Baked Penne Bolognese

I came across this ground beef and pasta recipe while looking for Weight Watchers recipes. I love WW recipes... I am very rarely disappointed. This is only about 260 cal for 1 1/4 c! I was very full after this. This made for great leftovers as well. I shredded and sauteed some zucchini with it and it was super delish.

1 box Ronzoni Smart Taste penne pasta
1 lb lean ground beef
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 small diced onion
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
1 large diced zucchini
44 oz Italian crushed tomatoes (it's 1 1/2 cans of the really big cans)
1 tsp red pepper flakes (I used 2 tsp!)
8 oz container of fresh mozzarella pearls packed in water
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and begin boiling the water for your pasta. First, you need to make your bolognese sauce. Spray a large pan with cooking spray and brown the ground beef for about 5 minutes. Then add in the onion and garlic and continue to cook for an additional 3-4 minutes. Add the crushed tomatoes, zucchini, basil, salt, and pepper. Let simmer for ten minutes.

As the bolognese simmers, cook your pasta in salted boiling water until just al dente (about 7-8 minutes for most pasta). Drain pasta and set aside. Run cool water over it if the bolognese still needs to simmer to stop the pasta from cooking further.

Return the pasta to the pot and mix together with the bolognese sauce. Add in 1/2 of the mozzarella pearls, 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese, red pepper, and additional salt and pepper to taste. Mix well. Pour into a large, greased baking dish and place the remaining mozzarella pearls on top, then sprinkle the rest of the Parmesan cheese on top. Cook for 30 minutes until the cheese begins to brown and bubble. Serve immediately.

Original recipe found here.

Amazing Rainbow Cake

First of all, this is the most beautiful cake ever! I saw the rainbow cake on Pinterest (of course!) and I knew I had to give it a try. I made it for my mom's birthday and everyone was impressed! I do think you should read all the tips several times before making the cake though. I think I read through the original recipe tips/comments/etc probably 5 times prior to making this cake. I really didn't want to mess it up! I'm listing the most important ones below.

A few things:

- The original recipe uses cake mix with Sprite Zero instead of oil, water, and eggs. I'm sure that would still taste delicious, but I went for regular cake with all the normal ingredients. So if you want to use Sprite Zero with your cake mix, look at the original recipe.

- This is why in my pictures (compared to the original recipe) the batter is much thinner. The Sprite Zero gives you a thicker, lumpier batter.

- Make sure to buy the Betty Crocker Gel Food Coloring. The gel is more vibrant, and you don't have to use as much! In my Kroger, it wasn't with the other food coloring. They had it with the cupcake liners, candles, cookie frosting, etc. It comes with red, blue, green, and yellow. I just mixed colors to make the purple and orange.

- The original recipe used a frosting made from Cool Whip and pudding. I just bought Betty Crocker Whipped White Frosting (2 containers).

- I recommend checking out the original recipe for excellent step-by-step pictures! Also, the girl is hilarious, and you'll probably get a kick out of reading her post/directions.

You'll Need:
2 boxes white cake mix (I used Betty Crocker White Super Moist)
6 eggs, 2 1/2 c water, 1/2 c oil (unless you're using Sprite Zero)
Gel food coloring
frosting (you can use whatever kind you want!)

Directions:
1) First, make your cake mix according to the package directions. Then, spoon about 1 1/2 cups of batter into 6 different bowls and add your food coloring, blending well.

2) Now, spray your cake pans well. I used two 9" round pans. In the first pan, you're going to put red, orange, then yellow. But it's important that you use about 2/3 of the total batter for the first color in the pan - in this case, red. Otherwise, your last color you put on top will dominate the cake.

3) So get your red, and pour about 2/3 of the total batter into your pan. Make sure you pour it in the middle. You should just start to get pretty geometric circles of batter. Then get your orange, and pour that right into the middle of the big red circle. Pour about a cup of the orange, but I just estimated. Then, get your yellow and pour about another cup of that right into the middle of the orange circle.

4) Now, you're going to switch to your second pan to use the other 3 colors. According to the original recipe, this is so your two cakes end up being the same size. So now, just like you did with the red, pour about 2/3 of the total purple batter into the second pan. Then get your blue, and pour about a cup of that into the middle of the purple circle. Next comes green, which should be poured (about a cup of it) into the middle of the blue circle. Now your two pans look very pretty... but they're about to get even prettier!

5) Ok, now go back to your pan with the red, orange, and yellow - you're going to finish it up. Pour your green into the middle of the yellow circle. I did end up with a little batter left over in each of my 6 bowls... just because I was being careful. Then, pour your blue into the middle of the green circle, and then your purple in the middle of the green circle. Done with that pan! It will look beautiful.

6) Next pan! Finish it up by pouring your yellow into the middle of the green, then orange into the middle of the yellow, and last your red into the middle of the orange circle. Look at how awesome they will look!

7) Amazing!! Time to bake them now. Bake according to your package directions. I think mine was 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. Of course they're done when you insert a toothpick into the middle and it comes out clean. Let them cool a while in the pans. Then, carefully remove the cakes and let them cool on a wire rack.

8) Once completely cool, go ahead and assemble and frost your cake. It will be VERY hard waiting to cut into it... but definitely worth the wait! Everyone will be amazed. Enjoy your super awesome cake.

Original recipe found here.

Eggplant Roll-Ups

My mom has got eggplant in her garden, so I found another way to cook eggplant. This is a Rachael Ray recipe, but I tried to cut back on the olive oil a little by using olive oil spray instead. These were super yummy. Oh, and I even used my mom's homemade pesto for these. :) We had these with roasted okra, also from Mom's garden - so basically, our whole meal came from the garden! Awesome! Remember, it's Meatless Monday!

1 large eggplant (about 1 3/4 pounds), cut lengthwise into 8 slices
salt/pepper
4 large eggs 
1/2 c pesto 
2 c Panko bread crumbs 
olive oil spray
3/4 cup part-skim ricotta cheese 
1/3 c grated pecorino-romano cheese 
1 c marinara sauce
  
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Season the eggplant with salt and pepper. In a wide, shallow bowl, whisk together the eggs and 2 tablespoons pesto. Pour the bread crumbs onto a large plate. Dip each eggplant slice into the egg mixture, then coat with the bread crumbs. 

In a large nonstick skillet, spray olive oil generously over medium-high heat. Working in batches, cook the eggplant until golden, 2 minutes on each side, spraying olive oil between each batch. Transfer the eggplant to a paper-towel-lined baking sheet. 

In a small bowl, combine the ricotta and 3 tablespoons pecorino-romano; season with salt and pepper. Add in remaining pesto and stir. Top each eggplant slice with about 2 tablespoons of the cheese mixture. Roll up each slice, and use a toothpick to hold. Bake until the eggplant is tender when pierced with a toothpick, about 10 minutes. 

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, bring the marinara sauce to a simmer. Serve the roll-ups with the sauce and remaining pecorino.

Original recipe found here. 

Quinoa Stuffed Bell Peppers

I'm all about quinoa lately, so I jumped at the chance to make these. Also, my mom has a bunch of green/red bell peppers from her garden, so I needed to use those. These were fabulous!

1 medium onion, chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

2 ribs celery, chopped

1 tbsp ground cumin

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped

1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes, drained, liquid reserved

1 (15 oz) can black beans, rinsed, drained

3/4 c quinoa

1 1/2 c water

1 1/2 c Pepper Jack cheese, shredded

4 large red bell peppers, halved lengthwise, ribs removed

salt and pepper

Heat oil in saucepan over medium heat.  Saute onion, celery and jalapeno for about 5 minutes, until soft, then add cumin and garlic and cook for an additional minute. Stir in drained tomatoes (reserving liquid) and cook for 5 minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated.

Stir in black beans, quinoa and 1 1/2 cups water.  Cover and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until quinoa is tender. Stir in 1 cup of cheese and season with salt and pepper, if desired.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and pour reserved liquid from tomatoes in the bottom of your baking dish.

Fill each halved bell pepper with 3/4 cup quinoa mixture and place in baking dish.  Cover with foil and bake 35 minutes.  Remove foil, top with remaining 1/2 cup of cheese, and bake for 5 additional minutes. Enjoy!

Original recipe found here.

Herbed Spaghetti Squash

This was my first time to try spaghetti squash and it was AMAZING!!!

After researching how to cook a spaghetti squash, I found you can either cut it in half before you cook it (which is super hard to do), or you can cook it whole, but it will just take longer.

I opted to stab my squash all over with a fork and bake it whole for 1 hour. I let it cool about 30 minutes and then easily cut it right in half! I let it cool a little while longer, then scraped out the middle part. Then I got a fork and just shredded it right up. It's crazy how it comes off in those spaghetti-like pieces! It's a ton too! I followed the directions here for baking a spaghetti squash.

I found this recipe from Emeril (Food Network) and it is so good! Once you've baked and shredded your squash, you're pretty much good to go and you just have to combine everything below in a large pan.

1 spaghetti squash, about 2 1/4 pounds
2 1/2 tbsp butter (I used I Can't Believe It's Not Butter)
2 1/2 tbsp finely chopped mixed soft herbs (I used basil, parsley, and chives)
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Let butter melt in pan over medium heat, add spaghetti squash, and all your herbs and spices. I let it cook/heat for 5-10 minutes.