Friday, September 11, 2009

Cooking Adventures

D.J. and I tried a new recipe last night. It did not go very well. We used garlic for the first time so I had no idea how strong or weak this recipe would be. I learned that we need to ease into the garlic thing very slowly! Other than having way too much garlic, the rest of the recipe was a complete disaster... I'm posting it here so you might find a way to redeem the leftovers! We have a ton of food in the fridge and I hate to throw that much food away. (My original hope was to freeze some of it so we'd have an easy dinner in the next few weeks...)

Frozen package of 5-cheese ravioli
1 pound ground turkey
1 pound ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 14-oz can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 10 3/4-oz can condensed tomato soup
1 t dried basil
1 t dried oregano
2 c mozzarella cheese
1/2 c finely shredded Parmesan cheese

Cook ravioli, keep warm.
Brown meat, onion, and garlic.
Stir undrained tomatoes, tomato soup, basil, and oregano into mixture.
Gently stir in cooked ravioli.
Spreak mixture into an ungreased 9x13 dish.
Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese.
Bake, uncovered, about 20 minutes or until casserole is heated through.

Generally, our complaints were that there was too much garlic and onion, so I may use half that amount next time. (If there is a next time!) We also thought it needed more sauce. The original recipe called for a pound and a half of ground beef. D.J. loves meat and turkey is a little cheaper so I bought a pound of beef and turkey. I didn't increase the amount of tomato soup or tomatoes at all. So what would you do to redeem the leftovers? Add tomato soup? Spaghetti sauce? Marinara? We need more sauce and we need to cover the garlic taste just a bit. We're open to suggestions! What do you think???

2 comments:

MommaC said...

I'm not sure how you would save it at this point but, if you choose to make it a second time here's what I would do. Onions and Garlic are finicky little creatures. If you don't like them or aren't sure if you like them, then tread lightly. They are very pugent. I would do half an onion and only 2-3 cloves of garlic next time. Also if you are going to do 2 lbs of meat as opposed to 1.5 I would do one big can of tomato soup and one little can. It would probably taste better with marinara but, the problem with that is if you're not going to make your own, most canned marinara has garlic and onion already it and you can see my above statement about that. I suppose you could also do marinara and just drop it down to 1/4 an onion and 1-2 cloves of garlic. Rule of thumb for cooking: You can always add more but, you can't take it out. Kinda like scrapbooking, once that baby is glued on, it ain't coming off! I'm glad you are trying new recipes in the kitchen! That's how you learn! If you want, I can share some of my favorite 4-5 ingredient dishes with you. Just message me on Facebook or e-mail me @ mommacabrera@yahoo.com. Love you girly! Lots of kitchen prayers for you!

Natalie said...

Too much garlic? Seriously? Have you learned NOTHING from me? There can NEVER be too much garlic!