Sloppy Josephines

Now this is red! Made sloppy lentils, aka sloppy josephines, which just doesn't sound good. Turned out pretty tasty. Mark had two, although he said NOT because he liked them, but because he was still hungry.

Curried Lentil Soup

I used to make this recipe a lot, but I think with the kids, I have stopped making it as much. I think it is one of those that I really liked, but Mark didn't. I made it hoping it would be red. It uses red lentils and red wine, shouldn't it be red?



Guess not, but it is a good recipe that I wanted to share. I usually have all the ingredients on hand and it is a good one to make right after traveling. I usually serve it with some store bought naan bread:



When I took these pictures, James insisted on me taking his picture as well. He was eating a hot dog cause I just couldn't deal.



I couldn't deal because of Andy:



Andy also insisted on having his picture taken, but this was day 1 of The Flu. Good times.

Spinach and Mushroom Enchiladas with Mexican Rice

I found this recipe for Spinach and Mushroom Enchiladas and it sounded pretty good. My goal was to use up the cream that I had left from the Tomato Basil Soup :) I, of course, wanted it to be RED, so I found this recipe for Texas Red Enchiladas sauce. I couldn't possibly use a can of red enchiladas sauce.

I served it with some Mexican Rice. This recipe was okay, but I have been looking for a good Spanish Rice or Mexican Rice recipe. In fact, someone just asked me to bring some to a party assuming I would have a decent recipe, but I just usually use the Lipton or whatever in a bag:0

Tomato Basil Soup...and sandwich

So I did follow this recipe that was suppose to be a copy cat of La Madeline's Tomato Basil soup and I must admit, it was pretty close:) The real star of this meal was the sandwiches.

I made myself some pesto to spread on my toasted bread. Then I roasted some red peppers to put on my "Red Pepper, Spinach, and Mozzarella with Pesto Spread Sandwich". IT WAS SOOOOO GOOD!! I got the idea from a panini I saw at Starbuck's. I really enjoyed it

B wend with the Roasted Red Pepper and Cream cheese Sandwich. Ever since Kerri got that recipe published in Cooking Light, he is a sucker for this combo!! He let me have a quarter and it was pretty good!!

This soup is so rich you really shouldn't try to eat a bowl full:) Red soup and Sandwich!!

Thai Red Curry

I was working from two recipes here... Red Chicken Curry from Allrecipes.com and Red Curry Recipe from MediterrAsian.com. I altered it quite a bit because B loves pork, so I made it with some country style pork ribs. The vegetables I used were onion, carrots, mushrooms, red peppers and zucchini. Pretty simple, but needed some more salt.

I even had a little help:)

Gnocchi Bake with Red Onions and Pancetta

I thought I would forgo the obvious, ie tomato sauce, but once I found this recipe I was sold. Homemade gnocchi has been on my to-do list for quite some time now and hey, it does have "red" onions!  Look on my blog for the easy gnocchi recipe and directions!  Thanks for the challenge!

Gnocchi Bake with red onions and pancetta

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 ounces pancetta, cubed

1 red onion, peeled and finely diced

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 cup chopped tomato (I used one cup of canned diced tomato)

3 tablespoons sun dried tomato paste (sadly lacking in my area so I used regular tomato paste)

1 cup mascarpone cheese

1 lb fresh gnocchi

8 -10  fresh basil leaves, finely chopped

2 cups grated mozzarella cheese (Which I thought was way overkill so I use maybe 3/4 cup)

1/3 cup white breadcrumbs  (again, I thought this was a bit much so just used a couple tablespoons)

Directions:

1. 1 Preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C.
2. 2 Heat the oil in a skillet and add the pancetta. Cook over a medium heat, stirring frequently, for 1 minute.
3. 3 Add the red onion and garlic and cook, stirring, for a further 5 minutes, or until the pancetta is cooked and the onion softened.
4. 4 Stir in the chopped tomatoes, sun-dried tomato paste, and mascarpone cheese. Simmer over a low heat for 5 minutes.
5. 5 Meanwhile, cook the gnocchi for 1-2 minutes, until they rise to the surface. Do not overcook.
6. 6 Drain the gnocchi thoroughly and place in a large ovenproof dish (My 9-inch square pyrex worked perfectly).
7. 7 Add the chopped basil to the pancetta sauce mixture and stir. Pour the sauce over the gnocchi and toss gently to coat it.
8. 8 Combine the grated cheese with the breadcrumbs and scatter over the gnocchi.
9. 9 Cook in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, or until golden and bubbling.
10. 10 Serve hot and enjoy!

Strawberry Cupcakes

I signed up to bring the sweet for James's valentine's party. In the spirit of this challange, I decided to make strawberry cupcakes. After a quick google search, I found this recipe on Martha Stewarts site. I know, right? However, the recipe seemed perfectly reasonable and not to fancy. They also are Non-Vegan.

The boys helped me make the cupcake portion. You do add strawberries to the batter, but I was disappointed in the weak non-red color.



You also add strawberry to the icing. The color was better, but still more pink instead of red.



All in all, these were really good, but it was really the frosting that did it. It had a very strong strawberry flavor, while the cupcake part was kind of dense. Really, the best cupcakes come out of a box. There, I said it. Use a box! Make your own frosting!

Red Beans and Rice

It does have "red beans" but it doesn't look so red. Used this recipe and liked it pretty well. After I put it together and it was simmering on the stove, Mark said, "I love red beans and rice!" How did I not know that? At any rate, I used the food processor as directed in the recipe and it came together pretty quickly. I let it cook for 2.5 hours and the beans were definately soft, but they never disintergrated like they were suppose to. I even used the fancy smancy dried Goya beans. Still good. Next time I need to remember to salt the rice. I served it with Vegan Cornbread.

Vegan Pizza

Sorry, when I said red, I meant anything in the reddish family. This includes pink and orangish.



Incase you didn't hear, I am sort of vegan. We do a pizza night and last night was ours. For the non-vegans (everyone but me) I made plain cheese. I guess I was hopefully that my husband would eat mine. Silly me. For the vegans (just me) I made a caramelized onion/artichoke/roastedredpepper/mushroom pizza. I got this from my vegan guru Shannnon. For starters, I caramelized the onions. Now, I am a foodie, but I admit, cannot caramlize an onion to save my life. If I need them, I do them in the crockpot with butter. This time, I decided my problem was Not Enough Fat. I made sure I used plenty of oil. Well, by doing this, I think I fried the onions instead of caramelizing them. Don't get me wrong, they were delicious, but not quite what I was going for. Oh well. I heated up the rest of the ingredients, took out some (fried) onions for the top, then blended the rest for the sauce. Spread the sauce on top of a homemade crust, top with onions, and hello! Vegan Pizza. I served with pineapple whip, which will be features on my mommy blog.



Oh, and I made something last week I really thought was going to be red. Silly me, it was greenish-yellow Aloo Globi from Lindsey...but it was delicious!

Enchiladas!

I can't believe I'm the first person to post for this challenge....that *never* happens!

So I was telling Kerri this morning that I'd be fixing enchiladas for supper tonight and it hit me that they're red--and I even remembered to take pictures, which I will upload once my battery has recharged...

I used this recipe to make the enchilada sauce. This was probably the fourth time or so that I've made it, and my notes on it are: be careful what chili powder you use--the stuff I used the first time was dark and didn't taste right. But what I got from the dollar store works just fine! Also, all purpose flour works just fine if you don't have any self rising flour.

The type of enchilada varies each time I fix it, depending on what's on hand. I was originally going to use the Crock Pot Santa Fe Chicken recipe, but didn't get the Crock Pot out in time. Then I was going to use ground beef, but realized that we'd used the last of it the other night.

We did (fortunately) have a little over 1/2lb of ground turkey, so that's what I used tonight. I browned and drained it, then added a can of black beans, some homemade salsa from earlier in the year, and a diced red bell pepper. (More red!). Once the sauce was finished, I added a little of that and some cheese, too.

A scoop of the turkey mixture went into a flour tortilla and was folded up burrito-style. (We had soft taco tortillas on hand--I recommend using at least a 6" tortilla. Mine were a bit small.) Those went into two glass casserole dishes that had been spritzed with cooking spray, and were covered with the remaining sauce and some more cheese. Then it all went in the oven for 15 minutes at 375*.

I think we had 10 baby enchiladas, and have more filling to use later. (I'd have to make more sauce, though.) I topped mine with sour cream. Yummy :-)

February challenge

Going to switch this one up a bit, got this idea from Michelle. In honor of Valentine's Day, let's do - RED FOODS.