Farmer's Market Lasagna Rolls

Farmer’s Market (or Garden or CSA) Lasagna Rolls

I picked up our CSA on Tuesday from Coveyou Farms to find…MORE basil.  It wouldn’t be such a huge deal if we didn’t have a huge amount of basil between our own garden and planters.   But I guess it’s a good problem to have, right?

I also found carrots, zucchini, cucumbers, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, peppers, and yellow beans.  I was set on making dinner and using a decent amount of the produce in whatever I whipped up.

With the zucchini, tomatoes, onions, peppers, basil, and leftover pesto I had in the fridge from last week, I decided that I could probably do some variation on veggie lasagna.  I have loved making lasagna ever since I would watch my mom make it when I was little.  Oh and when she gave me the leftover noodles with butter and parmesan cheese.  I could still eat that for lunch today. 

Anyway, I headed to Pinterest to find a delicious recipe.  I like being able to see what the recipe might look like before I try it.  I found one and starting putting my sauce together, put my pot of water on to boil and started chopping up zucchini.  Then I remembered something else I had seen on Pinterest: lasagna rolls.  Based on what I had already done, it wasn’t hard to switch over to lasagna rolls.  And you know that lasagna rolls are all the rage ;)  As an added bonus, it seemed to be much quicker to put the lasagna rolls together, even though I switched up what I had seen in most recipes.

Here’s the Recipe:

What you’ll need:

Sauce

½ pound ground burger (optional)

½ large onion, diced

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

2 small peppers, chopped

2 tomatoes, chopped

1 jar spaghetti sauce (I used organic tomato basil)

2 teaspoons agave nectar (or some sugar)

Handful fresh basil, diced

1 Tablespoon fresh oregano, diced

Filling

2 cups ricotta cheese

1 egg

¼ cup parmesan cheese, grated

2 Tablespoons fresh parsley, diced

3 Tablespoons pesto

1 box lasagna noodles    

2 medium zucchini, sliced on a diagonal

½ cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

How to do it:

[1] Put a large pot of water on to boil.  In another pot over medium heat, add 1 teaspoon EVOO.  Add onions and sauté for 3-5 minutes.  Then add garlic and sauté for 1 minute.  Add ground burger and brown.  (If you leave the meat out, you may need a little more EVOO).

[2] Add chopped peppers and tomatoes to the burger/onion/garlic mixture just before burger is totally cooked. 

[3] Add jar of spaghetti sauce once burger is browned.  Then, add agave nectar (to add a bit of sweetness and counter the acidity in the tomatoes), basil and oregano.  Let this simmer over low heat for 45 minutes-1 hour. 

[4] Once pot of water boils, add lasagna noodles and cook according to the box. 

[5] Heat oven to 450.  Coat cookie sheet with cooking spray.  Place zucchini in a single layer on sheet.  Bake for 12-13 minutes.

[6] While noodles and zucchini are cooking, mix together ricotta, parmesan, egg, fresh parsley, and pesto. 

[7] Drain pasta.  In a 9x13 pan, ladle sauce to coat the bottom of the pan.

[8] On a piece of aluminum foil (think: easy clean-up later), lay a noodle, top with a heaping tablespoon of ricotta mixture.  Then add a few pieces of zucchini.  Roll up and place in 9x13 pan.  Repeat until you are out of ricotta mixture or pan is full.

[9] Top with more spaghetti sauce and mozzarella cheese. 

[10] Bake at 350 for 25 minutes covered and 5 minutes uncovered or until cheese melts.

Make sure to put enough sauce on that the noodles stay moist and don't dry out too much when you bake it.  We've also found that this makes pretty good leftovers :)

Nutella & Greek Yogurt Fruit Dip

Nutella.  Yummmmm.  By far one of my favorite foods.  I once grabbed a jar and some pretzels to make the hike from East Lansing to Petoskey.  I didn't realize till I had eaten quite a few handfuls of pretzels dipped in nutella that the pretzels were actually garlic flavored.  That's how good nutella is...or how quickly I consumed the pretzel/chocolate/hazelnut mixture.

So I was on pinterest today searching for…well, nothing really.  I rather enjoy going on pinterest and seeing what other people have ‘pinned’.  I usually come across delicious recipes.  Today was no exception. 

Meet nutella and Greek yogurt fruit dip.  In the words of Carrie Bradshaw, “hello lovah”.

And, it’s super-easy.

Mix 2 parts greek yogurt (I used French Vanilla flavor, but plain would work too) and 1 part nutella with a mixer.  I made a batch with 2 cups yogurt, 1 cup nutella.

Then after JW brewed beer, we sat with our bowl of nutella-yogurt goodness, some strawberries, and bananas and got after some eating.

When the fruit was gone, we didn’t stop eating the dip.  It’s that good.

I suggest making it now. 

FOOD Friday.

Hooray for it being Friday!

We are super-excited about the weekend we have coming up: Art in the Park, breakfast out, work on Liza’s room, and most definitely some cottage time (since it’s supposed to be in the high 80s and that’s hot for us)!  Plus we'll probably hit up our garden too seeing as we got some goodies from it last night...

But first, let me share with you our awesome dinner last night. We had chicken and veggie stir fry which might not sound like a huge deal, but was actually pretty awesome.  Here’s why: we had carrots, scallions, snap peas, and peas from our garden, kale and broccoli from our CSA and the only thing to come from the store (veggie-wise) was a red pepper!  Talk about knowing where your food comes from!  We also kind of followed a brown sauce recipe from Food Network Magazine (wish I could show you an exact recipe, but I can't seem to find it anywhere on their site)…but of course we added a little spice!

So here’s the recipe:

What you’ll need:

1/3 cup carrots, chopped

1/3 cup broccoli, chopped

1/3 cup snap peas, cut in half

¼ cup peas

1 ½ cups kale, chopped

¼ cup scallions, thinly sliced

1/3 cup red pepper, chopped

1chicken breast, thinly sliced

1 cup rice

2 cups water

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons ginger, minced

1 cup chicken stock

2 tablespoons corn starch

2 tablespoons hoisin sauce

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

1 teaspoon Sriracha (if you like spicy, add some more)

1 ‘shake’ red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon coconut oil (or vegetable oil)

What to do:

[1] Get your rice started – if it will take 35-40 minutes to cook.  If you use instant rice, you can hold off for awhile.  Follow the directions on the package to cook. 

[2] Chop up all your veggies and the chicken breast (on a separate cutting board obviously).  

[3] Add 1 teaspoon coconut oil to a wok over medium heat.  Add the chicken, sautéing for 1-2 minutes until meat is no longer pink (it doesn’t have to be totally cooked through, you’ll add it to the heat again later).  Set chicken aside.

[4] Add rest of coconut oil to wok.  Add garlic, ginger and half of scallions and sauté for 30 seconds – 1 minute.  Then, add the vegetables starting with the ones that took the longest to cook (I did broccoli & kale, then carrots, then red pepper, then both peas and then the other half of scallions). 

[5] Mix up sauce ingredients (chicken stock-red pepper flakes) in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk.

[6] Once the veggies are close to being done add the chicken back to the pan.  Then add the sauce and cook until the sauce thickens (make sure to keep stirring)!

[7] Then, you pop some rice in a bowl and top it with some of the veggie-chicken-sauce mixture.  I garnished ours with some toasted sesame seeds I had in our pantry!

DELISH.  I just love using food that comes from our garden or our CSA!!

And, we're starting to use coconut oil more in our cooking...and as a lotion.  

Think I'm kidding?  A

fter I spooned out a few heaps last night for dinner, I got any extra from the spoon and rubbed it into my hands.  AMAZING moisturizer and I love that it's edible.  Makes me feel good about putting it onto my body and then into my body as it's absorbed through my skin!

Anybody else getting some luck with their garden?  I promised a post about drying basil soon...expect that one tomorrow :)

Rhubarb Bread

Don't you just love summer and all the fresh produce?  Maybe some of you that read this have the glory of fresh produce all year long, but in Northern Michigan we...don't.  Hello snow.  Anyway, now that gardens have started 'popping' with plants and goodies, we've been trying to incorporate them into our weekly diets!  This week we got some rhubarb from a plant at our cottage.

I had a recipe for Rhubarb Bread from my friend Becky that I'd been wanting to try. Note to self: all of Becky's recipes are delicious; try them immediately.  I kid you not this rhubarb bread is AH-mazing.  Let me explain:
I made it yesterday.

It made 2 loaves.

I took half a loaf to my parents.

Theirs was gone last night.

Ours (sadly) is now gone too.

I tried a few tricks with the recipe to make it a little bit better for you without sacrificing taste.  So, I added flaxseed meal instead of an egg, applesauce instead of some oil, and agave instead of some sugar.  You don't have to do that, but we thought it was delicious!

Here's the recipe:

Rhubarb Bread

(makes 2 loaf pans – can be frozen)

1 ¾ C. brown sugar divided into 1 ¼ and ½ cup measures

2 teaspoons agave syrup

¼ C. oil (just shy on measurement)

½ cup applesauce

1 egg

1 Tbsp. flaxseed meal plus 3 Tbsp. water

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 C. Buttermilk (or milk with vinegar trick)

1 tsp. baking soda

2 ½ C. Flour

2 C. diced rhubarb (1/2 inch)

1 C. chopped nuts divided into ¾ and ¼ cup measures

¼ C. butter somewhat softened

[1] Preheat oven to 350 and grease two loaf pans.

[2] Combine 1 ¼ C. brown sugar, oil, eggs, applesauce, flaxseed meal mixture, salt, vanilla, cinnamon.

[3] Stir in Flour and Soda.

[4] Add Buttermilk.

[5] Stir in rhubarb and ¾ c nuts.

[6] Pour into greased loaf pans.

[7] Combine remaining brown sugar, butter and nuts.  Sprinkle over top of loaves.

[8] Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes. 

**I cooked the rhubarb with some water in the microwave for 1 minute before adding it to the bread mix.  Seemed to be a good thing!**

Ok, now go find rhubarb and make this.  Feel free to send me some if you like :)  If you have questions about the recipe, I'd be happy to answer them -- or if you don't have the substitutions, I can fill you in on the original recipe!