mozzarella Archives - The Midnight Baker

Cheesy Garlic Green Beans

Judith Hannemann — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 23:00:43 +0000

Cheesy garlic green beans are a great side dish. Easy to make too.

Cheesy Garlic Green Beans–Delicious!

Do you love garlic? Do you love mozzarella? Then you’re going to love these cheesy garlic green beans!

These green beans make a wonderful side dish. I’d even go further and say because of the cheese, they can also be a meal unto themselves. They contain the great flavor of garlic with roasted beans. This recipe is very basic and you can add any herbs or spice you like and think would “go” with the flavor. They are that versatile.

These would even work well as a buffet item–you could leave the mozzarella off for that if you’d like.

The Green Beans

Like most roasted vegetables, this starts with fresh green beans. Frozen wouldn’t work well here due to the water content and canned…well…you know that story.

Rather than start with bulk fresh beans, I prefer to use the fresh ones that are pre-packaged. You’ll find them where the bagged salads are sold in your store’s produce department. You have a choice there too. You can get the regular green beans, where you do have to remove the stems or opt as I do for the “French” green beans. The French style are skinnier and are already trimmed. They’re the same price so why not save yourself the time and effort. I find the French style has more uniformly shaped beans. No curved beans or anything such as that.

Garlic

As I mentioned before, these are pretty garlicky. There’s four cloves used. By all means, add more if you’re a real garlic freak. If you’d like a milder flavor use only one or two. How simple is that?

There’s also grated cheese in this as well besides the mozzarella. I use a combo of Parmesan, Romano and Asiago because it’s so flavorful. However, plain old Parmesan will work as well. In fact, that’s what was originally called for in the recipe.

The Recipe

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Cheesy Garlic Green Beans

Great side dish

Prep Time10

Cook Time25

Course: Appetizer, Main/Side, Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Keyword: garlic green beans, roasted green beans with cheese

Servings: 6

Calories: 183kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

1 lb whole fresh green beans trimmed
1/4 cup olive oil
4 cloves garlic finely minced
2 tbs grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preheat oven to 425F/220C. Lightly spray a large baking sheet with non-stick spray.
Place green beans on prepared sheet in a single layer; set aside.
In a small bowl, mix the oil, garlic, grated cheese salt and pepper. Mix well. Drizzle over the beans and toss to coat well.
Roast in the oven for 20 minutes or until beans are bright green and beginning to brown slightly.
Top with the shredded cheese and pop the pan under the broiler until cheese is melted and beginning to brown in spots.
Serve immediately.

Nutrition

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Spinach and Mozzarella Stuffed Chicken

Judith Hannemann — Sat, 23 Apr 2016 23:00:59 +0000

Super-moist chicken breasts stuffed with a garlicky spinach and mozzarella filling. Easy and yummy!

I guess everyone knows by now how much I love chicken and there’s nothing I love better than a tasty stuffed chicken breast. The only bad thing about that is it’s often difficult to do and worse yet, the filling always leaks out.

Well, I have to tell you I found another fantastic, yet easy way to accomplish this! You cut the chicken breast like Hasselback potatoes! I found it on Pinterest and thought the original recipe from Cook It Fit could be tailored to my personal tastes.

First I LOVE how she stuffed it and the basic ingredients, but I for my taste, the seasonings needed more oomph. Plus, I used my new-found way to keep chicken moist and keep breadings in place–mayonnaise. Yep, mayonnaise. Mayonnaise is mostly oil so it replaces any melted butter or olive oil you’d drizzle over the chicken. The big-time benefit is that mayonnaise stays in place (at least for a while before it melts).

So what I did to add some of the flavors I like so I added garlic. Basically, I made my Asian spinach recipe and added the cheese to that.

Then I made cross cuts on the top of the breast almost all the way through–I did this about every inch or so–if you’ve seen Hasselback potatoes, the cuts are made like that but much wider apart . Then stuffed the filling into the cuts and smeared some mayo over the breasts.

The finishing touch was seasoned bread crumbs to which I added extra cheese. In this case, a tasty Romano. But you could also use Parmesan or even Asiago if you wanted.

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Spinach and Mozzarella Stuffed Chicken

Super-moist chicken breasts stuffed with a garlicky spinach and mozzarella filling. Easy and yummy!

Prep Time20

Cook Time50

Total Time1 10

Course: Chicken, Comfort Foods, Everyday Meals

Cuisine: American

Keyword: mozzarella, spinach, stuffed chicken

Servings: 4

Calories: 490kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

4 large boneless skinless chicken breast halves
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup flavored bread crumbs
2 tbsp grated Romano or Parmesan cheese

FILLING

5-6 oz bag/box baby spinach
2 large garlic cloves minced
1 cup shredded or diced mozzarella see NOTES
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly spray a 13 x 9-inch baking pan.
Mix the bread crumbs and grated cheese in a small bowl; set aside.
Make 3-4 deep cuts across the top of each chicken breast about 1-1.5-inches apart (mine were large breasts and I got 3 cuts spaced 1.5-inches apart). Set aside while making the filling
For filling--heat the oil in a large deep pan over medium heat.
Add the garlic and spinach and stir constantly until spinach is completely wilted--about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and add the mozzarella. Stir until cheese starts to melt.
Divide filling evenly among the 4 breast pieces.
Coat each chicken breast with about 1 tbs of mayonnaise.
Place in pre-heated oven and bake for 15 minutes.
Divide bread crumb mixture between the 4 chicken breasts. Return to oven and bake an additional 30-35 minutes or until chicken is done (175 degrees F on a meat thermometer or until juices run clear)

Notes

I used small cubes (1/4-inch cubes) of mozzarella that I cut myself. This melts so much better than the pre-shredded variety which has cornstarch and other additives to prevent it sticking together--I find that inhibits melting to some degree.

Nutrition

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Holiday Lasagna

Judith Hannemann — Sun, 15 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Holiday Lasagna

Lasagna is a classic holiday-time meal. Also great to serve at a holiday buffet party.

Holiday Lasagna was a traditional Christmas Eve dinner when I was growing up.

Holiday Lasagna is loaded with cheese, meat and sausage

My mother always made turkey for Christmas Dinner and used to serve lasagna the night before because it was so radically different from turkey!

This classic casserole is also a buffet party favorite. Slice it up in serving portions, and let guests help themselves.

I tend to buy the solid lump of mozzarella and cut it up in chunks or thick slices. This melts EVER so much better than pre-shredded. Slicing it is also easier than shredding the lump, but if you don’t mind, then by all means!!! I try to save time and it’s so wonderful to get a nice melted lump of mozzarella….well, you know what I mean

And this one is loaded with meat–ground beef and sliced sweet Italian sausage! You can always use ground Italian sausage meat if your store carries it. Hot or sweet doesn’t matter…use what you like! This is a “man-pleasing” meal because of the good amount of meat and the combination of meat. Oh, and don’t forget the copious amount of cheese too!

Ground pork, chicken or turkey can easily substitute for the beef and you can certainly leave out the sausage or ALL the meat for that matter and go strictly vegetarian on this. If you do, try adding some spinach or broccoli to keep it interesting.

Like the baker? It’s Revol Belle Cuisine in Slate. My go-to pan!

You just can’t get too close to a great lasagna!

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Holiday Lasagna

Lasagna is a classic holiday-time meal. Also great to serve at a holiday buffet party.

Prep Time30

Cook Time1

Total Time1 30

Course: Dinner

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: holiday party food, lasagna

Servings: 9 people

Calories: 526kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

12 lasagna noodles no-boil (oven-ready) noodles*
15 oz ricotta cheese
1 tbsp parsley
1/4 tsp oregano
1/4 cup grated parmesan or romano cheese
16 oz mozzarella cheese slices or 4 cups shredded
8 oz Italian sausage
8 oz lean ground beef
26 oz pasta sauce
1 cup water

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. You will need a deep 11 x 7-inch or 13 x 9-inch pan.
In a large skillet, brown ground beef, breaking up large clumps. Drain and set aside.
Place Italian sausage in a saucepan with 1/2 cup water. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes. Drain and cool slightly. Slice in 1/8-1/4-inch slices. Set aside.
Mix ricotta, parsley, oregano and parmesan cheese in a small bowl.
Mix pasta sauce, water and ground beef in a large bowl.
Place 1 1/2 cups of sauce mixture on the bottom of the pan. Lay 3 lasagna noodles across the bottom.
Spread 1/3 of the ricotta mixture over noodles. Spread 1/3 of the mozzarella slices or shredded mozzarella over the ricotta mixture. Distribute 1/3 of the sausage slices over the top of the cheeses. Drizzle with 1/3 of the sauce mixture. Repeat 2 more times. Top with the last 3 lasagna noodles, spreading remaining sauce over the noodles. Sprinkle with additional shredded mozzarella if desired.
Cover with greased aluminum foil and place the baking dish on a baking tray and bake at 375 degrees for 55-60 minutes.
Remove foil and test noodle doneness with a knife. If noodles are soft, replace the foil cover and let stand for 10 minutes. If noodles are still "al dente" then return to oven for an additional 10 minutes.
Makes 9 servings.

Notes

*The same method should work with regular lasagna noodles. I used oven-ready in this but I've made this without cooking the noodles even with the "regular" lasagna. Of course you can cook the regular noodles first, but eliminate the 1 cup of water that is mixed with the sauce and it will only require about 30 minutes in a 350 (yes, different temp) oven.

Nutrition

A great lasagna should never be “neat.” ENJOY!

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