Cupcake Apothecary: Appetizer

Showing posts with label Appetizer. Show all posts

Lasagna Cupcakes

Cupcakes are taking off. I've seen so many things in cupcake forms lately. Like in Tokyo, theres a 'red velvet' cupcake. Sounds normal, right? WRONG! The red in the cupcakes is from beets. Ick! Cinnamon buns can now come in cupcake form. And now, lasagna.

This was really good, but really hard work! Like... it took a lloooonnng time to finish. Was it worth it in the end? meh... not really. I'm all about pretty, delicious and pretty easy and less time consuming to cook.

Pretty, right? They were pretty tasty. But honestly, I think I could use this same recipe and just make it the old fashion way. This recipe was adapted from The Girl Who Ate Everything

What you need: (Sorry, I don't have measurements)

Italian Sausage (I used Johnsonville Chicken Sausage, 3 cheese Italian Flavored)

Red pepper

Onion

Garlic

Lasagna noodles, cooked al dante

Ricotta Cheese

Parmesan Cheese

Mozzarella Cheese

(I added in some Fontina Cheese as well)

Italian spices (I.e. basil, oregano, etc)

Spaghetti sauce (I use Prego, my Favorite!)

What you need to do:

Start out by putting your sausage in a food processor.

Pulse until it looks like the above photo. The smaller, the better.

Next, pulse some pepper and onion. Garlic would be nice too, but I crushed mine with a knife so we have lots of big pieces!

Saute it all together, fully cooking the sausage.

Spray your pans and warm your oven to 350 at this point, if you haven't already.

Take your lasagna noodle and put it on a hard surface, like a cutting board.

Grab a cup and cut little circles out.

Voila!

You may even have to pinch off a bit more if it doesn't fit right.

Place your lasagna circles in the tin.

Take a lasagna noodle and cut it in half, the long way. Wrap the noddle in the pan like so. It doesn't have to be perfect, the stuffing will hold it together later.

Mix your cheeses, making sure their creamy and well blended.

Add in your spices!

Now layer. Sauce first.

Meat/onion mix next.

Ricotta mix next.

More sauce.

Place shredded Mozzarella Cheese on top.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, allowing everything to get warm and melt. The edges should get a bit crispy, but don't leave it in more than that otherwise it will harden.

Not so bad, just a lot of prep work. I hope you all enjoy!

Linky Parties:

FriDAYS Made Sweet

Homemade Restaurant Style Salsa

Yum, yum, yum!
Who can resist a good salsa??

You would think me living so close to Mexico, that there would be a good Mexican Restaurant around here. No. There's Not.

Well, there is but it's 13 miles north of town and we're 10 miles south of town. And that's not including how many miles the town is! So, we go there on special occasions. :)

BUT! We love great salsa. I love this one because I know it's homemade and I know exactly what's in it.

So, let's get on with it!
What you need:

1 can Whole tomatoes (The big can, can't remember the oz on it, sorry)

2 cans Rotel (I used hot)

1/2 an onion

1 Jalapeno

1 small lime or 1/2 a lime

some Cilantro

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp sugar

DON'T FORGET THE GARLIC!
Now, you should know, if you don't already, this house lives, breathes, and runs off of garlic. We put it in everything and we put a lot of it. We'll put huge whole chunks and we like it that way. -- just a side note.
So, when I say to add 2 tbsp of minced garlic, that is just for me and the hubs. But to tone it down, add 1 tbsp.

You will need either a blender or food processor for this next part.

What you need to do:

Pulse the whole tomatoes. Juices and all

(You want them little, otherwise you'll just have Pico de Gallo, and that's not what we want here.)

Once tomatoes are tiny, pulse in the rotel, juices and all.

Next, chop up your Jalapeno and onion to medium sized pieces. Just so that it'll fit in the food processor.

You can take out the seeds if you'd like, since I hear that's where all the spice is at. But I included it.

Pulse up your Jalapeno and Onion.

Pulse in everything else! (except for lime)

Now, squeeze the life out of that lime into your salsa! (I asked my big strong hubby to do it *wink*wink* You know they love being masculine for you)

Presto, you. are. done.

Now, go enjoy your salsa with your family!!!
Source:
The Pioneer Woman

Super Bowl Sunday: Buffalo Chicken Dip

What you need:
8 oz Philadelphia Cream Cheese (please spend the extra .08 cents and get it!)
1/4 Ranch Dressing
1/4 Blue Cheese Dressing
1/2 cup Franks Red Hot Sauce
1/4 cup Crumbled Blue Cheese
2 cups chopped or shredded chicken

Place cream cheese in the middle of baking dish and surround it with all other ingredients. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Stir it all together, mixing in the cream cheese with the rest of the ingredients.
-OR-
What I also do is if you have a fondue pot, toss your cream cheese and chicken in there to melt. Then add in all your stuff! It's faster, it can easily be moved and easy to clean!

Greek Nachos

What you need:
Pita shells
1 lb Ground beef or lamb, seasoned
Spinach, chopped
Crumbled Feta Cheese
Olives, if you'd like... we hate them.
Chives, chopped
Avocado, Chopped
Diced Roma tomatoes
Diced Onion
Squash Mix (Optional)
Click --> Tzatziki Sauce For the recipe I got

What you need to do:
Firstly, the beef. Start cooking it on a pan with a little olive oil. Add in whatever seasonings you'd like. I added salt, pepper, garlic, cumin, and thyme. Brown the beef and keep on low heat.

Secondly, mostly everything else. Chop up your spinach, olives, chives, tomatoes and onion. Set to the side.

You'll need to make the tzatziki sauce at some point as well.

Next, The pita shell. Place them, WHOLE, in the oven at 250-300 depending on how crunchy you want them and if you're going to make my squash mix. Check on them frequently. I like them a little crunchy, personally. Once you get them to the desired crunchiness, I like to cut them into small triangles, big enough to hold the meat and veggies. OOOOrrrrr.... You can place them in the grill. for a nice smoky taste to them :)

You're done unless you want the squash mix.

SQUASH MIX:
You'll need some Zucchini, Yellow Squash, Red Pepper, and Onion. This would be great to grill, but it's winter so I cooked them on a skillet, with just a pinch of olive oil. JUST A PINCH!
Dice them all to about bite size pieces. Once your oil is hot, add your veggies to the pan. From here you can choose to season them how ever you'd like. But I used salt, little bit of rosemary, thyme, cayenne pepper, chipotle seasonings and a little mrs. Dash.

You're done! Dish up!

Spinach and Turkey Bacon Roll

I'm backkk! I'm so sorry that I haven't posted! Some CRAZY things have been going on at the base where my husband and I are at. Things in which I haven't been happy about. So I wasn't baking! BUT This last Saturday, I had a girls night to attend to, so I made A LOT of things!!

So, Here's the first one!

What you need:
Phyllo Dough or Phyllo Pillow Puffs
8 oz. Garlic Herb cheese spread (OOORR... Mix together softened cream cheese and whatever herbs you would like!)
Parmesan cheese
Either cheddar or mozzarella cheese (which ever is your favorite!)
Minced Garlic (I live for garlic, so I added a lot!)
Fresh Spinach, chopped
Turkey Bacon
(I made this up in my head, so I'm sorry for not using an exact measurements)

What you need to do:

Thaw out your phyllo dough if you got it frozen for 45 min.

When thawed, Spread out.