Settlers Night - Spinach Jack Bread Pudding and Company Cauliflower

Most Thursday nights you will find Matt and I, and at least Beth and Kyle playing Settlers of Catan at our place. This past Thursday was no exception. For dinner I tried out my newly found Spinach and Jack Bread Pudding recipe. I have never made a bread pudding, but I figured I like quiche a lot, so I wanted to try it. I also wanted to make cauliflower because I know it's one of Beth's favorite vegetables. Because I didn't know exactly how the bread pudding was going to turn out, I wanted at least one thing to go right, so I opted for a simple cauliflower recipe that always pleases everyone, Company Cauliflower.

First things first, I steam the chopped cauliflower.

Tonight Ronnie is my helper. I find whenever Ronnie is in the mood to help, just about everything he helps make he is eager and willing to eat too. It's a great way to get him to eat foods that a lot of picky five year old's would rather not eat, like spinach! So for the Spinach and Jack Bread Pudding Ronnie starts out mixing the eggs, milk, and various ingredients like salt, pepper, thyme, and nutmeg.

After the egg mixture is completely mixed, Ronnie adds the chopped spinach. This particular recipe actually called for frozen spinach, but I always use fresh. I have always loved spinach, and whatever I don't use for recipes I use to make salads.

Next, Ronnie adds the Monterrey Jack cheese. After the spinach and cheese is mixed well, 8 slices of bread that have been cubed are added to the mix. Once everything is all together, we transfer the mixture to a lightly greased 9x13 pan and put it in the oven to bake for about 25-30 minutes.

After the cauliflower is done steaming we put it into a large bowl and mix together some light sour cream, 2% cheddar cheese, garlic and onion powder, and Dijon mustard. Once this mixture is well together, we transfer it to an 8x8 lightly greased pan. I then top the cauliflower with some bread crumbs I browned in a skillet with a little bit of butter. It's then ready for the oven for about 15-20 minutes.

When everything comes out, we let it sit for a minute, which allows the eggs to cool down and settle a bit. Let me tell you - I was wowed by this recipe. Who knew a savory bread pudding could be so good and easy to make! And of course, even the Ron-man devoured it. This will definitely stick around as a staple in the Luckey-Meyer home.

As usually, the cauliflower turned out lovely. We had an extra guest that night, Steven, and would you know it, he had never had cauliflower before! EVER! But, I think I turned him on because he finished up his share in no time.

That next day, Friday, I tried my hand at some zucchini cakes and boy am I glad I did! Zucchini is so inexpensive, but until now, I could never get Matt to eat it. Well, I have found his weakness, just fry it and stuff it with cheese and he loves it. We served them with marinara sauce and I wanted more when they were all gone!

Wednesday Night - Matt's Black Bean Burritos and Jiffy Corn Muffins

First things first - THE KITCHEN! Where all the magic happens! Doesn't look like much does it? And that is exactly my point! You don't need an awesomely-huge gourmet kitchen to whip up some awesomely-good food! Though, I will say, don't get too used to this kitchen. I will soon be a homeowner and I am upgrading a bit. It's not that much bigger or greater - but I am excited!

One of the first meals my fiance Matt ever made for me were these black bean burritos and ever since then they have become a staple with my family. Because of this fact, I figured they were an excellent choice for my premier food-blog entry of 2009! The sheer easiness and frugal-factor of these burritos make them a great pick for a weeknight dinner. Flavors can be easily added and omitted to make your own personalized burrito. Though not the healthiest (just a tad high in fat for one serving), they come out pretty cheesy at the end, so cutting down on some of the neufchatel cheese will help cut down on the fat content, making these much more health-conscious. Below is a picture of my beloved cookbook. It is a collection of vegetarian recipes I have collected / created over the course of 4 years! If something were to happen to it, I would be lost!

Okay, first things first, I gather all my main ingredients. As you can see, this isn't a hard recipe, basically all you need is 5 things, minus the tortillas which were already in the 350 degree oven getting warm. You have a red bell pepper, a jalapeno, a medium whole onion, two cans of black beans, and 8 oz. of neufchatel cheese.

I have to say, canned beans are the way to go! When you are short on time, using canned is the only thing that will do. When making a dish that uses canned beans, the first thing I do is rinse them good! Real good! Then I like them sit and drain till I am ready to use them.

While the beans are draining I chop the whole (cleaned!) red pepper. You could substitute a green one if you like, but I LOVE the red ones and usually just splurge on them every time!

Next up - the onion. When chopping an onion I first make cuts across the entire onion laterally, and then I go back over the onion with long cuts across as shown in the picture below. Every time I come up with perfectly chopped onions and it is soooo easy. It's a little trick I learned from the Food Network years ago! It's been so long that I don't even remember whose show it was!

My final chopping partner, the jalapeno. Make sure you don't rub your face while chopping this sucker! And I always wash my hands immediately after the entire pepper is chopped!

After all is chopped I heat some olive oil in a skillet. Once the oil is good and hot I add the garlic. LOTS of garlic. I never measure garlic, I always just scoop a spoonful in (and yeah - I use the jarred, pre-minced stuff. I love it!)

Once the olive oil in nice and garlicky (maybe a minute or two) I add all the vegi's (the pepper, onion, and jalapeno).

Once the vegetables are good and tender (about 5 minutes), I add in the washed and drained black beans. I also added some cilantro and a little bit of salt.

This was about the time I pulled the Jiffy corn muffins out of the oven. LOVE that little blue and white box of goodness! They are always under $1, (usually about 68 cents) and all you have to add is an egg and 1/3 cup of milk. Tip - a co-worker told me today that he adds creamed corn instead of milk for a better muffin... I may try that next time!

Once the beans have heated through (5-10 minutes) I add the cubed cheese. Mmmm.... cubed cheese. And seriously - if you haven't made the switch from regular cream cheese to neufchatel cheese : GET ON THAT BAND WAGON STAT! You really can't tell a taste difference, it cooks the same and it will save you some calories and fat grams!

Mix the vegetables, beans, and cheese constantly so the cheese doesn't burn. Once everything has been mixed and the cheese has melted, you are ready to turn off the burner and stuff the tortillas that have been heated in the oven.

If you are like my family, eating Chipotle is something you like to do. Next time you are there, pay attention to how they roll the burrito. That is exactly how you want to do it, especially if you are about to devour an over-stuffed burrito. As you see, this make 6 medium stuffed burritos. Not too much, not too little.

Finally as I wrap each burrito I place them in a baking dish to put in the oven for a few minutes. Maybe it's just in my head, but I always liked to place the burritos in the oven for like 10 minutes to get the filling and tortillas hot again from sitting out.

Once they are pulled out of the oven, the only thing left to do is enjoy! Pairing with a salsa is what I usually like to do, but I didn't have any around at the time.

Any suggestions or thoughts I would love to hear in the comments area. And as with all my recipes, if you are interested in trying them out yourself, shoot me an email and I will get them to you!

Looks like tonight I am gonna make a bread pudding. My first ever in fact so it should be interesting. I figure I like quiche enough, so it should be good. See ya soon!

That was then, this is now

After some much needed R&R I am back at it!

Right now I am doing two things at one time. One is typing this blog up. The other is uploading and editing photos.

I am going to try and get back into the blogging of things. I know I have said this before, but this time I really mean it! Well.... We'll see anyway.

There will be a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but the main focus will be vegetarian cooking. When I think about it, it's kind of become my hobby I guess you could say. I love to find new recipes, I have a subscription to a vegetarian cooking magazine, and cooking is a great enjoyment of mine.

Once the pictures are done, I will post Wednesday night's dinner of Matt's Black Bean Burritos and some good ole Jiffy cornbread muffins.