Ricotta Bake

Hey, all!

This happens to be Newlywed Vegetarian's 50th post! Neat. I wasn't sure what I expected when I started this in terms of how long it'd go, but 50 seems like a nice benchmark to get to.

Anywho.

This is what we're going to talk about today.

But this is what led to it.

Hubby surprised me the other night by deciding to brave homemade ravioli. The man who is self-professed to only have a few staple dishes decided to make ravioli. As you can imagine, I was quite impressed.

We'll hopefully be trying that out again together this weekend, this time breaking out the pasta machine we got a few months ago, but the main reason that these ravioli are important right now is that this ricotta bake would not have happened if not for the ravioli. Hubby made a wee bit too much filling for his ravioli, so we had some left over in the fridge. I figured, why not make something else tasty out of it?

That's how this bad boy happened. It's reminiscent of lasagna but not quite lasagna-y enough that I felt comfortable calling it a lasagna. Therefore, ricotta bake.

Let's get down to it:

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 50 minutes

Serves: 4-6 (this stuff is dense, y'all.)

Ingredients:

1/2 box of tricolor rotini
Leftover ravioli filling (see below)
1 jar homemade or store-bought pasta sauce
3/4 cup mozzarella cheese

For the cheese filling:

1/4 cup frozen spinach, thawed and shredded
1/2 cup ricotta
1 egg (really, 1/2 egg, but it's up to you)
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons mozzarella cheese
1 pinch nutmeg
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Make your cheese filling, since you're probably not using left-overs like me. Just combine everything in one big bowl and you're done!

2. Follow the directions on your pasta box to boil the pasta. As always, you are welcome to use whatever kind of pasta you like. I'm just a color-oriented person so I like the rotini.

3. Grab a casserole pan. I believe the technical term is a loaf pan, but I always think of it as the "banana bread pan" because that's almost the only thing that my mom ever used it for when I was growing up. She uses it for more things now, but when I see it sitting out at her house I still expect banana bread later.

You can use whatever size or shape of pan you like, as well, but if you use a wider pan you'll probably have a few less layers than these directions call for.

Spray the pan with non-stick spray and then line the bottom with a thin layer of pasta.

Plop on several spoonfuls of the ravioli filling to form a layer of that.

Then, spoon on some pasta sauce.

Repeat!

And if you're using the kind of pan I am, you'll probably be able to repeat one more time (This one with that teensy bit of remaining ravioli filling.).

Finally, after you have drenched the remainder in the extra sauce you had in that jar, grab your mozzarella cheese and load it on.

4. Cover your casserole/bake/pasta goodness with tinfoil, but not so tightly that it's touching the cheese because then the cheese will stick to it. AKA, don't be like me.

Pop that baby in a 375-degree F oven and bake for 30 minutes.

Remove the tinfoil and weep that some of the cheese came up with the tinfoil. Then be distracted by the cheesy gooey goodness that's left, and weep no more.

(P.S., if your cheese does stick to your tinfoil and you happen to eat that cheese off that tinfoil, I will not judge.)

Pop that back into the oven for another 10 minutes to help the cheese harden a bit on top.

5. Since we used rotini instead of lasagna, the only thing that needs cutting is the cheese on the top. The rest of the bake can just be scooped out.

I cut ours into six servings since it's so dense, but if you're super hungry it could probably be divided into four.

Here's Hubby's. (He'll never say it, but he hates having to wait for me to take pictures of something before he can eat it.)

And here's mine.

So cheesy. We brought it for lunch, too!

Enjoy!

Kale Scramble

When I graduated high school, my parents took me on a trip to Scotland as my graduation present. Mostly we saw castles (even stayed in a little one!) and lochs and ate Scottish food. It was pretty awesome.

One of the things that stuck with me most was Scottish breakfasts. Now, I was already a vegetarian by the time that we went on this trip when I was 17, but dang did I eat well over there. Apparently Scottish people (or at least the places that serve breakfast over there!) love to have vegetables with their breakfasts.

Since it's been a "few" years (ahem) since I went, I couldn't possibly tell you what was in the real Scottish breakfasts. This dish is only inspired by my memory of it.

Normally when I make this dish it's a side for something else, but this time around I decided to make it into kind of a breakfast sandwich since it was our main dish. Turned out pretty well! I can always tell when Hubby likes something because he has barely started to chew his first bite before he says, "Mmmm." I like to think of it as a primal response that would happen whether he consciously made that noise or not.

Let's get down to it:

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 15-20 minutes

Serves: 3-4

Ingredients:

1 large onion
2 plum tomatoes
3 cups kale
1 cup button mushrooms, stems removed
1 garlic clove
3-4 tablespoons butter
4 eggs
1 pinch garlic powder
1 pinch onion powder

American or Cheddar cheese slices, to serve
Sandwich rolls, to serve

Directions:

1. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet. (The large part is important.)

Thinly slice your onion while that's happening.

Once the butter is melted, throw in your onions.

Then the garlic clove, which you minced earlier and definitely didn't forget to take a picture of. Sauté those until the onions are tender, about 3-5 minutes.

2. Slice your tomatoes.

And your mushrooms.

Chuck those in the pan, too.

3. Thinly slice your kale, or shred it with your hands. Whatever you like!

Melt another tablespoon or two of butter in your skillet since you're about to add a lot of Kale.

Chuck in that lot of kale.

Add in a couple pinches of salt, and the garlic and onion powders, too.

Kale isn't like spinach and won't wilt as much, but it will start to give up a little bit of its shape and become a darker green when it's cooking.

Once it seems like it's on the right track, push all the veggies to the side of the pan to create a little ring.

4. Crack two of your eggs into the ring.

Immediately scramble them.

Once they're fully cooked, mix them in with the veggies and create the same ring again in the center. Crack the remaining two eggs in and repeat the process.

Scramble, check. You are totally welcome to eat it just like this, which is what we normally do (sans the eggs).

This time, though, we decided to make them into sandwiches.

5. Don't butter your bread like I did. I wasn't thinking about how much butter is already in there.

Do add a slice of cheese, if that's your thing. I used American because it's what we had in the house, but I think a nice thick slice of sharp cheddar would have been amazing, too.

Plop a healthy serving spoon full of that kale scramble on top of the cheese--putting it on top of the cheese rather than the other way around helps the cheese to melt faster.

Top with the other half of the bread.

And there you have a sandwich.

Rinse and repeat for the second sandwich. (And maybe another one after that, if you got seconds like Hubby. That's another way I can tell when he really likes something--seconds are not optional!)

Enjoy!

Semi-homemade Vegetable Soup

You know when I put "semi-homemade" on something that it's really simple.

This is one of those recipes that is a staple in our house, but it's such a low-maintenance recipe that I wondered, "Is it too simple to put online?"

I decided that the answer was no, since semi-homemade is sometimes the best. Easy and fast! So, without further ado, basic vegetable soup.

Let's get down to it:

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 20-25 minutes

Serves: 8

Ingredients:

8 cups vegetable bouillon
1 - 1 1/2 cups pasta (macaroni for this batch)
1 large onion, chopped
6 small garlic cloves (or 4 teaspoons minced)
1 full bag frozen vegetable mix (green beans, carrots, corn, peas)
2 cups frozen broccoli
1 cup frozen green beans
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon basil
1/4 teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon parsley
1 pinch garlic powder
1 pinch chipotle seasoning
1/2 teaspoon canola oil

Directions:

1. Pour canola oil into the bottom of a soup pot and heat over low. Add in chopped onion and garlic, stirring occasionally, until onion is tender--about 5 minutes. Don't be scared by how many garlic cloves I'm asking for--they don't overpower the soup, I promise.

2. Prep your frozen veggies, if needed. These are the varieties that I used:

So much green! If you have any microwaveable packs, I always heat those up first to cut down on cook time.

Some of these have veggie chunks a little too large for a soup. I chopped the green beans and the broccoli, but the rest was okay.

I had to get a shot of that little cow head in here. This cutting board is from a set of hand-me-downs from my parents, each with a different animal on it, with the idea that you can use a specific cutting board for each type of meat to avoid cross-contamination.

I am endlessly amused that I am using a beef cutting board on a vegetarian blog.

Anywho!

If you are using bouillon cubes like me, add eight cups of water to your soup pot and bring to a boil.

Grab eight bouillon cubes and chuck those in, but only if your bouillon calls for 1 cube per 1 cup water. Otherwise, follow the directions, not me.

Once those are fully broken down into your soup, pour all of your veggies into your soup.

Once the frozen stuff has fully thawed in the boiling bouillon, add in your pasta. Since this soup already has tons of color, I skipped my usual tricolor rotini and I used macaroni for this batch. I also frequently use penne. It's up to you what kind of pasta you like!

Follow the normal cooking time for the pasta. About halfway through, add all of the spices: Italian, oregano, basil, parsley, onion powder, garlic powder and that tiny bit of chipotle. The amounts up in the ingredients are estimations--really, chuck in whatever seems right to you.

Yes, I still use our washing machine and dryer for counter space. I love our little apartment, but oh, I am so excited for that day when I will finally have a "real" kitchen.

Once the pasta is finished, I call 'er done!

If you're like Hubby and me and love adding parmesan to just about every savory food, chuck some of that on there, too.

If you're like us, you may also be eating on mats on the floor watching the second season of Burn Notice because you haven't picked up that futon from your parents' house, yet. That step is optional, of course.

Enjoy!