Don’t you just love Friday’s? They just feel so carefree. Maybe it’s knowing all day that because it’s Friday, you can stay up and watch a movie because you don’t have to get up early on Saturday. So let’s celebrate Fri and make this delicious Meatball Lasagna. Because I am in my carefree mood, I’m not even going to beat you over the head with a wet noodle if you buy the meatballs, instead of making them homemade.
2 (14 1/2 oz) cans diced tomatoes, drained
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
1 cup water
1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
1 medium onion, chopped
1 garlic clove,minced
1 tables dried basil
4 teas dried parsley flakes
2 teas sugar
Dash of garlic salt
8 uncooked lasagna noodles
24 cooked meatballs ( small as 1 1/2 ” to 2 ” in diam)
1 egg
1 cup rocotta cheese (I use small curd cottage cheese, just because I like the texture better)
2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Add first 10 mingredients in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer for 20 min. Cook noodles (unless you are using the precooked ones) according to directions. Drain them and set aside. Crumble meatballs into tomato mixture. In a seperate bowl, mix the egg and ricotta or cottage cheese. Spoon 1 cup of meat sauce into a greased 13x9x2 inch dish. Top with 4 noodles, half of egg mixture, half of remaining meat sauce, and half of mozzarella and parmesan cheeses. Repeat the layers. Cover and bake at 350 for 45 min. Uncover and bake another 5-10 min or until light brown. Let stand 15 min before serving.
Category: Meats
East & Good Meatloaf
Randy comes home quite frequentely asking for a meatloaf sandwich. This is a really old fashioned recipe that is quick and makes a great meatloaf sandwich. When it is used for meatloaf instead of sandwiches, we serve it with mashed potatoes, fried okra or green beans, sliced tomatoes and it really is one of our favorte meals.
2 pounds uncooked ground beef (you can use ground turkey if you are trying not to eat alot of beef)
1 cup cracker crumbs
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 teas each salt and pepper
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped bell pepper
1/2 cup ketchup
Mix all ingredients. Form mixture into a large loaf and bake at 350 for 1 hour…we like to drizzle more ketchup over the top the last 10 min of baking….
Grilled Pork Tenderloin
I know most of you know how addicted to Sister Schubert rolls I am and when I went on-line on Tues to order them to be mailed out here, I discovered that their website has recipes which can be downloaded. Instantly, I pushed “print” and now have several recipes which sound just so southern and delicious. One of the first that I am trying is this one. It has just ordinary on-hand ingredients and you can tell by that the flavor will be just amazing because of the soy sauce and red wine vinegar. Here is the recipe.
1/2 cup peanut oil
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tables Worcestershire sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tables chopped fresh parsley
1 tables dry mustard
1 1/2 teas freshly gorund black pepper
2 pork tenderloins
Whisk together all ingredients, except tenderloins, in a mixing bowl. Add pork tenderloins and marinate at least 4 hours.
Prepare a grill to medium-high heat. Transfer pork tenderloins to a tray and discard marinade. Oil grill rack and grill pork until each reaches an internal temp of 160 degrees. Cooking time will vary according to the size of each tenderloin.
Transfer pork to a cutting board and cover loosely with foil for 8-10 min. Slice and serve. Offer the infamous SS Dinner Yeast rolls or her Parker House Style rolls. YUM!!!!!!
Homemade Pizza
Wanted to share this with you. Last Wednesday, I went to our new grocery store that is absolutely wonderful. It made me feel like I was in Texas walking the aisles of Kroger, with the bright lights and wide isles. Oh to walk in a new grocery store is one of my favorite things to do. Just explore each isle and know that I will proably be taking home a new item, that I had never seen before. I was searching for the Sister Schubert Rolls, which were not there, but I am not complaining. I have learned to make do and have even made homemade rolls myself since the SS rolls are unavailable to us. But as I was walking through the deli, I spotted a bag of garlic-herb pizza crust. It was cheap and it looked just like what I would love to make for dinner. So I bought it and drove home all excited to make homemade pizza. It was so simple. I even threw it around in the air, just like you see them in pizza kitchens. I sauted 1/2 lb of italian sausage with onions and green bell peppers (you can adjust the amount you would want), with garlic and italian seasoning. While the meat mixture was cooking, I baked the dough for about 8-9 min after drizzling a little olive oil over it. Pulled it out of the oven and spread pizza sauce over the dough. Spread the meat mixture over the sauce and sprinkled 3 types of italian cheeses over this. Baked it for about 20 min at 375 until the cheese was bubbling. Took it out of the oven and let it sit for about 10 min. We thought it was one of the best pizzas we had eaten. So easy, took 30 min and was so inexpensive. Look in your deli/bakery for the dough which needs to be rolled out. Makes a great homemade pizza.
Pork Chops with Peppers and Onions
4 boneless porkchops, about 1″ thick
2 tables olive oil
Salt & Pepper
1 tables tomato paste
2 small red or yellow bell peppers, quartered and cut into 1/4″ slices
1 small onion, cut into 1/4″ slices
4 gloves garlic
1/2 cup chicken or vegetable broth
Warm oil in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Season chops with salt and pepper, cook until browned 3-4 min per side. Remove chops and sat aside.
Add tomato paste to skillet and cook, stirring for 15 sec. Add peppers and onion to skillet. Season with Salt & pepper. Cook, stirring occasionaly until vegetables start to brown, about 3 min. Add garlic and cook, stirring for 1 min. Add broth and bring to a boil, scraping up and stirring in any browned bits in the skillet. Return chops to skillet, reducing the heat to low. Cover with lid and cook until internal chops temp reaches 160 degrees. (this will take about 20 min) Serve over rice.
Shrimp & Pasta
Clean and devaine 1 lb of good size shrimp. The bigger the shrimp, the milder and sweeter, I think. Rinse and set aside.
Saute 1/4 cup capers, 1 8 oz container cleaned sliced mushrooms, 2 stalks green onions and 2 cloves chopped garlic in 2 tables heated olive oil until mushrooms and onions are tender.
Add shrimp and stir fry until their color turns light pink. Sprinkle juice of 1 lemon, 1 tsp seasoning salt, 1 tsp ground fresh pepper while shrimp is cooking over mixture. Pour either 1/2 cup white wine or veggie broth over mixture and heat until all is heated thoroughly. While this mixture is all cooking, bring a pot of water to a boil and follow directions on pasta box to cook the pasta. You can use any type of pasta you desire. When done, drain and put pasta into skillet and stir into mixture. Serve up onto 4 plates and sprinkle fresh parmesean cheese over pasta and shrimp. Serve with a green salad and garlic bread.
Beef Tenderloin with Mushroom Sauce
1/2 lb of sliced beef tenderloin or round steak, cubed *See below
1/2 cup onion, chopped
3 tables flour
2 tables olive oil
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 teas garlic powder or 2 cloves of fresh garlic
1 large can cream of mushroom soup
1 (8oz) sour cream
1 (8oz) package mushrooms, cleaned and rinsed
1 package of noodles (12 oz) cooked
*If you are not a beef eater, you can substitute chicken for the beef.
After cubing meat, dredge in flour. Heat oil in skillet and add chopped onions, stirring until clean and brown. Add meat and brown all pieces. (about 5 min). Add the mushrooms, the soup and the seasoning. Cook over medium heat for about 1 hour, or bake in oven for one hour at 350. Take off heat or out of oven and add sour cream. Stir and just heat for about 2 min over top of stove. Cook noodles according to directions on package. Drain and place 2 cups of noodles on each plate. Spoon meat/mushroom mixture over noodles. Serve with slice sweet potatoes and green beans and hot rolls. Makes a very pretty place. This is an easy recipe to fix quickly when you walk in the door at 5:30, being able to eat by 7:00 (includes bake or cook time)
LowFat Chicken Tostado
We are in Florida for Thanksgiving visiting our daughter, Christi and Tim and precious new grandbaby girl, Kenley. We are already preparing for the big day of turkey and talking about maybe trying new recipes we have both seen on Food Network.Com, but some recipes are just so traditionally that we cannot steer away from them, such as Green Bean Casserole. So we are compromising and trying the new Green Bean Casserole we saw on Throw Down with Bobby Flay, at a meal on Saturday. In the mean time, we are trying to eat healthy, with low fat meals, saving our calories for Thursday.
Christi cooked me the best chicken Tostado yesterday and I wanted to share it with you. You could use left over turkey in place of chicken.
4 flour tortillas
1 cup shredded chicken or turkey
1/2 cup tomatillo sauce (we used Frontera Brand)
1/2 low fat cheese
1/2 cleaned zucchini squash, shredded
olive oil
Spray each tortilla with olive oil or spray oil. Place on baking sheet and bake at 425 and bake 4 to 6 minutes, until crisp, and lightly browned.
Take out of oven and set aside. Mix chicken or turkey, squash and tomatillo sauce in saucepan and cook for about 3 to 4 min, or until heated throughly. Season with salt, pepper and a little garlic powder.
Divide and spoon meat mixture over the 4 tortillas. Sprinkle cheese over each one and place in oven for about 4 to 5 minutes or until cheese is melted.
Mustard-Glazed Pork Tenderloin
You will love this. It has a little bite to it and it is just so easy. A great recipe when trying to impress the boss or mother-in-law
1 (8 oz) jar Dijon mustard (1 cup)
1/2 cup orange juice
2 tables creole seasoning
1 1/2 lb pork tenderloins
Stir together first 3 ingredients. Place pork in a shallow dish or a zip-top plastic freezer bag; pour mustard mixture over pork. Cover or seal and chill 2 hrs, turning occasionally.
Remove pork from marinade, discarding marinade.
Grill, covered with grill likd, over medium-high heat 350-400 degrees 10 – 12 min on each side or until a meat thermometer inserted into thickest portion registers 155.
Remove from grill; let stand until thermometer registers 160. Let stand 5 more min before slicing. Garnish, if desired with fresh thyme springs and a couple slices of organges.
Serve with potato casserole which is found under starces on this blog and fresh green beans with mushrooms.
Baked Salmon
For all you salmon lovers out there, and apparently, there are many of you, this recipe is one which I received from a lady who cut my hair while staying in Carmel. She says that all her friends request it when they come to eat at her house. Enjoy and know that upon preparing this, you are preparing a dish that is very popular in California!
2 planks of salmon (poundage depending upon how many you are feeding)
1 box (any brand, but she used Uncle Bens) wild rice mix
1 large portobella mushroom (or if you do not like this type, buy a 8 oz package of white sliced mushrooms)
3 large lemons, fresh dill, seasoning salt and pepper
Place 1 of the salmon planks in a skillet. Sprinkle with seasonings and then place 1/2 of the prepared package of wild rice over plank.
Place 1/2 of the mushrooms over rice and then place the other plank over this. Sprinkle the rest of the mushrooms and seasonings over fish. Pour 1 stick of melted butter over fish and then repeat with more lemon and dill. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for about 30 min or until salmon tests done. (this depends on how large or small your amount of fish). *Reserve remaining rice for a soup or side dish the next day.
Chocolate Castles 