Ham and cheese lasagna

I had bought lots of ham and had no time to cook dinner, so I decided to make a no prep lasagna. You just assemble it, stick it in the oven and cook it for half an hour and you have a scrumptious meal in no time.

Ingredients:

2 cups roughly chopped ham
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup ricotta cheese
1 box oven ready lasagna noodles
1 cup white sauce (see recipe below)
1/2 cup grated romano cheese
1/2 cup marinara sauce (optional)
salt and pepper
paprika
thyme

In a bowl, mix the ham, mozzarella cheese, ricotta, part of the romano cheese, salt, pepper, a dash of paprika and thyme.

In the bottom of a rectangular oven dish, spread some marinara sauce and a layer of lasagna noodles. You can avoid this step if your kids don't like tomato sauce (like mine).

Spread a layer of the ricotta mixture and another layer of the lasagna noodles.

You can put a little marinara sauce and some cut up mozzarella cheese.

Then pour the white sauce on top and sprinkle with some romano cheese.

Bake it for half an hour in a 375°F oven.

You can also make it ahead of time. For example, if you have guests, you prep up the lasagna the day before and put it in the fridge, then the next day just stick it in a cold oven and bake for forty minutes.

To prepare the white sauce:

In a pan, add the butter, cold milk, cornstarch and seasonings and stir until all the cornstarch has disolved. Then for the next 10-15 min boil in very low heat, stirring constantly.


Tips for the white sauce:

If you get lumps, just stir vigorously until they disappear.

If it's not thick enough, in a cup, add 4 tablespoons cold milk with 1 tablespoon cornstarch and stir until it has disolved. Then add it straight to the pot and keep on stirring (at low heat) until it thickens.

If you don't have cornstarch, you can substitute for all-purpose flour.

Hummus

I like making home made hummus and if I'm pressed for time, I'll use the canned garbanzos. If not, I like to have all kinds of beans on display in my kitchen (split peas, garbanzos, black beans and lentils) and love the ritual of putting the beans in water the night before.

Ingredients:

1 cup cooked garbanzos (or 1 can garbanzos, do not drain)
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
salt and pepper
juice from half a lemon
paprika and cumin (for decoration)

In a blender, add the garbanzos, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper, lemon juice and some garbanzo water (either saved from the can or the pot). Turn it on high for a minute.

Serve on a dish decorated, in the middle with olive oil and on the sides with paprika and cumin. Serve with pita bread wedges.

Zucchini bread

When I started to make the zucchini bread, my daughters asked me what I was cooking and when I mentioned that it had a vegetable in it, they declared that it sounded gross. When the bread came out of the oven, they saw that it had tiny green"things" and no way would they eat it. So I said, "well, you like carrot cake, why don't you give this bread a try" and not only did they taste it but they ate the whole thing in half an hour!!! I told them that next time I was going to give each one of them a slice and hide the rest, since they were even eating the crumbs when the cake was gone.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of self-rising flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup sugar
1 cup shredded zucchini
1 egg
1/4 cup oil
1/4 tsp lemon peel
1/2 cup nuts, or in my case raisins

In a bowl, beat the sugar, zucchini and egg. Add the oil and lemon peel.

Stir in the flour and cinnamon into the mixture and fold in the nuts/raisins.



Pour the batter in a greased 8 x 4 x 2 loaf pan and bake in a 350°F oven for 55 min or until golden brown (mine was done in 45).



Remove from pan and cool thoroughly before cutting.

When I told my friend Hortensia about the bread, she said "why don't you make zucchini muffins?" Since I had leftover shredded zucchini, I decide to try out the muffins and the only difference is that I used orange peel. They were so delicious that I had to take the picture before they disappeared!

Empanadas de carne (Meat empanadas)

Thinking about making meat empanadas can sound like a scary undertaking, but they are quite simple to make. The trick is learning how to close the empanada, which you can either do it with a fork or by hand.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef
1 small onion
2 hard boiled eggs
salt, pepper
green olives (optional)
12 disks of empanada dough (you buy it in the supermarket)

Cook the chopped onion until translucent.

Add the ground beef and cook thoroughly.
(the image shows the raw meat)
Add the chopped eggs and let cool.

If you want you can add olive and if you are feeling daring, even raisins.

Put a disc of empanada dough on a plate, fill the middle with the cold beef mix without touching the edges of the pastry.

With your finger, wet half the border of the dough (one half should be wet and one half should be dry); this helps you close up the empanada so that it doesn't open when its cooking in the oven.

Close up the empanada, this should resemble half a moon.

Use a fork to seal the empanada, pressing the dough lightly with the back of a fork.

Place on a cookie sheet and glaze with an egg.

Bake in a 350°F oven for 20 minutes or until the pastry has turned golden.

Note: for an alternate filling you can use ham and cheese.


You can also prepare them ahead of time and freeze them. Then whenever you want to cook them, just put them straight from the freezer to the hot oven, and you have a homecooked meal in minutes.

Croque monsieur

Last night, I had no desire to cook dinner so I decided to make some Croque Monsieur, which are basically ham and cheese melted sandwiches. With the help of my girls, we started an "assembly line" and dinner was ready in 20 minutes.

Ingredients:

12 slices of bread
6 slices of ham
6 slices of cheese
1/2 cup grated emmenthal cheese
1 cup white sauce (recipe below)

To assemble the sandwiches, just layer one slice of bread, then the ham and cheese and the other slice of bread.

While my daughters were assembling the sandwiches, I was preparing the white sauce.

On top of sandwiches, pour a dollop of white sauce and the emmental cheese.

Stick it in the broiler oven at 350° for 20 min and dinner is ready!

To prepare the white sauce:

In a pan, add the butter, cold milk, cornstarch and seasonings and stir until all the cornstarch has disolved. Then for the next 10-15 min boil in very low heat, stirring constantly.


Tips for the white sauce:

If you get lumps, just stir vigorously until they disappear.

If it's not thick enough, in a cup, add 4 tablespoons cold milk with 1 tablespoon cornstarch and stir until it has disolved. Then add it straight to the pot and keep on stirring (at low heat) until it thickens.

If you don't have cornstarch, you can substitute for all-purpose flour.

Shrimp stir fry

This weekend, I didn't feel like going to the supermarket so I decided to cook something with whatever was leftover in my fridge. I found a leek, a celery, some shrimp in the freezer and decided that a stir fry would be a perfect choice. You can substitute with any veggies that you have at hand.

Ingredients:

1 leek
1 celery
1 onion
1 red pepper
4-5 mushrooms
1/2 cup shrimp
1/2 cup sweet peas
salt and pepper
garlic

In a some hot butter and olive oil, lightly fry the cut up leek, onion, red pepper and celery for a few minutes.

Set it aside in a dish while you cook the mushrooms in some butter and then add the peas.

Once again, set aside the cooked mushrooms and peas with the onion mixture and lighly sautee the shrimp with some garlic

When the shrimps are cooked, add the previous mixture to the pan with the shrimps and cook a few more minutes.

I served it on a bed of couscous.

Muffins - different flavors

Whenever I'm invited to tea, I bring my signature muffins.

Since I don't always have blueberries at home, here are the different variations using whatever is in my cupboard/refrigerator that day:

- Apple cinnamon muffins

Add two finely chopped apples and a teaspoon of cinnamon

- Raspberry chocolate muffins

Add 1 cup raspberries and 1/2 cup chocolate chips

- Blackberry chocolate muffins

I had to cook these on a day where my fridge was empty, so I used blackberry jam (you can substitute with whatever jam/jelly/marmalade you have at home) and some chocolate chips.

Fill half of a muffin tin with batter, add a teaspoon of jam, 3 chocolate chips and then cover with some more batter.

They came out absolutely delicious

Flan - Traditional Flan and Coconut Milk Flan

This is the easiest flan recipe that I have found, and even though it uses condensed milk, it tastes home made. You even use the same can of condensed milk to measure the milk. I made it for my birthday and got rave reviews

Ingredients:

1 can condensed milk
1 1/2 cans of milk
4 eggs
1/2 cup sugar (for the caramel)

Preheat oven to 300°F

To prepare the caramel, you have to melt sugar in a pan.

When it turns brown (this might take a few minutes), pour it onto the flan mold. Since I don't have one, I just use a Bundt cake pan.


Mix the condensed milk, the milk and the eggs. Beat until it's well mixed.

Pour it into the mold, on top of the caramel. Place pan in a big oven dish/pan filled with 1-2 inches of hot water. Bake for an hour in the water bath or until you check with a knife until it comes clean.

Remove from oven and cool for 1/2 an hour. Insert onto a serving dish and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.

Note: if you feel brave, you can replace 1 can of regular milk for coconut milk. It's a delicious coconut flan.

Croquetas de espinaca

Siempre estoy buscando recetas para que mis hijas coman verduras. Por supuesto, la verdura siempre tiene que estar escondida y no muy visible. Ayer encontré cociné esta receta de croquetas de espinaca, ya que a ellas les encantan las croquetas de arroz, y las comieron todas, tan rápido que no alcancé a sacarle fotos a las croquetas cocidas!

Ingredientes:

1 taza de harina leudante (o con polvos)
1/2 taza de leche
2 huevos
1 cucharadita de aceite
sal, pim
espinaca cocida y bien escurrida

Mezclar la harina, la leche, los huevos y el aceite. Condimentar con la sal y pimienta.

Agregar la espinaca cortada bien chiquita.

Freir en aceite caliente por unos minutos, luego dar vuelta las croquetas.

Tarta de Jamón y Queso

Mientras revisaba mi heladera para ver qué cocinar anoche, encontré varios quesos que habían sobrado de la fondue del fin de semana. Asique decidí hacer una tarta de jamón y queso para aprovechar los leftovers. Normalmente uso queso de máquina y sale una tarta muy suave pero, esta vez, al mezclar quesos mas fuertes, la tarta tenía un gustito mas picante. Por suerte, conseguí masa de tarta hojaldrada (argentina) en el Jumbo y también tenían masa de empanada argentina :-)

Ingredientes:

2 discos de masa de tarta hojaldrada
100 g de jamón
100 g de queso (mezcla de queso de máquina, mantecos y gruyere)
2 huevos
2 cucharadas de crema
sal y pim

En una fuente redonda enmantecada, poner uno de los discos de masa de tarta.

En un bowl, batir los huevos, la crema, el jamón, los quesos y salpimentar.

Tapar con la segunda masa de tarta y hacer el repulgue.

Luego, hacer tres cortes con un cuchillo para que la masa no se infle.

Cocinar a horno mediano durante 30-40 o hasta que la masa esté bien dorada.