Freezer meals: Artichoke manicotti in pesto cream

Here is one of those recipes that works great straight out of the freezer. You can prepare a bunch in advance then save them for later. Everyone has those nights where they just don't feel like cooking. Right?

As mentioned in a previous post. I purchased a bunch of tins from the Dollar Tree (3 for $1). They are perfect size for a 2 person meal, store easy and can be popped straight into the oven then thrown away. No cleanup!!

The only real work you have to do is preheat the oven, open a bottle of wine and put on some So You Think You Can Dance. Now that's what I call the perfect night...but maybe its just me.

Here is what they looked like after assembly but prior to freezing

Recipe from Robin to the Rescue by Robin Miller

Total time: 40 min

Makes about 3-4 meals (I doubled recipe to make more)

1lb manicotti shells

1 14oz can artichoke hearts, drained (not marinated)

1/2 cup ricotta cheese

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella (plus more for topping)

1 tsp dried oregano

Pesto Cream

2 tbs pine nuts (toasted in oven or in skillet)

2 cups packed fresh basil

1 cup heavy cream

2 tbs olive oil

2 tbs grated parmesan cheese (plus more for topping)

2 cloves garlic

1. Cook manicotti shells according to package directions. Once done remove from water and let drain on paper towels.

2. Meanwhile, in blender or food processor combine artichoke hearts, ricotta, mozzarella and oregano until smooth.

3. Fill shells with ricotta mixture. An easy technique is to fill a large ziploc with the mixture. Snip of one corner of bag then squeeze into shells. This is faster and less messy then spooning it in by hand.

4. Make pesto cream: Blend toasted pine nuts, basil, cream, oil, parmesean and garlic in a blender or food processor until smooth (don't over mix as the sauce might separate a bit. This happened to me. Didn't look as pretty as it should have but still tasted great)

5. Assembly: Spoon layer of pesto cream on bottom of foil container. Place 4 filled manicotti shells on top. Layer on more pesto cream then sprinkle parmesean and shredded mozzarella on top. Once cool you can place the lids on and freeze. Don't forget to label the containers so you know whats inside!!

**NOTE: Can be kept frozen for up to 3 months.

6. Cooking:

From freezer: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove cardboard lid from foil tray, cover with tin foil. Bake for 40-50 min (no need to defrost first). If you want the cheese to brown a little remove foil for last 5 min of baking.

If defrosted or fresh made: Preheat oven to 375 degrees and bake for 25 min.

Enjoy!!

I have 2 other freezer meals to share with you. All of them are really easy. You can make all 3 at once over the span of a few hours then package them up so you have a nice size supply of dinners for later.

Dinner idea: quick fix freezer meals

Since im having a baby in November I have been planning on making some freezer meals ahead of time so we don't have to cook once the little bundle arrives. I can imagine that making dinner + newborn = crazyville!

My friends Nicole and Tim (hey guys!!) just had a baby last week so I decided it was a great time to test out some recipes and also give my friends a break during the first few days of parenthood. To be honest...it was kind of an evil plan. I had never tested these recipes so I wasn't sure if they would work out. I had my fingers crossed that they wouldn't disown me for making them cruddy food during their moment of weakness. The good news is that I heard from Nicole today and she said the food has been great. A real lifesaver. PHEW!!!!



My new cookbook Robin Rescues Dinner has some great make ahead meal ideas. I decided on the artichoke manicotti with pesto cream sauce, mojito chicken, 3-onion soup and also threw in my own recipe for meat lasagna.

I purchased some oven safe food containers from the dollar store (3 pack for $1) to package the food and make them super easy to store. The foil containers can just be popped in the oven and the plastic soup ones are microwave safe.

All in all it took me a tad over 2 hours to make 2 weeks worth of dinners. I gave 10 to my friends and kept a few for myself. Not bad! Once cool I threw them in the freezer. They can be kept frozen for up to 3 months.

In the next few posts i'll spell out the recipes. Hope you will try them! I love the idea of stocking up the freezer. Even the most passionate cook wants the day off every once in a while.

STK favorite things: Kitchen appliances

You may have noticed my new "STK Favorites" list over on the side bar. These are all the kitchen tools, appliances and cookbooks I simply cant live without. As I find new and cool things I will add them to the list so you can just click on over to Amazon if you feel the urge buy it for your kitchen (or maybe a friends).

Today I wanted to introduce you to a few of my must have appliances...

Kitchen Aid Mixer - What kitchen doesn't need one of these? This workhorse literally does it all. I use mine mostly for baking but am dying to get the ice cream and pasta making attachments. I might also try my hand at homemade sausage using the meat grinder.

Cuisinart Food Processor: This is another powerhouse in the kitchen. If you need to quickly chop or slice large amounts of product this will do the job. I use it for shredding bulk cheese (doing it yourself saves money!) and also to slice and dice veggies. It also makes a great dough for baking.

Breville Icon blender: I have professed my love for this blender in a previous post about making smoothies. It is seriously the best blender I have ever used. It chops ice with ease and even has a special smoothie setting! I have used to to make sauces as well.

Cuisinart mini chopper: Meet my mini sous chef! I use it almost on a daily basis to chop onions, garlic and herbs. Sure, you could chop them by hand but that's kind of a pain. Plus, Im the type of person who hates big chunks of onion (and even worse celery) in my food. The mini chopper dices fine enough for any ingredient to meld into your recipes perfectly. Its also awesome for super spicy things like jalapenos. All the parts can be placed in the dishwasher so cleanup is a snap.

{all images from Amazon}

Do you have any favorites I should add to the list?

Blueberry waffles with strawberry, peach, blueberry compote

I made Hamish a special Father-to-be breakfast this morning. I have to say....it was deeeelicious!

Waffles are a nice treat on any given weekend. They are really easy and make breakfast extra special. I jazzed these up by adding a little ground flax seed to the batter (shhhhhh...its healthy!) and also topped them off with a fresh fruit compote.

(im hoping the omega-3's in the flax seed are going to counteract all the butter and syrup. Wishful thinking perhaps?)

This waffle recipe is from the Joy of Cooking cookbook.

Makes 8 6-inch waffles

Preheat waffle iron

Whisk together:

1 3/4 cup flour
1 tbs baking powder
1 tbs sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup ground flax seed (STK addition)

In another bowl whisk together:

3 large eggs
5 tbs unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cup milk

1-2 pints fresh blueberries, rinse and set aside.

Combine wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Do not over mix.

Pour approx 1/2 cup batter onto waffle iron. Sprinkle 5-6 blueberries on top and then close the lid. Bake waffle until golden brown. Serve immediately or keep warm on a wire rack in a 200 degree oven.

For compote:

In a small bowl combine sliced strawberries, peaches and remaining whole blueberries. Mix well. Use compote to top waffles in addition to other goodies like butter, syrup and whip cream. Enjoy!

Im a friend of Martha!!

Did you hear? Martha and I are BFF's now. We hang out all the time cooking and crafting. Good times!

{image}

Just kidding! The truth is I am now part of the Friends of Martha blog network. Its a group of bloggers who love all things Martha. If you like cooking, crafts, gardening and just cool things in general you can check out some of the other blogs in the network. All you got to do is click on the badge over yonder. Check it out!!

Chipotle shrimp tacos

This is a recipe I just made up on the fly and it turned out pretty tasty. The shrimp were really flavorful and juicy. YUM!

Makes 4-5 small tacos

1 lb med size raw shrimp (31/40) - deveined, shells removed
1 tbs olive oil
2 tbs chipotle sauce (from the can)
2 tbs chopped fresh cilantro
1 tsp salt
White corn tortillas and any other taco fixins you want

Toss all ingredients together in a small bowl then allow to marinate 30 min in refrigerator.

If you have a veggie basket for the BBQ you can cook shrimp on the grill. That's what I did and they turned out really good. If you don't want to BBQ them you could saute in a nonstick pan.

Once cooked through, remove tails and give meat a rough chop. Assemble your tacos!! Enjoy!

Worms eat my garbage!

I have 1000 new best friends and they eat my garbage!

We just received our Wriggly Wranch worm bin from San Mateo County Recycle works. Our county (along with many others) have a composting and worm bin program. You can order bins at a subsidised price which is pretty cool. Ours was $29 and we paid an extra $5 for the "Worms eat my garbage" book so we can learn how to take care of these little buggers.

What is a worm composting you ask?

In a nutshell, the worms eat your food scraps and turn them into fertilizer for your garden and plants. Its pretty much like regular composting except on a smaller scale and worms do all the work. They poop out "castings" which is a very rich manure.

How do I use this worm manure?

There are several ways to use the castings

1. Sprinkle it around your plants and veggies straight out of the worm bin
2. Mix directly into your soil
3. Make a "tea" out of it to water your plants

Why is it so great?

- Improves and enriches your soil
- Enhances plant growth and crop yield
- Improves root growth
- Reduces amount of stuff you are sending to landfills (soooo ecofriendly!!)
- It pretty much will make your garden awesome and its easy!

Is it really THAT easy??

We just set up our worm bin today and it was really simple (well, at least so far it seems that way)

How do you set it up?

Here we are with our worms. We purchased them from Sloat Garden Center in San Bruno. Each container holds at least 300 worms and costs $14.99. To get the bin started you need about 1000 worms. We can always add more later if we want to speed up the factory :)



Our worm bin came with a block of "coir" which is the outside part of coconut shells. It makes for great worm bedding plus its ecofriendly. We had to soak the block in a bucket of water for 15 min. It rehydrates and expands to 3 times its size. After that you spread it out in the bottom tray of the bin. As you can see my worm farming assistant is doing a fabulous job.

After adding the coir we dumped the worms in. The are super wriggly! I thought I would be freaked out but wasn't at all (until H tried to throw one on me. Eeekk!). They pretty much don't like light so immediately burrowed into the bedding.

Next come the food scraps. I have been collecting these over the past week. Apparently the worms will eat them faster if the scraps are in smaller pieces so I chopped them up a bit then we sprinkled them on top of the worms. Its important to not overfeed the worms at first so, as you can tell there isn't a ton of food for them right off the bat. Once they get accustomed to their new environment we can add more during each feeding.

The final step in setting up the bin is to cover the scraps with shredded newspaper and put on the lid. This will keep the light out (worms love the dark) and cut down on potential odors and discourages fruit flies.

Its important to keep the bin in an area where it wont get to much heat (over 90 degrees) and also is sheltered from rain. Worms don't swim. We put ours on the deck outside the kitchen. Its protected from the elements plus convenient for feeding.

Now...we wait. Boooo. I hate waiting. But, it does take some time for the worms to start breaking down the scraps and producing castings for us.

Pretty much all we will do for now is keep an eye on them to monitor how fast they are eating the scraps then add more as necessary. Once they get in full swing the worms will eat at least 1 lb of scraps per week.

What do they eat?

Fruit: apples, pears, banana peels, strawberries, peaches, and all melons

Veggies: beans, cabbage, celery, carrots, cucumbers, all greens, corn/cobs and squash

Cereal and grains: oatmeal, pasta, rice, non sugared breakfast cereal, corn meal, pancakes

Misc: coffee filter paper, tea bags, egg shells, dead flowers, newspaper, cardboard, paperboard, paper egg cartons and brown leaves

Do not feed: meat, poultry, fish, dairy, junk food, citrus (is toxic to worms), non-biodegradable items like plastic, sponges, foil, dog and cat feces.

I will keep you all updated on the progress of our bin. Im very excited about this. Its our first step to making our house more ecofriendly plus all the cool kids are doing it. Its soooo 2009.

Are you going to get one?

Nutty Asian chicken over noodles

Here is yet another easy weeknight dinner using the leftover chipotle-honey mustard chicken. So far that's 3 recipes its been incorporated into. Woohoo! Im really bad at planning ahead when it comes to dinner so I love these Robin Miller recipes that show me how to stretch 1 meal into several. My life is getting easier by the minute.

If you are thinking that using the chipotle chicken several times in 1 week is going to be a bit repetitive...think again, it wasn't at all. All 3 of the recipes I used are so different that you couldn't even tell it was actually leftovers. Score!!

Recipe from Robin Rescues Dinner by Robin Miller


Total time: 15min
Serves 4

8oz cellophane noodles (found in Asian section at supermarket)
1 cup frozen green peas
1 1/2 cup reduced sodium chicken broth
1/3 cup peanut butter
2 tbs ponzu* sauce or reduced-sodium soy sauce
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
4 cooked chicken breasts cut into strips (I used 3 leftover chipotle-honey mustard chicken breasts)
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 cup chopped roasted cashews
1/3 cup chopped roasted macadamia nuts

Soak cellophane noodles and frozen green peas in enough hot water to cover for 10 min until noodles are soft and peas defrosted. Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, in medium saucepan, whisk together chicken broth, peanut butter, ponzu/soy sauce, and sesame oil. Set pan over med heat and simmer. ( I let simmer for about 10 min until it became a little thicker). Remove from heat.

Pile noodles and peas in bowl, arrange sliced chicken on top (Note: I didn't even heat up chicken. Just used it cold). Top with cilantro, cashews and macadamia nuts. Spoon peanut sauce over top. Enjoy!!!

*Ponzu sauce is a citrus flavored soy sauce. Can be found in most supermarkets.

Chicken and sausage sandwiches with peppers and onions

Remember those chipotle-honey mustard chicken breasts I made the other day? By making a few extra you can use the leftovers for this super duper fast dinner.

This is another recipe from Robin to the Rescue by Robin Miller (she is secretly my new BFF even though she doesn't know it yet).

Pretty lettuce, eh? Its from our garden!!

Total time: 15-20min

Makes 4 sandwiches

2 tbs olive oil

2 medium red bell peppers, cut into strips (I used 1 red and 1 green)

1 cup onion sliced into half moons

Salt & Pepper

1lb chicken breast, cut into cubes (I used 3 leftover chipotle-honey mustard chicken breasts)

1 cup diced precooked spicy sausage (I used Aidells andouille)

2 tbs balsamic vinegar

4 Hoagie rolls

Heat 1 tbs oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the peppers and onions. Cook until soft and slightly caramelized. About 5 min. Season with salt and pepper and remove from pan.

Heat remaining oil in same skillet over med-high heat. Add the chicken (if using leftover chipotle chicken you don't need to cook it again, simply reheat in pan). Add the precooked sausage to pan with chicken until warmed through. Add balsamic vinegar and cook for 1 min.

Toast hoagie rolls if desired. Using tongs pile on chicken mixture then top with onion and peppers. Enjoy!

Roasted chipotle-honey mustard chicken

As mentioned in my previous post im going to be cooking a bunch of recipes from the Robin Miller cookbook I just purchased. This roasted chipotle-honey mustard chicken is one of them. It was really good although, I went a bit heavy on the chipotle, lesson learned...wowza! It was spicy. (note to self: measuring out ingredients is a good thing)

The best part about this recipe is that by making a few extra chicken breasts (I did 8) you can save them for other recipes later in the week. Tonight im using them for fancy chicken and sausage sandwiches then I will use them again on Friday for nutty asian chicken over noodles.

Recipe from Robin Rescues Dinner by Robin Miller

Notice that beautiful salad...the spinach is straight from our garden! (cant help but brag...it was really good)

Prep time : 10 min
Cook time: 30-45 min
Serves: 2-3

Cooking spray
2-3 chicken breast ( I did 8 so we would have leftovers)
Salt and Pepper
1/2 cup honey
1 tbs olive oil
1 tbs minced chipotle chili in adobo, plus 1 tsp sauce from can
2 tsp dijon mustard

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line baking sheet with foil and coat with cooking spray (don't forget this part as the honey will burn onto sheet pan while cooking). Arrange chicken on prepared pan and season with salt and pepper.

Whisk together honey, oil, chipotle chile with sauce and dijon in small bowl. Brush mixture over chicken.

Roast in oven 30-45 min or until chicken is cooked through.

Slice chicken and serve with brown rice.

Cookbook review: Robin to the Rescue by Robin Miller

While at the Sunset Celebration Weekend I had the opportunity to watch a cooking demo with Robin Miller. I have to admit, even though im a Food Network fanatic...I had never watched her show. During the demo I realized that I had been really missing out! I like Robin's personality and love her cooking philosophy. She is all about quick fix meals that are tasty which is pretty much my method of cooking too.

Since we have a little one on the way I have been thinking that I really need to organize myself in the kitchen by planning ahead, shopping in advance and making 1 meal that I can turn into 2 (or even 3). Also, I have a plan to make a months worth of dinners and freeze them in advance so we don't have to cook once the baby comes (I know I might be crazy for doing that but its worth a shot)

I purchased Robin to the Rescue (autographed of course) and have not put it down since. A few things that drew me to the book are that the recipes are quick and easy (which is key for weeknight meals) and for each recipe she tells you how to "morph it" into another meal, "bank a batch" by making extra and freezing it for up to 3 months to eat later or "make it your own" by adding a few more choice ingredients.

So far I have gone through the book and listed out 2 weeks worth of meals. I paired up the meals so I can "morph" one meal into several. Last night I made a great chicken dish and by making a few extra chicken breasts I will be able to stretch it into 2 more tasty dinners. Awesome! Cook once....eat 3 times!!

I highly recommend getting this book! She has a new one called Robin Rescues Dinner which is coming out in the next few weeks. I cant wait to get my hands on it.

Over the next few weeks im going to share many of Robins recipes with you. I hope you like them as much as I do.

Roast beef and two-chile grilled cheese (can be made veggie too!)

This was a recipe I sampled at the Sunset Celebration Weekend. It was so good that I had to make it immediately. You could easily make this vegetarian by substituting a big 'ol slice of heirloom tomato for roast beef.

{Recipe from Sunset Kitchens}



Makes 4 sandwiches
15 min

1/4 c mayonnaise
1 tbs canned chipotle chile (minced)
4 onion rolls or fresh kaiser rolls
2 tbs olive oil
1/2 lb pepper jack cheese
1/2 lb sliced roast beef (or heirloom tomato for veggie option)
1 small can mild green chili. Seeded and split in half.

1. Combine mayo and minced chipotle chili in small bowl.


2. Preheat panini press or grill pan. Brush outsides of rolls with olive oil. Spread rolls with chipotle mayo then top with 2 slices cheese, 2-3 slices roast beef (or thick tomato slice), 1 green chili and 2 more cheese slices.


3. Place in panini press or in grill pan (I don't have a panini press so I used a pie plate as a weight on top of sandwiches while they cooked). Grill until cheese is melted. Slice in half and serve.

Next up...I want to tell you about all the great things I saw and learned at Sunset Celebration!

STK new recipe rating system

I want to introduce you to my new recipe rating system. Going forward all recipes will be rated so you know what was amazing and what flopped in the test kitchen. Aren't these spatulas the cutest things ever!

= Awesome, amazing, add it to the bomb list ASAP!


= Very good. A definite keeper


= Good but didn't knock my socks off


= Ho hum, not a fan


= Ugh, would not make again

Thanks again to Stinkerpants Designs for the great illustrations!

Next up...an easy week night dinner from Sunset Magazine!

Looking good, Eh?

My blog has a new look! What do you think? I personally lurve it...seriously I do. I really, really do.

A million thanks to Stinkerpants Designs for the header illustration and Rainy Day Templates for the background. You guys did a great job!

If you are viewing this on reader...click here to see it in all its glory.

I cant wait to show you my new recipe rating system...until tomorrow peeps.