Chickpea Cannelloni ~ Recipe

When daddy is away the rest of us go vegetarian *grin*.

Hubby is completely meat crazy and wants it pretty much for breakfast, lunch and dinner and by the time he leaves to go back to work the kids and I are totally ready for a meat moratorium :)

We love chickpeas so I thought it would be fun to make cannelloni with a vegetable and chickpea filling and for a first try I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

I started with:

2 large carrots
1 stalk of celery
5 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 a sweet onion (approx. 1/2 cup)

I grated the celery and carrot and then pureed all of it in my blender until it was completely smooth.

Next I added:

1 egg
1 cup of ricotta cheese
1 cup cooked spinach
2 cups of chickpeas
2 big bunches of fresh basil & parsley (approx. 3/4 cup each)
Salt and pepper to taste

Add all of the above ingredients into your blender or food processor and blend until smooth. I like to puree it like this so that the kids don't know exactly what vegetables I've put in because each of them has specific likes and dislikes and if they see something they don't like they want to pick it out. This way it just tastes good *grin*. If you like more texture then you can definitely blend it less and personally if it was just for me I wouldn't blend in the spinach. It all depends on who your food critics are! LOL

Note: I used dried chickpeas. If you want to try making your own place your 1 1/4 cups of dried chickpeas in a large glass bowl with 4 cups of water and let sit overnight until morning. When you wake up transfer your beans and water to a cooking pot and make sure you have at least twice to three times as much water as your beans. Bring to a raging boil and boil uncovered on high for 10 minutes. After that reduce the heat and simmer for 1-2 hours until tender. I find it usually takes closer to the 2 hours for mine to be fully cooked. You can also do a double or triple batch of beans all at one time and through the rest of it in the freezer portioned out for future meals to save on some cooking time next time!

With your chickpeas and vegetables all mixed together add 1 cup of shredded Pecorino Romano cheese or another one of your favorite cheeses and 1/2 a cup of brown bread crumbs, stir together and you're ready to start filling your cannelloni noodles :)

Oven ready cannelloni noodles have to be the easiest type to work with because you can fill them in their rigid uncooked form but you have to have enough liquid in the pot when you cook them for them to soften properly.

So to create my tomato cooking sauce I used two tins of regular tomato sauce plus two tinfuls of water to double the volume and then added the following herbs to create an italian flavor :)

1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 tablespoon onion powder

In a large 10 x 13 greased baking dish pour in enough of your tomato sauce to thoroughly cover the base of the pan.

I have to tell you I came across the EASIEST way to fill your cannelloni noodle!! Put all of your filling into a large freezer bag, snip off one of the bottom corners and you have created the perfect piping bag for filling your noodles :)

If you place the tip of the bag right inside the noodle while you're filling it, the pressure as it gets nearer the top will actually push all of the filling down towards the bottom creating an even fill. Just keep the base of the noodle against the palm of your hand to prevent it from blowing out the bottom. Don't ask me how I know that *grin*.

Place each filled noodle into your tomato sauce leaving a little bit of space in between each for expansion...

and once all of your noodles are filled and in the pan, top with the remaining tomato sauce and a sprinkle more of cheese :)

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit and serve up with some garlic bread and salad :) So yummy and the kids had second helpings so I'm calling this a smashing good success! LOL

Hugs,
Rosina

PS. Looking for more yummy recipes?? Check out this week's Hearth and Soul blog hop :)

Chicky Nuggets ~ Recipe

My husband is a complete carnivore *grin* and would eat meat at every meal of the day if I let him! I love meat and all but I also enjoy making tasty meatless meals to and I know my kids are quite happy to have those meatless meals every once in a while to :) So I've been experimenting with beans and after a few different tries messing around with the ingredients we've come to enjoy these great Chicky Nuggets minus the chicken *grin*.

You will need:

• 1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans) or 1-19 oz. can rinsed well and drained
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 3/4 cup diced onion
• 2 tbsp. fresh parsely or 2 tsp. dried parsley
• 1/2 - 1 tsp. cumin (depends how much you like cumin *grin*)
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 3/4 cup bread crumbs
  
• 1 egg

In your food processor combine the chickpeas, garlic, onion and parsley and pulse it for a couple of seconds. You don't want to make it a smooth paste but leave some texture to it. You can also crush your chickpeas by hand using a fork or potato masher but I find that I can never get enough of the lumps out if I do it by hand :)

Next in a bowl slightly beat your egg, lemon juice, cumin and salt & pepper all together and then mix in your chickpea puree and bread crumbs to create a thick mixture that you can scoop and shape into chicken nugget shapes.

In a stainless steel frying pan over medium heat drizzle in a little bit of olive oil just to grease your pan so the nuggets won't stick and when the oil spits a bit when you add a drop of water it's hot enough to add your nuggets. Fry them on each side until nicely browned and are best eaten hot right out of the pan :)

I think we usually get about 18 nuggets out of this recipe and are fantastic paired with some homemade french fries baked in the oven :)

Definitely kid tested and mother approved *grin*.
Have fun making them! PS. Check out the Wholesome Whole Foods weekly link up for more great recipes and articles :)

~ Rosina