baking dish tightly with foil and baking for 30-35 minutes. Top with chopped parsley if desired.

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

Why oh why have I never made fresh spaghetti  sauce? I mean, it’s something everyone should at least know how to make right? It’s not like it’s complicated or requires any expert know how. The thing that I think has always intimidated me about homemade tomato sauce are the expectations. Even when you say “homemade spaghetti sauce”, it brings to mind great Italian cooks and secret family recipes. And I guess I’ve just always been afraid that if I were to try my hand at it, the results would be a total failure and I’d go right back to my jar of sauce.

That’s why when I first saw this recipe on Chelle’s blog quite a while ago, I was just too afraid to try it. But I’ve heard great reviews about  it and have seen it on a few other blogs so I figured what the heck. I know she is Italian so it must be good! I made a pot today while I was off work and just a few minutes after it started simmering, my mouth was watering. I had planned on just making the sauce today and using it later this week to make spaghetti, but when I smelled it I decided to move spaghetti up on the dinner list for the week. And am I glad I did! This recipe is really fantastic. I had to make a few changes based on what I had in the pantry but overall it’s the same basic concept. I wasn’t in the mood for meatballs so I just added cooked ground beef to the sauce and made a meat sauce instead. Either way, it’s a great sauce recipe that I’ll be using again in the future.

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

adapted from Brown Eyed Baker

2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 large sweet onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 28-oz. can tomato puree (I pureed one can diced tomatoes because I didn’t have any puree)
1 28-oz. can tomato sauce (I used one can diced tomatoes because I like chunks of tomato in my sauce)
2.5 teaspoons dried parsley (I used 3 tsp fresh parsley)
1/2 teaspoon dried basil (I used 2 tsp fresh basil)
Water from rinsing extra sauce and puree from inside of cans
2 teaspoons salt
2 Tablespoons sugar

*I added 1 tsp fresh chopped oregano.

1. Saute onion and garlic in olive oil over medium-low heat until onion is tender.

2. Add tomato sauce, tomato puree, parsley, basil, water, salt, and sugar. (and oregano)

3. Stir and lower heat to a slow simmer. This best if it’s left to simmer for at least 2 hours.

Bunches and Bunches of Basil!

Remember this? I started this little herb garden the end of May hoping for the best since my track record with growing things isn’t so good. Well I am happy to report that since then my basil plant has more than doubled in size! It’s seriously taking over! I may actually have to move it to another pot so my poor little parsley can have some room to grow. And while I’m happy to have thriving, living basil, I had to find something to do with all of it. So I decided to make what else? Pesto! I had made this recipe at a Pampered Chef party before and it was really good so I decided to go with that. I just doubled the recipe but you could easily triple or quadruple it if you want to make more. Here’s how I made it.

The Pampered Chef Basil Walnut Pesto

1 cup lightly packed fresh basil

1/4 cup toasted walnuts

1 oz. grated fresh Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup olive oil

2 garlic cloves

*pinch of salt (I added this)

(I made mine in the food processor but the original instructions involve utilizing several of the Pampered Chef products. I also doubled this recipe.)

Begin by toasting the walnuts in a skillet over med/lo heat, about 5 minutes or until you can smell the nuts toasting. Wash and dry the basil leaves and place into a food processor. Add the toasted walnuts and pulse until you have a coarse paste. Add in the grated parmesan and garlic cloves. Again, pulse until all ingredients are uniform. With the food processor running, slowly pour in the olive oil. Taste for seasoning and add a pinch of salt if needed.

*Doubled recipe makes about 3/4 cup

*You can divide this pesto up in ice trays and freeze. Once frozen, remove from ice trays and store in a freezer bag for easy use in other recipes.

Source for original recipe: Season’s Best Recipe Collection, page 10

Roast Beef with Spicy Parsley Tomato Sauce

It’s funny how you see recipes you want to try and then sometimes just forget about them. That is the case with this recipe. I saw it several months ago and thought it looked great and put it on my list to try. Somehow it got pushed further and further down the list until I had almost forgotten about it. Then I saw the episode of Everyday Italian last week where Giada makes this dish and remembered saving it to try. So I decided I would put it on the menu for the week. It turned out pretty well. The roast was a little tough, but I thought the sauce was great! I really enjoyed it with my pasta. I’m not sure if I would make the recipe again as it is. I will be saving the sauce recipe though. It’s slightly spicy and there’s a subtle bite from the red wine vinegar that I thought was so good with the roasted tomato flavor.

Roast Beef with Spicy Parsley Tomato Sauce

Beef Roast:

1 (2 to 2 1/2-pound) sirloin tip or chuck beef roast
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 Roma tomatoes, cut in 1/2
2 teaspoons herbs de Provence
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Spicy Parsley Tomato Sauce:

1 1/2 cups fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

To make the beef roast, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.Season the beef with salt and pepper. Season the tomatoes with salt, pepper, and herbs de Provence.

Place a medium, heavy roasting pan or Dutch oven over high heat. Heat the olive oil. Sear the beef over high heat on all sides. Turn off heat. Place the seasoned tomatoes around the seared beef and place the pan in the oven. Roast until a meat thermometer reads 130 degrees F. for medium rare, 135 for medium, about 30 to 40 minutes. Take the roast out of the oven, tent loosely with foil, and let rest for 10 to 15 minutes. The internal temperature of the meat should rise 5 degrees F more and the juices will redistribute into the roast.

To make the sauce, place the parsley and garlic in a food processor and pulse until the parsley is finely chopped. Add the red pepper flakes, salt, red wine vinegar and the roasted tomatoes from the beef pan and process until pureed. Add the olive oil in a steady stream with the machine running.

To serve, slice the roast and place on a serving platter. Drizzle a little sauce over the meat. Serve the remaining sauce in a small bowl alongside.

Chicken Enchiladas with Chili Gravy

I finally got around to making enchiladas tonight. This is actually the first time I’ve made them and they turned out very good. I’ve had a recipe for chili gravy saved for a long time now and decided to use that as the sauce for the enchiladas. I have no clue where I got the recipe, but I think it was from someone’s blog. If anyone knows whose it could be, please let me know! Anyway, we had these tonight with seasoned brown rice. It was all very delicious, although not very healthy.

Chicken Enchiladas

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
1/2 a green bell pepper, finely chopped
1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups chili gravy (recipe follows)
4 flour tortillas
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add onion and peppers and cook for about 5 min. Add shredded chicken and stir. Add salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Remove from pan and set aside. Using the same pan, make the chili gravy as follows.

Chili Gravy

Ingredients:
1/4 cup lard (I used vegetable oil)
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
1-1/2 tsp powdered garlic
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp dried oregano (Mexican oregano is preferred if it’s available)
2 T chile powder (either homemade or a dark brand such as Gebhardt’s or Whole Foods)
2 cups chicken broth (or water) (I used half water, half chicken broth)

Method:
Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat.
Stir in the flour and continue stirring for 3 to 4 minutes, or until it makes a light brown roux.
Add all the dry ingredients and continue to cook for 1 minute, constantly stirring and blending ingredients.
Add chicken broth or water, mixing and stirring until the sauce thickens.
Turn heat to low and let sauce simmer for 15 minutes. Add water to adjust the thickness. Makes 2 cups.

Once the chili gravy is done, add 1/2 a cup to the chicken mixture and stir. Spoon the chicken mixture into the flour tortilla shells and roll up. Spread another half cup of the sauce in the bottom of a baking dish and place the rolled tortillas in the dish. Top with the remaining cup of sauce and shredded cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 20-25 min.

Original Source: Homesick Texan
(I finally found out where this recipe came from!)

Chicken with Goat Cheese and Sun Dried Tomato Sauce

Forget recipe sites, I’ve gotten tons of ideas from other blogs lately. This time I borrowed a recipe from my friend, Elly. My husband was a little skeptical when I told him what was for dinner tonight. He’s not a fan of tomatoes of any kind but I convinced him that he had to try this sauce on his chicken. Well he did try it and he really liked it! So did I. This is definitely one that I’ll be making again. We had this tonight with parmesan roasted potatoes and green beans steamed with garlic.

Chicken with Goat Cheese and Sundried Tomato Sauce

2 chicken breast halves (I slice right through 1 breast horizontally so the halves are thin)
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup white wine (I used Chardonnay)
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 Tbsp sundried tomatoes, chopped and drained, if they are oil-packed
2 ounces herbed goat cheese (this is what I had on hand; if you have plain you may want to saute a clove of garlic and add a fresh herb like basil to the sauce)
salt and pepper

Sprinkle chicken breast halves with salt and pepper.

Heat skillet over medium-high heat and add oil.

When oil is hot, add chicken breasts. Cook through, about 4-6 minutes per side depending on how thin they are. Set aside and keep warm.

In the same skillet, add wine. Cook over medium-high heat until reduced by half, being sure to scrape up the browned bits from the chicken.

Add chicken broth and reduce that by about half, too.

Add in sundried tomatoes and heat through. Take skillet off the heat and stir in goat cheese.

My Pasta Creation

I made up this pasta dish a while back and it’s my husband’s favorite dish. He requests it at least once a month. However, I don’t necessarily make it every month because it has way too many calories. But it’s a nice treat every once in a while. I decided to give in and make it over the weekend just for my hubby.

Penne with Chicken in a Cream Sauce
1 box penne pasta (farfalle works nicely too)
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup chicken broth
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp italian seasoning
2 chicken breasts, cut into cubes
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Cook pasta as directed on package. While it’s cooking, heat olive oil in a pan and saute chicken. Add salt and pepper. When chicken is done, remove from pan and set aside. Melt butter in the same pan and cook garlic for about 2 min making sure not to burn it. Add chicken broth, heavy cream and italian seasoning. Stir to combine. Add chicken to the sauce and let simmer for 5 min. Add parmesan cheese to help thicken the sauce. Add more salt and pepper to taste. Next add drained pasta to the pan and let heat through for another 4-5 min.

*If the sauce doesn’t thicken enough, add a little flour and stir before adding the pasta.

Quick Dinner and Dessert!

I never know what to do with pork chops but I had some in the freezer so I figured I better use them up. I wanted to do something easy that didn’t require any breading. So I just made a simple sauce to go over some pan cooked thin, boneless chops. It was the perfect combination of sweet and savory. And the best part is they were done in about 15 min! We had them with some roasted potatoes and green beans.

Balsamic Glazed Pork Chops

4 thin cut, boneless pork chops
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp honey
salt and pepper to taste

Spray a pan with non stick spray. Salt and pepper both sides of the pork chops. Cook 4 min on each side or until done. In a small bowl, whisk together the balsamic vinegar and honey. Remove pork chops from the pan and set aside. Pour the vinegar and honey mixture in the pan and whisk to combine the pork chop drippings with the sauce. Let simmer a couple minutes until the sauce thickens. Add the pork chops back to the pan. Spoon the sauce over the chops when serving.

*I got the idea for this simple recipe from Cooking Light.

I also whipped up some simple, but delicious peanut butter cookies tonight. This recipe only requires one bowl, no mixer, and they are done in about 12 min. My mom used to make these all the time for us when we were kids. They are my favorite easy cookie recipe!

Easy Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup peanut butter (I used creamy)
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine ingredients in a bowl. Roll cookies into 1″ balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Press down with a fork to flatten. Bake for 10-12 min or until edges are brown.

*If the dough looks too runny, just add a bit more sugar. The dough should be stiff.