quesadilla Archives - Mamma's Cooking

Sweet potato gnocchi with pesto and more fun leftover ideas

To keep things interesting, I’m challenging myself with a new cooking technique each month. Last month it was making homemade bread. This month it is making my own gnocchi, which is much easier than I thought! I made this for a cooking club last week and everyone loved it! My husband and kids really enjoyed it too.

http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/main-courses/sweet-potato-gnocchi-with-gouda-cheese-sauce/

Click link for gnocchi recipe. The cheese sauce is great but I thought a little too heavy with the gnocchi, so the second time I made it with pesto.

Pesto

Fresh basil, handful

2 Cloves of Garlic, smashed

Olive oil, about ¼ cup

Parmesan, about ¼ cup shredded

Salt and lemon pepper to taste

Blend all the ingredients together in food processor while drizzling in olive oil, until smooth. Can add pine nuts or walnuts if you like. I also sometimes do half blanched kale and half basil.

I used some of the leftover mashed sweet potatoes I did not use to make the gnocchi and made chicken mango and black bean quesadillas. They were so good! Just spread a layer of sweet potatoes on the bottom half of the tortilla. Then in a bowl, mix leftover chicken with mango, black beans, cheddar, mozzarella and some cumin. Spread chicken mixture on top of sweet potato, fold tortilla over and bake in a 375 degree oven for 5-8 minutes.

I also made one of my kids’ favorites last week. Meatloaf “cupcakes” with mashed potato “frosting” and peas “sprinkles.” This is such a fun way to get kids to eat dinner. Karina enjoyed sprinkling the peas on the plates 🙂 I had so much leftover sweet potatoes from the gnocchi, that I added it to my meatloaf too!

Mix about 2-3 lbs of ground meat (whichever you like, turkey, chicken, pork, beef I like to use a mix of pork and beef), 2 eggs, 1/2 cup of panko bread crumbs, 1/2 onion – grated, 1 minced garlic clove, 1/2 cup cooked shredded vegetables (I’ve used leftover carrots, zucchini, sweet potatoes, or all three combined), salt, lemon pepper and coriander.

The key to good meatloaf is to do what the professionals do and cook a small pattie of meat in a pan and taste it so you know if the seasonings are right. I know its an extra step, but it is so worth it! That way you know to add more seasoning.

Grease your muffin tin and use a 1/2 cup measuring cup to scoop out the meatloaf mixture, roll it in your hand to make a giant meatball and then drop it in the muffin tin. Cook at 375 for about 35- 45 minutes (may be longer or shorter depending on your oven). About half way through brush with mixture of 2 parts ketchup and one part Sweet Chili sauce (I love Trader Joe’s sauce) that has been heating on the stove. At the end brush again.

Put mashed potatoes into a large ziploc bag and cut off one corner and use it to pipe mashed potatoes on top of your muffins. Then sprinkle with peas. (I just used frozen that I microwaved for 3 minutes).

For the leftover mashed potatoes and even the meatloaf, add it to your eggs in the morning and just scramble together to make a hash with some bacon or ham deli meat that you need to use up and serve with fruit. Below I gave it to my kids with some chocolate zucchini bread on Saturday. This chocolate zucchini bread recipe is good, but for me needs a little more sweetening and moisture. Kids loved it regardless!

Still not able to cook…

My excuse now is that I’m too busy and tired. The twins are now a month old and my mom has been gone for 2 weeks. We have had some great meals from friends, so I figured I would write about them to give people ideas of what they can bring friends who have had new babies or just need a meal.

Tamales + fresh Spinach (which Karina decided she liked eating plain!), so good and easy to heat up in the microwave for dinner and leftovers for lunch. Thanks Vivian, John and Genevieve!

Turkey Enchiladas with black beans. Freeze well and also easy to heat up in microwave. Thanks Naomi, Mike and Clara!

Lamb Gyros + tomato with feta bruschetta. We are very lucky to have a chef as a friend. Thanks Jodi and JJ! They came over and cooked the meal for us and joined us for dinner. The ground lamb patties with tzatziki, cucumbers in pita was delicious and great to snack on for the next few days after. Jodi also brought us some frozen meatballs, which we just heated up with some sauce + pasta for another few meals and last night had the meat pies she made that were in the freezer! So good!

Rice, garbanzo beans, black beans, etc dish. This was good and Tim loved it! Mixing veggies and beans with rice is a great idea because it can be eaten cold or hot. the strawberries, cool whip and angel food cake is also a great dessert idea. Thanks Amanda and Viveka!

I “cooked” one night. My mom had made a pork roast while she was still here and shredded and froze some of the meat. I defrosted the pork, shredded some cheddar and made quesadillas. For a little side salad I just mixed a can of black beans and can of corn. Easy and tasty!

Looking forward to trying the homemade bolognese that’s in our freezer! Thanks Katie, Anthony and Juniper!

Between all this great support and some easy meals (as well as a few nights of takeout!) we have been well fed!

I’m still dying to cook, so hopefully things will calm down enough for me to start. The act of cooking isn’t too much its the clean up on top that is too much right now.

Too pregnant to cook…

Time is now not the only problem, I can’t stand for long enough to cook a meal. I’m almost at the 33 week mark with twins, so my husband has been doing all the cooking now. Here is what we’ve been eating, which are good suggestions for anyone who doesn’t have time and also those who don’t like to cook:

Fish sticks and sweet potato fries (Frozen fish sticks + fries from Trader Joes that all you have to do is turn on the oven, put them on a baking sheet, put them in the oven)

Whole wheat pizzas with artichokes (Trader Joe’s whole wheat pizza dough – take out about 20 minutes before you want to use it, like right when you walk in the door. Roll it out with a little flour to keep it from sticking, throw some jarred sauce on there, mozzarella and then cut up some jarred marinated artichokes – or roasted red peppers – follow the directions on the dough for length of cooking. When done, just sprinkle some salt and pepper to your taste.)

Pesto Tortellini with Italian sausage (Some nice friends brought us some food to make this easy meal yesterday. Boil water and cook tortellini, when done toss with pesto sauce. Take the already cooked Italian sausage and just chop and heat in skillet, toss on the pasta, sprinkle with parmesan and you have a delicious meal!)

Sausage and Perogies (Similar to the meal above, you can mix it up by buying different types of already cooked sausage and the carb. Boil water, drop in Perogies, when done, plate with cooked sausage + steamed frozen peas or another frozen veggie).

Steak, polenta (Use a tube of already cooked polenta – cut it up, add it to a pot with about 2 Tbsp melted butter and about a cup and a half to 2 cups of milk (or I use fat free half and half). Mix with potato masher as it heats over medium heat until smooth, add more milk if you want it smoother. When done add a handful of parmesan + a Tbsp of fresh herbs (optional). Put salt, pepper and whatever herbs you like on steak. We often add coriander. Grill, saute, or cook it however is easiest for you. For a veggie we often use Trader Joe’s soycatash – mixture of corn, red pepper and edamame).

Chicken quesadillas (Buy a rotisserie chicken, take some meat off, put it in a whole wheat tortilla with some shredded cheddar, black beans – from a can, if we have them – then put in a toaster oven until done. Top with salsa + some sour cream).

Being pregnant and having to eat all the time, I often eat some of the chicken and some cheddar for a snack. Without me cooking, we don’t really have leftovers anymore, so end up ordering take out at least once a week and bring canned soup or frozen meals like Lean Pockets to work for lunch.

I don’t know when I’ll cook again, but hopefully soon. I cannot wait to get back into my kitchen!

Subsitutions: Using what you have on hand for recipes

Even though I am doing better at buying groceries only for the recipes I’m making for the week, I still don’t always have all the ingredients on hand because I forgot to put it on my list or used it for something else or it is an ingredient that is too expensive or hard to find.

Here are some of the substitutions I’ve used in recipes recently:

Sherry (and other alcohol) = I recently made French onion soup from Rachel Ray’s, Comfort Foods cookbook and one of the ingredients was sherry, which I never have on hand. I used balsamic vinegar instead and it tasted great. Here is a website I’ve found that has great information on substitutes for alcohol in recipes: http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/alcoholsubstitutes.htm

Most of the time you can substitute a vinegar or citrus juice and/or chicken broth.

Evaporated milk or heavy cream = Another thing I often don’t have is evaporated milk or heavy cream, so I just use whole milk because that is what I have on hand for my daughter.

Cake Flour = I don’t do much baking but some recipes call for cake flour, which I don’t always have so for each cup of cake flour you use 7/8 cup of all purpose flour + 2 Tablespoons of cornstarch.

Shallots = Don’t always have shallots on hand, so I use less onion to get the same flavor. For each cup of shallots I use 1/2 cup of onions (minced or diced) or add some onion powder to taste. You could also use one large leek instead of a shallot or vice versa.

The web site I linked to above for alcohol substitutions also has a substitution dictionary/search engine which is very helpful: http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/equivalents_substitutions.asp

Bread = Karina likes bread on its own but as a sandwich won’t eat it, so I use whole wheat pita bread, whole wheat tortillas or whole wheat crackers instead. The pita and tortillas have been most successful. I make a wide variety of quesadillas from traditional (cheddar/jack, tomatoes, black beans and chicken) to Florentine (mozzarella, spinach and ham).

If you use any others feel free to comment and let me know! Happy cooking!

Using leftovers in different ways…

I’m usually not very good at this, but in the interest of being more economical I’m trying to be better. Last week I did a good job, if I say so myself 🙂

On Monday last week I made a pot roast in the slow cooker and served it with a mashed potato and sweet potato mixture and roasted asparagus. Tuesday we had quesadillas with the pot roast meat and some sauteed peppers. Wednesday I made lasagna (with slow cooker pasta sauce, see previous blog posting for recipe) and added the rest of the pot roast meat and sauteed peppers. The lasagna was great for dinners for Karina for a couple nights.

Happy Easter to those who celebrate it…more blogging coming this week…

Eating what we eat

Karina is now eating mostly what we eat. No more double duty! Sometimes the timing just doesn’t work however (mostly when I can’t get dinner ready early enough). The other night we were getting ready to go to a friend’s house for dinner (not until 7pm), so I was trying to figure out what to give Karina for dinner. We hadn’t gone grocery shopping and the fridge was pretty bare. I was wracking my brain, then thought, “what do I usually do when Tim and I don’t have many options = quesadillas! So I found a can of black beans in the pantry, put some shredded cheese, diced up a little tomato and a little cilantro on a flour tortilla and put it in the microwave for 30 secs. I cut it up into bite size pieces and Karina loved it! Later at our friend’s house she tried some pulled pork and sweet potato. Also a big hit!

It has been a busy couple of weeks, so I’ve been trying out some different jarred food. I tried to give Karina soup. Here is the result:

I don’t know how soon we’ll try that again…Good thing it was bath night 🙂

Karina also enjoyed a great steak dinner one night (thanks to Ouma and Oupa for bringing us some steaks from Nebraska). We grilled some steak (med rare) and then cut the end pieces that were cooked through for Karina. She also ate tomatoes and some baked sweet potato with rosemary.