Meatball Subs

INGREDIENTS
1 pound ground beef (use ground turkey for a healthier option)
3/4 cup bread crumbs (regular - not Italian)
2 teaspoons dried Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper (less for kiddos!)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs, beaten
1 French baguette
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 (26 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
4 slices provolone cheese (or whichever you prefer)

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a medium bowl, gently mix by hand the ground beef, bread crumbs, Italian seasoning, salt, red pepper, garlic, parsley, Parmesan cheese, and egg. Shape into 12 meatballs (can also make 24 smaller ones).
Place meatballs in a large saucepan, add all the spaghetti sauce. Cook over low-medium heat until meat is cooked. I leave it on low and do other work, checking occasionally. Meanwhile, cut the baguette in half lengthwise, and remove some of the bread from the inside to make a well for the meatballs. Brush with olive oil, and season with garlic powder and salt. Slip the baguette into the oven for 5 minutes at 350 degrees, or until lightly toasted. Spoon meatballs and sauce onto the baguette and top with slices of provolone cheese. Return to the oven for 2 to 3 minutes to melt the cheese. Cool slightly, cut into servings.

Low Fat Lasagna

Easy Low Fat Lasagna - Enough to feed the whole family for 3 dinners, easy!

1 lb. lean or extra lean uncooked ground beef (when you order from the Halal Meat Store, always ask for Sirloin or Filet to be ground so you get the leanest cut)
1 box plus a couple extra lasagna noodles (not the no cook kind)
8-oz. Lowfat Ricotta Cheese
8-oz. Lowfat Cottage Cheese
8-oz. Lowfat Mozzarella Cheese (Shredded)
1 Egg or two egg whites
1 jar + a little more low carb spaghetti sauce (I use Organic Marinara)


Mix the 3 cheeses & the egg together. Put a thin layer of sauce in the bottom of a baking pan, add a layer of noodles (uncooked), then another layer of sauce, then evenly crumble 1/3 of the RAW hamburger onto the sauce then 1/3 of the cheese mixture.

Add another layer of noodles and then *SQUASH* the noodles down evenly (don't break them) until cheese goo is pushing up through the spaces in between the noodles.

Repeat the whole process for 3 layers. Top with a final layer of noodles and sauce. Add 1/4 cup of water gently across the top and
cover with tin foil, shiny side down.

Bake at 350ºF. for 1 1/4 hours and let sit about 10 minutes before serving. If you use the convection setting, only need to bake 1 hour. Serve with Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.

Makes 16 moderate servings

Flax & sunflower seed bread

I am a whole grain bread nut! I love crunchy seeds mixed in, too. Here is a recipe I made in my bread machine, although you can certainly make the dough and bake in the oven the traditional way. This recipe is from allrecipes.com. I took a pic with my phone so I don't one to post here, sorry!

Ingredients (this is the order I added into my bread machine, everyone's machine is different):
1 1/3 c water
2 tbsp soft butter
3 tbsp honey (we love honey, so was liberal here)
1 1/2 c bread flour (all purpose flour)
1 1/3 c whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt (we use kosher salt, its much more flavorful and no preservs)
1 tsp active yeast - that's one packet (careful not to touch the yeast with water)

Close the lid and start the machine - Basic White Cycle.

In the Knead Cycle, add:
1/2 c flax seeds (keep refrigerated)
1/2 c sunflower seeds

Yields a most delicious loaf of bread!

Italian Baked Chicken & Pastina

This is from The Food Network website - I made it yesterday, and we liked it! I used gemelle pasta because I couldn't find pastina. Gemelle's a much larger pasta, so I don't know how it will taste with a smaller pasta. It doesn't make too large a pan of pasta, so definitely have bread and/or salad as an accompaniment.

Recipe Details
Makes:
Prep Time: 15 min.
Cook Time: 40 min.
Ready In: 55 min.
Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 cup pastina pasta (or any small pasta)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup cubed chicken breast (1-inch cubes)
1/2 cup diced onion (about 1/2 a small onion)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice (I used diced tomatoes w/garlic & basil)
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1 tablespoon butter, plus more for buttering the baking dish

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until just tender, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Drain pasta into a large mixing bowl.

Meanwhile, put the olive oil in a medium saute pan over medium heat.
Add the chicken and cook for 3 minutes.
Add the onions and garlic, stirring to combine, and cook until the onions are soft and the chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes more.
Put the chicken mixture into the bowl with the cooked pasta. Add the canned tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, parsley, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine.
Place the mixture in a buttered 8 by 8 by 2-inch baking dish (I just sprayed with Pam).
In a small bowl mix together the bread crumbs and the Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle over the top of the pasta mixture. Dot the top with small bits of butter (I left off the butter).
Bake until the top is golden brown, about 30 minutes.

Indian Stir-Fried Shrimp/ Bhagari Jhinga

Cutting and pasting from my regular blog now!

First I'm putting in the original recipe, and then I'll note my own modifications:

PREP TIME 20 Min
COOK TIME 10 Min
READY IN 30 Min
Original recipe yield: 4 servings

INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro
1 fresh jalapeno pepper, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 cup coconut milk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon black mustard seed
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/4 pounds medium shrimp - peeled and deveined
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon cold water

DIRECTIONS
In a medium bowl, stir together tomato paste, salt, sugar, garam masala, ground cumin seed, ground red pepper, cilantro, jalapeno pepper, lemon juice, and coconut milk. Set coconut sauce aside.
Heat oil in a wok or frying pan over medium-high heat. When oil is hot, add the mustard seeds, and cook until they begin to pop. Immediately stir in garlic, and cook until garlic begins to brown. Add shrimp, and cook until shrimp is opaque; this should take only a minute or two. Pour the coconut sauce over the shrimp; cook until the sauce begins to simmer. In a small bowl, mix together cornstarch and water; stir into the sauce, and continue cooking until thick.


MY MODIFICATIONS: I omitted the mustard seeds since I didn't have them, and added mushrooms in with the garlic. I also added a tsp of red pepper since we like our food spicy! It was probably a bit too much for most people. Next time, I'm going to add onions in as well, and maybe marinate the shrimp in some spices beforehand. Served over basmati rice.

Aalia's modifications:I didn't have coconut milk so used regular milk. I also added a little turmeric powder and some karhi pathay.

Aal - what's karhi pathay?

Chocolate Pretzels

EASY breezy recipe.  Satisfies the discerning sweet tooth and provides sweet with salty, smooth with crunchy. I'm going to take this as one of my 2 munchies to Farah/Shereen's recipe swap tomorrow inshaAllah.  Kareem had a fun time placing the chocolate on the pretzels for me. Kids would enjoy helping with this one.

INGREDIENTS

35 circular pretzels- these can be hard to find in the typical grocery stores.  I used mini twists, and they worked just fine.

35 Hershey's kisses

35 M&M's or 70 mini M&M's

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Place pretzels on baking sheet or on a tray lined with aluminum foil.  Unwrap kisses and place one at center of each pretzel.

3. Place in preheated oven 2 min. (do not go over 2.5 min. to prevent burning) until kisses melt.  Note: they will not completely melt into a puddle and that is fine; in fact, they shouldn't.  Remove from oven and place either 1 regular or 2 mini M&M's in the center of each kiss.  Chill in refrigerator about an hour until set.

Wa-la!  Simple and yum.

Ayesha, I may try your recipe below to take along also.  I picked up Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips for baking, and instead of dried cranberries, I got craisins (cherry flavored cranberries). Will report back on your post with results!

Chocolate/Fruit/Nut Clusters

Thanks for including me in this fun blog! I live far away so a virtual recipe swap will have to make do! I just shared these with Aalia, so I'll post here. I've made these for a friend, for her birthday, as a hostess gift, and just something to munch on at home to clean up the chocolate stash. I love that it uses some great ingredients, to which I am faithful, so if you experiment, let me know what you create!




Ingredient list:
* total of 6 oz of chocolate. dark chocolate works best because i use pecans and the combination works well. also dark choc is good for you :)
* 1/2 c chopped pecans are very tasty with chocolate also healthy.
* 1/2 c dried cranberries - i love baking with them!

Method:
Chop up (rough chop) a total of 6 oz of chocolate. (I use a mix of dark and semi-sweet. I have a food scale so I don't know exactly how much of a bar that would yield, so you'll have to figure that out. We often have chocolate lying around, so sometimes I throw it all on the scale and measure up.)

Melt in microwave for 1 minute on HIGH. Stir, and nuke for another 30 sec.
Add in about 1/2 cup dried cranberries and pecans.
Stir the mixture well.
Lay out your wax paper. I use a flexi mat and place wax paper on top. Arrange neatly by spoonful all over the mat. Refrigerate until chocolate is set, about 30 min. Then you can transfer to a sealed/air-tight container for about 4-5 days and keep in fridge.

Presentation:
They look lovely tray or in a cute goody bag with ribbons....as you can see I've played around with these...

Cinnamon Nutella Cake

This cake was simple to make and has all the decadence you would expect from something containing Nutella, but it is not too sweet.  The main hurdle is that I had to convert from Celsius to Fahrenheit and then convert all the quantities listed in 'grams' to 'cups.'  I haven't figured out a way to cut and paste a web link here in blogger, unfortunately; so, just do a quick google search on conversions.

I baked this tonight and it's cooling as I type!  Below I'll note the converted quantities and any modifications I made.

INGREDIENTS

175 g softened butter (0.761 c or 12.294 tbsp!) - I modified to about 5 TB for the family

175 g sugar (0.761 c or 12.294 tbsp)

3 eggs - I used egg whites instead

200 g self-raising flour (0.87 c)

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp ground cinnamon (used sticks and ground myself)

4 tbsp milk

4 rounded tbsp Nutella 

50 g hazelnuts, roughly chopped (0.217 c) - I omitted using hazelnuts.

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 180 C (356 F) - I set at 375 F.  Butter the base of a round cake pan.

2. Put the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, cinnamon and milk into a bowl.  Beat with a wooden spoon for 2-3 minutes, or with an electric hand mixer for 1-2 minutes, until light and fluffy.

3. Tip 3/4 of the mixture into the tin, spread it level, then spoon the Nutella on in four blobgs.  Top with the remaining mexture, swirl a few times with a skewer, then smooth to cover the Nutella.

4. Sprinkle with the nuts.  Bake for 35-40 min, until risen, nicely browned, feels firm to th touch and springs back when lightly pressed.  

For a lovely picture and to see the British recipe for yourself, check out www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1688/cinnamon-nutella-cake.jsp .  Next time, I may stick to a recipe that is made for US measurements!

YUMMY!

Broiled Tilapia Parmesan

This was easy and very good. From www.allrecipes.com, but with a few modifications:

Serves 4
INGREDIENTS
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
4 Tbsp panko bread crumbs (they're Japanese, you can find them with the other breadcrumbs)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 tablespoon and 1-1/2 teaspoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/8 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
1 pound tilapia fillets

DIRECTIONS
Preheat your oven's broiler. Grease a broiling pan or line pan with aluminum foil.
In a small bowl, mix together the Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, butter, mayonnaise and lime juice. Season with Italian seasoning, pepper, and onion powder. Mix well and set aside.
Arrange fillets in a single layer on the prepared pan. Broil a few inches from the heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Flip the fillets over and broil for a couple more minutes. Remove the fillets from the oven and cover them with the Parmesan cheese mixture on the top side. Broil for 2 more minutes or until the topping is browned and fish flakes easily with a fork. Be careful not to over cook the fish.

I served it with rice, but I think it'd be better with bread and steamed veggies. This took about 15 minutes from start to finish!

Day One!

Thanks to Aalia for the blog title! This blog will be for anything at all food-related - recipes, tips, restaurant experiences, on-line purchases (yes, I buy brownies on-line - so??), or even memories of the much, much better meals our moms used to make for us!

I've added three additional blog authors:Aalia, my lovely and hilarious former neighbor from Atlanta; Rabia, a BFF for about 15(!!!) years; and Maryam, a newer (but great) friend from Baltimore who I went through the pregnancy process with! If any of you have other friends who'd like to participate, let me know and I'll add them as authors too!