Meow Recipes: December 2020

Monday, December 28, 2020

Join Us For Plant-Powered January!

Well hello, (almost) 2021…we’re so happy to see you! Like, seriously. So, so happy.

Normally, we’d be comin’ atcha with Sugar Free January, a super-flex approach to cutting out refined sugar in whatever way makes sense for you, but 2020 was…well, anything but normal. It was hard and full of heartache, and it tested us in ways we were not prepared for. But, it also gave us new perspective and more understanding of who we are and what we’re capable of, apart and together.

So, with that, it felt right to kick off this January with something different. Something that would not only provide some feel-good for our bodies, but also some feel-good for the planet. Because what was this last year if not a super intense, definitely-didn’t-sign-up-for-it class on what it means to take care of ourselves and take care of each other?

So, here we are, welcome to Plant-Powered January! Let’s dive in.

Quick Links Within This Post:

What is Plant-Powered January?
How does it work?
What can I expect this month?
Sign up for weekly meal plans and grocery lists
Vegetarian recipes to get you started

What is Plant-Powered January?

Let’s talk first about what it is NOT.

It isn’t a diet.
It isn’t a cleanse.
It isn’t a “reset.”
It doesn’t have hard-and-fast-rules.
It isn’t healthy vs. non-healthy.
It isn’t a challenge that you pass or fail.

It’s all about loving and exploring the delicious world of veggies:

30 days of delicious, filling, fun, and exciting meatless recipes.
Food that is feel-good for the body + feel-good for the earth.
Approachable to ALL – including vegans and vegetarians, people who just want to go meatless one day a week, OR people who will still eat meat but want to try to incorporate more veggies into their meals.
Honestly, it’s not really about being meatless or not! It’s more about eating and loving and appreciating vegetables in really good food.

How Does it Work?

There are no rules here.

But if we had to make a rule, it would be this: MAKE YOUR OWN RULES. Do things that will make you feel good and that support your goals, whether that’s trying to eat fully vegetarian for 30 days, dipping your toes in with a few days a week, or just being more mindful of adding more veggies to your day-to-day life.

We’re spending the month of January to focus in on whatever goal that is, within these next 30 days, but really, you could do this anytime. It’s all about being intentional about exploring and eating more veggies.

That being said, while there are no rules, we are definitely NOT going to leave you hanging in the delicious food department.

I mean, you know us don’t you?

So, What Can I Expect?

REALLY DELICIOUS FOOD.

But seriously.

Throughout the month, we’ll be sharing two new fun and delicious veggie-forward recipes each week. It all starts January 4!

We also have over 300 vegan and vegetarian recipes already on the blog, and you can find our most popular ones down at the bottom to help you get started with your weekly meal planning / snacking / enjoying.

Some tips for participating:

Invite a friend to join! Life is better together.
Plan ahead. Our free meal plans and grocery lists below will help you do that.
Discovery > Diet. This is about discovering new, vegetable-rich meals you love, not about a super strict diet.

Be sure to also give us a follow on Instagram (@pinchofyum) to watch how to make all the recipes this month, peep some of our old favorites, and find some new ones.

Weekly Meal Plans and Grocery Lists

While new recipes are fun and delicious, sometimes you just need a little something extra.

We put together a one-month series of content delivered to you via email with simple, actionable steps that will deliver everything you need for the next 30 days:

Weekly Meal Plans: Meal plans delivered straight to your inbox each Friday that provide everything you need for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. This also gives you early access to new recipes coming up on the blog each week, as well as all our favorites on the blog.
Grocery Lists: A list of everything you need to get from the store that weekend to make those delicious meal plans a reality all week long.
Vegetarian Eating Resources: We have a lot of veggie-loving folks on the team, and we’ve put together some of the need-to-know resources to make these next 30 days as successful as you want them to be. For example: how to keep all your veggies fresh all week long, how to incorporate more veggies into every meal, and more.

You can join in at anytime throughout the month to get started on your 30 days. We’re all about flexibility here!

—> Click here to sign up for our Plant-Powered January email series.

Get Started with These Veggie-Forward Recipes

Breakfast

Lunch

Dinner

Snacks, Treats, and Drinks

—> Click here to sign up for our Plant-Powered January email series.

That’s it!

We’re so excited to share all our favorite veggie eats and treats (brand new and long-loved) starting on January 4 on the blog. This is going to be so good.

If you’re thinking about joining in, tell us – what would 30 days of loving veggies look like for you?

The post Join Us For Plant-Powered January! appeared first on Pinch of Yum.

from Pinch of Yum https://ift.tt/2KWfYwi

Thursday, December 17, 2020

Creamy Tomato Lasagna Florentine

Lasagna florentine with a bite on a plate.

Get your face right in there.

You’re like, wait, though, isn’t that too close? PUH-LEEZ. You and I both know that a person can never be too close to those browned lasagna edges that are the perfect amount of chewy, and that’s exactly why we like to hang out together and get wild about all the foods. That’s this lasagna florentine.

Lifting a piece of lasagna out of the pan.

Like a Big Cozy Hug

This creamy tomato lasagna florentine is layer upon layer of saucy tomato tang and garlic sauteed spinach nestled into a creamy blanket over the sauce, soaked up on all sides by thick and chewy lasagna noodles for a perfectly clean slice of comfort food.

And it is giving our whole selves a hug these days. Like, pan after pan after pan, hot out of the oven for dinner, leftovers reheated in the oven because it’s the only way I’m satisfied with the reheating of a piece of lasagna (cold lasagna centers. WHY.), and deliciously thick and pasta-sticky right out of the pan in the fridge a few hours after dinner. I’m usually not grossly in love with lasagna, but new lines have been drawn with this one.

Lasagna florentine in a baking dish after baking.

Saucy + Messy = Best

I like to call this lasagna Super Saucy, which honestly I love. What I learned through the endless rounds of making it, is that if you don’t need your lasagna to hold together with awesome sliceability. And if you’re more the kind of person who is okay with scooping it out with a spoon and straight into your mouth, then you are in for a real lasagna treat when you make it the Super Saucy Way.

This pan of hot melted cheese I MEAN LASAGNA, while not at all clean and tidy like lasagna is supposed to be, was actually my favorite – it was so saucy, so soupy at first, but absolute lasagna perfection the next day with just the right amount of moisture and a clean(er) sliceability once it was completely cooled.

Close-up of lasagna florentine with cheese on top.

More Lasagna Love

Super Easy One Pot Lasagna (one pot, so easy)
Skinny Spinach Lasagna
Super Easy Skinny Veggie Crockpot Lasagna (yes, CROCKPOT)
Garlic Parmesan Chicken Lasagna Bake
Roasted Garlic and White Bean Lasagna Soup (lasagna in soup form! yes!)

Okay. Your turn! Go get out your 9×13 and get yourself cozy with a bubbly pan of creamy, tomato-saucy, vegetarian comfort food.

Lifting out a piece of lasagna florentine.

Watch How to Make This Recipe:

Creamy Tomato Lasagna Florentine

★★★★★

4.9 from 28 reviews

Author: Pinch of Yum
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 50 mins
Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
Yield: 9

Print Recipe

Description

This Creamy Tomato Lasagna Florentine is so deliciously comforting and simple. Noodles, tomato sauce, and a creamy spinach layer!

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
2–3 cloves garlic, minced
4–5 cups fresh spinach
2 cups 4% cottage cheese
2 eggs
1/4 cup ground flaxmeal (optional, see notes)
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning (mine was salty – if you’re using a non-salted variety, add an additional 1/4–1/2 teaspoon salt)
a very tiny dusting of nutmeg
a squeeze of lemon juice
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
4 cups tomato sauce
12 no-boil or oven ready lasagna noodles
3–4 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese

Instructions

Video

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat the olive oil in a medium pan over medium high heat. Add the garlic and saute for 1-2 minutes. Add the spinach and stir around until just barely wilted. Remove from heat and set aside.
Blend the cottage cheese in a food processor or blender until mostly smooth and creamy. Transfer to a bowl and mix with eggs, flaxmeal, oregano, Italian seasoning, nutmeg, lemon juice, and Parmesan cheese. Stir in the spinach and set aside.
To assemble lasagna, spray a 9×13 baking dish with nonstick spray and spread a few spoonfuls of sauce around in the bottom of the pan. Arrange 3 noodles, top with about 1 cup sauce, 1 cup creamy spinach mixture, and 3/4 cup Mozzarella cheese. Repeat for three complete layers. Top it all off with the last three lasagna noodles, 1 cup sauce, and 1 cup Mozzarella cheese. Cover with greased foil so the cheese doesn’t stick and bake for 40 minutes.
Remove foil and bake for another 10 to brown the cheese (or turn on your broiler to get it browned). Remove from oven and let stand for 15 minutes before slicing and serving.

Equipment

Notes

The equipment section above contains affiliate links to products we use and love!

The flaxmeal adds a nice flavor/texture and helps the lasagna hold together, but it’s not essential.

Freezer Meal Version

Sauté:
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 ounces fresh spinach
Mix with:
1 15-ounce container ricotta cheese
1 egg
Layer and freeze in dish:
1 24-ounce jar of really good pasta sauce
10-12 uncooked lasagna noodles
2 1/2 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese
Bake from frozen: 425 degrees for 75 minutes. Remove cover and bake for 10 minutes until bubbly and browned. Let stand for 15 minutes to firm up.
Check out our full freezer meal posts with all recipes and instructions here!

Category: Dinner
Method: Bake
Cuisine: Italian

Keywords: lasagna florentine, tomato lasagna, vegetarian lasagna recipe

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One more thing!

This recipe is part of our coziest comfort food recipes page. Check it out!

The post Creamy Tomato Lasagna Florentine appeared first on Pinch of Yum.

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Monday, December 14, 2020

Old School Homemade Oreos

Hello! Let’s talk about something that is charmingly old school and also VERY DANGEROUSLY DELICIOUS:

Homemade Oreos.

This is important to say right off the bat: there’s no crunchy cookie and no dry frosting here. We’re just borrowing the concept of all Oreo layering but swapping the dry stuff for a soft, buttery, moist, perfectly dense little chocolate cookie stuffed with cream cheese frosting. Oh my word they’re so good. They’re an easy holiday baking win, giftable, party-able, and a total gift to humanity.

It feels wrong and unholy to say these are better than real Oreos but honestly, these are better than real Oreos.

Give me a soft, moist, cakey-meets-fudgy-meets-cream-cheese-frosting situation over a dry cookie any day. Or every day.

Say Hello to Boxed Cake Mix (Yes)

Okay. Now. Please accept that this is a recipe which uses a boxed cake mix. If you need something more homemade than that, you’ll need to find another version on the internet.

This is old school, and old school means we use the box cake mix like the low-to-moderately ambitious home bakers that we are.

Trust.

A Fudgy, Dense, Buttery Miracle

What results from this mind-bendingly easy combination of ingredients is nothing short of a holiday miracle. Bless you, Homemade Oreos.

The fudgy cookie, the thick swirl of cream cheese frosting, the dense, soft, buttery texture of all of it together after chilling in the fridge (or sitting on your snow-covered Midwestern porch) for a few days is a specific brand of joyful moment that I wait all year for.

Put on the cozy sweater, get a mug of milk, or eggnog, or hot dark coffee (omg), and let the magic loose.

Watch how to make this recipe:

More Old-School Dessert Gems

Give us all the retro baked goods and desserts (like good Midwesterners). Some other favs from the blog:

The Best Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies (classic of all classics!)
The Best Easy Peanut Butter Pie (peanut butter, cream cheese, whipped topping, YES)
Blender Lemon Pie (grandma’s favorite )
Golden Grahams Bars (gimme all the cereal bars)
Modern Scotcheroos (modern makeover on a classic)
Fruit Pizza (more cream cheese frosting happiness!)
Chocolate Peanut Butter Saltine Toffee (yes, saltines – trust)

The sweet mom of the family that I babysat for in high school used to make these, which is why I’m calling these old school. ♡ Sometime in the early 2000s, I got the recipe from her and then gave it to my mom who went on to make these for all our swim meets. To this day, I have friends who make these every year as a Christmas cookie (myself often among them). They’re wonderfully basic, charmingly old school, and dangerously good.