Mexican Half Moon Empanadas

Tonights recipe was a collaborative effort with my boyfriend, Joe. He is of Mexican descent and really loves the taste of Masa, so that gave me something to go off of. While this recipe is not the healthiest, you will literally be coming back for more. It took about an hour from start to finish on this (mainly because we do not have a tortilla press and made these things a totally ghetto way :)

2 cups of Masa (the brand Maseca is available in the Mexican section of most stores)
2 1/4 cups of water
1 lb. ground beef
1 pkg of taco seasoning
1 can of re-fried beans
2 Tbs. Crisco
Bag of Mexican cheese
Oil for frying (vegetaable, canola, or peanut oil)

1. Brown the ground beef in a frying pan and add taco seasoning with half package of water.
2. Heat up the re-fried beans and add crisco to make a smoother consistency
3. In a large bowl mix Masa and water until a dough is formed.
4. Form the Masa mix into balls a little bigger than golf balls.
5. Either tortilla press or use a large book to press balls into flat tortillas (use between plastic wrap for an easy way to keep the dough from tearing)
6. forming a taco shape fill with meat, beans and cheese and press edges together (it will kind of look like a hot pocket), set all the half moon pockets aside
7. Heat oil until water dropplet boil when added
8. Add 2-3 empanadas at a time and let cook until both sides are a dark yellow/light brown-compare to dough color-about 3-5 minutes each side.
9. Either eat right away or put on a cookie sheet and keep warm in the oven (at 250 degrees) until you are ready to eat. Once you are about ready add cheese to the top.

This recipe was fun to make with somebody. They are not the prettiest things but they are SO tasty. It cost about $20 to make this. I would suggest serving with either a veggie side (like we did), or a corn/pepper mix, or even a salad.

Quick and Easy Meatless Lasagna

SO this was our Main Course for girls night. It was kind of a thrown together thing so I quickly threw this together.


14 sheets of lasagna
1 large tub of Ricotta cheese
1 bag shredded Mozzarella
1 small tub of Parmesan
3 eggs
1 jar of pasta sauce
salt and pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Boil lasagna until al dente (8-11 min.)Then rinse in cold water
3. Heat up pasta sauce until consistency is thin
4. In a large mixing bowl add all of the ricotta cheese, all of the Parmesan, and 3/4 bag of the Mozzarella along with all of the eggs and a bit of salt and pepper. Mix well
5. Layer the sauce then lasagna, then cheese mix followed by another layer of lasagna, then repeat until all the lasagna is used. The top layer should be lasagna followed by a layer of sauce.
6. Bake lasagna for 20-35 min. Until cheese mixture looks firm when you pull up a layer of the noodles.
7. Sprinkle top with remaining Mozzarella cheese



The total cost for both the lasagne and the truffles was about $20. The lasagna is nice and light while the truffles are rich and bold (experiment with the truffles using different kinds of oreos-peanut butter, coffee, etc.). Enjoy!

Oreo Cheesecake Truffles

So this recipe is a breeze make. Kinda messy but super quick and easy. And cheap. I made this one for my friend Steph, who came over for a girls night with chick flicks and lasagna for dinner (that recipe is to follow :)


1 8 oz. package cream cheese
1 package of oreo's (trader joes makes a peppermint oreo -joe- that is awesome in this)
1 package milk chocolate chips
1 package white chocolate chips


1. In a blender or food processor blend up oreo's into chunky crumbs
2. In a large mixing bowl add softened cream cheese and oreo's
3. With a melon baller/small ice cream scoop, scoop up balls of oreo mix, line up on a cookie sheet and let chill for 10-15 min.
4. Melt bags of chocolate chips in the microwave or on the stove until melted.
5. Using a spoon drizzle chocolate over oreo balls and then place back in the refrigerator until chocolate has hardened

(an easier method than spooning the chocolate onto the balls is to stick either a toothpick or a lollipop stick-available at most craft stores- into the truffle and to just dip it in the chocolate) and it's kind a fun to eat on a stick :)

Blueberry, Banana, Nut Muffins

Tuesdays are not always a day for new dinners, today was a day for new breakfast.

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/8 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2 tsp nonfat half and half
2Tbs plain togurt
1 ripe banana mashed
1/2 + 1/3 cup walnuts chopped

1. preheat oven to 350 and greese muffin tin or use disposable liners
2. mix flour, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl
3. mix sugar-banana in a smaller mixing bowl, add to flour mix
4. add 1/2 cup of walnuts, transfer mix to muffin tin doing 3/4 cup full for each muffin.
5. sprinkle the tops with extra nuts, bake for 15-20 minutes.

This recipe was super easy and there are lots of room for mistakes on this one, so experiement a little with it or just enjoy it the way it is.

I picked the blueberries this summer and froze them, so the cost of the blueberries has been left out, other wise the total cost would be $8 for the dozen

Manly Man Man N' Cheese

This recipe was a blast to make. I made it for the fire station guys and it was literally gone in just a few short minutes.

1 lb. box of elbow or shells pasta
2 cups half and half
1 cup whole milk
3 cups of cheddar cheese (shredded) plus one cup
3 Tbs flour
3 Tbs butter
2 1” thick slices of ham diced
1 ½ cups Panko breading
3 Tbs butter

1. preheat oven to 350
2.Bring water to a boil and add pasta (add a little oil to keep pasta from sticking together)
3.In a sauce pan add 3 Tbs butter and melt, add flour and brown. Slowly add half and half and milk to the rue (butter and flour). Wisk until not clumpy. Add cheddar cheese to the mix. Heat up until all the cheese is melted. Stirring constantly. Add diced ham
4.Drain pasta. Mix the cheese/ham sauce with the pasta in the pasta pot
5.Put pasta in a large pyrex or other baking dish
6.In a small frying pan melt remaining 3 Tbs of butter. Add panko breading and brown slightly
7.Add remaining cheese to the top of the man n’ cheese then add the breading to the top of that
8.Bake 10 min.

This is a nice little twist on an old fashion recipe. This recipe only took about half an hour to make total time and is an easy dish to prepare for guests or just whenever you feel the need for some good comfort food.

Total price for ingredients was $15

Sweet N' Smokey Ravioli

This recipe has literally become the bane of my existence! It was tasty but SO time consuming. I strongly recommend using all purpose four and NOT whole wheat flour (like I tend to use too much) AND also using a ravioli dough maker.

3 cups flour
6eggs
pinch of salt
2 Tbs. olive oil
Smoked Ghuda (shredded)
Ricotta cheese
Smoked bacon (cooked and crumbled)
Pear (cut into small cubes)

1. Combine flour, 4 eggs, salt and,olive oil in a mixer (if there is not a mixer feel free to use your hands to mix the dough). If needed at 1 Tbs. of water at a time until the dough is elastic, but not sticky. Either use a recipe attachment on a kitchen aid mixer OR generously flour a surface and roll out to be paper thin (approx 1/16”). Either cut squares (if using the kitchen aid mixer) or use a cup to cut out shapes. Set aside

2.Combine 1 egg, cheeses, bacon, and pear

3.Egg wash all the pre cut out shapes. Add filling and either add a second shape or fold circle in half.

4.You can either store the ravioli’s in an air tight container in the freezer or when you’re ready to boil them until they float to the top.


Add any kind of sauce, a white wine butter sauce with hazelnuts is what I tried and it was pretty good. (1 stick of butter, 1 cup of toasted hazelnuts, and ½ cup of white wine, mixed together, salt and pepper as necessary)


This recipe was INCREDIBLY time consuming. Set aside a few hours to do this one and expect LOTS of ravioli’s to freeze. I easily got a good 100 or so ravioli’s out of this. Try experimenting with the filling a little bit. I added fontina cheese to some of them to make it a little more stringy.
Total Price for ingredients $35

Oregon Pizza

I created this recipe after trying a similar pizza at Marche cafe in Eugene. Theirs was a bit more simple but I feel like this gave the signature ingredient a bit more justice. This recipe took about 2 hours total time. The ingredients with no measurement is to the eye, sprinkle as little or as much of the ingredient as you'd like.

1 delecata squash
2 Tbs. butter
salt & pepper
3 Tbs. brown sugar
3 small new potatoes
rosemary
garlic salt
1 small red onion
thyme
seasoning salt
asiago cheese
chevre cheese
chevre mozerella cheese
olive oil
pre-made pizza dough

1. Cut ends off the delecata then quarter it. Scoop out the seeds. Cut into 1" pieces length wise, put them into a baking dish. Dot with butter. Generously slat and pepper. Cook at 375 for 20 min. until for tender. Remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle with brown sugar.
2. Slice potatoes thinly (1/8"). Lay slices side by side in a single layer on a baking sheet. Spray with Pam. Sprinkle with rosemary, garlic salt, and pepper. Bake at 375 for 10-15 min. until barely for tender. Set aside.
3. Slice onion thinly, not breaking the "O". In a saute pan add olive oil, thyme, seasoning salt, and pepper. Saute onions on low until tender.
4. Roll out pizza dough to desired thickness (use plenty of flour while rolling it out!)Roll up crust. Rub entire crust with olive oil. Add asiago first, then mozzarella, add potatoes in a single layer, top with onions, lastly remove rind from delecat and add the meat of the delecata. Where the delecata is add clusters of chevre.
5. Bake 12-20 minutes until bottom of the crust is light brown.

I purchased all of the ingredients at the Local Co-op for around $15. Even though it is a little "out there" everybody I know whose tried it has loved it. I hope you do to!