Tis' the season for all things butternut squash. Disclaimer, I didn't actually make stacks with that many layers, the pic is two pieces on top of one another. Just tryin' to keep it real with ya! Also,  you could sub slices of squash or zucchini if you're going for a low-carb or gluten free version.

Also, I did not start with actual whole squashes. My local grocery store (Heinen's) sells squash that's already been peeled and cubed, THANK GOD - and I'm pretty sure it was more than just one squash because there was a lot. It's kind of a b*tch to peel and cube one of those things - definitely something you have to be in the mood to do.

I was thinking about adding in a layer of kale or spinach, but realized that I forgot to grab it at the store. I feel like it would probably be pretty good with some sauteed kale mixed in. If you want to do more with this recipe and add in some color, I would try that!

What you'll need:

• Standard size box of lasagna noodles for a 9 x 9 size baking dish.  (If you're going make a 9 x 13 pan of lasanga, I might by two boxes.) 
• 2 butternut squashes, peeled and cubed - cubes should fill an entire large baking sheet.
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 large white onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, peedled and minced
• 1 stick of butter
• 3-4 sprigs of fresh sage leaves
• 1/2 cup heavy cream (milk will work too, but I prefer cream)
• Ricotta cheese - I used a medium sized tub of it (16 oz)
• Sartori Cheese Black Pepper Bellavitano cheese - parmesan or mozzerella will work here too (I would say about 1/4 cup per layer of lasagna)
• Salt and pepper to taste

What to do:

1. ​Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with tinfoil and spray with a non-stick like PAM.
2. Toss the butternut squash cubes in a large bowl with olive oil, minced garlic, chopped onion and salt/pepper.  Pour it all out onto the baking sheet and roast in the oven for 45 minutes.
3. Cook the lasagna noodles according to directions on package or box. When they are done I would seperate them so that they don't stick together and rip by the time you're ready to use them. Olive oil helps to keep them from sticking together. 
4. Split the roasted squash into two even portions - try to keep one portion to just squash and no onion or garlic pieces. 
5. Mash the half of the squash without onion or garlic pieces with a fork in a bowl so that it kind of turns into a mashed potato texture and set it aside.
6. Brown the butter in a  large skillet on medium heat. (Keep stirring it around on and off until it browns.) Add in the fresh sage leaves so that their flavors mix with the butter. Once the butter is brown-ish, remove the sage leaves and set them aside until the end for topping.  The leaves should be kindof crispy.
7. Add the portion of the roasted squash with the onion/garlic into a food processor with the brown butter and cream. Blend for a minute or two. You can add in more cream or milk if the sauce is looking too pasty and thick. 
8. Grab a  deep baking dish and spread butter all over it so that the lasagna noodles won't stick to it. Pour a little of the sauce from the food processor into the bottom of the pan and spread it around.
9. Trim the edges of the noodles if you have to, but make sure they fit perfectly into the size of the pan. Start the dish with two layers of the lasagna noodles. I always like to do double noodle layers because I think it holds things together better - and, I also just love noodles. Lol.
10. Next, take the mashed squash and spread it out as evenly as you can on top of the lasagna noodles. Do the same with the ricotta cheese on top of the squash. Then sprinkle a thin layer of black pepper bellavitano - or other cheese choice on top of the ricotta.  Sprinkle with a tiny bit of salt and pepper.
11. Repeat processes 10 + 11 until you run low on ingredients. When you get towards the end, try and make sure to end the layering with lasagna noodles on the top.
12. Pour the sauce you made in the food processor on top of the masterpiece and spread it around. 
13. Shave some fresh black pepper bellavitano cheese and parmesan ontop.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
14. Cover the lasagna pan with tinfoil and bake for one hour at 400 degrees.
15. Let it cool and set for about 30 minutes before digging in, otherwise it will fall apart. Top with more cheese shavings and the crispy fresh sage leaves. 
16. FOR CUTTING: use a really thin sharp filet knife without any teeth - start to cut through it a little bit by sawing gently and then go in at an angle. It should slice nicely that way.
17. EATTTTT UP!!

Making ravioli with wonton wrappers is quite the game-changer. They are sort of thin and whatnot but it all worked out and I didn't have to make it rain flour in my kitchen while attempting to make my own pasta sheets.

This recipe makes enough filling for about 12 raviolis and they are pretty large so it's more than than you would think. Comment below if you have questions!  

This is one of those recipes where I had to try and figure out how to make things work on the spot, so basically I was running around the kitchen like a crazy person spilling boiling water everywhere and burning my fingers while trying to perfect this outrageous idea. At one point I almost cried because I thought I wasn't going to be able to make things work. I seriously think I scared my sister who was witnessing all of this go down. Oh yea, the pierogi recipe I used made about 6 pierogi buns, so there's that before I forget. 

So it was really hard to get the pierogi buns to curl up in order to hug the hot dog, they ended up just staying flat. When I picked up the assembled deal it basically ended up being eaten like a taco and I guess there's really nothing wrong with that, right? I actually did put a taco holder into the large pot of water in which I was boiling the dough, to see if the buns would stay sort of folded..but nope. And I even tried to put the pierogi buns back into the taco holder and bake them in the oven for a little but nope, again. They truly wanted to be as flat as Kyrie Irving thinks the earth is. Lol. 

Polish boy sandwiches are huge staples in CLE. I'm pretty sure they are traditionally made with kielbasa, but I'm indifferent to that tradition because well, you know how I feel about hot dogs. I'm always sort of hesitant to post photos of these things because there's always 1-2 trolls who will ream you out for not making it right. TO EACH THEIR OWN. Let's just leave it at that, people. Seriously, check my insta post. I bet there's at least one comment calling me out.

Comment if you have questions! This is a tricky one!

Well this was fun. I saw these things a while back somewhere...from some food truck...from someone's Instagram post...and there's no way I'm gonna remember any more details than that, lol. Since then, every time I walked past a Flamin' Hot Cheetos bag at the store I was reminded of this glorious creation. So I finally threw a bag into my cart and decided to make this happen. I used a cheese sauce recipe from Serious Eats, and then freezer isle fries and the hot Cheetos.  It was seriously so easy to make... and FYI, if you don't have a food processor I'm sure you could put the Cheetos into a ziplock bag and beat it like a caveman until you get the little crumbs to form! If you decide to go that route, good luck. ;)

I've never been a big fan of grapes, but they were in my fridge from when I had friends over a couple weeks ago, and I didn't want to waste them so I decided to pair them with bacon and cheese and welp, the rest is history. 

Until recently, I didn't really eat brie a whole lot, because there are just so many different kind of cheeses out there that I sometimes tend to forget about one after I haven't eaten in in a while. Now that brie has come back into my life, I've been eating it non-stop. My favorite way to eat it is with honey and pretzel sticks. But I wanted to do something fun and different so I attempted baking it for the first time (instead of zapping it in the microwave.) 

I used 8 oz of brie and that's def enough for 2-3 people. If you're trying to feed more that that, I would just buy a larger brie wheel add more grapes and bacon into the recipe and you'll be good. The whole thing took me about 20 minutes so it's easy to whip up!

So, insanity happened today in the form of grilled cheese. I feel like my arteries are really mad at me, but my taste buds are justifying their hatred. Everything is going to be FINE - just make this please and eat it so you can understand how I am feeling at the moment because I'm not really sure what else to say right now. 

Holy Balls. That is all. 

So I'm officially BFF's with Chrissy Teigen now that she quoted a photo of my recipe on twitter and said "Holy amazing idea". THANKS CHRISSY, I love you. 

Anyways. I woke up this morning really determined to come up with something funky. I've been craving biscuits and gravy lately and I'm clearly always in the mood for pasta. The sausage gravy works perfectly as a nice creamy pasta sauce and I love salty pork sausage forever. The combination of all these things is honestly great--the only thing I would switch out is probably the type of pasta I used. All I had at home was spaghetti, if it were my choice I would of used some conchiglie pasta so that the gravy could fill it's pockets and there would be more deliciousness in every bite. Random thought: What if somebody made sausage and gravy ravioli or pierogis. UGH, YUM!!!!

Buffalo chicken was basically my first love. I'm so into anything that's flavored buffalo and my go-to at restaurants is usually something buffalo-chickeny. My dad recently started a low-carb diet and asked me if I could make my cauliflower crust pizza-- little did he know I would be setting this master piece down in front of him at the dinner table. 

So in my initial instagram post I said that I used 3 eggs instead of 2 while assembling the dough for this pizza crust. It made the cauliflower crust sooooo much more pizza-like!! The texture and tasted resembled regular dough so much more than ever before which awesome because my favorite thing is tricking my tastebuds into eating healthier. The "ranch" is made out of a combination of skim milk and greek yogurt with tons of garlic/onion powder, dill, and some other seasonings so I'll tell you how to make healthy ranch as well!! 

Here's the link to finding my cauliflower pizza crust recipe: Cauliflower Pizza Crust Recipe

I love the salty taste of roasted red peppers, and I've had a pizza similar to this at Flour Italian Restaurant on the East Side of Cleveland so I figured I would take a stab at remaking my own version. This pizza would also be great with some breakfast sausage or some bacon as well! My options were limited!! 

Cooking the eggs into this pizza is kind of tricky. If you're not feeling brave enough to crack them right onto the pizza, I might suggest frying them a for a little bit in a pan and then placing them on top of the pizza. It might help a little with the uncontrollable spread of the 'watery' egg whites. Also, be really careful when cutting this pizza because the yolk will spread around and the peppers aren't the easiest to slice up with a pizza cutter. Try using a sharp knife, that could help keep things less messy. 

Recently I was asked to come up with some finger-food ideas for a catering job. I have to say, this is seriously the freshest, coolest snack I've ever tasted. The herbed and flavorful cream cheese with the cool cucumber, bland pumpernickel, and tang of the fresh dill and other herbs creates a delicious complimenting taste. Be careful, once you have one you just want to keep munching. 

Tinier things are always so cute. That's why I chose to work with mini quail eggs instead of regular eggs.. the good news is that even though the egg shell is all brown and speckley--they taste exactly the same as normal eggs. Phew. 

I love Chef Jonathan Sawyer's animal style poutine at The Treehouse Tavern downtown Cleveland, I wanted some so bad today.. but I was feeling too lazy and poor to make the trip down to East 4th. Unfortunately I didn't end up using real cheese curds. I couldn't find a place close enough that sold them!! I've never actually seen any place that sells them and like I said I didn't feel like traveling too far or spending big bucks because well, let's just say Sundays are my lazy days. I ended up using a soft provolone cheese and it tasted just fine with everything. I also ended up using freezer isle french fries! Ore-Ida has a newer designed package of "Country Style French Fries" that says, "Sea salt & Olive Oil". They honestly tasted really similar to home made french fries--nothing like gross freezer aisle french fries, I swear! So if you don't feel like going through the process of peeling potatoes (yikes) and deep frying them, then don't worry! Go buy the Ore-Ida's, no one will ever know.  ;)

So poutine can come with plenty of different toppings, but my favorite has always been animal style... which means fries with gravy, meat (pork belly), and cheese. It's kind of awesome that you know it can't be good for you with all of the carbs/grease, but at the same time it's just way to fricken' good to care.

I don't want poutine, I NEED POUTINE!!!!! <3 

I've been seeing a lot of videos lately that show people taking unique approaches to different types of "sushi", and this one was by far the most interesting. I decided to give it a shot, and it turned out delicious! It's basically a cheese burger wrapped in bacon, rolled up just like sushi. It's topped with crunchy onion straws and glazed with barbeque sauce.... so much awesomeness. 

PS-- even though grease isn't the best thing it the world for you, the bacon sushi is low-carb! :)

You could use a sushi roller to help roll up your bacon, ground beef, and cheese, but you can also do it with your bare hands just as easily. The more careful you are when you roll it up, the better the results. It was so fun to make! Food is my favorite kind of art. 

Instead of traditional pasta carbonara with spaghetti noodles I decided to try something different. Just kidding--the true story is that I only had one kind of pasta in my pantry today, so this was my attempt at incorporating lasagna noodles into a carbonara dish, because I was craving the combination of the creamy sauce with salty pancetta so badly today. 

Today was the best and worst kind of day, a snow day. I was so excited that I didn't have to report to class downtown but I also didn't really have the option of going anywhere else because of all of the snow. [Not to mention it's -15 degrees.] 

Instead of curling up on the couch and watching a movie by the fire I decided to make an absolute mess out of my kitchen. However, the mess lead to the creation of this parmesan-chicken ravioli burger, so I won't complain any further. 

PS--I used a whole pound of chicken!! This burger is so big you could share it with another person for sure, or you could even make two small ones, just depends on how big your appetite is! 

Directions: 

1. Combine ground turkey, parmesan cheese, black pepper, and parsley in a bowl and shape into a burger patty with your hands. 
2. Cook the burger [either on the grill or over a medium flame in a skillet]. About 12 minutes each side, and be sure to cover the burger with a lid so that the inside cooks all the way through.
3. Butter both brioche buns and season them with garlic salt. [They can be toasted but I put them in the oven for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.] 
4. Boil the ravioli, drain, and set them on top of a paper towel to dry off. The stickier they are on the outside the more they will hold together on the burger!
5. Heat desired amount of marinara sauce. 
6. Assemble the burger, it helps to put the arugula on the bottom so that the chicken juices don't make the bottom bun soggy.  
7. Enjoy :) 

I had a really hard time saving enough penne noodles and sauce to make the actual pizza, because the flavor alone of the pasta is so delicious! I made a creamy white sauce and seasoned it with paprika and garlic. The flavor reminds me of chicken paprikash, which is another one of my favorite meals. I don't know about you but I love carbs, so the combination of pizza and pasta is straight magical. Make sure that you use enough cheese so that the whole top of the pizza is covered, because the cheese acts as a net when it melts and it holds all the pasta together for when you slice up your za.