Spinach and Quinoa Mediterranean Salad

I recently made this delicious, healthy salad and plan to make it again, so here you go!

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Ingredients:

Dressing:
3 tbls freshly-squeezed lemon juice
2 tbls red wine vinegar
1/2 tbls olive oil, and a pinch of oregano

Salad Stuff:
1 cup cooked quinoa (I cooked mine in chicken broth.)
3 cups fresh baby spinach (missing from my photo above, btw; Mr.4444 was picking some up)
1 red pepper, diced
1 cup of chopped cucumber (missing from Pop Sugar's recipe, as well as my photo above)
10 grape or cherry tomatoes
10 sliced kalamata olives
1/4 cup feta cheese

First, mix the dressing ingredients while you cook the quinoa.

In a medium-sized bowl, gently mix the spinach, quinoa, and half of the dressing.

  

Add the other vegetables.

  

Fold the feta cheese in gently.

Pretty and delicious!

A few years ago, a woman took the time to leave a comment on Mrs.4444 Cooks, chewing me out for sharing so many unhealthy recipes. I found that hilarious (and still do), as if I was twisting people's arms to make unhealthy food. Whoever she was, she'd be proud of me today; this recipe is relatively healthy; the dressing is deliciously lower in fat than a typical salad dressing. There's plenty of fiber, protein, and potassium here. The olives are 20% of your sodium for the day, but check out the vitamin content!

There are about 300 calories per 2-cup serving (This makes about six cups worth.) and the olives provide a fair amount of monounsaturated fat (the good kind!). As mentioned previously, this salad is delicious, and I look forward to making it again!

Creamed-Spinach Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms with Poached Eggs

If you know me, you know that when I get stressed, I cook, 

and this recipe kept me so busy that I didn't even think 

about the party we're having at our house next weekend 

or the five million things I have to do for it. 

Nope; all I thought about was Why isn't Mark making me breakfast? That's his thing!  

making my man happy.

Mr.4444 came home from a business trip Friday with eight packages of Portobello mushrooms; 

some whole, some sliced, some other variations, which a customer had given to him. 

That's a lot of mushrooms! 

Naturally, I turned to Pinterest and found this first of many gems.

This recipe is not for those in a hurry or those who don't like a lot of steps. 

The first step I took was to make the suggested Hollandaise sauce. Who knew it was so simple? Eggs, butter, lemon juice, and a little bit of cayenne pepper. 

And the process is so pretty!

Thanks, Pioneer Woman, for the awesome blender recipe!

Ingredients:

(I included the box of quinoa in my photo, but you could serve this over something else.

Don't ask me what; I'm not that creative in the kitchen.)

If you're interested in a printable, text-only version of this recipe, click here.

Ingredients prepped:

(Mr.4444 was so proud of me!)

BTW, the lemon juice for the Hollandaise is missing from the photo above

The bacon gets chopped when it's raw.

The recipe I used called for half an onion, but I went with more like 1/2, 

as I couldn't imagine using that much.

I've never cooked with Portobellos before. I had to Google to learn a little first, 

like the fact that if you don't scoop out the "fins," they can make things mushy. 

I also learned to use the point of a spoon, not the side of it, 

to dig out the fins; it really does make a difference. 

I included two extra pieces of mushroom below, 

because the recipe called for dicing up the stems, but mine didn't have any to speak of.

I guess this could be important if you don't happen to have a ton of extras, as I did.

Another bit of research I did recommended scoring the tops of the mushrooms, so I did;

just lightly slice over the skin.

Now, when I followed the next steps, I had my laptop open

 and had to keep scrolling down through the steps, which I found frustrating, 

so, for your cooking ease, I created a snapshot of what to do, instead.

You should be able to click on it to see it bigger, if necessary.

The only note I would add is that you can feel free to add a little more fat, 

if you need to, to step two.

Oh, and add a "generous pinch" of salt to the gravy before adding the spinach.

Scoop into mushrooms (brushed with olive oil).

Doesn't this look amazing?!

By the way, this filling (and even the eggs) can be prepared the day before
and reheated when you're ready for them, according to Meseidy (Mah-say-dee)
of The Noshery, where I found this recipe.

Pop the mushrooms into a 400-degree oven on a cookie sheet sprayed with nonstick spray.

As you bake those for ten minutes, poach two eggs.

We like to poach our eggs in a big pan, so that they can cook at the same time but not touch.

After ten minutes, the mushrooms should look something like this:

Place on a bed of whatever you like; I chose quinoa (my first time!)

Place poached eggs on top,

pour Hollandaise sauce over that,

and top with remaining bacon.

Tada!

Mr.4444 proclaimed this dish "fantastic,"
but he was still hungry when he was finished.

I was completely satisfied.

This dish is somewhat rich; eating more than one wouldn't have worked to fill Mr.4444 up,
though we've decided to double the eggs next time.

I'm not sure what I'd add to make it more filling.

Any suggestions?

How to Prepare Portobello mushrooms

I found this recipe via this pin, and I highly recommend The Noshery; it's my new favorite cooking blog!

Dave's Spinach and Turkey Lasagna

Having made this for the first time, I'm considering changing the name to 23-Dish Lasagna, because that's how many I dirtied making this wonderful meal. Part of the reason is that Mr.4444 is always hounding me to to prep my ingredients first, and seeing how many ingredients this one had, I figured it was a good idea.

Before you start prepping, though, put a large pot of water on to boil for the pasta. You may also preheat the oven, though it'll be on for a while, as there's plenty of prepping to do with this recipe.

Ingredient snapshot:

Lasagna Noodles Sidebar: I've really been trying hard to avoid white flour, so I bought wheat lasagna noodles for the first time, but I was so apprehensive about it that I also bought the usual kind of noodles. I finally decided to use the wheat noodles for one row of the lasagna (three strips stacked atop each other). Mr.4444 begged me not to "wreck" the lasagna by doing that, but you know I never listen; I assured him that I would remember which side of the pan the wheat noodles were on and would serve him from the other side. Well, little did I know that all of the noodles would look the same after the lasagna was done, and I forgot which side had wheat noodles, but guess what? None of us noticed a taste or texture difference. And now, back to our show!

I found it helpful to prep the ingredients and separate them into two groups:

Sauce Ingredients (in order of use):

1 Tbls. olive oil

1 red pepper, chopped

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 1/2 lbs. Italian turkey sausage (I like Jennie-O, about 7 or 8 sausages)

2 tsps minced garlic

4 cups Prego Tomato and Basil spaghetti sauce*

Cheese/Spinach Mixture Ingredients:

3 cups mozarella cheese, divided

2 cups cottage or Ricotta cheese, drained (I forgot to drain my cottage cheese, but it was fine.)

1/2 cup grated Romano cheese

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil

1/4 cup chopped parsley

2 egg whites

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 box Lasagna Noodles

Put the sauce ingredients near the stove, as you'll need them for the meat mixture:

 

Heat a large saute pan over medium-high heat and add the olive oil, peppers, and onions.

Saute about five minutes, "until the peppers begin to sweat." 

(I wasn't sure what that meant, so I just went with the clock!)

Add the turkey and garlic to the pan. 

Stir and cook about 10 minutes, til turkey is cooked through.

I drained the juice/grease off at this point.

Add the spaghetti sauce; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes. 

Remove from heat.

When the water is boiling, add the lasagna noodles. 

Cook for seven minutes or until they're al dente. Drain them. 

Dave suggested laying them flat on a greased cookie sheet, so I did that, 

and it worked out nicely, but I'm not sure it was necessary. 

While the meat sauce is cooking, mix the cheese/spinach stuff together, these first...

(but save half of the mozarella for the top of lasagna!)

and then add them to the spinach (use a large bowl) and mix well.

Okay! So now you're ready to assemble this thing! 

Congratulations for making it this far--It is a trip worth taking, so hang in there; 

yum is right around the corner!

For what it's worth, you will end up with about six cups of sauce.

Put one cup of sauce in the bottom of the pan.

  

Top with one layer of noodles, followed by a cup-and-a-half of sauce.

Then top that with half of the cheese/spinach mixture,

and repeat the noodles, sauce, cheese/spinach mixture again.

Top with the last layer of noodles and sauce.

 You'll want to make sure the noodles are covered with sauce, 

so use more from the jar if you need it.

Bake 45 minutes.

Top with the other half of the mozarella cheese

and bake for another 15 minutes.

Remove from oven and allow to set 10-15 minutes.

Serve with a salad featuring Dave's delicious Bleu Cheese Dressing!

I will definitely be making this again; it was a big hit!

*I bought two jars of sauce and used all of one and part of the other.

Spinach Ravioli Bake

When I saw this recipe from Mrs.Tuna, I was especially attracted to these words: spinach, mushroom, easiest recipe ever. Turns out she wasn't kidding about the easy part; it's super easy! She only forgot to mention one thing; it's delicious!!

15 oz. package frozen cheese ravioli (or your own homemade, if you are Susie Homemaker)

6 oz package fresh baby spinach

1 24-oz jar spaghetti sauce (or your own...)

1 cup mozzarella cheese 

Optional, mushrooms, but really--who doesn't like mushrooms? (Never mind.), sauteed in butter and crushed garlic. If you're aiming for hardened arteries, don't drain the butter off.

This recipe is SO easy. Mrs. Tuna said you only need one pan, but I used two--Mix everything together in a nice, big bowl, and then plop it into a 2-quart, casserole dish sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. (Someone should think of a quicker way to say that, like "a SWNSCS casserole dish" or "a slicked-up casserole dish" or something like that (I'll keep working on it).

Bake at 400 for 30 minutes (covered). Uncover, add mozzarella, and bake 15 more minutes. YUM