Two New Recipes

One thing I like to do is find and try new recipes. During our last few months as roommates, my last roommate, Michelle, and I would even have nights when we'd experiment with new recipes and make dinner for each other. I've tried a lot of random recipes over the years, and some have been good, others not so much. (Fortunately, Michelle and I never had many--if fact, I can't remember any--of those recipe clunkers.) I go up and down in the frequency with which I try new recipes, usually relating to my motivation and schedule.

I have been motivated to find some new recipes this week, for two, completely different, though not wholly incompatible, reasons:

1. I want to try eating something besides Cheerios for breakfast that is still easy and filling.
2. I've recently fallen in love with black beans.

The internet is such a beautiful thing. I've spent the last night or two scouring it for potential recipes. I've made a short list, and tonight tried just two of them. They were each a great success, so I will share them both.

I give you Exhibit A.

Black Bean Lasagna

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup water
• 28 oz jar tomato pasta sauce
• 12 uncooked lasagna noodles
• 1 3/4 cup lowfat cottage cheese
• 2 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2 x 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375*F.
2. Over low heat, simmer tomato sauce, black beans, and water.
3. Meanwhile, in a small bowl combine cottage cheese and egg and set aside.
4. In a 9x13 inch baking dish, place 1 cup of the bean/sauce mixture on the bottom of the dish.
5. Place 3 of the uncooked noodles, side-by-side, on top of the sauce.
6. Spread 2/3 cup of the cottage cheese mixture evenly over the noodles. Top with 1 cup of the bean/sauce mix. Top with about 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese.
7. Repeat two layers of noodles, cottage cheese, bean/sauce, and cheese.
8. Place the remaining 3 lasagna noodles and pour the remaining bean/sauce mixture all over it. Top with the remaining mozzarella.
9. Cover pan with foil and bake at 375* for 30 minutes.
10. Remove foil and continue baking for another 15 minutes.
11. Remove from oven and let stand 15 minutes before cutting.

My notes and comments:

• This was great! (Turns out black beans instead of meat in normal lasagna is really tasty!)
• The original recipe called for ricotta cheese, but I used cottage cheese.
• Also, I ran out of the cottage cheese mixture before I put on the last layer of noodles, so I put just plain cottage cheese in that last layer. If that happens when I make this again, I will probably just leave off the last layer of noodles.
• I used Prego sauce, but I doubt it matters what kind you use.

Now I give you Exhibit B:

Cranberry Applesauce Muffins

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries, chopped
• 1/2 cup pecans

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*F. Grease and flour a muffin tin, or use paper liners.
2. In a small bowl, mix together applesauce, oil, and egg.
3. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
4. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in applesauce mixture. Stir until just moistened. Fold in cranberries and pecans.
5. Spoon into muffin cups, 2/3 full.
6. Bake at 350* for 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Cool in pan 2 minutes before removing.

My modifications and notes.

• Used 1 1/4 cup applesauce and 1/4 cup oil. Next time I make this I will use 1 1/3 cup applesauce and leave the oil out completely.
• Used 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup white.
• I used brown sugar instead of white.
• Added a bit extra cinnamon.
• Didn't use pecans.
• I couldn't find fresh or frozen cranberries at the grocery store, so I used whole berry cranberry sauce. (I actually dumped out the can in a bowl, sifted through it and pulled out the berries. Though I threw in a couple spoonfuls of the jelly part too, for good measure, I guess.)
• Made half the batch with cranberries, and the other half with frozen blueberries.
• Only baked them for 24 minutes. Keep an eye on them.
• These were awesome! They are very moist and tasty. It's a very good base muffin recipe and I'm going to try future incarnations of it with different types of berries. (Maybe raspberries? Mmm...)

The Porters got home just as I finished up cooking. (And I had already cleaned the entire kitchen and started the dishwasher. Surely I looked like superwoman. :) ) They already had their own dinner, but tried both my dishes. And they really liked them! So that's three endorsements for you.

Stay tuned, next week I will be making more of the recipes on my short list and will report on them. (I hope you like black beans too...)