Zucchini Lasagna

My veggie lasagna is my most requested recipe from people.  I think the one thing that scares people the most is the long ingredient list, but it really is easy to put together. Here is a simple recipe that is a bit healthier than your normal lasagna. I just emailed this recipe to someone so I thought I'd copy and pasta it as a blog post as well.


4-5 zucchini's depending how big or small they are, sliced lengthwise
1 container of low fat ricotta cheese
16 oz shredded low fat mozzarella cheese
1 jar of pasta sauce
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
dried Italian herbs seasoning (optional)
Salt & Pepper

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees
2. Thinly slice your zucchinis lengthwise. Make sure they are uniform slices and not too thick since they'll need to cook evenly
3. Mix 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, 1 tbsp Italian herbs, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper, and ricotta cheese
4. In a 13x9 baking dish, spray cooking oil on the bottom and sides. Pour about 1/2 cup of sauce on the bottom, enough to coat.
5. Put a layer of zucchinis, enough to cover the bottom, then sprinkle with salt and pepper
6. Spread 1/2 ricotta mixture across the zucchinis. Then sprinkle half your bag of mozzarella cheese
7. Put another layer of zucchinis, don't forget to sprinkle the zucchinis with salt & pepper.
8. Spread the rest of the ricotta cheese, then pour all your sauce on top. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the top and put a dash of the Italian herbs across the top
9. Spray aluminum foil  with cooking spray and cover the baking dish loosely.
10. Cook for 50 minutes, more or less depending how cooked you want the zucchini.
11. Remove aluminum foil and broil for 5-6 minutes on high

Enjoy!

Homemade Chipotle Bowls

It is no secret I love Chipotle. Maybe it's the convenience or maybe it's the delicious cilantro rice.  Thanks to Kristen over at Iowa Girl Eats, I decided to make my own Chipotle bowls at home.  It seemed easy and I had most of the things on hand already.

Here is what you need to feed 4 people:

Cilantro rice:
4 cups cooked rice
2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
lemon

Mix everything together

Filling:
2 chicken breasts diced into small pieces (or whatever meat you want)
1 packet taco seasoning
green bell pepper-sliced
onion-sliced

Marinate the chicken with the taco seasoning and cook in an oiled saute pan. Set aside. In the same pan, cook the veggies

Corn Salsa:
1 1/2 cup frozen corn
2 tomatoes -chopped
1/2 onion- chopped
1/2 red bell pepper-chopped
cilantro
lemon

Mix together

Other accompianments:
shredded cheese
shredded lettuce
salsa (preferably Trader Joe's garlic chipotle sauce)
sour cream (or Greek yogurt for a healthier option)

Now turn this..

 ...into this...

..and enjoy! Quick, easy, and delicious.

Crab Cakes

I was craving for salmon cakes, but found a can of crab meat in my cupboard instead.  I looked up a couple of recipes and decided to combine all of them and make my own.

This is an approximate measurement of everything, since I never measure my spices.

Crab Cakes

1 can crab meat (6.5 oz)
1/2 cup panko crumbs
1 egg
1 tbsp mayo
1 tsp dijon mustard
1/2 juice of lemon
lemon zest
1/4 cup green onions-chopped
2 tbsp parmesan cheese
1 tsp Italian herbs
S&P to taste

Mix together the egg, mayo, dijon mustard, lemon juice, lemon zest, Italian herbs, and S&P.  Add into crab meat, mix in panko crumbs and parmesan cheese. Mix all together, be careful not to break up crab meat.

Oil up a pan and drop in a quarter sized ball of the mixture and cook on each side for about 3 minutes.  It should be golden brown on both sides.  Taste to see if you got all the seasonings right.  If so, this makes about 3 medium sized patties.  Cook at medium to high heat for the first 3-4 minutes on each side. Then change it to low heat so the inside heats through.

I whipped up a simple dip with what I had on hand.
1/4 cup mayo
1/4 cup greek yogurt (or sour cream)
a pinch of Italian herbs seasoning
a squeeze of lemon
lemon zest

Whisk together and you have a simple dip made in no time.

BBQ Chicken Pizza

The boy loves BBQ chicken pizza, so in an effort to make him happy, I scrapped together something easy.  It's cheaper than any pizza you can get from a restaurant and customizable to your liking

BBQ Chicken Pizza

Pizza crust (I used the Boboli thin pizza crust)
1 cup BBQ sauce
1/4 sliced red onion
1/2 cup corn (I buy the frozen roasted corn from Trader Joe's)
1 cup mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 chicken breast- shredded (cooked however you want, I had left over roasted chicken)

Preheat your oven according to the packaging details on the back of your pizza crust.
Spray a baking sheet with non stick spray.
Spread the BBQ sauce on, sprinkle with cheese
Pile on the rest of the toppings and stick in the oven for about 15 minutes

Enjoy!

How to: Roasted Vegetables

Over the past several years, I've really grown to like vegetables.  When cooked perfectly, I can eat them by the pound.  I've found that the best way to cook them is by roasting.  It is the easiest, but take so long to cook.  It is a set it and forget it way of cooking, easy enough for me. 

How to go from this...

 ..to this

Chop up whatever vegetables you want to roast. Make sure you chop them all about the same size so they cook evenly.  Coat them with olive oil and season with salt & pepper. Toss them in the oven for 45-50 minutes at 375 degrees.  Half way thru, stir them around. 

Feel free to get creative with what you toss the veggies in.  Sometimes I do garlic salt instead of regular salt, Italian herbs, chili powder, or whatever you have in your spice cabinet.  

In the picture above, I roasted brussel sprouts, carrots, zucchini, mushrooms, and bell pepper.  Feel free to toss in any veggies you like.  If you live in Orange County, be sure to stop by Grower's Direct in Costa Mesa.  They have a ton of fresh produce at insanely low prices.  I've never found any bad produce there. 

Enjoy!

Recipe: Easy Bruschetta

This recipe is so easy to throw together. I took me about 10 minutes from start to finish.

Easy Bruschetta:

5 Roma tomatoes, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1/4 cup of basil, chopped

1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

S&P to taste

Combine the first 4 ingredients and mix.  Then mix with the rest of ingredients. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving.  To make it even better, you can reduce a cup of balsamic vinegar and drizzle it over the top when you're serving.  Serve it with toasted French bread.  It makes for a easy appetizer to throw together.

Enjoy!

xox,

C

Recipe: Balsamic Cream Chicken Pasta

I had dinner at Mona Lisa's in Huntington Beach a couple weeks ago and absolutely loved their Rigatoni Con Petit De Pollo.  It was a rigatoni pasta with a light balsamic cream sauce.  The sauce had the perfect tang to it that I fell in love with.  The boyfriend also raved about the dish so I knew it was something I wanted to recreate.  I searched high and low for a good recipe and came across one from AllRecipes.com.  I used it as a guide and adjusted it to my liking.  The recipe is just for the sauce, but I made it to put over pasta and chicken.  I'm sure it would be good over a variety of things.

Balsamic Cream Sauce:

2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp butter
1/2 onion, minced or chopped
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp chicken bouillon granules
1 1/2 cup of heavy cream
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

1. Heat oil and butter in a saucepan.  Add onions and saute on low/medium heat for 10-15 minutes. You want to caramelize the onions, not saute them. Make sure you're stirring it constantly so you don't burn them
2. Add the balsamic vinegar and let simmer for about 1-2 minutes.  You'll see it slightly thicken up.
3 Add heavy cream and chicken granules.  Bring to a simmer for about 5 minutes until you see it thickening.
4. Add in the parmesan cheese and stir around until it all melts.  Freshly grated parmesan will give you the best results.  The canned and pre-shredded stuff will make your sauce lumpy.
5. Add salt/pepper to your liking

All done! This sauce was an easy 20 minutes.  The only long part is waiting for the onions to caramelize.  This was the perfect serving for 4 people.

Here is my go-to easy chicken marinade:

1 big piece of chicken breast, sliced or however you plan to serve it
1/2 cup of Italian salad dressing
2 cloves of garlic-minced
a dash of Italian herbs
S&P

Combine it all and let marinate for 30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes depending how big your pieces of chicken are.

I served this with some roasted broccoli, I prepared it the same way from my Beer Can Chicken post.

It was a very delicious dinner and boyfriend approved.  This is definitely going on my monthly rotation of meals

Beer Can Chicken

Whoever came up with 'beer can chicken' is genius.  My dad bought a whole chicken and I wanted to try something new.  I remembered I had this recipe bookmarked for a while.  I decided to roast it instead of bbq and changed it around a bit to adapt to my liking but the basic concept is there.

Ingredients:

one chicken cleaned (about 4-5 pounds)

1/2 cup butter

1 tbsp paprika

1 1/2 tbsp Mrs Dash seasoning

1 tbsp garlic powder

lots of pepper

a little bit of salt

one can of beer (but you're only using half the can, so feel free to drink the other half)

*I kind of eye all my seasonings, but this is about how much I use. 

A couple hours before I started cooking the chicken, I rubbed it with salt&pepper, Mrs Dash season, and a bit of garlic powder.  I let it sit and marinate in the fridge for a couple of hours before cooking.  Also, if you can peel back a bit of the skin of the chicken, season under there also.  I do that since I don't eat the skin of the chicken and I still wanted it to be seasoned.  

When you're ready to cook it, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  

1. Pam spray your casserole dish and the beer can so it's easy to pull out when you're done

2. Melt the butter and add the garlic powder, paprika, Mrs Dash, and the S&P.  Pour half of this concoction into the half empty beer can.  Set the other half aside.

3. Put the beer can into the chicken and stand it up in the casserole dish.  Make sure your chicken is not hanging over the sides of the casserole dish.  You don't want the juices dripping out onto your oven

4. Brush the rest of the butter mixture onto the chicken.  I saved some to brush on half way thru the cooking process. Make sure you brush underneath the wing and in every single crevice of the chicken.

5. Cook the chicken for an hour, depending how big your chicken is. Its about 15 mins per pound or until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees. 

This is the chicken pre cooked:

I forgot to take pictures of the final product right when it came out the oven.  By the time I had remembered my mom had hacked into it. But I leave you with the picture I snapped of my plate

I love how golden brown it got. It was nice and moist, even the white meat part! The boyfriend gave me a two thumbs up on this :)

I also roasted some broccoli while I had the oven on.  If I could chose one vegetable to eat for the rest of my life, this is it. 

All I did to roast it was toss it in some olive oil, salt, pepper, and lemon pepper. Throw it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.  

Dinner was done and ready in about an hour.  I having a whole chicken because you can use it in various meals.  The next day, I used the chicken to make a delicious sandwich. 

I've been super busy lately with school so I haven't had a chance to cook.  I'll be posting some restaurant reviews soon so stay tuned!

New Recipe: Spaghetti Squash

I actually made this meal last week, but finally found a way to upload my pictures from my camera.  So from now on, you'll be seeing tons more pictures :)

In hopes of finding ways to cut my carbs, but still eat the dishes I love, I stumbled upon spaghetti squash.  After baking the squash, the scrapings on the insides tastes and looks like spaghetti.  I didn't want to believe this at first, since I am a HUGE pasta lover.  After months of wanting to try it, I finally ventured out of my pasta bubble

First off, set your over at 375 degrees.

 Cut the squash lengthwise and scrape out all the seeds and stringy stuff in the middle

 Rub the inside and rim with some olive oil and season with some salt and lots of pepper. I also added tons of crushed garlic all over the insides and around the rim. I used about 6 cloves.

Then, Fill the baking dish with 1 cup of water and put into oven for an hour

This is what it should look like after an hour of baking.  Let it cool down for 20 minutes then take a fork and scrape out the spaghetti strands.  It should start to look like the one on the right. 

This is your final product.  A bowl full of healthy spaghetti instead of a bowl of carbs.

You can serve it however you like. I had mine topped with sauteed mushrooms, zucchini, and broccoli, then all topped with some marinara sauce with a sprinkle of parm cheese.

 I give this recipe two thumbs up. Both healthy and filling.  Enjoy!