Zucchini Lasagna

I don't know about you but I love to make one big dish so that I don't have to cook for a couple of days. With the house to myself I made Zucchini lasagna and ate it four nights in a row. Yes it is that good! This is definitely my FAVOURITE way to eat lasagna! No pasta :)

Ingredients: 

3-4 zucchini sliced lengthwise

1/2 lb lean ground beef

1 small onion

1 (6 oz) can tomato paste

2-3 cloves of garlic minced

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp dried basil

1/2 dried thyme

1/4 cup water

1/8 tsp pepper

1 egg

3/4 cup low fat cottage cheese

1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

Use a 9x13. I used a 9x9 to make it this time but usually use the 9x13. Stick with that. The ratio of meat to zucchini in the 9x9 was to high for my liking :) 

Directions: 

1) Preheat oven to 350 F. Slice Zucchini lengthwise, coat with olive oil and lay on pan to pop into oven. Cook in oven approximately 25 minutes. Flipping the zucchini if needed.

2) Meanwhile, fry up beef, garlic and onions until meat is brown and onions are tender; Drain fat. 

3) Reduce heat. Add tomato paste, spices and water. Simmer 

4) In a separate container combine cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese and egg.

Then layer! I love layered things for some reason.. odd I know.

5) 1st layer - half of meat mixture

    2nd layer - half of the zucchini

    

   

3rd layer - all the cottage cheese

 4th layer - remaining meat mixture

5th layer - remaining zucchini (no pic, sorry)

Top with mozzarella cheese!

And Enjoy!

Apple Pie Crumble Fail, Apple Betty Success!

So it is apple season and the apples on my dad's orchard trees are ripe for the picking. (He has to get to them before the birds do :) ) Anyways with of bunch of extra apples lying around and a leftover pie shell from Thanksgiving I decided to make Apple Pie Crumble! I don't know about anybody else but apples and cinnamon o-my. I am in dessert heaven.

Ingredients: 

Filling:

Apples ( ~ 8? enough to fill a pie shell anyway)

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp real maple syrup 

Crumble: 

1/2 cup cold butter

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup oats

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp chia seeds

1 tbsp flax seeds

1/4 cup slivered almonds

Pie Crust: (this recipe makes 2 crusts)

1 1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup cold shortening

1 tsp salt

6-8 tsp ice cold water (very important that its cold)

Directions:

1) Chop apples into small cubes. Note how small our homegrown apples are compared to the store bought Granny Smith apple... I was not about to peel those tiny little things and plus the skin has many nutrients in it so I left the skin on. You really couldn't tell in the finished product :)

2) Make sure you toss the lemon juice on apples as soon as you start chopping. This is to prevent them from oxidization (turning brown).

On a side note this oxidization happens in our bodies every time we breathe. Eeek!! Antioxidants (i.e. lemon juice) prevent this oxidization from happening. This is why we are encouraged to eat our fruits, and vegetables, especially ones high in antioxidants such as blueberries, and take vitamins to prevent oxidization within our bodies and cell apoptosis.  Sorry science/health nerd kicking in lol

When all the apples are chopped, add 2 tbsp real maple sugar and 2 tsp of cinnamon or to taste. This doesn't sound like much sweetness but I do find that when apples are cooked they are much sweeter plus who wants all that extra sugar.

This was my leftover piecrust from Thanksgiving. It was leftover because I decided to make a new one instead of use this cracked one for the pumpkin pie. Making the crusts took me almost 2 hours. It was an epic fail at making crusts that day. I was covered in flour by the end of it and not a very happy camper. My mom has a picture to prove.... This said, the piecrust recipe does work. I tried adjusting it because of the humidity here when I really should have just left it as is. Lesson learned. Don't mess with your grandma's recipe. EVER...

3) Cut shortening into flour & salt. When crumbly add ice cold water. Mix together with fork till a ball forms. Take ball out of bowl and place on floured surface. Cut in half (2 crusts remember) and roll out a circular shape (mine always end up square lol) Leave enough for 1 cm to hang over pie dish. Use rolling pin to transfer dough to pie plate and pinch sides with fingers to form a pretty crust. Mine did not end up pretty...

4) Cut butter into oats, whole wheat flour, cinnamon and sugar. When crumbly add chia seeds, flax seeds and slivered almonds.

5) Dish cut up apples into dishes accordingly. The small one did not have a crust. and top with crumble.

6) Bake for 35-40 minutes. Until apples have softened and Voila!!

Yummmmmmm!!!  

The apple pie crumble was a fail because the crust absorbed a lot of the liquid from the apples so they didn't get too mushy. They cooked but were not near as yummy as the apple betty. To remedy this I poured some almond milk on my apple pie crumble. This was sooooo much better than putting ice cream on it. 

Tacos Tacos Tacos (chick pea tacos)

So these are some long lost posts where I took photos but never uploaded them. I figured I would put them up because looking back, they were delicious! and you just may love them like I do.

So sometimes, make that a lot of the time, I like a good taco. How can you resist the deliciousness of salsa, cheese and cilantro. Yum Yum!  On occasion though I don't really feel like cooking or buying meat so one night when I was craving tacos without meat I decided to make Chickpea Tacos! To be honest I didn't miss the ground beef at all. They were so yummy without and I think my digestive system was happy with me for making them with chick peas.

Ingredients:

1 can chickpeas
1/2 red pepper
1 large carrot
1 package taco mix
1/3 cup water
wholewheat tortilla
1 tbsp 0% fat greek yoghurt
shredded cheese
salsa
chopped letuce
chopped cilantro


Directions:

1) Dice up red pepper and carrot into small pieces and saute in pan with some olive oil until half cooked. 2) Drain the can of chickpeas and rinse. 3) Add chickpeas to pan. 4) Add taco mix and water to pan and stir until water has evaporated (I told you it was easy....)

5) Now the fun part. Assemble! I used greek yoghurt instead of sour cream as that was all I had but I really do think its a good option. WAY less fat and WAY more protein. Plus all I really want is that creamy taste which you definitely get from the yoghurt. Top with cheese.

6) Now chickpeas, lettuce and cilantro.

7) Thats a wrap! (Pun intended)