Sunday, January 30, 2011

Chocolate and Peanut Butter....YES PLEASE


I decided I needed to make cookies....actually I decided this 2 weeks ago and finally got around to making these gems. OMG. Dark Chocolate, Crunchy Peanut Butter and Oats and NO STOVE....be still my heart. I got this recipe from http://eatliverun.com/




No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

makes about 3 dozen small cookies

3 T butter

1/4 cup milk

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 heaping tablespoons cocoa

1 cup dark chocolate chips

1/4 cup peanut butter (I like crunchy all natural peanut butter here)

1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats

Melt the butter on the stove. Add the sugar, cocoa and milk and stir well. Add the peanut butter and chocolate chips. Stir. Add the oats. Stir again.

With wet hands, form little balls of dough and on a wax paper lined plate or pan. Refrigerate for thirty minutes until hard.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

W's x 2

There are very few things that make me all warm and happy....Wine and Wegmans top that list.

When I moved to Maryland from New York, I lost my favorite grocery store. It is the mecca. The place you could spend hours wandering around in. Sampling all the yummy food. There is a cheese section that TRUMPS any cheese store. Seriously its huge. They have a pizza bar, a coffee bar, a hot food bar, salads, etc. Seriously my FAVORITE grocery store. A few years ago a Wegmans opened in Cockeysville. I lived over an hour away...too far to go for groceries, so I sucked it up and pouted. THEN I moved 20 minutes away. I will venture to Wegmans for groceries at that distance. I walk in to that store and its like a calm washes over me...even though the store is PACKED! It is incredible. Oh yeah and I found out they are opening one a block from my office in Columbia. Tears of JOY. If I ever go missing at work....that's probably where you will find me.

Wine. Malbec, Riesling, Eisling, Cabernet. I don't discriminate. I love all things made with a grape. Its yummy. Paring it with food makes it even better.

I feel like most of this post was about Wegmans, but oh well....I'm allowed to ramble, it's my blog.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

MIA

My mother pointed out to me in an eloquent email titled:

Your Blog:

Boy it has been since September and your roll ups. Whats up with that.

Mom :(

Dear Mom:

Sorry....haven't really had anything to write about. I speak to you every day on the phone....therefore you know my life and what I made for dinner. I'll make a better effort to update the blog for your enjoyment...perhaps with a dinner post in the near future.

Love Autumn


Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Spinach Lasagna Rolls

I got this idea off of C + C Marriage Factory. I have been wanting to try to make a veggie lasagna and frankly chopping up all the veg just seemed too time consuming. I tried this out tonight and loved it. I am bringing leftovers for a co-worker tomorrow, so hoping she likes it too. These are individual lasagnas. They freeze well and make an excellent hot lunch. I definitely think these are staying on the menu.

**Disclaimer....I used her photo's cause frankly my camera decided it didn't want to cooperate and phone pics just don't do it justice.**

Ingredients:
9 lasagna noodles, cooked
10 oz frozen chopped spinach, thawed and completely drained
15 oz fat free ricotta cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg
salt and fresh pepper
32 oz tomato sauce (I used Bertolli Tomato & Basil)
9 tbsp (about 3 oz) part skim mozzarella cheese, shredded

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°. Combine spinach, ricotta, Parmesan, egg, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Ladle about 1 cup sauce on the bottom of a 9 x 12 baking dish.


Place a piece of wax paper on the counter and lay out lasagna noodles. Make sure noodles are dry. Take 1/3 cup of ricotta mixture and spread evenly over noodle.


Roll carefully and place seam side down onto the baking dish. Repeat with remaining noodles.


Ladle sauce over the noodles in the baking dish and top each one with 1 tbsp mozzarella cheese.


Put foil over baking dish and bake for 40 minutes, or until cheese melts.


To serve, ladle a little sauce on the plate and top with lasagna roll.


Servings: 9
Serving size: 1 roll
Calories per serving: 225
Points: 4

C&C Marriage Factory made a homemade sauce and while I was adventurous to make these beauties....I didn't try her sauce....it sounds delicious...maybe next time.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Stuffed Zucchini Boat

Seriously one of the best things I have made in FOREVER! This will definitely be staying on the recipe board. I served it with brown rice, but thinking maybe some orzo would be really good with this.


Ingredients:
1 zucchini, about 12 inches long (or 2 6-inch)
2 tbsp. olive oil, divided
½ cup onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup mushrooms, chopped
1 lb. turkey sausage or ground turkey
2 tbsp. dry white wine
2-3 tomatoes, seeded and diced
3 tbsp. chopped fresh basil
1 tsp. minced fresh rosemary
¾ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg, lightly beaten
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper

Directions:
Cut zucchini in half lengthwise. Scoop out insides, leaving a shell about ¼-inch thick. Reserve about half of the insides.

In a medium skillet over medium-high heat, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Sauté the onion and garlic until tender, about 4-5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and reserved zucchini insides to the skillet and sauté another 2 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Heat the remaining tablespoon of the olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Crumble in the sausage or ground turkey and cook until lightly browned on all sides, stirring occasionally. Stir in the cooked onion and mushroom mixture. Add the wine to the pan along with the tomatoes, basil and rosemary. Cook for 1 more minute. Drain of any excess fat, remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 375° F. Once the turkey mixture has cooled a bit, mix in the Parmesan, egg, salt and pepper. Fill the zucchini shells with the mixture. Fill a baking dish with ¼-inch of water. Place the filled zucchini shells in the pan and bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes, until golden brown. Remove the zucchini from the pan and serve immediately.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

6 weeks

I am officially less than 6 weeks from my birthday! I'm only making a big deal out of this because well I'll be 30. Yes the big 3-0. No more 20's.

I will be headed to FL for the big day. My best friend is going with me and we are gonna hang at the momma's. Lay on the beach, drink lots of wine, eat good home cooking and just RELAX.

CAN'T WAIT!

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Fail

I never realized how much I like Gluten....until I went without it.

I'll pass....bring on the bread, bring on the beer, bring on the good tasting food. I need wheat in my diet.