Zucchini Lasagna!

It's been a WHILE since I've blogged! We've been doing A LOT of traveling and I've had my parents in and out of town (cooking for us!!!) and so I haven't had a chance to blog lately!  I decided to make an old favorite today and know I haven't blogged about this recipe before, so I thought I'd share it!

In my mission to cook good, fairly healthy food, I discovered this pasta-less lasagna recipe a few years ago.  It's actually sooooooo good that you don't even miss the pasta.  Now, this is a big deal for me to say because I LOVE all things starchy (bread, potatoes, pasta, rice....yum!).  But to not miss the pasta?????  It's THAT good!

Now, there are several little tricks that I've discovered along the way to make this recipe really good.  Trick #1, if you don't have a mandolin - get one!  It makes cutting the zucchini into even slices soooooo much faster and easier.

Trick #2, you HAVE TO remove the excess water!!!!  In a traditional lasagna, the pasta absorbs all the water created by the veggies and that's what helps cook the pasta. In this recipe, there is NO PASTA and so the water just accumulates around the sides and corners of the dish.  I always leave a space at the end of the dish I'm using for the water to accumulate in which means DO NOT pack the entire dish with the zucchini and lasagna ingredients.  I've found it to be soooooo much easier to remove the water by using a turkey baster!  Yes, a turkey baster!  Now there's one other time a year you can use it!  I remove the water about half way through cooking and then again after the lasagna has had time to rest.  Which brings me to Trick #3 - you MUST let the lasagna rest.  I'd say at least an hour!  This will allow more water to release and will also help the lasagna bind!  This is one of those dishes that even better the next day too!

Now for the recipe.  I don't have a Pinterest one to share for this because I saw it on TV one day and just replicated it myself, but I've checked and there are tons of Pinterest recipes out there if you need another guide! Just fyi - I used 4 zucchinis for this recipe!

Here's what I do:

1.  Make the meat sauce!  It is super important to make the meat sauce the way you and your family love it!  It's the center of the dish and it's why I think my lasagna tastes sooooo good!  I make mine from scratch by grated an entire onion over a package of 80% ground chuck in a pot.  I add salt, pepper, cumin, a touch of cinnamon, a bay leaf, and a bouillon cube to it and allow it to cook down.  Once the meat has turned brown, I add a can of crushed tomatoes, a can of tomato paste, and some brown sugar.  I stir all the tomato in and then allow it to simmer for about a half an hour and then remove the bay leaf.

We like to use this bouillon instead of the Maggie cubes whenever we can

2.  Chop up all the veggies your family likes.  I usually use up whatever I have in the fridge.  Chop them into smaller pieces so that they make a similar sized layer of veggies.  For the one I made today, I had mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, parsley, and some sweet peppers.  I place all the veggies I chop up into a bowl together.  I have a veggie seasoning that I like to use and sprinkled that over them veggies and stirred them up.

3.  Slice up the zucchini using a mandolin!  This makes nice, even pieces to help you layer your lasagna.  You are using the zucchini slices INSTEAD of the lasagna pasta, so make sure they're not too thin and give you a little bit of a bite while eating the lasagna.  This actually makes you feel like there's pasta in it when there's not!

4.  Layer your lasagna!  Spray your dish so that nothing sticks to the bottom then add a thin layer of sauce to the bottom of the pan.  Layer the zucchini down first, top it with the seasoned veggies, add a layer of meat sauce, then top with a layer of cheese (I like to use a mix of cheese - I used parmesan, cheddar, and mozzarella.  If your family likes ricotta or just mozzarella - go for it!).  Then repeat these layers one more time.  Top the lasagna off with another layer of sliced zucchini, a thin layer of sauce, and some cheese.

5.  Bake at 375 degrees F for about 45 minutes.  Make sure to check half way through to see if you need to drain some of the water.

6.  Allow to sit for about an hour and remove water as needed.

My lunch today!  After having the lasagna rest for about an hour and a half!

Steak Roll Ups!

I keep seeing a post on my Facebook feed about how to make Steak Roll Ups and decided to give it a try!  It was actually SOOOOOOO easy and I will definitely be making them again!  I bought a package of thin steaks and had a bunch of veggies in the fridge and decided to make it.  I marinated my steaks in that great Trader Joe's Soyaki Sauce I always talk about and then cut all of my veggies into thin strips.  I used green and yellow zuccini, onion, cabbage, and carrots.  Again, this is just what I had in my fridge, so that's what I used!  I sprinkled some onion and garlic powder over my veggies and then rolled a few of each into the steak with a sprig of cilantro and some sticks of chive.  I then used a couple of toothpicks to keep it together and seared the steaks on my cast iron skillet.  After they were seared on each side, I placed them in a glass dish that had my favorite BBQ sauce (Diane's from Canada) in the bottom and then put a little on top of each of my roll ups and popped it in the oven on 300 for 10 minutes.  I placed it under the broiler for another 5 minutes and that was it!

Another one of my favorite kitchen things is my steamer!  I bought the one I have about 15 years ago at a garage sale and absolutely love it!  It has multiple layers for steaming and a rice dish so that you can cook multiple things at the same time!  I steamed some basmati rice while I was making the roll ups and served them both for lunch!  SOOOOO yummy!

Here are some pics of the process:

Finished product!

This is how my 2 year old ate it! I just cut it up into pieces and mixed it into the rice.

Searing the meat

On the cast iron grill

Meat rolled up with veggies

All the veggies I put inside

Grilled Sword Fish

My husband loves thick, steak-like fish and so we recently bought some frozen Sword Fish from Publix.  I much prefer soft, white, flaky fish, but I decided to make his fish tonight.  After thawing it, I marinated it in that amazing Soyaki sauce from Trader Joe's that I posted about before and then grilled it in my cast iron grill pan.  I used some olive oil and then grilled the fish on one side and then added some fresh mushroom, sliced onions, and sugar snap peas.  I added some salt, pepper, and vegetable seasoning and left it for a few minutes and then grilled the other side.  I also made some wild rice and steamed some Bok Choy and fresh Okra from our garden!

I have to say, that normally I DON'T like this type of fish, but it actually was very tasty and I ate my entire piece!

Here's how it turned out:

Grilled fish and veggies

Wild Rice

Bok Choy and Okra

Pelau!!!!

If you're looking for a VERY tasty one-pot wonder, then you should try to make Pelau!  This authentic Caribbean rice dish is made lots of different ways throughout the Caribbean, but this is the method that I've adopted for our family and it's one of our favorites!

I like to use my deep dish Calphalon pan to make my Pelau in.  Nothing sticks to it and it's the perfect size for us to have dinner and leftovers in for the next day!  If you've never "browned" chicken, then you should definitely look up how to do it (burning brown sugar in some vegetable oil and then throwing the chicken in over it to get that deep "brown" coloring) or you can even buy "browning" in a jar at a local West Indian shop!  Even Publix here in Jacksonville now has an "International Foods" aisle that has West Indian products in it.  After browning my chicken (drummettes that were previously seasoned with homemade green seasoning and frozen), I throw in chopped onion and garlic, a couple sprigs of thyme and some green onions from my garden, and a whole can of pigeon peas.  I then add a ton of rice over it and mix it all together to get everything nice and brown for a few minutes.  Then I add half a tin of coconut milk, some chicken broth, and some boiled water, salt, and pepper and turn the stove down to slow cook the rice!  I also add about half a bag of frozen mixed vegetables to the mix!  This pot is the BEST when you add some pepper sauce to it directly, but since I always feed my two year old out of what we eat, we've started putting the pepper sauce over our own plates of food instead.  This recipe is super quick and easy and FILLING for the whole family!

Here's how the Pelau turned out!!!!

Completed plat of Pelau with some tomatoes and cucumbers!

Browned chicken, rice, pigeon peas, and mixed vegetable before adding the liquid

Browned chicken and seasoning with the rice

"Browning" or burning of the brown sugar

Here are the products I use!  Gotta love GOYA!

Chopped onions, garlic, thyme, and green onions

I also made a fresh garden salad to go with the meal and some homemade vinaigrette!  I posted the recipe for the salad dressing in a previous post!  It's really good, you should try it!