I made this last week and thought I'd have it to myself because the roomie doesn't like tomatoes. Well, apparently, in this form, they are okay because I only had a taste and a half!!! I'm going to make some more this week and play around with the flavors. I thought that it was a good dish but wished that it had been less layered. There was a clear separation between the spinach, onion, and tomato and the bread. I'd also add a little more salt and herbs. Overall, though, this was great! And to top it off, it's good for you with LOTS of antioxidants! Thus, this is my entry to sweetnick's ARF Tuesday. Check out her site for more great recipes...and to wish her a Happy Birthday!!!! 
Tomato and Parmesan Strata2 slices whole wheat bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 cups baby spinach leaves
1 garlic clove
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
3 large egg whites
1 large egg
1 cup chopped seeded tomato (about 2 medium)
2 tablespoons grated fresh Parmesan cheese
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place bread in bottom of 1 1/2 quart baking dish. Heat skillet over medium-high heat. Spray with cooking spray. Add onion to pan and saute for 3 minutes or until tender. Add spinach and garlic, cooking 2 minutes or until spinach wilts. Remove from heat.
Combine thyme, salt, black pepper, egg whites, and egg in medium bol; stir ith whisk. Stir in spinach mixture and tomato. Pour egg mixture over bread ubes and top with cheese. Bake for 20 minutes or until set. Let stand for 5 minutes.
Servings: 2, 2 cup servings
Calories 186, fat 5.9 g, protein 16.9 g, fiber 5.3 g
These cookies are from The Cookie Bible. Suggestions for add-ins include chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, mini-kisses, mint chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and toffee. Take your pick and use this as a base batter. If you like brownies but want a cookies, this is a recipe to use! 
Design Your Own Chocolate Cookies 
The cake is not a normal plain cake, as noted by my dad. It has cinnamon in it, which really is noticable. I thought the cake was great. Nice and moist...and ARF friendly with the peaches and pecans. SO, this is my entry for 
Peach Upside-Down Cake adapted from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Whisk together flour, powder, cinnamon, and salt. 
Tater Tuna Pie 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine first four ingredients and blend until crumbly. Add water and stir with a fork until dough is moist enough to hold together and press into a pie plate. Sprinkle some of the onions on crust. Stir together filling ingredients, reserving 1/2 cup cheese. Put filling in crust. Bake 25-30 minutes. Sprinkle remaining cheese and onions over pie. Bake 5-10 minutes or until cheese melts. Allow to stand 10 minutes before serving. We always have this with broccoli.
The recipe I decided to use is one from the Mississippi College cookbook. It's called favorite blueberry muffins and I can see why. These are not overly sweet and don't have anything special. They are just simple, moist blueberry muffins...they actually remind me a bit of what you would get in a mix but with that homemade touch! If you wanted to make these with Splenda, I'm sure that would work well. Because blueberries are FULL of antioxidants and, according to a recent article on MSN, will keep you young, this is my entry to 
Favorite Blueberry Muffins from With Special Distinction 
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease bottoms of 12 medium muffin cups. Beat eggs; stir in milk and oil. Mix in flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix until flour is just moistened. Fold in blueberries into batter. Add pecans, if using. Fill muffins cups 2/ full. Bake for 20-25 minutes (I did 20) or until golden brown. Immediately remove from pan. Yield: 12 muffins
It is a cold shoepeg (IMPORTANT!) corn salad with green onions and tomato in mayonaise. You can use low fat (what we have in my house) or even fat free mayo; just be aware that, especially if you use fat free, this will get soupy. No worries, just use a slotted spoon to serve and it still tastes great! Because of the corn and tomatoes, this is my entry to 
Shoepeg Corn Salad 
These were easy to make and made much more than the 12 "large" muffins she claim. Her large must be bakery large. I got 12 muffins, 12 mini-muffins, and four muffin tops. The result is a nice, spicy, not-too-sweet pumpkin muffin. I think that these would be a little better with brown sugar instead of regular and maybe even some molasses. I'll be freezing most of these to use later. Because pumpkin is so healthy for you, this is my entry to Sweetnick's ARF Tuesday. Drop by her site and check out the other great recipes that are sure to be there!
Pumpkin Muffins adapted from Fresh Everyday 
Eggplant is a good source of fiber and the green peppers and onions are great for ARF's. This is my entry for 
Eggplant Stir Fry 
My goods start with blueberries, cantelope (which is SO much better at the market than at the grocery store), plums, nectarines, zucchini, oranges, and three kinds of eggplant.
I ALSO found some blackberries. YUM! I haven't done anything with them except eat them. They go great with cantelope and with my morning yogurt. At first I was worried that I wouldn't be able to go to market b/c of work, but I'm pretty sure that they try to get us out of there by 9 on Sat/Sun if we go at all. Here's a little hint at a yummy concoction coming up tomorrow. 
Any guesses as to what it is?
They are my mom's aunt's recipe and I LOVE them! They are an ice box cookie and end up a lot like pecan sandies. Try them out some time. You could even make the dough and keep it in the freezer to bake a few whenever you want...like if you're up all night on call and need a snack! ;-) OH...I did a test between my baking stones and a pan with my new silpat!!! The silpat is great for giving a smooth bottom on the cookies. The textures of both cookies were the same, though I think the stone needed a little longer than I gave it. Either with work! Enjoy the cookies! 
Aunt Imogene's Ice Box Nut Cookies 
Freeze for later if desired. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. 
It's not perfect and I WILL be doing it again. Because of the tomatoes, onions, and portabellos, this is a super healthy salad, so it's my entry for 
Portabello Cornbread Panzanella 
Now, I'm just not a big fan of lasagna but I do know how to make it. My mom has been making this recipe for years. In fact, she has been making it since they lived in Virginia while Daddy was in the Navy and she worked at Capitol Hill; that was more than 25 years ago. One day someone asked her if she made "real" lasagna...apparently to be real, it must be made with Italian sausage and ricotta cheese. So, she tried it that way and they didn't like it with all Italian sausage nor the ricotta. She has changed the recipe a tad to account for this. If you want to, you can make this with all sausage and ricotta, but we use half Italian sausage, half beef and cottage cheese. I've determined that I don't really like Italian sausage; there is some kind of spice in it that I don't care for. Another note, I forgot to put the cheese on at the right time. Usually the top layer is the meat sauce instead of this bubbled cheese layer. 
Anyway, Mama got this recipe in DC but found it in our local college's (Mississippi College) cookbook. In the cookbook it is in the special section. These recipe are given by notables such as Willard Scott (baked rice, which my grandmother made before his recipe submission), Ann Landers (Lemon Pie), Arthur Guyton (a world famous physician whose physiology textbook is used in many medical schools; he was director of the physiology department at University of MS Medical Center, where I attend medical school!), and even Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter (eggplant spaghetti sauce - I LOVE this!). This recipe was given by Landrum Shettles, a 1933 graduate of MC. The description reads "Landrum Shettles is a research physician and pioneer in the field of in vitro fertilization and gender determination studies. he received an honorary doctorate from Mississippi College in 1966." I thought that was pretty interesting. I hope you all enjoy this lasagna recipe. Happy Father's Day!!! 
Lasagna
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Cook noodles according to package instruction; drain, rinse, and dry. Combine remaining ingredients except mozzarella.
Place half (3) noodles in a 13X9 baking dish. 
Spread with half the ricotta mixture. 
Top with half mozzarella cheese. Top with half the meat sauce.
Repeat layers, ending with meat sauce.* Bake for 30 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting. 
*If you forget the cheese like I did (or just prefer cheese on top), bake for 20 minutes and the put the cheese on top and cook remaining 10 minutes.
Because of the antioxidants in lemons and the healthy benefits of wheat germ, this is my entry to 
Honey Wheat Cookies 
Rub the sugar and orange zest together with your fingers until the sugar is moist.
Add butter and beat on medium until creamy and smooth. Add honey and beat another minute or so. Add the egg and beat 2 more minutes. Reduce speed and add the dry ingredients in 2 portions, only until the flour disappears. 
Scrape onto a piece of plastic wrap, wrap well, and chill for at least 2 hours (up to 2 days). Preheat oen to 350 degrees F. Place 1/2 cup wheat germ in a separate bowl. Remove chilled dough and roll the dough into 1-inch balls. Roll the balls in the wheat germ.
Place balls on a baking pan and press down slightly with your hand. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until just firm to the touch. Cool on cooling rack.
and Daddy had the pick two with a chicken fontago (?) sandwich and french onion soup
. It was all very good. When we got to the hotel, Mama and Daddy decided to get supper outside the ballpark but I wanted the full baseball experience, so I had a hot dog and Diet Coke for supper. Unfortunately we forgot to take a picture, and it really is a monumental occassion...that's my ONE hotdog for the year! BTW, the Cubs won! 2-1. 
Friday we went to the 
Mama got the special of the day...Fried Green Tomato BLT with slaw
. Daddy got the Chicken Club with corn pudding.
I got the vegetable plate with grilled garlic broccoli, squash casserole, grilled sour cream cornbread, 
and watermelon vidalia salad. 
All of it was really good EXCEPT the watermelon salad. It was really bad. They let it sit in vinegar, and we decided that was the problem. It made the watermelon, and even the onion, taste "friendly." I think it would be a really good flavor combination without the vinegar. If you're ever in Atlanta and want a local eatery, try Agnes and Muriel's. In addition to good food they have good (looking) desserts. When we walked in, the red velvet cake was untouched. When we left, this is what it looked like! 
We think that a bridal shower must have eaten it. After lunch we went to the 
Daddy got the tomato artichoke soup (good) and creamy chicken salad sandwhich.
I got fruit salad (my body was craving cool fruit) and grilled vegetable salad (eggplant, red pepper, squash, carrot, red onion, zucchini). There was also whole wheat cranberry walnut bread...it was SOOOOO good. I'm looking for a recipe to try and recreate it. It was a dense, tough-crusted bread. Let me know if you have any ideas!
All was VERY good. Then we went over to a kitchen store owned by a father and two sons, Davis Cookware (?). It's not well organized but has lots of great stuff...even a 13X9 springform. They sell great coffees and teas, too. I walked out with a sifter, sil-pat sheet, and a tube of sea salt. Daddy left with Snickeroo coffee, a steamer, and a tea steeper. Great store. When we got home, we made blueberry pie and watched Facing the Giants. GREAT movie. Anyway, it was a great weekend and got me ready for a lot of hard work to come. I hope I'll still have posts, but if I slack off a bit, forgive me. I have a feeling I'll be getting up quite early and not having much time to cook.