Spinach Lasagna Roll Ups

Husband and I are trying to be healthier and as part of that Husband wants to try to eat less meat. So I decided to give this recipe a go. I did combine it with another one when it came time to assemble the roll ups and bake them, and I'll post the link when I come to that point.

First I cooked the lasagna noodles and laid them flat on some foil. I did have more noodles than are pictured, but due to a lack of counter space, I left the rest of them in the colander.

Making the filling was easy. First I drained my thawed spinach:

Then I added the cheeses, egg, and salt and pepper.

It all got mixed together:

Now here is where I deviated from the original recipe's instructions. Since there's just the two of us I followed the Pioneer Woman's directions for freezing lasagna roll ups in foil loaf pans. I put some marinara in the bottom of the pan:

Then put four roll ups in each pan with more sauce on top.

I added more cheese to the tops because...cheese. I love cheese.

One of the pans went in the oven for us to eat tonight and the other two got covered with foil and stuck in the freezer for a later date.

I followed the baking instructions on PW's website and when it came out of the oven they looked like this:

PW recommends two roll ups as a serving for your normal adult. And these roll ups did end up fuller than I expected so I think that's the perfect serving size. They were a little difficult to eat, but pretty tasty. I'm excited to see how the frozen ones hold up. Husband and I agree on 3 stars for this one.

Loaded Chicken and Potatoes

I originally saw this recipe on one of those recipe videos floating around on Facebook. I'm sure you've seen at least one of them, they seem to be everywhere! But this looked pretty good so I decided to give it a go.

It was really easy, just took some time to chop up the potatoes and chicken. I only bought six potatoes as the ones I found were pretty large.

I mixed up the...sauce? I guess you could call it in a small bowl. I cut the amount of garlic powder in half, because well...garlic. I haven't been shy about my dislike of garlic. I had to resist cutting the amount down further because 2 tbsp seemed like a LOT of garlic powder.

I poured the sauce over the chicken and potatoes and mixed it all up. Definitely use a large bowl for this, it's a lot of food.

Then I poured it into my pan. I sprayed the pan with cooking spray, even though the recipe didn't mention it. In my mind it's never a bad idea to do so. The times I've forgotten I've definitely kicked myself for it.

While the whole thing was baking in the oven, I cooked and crumbled the bacon.

With five minutes left on the timer, I sprinkled the bacon on the chicken and potatoes, then put the cheese on top of all that. After the whole mess came out of the oven, it looked like this:

I have to say I'm still a little unsure about how I feel about this recipe. Husband called it a casserole, and for some reason I don't like that idea. Maybe because casseroles tend to have a reputation of being the go to meal when someone needs meal assistance because they're easy. I don't know. But anyway, the taste was good, but not great. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't amazing either. The word that came to mind as I was eating was mediocre. Husband said I should keep the recipe, but I don't know if I will. I want to keep the recipes that make me smile and proud of what I've put together. So I guess this one falls somewhere between 2 and 3 stars.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have semi-sweet chocolate chips on hand right now because I wanted to make muddy buddies. Usually I have milk chocolate because I just like them better for when I make cookies. So, I tried this recipe as a way to use up some of the semi-sweet chips. The recipe directions were super simple. Add all the ingredients except the milk and chocolate chips to a mixing bowl and mix.

After mixing those, it says to add 1/2-1 tablespoon of milk to make the dough smooth. Honestly I probably could have gotten away with not adding the milk at all, my dough was already pretty smooth at this stage. But, since I'd never tried this recipe before I added 1/2 tablespoon. I also added the lesser amount of chocolate chips because I don't like my cookies overloaded.

At this point the dough was super smooth and squishy. Almost moreso than I would have liked. I rolled it into balls and popped them into the oven.

I baked them for the shortest amount of time since I like soft chewy cookies. These were beyond soft and chewy. Almost all of them fell apart as I tried to take them off the cookie sheet to cool.

For the next batch, I baked them the maximum amount of time. Those ones held up better, but they were still extremely fragile. They taste pretty good, but I'm not impressed with how the dough behaves. Maybe next time I'll eliminate the milk entirely. Husband likes them, but I have yet to bake something he doesn't like. I think these will only get 2 stars and may find themselves in the fail pile.

Soft Cut-out Sugar Cookies

You guys, I can't stop making these cookies. And subsequently eating them. I love this recipe because the dough is easy to work with and it doesn't make 40 dozen cookies. That seems to be the big downfall of lots of sugar cookie recipes-you end up with an insane amount of cookies. And with only two of us in the apartment, that just sounds like a bad idea.

Making the dough is pretty simple. I did use regular butter instead of unsalted and everything turned out fine.

(I also used making these cookies as an excuse to play around with my food photography.)

Add sugar, an egg, and vanilla. The recipe also calls for a tiny bit of almond extract but I'm not a fan so I just used all vanilla.

Add the dry ingredients and mix.

This recipe does call for chilling the dough, but it's only for an hour. She also rolls out her dough before chilling it, but I don't bother as I don't find the dough to be very difficult to work with.

I used a medium sized flower cookie cutter and got a little over a dozen cookies. All you need to do is lightly flour your countertop and rolling pin. The recipe I'd been using before this one required you to spray your countertop with Pam and then put flour on top because the dough was that. sticky. So not worth it. Just make these!

After baking, they looked like this:

That's another great thing about this recipe-they don't spread out while baking! I didn't take any pictures after I frosted them because I just did a lazy job and didn't try too hard to make them cute. This is the frosting recipe I've been using-also awesome. But it does make quite a bit of frosting. Anyway, incase you couldn't tell, this is a 4 star recipe and the only one I'll use for sugar cookies now. Enjoy!

Sweet Potato and Corn Enchiladas

Guys, I'm super excited about this recipe. When I first saw it, I was really intrigued but hesitant. Sweet potatoes are a tricky ingredient in our marriage. I think they're glorious and Husband isn't really a fan. Sadness. But I went for it anyway. And I'm really glad I did! Perfect for Meatless Monday, if you're into that. ;)

I cooked my sweet potato in the oven since I had the time. Then I peeled it and chopped it up after it had cooled a bit.

Exciting picture, isn't it? And I should have chopped it up into smaller pieces.

The original recipe has black beans and uses a salsa from Trader Joe's. I couldn't find a salsa with corn and black beans, and there isn't a Trader Joe's near me...so I used this:

I think part of the reason I like making enchiladas is that they're really easy but still end up being spicy and cheesy and comforting.

The recipe says it will make 6-8 enchiladas. I ended up with 7. She also used an 8x10 pan, but I don't have one of those, (never even knew they existed before this recipe) so I used a 9x13. I'm betting if I cut the sweet potato smaller, I could have gotten 8 enchiladas. Anyway, after coming out of the oven they looked like this:

These were surprisingly good. They're definitely different, but I'm calling them a major win because Husband says I should keep the recipe! Wahoo!! For that, I'm giving these 4 stars.

Traditional German Schnitzel

Everybody's talking about New Years Resolutions and how to be healthy and I'm over here like, "I think I'll fry some pork!" But this is what sounded good to me so it's what I decided to try this week. It also sounded pretty simple so I was feeling fairly confident.

First I pounded my pork chops, which proved to need a bit more force than I originally anticipated. But it wasn't difficult.

I probably should have pounded them a little more thinly. I feel like this recipe has a fairly steep learning curve.

While I prepared my breading station, I let some oil heat up on the stove top. And I got it way too hot and filled the apartment with smoke. So then I had to wait for it to cool down and open some windows. :P

I was pretty convinced the recipe would turn out to be a fail at this point, but I persevered because I had no other options and we couldn't just have mashed potatoes for dinner. And for the sake of keeping this blog going. :D

Once I got the oil down to a more reasonable temperature, I tried the frying.

Really the trickiest part is to keep the oil at the right temperature so you don't burn the outside before the meat can cook through, but you also don't want to cook it too slowly or you won't have a crispy coating. But by the time I was done, I felt like I'd finally figured it out.

This was the prettiest one. And I was pleasantly surprised by the results. I think the recipe has potential with practice. So we're giving this one 3 stars.

2 Ingredient Queso Dip

I've been sick this week, so the recipe I tested was super simple. And I tested it at a friend's house for a girls day so unfortunately, I don't have any pictures. But this is the recipe. Salsa verde and cream cheese? I was so intrigued. I've poured regular red salsa over cream cheese for a dip plenty of times, but the thought of using salsa verde instead sounded really interesting!
And you know what? It was amazing! Seriously so good. We both really enjoyed it. It's not too spicy, and the cream cheese doesn't make it weirdly sweet. I don't know if I'd necessarily call it a queso, but whatever. It's awesome. 4 stars, I know I'll be doing it again.