Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Polish Casserole

Make 2 sets of layers in 13x9 pan, cook about 1 hour at 300-350F

Sauce Layer - blend the following together
  • can mushroom soup
  • can diced tomatoes (Traditional used milk.)
Potato Layer (Traditional uses about 1/2 pkg of cooked egg noodles.)
  • 2-4 thinly sliced potatoes cooked until somewhat soft in microwave
 Sauerkraut Layer
  • package fresh mushrooms sauteed
  • package drained fresh sauerkraut
  • green peas (If you have them)
  • worchester sauce
  • spicy brown mustard
  • generous amount of fresh ground pepper
 Meat layer
  • Onion chopped
  • 2 carrots chopped
  • 1 celery stalk chopped
  • 1 # ground beef
  • lightly salt to taste*
Optional
Sprinkle with crumbled bacon if you have it.

*Don't need a lot of salt due to sauerkraut and canned ingredients

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Lasagne

13 x 9 pan or Lasagne pan, buttered or oiled,
bake 40' covered with buttered/oiled foil at 350F,
then 15' uncovered after sprinkle with cheese.

Ingredients and Directions
 
Regular Lasagne noodles about 6 for each layer for a total of 12 (Don't need to precook. Will cook in oven)

Meat mixture

Cook til soft, adding one at a time
  • Onion chopped
  • Green pepper chopped
  • 1-2 celery stalks chopped 
  • Mushrooms chopped
  • Garlic minced
then set aside and brown
  • 1# ground meat
 then combine meat with cooked vegetables.

Season if needed very lightly with
  • salt (better to under season)

Cheese Mixture
  • Thaw a bag of spinach in microwave 
while spinach thawing grate
  • a triangle of Parmesan cheese into a large bowl
then combine with
  • bag of shredded mozzarella
put aside (reserve) a small bowl of these 2 cheeses to sprinkle on top later

Then add the following to remaining cheese and mix well
  • 16 oz cottage cheese
  • thawed spinach
  • 1 egg
  • generous amount of cracked black pepper 
Tomato Sauce Mixture

Combine in large bowl  
  • 24 oz tomato pasta sauce
  • can of diced tomatoes
  • 1/2 can of black olives chopped 
Put the mixtures as follows into greased lasagne pan
  • 1/2 of tomato sauce mixture
  • 1 layer of uncooked noodles
  • 1/2 cheese mixture
  • 1/2 meat mixture  
Repeat a second layer same as first.
Cover with foil and cook in oven 40'

Then remove from oven, take off foil, sprinkle on reserved cheese mixture and bake an additional 15' till cheese melts and browns.

Let sit about 15' or so until serving.

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Candied Grapefruit Peels

This came from a variety of recipes. However it is very humid here so in the end I needed to use the drier/dehydrator to make the candied peels less sticky which was not in any of the recipes.

Cover in water in saucepan and bring to a boil, then put in colander to drain water
  • Grapefruit peels from when a grapefruit has been sliced into 12 parts from about 2-4 grapefruits

While grapefruit peels are draining, bring to a boil in frypan/wide shallow pan until clear
  • 2 parts water
  • 1 part sugar

Then add drained grapefruit so it is covered by above sugar syrup. Bring to a boil, then lower to simmer and cook until liquid cooks down and is absorbed by the grapefruit peel.

Put on dryer rack. See if it dries overnight.
If not dry, dehydrate in drier about 2 hours each side. (Turn peels over 1/2 way through drying process). Should only be very slightly sticky.

Roll in sugar and store in fridge.

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Mexican Lasagne

13 x 9 pan, oil generously
300 - 350F
30' covered, 15' uncovered

Layer in very well oiled 13x9 pan
  • corn tortillas
  • meat mixture
  • salsa mixture
  • pepper jack cheese (sprinkle) 
  • Then repeat above layers once
Ingredients
  • about eight 8" corn tortillas (cut in half to make rectangular layer)
  • about 2 cups grated pepper jack cheese or cheddar
Meat Layer
Saute till soft
  • olive oil
  • 1 lg onion chopped
  • 1 green pepper chopped
  • 1-2 celery chopped
  • 1-2 carrots chopped
Push vegetables to side of pan and brown meat, then mix veggies back in
  • 1-2# ground chicken
Season to taste with
  • abt 6 cloves fresh minced garlic (lightly cook after meat browned)
  • Salt abt 1 tsp
  • Chili powder abt 1 tsp
  • Oregano abt 1/2 tsp
  • Black pepper abt 1/2 tsp
  • Ground cumin abt 1/4 tsp
Salsa Layer
Heat in pan to thicken
  • olive oil
  • 1 red pepper chopped, slightly saute
  • 14.5 oz can chopped stewed or diced tomatoes with juice
  • 15 oz can black beans with liquid
  • 1 c corn (could probably use hominy)
  • handful or so of chopped black olives (could probably use green olives)
  • abt 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
  • abt 3 leaves chopped fresh lemon basil (optional, was growing in garden so just added it.)




Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Lemon pie

a variation of raw key lime pie from http://www.picklesnhoney.com/2015/10/28/raw-vegan-key-lime-pie-recipe/

Crust
Grind each separately in blender cup (unless it all fits) then put in pie pan to mix with hands
  • 1/2 c almonds
  • 1/2 c pecans
  • 1 c dried dates
  • 1/4 c flax seed meal
After mixing ground mixture with hands pour across ground mixture
  • 1 T coconut oil
Then mix again, press against sides and bottom to make pie shell. Put in freezer while you make filling.

Filling
Grind in blender before adding rest of ingredients to blender
  • 2 c cashews*
Then add and blend till smooth and creamy. Mixture may thicken.
  • 3/4 c fresh lemon juice (about 3 lemons)
  • 1/2 c maple syrup
  • 1/3 c melted coconut oil
  • 1 t vanilla extract

Pour filling into crust and freeze. Slightly thaw before cutting.
Makes 12 slices.

*Tried using garbanzo beans beans because cashews are very expensive. Worked OK but filling tasted like beans. Beans are probably better for cookies.

Monday, May 30, 2016

key lime pie, 1st experiment

I looked at several recipes
I went with the recipe from picklesnhoney because I didn't want to use avocados. It used 3/4c lime juice and 2 cups of cashews for the filling. Cashews are very expensive. I may try to replace 1 cup of cashews with garbanzo beans and see what happens. However the blend of 2 c cashews, 1/3 cup melted coconut oil, 1/2 c maple syrup and 3/4 cup lime juices thickened up just like pudding. I don't know if garbanzo beans and/ or avocado will do the same thing. The flavor mimicked key lime pie very well. However I am out of maple syrup, another expensive ingredient, so may end up using honey next time.

I was able to cut 12 small pieces after freezing it over night and letting it partially thaw enough to cut. Then I wrapped the pieces and put them back into the freezer. It turned out light tan in color because I didn't have matcha powder. Maybe next time I'll try putting in a teaspoon or so of lime zest. Or maybe an avocado.

The crust was a good tasting sweet crust. I didn't have unsweetened shredded dried coconut so used ground flaxseed meal instead.

I made everything using my ninja blender it worked fine. I don't like using food processor for small portions as it has a lot more parts to clean than the blender.

I calculated out that 1/12 of the pie is 238 calories.


Raw Key Lime Pie










Crust Calories Fat Carbs Protein
1 c whole dried dates 502 0.69 133.55 4.36 1 c pitted chopped
1/2 c almonds 413 36.21 14.11 15.2
1/2 c pecans 377 39.22 7.55 5
1/4 c ground flax seed meal 194 15.28 10.47 6.63
1 T coconut oil 117 13.6 0 0






filling




2 c cashews 150 24 16 10
3/4 c lime juice 46 0.13 15.53 0.77
1/2 c maple syrup 420 0.32 108.01 0
1/3 c coconut oil 620 71.94 0 0
1 t vanilla extract 12 0 0.53 0

2,851.00 201.39 305.75 41.96
divide by 12 238 17 25 3

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Chocolate Glazed imitation uncooked cookie dough bars

Here's a variation of Katie's recipe
http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2016/05/23/unbaked-cookie-dough-bars-chocolate-chip/ . 
I cut the sweetener in half because I like less sweet and made it in a blender which worked fine.

Line an 8x8 pan with wax paper.

BAR MIXTURE
Put in blender and mix
  • 1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
  • 3/4 c oatmeal ground
  • 3/4 ground flax seed meal

Pregrind in ninja cup and add to blender
  • 2 T. walnuts - ground
  • pinch salt
  • 1/4 t. baking soda

Then add to blender and mix
  • 2 T. coconut oil
  • 1/4 c. maple syrup
  • 2 t. vanilla

Scrape sides as needed and blend until everything is well blended to the consistency of raw cookie dough. Pat out into 8x8 pan and put in refrigerator to chill (I put it in the freezer for about an hour).

GLAZE TOPPING
Blend together
  • 2 T melted coconut oil (softened worked fine.)
  • 2 T maple syrup
Blend in and mix till smooth 
  • 1/4 c cocoa powder 
Spread topping over bar mixture. Cut bars into squares.