Last week there was nothing to post about because I did not cook hardly at all. But, so far, this week I have cooked some pretty yummy meals that I am excited about. I do want to apologize, though, because I left my camera in Callaway Gardens so most of the pictures are taken by my g1.
This is me and Alex at Callaway, roasting marshmallows.
So this first thing I want to talk about is tuna fish nachos. I know, I know it sounds horrible, but I promise you they are delicious. My mom swears she made it with canned chicken, but I am positive it was made with tuna fish. So, if you do not like tuna fish or are allergic to fish, you can use canned chicken. So, tuna fish nachos are really easy to make. All you need is tortilla chips, shredded cheddar cheese, and the stuff to make tuna fish the way you like it. I put mayonnaise, mustard, salt and pepper in my tuna fish. If you like relish in your tuna fish, I would not reccommend it for this recipe.
Mix the tuna fish and spread the chips in a single layer on a pan.
Place dollops of tuna fish on each chip. This isn't as time consuming as it sounds. Then sprinkle cheddar cheese on top.
Bake in an oven at 350 degrees fahrenheit for 10 to 15 minutes. Enjoy!
The next thing I made was summer squash lasagna. Yellow squash was on sale at Ingles so I found a recipe that uses a lot of squash. The recipe calls for six cups so use six squash. After you slice the squash, boil it until tender.
Then sautee garlic, onions and meat (optional). After that, stir in rice, tomato sauce, cottage cheese, egg whites, oregano, basil, and salt. I made the rice in advance because I did not want to have to worry about it cooking for an hour, in addition to cooking the lasagna.
Layer the "lasagna," top with cheese and bake!
With this dinner I roasted some baby asparagus. In case you haven't already read, roasting vegetables is my new favorite thing. I drizzled olive oil over the asparagus and sprinkled with salt. I roasted it at 400 degrees fahrenheit for 5 or 10 minutes, just until bright green. Alex did not like the asparagus so I kid you not, I ate the whole bunch of it, by myself. It was kind of funny because using a fork went out the window. I loved it so much that I held the asparagus as if it were a bouquet of flowers and ate it.
YUM-O!!!
So, after every holiday I hit Wal-Mart to get all of the holiday goodies for half off. We went the day after Halloween and I got a silicone baking pan that had leaf and pumpkin shapes (still appropriate for fall!). I also got some cake mix that was orange and black and some chocolate frosting. I didn't get the cake mix to use with the silicone pan, but I found a way to make it work.
I don't know why, but my camera started to fog up.
This is how they came out and I got the idea to use a pastry bag and inject chocolate frosting in the middle, like a hostess cake.
My fiance loved these and it is so funny because they took no effort or skill to make.
I made tortilla stew, and I loved this soup. The base was green enchilada sauce and I was afraid that would not work well, but it did. Alex said this is the one dish I have made that he craved meat in. He said it was not fulfilling, but I loved it! It has great flavor and it isn't even spicy. I put tortilla chips and shredded cheddar cheese in it. I could see how some shredded chicken would really kick this stew up. Because I was so frustrated at this point because I did not have my camera, I snapped a quick photo before I ate.
This picture does this stew no justice. Just one of those things you might have to take a chance with.
Okay, I got my camera back today so all of the pictures will be normal now. Tonight I made veggie stuffed shells. These are so good because it hides carrots in the filling and the potatoes give it such a unique taste. It is not your average manicotti. The recipe calls to dice the potatoes, carrots and onions so I use my food processor to finely chop the veggies. This is important because you don't want huge chunks that take forever to cook and that are disproportionate to the shell. This time I accidentally shredded them instead. I do not know what I was thinking. After that, you boil the veggies until tender in vegetable broth. This gives them wonderful flavor.
Mix the veggies with the ricotta, egg, italian seasoning, parmesan and mozzarella, then stuff the shells. The recipe calls for 24 shells, but I use the whole box and still have filling left over. For the sauce, I am in love with Newman's Own Socarooni sauce. First, I love Newman's Own products because not only are they all natural, but they are so chunky. Second, this Sockarooni sauce has a nice kick to it. It isn't spicy but it does have what can only be described as a zing!
Pour some sauce in the bottom of the pan and place stuffed shells in the pan. Pour remaining sauce over the top and sprinkle the parmesan on top.
Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees fahrenheit.
For a side, I roasted broccoli (my favorite!) and squash left over from the squash lasagna. I cut the squash into chunks, drizzled olive oil, sprinkled with salt and italian seasoning. I love the McCormick Italian Seasoning grinder. It is so yummy and it makes anything taste good.
Bake at 400 degrees fahrenheit for about ten minutes.
Did I mention I love roasted vegetables??
That was it for this week so far. I had a helacious week with work and leaving my camera in Callaway was somewhat discouraging. I feel very accomplished this week though, because I have made dinner every night and we have not eaten out once (not that we can afford to anyways). For some reason, though, I feel a little under appreciated. I think sometimes people don't realize what it takes to work a full day and come home and stand on your feet and cook a homemade dinner. It's quite exhausting and some days I just want to come home and it magically be done.
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