I vividly remember around this time last year, a typical work day coming to an end. Typical being....I was up at the crack of dawn, home late from work, tired.... and in NO mood too cook. (Thank God, I don't have kids, because they would starve!) Top this off with AWESOME... my husband invited some friends over for dinner, and failed to mention it. (Huh?? how does this happen exactly?) I walked through the door, fully intending on dropping my "stuff" and park it on the couch... a safe assumption: we're ordering IN tonight! Only, as I open the door I hear the lovely voice of one of my dearest friends Becky (always happy to see Becky) So, no big deal, I thought ... it's just Adam and Becky, they won't mind if I don't cook and we order something, right? I was JUST about to suggest we order Chinese... when Becky said, with the enthusiasm you only hear from a kid on Christmas might I add.."I can't wait...what are you cooking tonight? I've been looking forward to your dinner, since I heard we were coming!" OMFG! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? Oh gawd... I can't possibly suggest take out now! Oh yeah another topping of awesome.... I hadn't done groceries for the better part of two weeks... SHIT! Naturally...panic inside was setting in, even thought I looked cool as a cucumber! No biggie right! I excused myself for a moment to "change", headed upstairs to figure this out! What is a girl to do, do I tell them the truth??? OF course not, that's too easy! It's funny, It's not like they wouldn't understand, I just hate to disappoint anyone who's looking forward to my cooking I guess! I literally said to myself..."what would Martha do?" Martha would turn Kraft dinner into a 4 course meal! Booyah! Side note: It's SO like me to not admit my predicament, scramble and stress...then pull a fab "something" (In this case it was dinner!) out of my ass! I can't remember what I made that day... BUT I remember, Becky saying halfway through watching me make the meal..."How do you make a meal like THAT out of nothing! The honest answer... I don't know Becky! LOL
Fast forward... Wednesday January 2nd, 2013... FML, back to work after the holidays! It's always SO hard to get back into the swing of things after a week off! Blahhh! It was like deja vu... again, NO MOOD to cook, and I hadn't done groceries since Christmas Eve, since we'd been living on Christmas left overs! But we must eat... so to the kitchen I go. I'm about to make something out of nothing! I couldn't help but think of Becky while I was cooking this!
My findings....
1) A tomato
2) Low fat Ricotta Cheese
3) A veggie tray, that was a day from going bad! (R & G peppers, cucumber and celery)
4) Froze garlic (in abundance, see previous post on freezing garlic :P)
5) Cheddar Cheese (champagne cheddar- It is DELICIOUS...I had a tiny piece left)
6) A VERY stale baguette
7) At least 6 boxes of pasta- half empty...
8) Canned Maple Beans & Canned crushed tomatoes
9) EVERY condiment you could imagine!
10) ORGANIC basil (I have a basil plant in my kitchen, I've "labelled" it organic...lol)
11) I ALWAYS have onions! YOU CAN ALWAYS USE AN ONION!
FYI: I didn't use ALL of these ingredients... I really could make a few things with these ingredients, BUT how's about a little Cannelloni!!!! And it only took me 45 minutes. Start to finish! 30 minutes of baking included! Only a few steps...
To start: Pre-heat oven at 375 degrees, or 350 degrees for a convection oven.
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| My BASIC sauce! It's a staple, always delicious, and SO easy to make! |
Sauce Ingredients:
One can of crush tomatoes, one fine diced onion, 1 tablespoon of garlic (thawed), Lisa's organic basil (I like a lot of basil, use as much or as little as you would like!), salt & pepper to taste.
I HAPPEN to be having a glass of red wine while I was cooking...You can throw some of that juice in too if you want! I did :)
Sweat the onions until they are clear in colour, add the garlic, cooking it a few seconds (until you can smell it cooking) add your wine & crushed tomatoes. Chop your basil, and throw er' in. Bring it to a boil, turn it down to simmer while you make you filling!
Super easy!
On to the filling...
I fine diced my onion, tomato and almost bad red and green pepper slices (almost bad... dry, but still good!)
I toasted my stale bread (1/2 a baguette) - It was really crispy! I put the crusty bread in a ziploc bag, and beat the crap out of it with a rolling pin. You could use a food processor if you wanted... I guess! I added a tsp of Italian spices, tsp. of garlic powder and tsp of Parmesan cheese to the breadcrumbs.
I mixed my onions, peppers, tomato, ricotta and half my bread crumbs together. I could have eaten just the filling for dinner... It smelt sooo good! There's the filling, THAT'S IT!
I had 6 ready-bake cannelloni shells in the cupboard.
I filled a ziploc bag with my filling and cut one corner, using the ziploc as a piping bag to fill my shells.
I lined the bottom of a square casserole dish with my sauce and placed my cannelloni on top. I completely covered the top of the shells with sauce, reserving a little for later. Sprinkled Parmesan and a little shredded champagne cheddar on top. Covered with tin foil and baked for 30 minutes.
CK1, likes everything that get put in the oven "crispy on top" so I removed the tin foil around 25 minutes in, so the cheese on top got "crispy". You can keep it covered, or crisp it up, it's up to you!
I HAVE NO MORE PICTURES! Blame Chris. :)
It was 7:45pm when we sat down to eat this FAB dinner... There was no time for "finish product" pictures SORRY! I do promise, I will make this again, and take a "finish product" pic....
Bon appetit! Hope you enjoy.... Thanks for reading!
L. G. xo
Always a good read!!! You have a knack for this Lisa!!
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