Living Without An Oven {BONUS} Skillet Lasagna Recipe

You might remember my post mentioning my dryer and oven dying simultaneously. We already have chosen to go microwave free, so adding no oven to that mix felt disastrous at first! If I had leftovers to reheat I would pop them in the oven. Need to crisp something up? Oven. Baked ziti, lasagna, casserole, cornbread, muffins, french toast sticks. Oven, oven, oven. Needless to say I've had to improvise quite a bit. I actually reheated a slice of pizza on the stove. It worked out pretty well, I must say! Cheese was all melty, and the crust actually crisped back up!

This has also meant that I've had to either eliminate or change-up certain family staples. Take lasagna for example. Can you possibly make a good lasagna with only your stovetop?? Before my oven catastrophe I would have said no, but now... YES! I stumbled across another phenomenal blog, a foodie blog called Mel's Kitchen Cafe, and I fell in love. I've tried a handful of her recipes so far, and the Simple & Meaty Skillet Lasagna is one of our favorites.

Not only is it just as good as lasagna from the oven, but the method in which it is cooked means that it takes no longer than a boxed dinner. But the health benefits of it being homemade, and being able to eliminate all the toxic additives to a boxed dinner, are unsurpassed. So enjoy the recipe! I did tweak it just a little, but that was simply to adjust the consistency to one more close to that of our family lasagna. The dots of ricotta throughout are simply heavenly! Make sure you use good quality ricotta! Bon appetite!

Mel's final product. YUM!

Meaty Skillet Lasagna

• 3 cans (14.5oz) pureed tomatoes
• 1 can (8oz) tomato sauce
• 1 Tbs olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves crushed or minced
• salt to taste
• 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 Tbs dried basil
• 1/2 Tbs dried oregano
• 1/2 lb ground italian sausage, mild or sweet
• 1/2 lb ground beef
• 12 curly edged lasagna noodles, broken into 1 inch pieces
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan
• 3/4 cup ricotta ( NOT low-fat!)

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until translucent. Stir in garlic and red pepper flakes and stir until the garlic becomes fragrant and pepper tickles your nose... less than a minute. Watch that the garlic doesn't start to brown or burn! Add the meat and stir to combine with the onion, garlic, and pepper. Brown until there is no pink left in the meat.

Add the tomatoes and spices and stir everything to combine. Add the broken lasagna noodles, stir again, and bump the heat up to medium-high. Stir often and cook until the pasta is al dente.

Remove pan from the heat and stir in half the mozzarella and parm, drop dollops of the ricotta all over the pan, and sprinkle with the remaining mozzarella and parm. Serve and enjoy!

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GREENer Baking - Recipe Included!

 I love cooking and love trying new recipes, but baking is a skill that for YEARS has eluded me. I live in the south, so knowing how to bake biscuits are essentially required of a woman if she wants to wear the Southern Belle ribbon. After struggling since my teens to find a recipe that I love, my family loves, and can have it's excellence repeated I found my biscuit mecca. Paula Deen's recipe. Why didn't I start there? There is no one more southun (pronounced like a true Belle) that Miss Pauwla. Say it. Out loud. Southun Pauwla. Southern Belle certificate awarded.

 There is no way to make a traditional biscuit recipe healthy. You can go green by swapping out whole wheat flower, but the truth is that my family doesn't go for that. I've tried switching out even a portion of regular flour for whole wheat and they all knew something was up. I have much better success with muffins, and this recipe is one that I just tried this morning. It's really easy to take a recipe like this, tweak a few of the ingredients, and have something much better for you. Enjoy!

Green Blueberry Muffins

2.5 cups unbleached, organic all-purpose flour

0.5 cup organic whole wheat flour

1.2 cups pure cane sugar

1 tsp salt

4 tsp baking powder

2/3 cup melted pasture butter (you can use oil if you want, but butter is more nourising and will keep you satisfied longer)

2 organic free range eggs (preferably local)

2/3 cup condensed milk (make your own with dry milk and water, skipping all the yucky additives in canned. Plus, you've already ditched your cans anyway, right? 1/3 cup dry milk, 1/2 cup water)

1/3 cup water

1 cup frozen blueberries

Preheat your oven to 400. Start by adding the dry ingredients to a bowl and stirring with a wire whisk to combine. In a large glass measuring cup measure out your milk and water together, then add your eggs, butter, and whisk to combine. Add your wet ingredients into your dry, stirring just until moistened. This gets pretty thick, so don't overmix because we still have to add the blueberries! Now FOLD in the blueberries. Using frozen berries helps not to demolish them, but still be gentle with your batter and berries. 

 At this point you need to put your mix in your muffin pan, but I want to say that a really easy way to go green in your baking is to get rid of the muffin liners. No waste. And they are completely unneccessary! So grease your tin with a little more butter, fill the cups to the top, and bake for 20-25 minutes, until the tops are golden brown. These will be big, hearty, satisfying muffins. Make sure you smear a nice pat of butter over each one while they're still hot. Everyone here loved them. Checkout my Facebook page for the proof. 

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The Switcheroo

When it comes to sneaky tactics the switcheroo is my favorite. Take old product, exchange it for new, don't tell a soul, pray no one notices. Good strategy, right?

Tonight's Switcheroo was made possible by me and my awesome homemade Sneaky Valley *giggle* ranch dressing. We had baked potatoes and salad for dinner last night and instead of using the plastic-bottled toxic ingredient super yummy ranch we usually have on hand, I made up a batch of homemade salad dressing. This was only the second time I've tried to make dressing, and the previous one was a really easy balsamic vinaigrette. I was nervous that my ranch wouldn't be creamy or tasty enough. I assembled the plates, passed them out, and crossed my fingers that no one would notice. My husband usually has the most discerning pallet, and he's been suspicious of substitutions ever since I put soy crumbles in our Hamburger Helper as newlyweds. Everyone cleaned their plates and the only one who said anything was, of course, my husband. Know what he said? "Dinner was really great!" I wanted to milk the compliment for all it was worth so I skipped to the fridge, pulled out  my jar of homemade ranch, wiggled it in the air and said, "I made the dressing!" He still stood by his previous comment that dinner was great... despite the fact that I had switcherooed our old faithful dressing for my homemade one.

I think we all, myself included, tend to be scared to use homemade products in place of store bought ones because we are worried that our families won't like them as much. Kids will complain that they taste funny, the texture might be off, or a husband with a picky palette might say it's just plain bad. But if you give it a try you will see that your successes far outweigh the failures. Not to mention that when you control the quality of the ingredients as well as the amounts, you can not only customize your foods to the exact taste preference of your family, but you can actually feel good about what you're feeding them. You know they are receiving nourishment and not just filling them up. Not to mention, it will do your self-esteem a world of good to have your hubby freely tossing compliments your way.

I encourage you to switch ONE store bought item for a homemade one this week. Just ONE. You can totally do that! Tell me what you switched and how it worked for you. If you want to try making some homemade ranch for yourself, here is my recipe.

Sneaky Valley Ranch Dressing

1/2 cup mayo
1/2 cup sour cream
1 Tb minced garlic (you can use garlic powder if that's all you have, but use much less)
1 tsp minced onion (chives, green onions, or onion powder work too. Adjust your amounts accordingly)
1 Tb parsley
salt and pepper to taste
milk

Add the mayo, sour cream, garlic, onion, and spices to a clean speghetti jar. Put the lid on and shake like you're trying to sculpt Michelle Obama's arms. Check your consistency and thin with a little bit of milk if the mixture if too thick for you. Shake again and enjoy! You can use it right away, but the flavors combine so much better if you let it sit in the fridge for 24 hours.

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