Freezable | I Can Cook That

Artichoke, Spinach, and Feta Stuffed Shells

I have been making a bunch of freezer-friendly meals lately. You never know when you will come home and just be too exhausted to cook, and frozen meals can really save the night. This one also happens to be vegetarian. I found this recipe in an old Cooking Light. I absolutely love artichokes and spinach so I knew I’d like this!

Ingredients:

(makes 5 servings. serving size 4 shells)

1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 cup chopped pepperoncini peppers (they come in a jar)
1 (28-ounce) can fire-roasted crushed tomatoes, undrained
1 (8-ounce) can no-salt-added tomato sauce
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded provolone/mozzarella cheese, divided
1 cup (4 ounces) crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cup (4 ounces) fat-free cream cheese, softened
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (9-ounce) can artichoke hearts, chopped
1/2 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained, and squeezed dry
2 garlic cloves, minced
20 cooked jumbo shell pasta (about 8 ounces uncooked pasta)
Cooking spray

Cook the shell pasta according to directions on the box. Drain and set aside on a cookie sheet lined with tin foil so they don’t stick together. Take a 13×9 cooking dish and spray it with cooking spray.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Add the oregano, pepperoncini peppers, crushed tomatoes, and tomato sauce to a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook for 12 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine 1/2 cup provolone/mozzarella (I used “pizza” cheese) and the feta, cream cheese, black pepper, artichokes, spinach, and garlic.

To make it easier to fill the shells, add the mixture to a ziplock bag. Close the bag, and snip off one of the bottom corners.

Pipe the mixture into the shells. (Note: some of the artichokes might get stuck a bit while doing this so be careful you don’t end up with more mixture than you want coming out!) Add the stuffed shells to a 13×9 baking dish coated with cooking spray.

Spoon the tomato mixture over the shells.

Sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup shredded cheese. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes or until thoroughly heated and cheese melts.

You can freeze them after stuffing the shells, freezing the tomato mixture separately and doing the last few steps later. I personally prefer frozen meals that can just be popped into the microwave or oven and the only additional step is that I have to consume the meal.

This is really an awesome recipe. I usually only have plain stuffed shells with tomato sauce and cheese so I liked the addition of the spinach and artichokes. The peppers added a little bit of pizazz to the dish without making them really spicy. (You can leave them out if you don’t want a little heat).

I did, however, crave a little bit of extra sauce (I love love sauce), so I’d suggest adding another can of puree to the mix. Past that, a good solid recipe!

Winter Lentil Soup

Philadelphia is about to have a full week of weather in the 70s. I think there’s even an 80 degree day thrown in In March! I’m so excited, but I feel a bit stressed because I didn’t get to make all of my winter soups and stews. But who says you need to eat these in freezing weather? So I decided to make this Winter Lentil Stew for lunches in my office when they crank up the AC and I feel like it’s winter.

Ingredients:

4 leeks, white and light green parts only
1 bunch kale (mine was huge, so I ended up using half)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 28-ounce can whole tomatoes, undrained
6 cups water
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut
1/2 cup brown lentils
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Prepare all your ingredients. Slice each leek in half lengthwise and then slice into 1/4 inch thick half-moons. You want about 2 cups of half moons.

Add to a large bowl filled with cold water and swish to remove any grit. Drain and pay dry. Lay on a paper towel.

Remove the stems from the kale and then thinly slice the leaves. You want about 3 cups of leaves.

Peel and chop your sweet potatoes. You want them to be bite sized or smaller. Measure out the lentils, prepare your thyme leaves, and open your can of diced tomatoes.

Add a large saucepan to the stove over medium heat. Add the oil and heat. Add the leeks and cook for three minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes.

Add the water and bring to a boil.

Stir in the kale, sweet potatoes, lentils, thyme, salt, and pepper. Cover, lower the heat, and simmer for 30 minutes or until the lentils are tender.

If freezing, you can spoon into individual containers, let cool, and freeze at this point.

If enjoying immediately, eat as is, or sprinkle with some grated Parmesan cheese.

I can’t wait to enjoy this on my “colder” days in the office!

Alexia Waffle Cut Sweet Potato Fries

I love sweet potatoes, especially in fry form. I just cannot turn down a delicious sweet potato fry. So I was really excited when I was offered the chance to try an Alexia Food product of my choice through the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program. Not only did they send me a coupon for any food product my little heart desired, but they also send a spiffy apron and pot holder; thanks for all the fun new products!

Alexia Foods has plenty of great products, including appetizers, breads, french fries, and potato and vegetable sides. I decided to try the Waffle Cut Sweet Potato Fries because it’s something I can’t make in my own kitchen. (I have, however, made pretty awesome traditional sweet potato fries in the past, if I do say so myself).

The fries can be found in the freezer section of the grocery store.The Waffle Cut fries have a seasoning of sea salt, garlic, onion, chili, black and red pepper. The fries can go straight from the freezer into a preheated oven and are ready in about 20 minutes.

I got a random normal fry in there. It was delicious as well 🙂

I decided to try mine with a Sriracha-mayo dip that I made for my sweet potato fries.

The fries came out of the oven slightly softer than I’d like, but crisped up after cooling off a bit. The seasoning on these fries is absolutely awesome. It was a pleasant surprise! I liked it so much I didn’t want to mask the taste with my dip and ended up eating most of them plain.

Alexia Food has a number of other types of fries: classic, rosemary and garlic, lemon parmesan, and sea salt sound the most intriguing to me. However, they are currently looking for a new Alexia fry flavor and need your help to choose. Now until March 30, visit the Alexia Foods Facebook page and click on the “Reinvent a Classic” tab to vote for one of four gourmet French Fry flavors.

Which one would you like to see, or which existing fry do you want to try? I think the Thai Spiced Sweet Potato fries sound amazing!

Stuffed Peppers

I have been a part of a food swap for about 6 months now, and I am already running low on ideas. As I was frantically looking for an idea, I realized no one had made stuffed peppers yet, win! Stuffed peppers are a perfect, hearty meal for relatively little cost. They are pretty adaptable and can honestly be made with whatever you want. To make vegetarian, sub in beans or just omit the ground beef all together.

Ingredients (this makes 10 stuffed peppers)

10 peppers

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp olive oil

3 onions

3 garlic cloves, minced

2.5 lbs ground beef

1 teaspoon Worcestershire

1 can diced tomatoes

½ teaspoon each of basil, oregano and parsley (dried)

¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper, to taste

5 cups cooked rice

½ cup grated Parmesan

Cut off top of peppers, removing the seeds and membranes. Dice the edible parts of the tops of the peppers.

Add the whole peppers to a pot and cover with salted water. Bring to a boil and lower heat to a simmer. Cook for 3 minutes. Remove from water and set aside.

Add the butter and olive oil to a pan over medium heat. Add the onion, diced peppers, and garlic and sauté for 5 minutes.

Add the ground beef, stirring to break up the meat.

Cook until browned. Add the Worcestershire, diced tomatoes, and tomato puree, stirring to combine.

Season with oregano, basil, parsley, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. Simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in cooked rice and parmesan cheese.

Stuff peppers with mixture, sprinkling with more parmesan cheese if desired.

Because I made these for a swap, I froze the peppers at this stage.

To cook, thaw completely then bake at 350 degrees for 55-65 minutes.

I hope they like them!

Pumpkin Sticky Buns with Caramel-Pecan Drizzle

Today I wrote my first guest post over at A Culinary Journey with Chef Dennis. His page is truly stunning so I am honored to be the guest post this week. Stop on by Chef Dennis’ blog to see my post on Pumpkin Sticky Buns with Caramel-Pecan drizzle!

I think you are well aware of my pumpkin obsession by now (I have twelve other posts on here using pumpkin!) so I really wanted to do something special to round out my bakers dozen of pumpkin recipes. The recipe does take some time, so this would definitely be a weekend choice. But you can refrigerate the dough or even freeze it once it is shaped into the sticky buns. I hope you enjoy my post!

Venison Chili with Jalapeno-Cheddar Corn Muffins

I spent most of Saturday in the car driving to/from North Jersey in a freak Nor’easter snowfall that really made the ride quite an experience. After yesterday, it is clear that winter is (sadly) not too far away, so I better get started on some of my favorite cold weather foods. First up, chili.

I just joined a new farm club called Arganica, that just started delivering to Philadelphia. I actually joined it because my CSA share is ending and I still wanted to receive different vegetables during the winter months. However, as I was looking over their offerings, their meat and fish section is what really caught my eye. I decided to take a chance on a new type of meat I’ve never cooked with before: venison. When I mentioned I was planning on making venison chili to my boyfriend, his eyes lit up. Here’s hoping my chili can live up to whatever high expectation he has for this meal! To go along with the chili, I also made pepper Jack corn bread muffins.

For those a bit wary about venison, the meat is actually quite lean; venison is lower in fat, calories and cholesterol than beef, pork, or lamb.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons oil

2 lbs ground venison

4 strips of bacon

2 cans red kidney beans, drained

1 can tomato sauce

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 can diced tomatoes

1 teaspoon hot sauce

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon ground chili

1 teaspoon cumin

1/2 tablespoon dried parsley

1/2 tablespoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

5 garlic cloves, minced

1 sweet onion, chopped

1 jalapeno (or similar) pepper, seeds removed and chopped

1 cup beef stock

1/2 cup weak coffee

Fresh cilantro, chopped, for garnish

Sour cream

Cheddar or Pepper Jack cheese, shredded

Meatloaf Muffins

I don’t think I’ve ever had a craving for meatloaf. Honestly, I’m pretty sure I’ve only had meatloaf once. So I never actively seek out making meatloaf, much to my boyfriend’s disappointment. However, we both had long, exhausting work weeks, so I thought he deserved a comfort-food meal. Cooking light had a recipe for Meatloaf Muffins that I thought would work great; he could eat as much as he wanted and then have perfectly portioned “muffins” that I could freeze.

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped carrot
3 bell peppers (I used one orange, yellow & red), chopped
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried basil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup ketchup, divided
1/2 teaspoon sriracha
1 pound ground beef, extra lean
1/2 pound sweet Italian sausage, cut out of its casing (I used 2 sausages)
1 cup panko breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 large eggs
Cooking spray

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prepare your onion, carrot, garlic, and peppers. Heat a saute pan over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, basil, parsley, garlic and peppers. (Note: I completely forgot about the peppers and had to go back and saute them on their own. Just pretend they are in the photos. Shh.)

Cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Add the sausage, cut out of the casing, beef, 1/2 ketchup, sriracha, panko, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, ground pepper, eggs, and the cooled onion mixture in a large bowl.

Coat a muffin tin with cooking spray. Add the mixture to the muffin tins. (I used large muffin tins so there were only 6. This recipe also works with the standard size 12. For the large, 1 muffin is a serving. For the standard, 2 muffins are a serving.)

Top each with two teaspoons ketchup. (I got bored/creative)

Bake for 25 minutes or until a thermometer registers 160 degrees. (The larger muffins ended up taking about 35 minutes total).

Serve with sauteed green beans and baked potato wedges if desired.

So what’s the review from my boyfriend? Very good! There was a slight hint of sriracha without making the meatloaf spicy. The sausage added a smoky taste to the meatloaf, and the peppers added a slight crunch to the meal. He ate the meatloaf with a side of ketchup mixed with hot sauce and seemed to really enjoy it.

The best part of this dish is the remaining “muffins” can be frozen for future meals.

Yum

Meatloaf “Muffins”

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients

1 teaspoon olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped carrot
3 bell peppers (I used one orange, yellow & red), chopped
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried basil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup ketchup, divided
1/2 teaspoon sriracha
1 pound ground beef, extra lean
1/2 pound sweet Italian sausage, cut out of its casing (I used 2 sausages)
1 cup panko breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 large eggs
Cooking spray

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prepare your onion, carrot, garlic, and peppers. Heat a saute pan over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, basil, parsley, garlic and peppers.
Cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Add the sausage, cut out of the casing, beef, ½ ketchup, sriracha, panko, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, ground pepper, eggs, and the cooled onion mixture in a large bowl.
Coat a muffin tin with cooking spray. Add the mixture to the muffin tins. (I used large muffin tins so there were only 6. This recipe also works with the standard size 12. For the large, 1 muffin is a serving. For the standard, 2 muffins are a serving.)
Top each with two teaspoons ketchup.
Bake for 25 minutes or until a thermometer registers 160 degrees. (The larger muffins ended up taking about 35 minutes total).

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Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

At the request of a coworker (and by request I mean he brought in cans of pumpkin puree), I finally made a pumpkin classic — Pumpkin Bread. Although usually made with walnuts or pecans, I instead decided to use chocolate chips. I used a recipe from Cooking Lightas a base for the recipe.

Ingredients:
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon cloves
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup egg substitute
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
2 large eggs
2/3 cup water
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin
Cooking spray
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Add the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves to a medium sized bowl.

Combine using a whisk.

Add the sugar, egg substitute, oil, buttermilk, and eggs in a large bowl.

Using a mixer, beat on high until well mixed.

Add 2/3 cup water and the pumpkin puree.

Beat on low until blended.

Add the dry flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and beat on low until just combined.

Add the chocolate chips. Combine using a spatula. Be sure to not overmix.

Add batter into 2 9×5 inch loaf pans coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool 10 minutes in the pan on a wire rack. Using a knife to loosen the edges, remove from pans and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

You can either half this recipe, or freeze the extra bread for up to one month. Just tightly wrap it in plastic wrap before putting it in the freezer.

The original recipe topped the bread with pecans or chopped walnuts, feel free to do that as well before baking.

If you think the bread is browning too much on top, cover it with tin foil towards the end (with 10-15 minutes left).

This bread is so so yummy. I love when I can pass off a dessert-like bread for a breakfast also. (Shh.)

I limited a bit of the spices, more so than I usually would, so that the star would be the sweetness from the chocolate chips. Definitely a winner!

Black Bean and Cheese Enchiladas with Ranchero Sauce

I have had quite the hankering for Mexican recently, so I was so happy that the October issue of Cooking Light included a bunch of delicious sounding Mexican inspired vegetarian meals. I decided to go for the Black Bean & Cheese Enchiladas, because they can easily be frozen for future lunches and dinners. I substituted a few of the ingredients for what I already had, but you can find the original recipe here.

Ingredients:

2 Cajun peppers, stemmed, seeded and chopped

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 cup chopped yellow onion

5 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

3 cups chicken broth, divided

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

2 tablespoons no-salt-added tomato paste

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

The juice of 1 lime

1/8 teaspoon cayenne

1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained

2 cups pre-shredded Mexican-blend cheese, divided

3 thinly sliced green onions, divided

Cooking spray

10 (6-inch) corn tortillas

5 tablespoons light sour cream

Preheat oven to 400°. Prepare the peppers, onion and garlic cloves. Heat the olive oil in a medium saute pan over high heat. Add onion and cook for 1 minute.

Reduce heat to medium and add the garlic and salt. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add 2 cups broth, parsley, tomato paste, and cumin.

Cook for 10 minutes, or until it thickens slightly, stirring occasionally.

While this is cooking, add the extra cup water and the chopped peppers to a food processor. Pour the onion mixture into the food processor when finished cooking. Blend until smooth. Stir in lime juice and cayenne.

Combine the beans, 1 cup of cheese, and half the green onions in a bowl.

Add 1/2 of the sauce to the bottom of a cookie pan coated with cooking spray. Add 3 tablespoons of the bean mixture to to each tortilla.

Roll up, placing the seam side down.

Add to the cookie pan.

Pour the remaining sauce over the tortillas.

Top with the remaining cheese.

Bake for 15 minutes.

Sprinkle with remaining green onions and serve with sour cream.

This recipe has so much flavor! I was really pleasantly surprised with how this turned out. I am pretty sure I didn’t allow the sauce to reduce enough, but it thickened up in the oven and still tasted wonderful.

A serving is two enchiladas, so I actually have 4 meals left over after making this. As I mentioned before, enchiladas freeze really well, so 3 are going into the freezer and one will be my lunch tomorrow, win!

To make this recipe more effective for a weeknight, you can make the ranchero sauce ahead of time an refrigerate it until ready to use. The recipe took about an hour from start to finish.

Curried Pumpkin Soup with Spicy Pumpkin Seeds

After making pumpkin pie milkshakes this weekend, I thought it was time to make a savory dish using pumpkin. The weather changed literally overnight giving Philly a very November-like day, so I was craving a warm soup that also would deliver some spicy heat. This recipe for Curried Pumpkin Soup with Spicy Pumpkin Seeds from All You seemed perfect. I kept the recipe mostly intact, adding more ginger and switching out the chili for cayenne.

Ingredients:
Pumpkin Seeds:

1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup raw pumpkin seeds

Soup:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 medium Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored, finely chopped
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoons curry powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 15-oz. cans pumpkin
1 13.6-oz. can light unsweetened coconut milk
Salt and pepper, to taste
Plain yogurt, for serving (optional)

Continue reading Curried Pumpkin Soup with Spicy Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkin Pie Milkshakes & Making Your Own Pumpkin Puree

After visiting several supermarkets in search of pumpkin puree only to find they were sold out, I decided to take matters into my own hands. Amy’s Cooking Adventure had instructions on how to make my own puree using pie pumpkins so I tried it out. To test out my finished product (and as a nice pat on the back) I made pumpkin pie milkshakes to celebrate.

Bacon-Topped Meatloaf

I didn’t grow up in a meatloaf household. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve only had meatloaf once. So when my boyfriend put in a special request for meatloaf I wasn’t exactly thrilled. But he rarely asks for anything specific, and is always willing to eat whatever I make (I jokingly refer to him as “I Can Eat That”) so I think he deserves this one request. I decided to try a recipe from Tyler Florence with a few changes.

Ingredients:

Tomato Relish:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 bay leaves

2 red bell peppers, cored, seeded and finely diced

4 plum tomatoes, halved, seeded, and finely diced

1/4 cup chopped parsley

1 12 ounce bottle of ketchup

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Salt and pepper

Meatloaf:

1/4 cup Italian breadcrumbs

3 tablespoons milk

1 pound ground beef

1 pound Italian sausage, casing removed

2 eggs

Leaves from 2 fresh thyme sprigs

Salt and pepper

3 bacon slices

Continue reading Bacon-Topped Meatloaf

Pesto

Nothing tastes as fresh as homemade pesto. It is surprisingly easy to make and really blows the store-bought stuff out of the water. With a whopping 5 ingredients (plus salt and pepper), pesto is definitely something you need to try to make if you haven’t already! I made this to go with my gnocchi that I made for a food swap.

Ingredients (makes about 1 cup):
2 cups packed fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup grated Parmesan-Reggiano cheese
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup walnuts
3 garlic cloves, minced
Salt and pepper, to taste

Add the basil leaves and walnuts to a food processor.

Pulse a few times to combine.

Mince your garlic.

Add to the food processor.

Pulse to combine.

While the food processor is running, add the olive oil in a slow, steady stream.

Add the Parmesan cheese and pulse to combine.

Season with salt and pepper.

You can add more of whichever ingredient you think you need more of at any time. I prefer my pesto to be relatively firm, so I don’t use a lot of olive oil to make mine. I also tend to add more cheese on top of my pasta anyways, so I limit the amount of cheese I put into the pesto. You can also use pine nuts instead of walnuts; I just prefer walnuts.

Be sure to use high quality ingredients for this recipe if you can. Because none of it is cooked, you want basil when it is fresh, high quality olive oil with a smooth taste, and a nicely aged cheese. A little pesto goes a long way when used as a topping on pasta, so this recipe can luckily be frozen to use at a later date as well!

Gnocchi

I have wanted to try to make gnocchi for some time now. Luckily, I am part of a food swap and they were willing to let me experiment on them. Here’s hoping they turned out well! I used this article as a base for my recipe.

Note: I actually made the gnocchi twice because I wasn’t happy with the original result. I used smaller potatoes the first time (see below photo) and I found that the normal Idaho potatoes were much better for this recipe. (Special thanks to my boyfriend for a lot of his help during the making of the gnocchi)

Ingredients:
3 large russet (Idaho) potatoes, scrubbed
1 egg yolk
About 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Begin by pricking each potato all over with a fork. This will allow some of the heat to escape while it is baking in the oven.

Arrange the potatoes on a baking sheet. Cook in the oven for about an hour and a half, or until the potatoes are soft.

After removing the potatoes from the oven, cut each potato in half to allow the steam to escape.

While the potatoes are still warm, scoop out the insides into a potato ricer into a bowl.

Place the potatoes onto a clean work surface, like your counter, and form into a rectangle and allow to cool enough that they are not hot to touch.

Season the potatoes generously with pepper. Beat the egg yolks in a bowl and drizzle the over the potatoes.

Measure 1 1/2 cups flour and sprinkle a bit of flour over the potatoes as needed (the less flour you use the better). Using a pastry scraper, mix the flour and egg into the potatoes by chopping everything up and folding it in on itself, until well mixed. The dough should sort of resemble coarse crumbs.

Bring the mixture together into a ball.

Sprinkle some on the work surface. Place the dough on top and flatten into a disk.

Dust the dough with more flour. Using your hands, fold and press the dough until the flour is incorporated. Do this two more times, incorporating the flour each time. If the dough still feels sticky, repeat once more.

Divide the dough into four equal parts.

Roll each section into a long thin roll, about 1/2″ thick.

Cut into 1/2″ to 1″ pieces.

Because I was making these for a food swap, I arranged all the pieces on a cookie sheet covered in tin foil and put them in the freezer overnight.

I then divided the gnocchi into freezer bags and popped them back into the freezer.

To cook, bring a pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Drop the gnocchi into the water and cook for approximately 2 to 3 minutes, or until they float to the surface. Remove the gnocchi with a slotted spoon and top with whatever you prefer: tomato sauce, pesto, butter, etc. (I’m a big fan of tomato sauce with some pesto mixed in, yum!)

I tried a few of these and they were pretty good! I hope that they continue to get better as I make them but I thought this recipe turned out well, here’s hoping those in the food swap agree!

Jalapeno Ginger Butternut Squash Soup

When I first came across this recipe for Jalapeno Ginger Butternut Squash Soup, I was intrigued by the ingredients. Never would I have thought to add jalapenos and ginger to a butternut squash dish. It seemed so odd, and yet so delicious as well. This weekend, the weather began feeling a bit more… autumnal. So I used this wonderful weather as an excuse to try out this recipe. I altered the original recipe a bit, but you can find the original here.

Ingredients (makes about 8 servings):

2 tablespoons olive oil

6 cloves garlic, chopped

2 tablespoons grated ginger

1 jalapeño chile, seeded and chopped

1 tablespoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

4 pounds butternut squash, peeled and cut into 2-in. cubes

3 cups water

3 cups chicken broth

1 tablespoon light brown sugar

1/4 cup coconut milk, plus more for serving

I’ve attempted to peel and cube butternut squash in the past. And it is absolutely not worth it. It takes forever and never seems to yield as much as you think it will. So I wimped out at bought the pre-packaged pre-chopped stuff. And I am so happy I did. I ended up using 3 20 oz containers of the butternut squash.

Begin by chopping your garlic and jalapeno and grating your ginger.

Heat the olive oil in a large pot over high heat. Add the garlic, ginger and jalapeno and cook stirring constantly for 1 or 2 minutes.

Add the cayenne pepper and cook for another 30 seconds, stirring.

Add the squash, chicken broth, brown sugar, and 3 cups water.

Bring to a boil and lower the heat to a simmer. Cook for about 20 minutes or until the squash is fork tender.

Add about 1/3 of the soup to a blender. Remove the top middle piece of the blender top to allow hot air to escape. Place a paper towel over the opening and puree until smooth. Add to a large bowl. Repeat with remaining soup.

Be very very careful doing this! I managed to burn my hand pretty badly when removing the top off the blender. Ouch!

Stir in the coconut milk and serve. I added a tiny bit more of the coconut milk on top of a poured serving and swirled it.

This was a surprisingly tasty soup. The smooth texture is really nice and the butternut squash taste shines through, with a hint of coconut milk. There is a very slight heat at the end from the jalapeno and cayenne, but is definitely not spicy. I honestly couldn’t taste much of the ginger, so next time I might add a bit more. This soup can also be frozen so I look forward to enjoying it in the colder months, but it only took maybe 40 minutes from start to finish so this can easily be made on a weeknight.