Pastitsio!

So, last night, we had this "Greek lasagna."  It was quite tasty, very filling, and not too hard on the pocketbook!

• 1 pound ground lamb (beef works, as well!)
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• .5 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup tomato sauce
• 4 tbsp butter
• 4 tbsp flour
• 3 cups milk
• 12 oz penne pasta
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• .5 cup grated parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease a 2-quart casserole dish.
3. Cook pasta.  Drain.
4. While pasta is cooking, brown meat in a heavy skillet.  Add onion and garlic and cook until soft.  Mix in cinnamon and tomato sauce.
5. In a saucepan, melt butter.  Whisk in flour and cook one minute.  Whisk in milk and let simmer 20 minutes, stirring often.
6. Add beaten eggs and .25 cup parmesan to the white sauce.
7. Add half the pasta to the casserole dish.  Top with all the meat mixture.  Add the rest of the pasta.
8. Pour the white sauce over the top.
9. Sprinkle the remaining parmesan cheese on top of the white sauce.
10. Bake for 45 minutes.

If I were to change anything about this, I would salt everything, use about half the pasta, and perhaps leave the eggs out of the white sauce.  Otherwise, it was very, very tasty.  Hubby loved it, too, so that's always a plus!

For the diet-conscious, here's the deets:


Calories          476
Total Fat         26.4g
Cholesterol     111mg
Carbs               41.5g
Protein             21.7g

All in all, not too shabby! 

Cheesy Lamb Cups! And official new bloginess!

So, after much thinking and planning, I am today ready to introduce the new recipe ranking system!  
We're going to pretend that each recipe is a D&D character, with specific modifiers:

Strength modifier = how filling the dish is

Intelligence modifier = how hard it is to make (the easier it is to make, the higher the score will be)

Wisdom modifier = how likely it is that you will have all the necessary ingredients on hand  (again, the higher the score, the more likely it is that you’ll have everything)

Charisma modifier = how good it tastes!

Constitution modifier = how good for you it is

All of these catagories will be on a 1-4 scale.  They will then be added together to create a final score out of 20.

So, to inaugurate my new system...I present:  Cheesy Lamb Cups!

First, let's meet the ingredients!

For the lamb cups:

Onion soup mix, bread crumbs, evaporated milk, ground lamb, cheddar cheese

In a small bowl, combine the soup mix, bread crumbs, and evaporated milk.

Crumble lamb over mixture and mix well.

Press half the mixture into 6 greased muffin cups, filling each half full.

Press one cube of cheddar cheese into each cup.

Cover with remaining lamb mixture.

Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, for the sauce:

Cheddar cheese soup, Worcestershire sauce, and milk

Mix all three ingredients in a small saucepan.  Heat.

Serve over lamb cups.

Recipe:

.5 envelope onion soup mix

.3 cup dry bread crumbs

.5 cup evaporated milk

1 pound ground lamb

2 ounces cheddar cheese, cut into 6 cubes

1 can condensed cheddar cheese soup

.5 cup milk

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1)  In a small bowl, combine first three ingredients.  Crumble lamb over mixture and mix well.

2)  Press half of mixture into 6 greased muffin cups, filling each half full.  Press one cube of cheese into the center of each cup.  Cover with remaining lamb mixture; mound slightly.  Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

3)  For sauce, combine soup, milk, and Worcestershire sauce in a small saucepan.  Heat through; stir until smooth.  Serve over lamb cups.

Strength Modifier:  

 

We were still a tad bit hungry after this meal, even though we each had 3 lamb cups!

Intelligence modifier:

This was ridiculously easy to put together.

Wisdom modifier:

We had pretty much everything on hand - except the lamb.  But now even Walmart sells lamb, so it definitely falls into the doable category.

Charisma modifier:

It was a little bland.  If I make it in the future, there will definitely be more spices mixed in with the lamb.

Constitution modifier:

It was pretty greasy, and full of cheese.

Overall score:

It wasn't horrible, but it's probably not something we'll make again.  Regular meatloaf probably would have been more satisfying and probably healthier as well.

Be sure to check in later!  Homemade pop tarts are next in line to be made!
And a HUGE thanks to Mr. Chris Mcnair for the inspiration for the theme of this blog!  There are a few more little things I'm going to add, but they will probably come at a later time!

Pan-Grilled Lamb Chops

My husband and I had lamb for the first time about a year ago.  We absolutely loved it.  Since then, we've checked every meat market and grocery store in town, and none of them sell lamb in any way, shape or form.

Then, behold, at Walmart the other evening, we were picking up some ground meat to make some burgers, and next to the beef, there were lamb shoulders!  On sale!  So I picked up a couple for us and then quested to find a recipe.  I found the following recipe on the Food Network website, and have modified it a little to fit our taste and supplies on hand.

First, the ingredients:

Lemon juice, mustard, rosemary, garlic, salt, EVOO, pepper, and lamb chops

To make the marinade, whisk the lemon juice, mustard, rosemary, garlic, and salt together in a medium bowl.

Gradually add the oil and pepper.

Put the lamb chops in the mixture.  Cover.  Place in fridge.  Marinade for several hours.

Remove the chops from the marinade.  Lightly scrape off the excess marinade.

Preheat your grill pan/skillet/heat-producing-utensil.

Place chops on grill.  Cook approximately 10 minutes on each side.

When they are cooked to your liking (ours were a little on the rare side), plate and enjoy!

(I need to work on my plating!)

Recipe:

.5 cup lemon juice

2 tablespoons mustard (we used spicy honey mustard)

1 tablespoon rosemary

3 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon salt

.5 cup extra virgin olive oil

black pepper to taste

4 8-12 oz lamb shoulder chops

1)  To make the marinade:  whisk the lemon juice, mustard, rosemary, garlic, and salt together in a medium bowl.  Gradually whisk in the oil and season with pepper.

2)  Put the lamb chops in the bowl, covering them in the marinade.  Cover.  Marinate at room temperature for 1 hour or in the fridge for at least 4, but no more than 12.  (Ours marinated for about 6 hours.)

3)  Remove the chops from the bowl and place on a plate.  Discard the marinade.  Using a spoon, lightly scrape off the remaining marinade and pat the chops dry.

4)  Preheat your grilling surface.  Cook the chops over medium heat for 7-9 minutes on each side.  (Or longer, per your desired doneness.)

We really enjoyed this recipe.  I think it could have stood to marinate a little longer, but we were hungry people and didn't want to wait.


Taste: 3.5
Difficulty: 2.5
Good-for-you-factor: 3.5
Fullness-factor: 4.5
Overall: 3.5

Be sure to check back tomorrow when I review another Lean Cuisine for lunch and make something new and fantastic for dinner!