Couscous Casserole

The picture I took for this turned out just awful, so please don't be mad! ;-) This was a very tasty recipe. Adam and I both agreed that it needed more zucchini, and then maybe still served over pasta. Or leave out the zucchini, and make it into a sloppy joe. Oh, this is another recipe that I am unsure of where I found it. So please if you know, please let me know so that I may properly credit it.


4 tbp oil                             2 med. zucchini, thinly sliced (I would use more next time)
1 med. onion, chopped       1/4 cup chicken stock
1 tbsp garlic, minced          4 cups pasta sauce
1 lb. ground beef                1/2 cup uncooked couscous
salt and black pepper          grated Parmesan


1. Heat oven to 400. Oil a 2 quart baking dish.
2. Put 2 tbsp oil in a skillet over med-high heat. When it is hot, add the onion and garlic; cook about 5 min. Add the meat and stir, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook until meat is no longer pink, 8-10 min; set aside.
3. While the meat is cooking, put the zucchini slices on a baking sheer, drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven until tender, 5-8 min. Remove, set aside, and reduce the oven temp to 350.
4. Put the stock and sauce in a pan over medium heat and bring to a boil. Stir in the couscous, cover, and turn off the heat; let sit 10 min.
5. Spoon a thin layer of couscous on the bottom of the pan, top with zucchini and then some meat. Repeat until all ingredients are used; finish with couscous. Sprinkle with cheese, and bake for about 25 min.

Mini Applesauce muffins

Yesterday afternoon I made mini applesauce muffins. I have been meaning to do this for a little while and thought it was the perfect day to make them. They turned out fantastic, the only problem was that I ended up with over 48 muffins. I guess I didn't realize how many the recipe would make. I got the recipe from allrecipes.com. Check out that site if you haven't already! It has tons of great tasting recipes, it also has a search feature where you can look for certain ingredients! Awesome!

Here is the recipe and I will show my alterations:

INGREDIENTS

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ground allspice ( I just used cinnamon for both)
  
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 cup butter or margarine, softened (I only used 1 stick since there was the applesauce)
  
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups applesauce
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup raisins (I left these out because I don't like them.)
  

DIRECTIONS

1. In a bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, allspice and baking soda; set aside. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs, applesauce and vanilla; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in raisins. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until muffins test done. Cool in pan 10 minutes; remove to a wire rack.

They were super yummy, everyone liked them and they were a hit at the play date this morning. If you make this and get a large batch like I did you can always freeze half the batch for another morning.