Between job hunting I have been doing lots of cooking and baking. For one, it tastes way better and it’s “exactly what I want” when I make it at home. Further, it’s cheaper to eat at home than eat out.
Last night I made Spaghetti Squash Lasagna. Here’s the recipe. It is soooo delicious and I put forth that it is actually less fussy than making real (noodle) lasagna.
Not exactly what mine looked like, but very close.
Most substitution dishes fall far below my expectations and severely gross me out. If I had a gluten allergy I would most definitely be eating this almost every night. The spaghetti squash gets its name because the guts have a short noodle consistency and because it tastes amazing. I have done this recipe a couple of ways; the lazy way is to just use a can of pasta sauce or the way the recipe calls for it–Essentially making your own sauce. Either way tastes great! I am a steak and taters type person so when I say I love something vegetarian then that really means something. Well, not strictly veggie because I used a chicken bullion cube (I don’t keep vegetable ones in the house, generally).
I have also made Zucchini bread/muffins, homemade wheat loaves, potato soup, and chicken curry.
I can share my bread and curry recipes on here if anyone is interested.
For the Zucchini bread I made some changes to the recipe as listed on allrecipes.com.
My first try I found that I was disappointed in the consistency. It tasted too eggy for my liking. My second try was MUCH more tasty and I’m stickin’ to it.
2nd try
Changes:
1 cu wheat flour, 2 cu white (mix for numminess)
2 eggs (leave one out)
1 cu unsweetened applesauce (substitute for oil)
1 3/4 cu sugar (cut some, probably would be fine with all 2 1/4 cups)
2 1/3 cu zucchini (turned out I had extra)
No nuts (didn’t feel it was necessary) Bake medium (normal) sized muffins 325 DF for 20-25 minutes.
Secret: Cocoa chile spice (2 tbsp for entire batch). I made a batch half with and half without the secret. Gave muffins more chocolatey color.
For my potato soup I made some changes to the recipe (of course). I am so bad at following the rules, you see.
camera phone quality
I like tons of potatoes so right away there HAD to be changes:
5-6 medium sized potatoes, small cube (increase by 1-2)
1 whole onion chopped (We love it, we want it, put it all in….jezzuz)
2-3 handfuls of baby carrots, chopped thirds (I didn’t have full size ones)
4 stalks of celery, chopped bite sized
2 cu water, with 4 dissolved (mostly) chicken bullion cubes
Omit parsley (stupid)
Substitute flour for 1/4 to 1/2 cup of instant mashed potato flakes
Omit swiss to soup—Added cheese as topper to each bowl.
How I did my potato and milk mixture: Heat milk and butter in medium saucepan until melted and hot (not boiling). Add instant mashed potatoes until thickened and heated through. Then add to soup pot. I also would recommend not to add the potatoes to the soup pot first (in order of cutting veg) or else they will be mooosh instead of lovely soft bite sized pieces when you are all finished.
Simmer soup, stirring periodically until veg is tender to your liking.
What am I making next?
Gingerbread bat cookies—Yes, I have a bat cookie cutter, don’t hate. For the Halloween party
Caramel popcorn balls—Also for the Halloween party next weekend.
Children’s fingers dipped in sweet gravy—white chocolate and pretzel sticks (usually I make ghosts on posts but I didn’t had a bunch of sticks and not pretzel rods)
Chicken pot pie —-I still haven’t decided on a recipe, but I plan to make it drool-worthy and awesome
Chicken and dumplings (requested by my son for when he comes to visit)—Haven’t decided on a recipe yet. Something simple because dumplings aren’t my fort.
1. What have you been making recently?
2. What is your all-time favorite recipe?
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