Zucchini Lasagna

Whipped up a scrumptious zucchini lasagna for the fam a few nights ago. I didn't take any pictures, but here's the rundown:

Ingredients:

• 2-3 Medium Zucchini, enough for two layers in your baking dish
• 3-4 cups Tomato Sauce (you can use your fav, the thicker the better)
• 2 balls no-salt Mozzarella Cheese, cut into 1/4 inch slices
• Romano Cheese, shredded (NOTE: don't buy pre-shredded cheese, there are lots of extra ingredients added to prevent drying)
• Sweet Italian Sausage, 6-8 links, remove casings
• Olive Oil
• Salt & Pepper
• Sage, Basil & Thyme (preferably fresh; sliced or torn)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350° F, and oil a glass baking dish. In a medium saucepan cook sausage, breaking up and stirring frequently. Place cooked sausage in a colander to drain. Cut zucchini into 1/4 inches slices, and line the baking dish. Season with salt, & cover with 1/2 the tomato sauce, 1/2 the sausage, 1/2 the mozzarella slices, and 1/2 the shredded romano. Repeat the layering starting with the zucchini. Top with fresh sage, thyme, and basil. Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Raise temperature to 375° F, uncover lasagna, and cook for an additional 15 minutes. Remove from oven, let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

Zucchini (or any squash), makes a great substitute for pasta in lasagna. I'm thinking of using squash substitutes, especially zucchini because we always grow a lot, for other pasta dishes and maybe in place of bread. I'm having so much fun figuring out new ways to use different foods, I barely miss the things I've cut out of my diet!

Red, White, and Food

Had a quite delicious 5th of July barbecue. On the menu: Grilled zucchini with salt, pepper, basil & oregano; Corn grilled in the husks; Venison sliders & beef sliders, with a homemade burger sauce, on toasted bakery onion or white rolls.

Ground Venison -- lucky me, my dad hunts!

Freshly chopped garlic

Quick & easy sauce, use ingredients to taste:

• Finely chopped garlic & onion
• Balsamic vinegar
• Raw sugar
• Cocoa powder
• Cayenne pepper
• Salt & pepper

Venison burger, ready to grill, with some extra cayenne pepper on top

To top it all off, homemade whipped cream, cherries, and Jersey Fresh blueberries. Very patriotic!

Homemade Pita Pockets? Totally!

A couple of weeks ago I decided to delve into the floury world of bread-making. I make soda bread all the time, but I figured if I really want to cut processed foods out of my diet I needed to expand my dough domain. An over-abundance of Tribe hummus led me to a pita recipe found on About.com. What made the recipe really easy to follow was the accompanying video, definitely watch it before making your own!

Surprisingly easy homemade pita. (Oh, and tasty too!)

Recipe: (copied from About.com) with my notes

Ingredients:

• 1 package yeast, or quick rising yeast
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 3 cups all purpose flour (unenriched flour is pricey, for this time I settled for just unbleached)
• 1 1/4 teaspoon salt (I used coarse sea salt)
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar (raw sugar worked just fine)
• 1 cup lukewarm water

Preparation:

Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup of warm water. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Let sit for 10-15 minutes until water is frothy. In the meantime, combine flour and salt in large bowl. Make a small depression in the middle of flour and pour yeast water in depression. Slowly add 1 cup of lukewarm water, and stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until elastic. Place dough on floured surface and knead for 10-15 minutes. When the dough is no longer sticky and is smooth and elastic, it has been successfully kneaded. 

 Frothy yeast

Coat large bowl with vegetable oil and place dough in bowl. Turn dough upside down so all of the dough is coated. Allow to sit in a warm place for about 3 hours, or until it has doubled in size. 

Remove doubled dough, roll out in a rope, pinch off 10-12 small pieces, and roll into balls. Place balls on floured surface. Roll out each ball of dough with a rolling pin into circles. Each should be about 5-6 inches across and 1/4 inch thick. Preheat oven to 500° F and make sure rack is at the very bottom of oven. Preheat a glass baking dish for a few minutes. 

 Rolled & ready for the oven

Place two circles in the preheated baking dish. Bake each circle for 4 minutes until the bread puffs up. Turn over and bake for 2 minutes. Remove each pita with a spatula from the baking sheet and add additional pitas for baking. Take spatula and gently push down puff. Immediately place in storage bags. 

Pita coated in chipotle hummus

Tuna (w/homemade mayo) & lettuce for my bro

The coolest part about making your own pita is the pocket-factor. The high heat & quick cooking causes the water in the dough to turn to steam, which puffs up the middle forming the pocket. When you see it happen though, it pretty much seems like magic. That's really the beauty of moving to unprocessed, homemade foods: it's about rediscovering the wonder of food. There is so much more to food than eating it. (Although, I'm inordinately fond of that part too!)