Two Happy Bellies

Martha Ministry January 2012

Our church has a group that gets together once in a while to make food and freeze it for times of need. Today was the first one they had since we joined and we (of course) volunteered to help out. The group would be making several dishes and packaging them for families of four, both main and desserts. If a family larger than four needs a meal, we just give them two.

Promptly at 9 AM we got to the building to receive our assignments. We started off with a penne pasta with spinach and sun-dried tomatoes, while chicken was baking to make chicken enchiladas verde. A beef and bean chile was also on the rotation while Tollhouse cookies, mock ice cream sandwiches, and frozen strawberry salad (dessert) were being created as well. With so many people showing up to help, we ended up also making baked spaghetti and three hours later the kitchen was clean with six pastas, six chiles, four enchiladas, and four baked spaghettis in the freezer. I did not see how many packages of desserts ended up finished but I sure did scoop a lot of muffin cups of strawberry salad so I'm sure there were quite a few of them as well.

All in all, it was a fun morning!

Lasagna Rolls

Normally I make Sloppy Joes with my Hearty Meat Sauce from the freezer however this time we decided to try the Lasagna Rolls recipe recommended as another one to try from the chapter "Once is Not Enough" in the WW magazine cookbook Two's Company (all recipes meant for two servings). They were really good!

• 1/2 C. low fat cottage cheese
• 1 T. grated fresh Romano cheese (we had Parm - that's what I used)
• 1/8 t. dried oregano
• 1/8 t. dried basil
• 1 1/2 C. Hearty Meat Sauce, divided
• 1 (10 oz.) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained, and squeezed dry
• 3 cooked lasagna noodles
• Cooking spray
• 1/2 C. tomato sauce
• 1/4 C. shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine cottage cheese, Romano cheese, oregano, and basil in a food processor or blender; process until smooth. Combine cheese mixture, 1/2 C. meat sauce, and spinach in a bowl; stir well.

Cut each lasagna noodle in half crosswise. Spread about 3 tablespoons spinach mixture on each noodle half, leaving a 1/4 inch border around edges.

Roll up each noodle, jelly-roll fashion, beginning at 1 narrow end.

Spoon remaining 1 cup meat sauce into a 1 quart casserole coated with cooking spray. Arrange rolls, seam sides down, over meat sauce.

Pour tomato sauce over rolls. Cover and bake at 350 degrees F. for 25 minutes. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Cover and bake an additional 5 minutes or until cheese melts.

Yield: 2 servings

While these were really good, we would make a few changes. First, they needed to cook a little longer before adding the cheese topping as they weren't hot yet. They were warm, but not hot. Second, pouring plain tomato sauce over the top could have been made better by seasoning the sauce. (I had worried about that, but wanted to try it as written first.) Third, we'll use four lasagna noodles next time. It was tight getting all the filling into just three noodles. All that to say, we will make these again . . .

Black Bean Soup

The recipe I meant to make is for a Black Bean Soup using black beans from the freezer. However, since the last time we made these beans, we used pinto beans I thought I'd be making a Pinto Bean Soup. Yet, oops! What I accidentally thawed was some leftover Spicy Bean Soup. So when I went to start the recipe I realized I had the wrong thawed product. Reaction? Hmm, let's try it with this and see how it goes . . . Verdict? Fabulous! (We still plan on making the Black Bean Soup with Spicy Pinto Beans in the next week or two.)

• 2 C. Spicy Black Beans with liquid, undrained
• 1 T. fresh lime juice
• 1/2 t. ground cumin
• 1 (10 oz.) can tomatoes with green chiles, drained (I didn't)
• 2 T. chopped fresh cilantro, divided
• 2 T. reduced fat sour cream

Place 1 cup beans, lime juice, cumin, and tomatoes in a food processor or blender; process until pureed. Pour pureed bean mixture into a saucepan; stir in remaining beans. Place over medium heat, and cook 2 minutes or until warm. Remove from heat; stir in 1 1/2 T. cilantro. Ladle soup into bowls; top with sour cream, and sprinkle with remaining cilantro.Yield: 2 servings

NOTE: I had to post this early AM so as to link over to a friend's new game on Fridays . . . ick for the early hours!

Chile-Corn Muffins

One of the items I like to make for the freezer is chile-corn muffins which go great with chili. I don't make them everytime I stock the freezer, but this last time I did. Apparently it has been a while since I've made them as Aaron didn't remember them from before. For anyone interested - here you go:

• 1 C. yellow cornmeal
• 1 C. all-purpose flour
• 1 T. sugar
• 2 t. baking powder
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1 t. chili powder
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1 (8 oz.) carton plain fat-free yogurt (try finding an 8 ounce carton these days - I double the recipe and use a full 16 oz. carton!)
• 1/3 C. fat-free milk
• 1/4 C. egg substitute (um, yeah, we use farm fresh eggs . . .)
• 2 T. vegetable oil
• 1/8 t. hot sauce
• 1 (8 3/4 oz.) can whole-kernel corn, drained (or frozen or fresh)
• 1 (4.5 oz.) can chopped green chiles, drained
• Cooking spray

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, chili powder, and salt in a medium bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Combine yogurt, milk, egg, oil, and hot sauce; add to cornmeal mixture, stirring just until moist. Stir in corn and green chiles.
3. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400 degrees F. for 16 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from pan immediately.

Yield: 14 muffins (seriously?? who has a muffin tin that holds 14 muffins? and why would I dirty a second tin for only 2 muffins? which would be another reason to double the recipe which then gives me 24 regular sized muffins and several mini muffins to boot.)

To freeze: Let muffins cool completely on a wire rack. Place in a labeled zip-top freezer bag OR wrap in heavy-duty foil and label.

To serve: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Remove desired number of muffins, place on baking sheet, and bake for 25 minutes or until thoroughly heated. OR place 2 muffins in microwave oven; defrost 1 minute - microwave at high 30 seconds or until thoroughly heated.

They went GREAT with our dinner of Chili tonight. I have to say, this past time I made chili, I had run out of chili seasoning so I made some up in a hurry. I accidentally used smoked paprika instead of our regular paprika and we will continue to make that same mistake. The smoky flavor that permeates this chili is fantastic!

Sausage and Black Bean Soup

One of my favorite go-to soup recipes comes from one of my standard go-to cookbooks: Weight Watchers 5 Ingredient 15 Minute Cookbook from 2002 (9780848725259). What is so funny is this was a random "whim" purchase from a used bookstore. I have really gotten my money's worth from this one! Anyway, this soup recipe is very basic although I've added a few of my own touches to it. Recipe as written follows:

• 6 oz. turkey kielbasa sausage, sliced
• 1 C. diced green, red, or yellow bell pepper
• 1 (14.25 oz) can fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
• 1 (15 oz) can no-salt-added black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/4 C. picante sauce or salsa
• Chopped cilantro (optional)

Coat a medium saucepan with cooking spray; place over medium-high heat until hot. Add sausage, and saute 1 minute or until sausage begins to brown. Add pepper; saute 1 minute. Add broth; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low; add beans and picante sacue, and simmer, covered, 5 minutes. Top with cilantro, if desired. Yield: 4 (1 C.) servings at 2 points. Serve with Speedy Quesadillas.

 
However, I can only find sausage in a 14 oz. package, like my food spicy, plus enjoy a more substantial serving. And it reheats well. So I "double" the recipe - "quadruple" the salsa - and use black beans from the freezer. By doing this I get 4 (2 C.) servings at 3 points. Plus the points from the quesadillas.

Note: These are points on the old WW system. I have not converted any of my recipes to the new Points Plus system.

Thawed Beer Bread

If you remember us talking about freezing leftover beer for a future beer bread experiment, I have to say it was a tasty success. This time we threw in a cup of shredded cheddar cheese and had problems getting it out of the loaf pan. So we just ate from there . . .

 
Very tasty with our steak and salad and roasted Brussels Sprouts, made even tastier by a new discovery we were introduced to up in KY: balsamic glaze. I'll tell you about that in just a moment . . .

Cranberry Apple Casserole with Pictures

I'm so excited I found my pictures for the recipe posted here that I'm going to post them anyway.

Here is the fruit all nicely tossed and glistening with sugar . . .

 
Now for the topping all ooey gooey . . .

 
Last a (blurry) look at it layered in the dish . . .

 
Oh, now I want to go make some more. Enjoy and don't drool on the keyboard!

Thanksgiving Leftover Post - Cranberry Apple Casserole

Oops! I'm embarrased. I totally forgot to ever post the Cranberry Apple Casserole mentioned here. I was given permission and even though I can't find any pictures, I do want you to imagine how utterly tasty this was.

• 4 C. fresh washed uncooked cranberries (roughly 2 bags)
• 6 C. peeled and diced Granny Smith apples (5 or 6)
• 2 C. sugar
• 1 C. brown sugar
• 1/3 C. flour
• 2 C. old-fashioned oats
• 1/2 C. chpped pecans (optional)
• 1 1/2 C. melted butter

Mix cranberries, apples, and white sugar. Spread in a greased 9 by 13 pan. Mix rest of ingredients, then crumble and distribute over fruit. Refrigerate or freeze, bringing back to room temperature before baking 90 minutes at 275 degrees F. Makes 10 or so servings.

Can I just say how much I love recipes that can be made in advance? This one is great. We used it as a side dish, however it could totally have been dessert, and leftovers made a great breakfast! While we made it for Thanksgiving, I would totally use it on a Christmas dinner table as well. Now that we've made it once, it will definitely be in our standard rotation. Yay for another success!

Cottage Pie

As promised yesterday, I want to tell you about the Cottage Pie (sometimes known as Shepherd's Pie) we made using leftovers from Thanksgiving and some pot roast we had in the freezer.

 
I looked at a few different recipes I had in various cookbooks, however ended up making it up as I went along. I took some of our leftover (not yet cooked) carrots along with some fresh celery and fresh green onion we had in the fridge. I chopped them up and sauted them in some olive oil. Then I added the leftover green bean juice from our favorite Winter green bean recipe (Summer favorite is the grilled one). I let those simmer away while I shredded the thawed meat which was then added to the pot along with the rest of the green beans.

Tangent: We put those green beans in at 7 AM and by the time we ate around 3:30 PM, they were beyond fabulous!

Next I poured all that goodness into a dish.

 
I had some mashed potatoes in the fridge and heated up just enough of them to spread across the top of the casserole. Then I sprinkled some cheddar cheese across the top and put it under the broiler long enough for the mashed potatoes and cheese to form a crust. We enjoyed it so much I promptly called my mother to tell her how wonderful our dinner had been!

 
I almost wish I still had more pot roast in the freezer . . .

MM - Tortellini with Cherry Tomatoes and Corn (or not)

It was one of those nights when we didn't want to go to the grocery store, yet didn't really have a plan for dinner. We had a vague recollection of this meal yet couldn't quite remember everything it called for and were too lazy to go look it up. I have been going through my recipe ideas for a while now, trying to clean out the ones we are never going to use, and had a copy of something from somewhere for Tortellini with Cherry Tomatoes and Corn which is supposed to be a side dish but with just two of us and some modifications we thought we had a plan.

 
Our results were very tasty. Here I'll give you what we actually made and maybe down the road we'll make the side dish we used for inspiration.

• 1 (9 oz.) package fresh cheese tortellini, cooked
• 2 C. frozen shredded summer squash, thawed (shredded and frozen ourselves from summer bounty)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 T. garlic
• olive oil
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 2 T. fresh Parmesan cheese

Aaron sauted up the garlic and onions in olive oil, then threw in the tomatoes for a quick heat threw. Next he tossed that with the cooked pasta, sprinkled it with salt and pepper, than topped our dishes with fresh Parmesan cheese. With some breadsticks, our bellies were happy.