Meatball Subs

     While grocery shopping this weekend we came across some very appetizing sub rolls with cheese baked in and on top of them. Christine said they looked perfect for meatball subs, I agreed. Once we got home I looked up a recipe for meatballs. I have a pretty good recipe that I normally use but for the sake of the blog, I wanted to try something new. I found this meatball  recipe on Allrecipes.com, one of my favorite websites for finding new things to try.

     I followed the recipe exactly as listed even though I prefer to caramelize the onions before adding them to the meatball mixture. After putting the meatballs in the oven, I warmed up some left over pizza sauce because I didn't have any homemade sauce in the freezer. Once the meatballs were done cooking, I cut open the rolls and put them under the broiler for a few minutes to toast them a bit to prevent the sauce from making them soggy. Next, I spread some sauce on each roll, put three meatballs on each one, topped with more sauce and some Italian blend cheese. You could start eating them at this point but I put them back under the broiled until the cheese bubbled and browned a little.

1 pound extra lean ground beef

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 small onion, diced

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning

3/4 teaspoon dried oregano

3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 dash hot pepper sauce

1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1/3 cup skim milk

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup seasoned bread crumbs

1. Preheat an oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Place the beef into a mixing bowl, and season with salt, onion, garlic salt, Italian seasoning, oregano, red pepper flakes, hot pepper sauce, and Worcestershire sauce; mix well. Add the milk, Parmesan cheese, and bread crumbs. Mix until evenly blended, then form into 1 1/2-inch meatballs, and place onto a baking sheet.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until no longer pink in the center, 20 to 25 minutes

     These came out really good but I think the meatballs need a little work. For one, there was way too much onion. If the amount of onion was cut in half or if they were cooked down, I think they would have been better. I put the leftover meatballs in the freezer for later use. The left over pizza sauce I used was good but homemade sauce would have taken these to the next level. The star of the show was definitely the roll. I’ve never come across a loaf of bread or a roll that has cheese baked into it that wasn’t good. The ones we bought came four to a package and we liked them so much that we ate the other two toasted with butter and garlic salt.

Rating: Yummy – Meatballs need work but a decent recipe

Breaded Ravioli

     Friday was one of the cooler days last week which in turn allowed me to use my oven without sweating to death. I’ve made these breaded ravioli a few times and thought they would be nice to serve to the guests we had coming over. I had about 20 minutes before Christine’s sister and boyfriend would be over which gave me enough time to bread the ravioli, get them in the oven, and clean up the mess I made breading them. Since I was short on time and I had to make a double batch, I didn’t bread these individually like I normally do, I used the shake and bake method. Here’s the recipe before I go any further:

2 tablespoons whole milk

1 egg

3/4 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 25 ounce package frozen cheese or beef ravioli

1 16 ounce jar spaghetti sauce

     If you double this recipe it will yield about 40 ravioli or so. Start by combining the salt, parmesan cheese, and bread crumbs on a plate and set aside. I put this in a freezer bag so I could shake the ravioli in it to save time. Beat the egg and milk in a deep bowl and begin to coat the ravioli with this mixture. Coat about half of the ravioli(a quarter if you double the recipe) and put them in the bag with the dry ingredients. Seal the bag shut and shake until sufficiently covered. As you take them out of the bag, brush off excess coating. Place the ravioli on a large cooking sheet sprayed with butter flavored non stick spray. Continue coating and breading until all of the ravioli are done. Once arrange on the cooking sheet, lightly spray the ravioli with the butter spray; only spray enough to dampen the breading. Place the sheet into the oven at 400 degrees. Allow the ravioli to cook for about 20 minutes, flipping once halfway through. You’ll know they are done when they have a golden brown crust to them.

     You can serve them with the sauce directly over the ravioli or on the side. I chose to pour a quarter of the jar of sauce in each of the bowls and then pile the ravioli on one side. This allowed us to use as much or as little sauce as we liked. I used Wegmans Italian Classics Puttanesca Sauce which contained Kalamata olives, portabella mushrooms, artichoke hearts and capers which went well with beef ravioli. The ravioli should have a buttery crunch to them as if they were fried. The recipe originally called for oil to fry them but that can become messy and isn’t nearly as healthy for you. This is one of my go to quick meals when I want pasta but don’t want just sauce and noodles.

Rating: Yummy – A quick recipe that always turns out great.

Mom's Sauce & Baked Penne

     I have never made homemade tomato sauce before for a couple of reasons: 1) I’m not a huge red sauce fan despite having Italian in me 2) Everyone I know who makes sauce says it is a pain to make. We were having guests over so I decided to use my mom’s sauce recipe to make baked penne with. I’m not sure if my mom wants everyone in the world to have her recipe so I won’t post the exact measurements needed to duplicate it. It is very important that you do not use any metal utensils or pots when making this sauce as the acidity of the tomatoes in it will take on a metallic taste if you do. I used a wooden spoon to stir with and a plastic ladle to scoop the sauce out. I don’t have a Dutch oven so I substituted my large crock pot in its place.

     You need to render some of the fat from the sausage which is near impossible to do in a crock pot because it won’t get hot enough. Since there was no tomatoes used in this step, I sautéed the sausage with olive oil in a pan. Cook the sausage for about 10 minutes and then remove it from the pan. Since I was using a pan I had to modify the next step slightly, I added garlic to the drippings and sautéed that for a few minutes. Next, I added the drippings and garlic from the pan into the crock pot and mixed them with tomato paste. I had plugged the crock pot in and put it on high so it was hot enough to do the rest of the cooking needed. Once the mixture of drippings, garlic, and tomato paste turned a few shades darker, I added tomato puree, crushed tomatoes, and some water. I stirred everything up and dropped in the sausage links. The following seasonings are sprinkled on top: oregano, basil, parsley, salt, celery seed, and sugar. Stir the seasonings into the sauce until completely mixed with the tomatoes. If using a Dutch oven, turn the heat down to low and allow this to simmer for 3-4 hours, stirring every 30 minutes. Since I was using the crock pot, I left it on high and just kept an eye on it.

     About 30 minutes before adding the sauce to the pasta, I took all the sausage links out and chopped them down into small pieces and mixed it all back into the sauce. Thinking we were having 6 people total, I boiled 2 pounds of pasta in a large pot. Once the pasta was done, I ladled the sauce over it and mixed until it was all covered. As a final step I sprinkled mozzarella cheese over the pan of pasta and stuck it in the oven for about 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees. Once the cheese began to bubble and turn a golden brown in spots, I pulled it out and served it up.

     Everyone enjoyed the penne and I think the sauce had a lot to do with it. Like I said before, I’m not a huge fan of red sauce but it was good and I’m glad I took the time to make it from scratch. The sauce was very light and smooth which is nice for those of you who don’t like the chucky sauce most restaurants serve. Everyone had seconds so there was little left over and what was left was sent home with people and I’m having the last of it for lunch today.

Rating: Yummy - I know I'll make this again but it isn't a "must".

Broccoli Alfredo

     Next to corn, broccoli is by far my favorite vegetable. It is very versatile and it can be cooked in a variety of ways. When making broccoli Alfredo, the normal way of cooking the broccoli is to add it to the water with the pasta in the last 4 minutes of cooking. I decided to go a different route and sauté it instead. Before I started on the broccoli, I got a pot of boiling water going. A quick tip for those of you who cook a lot of pasta, add about a tablespoon of olive oil to the water before it begins to boil. This keeps the pasta from sticking together. I usually use fettuccini when making Alfredo but I decided to use the box of campanelle we picked up at the store. Campanelle is a corkscrew like pasta that I hadn’t seen before. I dumped in the whole box of pasta and got that cooking.

     In a small sauce pan I emptied a jar of four-cheese Alfredo sauce by Classico. I didn’t have the time to make my own sauce, nor did I feel like spending the money to do so. Alfredo sauce like all cheese based sauces costs quite a bit to make and comes out better in larger batches. Since I was only cooking for two, going with a jar is easier and less expensive. I turned the heat on low just to heat up the sauce and stirred every few minutes to keep the sauce from burning.

     For the broccoli I used two heads worth and broke them down into bite sized pieces. In a large skillet, I heated up olive oil and some minced garlic. After thoroughly washing the broccoli, I added it to the pan. It took about 10 to 15 minutes until the broccoli was cooked through. I cut up a tomato and threw it in with the broccoli; unfortunately it fell apart because the broccoli took longer than I expected to be done. A dash of salt and pepper along with a few sprinkles of parmesan cheese finished it off. Once I drained the pasta, I added the Alfredo sauce and mixed until all the pasta was covered. I spooned out a base of pasta on each plated and topped with the broccoli and tomato.

     The pasta came out well and the sauce was as good as a jar of sauce can taste. With more time I will make my own sauce next time. The broccoli with the tomato had a cheesy-garlic taste and was melt in your mouth soft. With homemade sauce this would have been a great dish but taking short cuts only made it a good dish.

Rating: Yummy - Homemade sauce is needed.

Chicken Stir Fry 2.0

     Getting home by 6pm at the absolute earliest really puts a strain on what I can make for dinner if I want to be done eating before 7pm. Stir fry is a quick and easy dinner idea that I have made before so a lot of this post will repeat my prior attempt. I made a few changes that I had hoped would be for the better but not all of them ended up not turning out the way I wanted them to. I began as I did before by boiling some jasmine rice and dropped the heat to a simmer while the chicken and vegetables cooked. I only seasoned the chicken with salt and pepper this time and left out the five spice.

     I let the chicken sit a while, while I started on the vegetables. I tried a different mix of frozen stir fry vegetables this time and liked this one better. Asian stir fry is the name of the mix and it contains water chestnuts, baby corn, snap peas, red peppers, and mushrooms. I sautéed the vegetables in a tablespoon of olive oil until they were heated through. Next, I added the chicken in with the vegetables and cooked it until it was no longer pink. I also bought a different sauce to go with the chicken and vegetables since I know Christine doesn’t really care for the traditional stir fry sauce. We agreed upon a Caribbean style sweet and tangy sauce which sounded good. Upon opening the bottle, it seemed a bit watery and not as syrupy as the previous sauce. I added it to the chicken-vegetable mixture and allowed the sauce to reduce to see if I could get a better consistency.

     The sauce never tightened up and I didn’t want to over cook the chicken so I had to go with what I had. Like before I laid some rice on each plate as a base and placed the chicken and vegetables on top. The chicken, vegetables, and rice were all cooked fine but the taste just wasn’t there. Leaving out the five spice took away the ginger flavor that was masked by the stir fry sauce last time. I still think the chicken needs something more but haven’t found what that is yet. The sauce that we went with was kind of bland and not saucy enough for my taste. I guess I’m used to the heavy sauces often found in Chinese cooking.

Rating: Fair – Some changes worked but others didn't.

Chicken Stir Fry

     Not being able to get out of work on time doesn't allow me much time too cook if I want to eat at a reasonable time. This was the story tonight but I had planned ahead by picking out something I knew I could make quickly. I love Chinese food but it is very bad for you so I made this healthier Chinese dish. As soon as I got home I put some jasmine rice in a one and one half cups of water and brought that to a soft boil. While that began to heat up, I cut up a large chicken breast and seasoned it with salt, pepper, and five spice. In a large skillet I began to heat up stir fry oil on a medium heat.
    Once the rice began to boil, I covered it and dropped the heat to low. After about five minutes I added the seasoned chicken to the oil and stirred frequently until cooked through. Wegmans has a variety of frozen vegetable mixes used for stir frying. I went with the Hong Kong mix which contains broccoli, water chestnuts, mushrooms, and snap peas. Add these to the pan with the chicken along with about one third cup stir fry sauce. The Asian section of the grocery store has a pretty good selection of sauces that you can use depending on your taste. I lowered the heat down to keep everything warm while I waited for the rice to be done.
    When the has absorbed all the water, turn the heat off and let rest for about five minutes and then fluff with a fork. I spooned some out to make a base on the plate and then poured some of the stir fry mixture on top. I bought some soy sauce to go on the rice because the sauce doesn't saturate the rice very well.
Rating: Yummy - With so many choices of sauces, meats, and vegetables you can let your imagination run wild.

Spaghetti Pie

Click Here For The Recipe

     When a recipe gets over 253 reviews equating to a 4 and 1/2 star rating on Allrecipes.com it is usually a pretty safe bet that it is going to come out well. I've had some recipes in the past with even more reviews and a higher rating come out poorly though. This recipe however fell in between the two. Christine and Matt thought it was good and that is as high as I would consider rating this recipe. After reading a good amount of the reviews, I made a few changes to tryand make this dish better.

     I only used 3/4 of a pound of spaghetti since there were only three of us eating and I thought a pound would be too much. While the pasta cooked I sauted a chopped onion and a few cloves of garlic in a tablespoon of butter. Once the onions cooked to a nice golden brown I added the ground beef, added the salt and pepper but omitted the garlic powder since I used fresh garlic. We don't really care for green pepper so we decided to skip that as well. Once the beef was cooked through I added a 24oz jar of Wegmans Select sundried tomato pasta sauce and let that simmer for about 20 minutes. While that simmered and the pasta was near completion I started on the most intriguing part of the dish. A white creamy sauce made up of sour cream, cream cheese, and green onions was to be spread over the pasta and underneath the meat and sauce. I had a taste of the white creamy mixture and thought it would be a great base for a dip. I tossed the pasta with some butter and parmesan cheese to keep it from drying out in the oven. The pasta then went in a pan that had been sprayed with olive oil non-stick spray. The white creamy mix was spread over the pasta and the meat sauce was poured on top of that. Finally, I sprinkled a good amount of mozzarella instead of the cheedar cheese that the recipe called for only because of personal preference. Baked the whole thing in an oven at 350 uncovered until the cheese had melted.

     When I pulled this out and started portioning it onto our plates I was really looking forward to eating it. As a finishing touch I sprinkled some parsley on for presentation. I'm not going to say this was a bad recipe because I had seconds but it tasted like spaghetti with sour cream on it. It wasn't a bad taste but it wasn't anything special either. When I got a second helping I decided to mix the layers all together and that for some reason gave it a better taste. I think this was because I wasn't able to get a taste of just the sour cream, cream cheese, and green onion mixture. Even though Christine and Matt liked it, I may or may not make this again.

Rating: Fair - This recipe needed some help to be good and it'll need more help to be great