Sage & Butternut Squash Lasagna

This recipe was born for two reasons, the first one being that I love butternut squash (any squash, really!). The other is that one person in my family isn’t supposed to eat a lot of tomatoes, so I was trying to make a delicious lasagna dish that was tomato-less. This dish is great for the holidays, and although it’s got some rich ingredients, it’s also got a healthy balance with whole wheat pasta and some veggies (which you can always add more of).

Make sure you use fresh sage in this one – it’s such an important ingredient that it really needs to shine.

Ingredients

1 box of whole wheat lasagna noodles, prepared according to package directions
1/2 large butternut squash, peeled and sliced into circles (use the top part only and save the bottom part where the seeds are for another recipe)
2-3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
2-3 cups of fresh spinach
1 .75oz package of sage, divided (if you’ve grown your own, grab a big handful)
1 32oz tub of ricotta (I used part skim)
up to 3/4 teaspoon of nutmeg, depending on your taste

For the white sauce:
1 1/2 cups of milk
2 tablespoons flour (I used whole wheat)
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons of your sage, chopped
a few cloves of garlic, minced (optional)
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Begin by making the white sauce. In a small saucepan on medium heat, melt the butter. If you are using garlic, cook it briefly in the butter (2-3 minutes). Next, add the flour to the butter and whisk it together until smooth. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring regularly. Gradually add the milk, stirring constantly, making sure that the flour/butter mixture incorporates with the milk. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to low and simmer for 5 minutes or until the sauce is thick and creamy. Don’t forget to stir frequently. Add the sage and the parmesan cheese about 1-2 minutes before removing the sauce from the heat. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Mix the nutmeg into the ricotta cheese.

Assembly!

Now you should be ready to assemble. Spread a layer of white sauce or ricotta in the bottom of your lasagna pan. Drop the circles of butternut squash down in the pan side by side – you should be able to get at least nine in there depending on the size of your squash and the size of your pan. Layer the noodles, spinach, mozzarella cheese, remaining sage, butternut squash, white sauce, and ricotta until you run out or fill the pan. Be sure to save some mozzarella cheese for the very top to lock in some of the moisture.

Bake in a 400˚ oven for 40-60 minutes or until the slices of squash are soft. You may want to cover the pan with aluminum foil until the last 10-15 minutes to prevent it from over browning.

Annnd lasagna is not the prettiest thing to photograph, especially during dinner rush with the family, but here’s a picture of the finished product.

Black Bean Bonanza

In this recipe, you’ll get a night of black bean tacos, plus a night of delicious black bean burgers, all out of the same pot of beans!

Charlie and I have been trying to live more frugally and more healthily, and one of the things that means for us is trying to use less processed fake meats.

Why less processed fake meats?

• They’re more expensive than some proteins. Even at the most expensive store I can think of in the area, organic black beans are $1.99 for a pound, and there are places that you can get them for half of that, at least. The Gardein Crispy Tender Strips that I love so much are $3.99 for 9oz (and are much less filling).

• Fake meats are less sustainable than legumes since they’re more processed, so more fuel, electricity, etc, has to be used to produce them.

• Dried beans & legumes can often be purchased in bulk, which eliminates the need for wasteful packaging. If you’re cool like me & Charlie, you might even bring your own bulk and produce bags made out of old teeshirts.

• Fake meats may be healthier than real meats, but they’re definitely not whole foods, and we want to eat as healthy foods as we can.

Now, one of the problems that I face in terms of using dried beans is that a lot of them have to be soaked overnight, especially my favorite, black beans. (Soak overnight if you’re planning to slow cook in the morning. Soak all day if you’re planning to cook on the stove at night.) Between typical human forgetfulness and fibro fog+lyme brain, I almost never remember to do this. On Sunday, I even woke up early and said to Charlie, “Hey, I’m going to go soak the beans! I’ll cook them on the stovetop instead of the slow cooker, and we can eat them for dinner tonight!” I then promptly forgot for at least three hours.

After that fail and some googling, I learned that if you find yourself in this situation, you can boil the black beans for two minutes, then let them soak in the hot water for two hours instead of all day. I’d say that the cook time was a bit longer than usual, but it definitely worked out well.

Anyway, my plan for our Sunday night dinner was black bean tacos. We eat tacos fairly often, but usually with refried beans from a can. We made a big pot of black beans and used about a third of it for tacos. The next night, I made black bean burgers, which were pretty incredible. We still have four patties left to freeze. Charlie, though he is a tofu-loving meat eater, is not a big veggie burger fan, but he ate the whole thing. He said that it wasn’t quite a burger, but it was definitely a good sandwich.

I served the burgers with cheese and avocado on top, and with carrot sticks, orange slices, and kale chips. It was an easy meal that was really healthy. If you want to make things really easy on yourself, keep a few burger buns in the freezer along with your burgers so you’ll be ready to go.

Ingredients – Black Bean Mixture Base

2 cups dried black beans
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 large roma tomato, chopped
4 oz mushrooms, finely chopped
1/2 packet natural taco seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon cumin

Directions

In a medium to large pot of water, bring the black beans to a boil for two minutes, then let them soak for a minimum of two hours. (If you have the time, soak in cold water overnight as this retains more nutrients.)

At the end of the soaking time, drain off the water and replace with about 4 cups of water. Simmer on medium-low heat for about an hour, then add the onion, tomato, and mushrooms. Simmer for another 30 minutes or until the beans are soft enough to eat and the water has reduced. If you prefer your burgers to have a plainer taste or a different spice, you can remove a portion of black beans (probably 1/3) for tacos and leave the rest for burgers, but keep in mind that the seasoning amounts here are for the entire batch.

Use what you will for tacos. Store the extra black beans in a container in the fridge until the next night, when you’ll make the black bean burgers (unless you’re feeling super ambitious and want to do it immediately). When transferring the bean mixture to a container, use a slotted spoon so that any excess liquid does not transfer to the container.

Yield: Enough for tacos for two hungry people who really like tacos, and six large black bean burgers.

Ingredients – Homemade Black Bean Burgers

3 cups seasoned black bean mixture
1 large egg
3/4 cup breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon dried cilantro (use 1 tablespoon fresh if possible)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
3/4 cup fresh or frozen corn

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375*F. Using a potato masher or a pastry blender, smash the black bean mixture in a medium bowl until it is the desired consistency (I prefer to leave some beans whole). Add the egg and mix well. Add breadcrumbs, cilantro, and parsley and stir, ensuring the they are evenly distributed. Finally, add the corn. Shape the mixture into patties (we got six large patties out of it) with your hands.

Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. Fry briefly in a pan with olive oil until browned on both sides if desired.

To store in the freezer, place a sheet of wax paper in between the burgers so that they don’t stick together. To reheat from frozen, let sit on the counter for about 5 minutes (ok, this just happened because I was prepping other things last night). Bake at 375*F for 10 minutes on each side, then fry in a pan with a bit of olive oil until browned on both sides.

It didn’t occur to me at the time, but I bet adding some nutritional yeast (perhaps 2 tablespoons) would be a great addition when the breadcrumbs go in. Next batch, I’ll experiment!

Winter CSA Day Vegetable Tart

As you all know, I’m extremely dedicated to the idea of Community Supported Agriculture, or CSAs, a way of supporting local farms and getting local, (usually) organic food that’s in season. When our farm share is delivering from June until the end of October, we eat healthier meals with more vegetables, and we cook more instead of going out to eat or getting takeout, since our fridge is already stocked with great veggies to eat.

Our second year with our summer/fall CSA was coming to a close, and we were getting pretty sad about having the other half of the year without our farm-fresh food. I decided to research winter CSAs, and I managed to find one in the city with once-a-month pickups that was reasonably priced and would deliver December through May, meaning we would have nearly year-round CSAs. Although our new pickup for the winter share isn’t quite as convenient, since it’s only once a month, it’s still pretty great.

Our winter farm is Norwich Meadows Farm, and our winter share varies a bit from our summer share. Our summer share includes fresh vegetables, fruit, garlic, and herbs. Obviously, we don’t live in a climate that’s great for growing veggies all year round, so the vegetables we’ll be getting will be greens that are hearty to the cold at the beginning and the end deliveries, as well as storage vegetables like winter squash, onions, and potatoes. This week we also got brussels sprouts, sunchokes, carrots, leeks, and shallots in addition to the aforementioned storage veggies. And perhaps the neatest thing about this farm is that it offers lots of extras like yogurt and canned goods like pickles and heirloom tomato sauce and dilly beans (all made on their farm), and eggs and, if you choose, meat.

We decided to get a meat share since Charlie is omni. The meat raised on the farm is eco-halal. After spending the last 16 or so years of my life primarily as a lacto-ovo vegetarian [originally for animal reasons, now for broader reasons including sustainability], the meat will be just for him, but I’m glad that if he is eating meat, it was slaughtered in a dignified way, and that it was raised in a more sustainable way. There’s a little bit on the farm’s practices here if you’re interested in reading more. I’m also really glad to be getting eggs from a pasture-raised source, since I’ve been really unhappy with the ethics of many eggs that claim to be “cage free.” I’ve pretty much decided that the only real way to know if I’m getting eggs that are ethical is to develop a relationship with the farmer, and I have done that (if you’re in the Bergen County, NJ area, I know a great place to pick up from for a reasonable price!). Meanwhile, I’ve drastically cut down my egg consumption, but when our eggs arrived in our first winter delivery, I decided that a quiche was in order.

When I was in college, quiche was something that my mom always sent with me to keep in the freezer, along with little containers of soup. I ate soup and quiche for lunch many, many times a week, from freezer to microwave. Quiche freezes so well and is filling and delicious, so I like to keep some in the freezer for when I’m not feeling well and Charlie is too tired to cook. To make things a little larger, I made this in my tart pan, so technically, I suppose it’s a tart… but it’s really just a quiche recipe.

The thing I love about quiche is that you can put pretty much anything into it. I like to put potatoes in so that it’s a little more filling, and something green so it’s a bit more healthy. Other than that… whatever happens to be in the fridge goes in there!

Ingredients

1 1/2 broccoli florets, chopped
1 small zucchini, chopped
1 big handful of spinach
1 small sunchoke, peeled and chopped
2 green onions, chopped
4 oz edam cheese, shredded or cut into strips
4 oz shredded jack/cheddar mix
3 eggs
1 cup whole milk
salt
pepper
herbs (I tossed in some fresh parsley from our now-indoor herb garden)
pie crust (I cheated and used a store bought one since I was doing a lot that day)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350*F.

Press the pie crust into the tart pan.

Arrange the vegetables, herbs, and edam cheese in the crust. Try to make sure that they are evenly distributed.

In a medium bowl, beat the eggs and milk together. Add salt and pepper.

Pour the egg mixture into the crust over the vegetables. Top with the remaining shredded cheese.

Bake on a baking sheet in case of any drips or leaks! Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until it is no longer wobbly in the center.

Lentil Leftovers Hand Pies

Usually I try to post things that are my own brilliant ideas, creative creations, or invented recipes, but this week, I saw something someone else had made and I just had to make it and share it with everyone.

First, a confession: I am the worst person at making the most ridiculous, giant pots of soup on the planet. They come out delicious and wonderful, but… in obscene quantities. I put on some stock simmering, then chop up some of this vegetable, then decide that some of that vegetable could go in, then, OOH, I didn’t realize we had some of this left! and so on and so forth. And then the beans and the grains expand more than you thought they would, you have to transfer to a bigger pot, et cetera, et cetera. Even when I try to make a small batch of soup, we have leftovers for days.

And that’s what happened this week. It had been raining for days and the forecast said more rain. It was cold in our house. So I made a thick lentil stew with veggies from the farm share. (This is your recipe, if you’re wanting one…) An onion. Some garlic. A potato. A couple of carrots. Some miscellaneous greens (beet greens and something else that I’ve never been able to identify but tastes mildly cabbagey). Some barley. A giant, ripe heirloom tomato. Most of a cup of lentils. I threw it together with some bullion cubes and a few bay leaves, some parsley and thyme from the garden, and let it all cook down for a long while.

The soup was great, and incredibly filling, which is why there was way too much soup. Another contributing factor was that Charlie stopped by our favorite local bakery to pick up some hearty marbled rye bread to go with it. So, in our fridge there was a big container of leftovers.

And that day, The Cast-Iron Darling posted a recipe for Chili Hand Pies made with leftover chili.

Brilliant! Perfect! It’s a rare treat to find empanadas that are vegetarian, let alone hand pies. I thought about mixing in some cumin and making the lentils more like a taco filling, and I thought about putting some cheese in there, but in the end, I just left them alone. I made a pie crust from scratch using (you guessed it) Charlie’s Consistent Win Pie Crust, except I used half whole wheat flour and half all purpose flour. I would have tried out The Cast Iron Darling’s recipe, but it required eggs and we had zero, which is also why there is no eggwash on my hand pie.

I got about six out of Charlie’s recipe, though I still have lentil stew left and am thinking of making another round.

Charlie and I had them for dinner one night, and I also had one for a snack after I’d frozen them. I put it in the microwave for two minutes and it came out perfectly. The crust stayed crusty and everything.

Thanks, Cast-Iron Darling, for this awesome idea!

Stuffed Shells with Mushrooms & Spinach

I’ve never made stuffed shells before. I make a killer Vegetarian Lasagna of Doom, but I have never attempted stuffed shells before. These were pretty awesome.

I recently started ordering my groceries online because some days, I just don’t have the spoons to go to the store, and when several of those days happen in a row, we end up eating, say, a lot of peanut butter sandwiches. Being the frugal shopper that I am, I begin my meal planning by perusing the “specials” section, and last week, both ricotta and jumbo shells were on sale.

Well! That was simply an invitation to create a dish that I have loved in restaurants but never made at home. I bought the ingredients about 10 days ago but hadn’t had the energy until last night to make the meal. Yesterday, I ran around on sleep deprivation and did all kinds of crazy things like ran errands, replanted my seeds, and made this delicious meal.

Since we’re big on having a spare meal in the freezer, I made this in pie tins (I made three, but probably could have stretched it to four with the quantities that I’ve adjusted a bit below… the ratios didn’t come out quite right! I had a few extra shells and such). We ate one pie tin, and the others were wrapped in heavy foil before baking and put in the freezer for another day.

Here’s a tip if you’re going to do freezer meals: Use a lot of sauce! There’s nothing worse than pasta that gets all hard when reheated because it didn’t have enough sauce on it. (This is also the key to a great lasagna!)

Ingredients

8 oz of mushrooms, chopped into small pieces
two huge handfuls baby spinach
15 oz ricotta cheese
1/4 cup red wine
2 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons (ish?) extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper to taste
a few good shakes of parmesan & romano cheeses
8 oz shredded mozzarella
1 large jar of tomato sauce
1 box jumbo shells

Directions

Cook jumbo shells according to package directions (but watch it – they always say to overcook that stuff!). Drain and run under cold water to cool. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Saute garlic for about 2 minutes in the olive oil. Add mushrooms and red wine and cook for another 1-2 minutes. Do not overcook the mushrooms. Let cool slightly.

In a medium bowl, combine the mushrooms mixture with the ricotta. Add the parmesan cheese and about 1/4 of the mozzarella cheese. Add some fresh ground pepper.

Put a thin layer of sauce in each pie tin (or whatever pan you happen to be using).

Fill each shell with a rounded spoonful and put the open side down into the pan. I tried to close them up a bit before putting them down to avoid leakage. Assemble the shells closely, but not too crowded, in the pan. Spoon sauce over each shell and around the edges, making sure that all of the pasta is covered. Sprinkle with more mozzarella cheese.

Bake at 400 degrees F for about 12 minutes (fresh) or until the cheese is melty and the shells are warmed through (stick yo’ finger in there!). If reheating from frozen, let it defrost on the counter for about 20 minutes (I’m guessing, I’ll update when I do this) and it will take a bit longer in the oven.

Serve with a green salad and garlic bread if desired.

Felicia & AJ’s Enchilada Casserole

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Charlie had surgery recently, so we haven’t been doing a lot of cooking. Our wonderful friends Felicia and AJ, however, came all the way down from Western Massachusetts to help us out one Saturday. They did some laundry, entertained us, and made us an enchilada casserole.

These are the awesome people who gave us the recipe for this dish. We only tweaked it a little.

Normally, I’m terrified of anything with the word “casserole” in it. I didn’t grow up eating “tuna noodle surprise casserole with crunchy potato chip topping” or anything like that. It just isn’t something I’m used to eating. I have been slightly envious, however, of the people who seem to be able to just line up a bunch of ingredients, pop them in a dish, and have dinner piping hot out of the oven a little while later. Plus, with those darling faces reassuring me, how could I have not believed that it was delicious?

I know that most of my posts feature extremely scratch-baked items, but this meal was too delicious to pass up. It’s a quasi-homemade dish that freezes really well, and it would also be a great potluck dish.

As Felicia mentioned in an email responding to me begging her for directions on how to make this, you can change the proportions, add extra veggies, leave out something you hate, make it spicier if you want, and so on. It’s just a great base and an easy to assemble meal.

This quantity makes two 9×13″ pans, but believe me, you’re going to want them. You’ll want seconds, and then you’ll want to put some in the fridge and some in the freezer to eat very soon.

Ingredients

1 zucchini, chopped
3/4 cup frozen (or fresh, if you happen to have it) corn
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 green pepper, chopped
1/2 container of mushrooms, chopped
16-24 oz sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
2 cans of refried beans
1 large can enchilada sauce
2 packages (of eight) whole wheat tortillas

If you want to go wild, you could throw in a couple teaspoons of cumin and/or garlic powder, a little chili powder, and a hint of coriander when you assemble your bean mixture. (I added all of those things.)

Directions

Sauté the garlic and onions in a pan with a bit of olive oil until the onions are soft. Add the zucchini, green pepper, and mushrooms, and continue cooking briefly. Do not overcook.

Remove from heat. In a large bowl, combine refried beans, cooked vegetables, and any spices you may desire. Mix well. Add the corn.

Assemble the enchiladas by adding a small scoop of the bean mixture to each tortilla, sprinkle a bit of cheese, then roll it up. Do not tuck in the ends. Place the tortilla face down in the pan so that it does not unroll, then move on to the next. You should be able to fit two rows of four. (You’ll repeat this process in a second pan, or later if you only have one.)

Once your tortillas are all in the pan, pour half the enchilada sauce over the top until none of the tortillas are showing. You may need to spoon some from crevices to ensure complete coverage. Sprinkle more cheese on the top.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until the cheese is melty and the sauce is bubbling.

Lentils for Lamb Shepherd’s Pie

Finally updated with a picture! It’s not the most gorgeous thing to photograph, but it tastes amazing!

When our vegan friend Milo from California was living in New York for a few months, he came to our house often. We made some righteous rice and beans on numerous occasions, and maybe had a stirfry once or twice, but we were looking for something more innovative one night, so I came up with this. I remembered seeing a jar of red lentils in my cabinet at the time, so I figured I could substitute them for the meat that’s usually found in a traditional shepherd’s pie.

When we made this originally, I did most of the research, and Charlie did most of the cooking, and we all (me, Charlie, my sister, and Milo) did lots of eating. This recipe was delicious, and the portions were hearty. We all had seconds, and Milo and my sister each took a portion to work the next day. It was great for us for four hungry people and leftovers, so if you want a less serious amount, I’d suggest cutting it in half. The yield was about two 9-inch square casserole dishes.

One of these days I’m going to try to convert this recipe for my crockpot, because I think it would be amazing, even if it came out a little… less neat? Heheh. I’ll update when I do.

Here’s what it looks like during the assembly process.

Ingredients

1 cup of red lentils, soaked in cold water for 40 minutes
1 medium yellow onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 medium carrots, chopped
2 sticks of celery, chopped
1/2 package sliced mushrooms
1 small can of corn (or 1 cup of frozen corn)
[1Tbsp of finely chopped fresh parsley - we didn't have this ingredient, but I'm sure it's tasty]
1 28oz canned of whole tomatoes, chopped
1 teaspoon of dried rosemary
1 teaspoon of dried thyme
1 1/2 cups of water
1 1/2 tsp of sea salt
2 Tbsp olive oil

Special equipment: baking casseroles or ramekins

6 large yellow potatoes, peeled and quartered
1-2 tablespoons earth balance
1 tsp of sea salt
Cheddar cheese for grating (optional, ours was vegan)

Directions

Pre-heat the oven to 350F.

Drain the lentils. Set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook until translucent. Add the garlic and fry for 30 seconds. Add the celery, carrots, and corn. Cook for about 5 minutes.

Add the salt and chopped tomatoes to the mixture. Stir well and then simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the water and the red lentils, then lower heat and simmer for about 10 minutes or until liquid reduces. (The recipe called for 25 minutes of simmer, but since we made our mashed potatoes vegan, they were a bit drier so we wanted our lentil mixture to be wetter, and this adjustment came out just fine.)

Add the herbs and stir well. Taste the mixture and add more salt if necessary.

Meanwhile, boil the potatoes until soft (about 20 minutes).

Drain the potatoes and then add olive oil and salt. Set aside.

Once the liquid from the lentils has reduced, spoon them into the ramekins and then gently spread the mashed potato on top. Grate on the cheese, if using, and then bake pies in the oven for 20 minutes or until the potato has formed a crust. If not using cheese, cover with aluminum foil for the first 15 minutes of cooking so the potatoes don’t dry out too much.

Remove the pies from the oven and then serve. To reheat the pies, simply put them in the oven for 10-15 minutes on 350F.

Serve with a mixed green salad.

Make-Ahead Mac&Cheese with Herbs and Chard

I’ve been trying to get ahead on making meals for the freezer again, for nights when I’m not feeling well, for nights when Charlie and I are tired, for nights when Charlie doesn’t get home from school until ten o’clock at night. I’ve reached out to some of my friends to help me fill my freezer, but there is a space sometimes between good intentions and executions, so I’m trying to get at least a few in there on my own.

So yesterday, in my infinite wisdom of completely overdoing things and being far too tired after, I decided to make some meals, even though I’d already prepared a variation on Mock Morrocan Lentils and Rice for dinner (and leftovers), and even though I’d already made cinnamon raisin yeast bread in the morning.

I went with macaroni and cheese, since it’s delicious and comforting, and we had cheese and pasta in the house. I don’t feel that a meal is complete without a vegetable, though, so I had to throw something in there. Usually, for us, it’s broccoli, but we were totally out of that. I did, however, have some dark green chard with bright red stems that came in this week’s farm share.

I wondered if it had been done before, and some googling told me that it had. I only looked at one recipe, and it suggested that I boil the chard first. I was going for simplicity, though, not to mention that I just hate when veggies are wimpy, limp, and lacking nutrition. The gooey sauce that I make will surely soften the chard just from being on it, and the time in the oven should take care of the rest. I risked it and just heaped it in, shredded into small pieces.

I’m guessing that this is going to make about 4 generous servings (two nights of dinner for Charlie and I), or, more likely, 4 regular servings plus two lunchtime portions, especially if it’s served with a salad or something.

Ingredients

1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon rosemary
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon sage
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, finely chopped
1/2 cups chopped, de-stemmed chard (or spinach, kale, or similar dark greens)
1 box whole wheat rotini pasta
2 tablespoons butter
2 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
8 oz sharp cheddar cheese, shredded*
4 oz jack cheese, shredded*
4 oz extra sharp cheddar cheese, shredded*
*I often don’t bother shredding, as it’s time-consuming. I’ll just quickly cut up a block of cheese into small chunks or strips.

Directions

Prepare pasta according to package directions. Keep warm.

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Whisk in flour until smooth. Cook, whisking constantly, for about 2 minutes. Gradually whisk in milk, and cook for 5 minutes or until thickened, whisking constantly. Stir in about 3/4 of the shredded cheese, continuing to stir until the cheese is melted and the sauce is smooth. (If the cheese isn’t melting, turn up the heat a tiny bit at a time.) Add the thyme, rosemary, garlic powder, sage, and fresh parsley, and stir over the heat for another minute or two.

Remove from heat. Add the salt and black pepper and stir, then add the pasta and stir until coated.

Now, take your freezer containers of choice, and lightly grease them. I recommend disposable pie pans, since I was able to get a huge stack of them for a couple of bucks one time, and I still have a ton left.

Scoop a bit of mac&cheese into the bottom of the pan, just so that it covers the bottom. Then, take half of your shredded chard (approximately a large handful) and plunk it down in the middle of the mac&cheese. Now, pile more mac&cheese on top, completely hiding the chard. Take the remaining shredded cheese or cheese chunks and poke some into the mixture and spread some on top. Repeat with the second pie pan.

(If you’re not making yours ahead, you can just put it all in any old oven-safe casserole dish that you lightly greased.)

Cover it tightly with heavy-duty aluminum foil and plop it in the freezer.

When you’re ready to eat it, let it thaw for a while, then pop it in the oven at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until hot all the way through. I recommend leaving the tin foil on until the last 10 minutes or so, otherwise your top cheese might be burnt and your top pasta might get dried out.

Mock Moroccan Lentils & Rice

1:30pm:

I’ve just put my first ever meal into a slow cooker. I don’t have much experience with them in general, but I do remember, wayyyyy back into childhood, when I still ate meat, that a neighbor of ours made a fabulous turkey corn soup in a crockpot. Charlie and I have been thinking about getting one for several months because I often work 6 hour shifts, which is, I believe, the average amount of time a recipe needs in a crockpot, and a lot of times, I’m too tired to work and cook dinner by myself. If I could prepare the ingredients before I went to work or the night before, though, and toss them into the crockpot before I left, it would be fabulous.

Long story short, my mom bought me a slow cooker for my birthday. It’s an entry-level model – nothing too fancy. It’s dishwasher safe and oval-shaped. There was some debate about whether or not Charlie would be allowed to cook meats in it, but we found some slow cooker liners that he can use “for easy cleanup” so that the meat doesn’t actually get all up in there, though since it’s dishwasher safe and has removable stoneware, it probably won’t be a big deal. If you’re in the market for a slow-cooker, ours is made by Hamilton Beach and cost about $20.

I’m calling this “Mock Moroccan” because I honestly don’t have a lot of experience with Moroccan culture, so someone can easily call me out and tell me that it’s totally off. However, the spices that I used were common in a lot of Moroccan recipes that I found online, though, as usual, I didn’t find one that exactly suited my needs, so, this is what I came up with. And, since the lentil recipes didn’t include very many veggies, I snuck some more in there.

Stuff cooked in a slow cooker sits there for lots of hours, so make sure that anything that’s a little more tender to begin with gets cut into large pieces, otherwise it will just disintegrate.

About ten hours later, after we’ve eaten, cleaned up, gone to the store, and baked a batch of brownies…

The verdict is… yum! Charlie assured me that he thought it did taste Moroccan. He wished it had a bit more heat, but since I don’t do really spicy foods, I wouldn’t have been able to handle much more. If it were just him, he probably would have added more cayenne.

We did have a bit too much liquid, so after cooking for about 5 or 6 hours on low, we turned it up to high with the lid off to reduce it. You could probably just start with about 1/2 cup to 1 cup less liquid, though. Certainly not bad for a first attempt.

For a 4-Quart Slow Cooker

Ingredients

1 cup lentils (I used organic red)
1 huge heirloom tomato (you can use two medium ones of any variety), chopped into large pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons fresh parsley (I was out, so I used about a tablespoon dried)
1 1/4 teaspoons cumin
1 1/4 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced (you can use a little less, dried, if necessary)
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoons salt
5 tablespoons olive oil
about a half of a medium eggplant, chopped into large pieces
about half a yellow squash, chopped into large pieces
1/3 cup green beans (I used the super long Filipino variety), chopped into reasonable pieces
1 carrot, chopped
about two shakes of red cayenne pepper
about three shakes of cinnamon
about 4 cups of water, or enough to cover the veggies

Directions

Dump all ingredients into slow cooker. Stir it all up so that all the ingredients are evenly mixed. Cook on low heat for 6 hours or until lentils are tender. If too much liquid remains, remove cover and cook on high for 30-45 minutes until liquid has reduced.

Serve over rice (we did brown rice and cooked ours in our rice cooker separately, but you could probably add water and rice to the mixture and make it all together if you wanted).

Arancini di Riso Barbabietole

These have got to be the best part of making beet risotto. You can obviously make these with any kind of risotto, but the color of the beet ones is just incredible. Eating these at Anne and Neil’s house was my first experience eating beet risotto, and really, my first experience eating beets besides somewhat funky ones that have appeared, unwelcome, in salads at certain restaurants.

Literally, the translation is Oranges of Rice & Beets, but what we’re making here are orange-shaped balls of beet risotto with little chunks of mozzarella stuffed inside, then deep fried. They’re amazing.

I’ve been meaning to post this recipe since a day or two after my Beer Beet Risotto experiment, but I never got around to it. Anne and Neil get most of the credit for the recipe, and Charlie gets the credit for the deep frying… He’s always in charge of the frying at our house!

I’d nearly forgotten about posting this, but we’d put the extras in the freezer, and on a busy night this week when I was out of spoons, we heated some up in the oven, and they were so tasty all over again. So, feel free to make extra, freeze them in an airtight container. When you want to eat them again, let them thaw for a good long while, then put them on a baking sheet in the oven at, let’s say, 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until they’re hot in the middle (you’ll be able to tell because the cheese will start to gooze out of them).

Vegan friends, don’t fear… I’m working on developing a recipe so you can eat these, too.

Ingredients

Vegetable oil, for deep-frying
2 large eggs, beaten to blend
2 cups Beer Beet Risotto, cooled
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 1/2 cups dried Italian-style bread crumbs
2 ounces mozzarella, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
Fresh herb of your choice (I think we used basil)
Salt

Directions

Stir the eggs, risotto, Parmesan, fresh herbs, and 1/2 cup of the bread crumbs in a large bowl to combine. Place the remaining breadcrumbs in a medium bowl. Using about 2 tablespoons of the risotto mixture for each, form the risotto mixture into 1 3/4-inch-diameter balls. (You’re looking for large-ish meatball looking things, here, guys.) Insert 1 cube of mozzarella into the center of each ball. Roll the balls in the bread crumbs to coat.

Pour enough oil in a heavy large saucepan to reach the depth of 3 inches. Heat the oil over medium heat to 350 degrees F.

Working in batches, add the rice balls to the hot oil and cook until brown and heated through, turning them as necessary, about 4 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the rice balls to paper towels to drain. Season with salt. Let rest 2 minutes. Serve hot.

Vegetarian Lasagna of Doom

This has got to be one of the best vegetarian lasagnas I’ve ever made (or even tasted). It’s got to be one that’s recorded in blog history.

One of the key things about making lasagna is having enough sauce. Don’t be shy with it! It helps keep everything moist, and if you’ve ever had a dried out lasagna, you know how important that is. I like to use two kinds, a red sauce and a white sauce. The white sauce is easy to whip up from scratch, but if you’re in a pinch or extremely lazy, you can use alfredo sauce in a jar, though they’re not exactly the same thing.

The other thing I prefer about making lasagna… I hate those no-cook noodles, the ones that you put in still hard. It’s weird to me. I grew up watching the biggest pot we had boiling with lasagna noodles, and getting to eat the curly edges that were leftover. What fun is making a lasagna if you don’t get to eat the curly edges first? So, I recommend the noodles that you have to cook before you layer them in… I think they taste better, too.

Ingredients

1 medium zucchini, sliced
1 cup mushrooms, sliced (we prefer baby bella mushrooms, but tend to go with whatever looks the freshest)
perhaps 2 cups? of spinach trimmed
1 onion, thinly sliced
2-3 sprigs of fresh oregano, chopped
1 jar of vegetarian tomato sauce of your choice, preferably something with lots of vegetable chunks in it
lasagna noodles (you probably only need a half box because of all the veggies, unless you have a super deep lasagna pan)
16 oz ricotta cheese
16 oz brick of mozzarella cheese (whole milk or part-skim, not fat-free)
parmesan cheese (optional)

Eggplant:
1 small to medium eggplant, sliced lengthwise
1 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
salt, pepper, dried parsley, dried oregano to taste
1-2 eggs
Oil for frying

White Sauce:

1/2 cup butter
4 tbsp flour
1 cup milk or light cream
1 cup vegetable stock
1/8 tsp salt
about 5 sprigs parsley (optional)
one huge piece of green garlic (optional)
parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions

White Sauce:

Melt butter, add flour and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly with a whisk. Slowly add milk or cream and vegetable stock; stir until smooth. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Add salt.

If you’ve got some fresh parsley handy, you should grab maybe five sprigs of that and the tops of some green garlic. Don’t chop it in any way. Leave it whole and just toss it into the sauce. Let it cook for a few more minutes on low heat, stirring constantly, then strain off the parsley and garlic. Add a bit of parmesan cheese to the sauce if desired.

Eggplant Preparation:

Before you can start layering, you’ve got to fry the eggplant because in this recipe, it’s almost like a eggplant parm/lasagna combo.

Mix breadcrumb ingredients of breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, flour, oregano, salt, pepper, and parsley in a flat tray or plate. In a separate tray, scramble the eggs. Take your eggplant slices and coat them one at a time in egg, then dredge them in the breadcrumb mixture.

Pan fry them in a generous amount of oil at medium-high heat until golden brown, about 4 minutes each side. Remove from pan and let them drain on a mesh spatter shield or a paper towel.

Lasagna:

Prepare pasta according to package directions. If you’re not using a disposable pan, I recommend that you put down a layer of aluminum foil before you begin for easier cleanup later.

Coat the bottom of the pan with a layer of red sauce, then alternate between vegetables, cheeses, fried eggplant, sauces, and noodles until you run out of ingredients or reach the top of the pan. Toss in the fresh oregano and some parmesan cheese along the way, if you feel so inclined. Be sure to reserve enough sauce and mozzarella cheese to cover the entire top of the pan, otherwise your noodles will be hard and your veggies will dry out.

Cover pan with aluminum foil and bake for about 25 minutes at 400 degrees. After 25 minutes, remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes or until cheese begins to brown. (The foil on top prevents the cheese from browning too much too quickly.)

Let the lasagna cool for at least 15-20 minutes once it’s out of the oven, or it will be a soupy mess!

If you’re not serving a crowd, I recommend putting a few slices in the fridge for consumption soon, and the rest in the freezer. When freezing the lasagna, make sure that you freeze it in the portion size you’d want to eat it in, since sawing through a frozen casserole is never any fun. Cut slices and put them into little gladware containers, let them cool (until they’re no longer steaming) and then pop them in the freezer for a great meal in a week or a month.