Fast Baked Potatoes

I love potatoes!! Whether they are mashed, scalloped, baked, roasted...you name it. But probably my favorite potato is the baked potato. I had childhood memories of going to Carl's Jr to get my broccoli and cheese potato. Don't think they have it anymore.

The problem with making baked potato is that it takes an hour in the oven! Found several recipes on how to make quick baked potatoes. It worked!!!

Quick Baked Potato
Prep Time: 5 min      Cook Time: 25 min
Ingredients:
Russett Potatoes (Mine were small)

Directions: 
Preheat the oven to 400F. Wash the potatoes. Poke some holes with a fork. Place them in the microwave oven for five minutes.

Place the potatoes on a baking sheet/pan. Bake them in the oven for twenty minutes. They are done!!! Yes, it really was that simple. Cut down the time from one hour to half an hour. Woo-hoo!!

With a knife, make an incision on the top so that the steam can escape. Add butter and other toppings desired.

Enjoy!!

*Note: I did this a second time. Before I put it into the microwave oven, I put some white truffle oil on the potato and sprinkled some sea salt. Love the aroma of white truffle oil!!

Homemade Healthy Lasagna 1

Mmm... lasagna!! I have wanted to make homemade lasagna for a while now. When there was a sale on Barilla lasagna noodles, I thought it was time.

I only used cottage cheese. Typically, lasagna is made with ricotta cheese but it was three times the price of cottage cheese. Besides, cottage cheese is low-fat, low calorie, low carbs, high in calcium, and high in protein.

Nutrition facts for you Cottage Cheese vs Ricotta Cheese (Click on pic to enlarge)

Homemade Healthy Lasagna
Prep Time: 25 min      Bake Time: 45 min
Ingredients:
Lasagna noodles
1 onion (diced - I used a brown onion)
1 lb ground meat (I used lean turkey)
1 lb pasta sauce
12 oz tomato paste
1 lb cottage cheese
1 egg
3 tsp parsley
2 tsp basil
1 1/2 cups of shredded cheese
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Directions:
On medium heat, cook the diced onions to soften. Add the ground meat. Stir to cook until the meat is browned. Remove most of the liquid in the pan.

Put the pan back on medium heat. Add the pasta sauce, tomato paste, 2 tsp parsley, 2 tsp basil. Set aside. (Meaty sauce layer)

Meanwhile, in a bowl, mix the cottage cheese, egg, salt, half cup parmesan cheese, and one tsp parsley. (Cottage cheese layer)

In an 8x8 pan, begin the lasagna building.

At the bottom, place lasagna noodles so that they slightly overlap. Next, evenly spoon and spread the cottage cheese layer. Sprinkle a layer of shredded cheese on top of that. The fourth layer is the meat sauce. Repeat.

(I only did the layering twice.)

The top layer will be the meat sauce. Sprinkle Kraft parmesan cheese generously to top it all off.
It is very heavy!

Bake in the oven for 45 minutes at 350F. Cut and serve!!

It was much healthier than other lasagna, but it still tasted quite sinful!! heheh.
(Next time, I will skip the tomato paste.)

Enjoy!!

Note:
If you want to cut down the bake time, you can cook the lasagna noodles al dente before you start layering your lasagna. If you do cook your lasagna noodles first, you only need to bake your lasagna for 20-25 minutes.

Stuffed Red Bell Peppers

Last week, I saw a produce special of $0.33 per red bell pepper. This is what I came up with from my pantry. I've realized that the reason why my grocery bill is lower than other people's (besides being a great shopper, buying seasonal produce, etc) is that buy little or no meat. Originally, I wanted to put ground turkey into my stuffed red bell peppers. However, after the addition of pine nuts and walnuts, it wasn't needed.

Stuffed Red Bell Peppers
Prep Time: 25 min      Bake Time: 20 min
Ingredients:
1/2 cup onion (diced)
1 cup frozen spinach
1 medium red potato (diced)
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 large red bell peppers
8 mushrooms (diced)
1/4 cup walnut (in pieces)
3/4 cup cooked brown rice
some oil (I used grapeseed oil)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
In a pan on medium heat, caramelize the diced onions. Add potatoes about three minutes later. Onions and potatoes take longer to cook. Next add the frozen spinach and pine nuts. Throw in the mushrooms, walnuts, cooked rice last. Salt and pepper to taste.

The filling can be easily changed based on what is in your pantry. The staples for this stuffing are onions, spinach, and mushrooms.



Cut the bell peppers in half. You can either make the incision by taking the top off like when people carve pumpkins or you can halve it the other direction. This depends on the shape of your bell pepper.

Spoon the filling to stuff the pepper.

I sprinkled some parmesan cheese on top for slight crunchiness. After baking the stuffed bell pepper for 20 minutes. It is done. There you have it!! Vitamin C, vitamin K, iron, omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants, fiber, etc of textured goodness. =)

Enjoy!! =)

*Note: You can do it stuff small or large bell peppers.

Simple Brussels Sprouts

My favorite salad is my brussels sprout salad that I make every week or two. That salad uses the leaves. It is a waste to throw away the core when it's half of what you buy. I cook the middle. It is like buying small brussels sprouts.

My husband likes this simple preparation. On other occasions when I have made it fancier with different spices and such, this has been his preference. Makes my life easier too since it takes less time. *wink*

Simple Brussels Sprouts
Prep Time: 10 min      Cook Time 8 min
Ingredients:
brussels sprouts (halved)
some olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Cut the brussels sprouts in half. Put some olive oil in the pan. Place the halved sprouts flat side down.

Cook covered on medium heat for about five minutes.

Remove the lid, move the brussels sprouts around so that the other side gets some of the char too (about another three minutes). Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste.

Simple. Tasty.

Enjoy!!! =)

Ginger Sparkler

I bought some ginger recently to use in my cooking. Thought I would try to make some type of ginger drink. So I started to boil thinly sliced pieces of ginger with 1.5 - 2 cups of water in a little pot. Boil for 20 minutes for a spicy drink.

Placed several ice cubes into a big mug. Poured the boiled ginger water into the mug about 3/4 full. Add a tablespoon of honey. Stir until it dissolves. The ice cubes will cool down the drink quickly. To top off the drink, add 1/4 cup of sparkling water.

Ingredients: ginger, water, honey, sparkling water

Enjoy your ginger sparkler!! =)

Spinach Mac & Cheese

I LOVE SPINACH.

It is one of my favorite vegetables (besides broccoli and tomatoes). Raw, Steamed, Stir fried, in soups, you name it. My husband, on the other hand, does not enjoy spinach as much. The way to hide spinach and other nutritious vegetables is to turn it into a casserole or put it in a pasta dish. Since I had some macaroni in the pantry, I finally decided to make Spinach Mac & Cheese.

Spinach Macaroni & Cheese

Prep Time: 20 minutes      Cook Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

12 oz macaroni 

3 Tblsp butter

1/2 cup diced onions

1/3 cup flour

3 cups milk (the more fat, the better)

6 oz spinach (chopped)

2 cups cheese

Directions:

Prepare macaroni as per directions; boil a pot of water with a bit of salt. Cook macaroni for 8-10 minutes. Strain and set aside.

In a large pot, melt three tablespoons of butter. Sautee the diced onions to soften them. Whisk in 1/3 cup of flour. The mixture should be a brown color. Pour in the milk. Turn the heat up to high for 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.  

Stir cheese into the mixture. Add chopped spinach to the mixture. Lastly, add cooked macaroni into the pot.

* I added fresh ground peppercorns on top.

Enjoy!! =)

TIPS:

1) I usually prepare and chop/dice veggies before anything else. 

2) If you do not have macaroni in the pantry, you can use any kind/shape of pasta. 

3) Stack the fresh spinach on top of each other so that you can chop more into strips at one time.

4) I was too excited about eating my dish. If I wasn't, I would have put it in a casserole pan. Sprinkle some breadcrumbs on top to create a crunchy top. 

Fresh Santa Barbara Uni (Sea Urchin)

On a recent mini-vacation to Santa Barbara, we biked to the pier to Santa Barbara Fish Market to try fresh uni!!

It was the first time we have seen the sea urchin cleaning. They sell it for $5.95 per pound. The sea urchin is weighed. Ours came out to be a pound. Then the cleaning began.

The shucking tool was used to create a hole in the center. The uni is turned upside down. Guts flew out. It was pretty disgusting. I did not take pictures of the guts. With a large knife, the uni was cut in half. Working with the halves, the shucking tool helped scoop the uni from its shell. A container is filled with water and ice. The uni pieces were placed in the cold water to wash the rest of the guts off.

Our one pound live sea urchin turned into five pieces of sweet, fresh uni ready to enjoy...

This was the sweetest uni I've ever tasted!!  FRESHEST and SWEETEST!!! =)
(Click on the picture for a larger view.)

On a side note, we ordered these gigantic oysters too. Hope Ranch Oysters were local oysters that they were charging only $1.09 each. Such a great deal since they chose good ones for us that were six inches long and 1.5 inch wide. WOW..

Now, that was a delicious afternoon snack!!!  =)