Apple Brown Betty

This recipe could also be called "Butter Cobbler", given the incredible amount of delicious, fatty butter in it. I snagged this recipe from the Pioneer Woman. She's a hoot, and I totally recommend reading her blog if you haven't. I appreciate her self-deprecating humor, which is also tends to be my sense of humor.

I have to say that I didn't really change a thing (except for the addition of my second love, Sweet Treat), but I'm going to post the full recipe anyway to keep myself busy.

This dessert is the perfect way to usher in fall, and uses only staple ingredients, making it the perfect "throw-together" dessert!

Apple Brown Betty

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

3 Granny Smith apples

5-7 Slices of wheat bread

3/4 cup salted butter

1 and 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

3 Tbs water

Sweet Treat (if you have it)

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven to 375F

2. Peel and thinly slice the apples, and cut the wheat bread into bite sized cubes.

3. Grease a pie plate with butter, then begin to make layers of the ingredients. PW used thirds as a rule of thumb (i.e. add 1/3 of the bread, apples and brown sugar, and repeat twice more). Be sure to end with breadcrumbs (though Lord knows I didn't, and it didn't really make a difference).

4. Sprinkle the water and a bit of brown sugar (or Sweet Treat!!) on the top. Cover with foil and pop into the oven for about 35-45 minutes. Remove the foil and allow to brown the top for a few more minutes.

Serve with vanilla ice-cream for an extra special dessert!

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Cakes

Sweet potatoes were on sale at the grocery store the other weekend, and I sought to find a recipe that was new (i.e. not just baked/mashed sweet potatoes) that I could serve as a main dish. I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com, and I decided to try it out. Stupidly, I didn't really have all the ingredients I needed, so I had to tweak the recipe quite a bit. Sigh.

My verdict about the recipe is that the lime sour cream topping really makes these cakes extraordinary. By themselves, they were a little dry. Perhaps a little more tweaking and experimenting is in order...

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Cakes

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Lime Sour Cream:

1/2 cup sour cream

2 tsp lime juice (I used from concentrate, fresh is probably better)

1 tsp diced green chili peppers from can (or 1 fresh jalapeno pepper, fancy pants)

Bean and Potato Cakes:

1 Tbs olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 small can diced chili peppers

1.5 tsp ground cumin

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 cup of raw sweet potato, grated

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/4 cup bread crumbs (all I had was Italian bread crumbs, and it worked out fine)

Procedure:

1. Prepare lime sour cream first. Mix the sour cream, lime juice and peppers well, and store covered in the fridge to meld the flavors together.

**Turn on the broiler**

2. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the minced garlic, chili peppers and cumin until fragrant and golden. Be careful not to burn the garlic, as it has a bitter flavor when it is burnt.

3. In a large bowl mix the black beans with the chili-garlic mixture. With a potato masher or a fork, mash the black beans with the peppers. Mix in the sweet potatoes, egg and bread crumbs until patties can be formed.

4. Take a large spoonful of the mixture and roll into a 1.5 inch ball. Place on a greased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart from one another. With the bottom of a glass or the palm of your hand, flatten the balls into patties.

5. Broil about 8 minutes on one side, then carefully flip over using a wide spatula, and broil another 3-5 minutes on the other side, until crispy.

6. Serve with a dollop of the lime sour cream.

Baby Portobello and Spinach Whole Wheat Lasagna

Whew. I need to update this baby. Sorry for the silence, but things are busy. We've been eating a lot of sandwiches, and fake-meat tacos. Yum.

This particular lasagna recipe is great because you don't need to boil the noodles beforehand, which really cuts back on the preparation time for this dish. Feel free to substitute the veggies with cooked ground beef or Italian sausage!

Baby Portobello and Spinach Whole Wheat Lasagna

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1 large bag of fresh spinach

8 oz cremini (baby portobello mushrooms), sliced

9 whole wheat lasagna noodles

16 oz cottage cheese (or ricotta, fancy pants)

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

26 oz pasta sauce (about 1 jar of your favorite brand)

Italian seasoning blend for garnish

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 350F

2. Saute the mushrooms for about 3-5 minutes over medium-high heat in a skillet, until they are deeply colored and fragrant. Transfer them to a plate, and return the skillet back to the heat.

3. Wilt the spinach in the skillet for about 3 minutes, then when dark green, transfer to a plate.

4. Spray a 9"x11" baking dish with cooking spray. Begin to build the lasagna.

5. First, coat the bottom of the baking dish with a thin layer of pasta sauce. Place three noodles, not overlapping, on the sauce. Add equal amounts of spinach and mushrooms as the next layer. Top this with dollops of the cottage cheese and about 1/2 cup of the shredded mozzarella. Coat with sauce, then continue the pattern until ingredients run out. Top the final layer with mozzarella and cottage cheese if there is any left. Be sure that the top layer of noodles are coated with pasta sauce, otherwise they will not properly cook.

6. Bake at 350F for about 35-45 minutes, or until sauce is bubbling and the cheese is nice and melted.