Apple Cream Cheese Danish

We have all these apples from our apple picking trip and I was aching to make some delicious pastry.  Then I found this recipe and went for it.  It was a bit more tricky than I imagined, because I had bought a box of two big puff pastry sheets, and they didn't roll out as well as I had hoped.  So I just kind of winged it, and with the leftover filling made blintzes, yum!  Zak devoured these, and I did my best not to eat them all in one day.  But they are certainly tasty!

24 oz. cottage cheese
3 apples (peeled, cored & thinly sliced)
1 tsp. lemon juice
8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 c. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
17 1/2 oz. puff pastry, thawed
3 Tbl. sugar (decoration)

1.  Place cottage cheese in a strainer lined with cheesecloth or heavy paper towel; pat dry and set aside.
2.  Place apples in a bowl, sprinkle with lemon juice to prevent browning.
3.  Combine cream cheese, drained cream cheese, 1/2 c. sugar, egg, vanilla in a bowl.  Mix with electric mixer for 1 - 2 minutes on medium high, until almost smooth.
4.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees, line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
5.  Cut each of the puff pastry sheets into 9 pieces, to have 18 total (make sure they are relatively square-shaped).  Roll pieces out, one by one, to make about 5 x 5 inch squares.  Avoid rolling with too much pressure or over the edges, to ensure they puff up.
6.  Place a square in front of you (so it's diamond-shaped).  Spoon a generous of cheese filling, leaving some room at the top and bottom edges.  Fan out 3 - 5 apple slices in the center.  Bring the left and right corners together to meet in the center and pinch to seal.
7.  Transfer danish to baking sheet; repeat with remaining pastries.  Sprinkle sugar over each bundle and bake until pastry is golden brown, about 20 minutes.

mine didn't turn out super pretty, but they sure were tasty, warm or room temperature!

'Sour Cream Noodle Bake' / 'Easy Lasagna'

I found this recipe through stumbleupon, and couldn't pass it up. It's from the website thepioneerwoman.com. I haven't made up my mind about the site yet, but the post about this recipe was kind of cute. Right as I started making this last night, I realized I didn't have enough for the full recipe. Luckily, I did have enough for half, and it turned out just fine. I added in some extra seasonings and used lowfat/light sour scream & cottage cheese. And it fit an 8"x8" pan, making 6 pieces in all.

Here is the original recipe, which I cut in half, more or less.

1 lb. ground chuck (ground beef worked fine)
1 15-oz. can tomato sauce
1/2 tsp. salt
8 oz. egg noodles
1/2 c. sour cream
1 1/4 c. cottage cheese
1/4 c. - 1/2 c. green onions
1 c. cheese
black pepper
optional seasonings: onion powder, red pepper flakes, garlic salt

1. Brown meat in large skillet, drain and add in tomato sauce, salt & pepper. Simmer while preparing other ingredients.
2. Cook noodles; drain and set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, combine sour cream and cottage cheese; mix to combine. Add in pepper, noodles and green onions (to taste). Add in other optional seasonings until it tastes good.
4. To assemble, place half of the noodles in the pan. Add half of the meat mixture on top, followed by half of the cheese. Repeat the layers.
5. Bake for 20 minutes (or until cheese melts) at 350-degrees.





Nutritional Facts
servings per recipe: 12
amount per serving

Calories: 234.2
Total Fat: 10.8 g
Saturated Fat: 4.8 g
Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.5 g
Monounsaturated Fat: 3.1 g
Cholesterol: 58.2 mg
Sodium: 400.5 mg
Potassium: 322.4 mg
Total Carbohydrate: 18.7 g
Dietary Fiber: 1.1 g
Sugar: 3.4 g
Protein: 15.6 g
Vitamin A: 6.81 %
Vitamin C: 5.2 %
Calcium: 10.5 %
Iron: 11.2 %

Lasagna

I have always loved lasagna. My cousin Matt who is a year older than me, and I would always 'fight' over who would have lasagna for their birthday dinner as children. His birthday is in November, mine is a month later, so we figured we couldn't have lasagna twice in two months. That doesn't quite make sense now, but that's how I remember it. Tonight I decided to make lasagna for no reason at all, just felt like it would be delicious. My mom's recipe is simple and delicious and tonight I only halved the recipe, but I'll post the entire recipe for those who are cooking for more than two people.

1 lb. ground beef
3/4 c. chopped onion (opt.)
16 oz. small curd cottage cheese
1 lb. shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 c. parmesan cheese
1 lb. box lasagna noodles
1 jar prepared spaghetti sauce (Prego) [I used Ragu tonight and added: minced garlic, salt, oregano and basil from my plant until it tasted great]

1. In a large skillet, brown beef & onion. When browned, add spaghetti sauce and simmer until noodles are mostly done cooking.
2. Add cooked noodles (following the directions on the box) to rapidly boiling water. Make sure to be careful so they don't break! Cook until soft but still firm - not too tender.
3. In a 9"x13" pan, spread about 1/2 c. of the sauce. Alternate layers as follows: lasagna, sauce, cottage cheese, mozzarella and parmesan cheese; ending with sauce, mozzarella and parmesan cheese.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes until lightly browned and bubbly. Allow to stand 10 minutes before cutting into squares & serving.

about to start assembling

finished layering, about to go into the oven

delicious layers

yum!