Rolled Up Lasagna

I have seen this rolled up lasagna in a couple of food blogs so I thought of  trying it myself.  I think the idea  is great as you won't have  a hard time  taking each pice one  by one.  

Shadow Shots

Ingredients:

• 8 lasagna noodles, boiled according to  directions in the package
• 1 cup  sour cream as a subsititue for  ricotta cheese
• 1 cup frozen spinach
• 1 cup mozzarrella cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1 quart  sphagetti sauce
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning
• 1 cup diced onion
• 1 lb ground turkey
• salt and pepper

Preparations:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees,
• Brown the  turkey in a pan and add the  onions, salt and peper.  Set aside.
• Put the  spinach in a bowl and nuke it for one minute in a microwave.
• Combine the sour cream, cheese, spinach,  ground turkey mixture, and  italian seasoning.

• Lay the noodles flat and  and  fill it with the  mixture then roll it up.
• Line the rolled up  lasagna in a  baking  dish and pur the  sphagetti sauce.  

•  Bake  the rolled up lasagna for  45-60 minutes and top it with  cheese when you remove it from the oven.

 My kids loved it and so is the husband.  This is one of the many things why I love blogging, I learned things that I don't know before,.  I get so many great ideas by interacting and reading with others.  Thanks forthe inspiration gals!

Five Great Gift Ideas for the Food Lover in the Family

Do you have a person in your family who really loves food? Perhaps they're a chef or baker, or maybe just a food expert who travels the world in search of delicious recipes and treats? Or maybe it's just someone who likes to eat and enjoy the many flavors that cuisines from around the globe have to offer.

Either way, getting this type of person a food related gift is a sure-fire way to make them happy. Five great gift ideas for the food lover in your family are listed below to help you find the perfect one.

A Cookie Basket

A basket filled with various cookies is a great option for gift recipients who really like to indulge their sweet tooth. Check out sites like GJCookies.com, where you can browse through a variety of flavors and packages of delicious desserts. You can purchase different treats and then buy a large basket that you can put them all in. This will add a personal touch to your gift and also make it easier to wrap everything up in one cute package.

Engraved Rolling Pins

photo isn't mine

If you know someone who loves to bake and is always taking out their rolling pin for making delicious cookies, then check out the engraved rolling pins on the market that add a personal touch to every baking session. These can be customized, so you can get a rolling pin that really defines your gift recipient's tastes. And every time they use your rolling pin, they'll laugh and remember that it came from you!

Chihuahua Taco Holder

photo isn't mine

Get your hands on a Chihuahua shaped taco holder for one of the funniest gifts you'll ever give to the food lover in your family. This adorable taco holder can hold three hard tacos upright, preventing annoying spills. But for large families, you'll probably want to get more than one of these so that they can each hold their tacos in place until they've devoured them all.

A Banana Slicer

If you've ever had to slice a banana into thin slices for topping a breakfast or dessert, you know how annoying and time-consuming the process can be. But with a banana slicer, you can quickly make perfect slices in a matter of seconds. This is a great gift for food lovers who are also really busy and who are very particular about how they present their meals to their guests, as every banana slice will be the same size.

An Herb Keeper Jar

Forget about cookie jars. If you want to give your food lover something truly unique, go for an herb keeper jar instead. This product will keep fresh herbs looking and tasting great longer than if they were kept on the shelf or in the refrigerator. The secret is the fact that they can be stored with water, so they'll be able to retain their texture and flavor for longer. The herbs also conveniently stand upright in the jar, so you can keep it in your refrigerator and quickly grab what you need when you need it. 

Steelhead Fish

A friend of mine from school, gave us a  huge steelhead fish  that her husband caught at Lake Eerie.  I am not  particular with the kind of fish around here  but was  grateful to be given such a blessing.  I have never cooked   this kind of fish before but I am willing to give it a try since I  love fish.  But before that, let me share this information I got from National Wildlife Federation.

According to nwf.prg, the scientific name of the steelhead fish or  rainbow trout is  Oncorhynchus mykiss and its previous names include Salmo gairdneriand and Salmo irideus. The rainbow trout and steelhead are ray-finned fishes in the salmon family, and they are one of the top sport fish in North America. Rainbow trout and steelhead are the same species, but they have different lifestyles. Steelhead are anadromous, meaning they spend part of their lives in the sea, while rainbow trout spend their lives mostly or entirely in freshwater. 

Because of their different lifestyles rainbow trout and steelhead are different in appearance, most noticeably in size and color. Rainbow trout derive their name from their beautiful, multi-hued coloration. Their bodies are blue, green or yellowish, shading to silvery white on the underside, with a horizontal pink-red stripe running from the gills to the tail and black spots along their backs. Steelhead are generally more streamlined in shape and silvery or brassy in color as adults, earning them the name steelhead.

 I asked my friend's husband how to cook it and he told me that he usually  broil  it and then deep fry it.  I was going to do that too but the  fish is too big and long and it wouldn't fit into my broiler so I decided to just put it in the new grill that my husband just put together the other day.  

The fish was frozen when it was given to me, I did not thaw it out and just went ahead and stuffed the belly with ginger and lemon grass. I seasoned it and added some onions and tomatoes on top before I wrapped it with foil.

 I steamed it for about an hour and smelled so good.  

 The meat wasn't flaky as  I have imagined it to be.  I don't know if it's because  I  put it in the grill when it wasn't thawed out or it is  just the normal consistency of the fish's meat.  Never the less, I  ate it with rice and it  hit the spot.  

I removed all the bones from  rest of the fish and made it into  fish patties  or fish cakes as my husband  called it, you can check the recipe here.  

Buffalo Style Crusted Fish Patties or Fish Cakes Recipe

Of the three pretzels that I received from Boulder Brand, the Glutino buffalo style is my favorite.  It has some kick to it and I love that it's not too spicy,  just the right amount of   spice in it.

I have left over  steel head fish in the refrigerator and wanted to make  fish patties out of it so here's what I came up with.

Ingredients:

• 2 medium carrots, grated
• 1 cup of frozen spinach
• 2 cups of cooked mung beans, served as a binder for the fish
• 1 teaspoon  dried oregano
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 pack of meatloaf mix, (YEP I added  that!)
• 1 1/2 cups crushed  buffalo style pretzels for crunchy factor

Procedure:

• Mix  all the ingredients in a bowl.
• Form a palm size patty and rolled it on the crushed  pretzel.

• Put some parchment paper in the  baking sheet and line up the patties.

• Drizzle  some olive oil on top of the patties and bake it  for 50 minutes or until the patties are brown.  The barbecue flavor in  the pretzel give the patties a really tasty twist.  You won't even  notice that you are eating a fish!

When it is done, you can put it in a bun and eat it like a hamburger or you can eat it  like I would, with rice and veggies!  I love having frozen veggies in my freezer because I can just steam  them and we have instant  variety of vegetable.  Boxes of Uncle Ben's  long grain with wild rice is also a staple at my kitchen.

I made  a lot of patties so I freeze some of them after we ate some.  Now, I can just pop it in the oven when I am craving for some fish and I am good to go.  My husband love the patties with ketchup but I love mine with  sriracha.  Bonappetit!

Gluten Free Chocolate Cake Roll or Hoho Cake Recipe

When it comes to baking, my 9 year old pastry chef wannabe is  fearless.  She is braver than me when it comes to that part in the kitchen.  I am not fond of baking,  maybe because I grew up  without an oven at our home so I have never done any baking when I was younger.  I am so glad that my daughter   is very interested in it.  My favorite dessert that she  makes  is the Chocolate Cake Roll or Hoho Cake.  

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 pkg.  Semi-Sweet Chocolate (6 oz.), divided
• 6 tbsp. butter
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 4  eggs
• 1 cup gluten-free flour, divided
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 2/3 cup water
• 4 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar, divided
• 3 cups thawed cool whip, divided

Procedure:

• HEAT oven to 350°F.
• SPRAY 15x10x1-inch pan with cooking spray. Line with waxed paper and then spray with additional cooking spray.
• MICROWAVE 3 oz. chocolate and butter in medium microwaveable bowl on High 1-1/2 to 2 minutes or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Add granulated sugar and mix well. Beat the eggs in large bowl with mixer on high speed 3 minutes or until thickened. Blend in chocolate mixture. Add 1/4 cup flour and baking soda; beat just until blended. Add remaining flour alternately with water, beating well after each addition. Spread evenly into prepared pan.

• BAKE 15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched.  Sprinkle with 1/4 cup powdered sugar. Immediately invert cake onto clean towel and remove the pan. Carefully peel off paper. Starting at one short side, roll up cake and towel together; cool completely on wire rack.

• Mix cream cheese and remaining powdered sugar in medium bowl with mixer until well blended. Gently stir in 1-1/2 cups COOL WHIP.
• UNROLL cake carefully; remove towel. Spread cream cheese mixture onto cake, completely covering top of cake. Roll up the cake and  place it seam-side down on a platter.

The second  time she  made it, she added a ganache or chocolate icing on it.  Here's how to make the ganache:

• Microwave the  remaining chocolate and remaining COOL WHIP (remember you have divided them from the start?) in microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1 to 1-1/2 minutes or until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is well blended.   
• Cool for 2 minutes and  spread onto cake. Then you have to refrigerate the cake for 1 hour.

Do you see the little man's   excitement?  Anticipating for that yummy piece that he will get when the cake is ready lol.

This recipe is from kraftrecipes.com but we  substituted the flour with the gluten-free flour that we got from Glutino.  The ganache is a great addition to hide the cracks from the cake when you roll it up but I like the one she made without the ganache.  The icing made it so rich.  

The Cost of Beef

With the high cost of beef these days, we only buy it when it is on sale.  We  are starting to substitute it with other kinds of meat.   My husband loves beef so  once in a while I make sure to find the ones that fits our budget.

 One of the  many beef dishes that both my kids and husband love is the Kahlua Braised beef .  My husband bought a kahlua beer but he never drunk it so I started using it for cooking.

Here are the ingredients.  You can check out the recipe here.

My daughter love mushrooms so I  always incorporate it every chance I get.

This dish is  so good to eat with  newly baked rolls or in our family, with rice.  

Baked Potatoes with Chicken

I always find a way to re-purpose or re-cooked left overs.  My absolute favorite leftover is chicken because you can pretty much incorporate to a lot of dishes.     Here's a great example for left over chicken turned into a yummy dish.  Preparation is very easy.  I  cooked the potatoes in a microwave.

Ingredients:

• 4 medium sized potatoes
• 4 pieces of  paper towels
• left over chicken, shredded
• 1/2  bell pepper  sliced into desired sizes
• 1/2  onion, chopped
• 2 scallions, chopped
• salt and pepper
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese

Preparations:

• Wash the potatoes thoroughly with skin on.  Wet the paper towels and wrap each potatoes.  Bake it in the microwave until it is done.  I usually just set the baked potato and come back when it is done.  Or you can wrap it in foil and bake it in the oven, whichever you prefer.
• Put the olive oil in a pan and saute the onion, chicken, peppers, scallions for about 5 minutes and  add salt and pepper to taste. 

•  When it is done, cut the potatoes in the middle and squeeze the ends to open it up.  Add  a scoop of the sauteed chicken and top it with cheese.  Put it back for  1 minute in the microwave until the cheese is melted.

This kind of dinner is easy to whip up and my kids and husband loves it.