J's Romantic Baked Ziti

I wish I had a picture for this, but sadly we ate it all before I decided I would post this.

J. made this for me a few years ago for Valentine's Day. I requested it this year because I came across the recipe again. That and this dish is A-mazing. It takes a little bit of time to prepare, but it is well worth it. This and J's Mexican casserole are two things I always request him to make for dinner because they are so darn tasty.

I think J. originally found this recipe at http://www.italianfoodforever.com/ but I don't have that copy anymore. I just have my dirty recipe card. :) Does anyone else seem to dirty anything and everything that is in the kitchen? My favorite recipes are distinguished by my messes that always end up on them.

Guys, if you can do this, it's a super romantic dish and sooo tasty. And it's a manly dish... it has sausage. :)

You can adapt this recipe to fit in a bento box. I have baked individual servings in muffin cups. The only thing I would say about that is you might want to use a different type of pasta (elbow noodles, spaghetti, orzo might be nice, etc.). I've never tried freezing this dish to see how it works in the freezer. It never really lasts that long with us.


Ziti al Forno

2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp minced onion
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 carrot diced
1 celery stalk, diced
4 links hot or sweet Italian sausage
salt & pepper
1 tsp dried oregano
1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley
1/2 cup red wine, or beef stock
2 (14 oz.) cans chopped tomatoes
1 lb. ziti pasta (we can never find ziti so we use penne)
1 1/2 cups mozzarella, grated or diced
3 oz. Parmesan, grated
3 well beaten eggs

Brown the sausage links well in a heavy sauce pan. Remove and cut into 1/2 inch rounds. Next, make the sauce by heating the olive oil and cooking vegetables until they are softened. Add the wine or stock and cook until reduced by half. Add the tomatoes, salt, pepper, oregano, sausage pieces, and parsley, and simmer for 60 minutes until thickened.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta until al dente. Drain the pasta, and add to the sauce, mixing well.
In a buttered, oven proof dish, add 1/3 of the pasta, then sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Repeat the layers until everything is in the dish. Pour over the top of the pasta the beaten eggs, then sprinkle with the Parmesan.
Bake in a preheated 400 F oven until bubbly, 15 to 20 minutes roughly. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

I hope you try this recipe.
 
Take care!

A Update Post

Ok... so maybe I wasn't as go-get-'em as I could be with my blog. But I promise a lot has happened since I quit posting. Lots of stressful and exciting things.
First, I quit grad-school. I'm pretty sure I wasn't meant to be a graduate student. It was just too stressful. The fact that I stopped going to school meant I didn't need a lunch packed every day. Ooops.
Next, and this is the exciting one, I am engaged! Not only that but I'm only 50 days from the wedding day.(yes, I have a count down going. I started it the day after I got engaged.)
So, neck deep in wedding planning and without a daily job in which I need to pack a lunch, I stopped blogging shortly after I started. But I am determined to continue on. Just indulge me when I stop talking of food and post something about the wedding. :))

So here are a few pictures of such that happened while I was out. Not exactly exciting. I had some nicer lunches, but I forgot to take pictures.

 I tried to make egg-flowers with these little peppers I found. It worked all right, but I wasn't completely satified with the results. The pepper, egg, sugar snap pea flowers are served on top of herbed-buttered rice.

 Here is another shot of the same lunch. Grapes, pepper strips, a strawberry or two, with grilled chicken and snap peas.

Some of the boxes and snack containers I found. I bought them for me, but I reserve the right to claim that I bought them for my niece. :)  I used the Ariel box in the previous lunch.

I have to say, I packed this lunch for J. and he asked for almost everything in it (except the cutie orange) and I was like "Wow!" I would hate to eat this lunch. There are no colors  (i.e. no veggies...). Everything was pretty bland looking. There is apple sauce with cinnamon, a cutie orange, a butchered hard-boiled egg, some mozzarella bites, and a sandwich. I added this picture as proof that a well balanced, colorful lunch can be half the eating equation in pleasing your appetite.

Take care! I'll try and update everything and find some new posts.

Apple carving skills!

Just a quick post this morning as I browse for new ideas for more tasty bento lunches.

Apple carving!
I've seen different types of carved apples in other bento blogs and I while I have tried to make the bunny (not very successfully... let's just say the bunny is always missing an ear) I had not tried to make the other types of apples. See my picture below!

Pictured here are a two bunnies (not maimed), a flower, and a checkered apple. I am very proud of how far my knife skills have come (I have cut my thumb while chopping carrots since this picture but that's a different story of sleeping preparation of lunches). I also tried to make the leaf pattern wedges but also I butchered the apple so I ate that one first. Also it ths picture is my favorite dip for apples, peanut butter yogurt! It sounds kind of weird but wait until you try it. I first heard about this dip in a fitness magazine (I think) and since then it has been my favorite snack. I mix about 1 to 2 tablespoons of peanut butter into one small container (4 to 6 ounces) of plain greek yogurt. I garnished the dip with some unsalted peanuts. Sometimes I like to make it a little sweet and it that case I will use honey or half plain and half vanilla yogurt.

I love to pack this dip in my bentos. It is a very thick dip so I never have to worry about it spilling over or leaking out.

This is also a high protein dip if you make it with greek yogurt. Four ounces of greek yogurt can contain 10 grams or more of protein. When eaten with apples you get a nice dose of fiber and protein to keep you full.

Enjoy!

Bubble Tea!

Oh my goodness! This stuff is sooo tasty, but that is because of how much sugar it contains. Every since Cafe 88 opened up right next to campus, I have gone there at least once a week to order a bubble tea and sometimes something to eat, but mainly for the bubble tea. Anyhow, if you do not know what bubble tea is allow me to explain. It is black or green tea mixed with milk/cream or fruit flavors and spiked with tapioca pearls which are nice and chewy. This place also offer "jellies", which are multi-colored tangy-sweet jello-like pieces. Once I realized how much sugar is in this concoction (I haven't actually looked it up) I decided I would try and make the drink myself to save myself some calories and help keep my teeth from rotting in the future.

So this is my modified version of bubble tea. I added pureed fruit for some texture as well as flavor, along with 1 tablespoon of sugar, about 1/4 cup tapioca pearls, ice, and topped everything off with a nice black tea. Here is the result.

You can see the blueberry pieces floating at the top with the ice. I thought the tea was very tasty, however J. didn't like the pieces of fruit in his so he decided to strain the drink. His drink still tasted like blueberries since the tea was hot when we mixed everything together. Tasty stuff. And since I've decided I will make most of my drinks this way (I say most) I have ended up drinking fewer all together just because it takes a little bit of effort and planning to make the tapioca and tea and puree the fruit and strain the drink and actually drink it... which is probably better for me overall. :)  Cheers!

Back to it... Sushi making evening

Hello! I have been away for so long...

I had a few finals and projects, presentations, etc., etc. going on at the end of the semester, but now that's done with. It is time for a break.

But on to my lovely sushi! I was so proud of some of our sushi we made. I have made sushi a few times (maybe twice before) and I was feeling daring to make some sushi for our lunches. So I convinced J. to help me. It takes a lot to set up for us to make sushi (see my picture below)

This is how I prepare to make sushi. I try to anything and everything we might want to add to the rolls close at hand. Soy sauce, wasabi, sesame seeds, nori, sushi rice, shrimp, tuna mayo with wasabi, sesame salmon, carrots sticks, asapagus, cream cheese slices, steak, cheddar cheese sticks, tofu pouches, and much more.

All the fish was cooked because I would rather someone else prepare the raw sushi (plus I live in the middle of U.S. and the only fresh fish you might find here is catfish :P ). But everything turned out tasty. Here are some picture of our sushi rolls.

The picture is a little out of focus. Oh well. In this photo there are tuna mayo and asparagus rolls, sesame salmon with carrots and asparagus rolls, salmon tofu pouches, and shrimp, carrot, asparagus, and cream cheese rolls; I also made and inside out roll with the sesame salmon and topped it with toasted black sesame seeds. All were super tasty.

Here are a few of the rolls that J. made.

This roll contains steak, smoked cheddar cheese, carrots, and asparagus. J. is not a big fan of fish; he especially doesn't like tuna, so he decided to make some steak sushi. I wasn't sure how it would taste, but it was surprisingly tasty.

I thought J's rolls turned out exceptionally pretty because of the color contrast. We had so much sushi (I wish we would have invited some people over to help us eat it) but because the fish was all cooked it kept really well in the fridge for lunch the next day.

Look for more posts from now on. I'm hoping to have 4 to 5 posts a week, but let's see how it goes.