Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

So my garden yielded 50+ roma tomatoes; my gardner coworker recommended a simple spaghetti sauce that tasted dreamy. Tony loved it even though it was healthy with low sodium. I took the basics (see Smitten Kitchen's Fresh Tomato Sauce recipe for the bare basics) and added a spin.

So here we go with the HOMEMADE DELICIOUS SPAGHETTI SAUCE!

15 - 20 Roma Tomatoes (or the type your garden yielded or you have a surplus of), quartered
1/4 cup of olive oil
Head of garlic (roasted)
2 - 3 additional garlic cloves
1/2 cup of shaved parmesan cheese
Bay leaves
Salt to taste
Tsp or so of dried basil
Tsp or so of pepper
Pinch of cayenne
Chopped fresh basil (don't go out and spend $3.00 as the sauce is delicious even without this touch)

Roast the head of garlic in the oven

Heat olive oil over low-medium heat and add 2 - 3 cloves of garlic for 10 minutes to infuse oil
Cut tomatoes in quarters and (to the best of your ability) remove seeds and access juice
Add tomatoes to pan over low heat, stir throughout, to cook for approx. 45 minutes (the longer you cook the thicker the sauce becomes!)
Once the tomatoes start to break down, add a pinch of salt, dried basil, pepper, and cayenne (if you like a mild kick) and a bay leaf, use a kitchen utensil to assist the tomatoes in breaking down
A few minutes before you are ready to serve, add 1/4 cup of shaved parmesan - it melts right up and adds a creamy texture
Serve with fresh basil

Writing a recipe is more challenging than it looks!!!

Sweet Potato Veggie Burgers

Sweet Potato Veggie Burger

I make this ONCE and eat it for lunch all week! YUM!

makes 7-8 large patties

2 cans cannellini white beans, drained
1 large sweet potato, baked/peeled/mashed (about 2 cups)
2 Tbsp tahini
2 tsp maple or agave syrup
1 tsp lemon pepper seasoning OR Cajun seasoning (or another fave spice!)
1/4 cup wheat flour
optional: additional seasoning (whatever you have on hand - I used a few dashes cayenne, black pepper and a scoop of nutritional yeast)
salt to taste if needed

plentiful Panko crumbs
safflower oil for pan

burgers: avocado, Dijon mustard, grain buns, romaine, onion, olive oil, pepper

Directions:

1. Bake sweet potato. Peel, place in large mixing bowl.
2. Add drained beans to mixing bowl. Mash beans and potato together.
3. Mash in seasoning, flour and any additional seasoning. Your mixture will be quite soft and moist. But you should be able to form a patty. Add more flour or a scoop of breadcrumbs - or dry rice to thicken the mixture if needed.
4. Heat 1 Tbsp safflower oil in a pan over high heat.
5. Form a patty from mixture and coat in Panko crumbs. Thick coating. Then drop the patty in the pan. Repeat until the pan is filled. Cook until browned on both sides. You could also bake. If baking, use less Panko.
6. Transfer cooked patties to paper towel. Cool for a few minutes.
7. Serve on toasted bun with lotsa toppings.

Note: yes this patty does fall kind of apart as you eat it. But that is OK because it tastes yummy. 

http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2012/02/easy-sweet-potato-veggie-burgers-with.html

Quinoa Veggie Burger

Loaded Quinoa Veggie Burgers

adapted from Whole Living

• 1/2 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1 carrot, diced
• 4 scallions, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic
• 15 ounces can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/4 cup Italian seasoned dried breadcrumbs
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

In a small pot, bring 3/4 cup water to a boil. Add quinoa, cover, and reduce heat to low. Cook until liquid is absorbed, 12 to 14 minutes; set aside.

In a food processor, pulse carrot until finely chopped. Add cooked quinoa, scallions, garlic, beans, breadcrumbs, egg, cumin, salt, and pepper; pulse until combined but still slightly chunky.

Form mixture into four patties. In a large nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium; cook burgers until browned, about 8 minutes per side.

Garden Veg Salsa

From Taste of Home September 2012 Issue

Start to Finish: 20 Minutes
Makes: 6 Cups
Minutes it Takes to Consume it All: 1 Minute

3 large tomatoes, chopped
1 cup chopped cucumber
1 medium sweet yellow or red pepper, chopped
3/4 cup chopped zucchini
1 small red onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. white vinegar
3/4 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
Tortilla chips

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients, toss to combine.
Refrigerate, covered, until serving.
Serve with chips.

I actually throw all but the chips into the food processor and pulse grind until a preferred consistency instead of chopping everything up myself.

Straining to improve the consistency (in my opinion).



I make 2 double batches of this in one weekend and ate it all! Healthy AND low sodium makes for a great snack!

Zucchini Bread

We have had a lot of Zucchini this summer, which is great roasted, sautéed or in a stir fry...but a few times we didn't pick them before they got HUGE.

Zucchinis do not taste very good when they get this big...so you have to make ZUCCHINI BREAD!

I adapted this recipe from Allrecipes.com: Mom's Zucchini Bread.  My substitutions and changes are in  italics.

Ingredients

• 3 cups Flour (I used whole wheat flour or 1/2 whole wheat, 1/2 regular)

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

• 3 eggs

• 1 cup vegetable oil (I used Applesauce instead...did you know you can substitute applesauce for oil in baking! I buy the unsweetened kind)

• 2 1/4 cups white sugar (I used 1 cup white sugar, 1 cup brown)

• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 2 cups grated zucchini (I used a LOT more than this...but the second batch I think I used too much and it was really mushy. I think you can easily do 3-4 cups and be fine!)

• 1 cup chopped walnuts (Didn't add this)
• Optional: Chocolate Chips :)
• 
  
• Directions

1. Grease and flour two 8 x 4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F 
2. Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. 
4. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. 
5. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into prepared pans.
6. Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. 
7. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.

Notes

• The second time I made this, I made 1 loaf of bread about a dozen muffins, they were amazing! You will have to adjust the cook time, I think they took about 20-25 minutes.
• I also added chocolate chips to one of the loaves and that was pretty amazing!

I cut the Zucs into chunks...

And used the grating attachment on my food processor...clearly this piece is not going to fit!

You can use too much zucchini. I used 5-6 cups the second time I made it and it was way too moist. I should have made two batches :) 3-4 cups is perfect. 

Stir in the zucchini goodness...

Of course, I forgot to take a picture of the bread when it came out of the oven! The muffins were gone before I got home from work the next day and the bread went just as quickly!

Homemade Flour Tortillas -YUM

So I get lazy with shopping sometimes and Tacos are a go-to meal as they are so quick, healthy and delicious!
The problems becomes tortillas are not always on hand because they go bad when they are in the freezer for too long. So one day I searched the internet and came across this FANTASTIC FLOUR TORTILLA recipe. Supposedly better than the Mexican Tortillas in Texas. And though I have never had an authentic Texan tortilla I must say I could eat these all day everyday. So could Zorro my cat who decided it would be fun to much down a few as they were cooling. He has the same taste as me - warm tortillas.

A few hints and tricks as you make the recipe below:
They are freezable. I let them cool completely and then place a paper towel between layers of 4.
I double the recipe so I have more on hand and don't have to make them as often.
These are also great for wrap sandwiches.


THE RECIPE:

• 2 cups of flour (1c. wheat, 1c. AP)
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup warm milk

1. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. In another bowl combine the warm mil and oil.
2. Add the milk/oil mixture to the flour mixture, one tablespoon at a time and mix the dough with a fork. Once the water is mixed in, add another tablespoon of water and repeat the process until all the water is mixed into the dough.
3. The dough will be sticky.
4. Kneading The Dough
5. Lightly flour a wooden cutting board and knead the dough.
6. Kneading is done by pushing the dough with the heals and palms
7. of both hands down onto the board. Fold the dough back onto itself, give a quarter turn and push again with the palms and heels of your hands. Just repeat the process of pressing, folding and turning for about 4 or 5 minutes. Add a dusting of flour when the dough gets sticky.
8. Place the dough back into the bowl and cover it with a damp towel or damp paper towel. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes.
9. Divide the dough into golf-ball-size balls by pinching off the dough with your thumb and fore finger. Form each ball into a nice ball shape.
10. Place the balls on a flat dish making sure they don't touch each other and cover with the damp cloth.
11. Place the balls on a flat dish making sure they don't touch each other and cover with the damp cloth.
12. Preheat a skillet or cast iron pan on medium high heat. You really can't beat cast iron pans for even heat distribution and their ability to withstand high heat without warping.
13. Lightly dust your wooden cutting board with flour. Take one of the balls of dough and flatten it out on the cutting board to a 4 inch circle. Rub flour on your rolling pin and begin to roll out the dough starting from the center out. Roll the tortilla until it is 6 or 7 inches in diameter and about 1/8 inch thick. Roll as thin as possible as when it starts to cook it thickens up a bit.
14. Back to the flour tortilla recipe...
15. Once you have rolled out the tortilla, place it on a preheated skillet. You don't need to add any oil or butter. Cook the tortilla for about 30 seconds. You will notice brown spots all over your tortilla. Flip it over and cook an additional 30 seconds. I try to have about 3 rolled out prior to starting to cook because rolling takes me longer than cooking. 

The Finished Product

Grilled Avacado, Goat Cheese and Spinach Sandwich

I stumbled upon this sandwich tonight while I was perusing Pinterest and I had all the ingredients in the fridge...perfect.

This is a healthy and delicious meatless option...here you go!

Ingredients:

2 slices of bread (I used a whole grain with lots of "stuff" in it)

1/4 avocado-sliced

Goat cheese crumbles

2 slices Mozzerella, or other gooey, melty cheese...I used Gouda

Handful of Spinach

Prepared pesto (I didn't have any pesto, so I just sprinkled on some basil...it would have been even more amazing if I had it!)

Butter

Directions:

1. Butter each slice of bread and spread on some pesto

2. Put the cheese on the bread. 

3. Layer on the avocado slices. 

4. Sprinkle on goat cheese. (Sprinkle on some basil if you didn't use pesto)

5. Layer the spinach. 

6. Put the other slice of cheese and the other slice of bread. 

7. Cook it like a grilled cheese!