Black Bean Lasagna

This lasagna is something I just threw together the other day when I didn’t feel like making much for dinner. I’ve seen lasagna rolls on various blogs and, one day, wanted to take a stab at making my own. I don’t like ground beef and I knew if there was no protein in this dish there was a chance Mr. Surly would find this dinner neither filling nor satiating. In order to curb and avoid possible post-dinner kitchen foraging, I added black beans for protein.

Now, black beans are on my “avoid” list for the low oxalate diet, but I haven’t been following the diet too strictly recently. My GI doctor ordered more tests, and wants me to eat as I normally would to get accurate results. I have been eating all the chocolately treats I can in the meantime. This accounts for my recent scrumptious Chocolate Stout Cupcakes post.

This meal was easy to prepare, while my noodles boiled I mixed up the filling, and seasoned the tomato sauce. The rolls aren’t too hard to assemble. If you roll too tightly the filling pops out but that’s not a big deal; you just pinch it back in.

Both Mr.Surly and I enjoyed this, though he did comment it could use more spices. I thought it tasted great, but with my GI issues I have acquired a very bland palate, much safer for my GI tract that way.


thanks for the new dish MIL :)

No Cook Pasta Sauce

This is an accidental recipe I made up the other night simply because I wasn’t feeling well. I had been in pain all day and just couldn’t bring myself to make dinner. As the time drew closer for Mr.Surly to come home, I had to think of something. I decided on pasta because it’s easy to make. We don’t eat jarred marinara sauce, I like to make my own. Usually tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, spices, etc simmered together. But this particular evening I didn’t feel like cooking the sauce. I just wanted to throw it together and let it sit on the counter so I could get back to the couch and my heating pad. The following is the result, and it was really good. Light and easy, I’m definitely making this again. I think I allowed it to sit for about 2 hours.

Pasta Caprese

I have been looking forward to making this dish for some time. I was just waiting for my basil plants to grow big enough leaves. I started them from seeds and it took awhile for me to nurture them to produce decent sized leaves. I faithfully trimmed the small leaves until they finally started growing larger. As soon as that happened I was finally able to make this Cook’s Illustrated pasta caprese I’ve been drooling over. As usual of most Cook’s Illustrated recipes I’ve tried, it did not disappoint.

It was so light and healthy, a perfect no fuss dinner during the hot, steamy summer we’ve been experiencing. I had some the next day for lunch and it was even better the next day, all the flavors melding together. And it was so easy and quick to prepare, which is even more important to me, especially now since I’m on new meds that leave me extremely lethargic. Even the smallest things, like chopping vegetables, or preparing a salad are extremely tiring to me. I spent the first 3 days on the new drug just sleeping all day and all night. I’m having trouble concentrating so any new recipe I even attempt to try must be easy and simple, not just to make, but also to type out.

I know this says it is supposed to serve two, but I don’t know what they base their portion size on. Since experiencing GI problems, I know that I personally am not eating a “normal” portion size. But Mr. Surly eats enough food for two people. And I still had leftovers of this. Maybe it serves two if this is the only thing you eat. I served it along with a salad and breadsticks. But who cares if you have leftovers of something as delicious as this.

Vodka Cream Pasta

I’ve been bad about cooking lately. I have lots of new recipes to try but just haven’t had much energy to cook. I've been making easy meals that involve little to no preparation. This pasta is one of those dishes. I planted some basil in the spring and finally it’s leaves are big enough to use. Since this dish uses a lot of fresh basil I decided to make it. I halved the recipe because neither of us have had much of an appetite and I didn’t really want a lot of leftovers. I thought it would be heavy because of the cream sauce, but it tasted surprisingly light. Perhaps it was because I used half-n-half instead of heavy cream. I still had leftovers, and it was just as good cold as it was when I made it for dinner. Next time I might try adding red pepper flakes to give the sauce a bit of a kick.

Pressure Cooker Chicken Cacciatore

This week my nutritionist put me on a low fiber diet, hoping that it will help me gain some weight (I’m currently about 20 lbs underweight). I’m supposed to be eating pasta, potatoes, bread, lots of “white” foods. These are foods I normally do not eat so I had to buy a few things from the grocery store. Also, my abdominal pain has increased this week and the meds my GI doctor prescribed aren’t helping. 

I really haven’t felt much like cooking nor eating this week. But Mr.Surly still needed food and since he’s been working late I didn’t want him to come home and then have to make dinner.  I’m looking for easy, no fuss meals and dish fit the bill. Just throw everything in your pressure cooker and it’s magically done in under 10 minutes. This could be made in either a skillet or pot, it would just take longer to cook. There was also extra sauce left over, so I have some “pasta sauce” for pasta this week. Sorry about the unappetizing photo, I just took a quick picture to post along with the recipe.