Sunday, September 26, 2010

Marinara Sauce

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. I added Costco brand frozen meatballs about 15 minutes into the cooking, and served them on toasted hoagie rolls with mozzarella cheese as meatball sandwiches. Pretty yummy.

Ingredients:

2 (14.5 ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
6 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup finely diced onion
1/2 cup white wine or chicken broth

Directions:

In a large skillet over medium heat saute the finely chopped onion in olive oil for 2 minutes. Add the Italian tomatoes, tomato paste, chopped parsley, minced garlic, oregano, salt, pepper and white wine.

Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Healthy banana bread

Hi Glori--I am finally a contributing member (to society?)! I tried the Bolonese spaghetti recipe (Catherine's?) and we really liked it. I would love to make the lava cakes--unfortunately, I feel like I am expanding exponentially, so I am afraid to go there. Also, on a sad note, I tried to make bread using the food processer and burned out the motor. The machine was still under warranty, so they shipped me a brand new one and I returned the burned one. Evidently, I tried processing it too long and the dough was pretty stiff, then I made another batch right on top of the first one and the motor didn't cool enough in between. I was hoping this machine would be practical for bread-making, but I think this is not its best function.

Healthy Banana Bread (This is not dry)

1/2 cup sugar
5 T butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 (6-oz) carton vanilla low-fat yogurt
3/4 cup mashed bananas (about 1 &1/2 bananas)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
cooking spray

1. Preheat oven to 350*.
2. Place sugar and butter in a large bowl, beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. Lightly spoon flourinto dry measuring cups, level with a knife. Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves. Add flourmixtrue and yogurt alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Fold in bananas and vanilla Pour batter into an 8X4-inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350* for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack, remove from pan.

This makes one large loaf or two small loaves. I like to make the small ones and freeze them, and then I have something to take for a v.t. visit once in awhile. Glorianne

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Recipes from Rachel

Stephen's cousin Rachel was kind enough to send me these links and ideas. I can't wait to try them!

This is a mushroom pasta that my family demands that I make all the time. I like to use a mix of cremini (baby portabellas) and button (the common white) mushrooms and the wine is just really cheap cooking wine that you find next to the vinegars and oils in the grocery store.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/thimbles-with-mushrooms-and-artichokes-recipe/index.html

This is a really easy tart that looks super fancy, the only hard part is peeling and cutting the apples thin enough. Just make sure that the apples go all the way to the edge of the crust or you will get burnt crust.

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=592298

and for Easter we tried all new recipes; we had Greek lamb, rolls, and these two new vegetable recipes that were really great

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1723321
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=257693