Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Preheat oven to 425

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

1 lb brussel sprouts

1 shallot

3 slices bacon

1 T butter

Kosher salt and pepper

Clean and trim brussel sprouts, pat dry (I sliced the bigger ones in half.) Slice shallot thinly into rings. Chop bacon and saute until starting to crisp, add shallots to soften. Add butter and brussel sprouts to the pan to combine. Season with salt and pepper.

Transfer and spread mixture onto a parchment lined pan and roast for 15 min.+ until fork tender, turning once.

I've never really  been a fan of brussel sprouts, but recently have enjoyed them quite a bit!

BLHT PIZZA!

I saw an ad for a BLHT Pizza @ Socca restaurant in Chicago and it looked fantastic. Dev and I have been attempting a meat-less diet for almost a month now, but we caved and I had to give this a try.

Preheat oven to 500F (for 1 hour)

BLHT PIZZA
1/2 recipe pizza dough (my usual recipe)
7 slices thickcut Applewood smoked bacon
Heirloom tomatoes
Iceburg lettuce
mayo
Pizza sauce (recipe to come)
Mozzarella cheese, shredded

4-cheese blend, shredded



Cook bacon until it just starts to crisp on the edges - don't fully cook as it will continue in the oven. Roughly chop and set aside.


Brush olive oil over dough and coat with a light layer of pizza sauce. Top with a little bit of mozarella cheese, 4-cheese blend and the chopped bacon.
Bake for 10-12 minutes until cheese is golden and bacon is crispy. If the cheese browns too fast, cover with a bit of foil - you want to make sure the crust is browned and cooked through.



Slice tomatoes in half and toss with olive oil, salt and pepper.



Chop lettuce and stir in enough mayo to coat - a couple spoonfuls. Add a little salt and pepper.


Let pizza cool for a few minutes. Top with tomatoes and lettuce.


This was DELICIOUS! The mayo really pulled the BLT flavors together. I would definitely make this again.

* NOTE:

I've made this a second time already! 3 things:

1. let the pizza cool before topping with the lettuce or it will wilt quite a bit.

2. applewood smoked bacon tastes so much better than reg. bacon..

in my opinion!

3. don't add too much pepper to the lettuce mixture.

I did, and it was very overpowering.

Copycat "BIG MAC", meatless-style

Dev and I are at 'WEEK 3' of our 'meatless' experiment. (Although, we caved 2 nights ago and got a hotdog at the Central. Whoops.) Anyways, we had a craving for a BIG MAC, so we decided to attempt making them using veggie burgers. As it turns out, they turned out pretty tasty! The sauce was pretty spot-on and the texture of the veggie patty was surprisingly comparable to a McDonald's patty - yep... questionable ingredients, no? ;-)
COPYCAT Veggie BIG MAC4 Morning Star Grilled Patties
1 T dried onions, rehydrated
shredded lettuce
4 slices Kraft American Cheese slices
4 sesame seed buns
CopyCat McDonald's Special Sauce
1/2 C Mayo
2 T Kraft French Dressing
4 tsp sweet pickles
1 T minced onion
1 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt

Combine special sauce ingredients and refrigerate for and hour - or overnight. Re-hydrate dried onions (key ingredient!) with warm water for 15 min. Drain.

Heat patties per instructions. Cut the top half of 2 buns to make the 'middle' bigmac bun. Spread with butter, toast and set aside.

Top bottom bun with 1 T special sauce, rehydrated onion, lettuce, 1 slice of cheese, patty and middle bun.

THERE YOU GO! This was a hefty burger - both Dev and I only could only finish half. Next time, ONE patty will suffice. ;-)

Repeat...

Meatless Lasagna

Dev and I are still going strong with our 'meatless' experiment! A couple weeks ago we tried Morningstar Farms Grillers Crumbles for Sloppy Joes and it was incredibly mushy and disappointing. This time we used Boca Ground Crumbles and I have to tell you, the texture held up very well. Another surprise find was Lightlife Gimme Lean! Sausage Style. Holy! This stuff tastes just like breakfast sausage. Dev loved it.

Preheat oven 425FMeatless Lasagna
1/2 package Lightlife Gimme Lean Sausage
2/3 package Boca Ground Crumbles
1 carrot
1 celery
1/2 onion
1 14oz can Mur Glen diced tomatoes (w/garlic & basil)
2 T tomato paste
1 C milk
1 C white wineFilling2 C cottage cheese
1 egg
1/4 C chopped parsley
1/2 C parmesan cheese
1 tsp salt
6 slices mozzarella cheese
Italian Cheese blend
Fresh Mozarella
Boca Crumbles and Gimme Lean.
Finely mince carrot, celery and onion.
Saute minced vegetables in olive oil until softned - about 5 min. Add tomato paste and saute until fragrant and nearly caramelized.
Add milk and simmer until evaporated. Add wine and simmer until evaporated.
In a separate pan, saute Ground Crumbles and Veg sasauge in olive oil until browned. Add to tomato mixture and stir in diced tomatoes.
I chose cottage cheese over ricotta because of a 'test kitchen' review I came across in Cooks Illustrated. Sometimes ricotta can have that gritty texture and it seems cottage cheese manages to retain a smooth texture. YEP. Puree cottage cheese and egg until almost smooth. In a small bowl combine cottage cheese mixture, parsley, parmesan cheese and salt. Layer sauce, noodles and top with cottage cheese mixture. Top with 6 slices moz cheese and shredded cheese.
Repeat layers.
Top with fresh mozzarella, shredded cheeseblend, cover with foil and bake for 30 min. Increase temp to 450F, remove foil and bake an additional 15 min. or until cheese is browned. Cool for 15 min.
I made some garlic toast using roasted garlic cloves, butter and fresh parsley. YUM!