Ricotta Gnocchi

This was a really tasty and actually quite simple dish to make. I was really proud of myself because it was the first dish I made without any help that was complex, and I made my own gnocchi! 

I got the recipe from allrecipes.com :

http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/126942/ricotta-gnocchi

Ingredients

• Gnocchi:
• 1 (8 ounce) container ricotta cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 cup all-purpose flour, or as needed

• Sauce:
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 (15.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1 dash crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
• 6 basil leaves, finely shredded
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 8 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese, cut into small chunks
  

Directions

Stir together the ricotta cheese, eggs, Parmesan Cheese, salt, pepper, and garlic powder in a large bowl until evenly combined. Mix in 1 cup of flour. Add additional flour if needed to form a soft dough.***you will need a LOT of flour

Divide the dough into 3 or 4 pieces, and roll into 1/2-inch-thick ropes on a floured surface. Cut each rope into 1-inch pieces, and place on a lightly floured baking sheet. And it should look like this:

 Place in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in garlic, and cook until softened and fragrant, about 1 minute. Pour in diced tomatoes and red pepper flakes; bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, and cook for 10 minutes. Stir in shredded basil and season to taste with salt and pepper.

While sauce is simmering, bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil over high heat. Boil the gnocchi until they float to the surface, 1 to 2 minutes, then drain.

To assemble the dish, stir the cubed mozzarella cheese into the sauce and allow the heat of the sauce to soften, but not melt the cheese. Place gnocchi into a serving bowl, and spoon sauce overtop.

Enjoy! :-)

Thai Green Curry, Shepherd's pie Matar Paneer, Vegan Chocolate Cake Dinner Party

So recently I had a dinner party to test out how non-vegetarians would like the vegetarian food I've been cooking. And I have to say it was definitely a success! All my friends that can really enjoyed it, and it was very valuable for my project. 

Here are the recipes for what I made (that haven't been posted before)

Thai Green Curry
Ingredients:
-Firm tofu, 2 packages
-Bamboo shoots, sliced (2 cans)
-Sweet peppers
-Baby corn
-Snowpeas
-Coconut milk
-Thai green curry paste
-Salt
-Soy sauce
-Ginger paste
-Garlic paste
Directions:
-Slice the tofu into cubes to your liking
-Add oil, garlic and ginger paste to pan.
- Add vegetables, cook until vegetables are still firm, but not raw.
-Add in tofu
-Add coconut milk
-Add green curry paste (carefully, to make sure you don't use too much)
-Add salt and a VERY small amount of soy sauce, to taste
-Cover with lid, let simmer until vegetables are cooked.
Serve!

Shepherd's pie
Ingredients:
-Onions
-Celery
-Carrots
-Cannelini beans
-Frozen peas
-Potatoes
-Canned tomato
-Mashed potates, instant (2 packages)
-Shredded cheddar
-Flour
-Salt
-Pepper
Directions:
-Add oil to a large pot
-Dice onions, and add to oil
-When onions are clear, add celery, carrots, peas and beans
-Add in tomato and diced potatoes

-When potatoes are cooked, turn off the stove
-Add flour (as needed) to "stew" portion to keep the consistency from being too soupy
-Make instant mashed potatoes according to instructions
-Layer vegetable mixture in a casserole pan
-Layer mashed potatoes on top
-Put shredded cheddar on top
-Bake in oven until top is golden brown

I also made Matar Paneer
A link to the recipe: http://leangreencookingmachine.blogspot.com/2013/11/matar-paneer-paneer-with-peas.html

 Double chocolate cake (from Betty Crocker cookbook)
It's also vegan!
Ingredients:
-1 and 2/3 cup all purpose flour **not self rising**
-1 cup granulated sugar
-1/4 cup cocoa
-1 teaspoon baking soda
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1 cup water
-1/3 cup vegetable oil
-1 teaspoon vinegar
-1/2 teaspoon vanilla
-1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Directions:
-Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, sugar, coca, baking soda, and salt in bowl. Mix in remaining ingredients except chocolate chips. Sprinkle chocolate chips over batter.
-Pour into greased cake pan (8x8x2)
-Bake until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, about 35-40 minutes. Sprinkle with powder sugar if desired.

 I don't have a picture of my exact cake, but this is pretty much what it will look like!
apeswithguns.blogspot.com

Enjoy! :-)

Chocolate Chip Pie

This pie always brings back memories for me of when my mom used to make it when I was a little kid. Its tastes like a combination of a brownie and a cookie and smells amazing while its baking! 

This recipe is pretty standard, but I used the one from http://www.verybestbaking.com, with some changes. I don't put nuts in my pie, since I don't like them. And I also add some vanilla extract, salt, and instant coffee to boost the chocolate flavor and balance out sweetness.

Hope you enjoy! :-)
Note: The picture is what the pie looks like before baking. Afterwards it looks something like this: 

Ingredients

• 1 unbaked 9-inch (4-cup volume) deep-dish pie shell *
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
• 1 cup (6 oz.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• Pinch of instant coffee
• Sweetened whipped cream or ice cream (optional)

Directions

PREHEAT oven to 325° F.

BEAT eggs in large mixer bowl on high speed until foamy. Beat in flour, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Beat in butter. Stir in morsels and nuts. Spoon into pie shell.

BAKE for 55 to 60 minutes or until knife inserted halfway between edge and center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack. Serve warm with whipped cream, if desired.

* If using frozen pie shell, use deep-dish style, thawed completely. Bake on baking sheet; increase baking time slightly. 

Matar Paneer (Paneer with Peas)

A favorite dish of mine since I was young, I recently made this dish for a party we had at our house and it was a hit! If you're not familiar with making Indian food, don't worry its not too hard! Simply follow these instructions:

Ingredients:
-1 large onion, diced
-4 tomatoes
-1 serrano (or jalapeno) chili
-ginger
-garlic
--All of the above will be ground together to make the paste for the sauce
-1 lb paneer (a type of cheese, you can find this at an Indian grocery store) cubed
-1 lb frozen peas
-turmeric
-salt
-paprika
-cumin
-coriander
-garam masala (also easy to find at an Indian grocery store)
-oil
-jeera
-fennel
- cilantro (for paste and garnish)

Directions:
1) Blend tomato, onion, chili, garlic, cilantro, and ginger together to make a paste.
2) Lightly pan fry the paneer with oil, drain.
3) Add fennel and jeera to oil.
4) When seeds splutter, add paste, salt, and turmeric.
5) Cover with lid.
6) When gravy and oil separate (check periodically for this) add in peas (and water if necessary, my frozen peas had enough water from being frozen).
7) Add other spices
8) When peas are cooked (not frozen but not mushy) add paneer
9) Mix together.
Enjoy! :-)

Candied Sweet Potatoes

This recipe came from AllRecipes.com, and made an amazing sweet potato casserole! Its kind of funny that we made this, since I was always curious about the dish but the rest of my family thought it sounded gross. Well they were wrong! Everyone loved it so much, that we're planning on making Sweet Potatoes every year!

INGREDIENTS:

4 pounds sweet potatoes, quartered 1 1/4 cups margarine 1 1/4 cups brown sugar

3 cups miniature marshmallows, divided ground cinnamon to taste ground nutmeg to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
2.	Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add potatoes and boil until slightly underdone, about 15 minutes. Drain, cool and peel.
3.	In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine margarine, brown sugar, 2 cups marshmallows, cinnamon and nutmeg. Cook, stirring occasionally, until marshmallows are melted.
4.	Stir potatoes into marshmallow sauce. While stirring mash about half of the potatoes, and break the others into bite-sized chunks. Transfer to prepared dish.
5.	Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and cover top evenly with remaining marshmallows. Return to oven and bake until marshmallows are golden brown.

Baked Potato and Chili

Ingredients:

Large baker potatoes   4

Pinto beans. 2 large cans

Tomato canned with chilli 1

Onion 1 diced

Anaheim pepper 1 diced

Frozen corn 1/2 cup

Garlic 2 cloves

Oil 2 tbsp

Chili powder 1/2 tsp

Salt

Black pepper

Cumin powder 1 tsp

Oregano  a couple of sprinkles

Paprika 1 tsp

Turn oven on to 375. Wash and scrub potatoes. 

Prick each potato with a fork a couple of times. Place potatoes on a cookie sheet and bake for about an hour. Potatoes are done when a steak knife can pierce it smoothly.

For chili

Use large pot. Add oil, garlic, onion, green pepper, Anaheim pepper and sauté. Add corn and sauté. When onions are translucent, add tomatoes. Add rinsed beans, all spices. Simmer till flavors meld when tasted.

Enjoy! :-)

Spaghetti with Peppers, Onions, Sausage and Steamed Broccoli

This was a really quick, yet also healthy and tasty meal!
The basics:
Ingredients:
-Spaghetti
-Sausage (vegetarian)
-1/2 and onion, diced
-Sweet Peppers

To Cook:
-Follow instructions for cooking spaghetti. While the pasta is cooking, chop vegetables and sausage and set aside (note some brands of sausage are really messy, so be prepared!)
-Drain Spaghetti
-In pasta pot, saute with oil, vegetables and peppers
-Add sauce (I used a combination of jarred sauce and canned tomatoes, if you do this, be sure to season more since the canned tomatoes have no seasoning but the jarred sauce is preseasoned)
-When sauteed (onions should be translucent) and sauce is added add pasta back in, and mix well.
For broccoli:
-Use "steam-in-a-bag" broccoli, follow instructions.
-Melt butter (1/4 stick)in a pan
-Once butter is melted, and broccoli is steamed, add both together, and season with salt, pepper
Serve the meal with cheese on the pasta if you would like and,
Enjoy! :-)