Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

In honor of St. Patricks day (and thanks to a very random cabbage craving...) I made stuffed cabbage rolls for dinner tonight. Ive seen a few recipes floating around out there so I kind of made up my own based on what I had on hand.


Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1 diced green pepper
1 onion
1 head of green cabbage
1 1/2 cups grated mozzerella
1/4 cup grated parmesan
2 eggs
2T butter + 2T olive oil
1 jar red sauce (spaghetti, marinara, etc.)

Method:
Wash cabbage and peel off outer leaves if wilted. Carefully pull apart leaves, trying to keep them as whole as possible. Save the smaller inside leaves and set aside. Boil cabbage leaves in a large stock pot (immersed in water) until they turn BRIGHT green or the white parts turn translucent - roughly 5 minutes. Drain hot water off and fill pot up with cold. Let sit in cold water until you are ready to stuff them.

Heat up 2T of butter + 2T olive oil in a deep frying pan. Chop up all the bits of cabbage that didnt get boiled, and saute them along with your diced onion and green pepper until all everything is nice and soft. Dump into a large bowl and set aside.

In same frying pan, brown 1 lb of hamburger. Once cooked through, drain and dump into vegi bowl. Let it cool until no longer steaming. Then stir in cheeses and eggs (reserve about 1/2 cup of mozzarella for the top). Generously salt this mixture.

Dump half your red sauce to coat the bottom of a 9x13 pan.

Drain your cabbage and just spoon your meat mixture into the center of each leaf. Roll up as well as you can, tucking in ends and loose bits as you go. Place seam side down in your pan.

Top with remaining sauce and sprinkle reserved cheese on top.

Bake uncovered at 350 for 1 hour 15 minutes! 

Breakfast Burritos To Go

We eat Breakfast burritos a lot around here. Generally the Betos or Sonic variety...but every once in a while we make them at home. Its not often because of all the work involved, but they are one of everyone's favorite things to eat. So this morning I made an assembly line of fixins because Jory came up with the genius idea of freezing up a bunch. Now I have two tupperwares full of burritos in my freezer and Gabe can grab one on his way to work or I can throw them in the oven on a whim when company is in town. GENIUS! Today I made regular breakfast burritos and steak ones.


What you need:
1 pound of cut up bacon
Flank steak (or whatever steak you like) cubed
2 large russet potatos (you can also use hash browns or tater tots)
6 eggs + 1/2 cup milk (scrambled eggs)
2 cups grated cheese
optional - salsa, onions, peppers, tomatos, zucchini, jalepenos, etc.
20 Raw flour tortillas
1 small can of refried beans

HERE IS THE ONE SKILLET METHOD
Grate your cheese, set aside.
Fry up a pound of bacon in skillet. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
Fry up 2 large cubed potatoes in the bacon grease, set aside.
Scramble your eggs, set aside.
If you are adding in vegis like onions and things you will want to saute them lightly... (or combine them with your eggs and cook them together).

At this point you might need to scrub out your frying pan - or use a different one to fry your tortillas in!

Cut 20 sheets of foil and have them handy. Place a cooked shell on top of a sheet and smooth over 2T of refried beans. Add small amounts of eggs, bacon, steak, vegis, salsa, potatoes and cheese. Roll up tightly. Label with a marker if you are making various types (vegetarian, steak, spicy, etc.) Store in tupperware bins in your freezer!

To eat: bake in 400 degree oven for 12-15 minutes, or remove foil and microwave

Brazilian Cheese Bread

Saw this recipe on Pinterest and HAD to try it - I think its going to become a regular in this house! Serve it up with a piping hot bowl of Lobster Bisque soup and some bacon wrapped chicken skewers for a DIY Tucanos night! Ps - naturally gluten-free!

1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup tapioca flour (sometimes labeled tapioca starch) no substitutions - found this at Fred Meyer
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup grated cheese - I used whole milk Queso Fresca (the mexican cheese found over by the sour cream) and a little bit of grated Sharp Cheddar. But really any cheese will do. 

Dump all ingredients (minus the cheese) into the blender. Puree until smooth. Add in cheeses and pulse a few times. Dump Batter into mini muffin tins (I of course just had regular sized ones and it worked great - they will just be bigger than the Tucanos version.) Bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes or until puffed and golden.

I doubled my batch and came out with 21 larger puffs.

Chicken tikka masala

our annual pilgrimage to Bombay house took place last night, and it did not disappoint! in fact I woke up this morning and polished off all the leftovers. I'm such an addict when it comes to this dish so I hope you will try it! Sooo easy to make, naturally gluten free, and fancy enough for date night or company!

In a large tupperware combine:
3 cubed chicken breasts
1 cup yogurt
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger (I never have any so I make it without)
4 teaspoons salt, or to taste

Place in fridge covered for at least 2 hours or even overnight. Once it has marinated just put the chicken in a glass baking dish at 350 for about 35 to 45 minutes.

While chicken is baking, heat a large deep skillet to make the sauce:

1 tablespoon butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon garam masala (McCormick makes this, find it at the grocery store)
1 teaspoons salt, or to taste
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Sauté garlic and jalapeño in butter for a minute. Add in all the spices, tomato sauce, and cream. Stirring occasionally, cook until sauce thickens about 20 minutes.
Add in chicken and top with fresh cilantro. Serve over jasmine rice with a side of naan bread!

My favorite banana bread

This recipe is from a bakery in Boston called Flours. I made a couple loaves of it today and it's hands down the best I've ever had. I did make one loaf gluten free by subbing the flour with Tom sawyer gluten free flour mix, and it turned out flawless! It's the sour cream that makes it so good!

Ingredients
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
3 1/2 bananas, very ripe, mashed
2 tablespoons creme fraiche or sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped
Directions
Set oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottom of a loaf pan with parchment paper.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Beat sugar and eggs with a whisk until light and fluffy, about 10 minutes. Drizzle in oil. Add mashed bananas, creme fraiche, and vanilla. Fold in dry ingredients and nuts. Pour into a lined loaf pan and bake for about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Chicken divan

This is sooo good, gluten free, freezes well, kids love it, and it's a one dish wonder!

3c cooked chicken
1 16oz package frozen broccoli
2 c cooked rice (1 c raw)
2 cans cream of chix soup
1 c mayo
1/8 tsp curry
1 tbsp lemon juice

Mix it all together and throw it in a 9x13 dish at 325 degrees for 45 minutes or until broccoli is done.

Shrimp dip

My neighbor lindsay brought this over for me yesterday and I have been eating it nonstop ever since.



PS this recipe makes a ton!  We usually halve it, but do as you please!

3 blocks of softened Cream Cheese (or low fat kind)

3 ½ C Sour Cream  (Note a small container is 2 C)

1/8 tsp Ground Pepper

1 tsp    Salt

1 ½ tsp Garlic powder

1 ½ tsp Onion powder

1 tsp    Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp    Lemon juice

2 cans tiny shrimp, drained.



Make sure Cream Cheese is room temperature before blending it together with
the sour cream.  Add everything but the shrimp.  Blend thoroughly.  Add
additional seasoning to your taste.  Then add one can shrimp and blend with
mixer until it is broken up.  Then spoon in the final can of shrimp.