Food Friday: Lasagna!

I love pasta...spaghetti, lasagna, manicotti, ravioli...I love it all.  I mostly make spaghetti at home because its quick and easy.  Lately I have been making lasagna more often because of this awesome recipe that I found in the Jarratt Volunteer Fire Department Ladies Auxiliary Cookbook.  The cookbook contains recipes from men and women in the community and I have found lots of recipes that I use regularly.  If you have one you should definitely pull it out and use it.  This lasagna recipe is actually Laci Lynch's and it has become my go-to when I want to make lasagna.

 

The recipe actually calls to use a 9x13 dish but I somehow manage to stuff as much of the ingredients into an 8x8 dish since its just for Michael and I.  I have made it in a 9x13 dish before but it just seems like we have so much leftover.  When I make it in a smaller dish it usually all gets eaten in a couple of days.

 

Ingredients:

2 cans Hunts Garlic Tomato Sauce (I buy Hunts Garlic, Basil, and Oregano Tomato Sauce and I had to get 4 cans because I could only find the small cans)

1 1/2-2 pounds hamburger (I use a package of ground chicken)

Lasagna noodles (I use the no boiling required type)

1 Large Container Cottage Cheese (If you are using the smaller baking dish, you won't need the whole container)

2 Cups Shredded Cheese (Sometimes I use cheddar and sometimes mozarella, or a mixture of the two if I have it.  Both are really good.)

 

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and brown your ground meat...

Pour a layer of tomato sauce in the bottom of your dish...just enough to cover.

Add a layer of noodles on top.

Next a layer of meat.  I used 1/2 of mine.

Next a layer of cottage cheese and then a layer of shredded cheese.

Then another layer of tomato sauce...I may be a little heavy handed with the sauce...I love tomato sauce.  You may want to go a little more light :)

More noodles...

Another layer of meat and sauce...

And a final layer of cottage cheese and shredded cheese.  I could be heavy handed with the cheese too.  Its not a good lasagna unless your ingredients are bubbling out of the top :) 

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.  You can cover it for about 50 minutes and then uncover for the last 10 to brown the top.

OK so is it just me or does it look burnt?  haha...I don't know why this picture showed up like this but it turned out perfectly and was delicious!  This recipe is a little more loose (it could be all the sauce and cheese that I loaded in there) than some lasagnas but it tastes so good.   I made this on Tuesday of this week and it was all gone Wednesday night....I'd say it was a success, especially considering that Michael doesn't like leftovers! 

 If you own a JVFD Ladies Auxiliary Cookbook, or any cookbook put together by local people, pull that thing out and use it...there are lots of great recipes to be tried! 

Food Friday: The Best Cornbread Ever

I did a previous post on how much we love Prince George Barbeque and how awesome their cornbread is.  It is so good its like dessert!  This recipe is the closest to their cornbread that I can find.  It is really good and really easy.  I found this recipe on pinterest and the original pinner called it Firehouse Cornbread.

 

To start you will need 2 cups of Bisquick, 6 tablespoons of corn meal, and 1/2 cup of sugar...preheat oven to 350 degrees

Stir until well blended

Next you will need 2 eggs, 1/2 cup of butter (melted), and 1 cup of milk

Melt the butter and then add to the dry ingredients you have already mixed

Add the milk first, stir, and then add 2 eggs (you don't want the hot butter to "scramble" your eggs)

Stir until mixed completely



Grease an 8X8 dish with either butter or non-stick spray

Pour into your greased dish and bake for 35 minutes at 350 degrees

The finished product had already been dug into before I could take a picture...Michael said oops...well this will just show how good it really is!

Its great warmed over the next day too so you can still enjoy it with leftovers.  I made it with a London Broil, carrots, and potatoes in the crock pot.  Be warned...I'm pretty certain that this is NOT healthy but I know for a fact that it is highly addictive!  

Coconut Custard



I mentioned in an earlier post that since Kellan is 10 months old now, there were some new foods that I wanted to add to his diet.  In the Super Nutrition for Babies book that I'm reading, I found a recipe for Coconut Custard.  For the recipe you need coconut milk that has no extra additives.  We looked everywhere and could not find JUST coconut milk.  The book also offered directions for making your own coconut milk from an actual coconut.  I couldn't imagine that it would be too difficult so we bought a coconut to give it a try.

 

Saturday afternoon while Kellan was taking a nap I decided to break into this coconut.  Wow.  It. was. a. job!!!  When Michael got home I had managed to break the coconut in half but didn't know what to do from there.  Lucky for me, but unfortunately for you, I didn't take any pictures of my struggle with this coconut.  Being the  ridiculous resourceful person that I am, I used a kitchen mallet to beat tap a butterknife into the coconut shell.  Once it was far enough into the center, I pulled the knife out and then drained the coconut water into glass jars to store it.

 



Coconut water is an excellent drink for babies due to its lauric acid content. It contains natural electrolytes and is great at preventing dehydration and helping to treat diarrhea. 

Thankfully Michael got home and helped me separate the shell from the meat inside.

This is what the pieces look like separated from the outer shell.  Once they are out I used a regular peeler to remove the brown inner shell from the white coconut meat.

Once the coconut meat is broken up into smaller pieces, we put them into the blender.

And blended them up.  After they are well grinded we spooned some of the coconut into a cheese cloth.

Michael squeezed the coconut (wrapped in the cheesecloth) over the measuring cup to squeeze out all of the milk.  This was also quite a job.  I know...we're crazy.  Or I'm crazy and I'm slowly making him crazy too :)

Now that I actually have the coconut milk...here is the recipe for Coconut Custard from Super Nutrition for Babies.

Ingredients
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup melted butter (cooled)
1/4 of a mashed well ripe banana
3 large egg yolks

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees.  Go ahead and melt the 1/4 cup of butter so that it will be cooled when you are ready to mix it in.

Mix together 1/2 cup coconut milk, 1/4 of a mashed banana, and 3 egg yolks

Make sure your melted butter has completely cooled.  When cooled add it to your mixture and stir in until blended.  *Note* If you add the butter while it is hot it will "scramble" the eggs...I may or may not know this from personal experience.

Use a stick of butter to lightly grease the insides of 4 cupcake wrappers (I did too many, 4 is just right)

Pour your mixture into each wrapper.  The custard doesn't rise so you don't have to worry about saving room at the top.  I filled each wrapper until just below the top.

Next, fill a large pan (big enough that your muffin pan can fit inside) about halfway full of water.  Place the muffin pan inside the pan of water.  This creates a water bath that will make sure the custard cooks evenly.

Bake for 45 minutes

When they are finished baking, take them out to cool.  Once cool, store them in the refrigerator.  You can refrigerate the cups for up to 5 days.

This dish contains lauric acid, enzymes, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals (all from the coconut milk), making it extremely healthy for baby. 

 

And of course, our little piggy loves it :)

Kellan's Sweet Potato Crackers

 

 

Kellan is now 10 months old and I am still absolutely loving this book.  It has yet to lead me astray and every time I research some of its suggestions for specific foods, their preparation, and a timeline for when to introduce them, there is a ton of information that backs up their recommendations.  The ladies that wrote this book know their stuff...and its all in one easy to follow book. 

 

In the 10-12 month section it gives a recipe for Sweet Potato Crackers.  They are great to have on hand for an "on-the-go" snack.  They are super easy to make and much more nutritious than store bought crackers or puffs.  They also are gluten free and salt free.  Yes, they are more time consuming but by now you have all figured out that I'm crazy and love nothing more than spending all of my free time making baby food. :)

 

 

Here is the recipe for Sweet Potato Crackers from Super Nutrition for Babies:

 

 

Ingredients

 

1 Egg Yolk

Pinch nutmeg

1/2 cup previously baked sweet potato

2 teaspoons water

1/4 cup coconut flour

Butter

 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees



Ingredients: butter, water, sweet potato, egg yolk, nutmeg, coconut flour

Lightly grease the pan or wax paper (wax paper will make flipping the dough easier)

Mix egg yolk, coconut flour, water, sweet potato and nutmeg together until dry and wet ingredients are well blended

With WET hands mix the ingredients together one final time and form dough into a ball. (You don't want to handle dough TOO much or it will get tough)

Press dough flat to 1/8 inch thickness

Is that 1/8 of an inch?  I don't know!  Next time I will try to get it a little thinner so the crackers will be more crisp.

Set oven to 325 degrees and bake for 15-20 minutes. 

I started out at 15 minutes but put it back in for an additional 5 because the dough was still this dark orange color.  After 5 more minutes it had baked to a light orange color.   Flip and bake the other side for another 15-20 minutes.

The dough should be crispy like crackers.  Mine turned out ok for my first try but I will try to get my next batch more "cracker-like."

Let cool and then cut or break into bite sized pieces...ready for baby to enjoy!

THIS baby definitely approves!  The whole batch is gone in just 3 days of using this as an "on-the-go" snack!