Journey Undefined

With the school year coming to an end, last minute project tweaks and final presentations to perfect, I was not at all in the mood for cooking. Not only that I really just wanted to sit in front of the t.v. with a giant bowl of eggless cookie dough, a pint of Ben & Jerry's new core flavors, maybe a ice cream cookie sandwich from Meadows, and veg out until my pizza delivery person rang my doorbell. At which point I would leave my cozy couch for a moment to grab the warm pizza bring it to my spot and veg some more. Sounds like the perfect night right?! However, that little scenario was only in my head.

With pizza on the brain, we began our search for dinner. Soon enough we found pizza roll-ups which looked delicious and met all of our requirements. As I mentioned we were both exhausted from a long and stressful week and these seemed like a quick fix. We grabbed some pizza dough and sauce from the store and made do with ingredients we had laying around for our toppings.

Because we were rolling the pizza dough up, it made it very easy for us to use different toppings and different variations of pizza because they were being cut into separate individual pieces. As you may know by now, this was perfect for Brenden and I with our opposing tastes. He got his meaty pepperoni filled pizza while I got my veggie filled caprese roll-up (not to say we didn't try each others...I know I ate like half of his). He also used a garlic white pizza sauce while I used a more traditional tomato sauce. In total we had four kinds of pizza roll-ups to sample. And of course we both had our own favorite - mine the tomato sauce with pepperoni and Brenden the white sauce with spinach. Yumm.

This recipe was pretty simple and extremely customizable. The recipe I have given you is very vague because, as you saw and read, we couldn't decide on toppings ourselves. So, choose a creation we made or create one of your own. Let me know if you discover anything great! Maybe a dessert roll-up, peanut butter and chocolate chips? There my mind goes again, back to those ever so tasty sweets.

Honestly, I was really nervous about the rolling - I did not think that there was anyway we would get our filled noodles to roll, but it went so smoothly. The sauce I envisioned slopping out the sides and the nicely sliced tomato being left on the counter after sliding out mid-roll was not a concern I needed to have. In fact, it was pretty much mess free.

The one negative thing I would say about the recipe I found is that the sauce was not as easy as it was made to seem, and honestly I think store bought sauce would have done the trick just as well with less of a hassle. Even with a third brain (Lauren stopped by and joined us for dinner this week and helped man the tomato sauce with her "chef" skills), Brenden and I couldn't figure out how to get the sauce to be just right. It ended up very thin and almost watery, so we added in some of the store bought sauce we had laying around. It turned out that the consistency of the sauce was okay because it made easier to fully cover each noodle roll up.

I don't know maybe I am just not a tomato sauce person. I haven't gotten that technique down. It's okay though because I have conquered the chocolate sauce technique (that's pretty much the same, right?) and Brenden is more then happy with that. Too bad chocolate sauce doesn't go with lasagna...that I know of...yet. But try it out, let me know if you have any tomato sauce making tips. And as always don't fret, the roll ups are delicious whether you use a homemade sauce or not.

• 10 lasagna noodle uncooked
• 12 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 3/4 cup low fat ricotta cheese
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded
• ground black pepper to taste
• 3 vine tomatoes, sliced
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
• 2 cups tomato sauce (see ingredients and recipe)

• 1 lb ground beef (if desired, skip if you want a vegetarian meal)
• 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 1-15 oz can chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 tsp basil and oregano
• Dash of balsamic vinegar
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 jar store bought tomato sauce (to thicken if desired, I used Prego Tomato Basil & Garlic)

1. Brown the beef over medium-high in a saute pan.
2. When fully cooked, drain and set aside.
3. Add oil to a small saucepan and heat over medium heat.
4. Next add the garlic and stir until fragrant, about a minute (you do not want it to burn).
5. Stir in the crushed red pepper flakes.
6. Pour in the tomatoes, basil and oregano, and balsamic vinegar.
7. Stir for a few minutes to thoroughly combine.
8. Mix in ground beef, and salt and pepper
9. Turn the burner to a low heat and let the sauce sit until while you prepare the lasagna rolls, stirring and checking periodically.
10. As you check, add store bought tomato sauce to help bring it the sauce to you desired thickens (tends to be a bit thin without).

1. Prepare your lasagna noodles as directed on package.
2. When cooked, drain but do not rinse.
3. Lay the noodles out flat on a piece of parchment paper to let them dry more (set aside).
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
5. In a medium bowl, whisk together the ricotta and egg until well blended.
6. Mix the parmesan cheese and 3/4 of the mozzarella cheese.
7. Stir in salt and pepper until everything is well combined.
8. Spread the filling evenly over each noodle length (about 1/4 of a cup each).
9. Place tomato slices on top of noodles and filling. I placed four slices on each noodle and left some room empty space at each end of the noodle (you want a little breathing room between toppings to make rolling the noodles doable).
10. Sprinkle basil on top of the tomato layer.
11. Next, start at one end and roll each noodle (loosely), creating and ovalish shape when rolled. Make sure you place each seam on the bottom so the noodle rolls don't come undone while you are rolling others. (I promise it is not as tricky as it sounds. I was skeptical too.)
12. In a 9x13 glass casserole dish spoon a thin layer of tomato sauce to cover the bottom to prevent the noodles from sticking.
13. Place the rolls, seam side down in the dish, lining them up next to each other (I ended up with two rows of 5 rolls).
14. Spoon the rest of the sauce on top of and on the sides of the rolls, making sure all the rolls are covered (this is important to keep noodles from drying out while baking).
15. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of the sauced rolls (I added extra parmesan on top because i ran out of mozzarella, but use whichever you prefer).
16. Bake the dish for 30 minutes, cheese should be melted and bubbly but not burnt.
17. Remove from oven, cool, and enjoy the dish - roll by roll.

Part 1. Cheesy Quinoa

Recipe adapted from pinchofyum.com, Creamy Cauliflower Garlic Rice

Recipe adapted from whitelightsonwednesday.com, Shrimp Garlic Rice Stuffed Pepper

Ingredients

• 1/2 batch of cheesy quinoa (see above)
• 1 pound large raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 large red bell peppers, halved and cleaned out
• 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Cooking spray

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat.
3. Add garlic and shrimp.
4. Saute until shrimp are fully cooked, and 5-7 minutes (should be fully pink, but make sure not to cook too long or the shrimp will get rubbery).
5. Once thoroughly cooked, remove shrimp from skillet to cool.
6. When the shrimp are cool enough to handle, chop roughly in to bite sized pieces.
7. Return shrimp to skillet with the cheesy quinoa.
8. Add mozzarella, salt and pepper until melted and well incorporated.
9. Set aside.
10. Spray a baking tray with cooking spray.
11. Line peppers onto the baking tray, hollow side up.
12. Fill each pepper half with the quinoa and shrimp mixture, dividing evenly amongst the peppers.
13. Place tray in oven and cook for 15 minutes.
14. Remove tray and sprinkle cheddar cheese on top of the peppers.
15. Place tray in the oven for another ten minutes, until the peppers are soft and the cheddar cheese has melted.
16. Remove, serve, and enjoy.

Garlic Caprese Toast

Recipe adapted from twopeasandtheirpod.com, Caprese Garlic Bread

Ingredients

• 1 loaf ciabatta bread, cut in half horizontally
• 4 Tbsp salted butter, softened (or melted, Brenden didn't realize 2 minutes was to long for just softened butter, but it still worked out fine)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 12 ounces fresh mozzarella, sliced
• 1 large tomato, sliced
• 1/3 cup fresh basil, chopped
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

Directions

Recipe adapted from www.cravebyrandomhouse.ca, Winter Minestrone

Note: We did not use the pancetta. We used only 6 cups of broth and the entire bag of (elbow) noodles. The flavor was still decious, but the altered proportions caused it to become more of a slightly liquidy pasta then a soup. So if you are wanting a true soup, stick to the original proportions and keep in mind that the pasta may absorb some of the liquid you do have. We also used water instead of wine and omitted the spinach, bay leaf, and thyme. Even with the omissions, there was still plenty of flavor in the soup/pasta, and like almost all homemade soups, it was even better and more flavorful the next day (and even more pasta like).