J.Wsquared: food me

I made dinner! Two nights in a row! That's right, beyonces, I am turning into freakin martha stweart. Well, maybe not, but pinterest has turned into a very good thing for our culinary delight.
I found several meals on pinterest or on the website "that's what we said" and since I vowed to make more meals this year, and vowed to try new food this year I actually made them.
The first meal I made was Lasagna cupcakes, I found it on pinterest and used the recipe as a guide.

Ingredients

your favorite pasta sauce

hamburger meat

goyza wrappers(they are, basically, round wonton wrappers)

mozzarella cheese , grated

parmesan cheese , grated

ricotta cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray 6 serving muffin tin with Pam

2. Cook hamburger meat, season to taste, drain.

3. Reserve 8 tablespoons of Parmesan and 8 tablespoons of mozzarella—this will be the topping. The remaining cheese will be used in the lasagnas (note you can vary the amount of cheese to taste keeping in mind that the parmesan is salty, the mozzarella is sweet as well as salty and helps to hold the lasagnas together, and the ricotta is sweet and creamy).

Start assembling the lasagnas. Line each cupcake mold with a round wonton wrapper. Put a little Parmesan, a little mozzarella, and a little ricotta into each mold. Top with a little meat and a spoonful of sauce. Repeat layers of wonton wrappers, cheeses, meat and sauce, creating 3 layers in all, and ending with sauce. Sprinkle each lasagna with reserved Parmesan and mozzarella.

4. Bake until the lasagnas are nicely browned, about 20 minutes.

5. Let cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edges and remove from pan.

We had leftover spaghetti sauce so used that, next time I'll doctor it a lot more. More pepper, more oregano, a little red pepper. I made mini "cupcakes" and some large "cupcakes" because I wanted some leftovers.

lasagna cupcakes in the pan, next time will make them with a touch more sauce and a bit more spice

ready to go to the table

Guess what else I made that night? Oh Yeah, you bet I did, DESSERT. Slutty brownies. They are easy to make and filthy to eat. So delish.

here is the recipe:

make your favorite chocolate chip cookie dough add just a bit more liquid, maybe a teaspoonful, press it onto the bottom of a brownie pan (I put down parchment paper)

cover that with oreo cookies, I used double stuff because that is how I roll (and I also think it is 2005 and we still say that)

the next layer is your favorite brownie mix.

cook it, let it cool for about 20 minutes and then eat it. B found it nice to add ice cream since it is super rich. I liked mine just fine and only added a tall cool glass of milk.

cookie dough and oreos added

putting on the brownie mix

Then tonight, yes, that's right, two nights in a row! IN A ROW! I made the following recipe from pinchofyum.com

juice of 1 orange
1 tablespoon fresh orange zest
2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup beef broth
1/3 cup orange marmalade
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon oil
1 lb. flank steak, very thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 head broccoli, washed and cut into bite-sized pieces- you know I didn't do broccoli. I ended up stir frying some carrots, snap peas, red pepper and baby zuchini to add on top of the meal.

Instructions

Mix the first 6 ingredients, whisking until the cornstarch is dissolved. stir fry your veggies in a seperate saute pan.
Heat the oil in a skillet over high heat. Add the steak and garlic, draining off extra fat after a few minutes. Flip the pieces until each piece is cooked through and the meat is browned.
Add the sauce to the pan and stir for 1 minute until the sauce starts to thicken. \
serve over brown rice

we liked this quite a lot, but next time will add a bit more heat and figure out a way to make it more ORANGE tasting. this was nice, but not quite there.