Butternut Squash, Bleu Cheese, and Bacon Lasagna

The Carnivore requested the I make the butternut squash lasagna again to leave for him when I went on vacation. Since I wasn't going to eat any of it I "carnivored" it up for him with additon of his favorite cheese (bleu) and one of his favorite foods (bacon).

This lasagna also took far less time than the first attempt because I learned from my previous butternut squash related follies. This time around I roasted the squash first and then scrape out the "meat" instead of trying to cube the raw squash. SO MUCH EASIER!

I also baked the bacon in the oven. No grease spatters, easy to drain the fat, less shrinkage, and all the bacon is crispy. Directions I follow are here.

To make the bleu cheese sauce I simply combined the milk, butter, and blue cheese in a sauce pan in medium heat. I warmed the milk and butter first, then dumped the chesse in and whisked until a cheese sauce was made.

Then I layered all the ingredients in a 9x11 glass pan and popped it in the oven on 350 for about 40 minutes.

Ingredients                                                       
1 box no bake lasagna sheets
5 strips of maple bacon
6 oz of bleu cheese
4 handfuls of baby spinach
1/4 white onion
1 butternut squash
1 cup milk
1/4 cup butter
salt and pepper to taste

Vegan Matar Paneer

The Carnivore and I both LOVE indian food. So, I finally decided to bite the bullet and give making it a try.

Matar Paneer Ingredients                                                       Carrot Rice            
-1 block of firm tofu                                                                            - 2 cups of dry rice
-1/2 white onion                                                                                  -1/2 cup diced carrots
-2 lbs tomatoes                                                                                    -1 tsp cumin
-1/4 turmeric powder
-2 tsp coriander
-1 tsp chilli powder
-a pinch of salt or more to taste
-2 tbs olive oil
-3 cups peas (I like lots of peas!)
-heavy handful of cashews (about 15)
-1 tsp garam masala*
-ginger/garlic/pepper paste (6 green peppers, 6 cloves of garlic, 1 inch of peeled ginger)

*I couldn't find a garam masala mix in my local grocery stores so I made my own from this recipe.

 

First I made the ginger/garlic/pepper paste with the ingredients listed above and set it aside.

When I was doing research for this dish I couldn't find a specific type of green pepper, but we like things spicy so I used serrano peppers. But, if you like another pepper or want to lower the heat I think you could use jalapenos or anaheim.

Then, I boiled the 2lbs of tomatoes to remove the skins and then  I used a food processor to blend all 2lbs of tomatoes.Voila-tomatoe puree!

Removing the skins was way, way easier than I thought it would be but a little gross. I've always hated tomatoe skins.

I made this cashew paste by soak a handful of cashews in warm water for 15 minutes while I made the pepper paste and tomato puree.




Now for the actual cooking...

I sauteed the pepper paste in a skillet with some olive oil on medium heat with the chopped white onion for about 8 minutes until the onion is translucent.









Add the tomato puree, garam masala, salt, and other dry spices. At this point I cooked the mixture down until it thickened a bit.





 Meanwhile I was cooking the rice. I put the rice and water in a pan on medium heat. While the rice began to cook, I diced the carrots. Once the rice was moslty cooked I added about 2 pinches of salt and the cumin.

Man, I love how cumin smells!

Since I used frozen peas, I had them thawing in a colindar during the rest of the meal prepartion. By the time I was ready for them they were pretty much thawed. All I had to do was mix them in and wait for them to warm up.


Last step: cut the tofu in to squares and toss in the dish.

This dish had lots of steps but they were pretty easy. The Carnivore and I both enjoyed this dish. I kept asking, "Does it really taste like Indian food?" He assured me that it did.

With this dish I finally accomplished my goal of making Indian food at home. Up next: replicate the vegetable korma dish from our favorite restaurant in Memphis!





Vegetarian Greek Pasta

Since we bought the juicer we've made fresh pasta a handful of times. And each time we've made pasta, I've made pesto to go with it. Pesto is amazing but I figured it was time to try a something new.


Pasta
1 cup flour
1 egg*
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tbs water
*I've  found some vegan pasta dough recipies I just haven't tried them yet.

Mixed ingredients in a bowl and then kneaded dough. After, I let the dough rest for about an hour. Finally, I ran it through my Omega juicer right in to a pan of boiling water. The pasta only takes about 3 minutes to cook when it is fresh.

After the pasta was cooked, I drained it and tossed in the ingredients below.

Tossed with
1/2 cup crumbled feta
2 tbs diced black olives
1/4 sauteed red onion

Other than letting the dough rest, this is a quick meal to whip up. Cooking the pasta, and preparing the other ingredients took less than twenty minutes.

I really loved the feta/olive combination. And after a particularly bad experience with a red onion a few years ago, I can see myself wanting to use more red onions in the future after eating this dish.

The Carnivore also really liked this dish. I served his with a hand breaded (panko, salt, pepper) and pan friend chicken breast.

I will certainly make this dish again this winter when I'm craving olives. But, I could also see myself serving it cold this summer at a picnic.