I fully intended to make these from scratch but then I saw the prepared crab cakes on sale at Whole Foods. One of these days I will make my own!
I did make the sauce and it was wonderful! Peter really loved it because of the jalapenos. That guy loves spicy food! I prepared extra sauce and froze it for another crab cake meal in the future. The spicy corn side dish from December was the perfect compliment to this meal!
Spicy Avocado Sauce
1/2 large avocado, pitted and diced
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
2 tablespoons lime juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large jalapeno, seeded and quartered
1/2 cup skim milk
Add the first five ingredients into a food processor and pulse four times. Slowly add the milk until creamy. I used a little less than half a cup of milk but you may need the full amount depending on how much avocado you have.
Once upon a time, I was a vegetarian and I loved it. Then I met and married a man who MUST have meat at every meal. I abandoned my vegetarian ways and began eating meat again. I do love a rare steak but recently I have thought about going veggie again. I won't do it one hundred percent until I have this baby, so in the meantime I am easing my way back into the vegetarian lifestyle I used to love.
I recently noticed the Gardein brand at Whole Foods and on the menu at The Yard House. I decided to give them a whirl, having been disappointed with other faux meat brands in the past. Peter was out for a business dinner tonight so I used this as an opportunity to try these plant based tenders.
The result? OMG, I'm in love. They tasted amazing and were super easy to prepare, just twenty minutes in the oven. I honestly could not tell the difference between these and your traditional chicken strips. I will definitely buy them again and perhaps slip them into the rotation and see if Peter notices a difference!
My mother in law, Mathilde, is originally from Austria. She met Peter's father, who was from Germany, in Montreal. They married there and a few years later they moved to Boulder, Colorado. Peter and his brother were lucky enough to a) grow up in Boulder and b) eat all the delicious German and Austrian food their mother prepared. Mathilde is slowly teaching me all of her recipes so be on the lookout for goulash, wienerschnitzel and Austrian potato salad. She also makes some really yummy vegetable soup but I don't know how to spell it.
Funny enough, she also makes a mean spaghetti and it's Peter's favorite "mom" dish. I know it's not a German or Austrian dish but man, it's really good.
Make sure when you buy the sauce that you choose one that is just regular sauce, no added mushrooms or anything like that. It doesn't really matter what brand you buy, although I like this one.
This recipe is great for weeknights because it doesn't take much time to get it going, then you can leave it for 1 1/2 hours. Serve over the spaghetti of your choice, we eat whole wheat around here :)
Mathilde's Spaghetti
1 pound ground beef (or ground turkey, I have used both)
1 jar marinara sauce
1 can stewed tomatoes
1/2 can tomato paste (or about two tablespoons)
1 bay leaf
1 garlic clove, pressed
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
In a large stockpot over medium heat, add the olive oil and a pinch of sea salt. Brown the meat. Add the garlic, the entire jar of sauce, the stewed tomatoes and the tomato paste. Combine and when the sauce starts to bubble, add the bay leaf and turn down to level 1 heat. Let simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Remove bay leaf before serving.
Long time, no post. I have reasons (excuses?) for my lapse in posting over the last month. First, this pregnant lady only wanted to eat cupcakes and Tootsie Rolls until late January. I didn't think those eating habits warranted any new blog entries. Second, as soon as I felt like eating normal food again, I was off to Houston for ten days. The trip did give me an excuse to try out some yummy freezer meals. The week before I left I prepared double of everything, wrapped them in individual servings and left heating instructions for my sweet but domestically challenged husband. Peter very much appreciated the homecooked meals and he managed to only eat at Chipotle twice while I was gone. I call that a huge success!
I did a lot of research on freezer friendly options and settled on five meals. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the finished results but I am providing links and reviews for each dinner. This was a trial run for when little Ruppenthal arrives. I plan on making a month's worth of meals ahead of time so that when we're tired and cranky, we don't have to resort to fast food...but I'm sure there will be a few Chipotle nights in our future :)
Next week I will be back with all new recipes!
- Baked Chicken with Penne and Sun-Dried Tomatoes- this was by far Peter's favorite. He loved it so much that he has already asked for it again. Martha Stewart has a nice collection of freezer friendly options on her website. I am definitely going to refer back when I need new ideas. The reheating instructions indicate that the dish needs to be in the oven for 1 1/2 hours. I reduced the time to an hour and everything turned out great!
- Green Chile-Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas- these were a very close second. I loved them more than Peter did because I thought they really tasted like good Tex-Mex restaurant enchiladas. Yum...I want to make these again!
- Crab Manicotti/Cannelloni- OMG, these are amazing! They are so rich, yummy and perfect. I had to increase the reheating time to about 75 minutes.
- Beef Lasagna- I'm not Italian nor do I have even a drop of Italian blood running through these veins so I was very nervous about making lasagna from scratch. I won't lie, it's a messy process but SO worth it! It turned out perfectly and reheated wonderfully. I did change th original instructions a bit. I put the leftover lasagna in the fridge overnight and cut it into individual squares the next morning. I froze two servings in each foil pan. I reheated at 400 degrees for one hour, removing the foil for the last ten minutes.
- Stuffed Shells- I didn't get to these because we had a ton of leftover lasagna so I will be trying them next week!
