Aunt Peggy's Lasagna

This is pretty much the only lasagna recipe in my family, and it's awesome. I don't know where my aunt got it, but I wanted to share it with everyone.

1 lb. ground beef
9 lasagna noodles
3 tbsp olive oil
1 19oz can stewed tomatoes
2 8oz cans tomato sauce
1 6oz can tomato paste
3 cloves garlic (minced)
1 bay leaf (optional)
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp basil
1 small tub cottage cheese
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 beaten egg
1 package sliced mozzarella
salt and pepper to taste

Cook ground beef in a large skillet, and drain. Add stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, garlic, bay leaf, oregano, basil, salt and pepper. Set aside.
Cook lasagna noodles according to package and drain.
Combine the egg and the parmesan cheese in a bowl.
In a pan, layer the following: Sauce, 3 noodles, part of the cottage cheese, part of the parmesan cheese. Cover with 1/3 of the mozzarella. Repeat this two more times. Cover with the remaining sauce (if there is any) and mozzarella cheese.
Cover with tin foil and bake in a 350F oven for 30 minutes. Remove tin foil and bake an additional 15 minutes. Let sit for 10 minutes prior to cutting, so it firms up.

Homemade Deep Dish Pizza

Yeah okay so anybody can make a pizza. However, Alex and I both absolutely love the way I've been making my homemade pizzas, so I wanted to share it with you. You can, of course, substitute any of the toppings for toppings of your choice.

For the dough:

2 packages of Compliments pizza dough mix
1 cup hot water

Follow steps on the packages of dough mix. Essentially, put the two packages of mix in a medium sized bowl, add a cup of hot water. Stir with a fork until it's all mixed together, then let it sit for 10 minutes (or longer). Grease a deep dish pizza pan and oil your hands. Put the dough onto the pan and spread it out, stretching it over the whole pan and up the sides.

Toppings:

1 small can of pizza sauce
Sliced pepperoni
Sliced mushrooms
Chopped onion
Chopped green pepper
Shredded mozzarella cheese

Pour the can of sauce on the dough and spread it out over the whole bottom of the pan. Cover with pepperoni, mushrooms, onion and green pepper. Cover all of that with the shredded cheese.

Bake pizza in a 450F oven for approx. 18 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes before cutting.

Adventures in Baby-Led Weaning Part 4

So Charlie is now 7 months old. We've been doing baby-led weaning for about 5 weeks, and it's pretty cool how he definitely loves some things, definitely does not love others, and is on the fence about even more, ha ha.

We can honestly say he's our kid. Both Alex and I are huge meat eaters, and so is Charlie. He devours every piece of meat we give him. He's had the following:

Chicken
Pork (both ground pork in spaghetti sauce and pork chops)
Ham
Bacon
Beef (ground beef and steak/roast/stew)
Haddock
Scallops
Partridge

So far his favorite vegetable is carrots. He's tried peas, green beans, turnip and broccoli as well. He wasn't a fan of the green beans or peas, but he did eat some turnip and broccoli without spitting it all out, so I guess he likes them. He also will eat potatoes, but he makes faces whenever I give him some. LOL. He'd prefer them in the form of french fries, but he can't eat those all the time, ha ha!

He didn't like bananas when I had him try them, but he does love banana muffins, so I'll try him on banana again when I get groceries next. He also likes peaches, which makes him more like Alex than me (I hate peaches, I have always hated peaches...Mom even wrote it in my baby book). Soon we'll be trying apple, pineapple and maybe pears.

We gave him a bit of chocolate ice cream the other night. I wish I had been able to get his reaction on camera. It was hilarious. He's never had anything cold before, so the ice cream was a shock. He made this really "OMG BRAIN FREEZE!" face, but once he got used to it, he loved it. He also had a little bit of white cake and frosting last night and of course loved both.

I don't know if I'm going about it the wrong way or not, but when it comes to meat, I actually break off really small pieces and put them in his mouth myself right now. If I don't, he will put the entire thing in his mouth and I don't like that. I know he needs to learn how much he can fit in his mouth, but I figure we'll get there as he gets older, and we have lots of time. We're definitely in no rush, as I want him to still get most of his nutrients from breast milk.

It's definitely awesome watching him try new things and see the faces he makes when he tries them. He pretty much makes the same face for everything, but the only things he's really spit back out are the banana, the green beans and the peas. LOL.

Guess we must be doing something right. :)

Spicy Bean-Less Chili

I found this recipe online while looking for a bean-less chili recipe to try. Alex loved it, but in following the recipe, spice-wise, I found it way too spicy for my tastes. I will definitely be doing it again, but will lessen the amount of spices. I'll give you the original recipe and then say the things I did differently (I did modify it slightly).

1 lb lean ground beef
1 cup diced celery
1 can crushed tomatoes (28 oz)
1 small can diced green chilies
1/4 cup chopped raw onion
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 teaspoons ground cumin
6 teaspoons chili powder

Brown ground beef and drain.
Add all ingredients to crock pot and stir. Set on high for 2 hours or low for 4 hours.

What I did differently: I left out the celery, green chilies and salt. I used one onion (didn't measure it so it was likely more than what the recipe calls for). I added about a half cup of chopped green pepper and 4 diced mushrooms. I followed the spice instructions exactly, but next time I'm planning on using 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1 teaspoon of cumin and 3 teaspoons of chili powder, then adding more chili powder if needed. I cooked it on low for 5 hours before I had any of it. Alex pointed out this evening that it was less spicy today after it had sat overnight.

Shake-n-Bake Coating

Everybody knows the easiest way to make lovely baked chicken is to use shake-n-bake. The stuff comes in a box at the grocery store, and yes, it's good. But I'm one for experimenting, and I never just use the plain boxed stuff anymore.

1/2 packet of store bought shake-n-bake
1/4 cup bread crumbs
2 tablespoons crushed almonds
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon parsley
1/2 teaspoon oregano

Alternately, instead of using bread crumbs, I have also used 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. It's absolutely delicious either way, and I recommend it fully. Or better yet, do your own shake-n-bake experimenting and let me know what you did and how it turned out!

Alex's Chicken Fried Steak

I'm not entirely sure why this is called chicken fried steak when it has absolutely nothing to do with chicken of any sort, but I can say this. It is absolutely freaking delicious and I highly recommend it. Alex made this and his stuffed potatoes tonight to give me a night off cooking (isn't he sweet).

To start with, you will need 3 bowls.

Bowl one:
1/4 cup flour

Bowl two:
4 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons water
1 egg
Whip these ingredients together.

Bowl three:
1/4 cup bread crumbs
Pinch mustard powder
Pinch sage
Pinch oregano
Pinch garlic powder
Salt and pepper to taste

He used two 1/4 inch thick sirloin steaks (they were about 6 oz each).

Dip steak in flour. Then dip it in the egg mixture. Finally, dip it in the bread crumb mixture. Fry on medium-high heat for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes on each side.

Optionally, if you want the steak to really fall apart when you eat it, tenderize it first. And of course, if you have more steak, you may need more of the ingredients.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

This is my mother's recipe. I'm not sure where she got it. I can, however, tell you that I hate zucchini, but I absolutely love this cake. So it must be good.

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Mix above ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

3/4 cup soft butter or margarine
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups coarsely shredded zucchini (unpeeled)
1/2 to 1 cup milk (optional)

Beat together butter and sugar until well blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in vanilla and zucchini. Alternately stir dry ingredients with milk into the zucchini mixture.

Pour into greased and floured 10 inch tube pan or 2 loaf pans. Bake in a 350f oven for 1 hour (50 minutes for loaf pans).

Glaze:

2 cups icing sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix together and beat until smooth. Drizzle over warm cake.

*Mom doesn't cook with salt any more than I do, so she probably didn't use the full teaspoon of salt. Also, she says the milk is optional because the zucchini is usually moist enough, but if it's not you would add some milk.

Peanut Butter Cookies

This recipe came from my grandmother, and is my favorite peanut butter cookie recipe of all time. I just made these for the first time myself today and wanted to share the recipe with everyone. If you're looking for a good, easy peanut butter cookie recipe, this is the one for you.

1 cup shortening
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup peanut butter
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup fine flaked unsweetened coconut (optional)

In a bowl, cream shortening until fluffy. Add white and brown sugar gradually and mix until creamy. Beat in eggs, one at a time and mix well. Add peanut butter, blend well.

In a separate bowl, stir flour, baking soda and salt. Add peanut butter mixture and mix thoroughly. Add coconut if desired.

Drop dough onto ungreased pans. Press flat with fork (dipped in water).

Bake at 375F for 12-15 minutes.

(Note: I didn't use the coconut, and didn't use as much salt as it calls for. Otherwise I followed the recipe exactly.)