Bruschetta

The Mr and I were SO full from all the food we ate yesterday, that we just wanted to snack for dinner... Ended up just making some bruschetta and eating some prosciutto too ~

French baguette or Italian bread
2 tomatoes
1 tablespoon minced garlic
Chopped basil
Dash of salt and pepper


Slice up the bread in thin slices

Line up the bread on foil to broil... I used my toaster oven... Cooked 1 minute and then flipped it over for another minute.... all depends on the oven you have

While the bread is toasting, I diced up my tomatoes

I took out the middle part because it makes it so watery

Hopefully you have read the whole blog before you started cooking... =) because you need to watch the bread while you prepare everything else........ after the bread is done (above), take it out to add the garlic and olive oil

Brush the garlic on the bread..... depending on how much you like garlic put more or less~ then add a dot of olive oil on top and pop it back into the broiler to make it crispy

Toast it until it's crispy..... toast as you like~ we like ours a little more on the burnt / toasted side... this is all going on while you do the tomatoes~! Back to the tomatoes..........

I used a little basil (see below) wash and then take the leaves off and chop off and chop it up~

You can add the tomatoes raw or cook them a bit.......I ended up cooking it a bit. Heated up the pan with some olive oil~ then add the tomatoes and basil

Don't cook it too long~ add some salt and pepper and then when you are ready plate and serve! I drizzled some balsamic vinegar on top too

Penne A La Vodka

Ingredients:
1 lb Penne pasta noodles
1/2 onion chopped
1 tablespoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon red chili flakes
3/4 can (28 oz) tomato sauce
2 italian sausage
4-6 tablespoons cream
2 tablespoons vodka


Put some water aside to boil the pasta noodles.  Once boiling add the noodles cook. Remove from the heat and leave to the side in a strainer.


Heat up some olive oil in a pan and add in the onions, italian sausage, garlic and chili flakes together. i didn't have sausage this day so you won't see it in the pictures, but that's what i usually add in there as well.

 

Next mix in the tomato sauce and mushrooms to the mix... 

 

Mix everything together for about 2 minutes on low heat. Then add in 2 tables spoon of cream to the mix for around 3 minutes. Add in 2 tablespoons of vodka and stir around.

 

Cook for about 2 minutes stirring occasionally.  Add in 2 more table spoons of cream and mix on low heat for 3 more minutes;

Now taste the sauce to see how you think about it. Some people like it a bit sweeter, so you can add 2 more table spoons of cream if you like.

Add in the noodles to this sauce mix and blend together. Taste the sauce and adjust as you want (more pepper for spice, cream for sugar etc).

And then enjoy your pasta!

Meat Lasagna

Ingredients:
Half onion, copped
1 lb ground beef
1 teaspoon garlic powder
26 oz tomato sauce
mushrooms, chopped
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 cup water
1 cup cottage cheese
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
1 egg beaten
1 teaspoon oil
1 teaspoon salt
shredded mozzarella cheese
9 lasagna noodles

Steps:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees for baking

Cook chopped onions, ground beef (i use organic) and garlic power in some oil (i use olive) in a pan.  Cook until meat is a little bit over medium cooked.

Next, mix in the tomato sauce (i used the crushed tomatoes belows), mushrooms, water and oregano and mix together

 

 

While this is cooking, in a separate bowl mix together the cottage cheese, parmesan cheese, egg, oil (i use olive), and salt together.

Get your lasagna pan ready. The mix I have is for a pan holding 3 lasagna noodles per layer (so noodles are side by side, all edges touching the pan) and 3 layers tall.

Coat the lasagna pan in some oil.  Then start the layers!

Put 1/3 of the sauce mix from the stove in the lasanga pan

Put 3 noodles side by side

1/3 of sauce mis

3 noodles

Cheese mix from above

Remaining 1/3 of sauce

Top everything with a thin layer of mozzarella cheese

  

 Pop this in the oven for about 20 - 25 minutes.  Take a taste at one of the corners to see if the noodles have been cooked. Once they have, take it out and let it cool down. I put it on the counter with some foil on top loosely.

Letting the lasagna cool down helps "put" the whole thing together so it won't crumble.
This is one of those dishes that are great the day of but also any other day. Just pop it back in the oven to reheat and it's still very yummy!!!