I have to admit, these aren't the healthiest choices for dinner that I could have eaten...but they were delicious, and they are semi healthified versions, so they could have been worse! We couldn't really decide what we wanted for dinner, so I decided to make some homemade mozzarella sticks, and mini 'healthy' pizzas.
Who knew that mozzarella sticks could be so easy to make from home? Or that I always have all of the ingredients to make them? And also, why is it that I always have all of the ingredients on hand for things that I shouldn't be eating often?
Homemade mozzarella sticks are super easy to make and take a minimal effort.
Ingredients:
String cheese, unwrapped and cut in half
1/8 - 1/4 cup flour
2 eggs
2 tbsp milk
3/4 cup Italian style bread crumbs
Vegetable oil
Make 3 stations, 1 with flour on a plate, 1 with bread crumbs on a plate, and one bowl with the eggs and milk whisked together. Take the string cheese and roll it into the flour, then the egg mixture and then the bread crumbs. After the whole piece of string cheese if fully breaded, place onto a clean plate. When this process has been completed for all of your pieces of string cheese, place the plate with the breaded cheeses into the freezer for at least, AT LEAST, 30 mins. This will do a quick freeze so that when you cook them, the cheese won't melt before the coating is golden.
After they are chilled, remove from freezer and place into a frying pan with enough oil to coat the bottom. The heat should be medium high, and the oil should be preheated before the mozzarella sticks are placed in it. Turn the mozzarella sticks until all sides are golden. Remove from oil and place on a paper towel to soak up the excess oil. Serve with tomato sauce.
The other recipe that I made was for mini, healthier pizzas. I took a Whole Wheat English Muffin, and forked it open. I then put about 1 tbsp of my canned tomato sauce on eat slice and topped it with Mozzarella Cheese, salt, pepper, and a pizza seasoning. My hubby likes a little meat on his pizza's, so I took some pulled chicken (that had been cooking in the slow cooker) and placed it on top. I then put the pizzas into a 375 degree toaster oven and cooked for about 5 mins, or until the cheese was melted!
Friday nights dinner was specially made with my hubby in mind. There are foods that he loves, which I hardly ever make for him because they take a bit of time, (or because I am not a fan of them). I know it sounds horrible to say, but there are certain things that I don't like all that much which I just leave off of the nightly meal rotation.
I think he and I both are a little tired of the same old food, so I decided to make a pork tenderloin, my homemade mac n' cheese, and a squash and zucchini sauté. He was so happy that not only was I making food that he LOVES, but it was a week night meal. I rushed home from work and got straight into the kitchen to get to work on this comfort food dinner for my love.
The first thing that I did was preheat the oven to 350. I wanted to make sure that everything finished at the same time (or about the same time) so I was happy that I had thought about a recipe in which everything cooked for approximately the same time in the same degree oven! How perfect!
The tenderloin was probably the easiest thing to make because I bought it already marinated with a peppercorn rub. I just let it sit out on a sheet pan and come up to room temp. while I made the mac n' cheese. The only thing that I added to the tenderloin was a little drizzle of hubby's favorite bbq sauce.
Mac N' Cheese
3 tbsp butter
1/4 flour
2 cups warmed milk
2 cups cheddar cheese
1/2 lb cavatappi pasta
Dash of Worcestershire sauce
1/8 tsp nutmeg
bacon
1 small can of peas
1/2 onion, caramelized
1 small bag of potato chips, crushed
salt and pepper
Cook pasta according to the instructions on the back.
In a large skillet, melt butter. Once the butter has melted, whisk in the flour, continually whisking for about 1 minute. This will create a rue to help thicken the milk. After all of the flour has cooked, whisk in the warmed milk. Whisk continually until the milk thickens. While the milk thickens, add salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and nutmeg. Once the milk is a thick consistency add in the shredded cheese. Once the cheese has melted add in the pasta, caramelized onion, peas and chopped bacon, stirring until everything is combined. Then, pour mixture into a casserole dish and top with potato chips. Place in a 350 degree oven and bake for 35 mins.
This was by far the best side dish (and not to mention, the easiest) one that I have probably ever made! This was a combined idea between my hubby and myself, that went along with the comfort food meal that I made for him on Friday. He went grocery shopping with me, and decided that he wanted to try some summer squash and zucchini. He wasn't sure how he wanted it cooked, but he knew that he wanted these flavors. I told him tons of different ways I could cook it, and let him decide which one he wanted. I let him know that they could be roasted, fried, sautéed with garlic, etc. He chose them sautéed with garlic...any mention of garlic added and we are pretty much both sold on the cooking technique.
So, I started off by peeling both the squash and zucchini. I then sliced them pretty thin, and through them in a pan with some garlic and a little olive oil. I just let them hang out and get golden brown before flipping them. The cooking process probably took about 10 mins total. The result was beautifully done and golden veggies with a hint of garlic flavor. I then finished this off with some salt and pepper (of course).
The only thing we could both say between mouthfuls of veggies, was mmMMMmmmm. :) Who knew that vegetables could taste so good?
I love Giada Di Laurentiis. I enjoy cooking most of her recipes and get excited when I find one that I haven't tried before. Somehow I have overlooked her Pizza Di Spaghetti recipe for years, and finally stumbled across it the other day. I knew that this was something that I had to make, since I often have leftover spaghetti.
Last night, I decided that it was time to try out this recipe. I must admit, that I am not sure what I assumed it would taste like, but it definitely did not meet my expectations. It wasn't bad...it just wasn't how I had envisioned it. (this happens to me a lot) I combined the spaghetti (presauced) with the egg, milk and cheese mixture, but I substituted the 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese with about 2 tbsp Parmesan and 1/4 cup of shredded Mozzarella cheese. I then heated up my pan with oil and dumped the mixture in, pressing it into the pan. When it came time to flip this out onto a plate, I realized that I should have tried a smaller Pizza di Spaghetti first, because my flipping and inverting skills are not what they should be. Anyway, I slipped it out of the pan and onto a plate with minimal mess, but while trying to invert it back into the pan (after adding a touch more olive oil) I realized that this was not a good idea...it didn't flip the way I thought it would, and kind of went all over in the pan. I quickly reformed it in the pan and pressed down to make sure it cooked evenly.
After it was cooked I slipped it back onto the plate and while it was cooling ever so slightly decided to make some semi ghetto style Garlic Bread. All I had left in the cupboard was sliced Italian Bread. So I smotherd it with butter and put it in the toaster oven to toast. When it was done, I cracked a piece of garlic and rubbed the garlic on the bread. My hubby and I prefer things VERY garlicky, so I also chopped some up and sprinkled it on top.
I then plated up the Pizza di Spaghetti and garlic bread, and was so excited to dig in. After the first five bites I realized that this wasn't exactly what I wanted. However, it was mildly successful since my hubby (who doesn't particularly like pasta) ate the whole thing and insisted that I not throw the rest away because he would eat it for lunch.
So I guess all in all it was successful, and I learned a lesson about not expecting so much out of recipes that are so simple...it really was just fried spaghetti, which I make often with our leftover spaghetti. If you would like to try out the recipe, you can view it here.
This past Lazy Sunday I realized that we had food in the fridge that either was about to go bad, or was already gone. As you already know, I cannot stand wasting food, so I deemed it, Use It Or Lose It Day! I went through and cleaned out all of the items that I couldn't tell exactly what it used to be, and then took all of the items that I knew would go bad and set them aside for cooking.
So I knew I had to use the pork chops, and there were some eggs in there that might be approaching their expiration date as well, so I had to think about what I wanted to make with them. I decided to do pork chops two ways. I took the majority of the pork chops and put them into a crock pot with some BBQ sauce, white wine, and a little bit of chicken stock, along with some salt and pepper. Then all I had to do was throw the top on and let them simmer away on low heat for about 8 hours. Once they were done, I pulled them apart, and created some pulled pork sammies for my love!
While the pork chops were cooking away in the crock pot, I took the two leftover chops and decided to bread them and fry them so that my hubby could have them for dinner...little did I know that they would not make it until dinner time...but that's besides the point.
Then I had to decide what the heck to do with the eggs. I decided it was best to prolong their life with hard boiling. So I just boiled up some eggs, and then this morning for breakfast decided to make a deviled egg out of one of them. I always feel that it's best for me to only devil one egg at a time because then I have the others to use as I want. I could slice one up tomorrow and throw it in a salad, or just eat it as is for breakfast or snack.
Hard Boiled Eggs Turned into Deviled Egg Ingredients:
Eggs
Mayo
Honey Mustard
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
Place eggs into a big pot and cover with water. Place over heat and bring up to a boil. Let boil for 20 mins. Remove from heat and rinse with cold water before placing them into a dish in the refrigerator to cool. After your eggs have cooled you can remove the shell of the egg and either slice up to eat, or make deviled eggs. If you are making deviled eggs than remove the shells and slice egg lengthwise. Remove yolk and put into a bowl. Once all of the yolks are in the bowl add the mayo, mustard, salt and pepper. I use about 1 tsp mayo, 1/2 tsp mustard and a pinch of salt and pepper for 1 egg. If you are cooking a half dozen, then use 1 - 2 tbsp of mayo, 2 tsp of mustard 1/8 tsp of salt and pepper. Stir mixture together until mostly smooth and throughly combined. Spoon mixture into the empty egg whites and sprinkle with paprika.
You can also add other ingredients to liven these up a bit, they are phenomenal with a little bit of diced roasted red pepper mixed in. Feel free to try out any flavors that you like! :)
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