Cold Rice Salad

I'm going to call this a French recipe because my dad learned it in France. It's really easy, and pretty healthy (except for the rice). It's one of my favorites when we go to Utah.

2 cups minute rice, cooked

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can Garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

½ pckg frozen peas

Cauliflower, chopped

2 tomatoes, chopped

Approx. ½ bottle zesty Italian dressing

Mix it all together and chill.

Molten Lava Cakes

We have been on a quest to discover the best chocolate dessert.  Stephen, being the noble scientist suggested that we try a new chocolate dessert every day to collect data in an organized manner.  He also volunteered to be the taste analyzer.  After varied and relentless experimentation we have narrowed the data field down to two recipes.  Molten Lava Cakes and Raspberry Death Cake.

Molten Lava Cakes

Ingredients:
4 pieces (squares) semi-sweet baking chocolate
1/2 c. butter
1 c. powdered sugar
2 whole eggs
2 whole egg yolks
6 tablespoons flour

Preheat oven to 425
Spray 4 custard cups with pam and place on cookie sheet
microwave chocolate and butter in large bowl for 1 minute, until butter is melted.  Whisk until chocolate is smooth
stir in sugar until well blended.  Whisk eggs and egg yolks.  Stir in flour.
Divide batter between cups
bake 13 minutes until sides are firm and center is soft.  Let stand 1 minute.

These cakes are intended to look and be underbaked, we know they're done when the sides are pulling away from the glass.  We have also made these in muffin tins baked for 9 minutes.

Caution--the road to obesity is paved with lava cakes

Bolognese Tomato Sauce

This is an authentic Italian sauce (or so says my friend who served a mission in Italy). I usually serve it with penne or rigatoni pasta.

Ingredients:

Olive oil or butter

Milk

1 medium carrot

1 stick of celery

1 large yellow onion

1 tsp parsley

1 tsp thyme

1 large can peeled tomatoes (28 oz) + 1 normal-size can peeled tomatoes (14.5 oz) [puree these in a food processor]

Salt to taste- about 1 spoonful

Pepper to taste

¼ cup parmesan cheese

1 lb ground beef

Directions:

1. Brown beef, leaving it a little raw. Divide into very fine pieces. Drain the excess grease.

2. Chop the carrot, celery, and onion very fine.

3. In a large pot on medium heat, cook carrot, celery, and onion with olive oil or butter until onion becomes transparent (about 5-10 minutes).

4. Add ground beef and cover with a thin layer of milk and let cook on medium heat for about 5 more minutes.

5. Add tomato sauce, spices, and parmesan cheese. Mix well.

6. Simmer for 45 minutes on a low heat without a lid.

Recipe share...pretty, please!

I thought that this would be a great way to share some recipes.  I cannot claim to have great recipes, but I want yours so--if you would like to contribute please email me at glorianne.o@gmail.com and I will add you as a contributing editor, then you can update when you have time. 

I thought I would share one of our current favorites that uses the food processor really efficiently.  It also looks like it has a zillion ingredients, but I use Catherine's crockpot shredded chicken and frozen spinach--it is really pretty quick, plus it is fairly low cal for a pasta dish. 

Chicken Penne Florentine 
bake at 425 for 25 min.

3 c.  mushroom
1 c. yellow bell pepper
3 c. spinach
1 tsp. oregano
1/4 tsp pepper
16 oz. light cottage cheese
4 c. cooked penne
2 c. shredded chicken
1 c. sharp cheddar
1/2 c. parmesan
1/2 c. milk
1 can cream o' chicken

1. Sautee mush, bell pepper for 4 min.  add spinach and spices for 3 min.
2. Food process cottage cheese until it is smooth and creamy
3. Mix all ingredients in large mixing bowl--reserve 1/2 c. cheddar to put on top
4. Bake away