Eggplant Parmesan

I'm zumba-ing in my kitchen while making eggplant parmesan. So much judgment coming from my brother. Mainly about the dancing... cause he wants me to speed up the dinner making. I've never made eggplant parmesan before but I've been wanting to eat it for a while and my co-workers were talking about it today so I thought heck, why not!

I looked at a few recipes and kind of mixed them... cause I do what I want.

Ingredients: 
2 italian eggplants, sliced into 1/2 inch to 1 inch thick pieces
2 eggs, beaten
3 cups Panko bread crumbs (mixed with 1/4 cup grated parm, salt and pepper, 1 tsp dried basil)
680 ml Strained tomatoes (such as Pasatta)
4 leaves fresh basil, chopped
1 clove of garlic, crushed
olive oil
1 onion, diced
pinch of red pepper flakes
2 cups shredded mozzarella (side thought.... why is it called eggplant parmesan if there is so much mozzarella?!?)
1 cup shredded parmesan

Tomato Sauce:
In a pot over medium heat, add a tsp of olive oil and the diced onion. Let the onions soften for a bit, approximately 5 minutes. Add the chopped garlic and half the chopped basil. Cook for another 3-5 minutes. Add the whole container of strained tomatoes. Add salt, pepper, hot pepper flakes. Cook on low-medium heat until you're ready for it.

Eggplant prep:
Preheat the oven to 350. Lightly oil a large baking sheet with olive oil . Put the beaten egg in one bowl and then bread crumb mixture in another. Dip the sliced eggplant pieces into the egg on both sides and then into the bread crumbs. Place in a single layer on the baking sheet. Bake for 7 minutes a side. Broil for a minute or two to get some extra color at the end.

Use an 8x8 inch or 9x13 inch baking dish. Cover the bottom with the tomato sauce. Place a layer of eggplant slices in the sauce. Sprinkle with mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses. Then the sauce and  repeat with remaining ingredients, ending with the cheeses. I then lightly sprinkled the top with some more bread crumbs. Bake for 35 minutes or until golden brown.

It smells pretty delicious right now. I hope it is as delicious as it smells. I'll get back to you. Yup, it was good. My brother helped himself to two helpings so he must of enjoyed it! Kind of loops like slop on a plate, but its the taste that matters! Bon appetite!

Sausage and Broccoli Bake

I got my wisdom teeth out recently. It sucked. It's been a week now and I'm still a little swollen and I'm very bruised. The worst part about it all was my inability to eat solid food for a few days. After becoming sick of yogurt, mushed bananas, meal replacement drinks and apple sauce, I tried blending some food. To be honest it wasn't that bad at the time (mashed potato, sausage and broccoli.. hmm I seem to have a theme here), but the next day the thought of it made me sick. I was dying for some real food so on my 4th day of recovery my dad made spaghetti and I cut it into teeny tiny bites and managed to eat a normal sized bowl in about an hour. I tackled some scrambled eggs the next morning and a stir-fry that night. Again in teeny tiny pieces. By saturday I had a little more jaw movement and I could eat... sort of.  Tonight I said screw it, I'm going to make a yummy dinner and I'm going to force it in my mouth. So I did. Mmmm.

Ingredients: hot italian sausage, onion, garlic, thyme, white wine, butter, flour, cheese (whatever you have - cheddar, parmesan, monterey jack) , broccoli, penne, bread crumbs.

Directions: 
1. Fry up some hot italian sausage. When cooked, remove from pan and put aside. Also put a pot of water on to boil -- when it boils at whatever stage, add pasta and cook till just about done. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Dice up 1 onion and 2 cloves of garlic. Toss in pan that the sausage was cooked in. Let the onions get a nice brown caramely color. Toss in some fresh chopped thyme.
3. Deglaze the pan with a splash of white wine. This already creates a slight sauce (with the wine, grease from the sausage and onions all mixing together). Toss in some butter and whisk in some flour slowly(we're making a roux - think mac'n'cheese). This roux is different than normal because the onions are there... It's hard to explain. It kind of just sticks to the onions. If you add too much flour, just toss in more butter. You want a smooth consistency  Once you think there is enough flour/butter, pour in some milk and whisk. A thick sauce should start to form. I added about 1 cup of milk to 1 tbs of flour and a dollop of butter. To make more 'sauce' I tossed in about 1/2 cup of chicken stock as well.
4. Add cheese to sauce - I used a combo of cheddar, monetary jack and parmesan. I added about 3/4 cup of cheese, if not more. 
5.   Quickly steam some broccoli in the microwave or on the stove to al dente. Add the bite size pieces to the sauce.
6. When the pasta is cooked, return to pot. Add sausage and the sauce with the broccoli. Mix together and put into a lightly greased pyrex or casserole dish. Top with more cheese and bread crumbs. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes and then a quick broil (no more than 2 minutes) to crisp up the bread crumbs.

This is in no way healthy, but what else is new with me. It's friggen delicious. Enjoy!

Fancy Mac and Cheese

I've been pretty busy with exams recently so haven't had anytime to post anything. I haven't even been cooking fancy meals because I haven't had time. I only have 1 exam left and then I'm all done university! Scary stuff. When I look into my future (aka this summer), I foresee lots of fun dishes that I have bookmarked and I'm dying to try, so stay tuned!
I made this fancy mac and cheese 2 weeks ago with my sister at home in Toronto. It should be filed under 'close your eyes and don't pay attention to how much cheese you're adding'... if that were a file you kept. It had FIVE different cheeses in it: fontina, gruyere, parmesan, blue cheese and goat's cheese. So basically not healthy but unbelievably delicious. A treat to be saved for a rare occasion! The cheese sauce was delicious enough to eat with a spoon... but we totally didn't do that at all.

We followed the recipe pretty closely. Here were our changes:

• We didn't have macaroni so we used rigatoni. I think it would have worked out better if we used macaroni... the rigatoni noodles were too big.
• When roasting the mushrooms, we added garlic and fresh thyme to give the mushrooms more flavour. 
• We also added some fresh thyme to the onions while they were cooking. 
• We omitted the 1/2 and 1/2 cream because it already had enough fat and creaminess in it, we wanted to feel a little better about ourselves. 
• For the egg, we separated the egg yolks from the egg whites. We only used the egg yolks. 
• I can't remember exactly, but I believe we only baked it for 15-20 minutes. 

Baked Chicken Parmesan

I came home from the library with plans to make Greek Spinach Feta Chicken Pockets. I had the chicken out defrosting and I was going over the ingredients in my head when I realized I should take a look at the puff pastry in the freezer. At this point I was getting VERY hungry. I read the directions on the puff pastry box which said "defrost for 2 hours or in fridge over night". I could not wait that long. My belly was rumbling.

Now here I was with a defrosted chicken breast and no idea what I was making for dinner. I decided to take a look at what food recipes I'd bookmarked recently incase there was something simple and with chicken. Baked Chicken Parmesan to the rescue!!

This recipe is incredible easy and simple. Ingredients: desired chicken amount (I used 1 chicken breast),   seasoned breadcrumbs (or plain breadcrumbs you can season yourself), parmesan cheese, butter, garlic, mozzarella cheese, marinara sauce (I made my own - can use store bought).

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 450 (I had it at about 400-425 and it worked just fine). I just realized it says to spray your baking sheet... I did not and I didn't have any problem with sticking. Spray lightly, if at all.

Step 2: Combine breadcrumbs with parmesan in a bowl. Because my breadcrumbs were not seasoned, I also added chopped fresh thyme and s&p. 

Step 3: Melt butter in a bowl. The original recipe does not call for garlic, but I chopped up some garlic and put it in with the butter. Excellent decision, if I do say so myself.

Step 4: Now it says to 'lightly brush' butter onto the chicken and then dip it into the bread crumbs... I dipped it in the garlic butter and made sure it got nice and covered and then dipped it in the the breadcrumbs (perhaps this is why I didn't need to grease the pan). Put finished pieces on the baking sheet. Drizzle some of the extra butter (if there is some) on top of the chicken pieces.

Step 5: Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Turn chicken over and bake for another 5. 

Step 6: While the chicken is baking, heat up marinara sauce. I made a very simple sauce using a splash of red wine, garlic, thyme, salt/pepper, red pepper flakes and Passata sauce (a tomato purée I use for all my tomato sauces - look into it, it's very handy!).

Step 7: When the chicken is done baking, spoon sauce over each piece of chicken and then top each piece with shredded mozzarella. The original recipe says 1 tbsp sauce and 1 1/2 tbsp of cheese, but I put as much as I wanted. Cause I do what I want. Bake for 5 more minutes or until the cheese is melted!

Bon Appetit! 

Birthday Cupcake and White Cheddar + Arugula Pesto Pasta

Rainbow Nerd Cupcakes for Emma's birthday! SO good.

  

White Cheddar + Arugula Pesto Mac and Cheese - This was absolutely delicious. I added way more cheese than asked for because it wasn't cheesy enough. I also used fresh parmesan instead of asiago. I tossed in some cayenne to the cheese sauce. 

Gruyere Cheese Pasta

 

1 chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces (marinated in olive oil, s & p, thyme, cayenne pepper and some garlic)
1/2 a tomato, cut into wedges
1/2 a white/spanish onion, chopped
3 mushrooms, sliced (I used white, Crimini would work)  
1 large clove of garlic
White wine, Chicken Stock and Cream (I use whipped)
1-2 fresh basil leaves, chopped
5 slices of gruyere cheese (or you can grate it which I thought of afterwards)
A handful of spinach and arugula
Fresh parmesan


     Oh my goodness. This was delicious. I will quote my housemate who after taking a bite said "You should probably drop out of school and just cook". While sitting in class today, clearly paying attention, I was thinking about what I might make for dinner. Ingredients were floating through my head and in my mind I had just created the most delicious sounding pasta that I had to try and make. I texted my sister, my go-to when I have cooking questions, with a list of ingredients I wanted to use and she gave me her approval for the meal. So happy it turned out well!
     First fry up the chicken in a pan with some olive oil, allowing it to brown. Remove and set aside. Toss in the tomatoes for about 30 seconds per side. I have no idea if this accomplished anything, I just felt like doing it. Put the tomatoes with the chicken. Next in the same pan put in the onions and mushrooms with a little butter and more oil (if needed). Allow the mushrooms to get a little brown. Toss in the garlic and mix around for about 1 minute. You wait to add the garlic so that it doesn't burn while the onions and mushrooms are cooking. Pour in white wine. I did enough to cover the onions and mushrooms in the pan. Allow that to simmer for a bit. Add the chicken stock. I used probably half a cup, even though I had a cup to use. Let that simmer. Toss in cream, only a little! You don't want it to be the focus of the sauce. After you let that simmer for a bit toss in the fresh basil and add the chicken and tomatoes back in. Stir and add in the gruyere cheese. Once the cheese has melted, toss in whatever pasta you are using and let it mix around with the sauce. Put the pasta onto a plate or in a bowl and add a handful of arugula and spinach (you can do one or the other, but I had both!). Mix it up so all the arugula/spinach is not on the top. I didn't put the arugula/spinach directly in the pasta sauce because I didn't want it to welt in the heat of the sauce. I wanted it to still be rather "fresh". Shave some fresh parmesan on top and voilà! Gruyere Cheese Pasta!