Italian Stuffed Zucchini (Low Carb)

It's getting to be that time of year, when everybody is looking for ways to use up their overabundance of zucchini. I am not a gardener, so I don't have that problem, but I love zucchini and am therefore always looking for new ideas.  This is a great zucchini recipe I threw together for dinner last night.  

Italian Stuffed Zucchini

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef
3 large zucchini
1 cup pizza or marinara sauce
2 tsp Italian seasoning (I use Tuscan Sunset)
1 cup shredded Italian cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°. 

Brown ground beef in a skillet.  Drain off grease.

Meanwhile, slice each zucchini in half lengthwise; do not trim off the ends.  Using a grapefruit spoon, scoop out the insides, making them into boat shapes.  Dry them off with paper towels.  Place them on a baking sheet.

When the beef is browned and drained, stir in the pizza sauce and the Tuscan Sunset.  Fill the zucchini with the beef mixture.  Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes.  Top with shredded cheese and return to the oven for another 10 minutes, or until zucchini has reached desired tenderness.

Makes 4-6 servings.

This makes for such an easy dinner.  I spent all afternoon in the kiddie pool in the backyard with my daughters. They could live in that thing!  We lose all track of time in the pool, so I sent Lena in to the house to see what time it was. Five til five. Oops, time to make dinner! I toweled off, got in the kitchen, and had this ready in about half an hour.  

A note about the number of servings: My husband and I ate two each.  We eat low carb, so this was all we ate.  If you are serving this as a main dish, with side dishes as well, probably one per person would be sufficient.  My girls aren't crazy about zucchini, so last night I only made 4 of these for my husband and myself, and I mixed the remaining meat mixture into some pasta for my daughters.

I use pizza sauce because it is the lowest carb tomato sauce I can find and my husband much prefers smooth sauces to chunky ones. But you can use whatever tomato/marinara sauce you like best.

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Mary Poppins

by P.L. Travers

Doctor Sleep

by Stephen King

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Taco Pie

This is the "pie" I made on Pi(e) Day, March 14th. My husband and I are eating low carb, so my pie options were of the savory sort, pretty much taco pie or cheeseburger pie. My husband loves the cheeseburger pie I tried once, but I was pretty "meh" about it. I was eager to try this taco pie recipe again though, because it didn't turn out so well the first time I made it. I got the recipe from All Day I Dream About Food.  The directions do not say to mix the meat with the egg mixture.  So the first time I made it, it ended up with only meat on the bottom and only fluffy eggs on top.  And the meat part was watery.  It was kind of weird; like a fluffy omelet on top of taco meat.  But I decided to try it again, making a few tweaks.  This time I found success.  Here's how I made it.

Taco Pie

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef
2 tbsp taco seasoning
6 eggs
1 cup heavy cream
1.5 oz. queso fresco, crumbled (optional)
1 cup shredded cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.  Coat a 9” pie plate with baking spray.

Brown ground beef in a medium skillet.  Drain, if necessary. Add taco seasoning and stir well.

In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs.  Add the cream and mix well.  Add the queso fresco, if using.  When beef is done, stir it into the egg mixture.  Pour it into the pie plate and top with the shredded cheese.

Bake in preheated oven for 35 minutes.  Remove and let cool at least 5 minutes before cutting and serving.

Makes 8 servings.

Mixing the meat into the egg mixture makes a huge difference.  And I did not add water to the taco meat; not sure what the point of that is.  I also added some queso fresco just because . . . why not?  :)

This was a huge hit with my family.  It's tasty on its own, but I love how you can add whatever your favorite Mexican condiments are.  Sour cream, guacamole, and some fresh salsa was my favorite.  My husband used taco sauce and sour cream.  My five-year-old just did sour cream.  Lots of sour cream.  I swear, that girl is making up for all the years she couldn't have dairy!

This is easy to throw together on a busy weeknight.  And the leftovers reheat well, if you have any.  

Even though this is low carb, the carb-eaters in your household will love it too.  You can serve it with rice or tortilla chips.

I will have to work on tweaking the cheeseburger pie recipe so I like it as much as this one.

I just remembered that I have some ground beef in the fridge that I need to use up.  Totally making this again for dinner tonight!

What I'm Reading Right Now

Mary Poppins

by P.L. Travers

Doctor Sleep

by Stephen King

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Slow Cooker Honey Mustard Corned Beef and Cabbage

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Did you make corned beef and cabbage today?  A lot of people are intimidate by it; thinking that it's complicated and hard to make.  It's totally not!  I already have a recipe for Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage on my blog, but I have found a recipe I like even better.  It is adapted from A Year of Slow Cooking.  This one is better because it is simpler.  And simple is always best!  All you do is throw a hunk of corned beef in your slow cooker and slather it with a honey mustard glaze.  The glaze permeates the meat and makes it so tender and delicious.  

 Slow Cooker Honey Mustard Corned Beef and Cabbage

Ingredients:
4 lb. corned beef brisket (point cut)
2 tbsp honey
¼ cup brown sugar
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
½ large head cabbage

Directions:
Use a 6-quart slow cooker. Unwrap the corned beef, and remove the seasoning packet, and trim as much of the fat from the meat as you can. Rinse and pat dry.  In a small bowl, make a paste of the honey, brown sugar, and mustard. Rub this mixture on all sides of the meat. Place the meat into the slow cooker and cover. Cook on low for 8 to 10 hours, or until meat pulls apart easily with a fork. 

Halfway through cooking, chop the cabbage into chunks and place it in the slow cooker, on top of the corned beef.  Using tongs, toss the cabbage so that it gets coated in the cooking liquid.  Replace lid and continue cooking on low.

Remove corned beef to a platter and slice.  Remove cabbage with a slotted spoon and place alongside corned beef.

Makes 6 servings.

I serve this with Traditional Irish Soda Bread, of course.

I like to get the point cut for this.  It has more fat and is beautifully marbled.  You want to cut off as much of the visible fat as you can before you cook it.  I have found that kitchen shears work better than a knife for this.  You might need to remove some more of the visible fat after it has cooked. By then, it's easy to remove.  You can certainly use the flat cut for this recipe too.  It will not be quite as fall-apart tender though.

This beef comes out so amazingly tender.  It literally just falls apart.  I love that.  And the cabbage has a surprising sweetness to it.  It's all just delicious. 

For more great St. Patrick's Day food offerings, click on "St. Patrick's Day" on the category list to the right. ----------------------------->

What I'm Reading Right Now

Mary Poppins

by P.L. Travers

Doctor Sleep

by Stephen King

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Skillet Lasagna

Can you believe it's the second half of January already? Time flies when you're busy!  We have been super busy since the kids finally went back to school (after Christmas break and multiple snow days).  Weeknights have changed a lot around here in the last year with me working part-time (today is my one year anniversary!) and with my oldest daughter having homework every night.  I used to be able to cook pretty much whatever dinner I wanted on whatever night I wanted to, but not anymore.  I really need quick-cooking dinners on weeknights that are easy enough that my husband can throw them together if I get bogged down helping Lena with her homework.  He's not inept in the kitchen by any means, but simple is always best on these busy nights.  I recently created this awesome recipe that is perfect for these nights.  Not only is it ready in about half an hour, with pockets of time when you are able to leave it and go do something else while it cooks, but since it cooks all in one pan, you have only one pan to clean up afterwards.  I love that!  

The lovely folks at Red Gold sent me an nifty little package of tomatoes, lasagna noodles. an apron, and a coupon for Laura's Lean Beef and invited me to participate in their "Red Gold Simple Gourmet Lasagna Party".  Do you love lasagna?  Lasagna isn't something I have mastered, so I looked forward to an opportunity to work on my lasagna skills. I have two main lasagna hang-ups: 1. I don't like ricotta cheese, and 2. it is a complicated dish with lots of prep work, then a really long baking time.  Ain't nobody got time for dat!  Well, maybe somebody does, but I don't!  The lasagna recipe that I came up with fixes both of those issues.  I replaced the ricotta with a mixture of cream cheese, parmesan, and garlic powder.  Yum.  And I cooked the entire thing on the stovetop.  It was ready, from start to finish, in half an hour or less (I didn't time it exactly.)  It's not layered like traditional lasagna, but the taste is the same and you really feel like you're getting the whole "lasagna experience".  

Skillet Lasagna

Ingredients:
1 tsp olive oil
½ large onion, chopped
1 lb. lean ground beef
2 (14.5 oz.) cans Red Gold Diced Tomatoes with Basil, Garlic, and Oregano
2 (8 oz.) cans tomato sauce
⅔ cup water
1 tbsp Italian seasoning (I use Penzeys Tuscan Sunset)
11 lasagna noodles, broken into pieces
½ cup cream cheese, softened
1 tbsp Parmesan
½ tsp garlic powder
2 oz. mozzarella pearls

Directions:
Heat oil over medium-low heat in a large skillet.  Add the onion and sauté until tender.  Add the ground beef and cook until browned.  Drain off grease if necessary.  Add tomatoes, tomato sauce, water, and Italian seasoning.  Cover and bring to a boil.  Add noodles, stir, and replace cover.  Cook for 10 minutes, or until noodles are al dente.  Meanwhile, combine the cream cheese, Parmesan, and garlic powder.  Drop by spoonfuls into the pan and gently fold inside.  Place mozzarella pearls on top and cook for another 5-10 minutes, covered, to melt. Top with freshly grated Parmesan or Fontina, if desired.  Serve warm.

Makes 4 servings.

This is how I broke up the lasagna pieces.  I assumed that you would have to use no-boil noodles for something like this, but I was wrong!  Regular lasagna noodles work perfectly.  If you happen to have some no-boil (aka oven-ready) noodles or you want to speed up the cooking even more, I think that you could use them as well.  They are thinner and more delicate than regular, so be gentle with your stirring.

If you can't find mozzarella pearls at your store, you can buy a mozzarella ball and just cut little pieces off of it.  Of course, you can always use shredded instead, but I like the looks of the pearls.  Makes it seem fancier somehow.

My family loved this!  While it was cooking I steamed some green beans in the microwave and threw some garlic bread under the broiler and dinner was done.  Easy peasy. Both of my girls made a point to tell me how much they loved it.  We had just a little bit leftover and it was quickly gobbled up for lunch the next day.

Give this a try the next time you get hungry for lasagna but don't have all day to devote to making it.  And be sure to head over to Red Gold's Facebook page to enter for your chance to win one of 750 aprons or one of 6 Gourmet Lasagna Party Prize Packs which include a Le Creuset Lasagna pan.  It ends February 3rd, so go enter now before you forget!

What I'm Reading Right Now

Mary Poppins

by P.L. Travers

Doctor Sleep

by Stephen King

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Barbecue Beef and Bean Cups

I know you are probably seeing lots of healthy recipes on your food blog list, on Facebook, on Pinterest, and maybe even in your email this time of year.  I find it really commendable that people use January as a time to start eating healthier, but I just can't do it.  It is currently 2:00 pm here in Wisconsin and we have just "warmed up" to 0 degrees.  Zero degrees.  All the schools in my county closed today due to windchills reaching -30 (lots of kids walk to school in my city).  How in the heck anybody can eat salad for a meal in this kind of weather boggles my mind.  If you are able to do that, I commend you!  But you might not be too interested in my blog during these cold winter months.  For those of you who, like me, can only make it through winter by cozying up to warm comfort foods, I've got what you need.

This is kind of a comfort food-type meal.  Ground beef mixed with baked beans and barbecue sauce stuffed inside buttery biscuits and topped with melty cheese.  Mmm.  I have made these a few times before, and I was going to make them again for dinner on Sunday, but we ended up stuffing our faces at Olive Garden for lunch and none of us was hungry enough for a real meal when dinnertime came around.  The girls had the rest of their little personal kiddie pizzas, and Jim and I just snacked a little after they went to bed.  So I had an extra meal on my meal plan.  Jim was a little sad because he loves this recipe.  When we heard yesterday that there was a good chance that school would be cancelled today, I told him that if it was, I would make these beef and bean cups for lunch.  While I was making them today, I remembered that I had taken pics of them a while back but had never gotten around to sharing the recipe here.  It is slightly adapted from Rachael Ray.

Barbecued Beef and Bean Cups

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef
1 (14 oz.) can baked beans
½ cup barbecue sauce
1 (16 oz.) pkg Grands biscuits (8 ct.)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.  Coat a jumbo muffin tin with baking spray.  If you have two jumbo muffin tins, spray 2 cups of the second tin.

In a large skillet, brown ground beef.  Drain off grease.  Pour in baked beans (with their liquid) and the barbecue sauce.  Stir well.  Remove from heat.

Take each Grands biscuit and roll or flatten it out.  Line each cup of the jumbo muffin tin with a flattened biscuit, so that it covers the bottom and sides and forms a cup shape.  Fill each biscuit with the beef and bean mixture.  Sprinkle cheese on top.

Bake for about 15 minutes, or until the biscuits are golden brown.  You will have to do this in batches if you only have one jumbo muffin tin. Serve warm.

Makes 4 servings, two cups each.

This is a super easy-peasy meal, but I took a few pics of the process anyway.

 Flatten out some Grands biscuits and put them in a jumbo muffin tin,  For a long time I only had one jumbo tin, so in order to make 8 cups, I had to bake 6, then remove them from the pan, and make another two.  Since I didn't want the first 6 to get cold, I went ahead and served them, and we ate while the other 2 were baking.  But my lovely mother-in-law got me another jumbo muffin tin for Christmas, so now I can bake them all at once!

 Brown some ground beef, drain, and add a can of baked beans and your favorite barbecue sauce (I love Sweet Baby Ray's Honey Chipotle).

 Fill the cups with the beef and bean mixture.  Don't be shy; load 'em up!

 Top with cheese.  I used Kraft's Mexican blend, but cheddar is good too. (I left one cheese-less because one of my daughters is allergic to dairy.)

 Bake until golden brown and delicious.

Cross-section showing all the yumminess going on inside.

I like to serve these with some creamy corn.  I made some today and took pics, so I'll share that recipe soon.

You may remember last year when I shared my Chicken Broccoli Cups.  This is basically the same idea, just with a different filling.  If you have a jumbo muffin tin and a can of biscuits, the possibilities are endless!

What I'm Reading Right Now

Mary Poppins

by P.L. Travers

Doctor Sleep

by Stephen King

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SRC: Potato Chops

 

It's time for this month's Secret Recipe Club! The Secret Recipe Club is a group of food bloggers who secretly make one of someone else's dishes and post them all on the same day at the same time.  It's really fun, choosing a recipe to make, making the recipe, then reading about everyone else's recipes.  It's a great way to "meet" other bloggers and check out some great blogs that you never knew about before.  

This month I was assigned the blog My Hobbie Lobbie, written by Trisha.  Trisha is Indian, but living in Australia.  Cool!  I found so many yummy things on her blog.  I really wanted to make an Indian dish, so I was drawn to her Chole (garbanzo bean curry).  But I also love potatoes, so her Hasselback Potatoes definitely caught my eye.  I also thought her Beef Cutlets sounded delicious.  In the end, I decided to combine Indian cuisine, potatoes, and beef  and make her Potato Chops. The best of all three worlds!  Potato Chops are curried potatoes, wrapped around Indian-spiced beef, then breaded and pan-fried.  I knew my family would love this.  The beef filling she used for her potato chops was very similar to the Keema that I make regularly, so I just used a quarter batch of that for the beef part.  

Potato Chops

Ingredients:

1 tsp canola oil

¼ large onion, diced

¼ lbs. lean ground beef

1 garlic clove, grated

1 tsp fresh ginger, grated

½ tbsp Garam Masala 

¼ tsp red pepper flakes

Salt, to taste

½ cup frozen peas, thawed

4-5 medium potatoes, peeled and diced

Salt

¼ tsp curry powder

1 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 cup seasoned dry breadcrumbs

2-3 tbsp canola oil

Directions:

Heat the 1 tsp oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook for 3-4 minutes until softened and golden. Add the ground beef and cook, breaking up the beef with a wooden spoon until brown and cooked through. Drain off grease.  Add the garlic, ginger, Garam Masala, and red pepper flakes and stir to combine. Cook, stirring regularly, for 3-5 minutes until tomatoes are softened and flavors are combined. Taste for seasoning, adding salt and more Garam Masala if desired.  Add the peas and reduce the heat to medium. Cook for an additional 4-5 minutes until the peas are softened without being mushy.  Remove from heat and set aside.

Meanwhile, boil potatoes.  Drain and mash.  Stir in curry powder, cilantro, and salt to taste.  While potatoes are still warm, take about ⅓ cup, roll it into a ball, and flatten it to form a patty shape.  Make a well in the middle and place about 2 tbsp of the beef mixture there, gently folding up the sides of the potato patty to completely cover the beef and peas.  Handle the patties gently, as they are delicate and fall apart easily.  After making each patty, dip them in the beaten egg, then coat in the breadcrumbs.  

Heat 2-3 tbsp oil over medium heat in a large skillet.  Place patties in the skillet and cook until they are golden brown on one side, about 5 minutes.  Very carefully flip the patties and cook on the other side until browned.  Remove to a serving platter.  Serve warm.

Makes 6 patties.

I know that looks like a long list of ingredients, but these are really pretty simple to make.  You are simply browning ground beef, adding spices and peas, then wrapping mashed potatoes around it and pan-frying them.  Really not difficult at all.

The beef filling.  I left the tomatoes out of the recipe I usually use, worried that they might be too wet for this application.

One of the patties before breading and frying.  Isn't the color gorgeous?  And I love the flecks of green from the cilantro.

I served these patties over Indian-Spiced Spinach, a recipe from a fellow SRC member.  Hi Sara!  My husband and oldest daughter loved these patties and the spinach too.  My four-year-old didn't eat it, but she doesn't like potatoes and was being picky that day anyway.  This was actually my husband's birthday meal.  I had it on my meal plan the week before, but when he saw it posted on the fridge, he asked if I could make it on his birthday instead.  Unfortunately, the weather was beautiful and sunny the day I had planned to make it, but cloudy and super windy the day of his birthday, so my pics aren't great, but I was happy to oblige the birthday boy.

Thanks so much, Trisha, for an awesome Indian meal!

   

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SRC: Meatball Subs

It's time for this month's Secret Recipe Club! The Secret Recipe Club is a group of food bloggers who secretly make one of someone else's dishes and post them all on the same day at the same time.  It's really fun, choosing a recipe to make, making the recipe, then reading about everyone else's recipes.  It's a great way to "meet" other bloggers and check out some great blogs that you never knew about before.

This month I was assigned the blog Kitchen Trial and Error, written by Kate, a wife and mom of one with another on the way this month (congrats Kate!) in Rochester, New York.  I was familiar with Kate's blog and have had it on my blog reader for a long time.  So I knew I would have no problem finding something yummy to make this month.  Funny story: when I received my assignment, I started exploring Kate's blog to decide what to make.  Pretty quickly, I found her Slow Cooker Honey Mustard Drumsticks.  First, it sounded really good, then it started sounding really familiar.  Not only had I pinned that recipe when she first posted it, but it was actually on my meal plan for that week!  What a coincidence!  Unfortunately, I couldn't use it for my SRC post because that recipe is so awesome that Ilona's Kitchen picked it last month when she was assigned Kate's blog.  But I had no trouble finding other options.  I considered her Pretzel Chicken with Mustard Cheese Sauce, Soy-Glazed Cod with Zucchini, and White Chocolate Chunk Macadamia Blondies before settling on something very classic.  Something classic and relatively simple, but something I had not ever made before: Meatball Subs.  

Meatball Subs

Ingredients:

1 lb. lean ground beef

2 eggs

¼ cup grated Parmesan

½ cup dry breadcrumbs

1 tsp Italian seasoning (Pasta Sprinkle)

½ tsp salt

1 jar pasta sauce

6  sub rolls

1½  cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°.

Combine ground beef, eggs, parmesan, breadcrumbs, Italian seasoning, and salt.  Mix well.  Form into 2 tbsp-sized balls and place on a rimmed baking sheet.  Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until browned and cooked through.  Remove from oven; do not turn oven off.

Heat pasta sauce in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat.  When meatballs are done, remove meatballs from baking sheet and place them in the sauce.  

Split the sub rolls and place 4-5 meatballs and some sauce on each one.  Top with mozzarella and place on a baking sheet.  Put them on the top rack of the oven and bake a few more minutes, just until the cheese melts.  Remove from oven and serve warm.

Makes 6 servings.

Why have I never made these before?  I knew my husband liked them because he orders them at restaurants, but I never thought to make them at home.  There's no reason not to, as they are really easy to make.  I love Kate's recipe because it's a great combo of homemade and convenience.  Homemade meatballs and jarred pasta sauce.  I'm not a big fan of making my own tomato sauces, but I much prefer homemade meatballs to the frozen kind.  So Kate's recipe was absolutely perfect for me.

Kate used a mini muffin pan to make her meatballs, but I don't have one (I have regular, square, heart-shaped and jumbo muffin tins but no mini!), so I used my 2 tbsp measuring spoon and that seemed to be just the right size.  I think I got about 30 meatballs that way.  It was more than we needed for dinner that night, but my husband loved having subs for lunches the next two days.

My husband and my kids loved these.  Messy, but good!  I made the mistake of trying to melt the cheese with the broiler the second time around and even though they were in there for only a minute, the bread burned, so definitely do it like Kate says and use the 400° oven instead.

I was a little conservative with the cheese on the sandwich in these picks because I wanted you to be able to see the yummy meatballs.  But feel free to pile it on for the ultimate gooey melty cheesy experience.

Thanks for a great recipe, Kate!




   

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Beef and Cabbage Pockets

Today I am sharing with you one of my husband's favorite recipes.  He loves most everything I make, but he definitely has a few favorites.  These little babies have to be in his top three.  He raves everytime I make them.  They are really easy to make and since they are packed with veggies, I  feel pretty good feeding them to my family.  Even though they are kind of a meal-in-one, I serve them with an extra veggie to round things out.  My recipe is adapted from Taste of Home.

Beef and Cabbage Pockets

Ingredients

16 frozen Texas-sized Rhodes rolls

½ lb. lean ground beef 

½ large onion, chopped

2 medium carrots, grated

4 cups cabbage, chopped

Seasoning of your choice

2 tbsp butter, melted

Directions:

Place frozen rolls on two plates.  Cover with plastic wrap and let thaw 4-5 hours.  (I do this at lunchtime.)

Preheat oven to 350°.  In a large skillet, cook beef over medium heat until it is completely browned, breaking into crumbles. Stir in onion, carrots, and cabbage, and seasoning.  Cook and stir until veggies are tender.

On a cutting board, flatten each dinner roll into a 5” circle. Top with a heaping 2 tbsp filling; bring edges of dough up over filling and pinch to seal.  Place on two baking sheets, seam side down.  Bake 23-25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and brush tops with melted butter.

Makes 8 servings, 2 pockets each.

Note: These can easily be made dairy-free by omitting the melted butter.  They are still great without it.

This is the first batch I made.  They didn't have the melted butter.  I did that the second time and really liked it.  Gives them a nice "finishing touch."

 I get the rolls out around lunchtime.  This is what they look like after they thaw.  

 Flatten each one out.

 The filling.  You can use any kind of seasoning you like here.  My favorite is Penzey's Ruth Ann's Muskego Avenue.  You could use just plain salt, or a seasoned salt, or anything that sounds good to you.

 Taste of Home said to put 1/3 cup filling in each one, but I can't fit that much.  Not even close.  I can only fit 2 tbsp.  But I think that works well.

 Fold them up and set them on a baking sheet with the crimped side down.  I use my stoneware sheet.  Taste of Home said to let them rise again after filling, but I find that step completely unnecessary.  

 They're so beautiful coming out of the oven!  This is when I brush the tops with melted butter.  Mmm.

These are a huge hit with my family.  I already mentioned that my husband loves them, but my kids like them too.  They are a real crowd pleaser!  

These are also great because you can very easily change up the filling.  Use sausage instead of beef, make them vegetarian, use different veggies, anything goes!  They are absolutely perfect for packing in lunches too.

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