Cheese-Topped Grilled Tomatoes

Recipe #76: http://www.kraftcanada.com/en/recipes/cheese-topped-grilled-tomatoes-106348.aspx?cm_mmc=eml-_-rbe-_-20110810-_-1047&cm_lm=0DF8141E8E0397C1FD58818F062D2729

This recipe was suggested to me by the Meatatarian, and since I like warm/hot tomatoes, I was game to try it. I'm glad I did.

A very straightforward recipe, this one. Not many ingredients and all I had to buy were the tomatoes since I am growing a tomato plant out back that refuses to produce any tomatoes as yet. With hindsight (and a full belly), I will be choosing more reasonable-sized tomatoes next time, not always the gigantic ones that are on sale. Not that there was anything wrong with the gigantic ones, but they take longer to heat through. Something to keep in mind. I was excited, however, to use some of the basil that has co-operatively been growing in the back. It is not the basil pot pictured in the photo above.

As far as modifications go, I guess you could call the gigantic tomatoes one of them. We gave our BBQ to my parents when we moved to Calgary last year so I had to put in a call on the batphone to my parents to figure out how to make this recipe in the oven. In the end, my mom reminded me I own a toaster oven which I used. I also didn't have a square foil pan so I ended up putting aluminum foil (into an improvised pan shape) on my toaster oven rack to contain the tomato mess.

Since my toaster oven is cute and small, and my tomatoes were gigantic, I could only bake two halves at a time. This gave me a chance to fiddle with baking times and temps. At first, I baked the halves at about 350 for 12 minutes which warmed the tomatoes through and melted the cheese. They weren't hot, but they were still good. For the second two halves, I baked them at 400 for 12 minutes, and to combat the tendency for the tomatoes to tip off their toppings, I hollowed out a section of each middle prior to topping them. It seemed to work pretty well along with propping them against each other in the oven.

When it came to eating my hot, gooey mess, my tomatoes seemed to slip and slide all over my plate. I cut them into pieces with a knife and fork, but I had to chase them around a bit. The cheese also had a tendency to fall off the tomato onto the plate so there was some scooping involved too. All in all, it was a hot, tasty meal with some entertainment value added. I will make it again!

Zucchini Bread

Recipe #75: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/zucchini-bread-iv/detail.aspx

I should probably make this clear from the start: I don't normally eat zucchini because I don't normally think I'll like it. However, I've been trying to eat more vegetables lately as part of eating healthier all around, and when I made a minestrone soup last week that had zucchini in it, I discovered that I might not hate it quite so much. Thus, another zucchini recipe tonight.

I made a few modifications to this recipe. If you expand the first two reviews at the bottom of the recipe page, you'll see some suggestions I tried. I meant to substitute 1 cup of oil with unsweetened apple sauce, but it turns out I had less than 1 cup of oil on hand so I used it up and made up the difference (just over 1 cup) with unsweetened apple sauce. I also added an extra cup of zucchini (although I admit I was hesitant to do so). I made the crust as suggested by one of the reviews, but in hindsight, if I make it again, I will make half as much. There's crust crumbs falling all over the place now. At the suggestion of my friend Frankie, I added semi-sweet chips to each loaf. If it matters to you, the vanilla extract I used was artificial :)

I had to put in a call on the batphone to my kitchen-friendly relatives at the cottage to find out whether I needed to peel the zucchini first (no, keep the peel on). Then I had to ask whether I still needed to grease & flour the loaf pans if they were non-stick (yes, do it anyway because it can't hurt). Oh, and I discovered that my two zucchinis (totally 0.545 kg at the grocery store) will yield about 4 cups when grated so if anyone needs 1/2 a zucchini, I have some for free. My final question was to ask whether to stir the chocolate chips into the batter, then pour into the loaf pans, or vice versa, and to get an estimate of what amount to use (1/4 cup per loaf, added to batter after poured into loaf pan). It also gave me an excuse to chat with my family for a bit :)

Overall, this recipe was pretty easy to make. It was also pretty easy to make a hideous mess in my kitchen. I'm amazed at how many places zucchini can end up while being shredded, and how many walnut pieces can leap off the counter to end up under my feet. The other reason I like this recipe is because the only things I had to buy for it were the zucchini and apple sauce (the latter by choice) so it used up a lot of ingredients I already had on hand. Amazing how tasty vegetables can be!

Low-Cal Oatmeal Cookies

Recipe #74: http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipes/healthy/recipe.html?dishID=11678

This is a simple recipe to make, but I have one major problem with it: when was I supposed to add the raisins? Maybe I was supposed to eat them while I baked? Dear Food Network, please make that part of your instructions much more clear.

I think this might be the first recipe I've made with booze in it. Our ceilings started leaking on two levels of the house yesterday, causing a lot of damage and inconvenience so far, so I figured today would be a good day to add the booze to these cookies. If it matters to you, I used rum, not whiskey.

I didn't measure the amount of raisins I had. I just found a small container of them in the cupboard and used them up. When I added the rum to the raisins, I discovered that there were some dried cranberries in there too. Cool! As a matter of convenience, I bought the small individual packs of applesauce so that I can take the rest in my lunch. They were also on sale. The 1/4 cup you'll need is less than one little individual size so you'll have a little snack while you bake, especially if you eat the raisins. Since we're on a budget these days, I used the artificial vanilla that we already had.

Really simple cookies to make. And how have I never used parchment paper before? So easy to use, simple clean up, and it's recyclable when you've removed the cookies. The one who does most of the dishes (ME) loves parchment paper!

Now that they're cool enough to eat, these cookies are really yummy. The edges are a bit crispy-crunchy, and the middles are soft and chewy. I think I need to eat a few more to make sure that the quality is consistently delicious...

Bankruptcy Stew

Recipe #73: http://www.recipesource.com/soups/stews/00/rec0007.html

I get the giggles whenever I see the title of this recipe. I think I've figured out why it is called "bankruptcy": the meat for this recipe will set you back a bit. However, since I'm now in Alberta, at least I know the meat will be awesome.

As far as ingredients go, I made a few modifications. In the end, I added about 3 more cups of water, and about 3 more teaspoons of pasta/tomato sauce. Since I lacked the fresh parsley, I added a tablespoon of italian seasoning. I didn't have a whole yellow onion; instead, I chopped up the remaining half of a red onion that I already had on hand. Peppers are gross so I left that out. My carrots happened to be baby carrots so I guesstimated how many to use. I also drained a can of mushrooms and added them. Maybe next time I won't drain them first in order to have enough liquid.

A word of advice: when it says to simmer for an hour on medium, you should probably turn it down to simmer, or just above simmer. I had mine on medium as prescribed, but it seriously lacked in moisture which is why I added more to mine. It also stuck to the bottom of my pot, but that's because I didn't use a non-stick as suggested. Also, I ended up combining about 6oz. of water with about 2.5 tbsp of flour (shaken, not stirred) to thicken my liquid. That meant it simmered for about an additional 15 minutes.

It's hot, it's filling if a little bland, and I ate mine with a side of the Meatatarian's homemade sourdough bread. With the few adjustments I had to make, I think it still turned out well. And, unlike my last recipe (see Stuffed Shells in June 2011), this one didn't take hours and hours!

Stuffed Shells

Recipe #72: http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipes/healthy/recipe.html?dishID=11708

I wanted to make some more "healthy" recipes that we would both eat, but chef be warned: this one took me the entire length of the Canucks game last night, including the 13 seconds of overtime! If that makes no sense to you, I'll translate: Leave lots of time for cooking.

What I didn't realize when I picked this recipe is how many different "sections" there are to it. Cook this, set aside. Cook this, set aside. I tripped myself up a bit by not doing too much cooking at the same time; on the other hand, I didn't want too much craziness in the kitchen after having been out canoeing all day.

For once, I didn't have many substitutions/ommissions for my ingredients. The grocery store didn't have scallions so those were the only things I left out. While the ricotta was the suggested reduced-fat version, the mozzarella was the full-fat (regular) version. There's something about low-fat blocks of cheese that I just don't really enjoy. Since I used all of the ricotta, it didn't matter as much. I didn't measure the onion but I chopped up half of one. My basil plant died during the week (since replaced - keep your fingers crossed!), so I used an unmeasured amount of "squeeze tube" basil. I don't think my tomatoes were peeled - does it really matter? I ended up squishing them to heck with my hands (per recipe directions) so if I make this again, I'll buy the cans of chopped tomatoes. Oh, and I actually had fresh parsley! I chopped up a bunch of it and assumed it was about two tablespoons. For the spinach, I ended up buying two different size containers to get enough. I used all of the 10 oz. bin, and threw in about 2/3 of the 9 oz. bag, attempting to come up with 16 oz. (1 lb.) total.

I learned a few new things with this recipe, besides the time management issue outlined at the beginning. One, the spinach does not catch fire or dry out like I thought it would when cooking it by itself in the pot. Two, squeezing a handful of not-quite-cool-enough spinach really hurts. Seriously, let it cool. Three, the zucchini does not shrivel up or catch fire when cooked on its own either. And when you mix it into a recipe, it's bearable to eat. I picked this recipe in part to try some new vegetables, and to add more vegetables to our diet.

Aside from initially not being able to easily get the sauce to simmer, and it didn't seem to thicken very much by the end, this recipe wasn't technically difficult. And in addition to requiring a lot of time, it also needs a lot of counter space so keep that in mind too. In the end, when the game was over and the oven timer went off, the meal was hot and flavourful, if a little overdue. Not really an "in a jiffy" kind of dinner, but in terms of healthier options, it's on the list to try again.

Vegetable Beef & Rice Soup

Recipe #71: http://www.canadianliving.com/food/vegetable_beef_and_rice_soup.php

Another soup recipe so soon? Yes, because I thought the Charmer might eat this one and I wouldn't be stuck eating it all myself. He did ask for more meat last time.

**NOTE** The default servings on this recipe is 20; I changed it to 10. I still had to upgrade halfway through to a bigger pot. I don't like cooking the meat and softening the vegetables in the big silver pots because one has a warped bottom (uneven heat distribution, anyone? but I'm loath to part with it for sentimental reasons) and the other is hard to see down into (in my opinion) for meat and veggie cooking operations. If you make the recipe to feed 20 people, you're going to need a GIANT cauldron, er pot.

When the recipe is adjusted to 10 servings, it calls for 6 cups of beef stock and 3 cups of water. My boxes of 25% reduced-sodium beef stock were 900mL each. I ended up using both boxes (to reduce leftovers and add flavour) which equaled 8 cups of liquid so my version only had 1 cup of water in it. I also left out the red pepper - blech! My carrots were indeed large. Normally, I hate cooked carrots (usually as a side dish), but I'll eat them in this soup. We didn't have enough brown rice so I used jasmine rice instead. Not sure if it made any difference, but maybe a subtle flavour or texture one if any? I also didn't bother with the garnish when serving because I was hungry and didn't care about presentation to myself.

I may have cooked the beef a minute or two too long - by the time I finished washing the dishes and attended to the pot, there was no liquid fat to drain off. In my opinion, that was a good thing so that I didn't have gross liquid in the sink. Ha! I also grinded the pepper mill relentlessly at a few different points in the recipe to add flavour since I didn't add any salt. I figure using the extra beef stock was enough added salt unto itself.

My version of this recipe is hot, filling and tasty! I think you should try it too. I might get slightly smaller carrots next time - there are a lot of them although they're good for me. I just hope the Charmer doesn't mind them...

Bean & Tortellini Zuppa

Recipe #70: http://www.runnersworld.com/cda/recipedetails/1,7173,s6-242-306-315-0-0-0-0-2053,00.html
Oops... I actually made this recipe near the end of April, but only now got around to posting it. I think I had writer's block after my last exam when my words no longer counted for marks.

If expediency is what you are looking for (in case you're as impatient as I am), then this recipe might be for you! If you don't own or like to use a microwave, then you'll have to adjust it for stove.

All in all, this recipe is easy to make. Easy, that is, if you can find the bloody zucchini in tomato sauce ingredient. I never did find it after two stores so I gave up and used a 398mL can of organic red kidney beans. They weren't kidding when the label says "very high in fibre". Speaking of which, my can of chickpeas was actually 19oz, not the 15oz called for. I figured since I love them, more was better, but The Boy tends to disagree. He suffers when I eat beans.

Since the box of reduced sodium chicken broth was cheaper than buying cans of same, I ended up using the whole box. Truthfully, I could have used even more by the 5th day of soup eating. That pasta really soaks it up. I rarely add salt to recipes unless I'm baking, and I never measure the ground black pepper. I just grind away until it looks like enough. The tortellini was nice - Olivieri brand Herb Tortellini with Three Cheeses. Fancy pants! I thought the Meatatarian might eat the soup if there was a lot of cheese in the tortellini, but not really being a soup eater, he stole a tortellini and called it a day. Oh well, I tried.

A word of advice: make sure your container in the microwave is at least as big as the 3-quarts suggested. I think mine was just shy of that mark and I had some spillage. Aside from that , nuke and enjoy! My version was very flavourful and filling.

P.S. - Blogger changed some options. My photo inserted randomly! Bear with me while I figure it out over the next few posts.