Recipe Mondays: Pillow Cookies and Spinach Lasagna Rolls

Oh my.......I think I have to quit baking soon......I have seen just a little bit too much sugar flying around my kitchen lately. My friend, Jonelle, shared these Pillow Cookies with me, and I decided I just had to bake them and share them with you. I think I also need to start running more and baking less:):)  

I got the recipe from this website:

Bakerella

And here is what they look like from my kitchen:




W-man's hand next to these ginormous cookies



The dough with a cooked brownie in the center.  After the brownie is placed in the center, the next step is to mold the dough all the way around and over top of the brownie.

They got much bigger than I expected.....as you can see I had too many on one cookie tray.  Some of the cookies turned out like squares, rather than circles.

Lovely scrumptious brownie center

My father in law tasting his first ever pillow cookie

Thankfully I was able to share some of these cookies with my in-laws, who came for a visit and also let my husband and I escape for a little date. I am also going to share the cookies today with some friends who are coming for a playdate. Then....if there are any others left......they need to go far away from me :):)  Any takers?

My second recipe to share with you today is my first attempt at making spinach lasagna rolls. I found this while looking for a regular lasagna recipe and I thought I would give it a try. They taste very yummy, but I found the sauce a bit too chunky for my liking. I think next time, I would try to make a smoother sauce. I give this recipe a 3 out of 5 stars. You should try it and let me know what you think!! It is a great meal to divide in half and share with someone else or freeze for another time. Here are is the recipe, followed by some pictures:

Spinach Lasagna Rolls (from Better Homes and Gardens)

ingredients:
1  10 oz package frozen chopped spinach, cooked and well drained
2 cups low-fat cottage cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 beaten egg
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
8 dried lasagna noodles, cooked and drained
Nonstick cooking spray
1 large onion, chopped
1 medium green sweet pepper, chopped
2 cups sliced fresh mushrooms
2 cloves garlic, minced
1  14-1/2 oz can tomatoes, cut up
1  8-oz can tomato sauce
2 teaspoons snipped fresh basil or 1/2 teaspoon dried basil, crushed
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

directions

1. Coat a 2 quart rectangular baking dish with nonstick cooking spray; set aside

2. For filling, in medium bowl stir together the spinach, cottage cheese, Parmesan cheese, egg, and nutmeg.  Spread about 1/3 cup of the filling on each noodle.  Roll up, jell-roll style, beginning at a short end.  Place rolls, seam side down, in prepared dish.

3.  Cover with foil.  Bake rolls in a 375 degree oven about 30 min. or until heated through.

4. Meanwhile, for the sauce, coat an unheated 2 quart saucepan with nonstick cooking spray.  Preheat over medium heat.  Add onion, sweet pepper, mushrooms, and garlic.  Cook until vegetables are tender.  Stir in undrained tomatoes, tomoate sauce, basil, sugar, and ground black pepper.  Bring to boiling, reduce heat.  Simmer, uncovered, for 5 to 10 minutes or until desired consistency.  Serve sauce over lasagna rolls.  Makes 8 main dish servings.

5. Make ahead tip: Assemble the lasagna rolls and prepare the sauce as above.  Cover and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.  To serve, bake the rolls in a 375 degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes and reheat the sauce.

Spreading the spinach filling on the lasagna noodles before rolling them up.

Finished product (before baking)

Have a great week, everyone!  

Recipe Mondays: Black Bean Tacos and Dorothy Lane Market-style Killer Brownies

I love recipe Mondays. I also love getting back to writing a blog post. I took a couple of days off over the weekend, which was nice, but I also realized how much I enjoy being able to share with others, get connected with new people, and learn new things.  To kick off my recipe Monday post, here is the first recipe for black bean tacos and mexican yogurt dip:

www.cookingquinoa.net/black-bean-tacos/

You also need to have a cute firefighter with you when making these, as pictured below:

Last week, I made black bean tacos for the first time. We have had other variations with meat in them, but I wanted to try something new because they seemed healthy and cost efficient. Considering I enjoy baking and eating sweets, I figured that I need to cook very healthy as often as I can. The black beans tacos were a huge success in my opinion, but I am not sure if the rest of my household would agree. The Mexican yogurt dip turned out to be pretty spicy, and I even held back on the chipotle pepper seasoning a little bit. I love spice, but the kids haven't completely taken a liking to strong spices yet. Here is a picture of Kate's reaction.

I feel a little guilty that I posted this, but her reaction was classic, so I had to capture it. She tries to have a good attitude with food, but some things she just can't handle.  :)

I believe my husband would have loved the tacos also, but he had actually had Chipotle for lunch that day and I didn't know. I felt bad once the meal was all done. He was so sweet though, and he never complained, all while eating every single bite with a smile on his face. :)

I was delighted to enjoy a leftover taco for lunch the next day and I thought it was fresh and just as delicious the second day. I loved the crisp taste and the twist of the Mexican yogurt dip. I am usually a fan of sour cream, but this seems like it would be a much healthier option. I will definitely make these tacos again, but maybe only for my husband and I.(and I will check with him what he is eating for lunch first).

My next exciting recipe to share is a rendition of Dorothy Lane Market's Killer Brownies. I believe the real recipe from Dorothy Lane Market is a secret, but someone came up with this very close version and posted it on the Internet. I wanted to surprise my husband for Valentine's, because these are his favorite dessert from DLM. A friend, Nikki, graciously shared the recipe with me last week, so I can't even take credit for finding it. She shared some very helpful tips, which I will also share with you. First of all, this recipe recommends using a German Chocolate Icing, but that is really hard to imagine on these brownies.  It just seems like it would make them way too heavy and rich.  Nikki's suggestion was to use a light dusting of confectioner's sugar and I also did the same thing.  Another tip was that she doubled the whole recipe and put it in a 9 X 13 pan.  Her best tip was that for the top layer, she laid it out on wax paper and smoothed it out before putting it on top of the caramel/chocolate chip layer.  That was a very helpful tip, because as I made it, I realized how tough it would have been to spread that top layer.   Here is the recipe:

www.community.tasteofhome.com/forums/t/15267.aspx

And here is a picture of how these brownies turned out. 

I am excited to serve them after dinner tonight, not only to my hard working husband, but to my little sister and her husband!!  They are coming for a visit today and I am very excited.  They are going to have their first baby sometime next month, so it will be great to see them.  Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!!

The great exercise attempt

I honestly did not go looking for an eventful day, just so I could write about it on my blog post. That kind of a day just found me.........

In fact, the day started out quite perfect.......I was able to sleep in until 7 AM, which is a rare occurrence for me. Normally, I like to be up and ready for the day by the time the kids get up, so I usually get up around 5:30 or 6 AM. It was really a blessing to be able to get some extra sleep because I seem to be coming down with a nasty head cold. I was able to sleep in because we did not have our normal homeschool group on Tuesday due to the ice storm. We also had piano lessons postponed, which meant a whole day at home......our own pace.

To make the day even better, my husband decided he was going to work from home, which is also a rare occurrence. The kids were thrilled by the fact that Daddy would be so close, especially since he is working longer hours during tax season. We got to start the day together as a family with breakfast, eat lunch together, and the kids got to have Daddy hugs whenever they wanted throughout the day.

We did our semi normal routine for the day and felt blessed with getting some great school time in with the older two kids, while the youngest, Little A, took her morning nap. I was feeling very cheerful today, even in spite of the dreary, icy weather outside. We had some fun times of playing after lunch and read some great books. Little A has become particularly fond of books lately and it is always fun to let her choose books and cuddle up together on the couch.

Well, I hope this hasn't made any of you too bored yet so just hang with me if you are ready for a good laugh. I can't believe I am going to embarrass myself like this but maybe you will feel better about yourselves after reading this next paragraph......

By the late afternoon, we were starting to grow restless from being indoors all day with little physical activity. While the youngest was sleeping, W-man and K-lady agreed to exercise with me. I have really been struggling lately to make time to exercise. It is always really hard for me in the winter with the hours that my husband works and not being able to get outside as easily. Since we had some extra time today, we were going to break out an old Billy Blanks Tae-Bo video until I realized our DVD player was broken. Plan B: I had the bright idea to just make up some of our own exercises. This is when the day started to go south very quickly. After doing some lunges, mountain climbers, etc. I decided to do some "stair climbing" on our fire place ledge. K-lady and W-man were amused and trying to mimic what I was doing. We were all laughing and having a good time when I got a cramp in my foot. I grabbed onto the mantle ledge and was commenting how I needed to get my shoes on when.....CRASH.....the mantle ledge popped partly off and tipped forward. Thankfully the kids were completely unharmed, but a lot of other damage occurred. Everything on the ledge flew off and landed or shattered somewhere on the floor. You can imagine the sight of a large plant tipped upside down with soil all over the floor, ceramic figures busted, and picture frames bent up. The worst part of it all was a "snow globe" type thing. Not only was this very special to me (because it celebrates Little A's adoption finalization day) but it created a huge mess. I am so sorry, Mom, if you are reading this, because that was such a special gift from you. I am very sad that it got destroyed today by my clumsiness and ignorance. There were glass pieces, sparkles and water everywhere. My husband had been out in the garage when this all occurred, so you can imagine his shock to walk in and discover us in our exercise clothes with a MESS all over the place. Somehow I actually just laughed.....don't know how, but I did. I honestly didn't know that the mantle was just sitting up there unattached. It is a huge piece of some kind of wood and I always thought it was firmly adhered up there. I quickly wished that I would have just started dinner prep instead of attempting to exercise.

Well, you would think it ended there, but not quite yet. I wanted to fix a nice meal since my husband was home to eat it with us, and I started making a taco salad. I was even making my own taco seasoning instead of using a packet, so I was quite pleased with this. Well, just as my husband came out of the office area to check on us, I was opening a new bottle of cumin. Somehow the lid popped off in a very ungraceful way and half of the cumin went all over the front of me. I inhaled some of it and was coughing too. Nice!! I tried to joke that I was wearing a new perfume, but inside felt like a huge klutz. Well, the end result was worth it all........here is a picture of the salad. It was very yummy!! Here is the recipe I used:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Daisy-Brand-Taco-Salad/Detail.aspx

I think I will use black beans next time instead of pinto....otherwise it was a keeper!!

Hopefully, I will have some more uplifting and encouraging posts to come. Just sharing some reality too :)