I’m kind of speechless!

When I actually make dinner, have a small bit for myself, and then wake up the next morning to see most of it gone.  Let me show you.

I made this yummy dish, recipe found on pinterest. I actually make a double serving, so 2lbs of pasta!  I wasn’t feeling well, didn’t get my 2^nd workout of the night in, and decided I needed some comfort. Which is where this yummy goodness comes into play.

 

I wanted to eat a ton but ate about this much. Just that small little section. Ignore how the lines aren’t straight at all. Gooey pasta falls all over the place anyways so the lines of my cut were blurred a little anyways.

 

 

I woke up this morning excited to have some more of the goodness for lunch and then for dinner, but when I pulled it out of the refrigerator to make my lunch there was only that small portion of the top of the dish left! So I called Ben to see if he had been grubbing on it early this morning. nope.
 

 

I think my younger sister ate all that pasta! I mean I know she did, if Ben didn’t eat it than it must have been her. I was floored. Not because I care about the food but because girl ate a ton of fucking pasta!!

 

Note to self: if you want to make this dish again, wait till Ashley moves out in a couple of weeks.

Oh and you should try this recipe. It was really good!

These are a few of my favorite things

No time for blogging, no time for working out, no time to do basic things like fold my laundry. 

So instead I’m going to share with you quickly some of my favorite things to cook! And some of them are serious timesavers.

 

 

Prosciutto stuffed chicken

 

 

 

Cheesy Veggie Casserole

 

Mama’s Meatloaf

 

 

 

Pasta with Spinach and Diced Tomatoes

 

 

French Ham, Cheese, and Egg Fondue Casserole

Happy cooking!! Try something new for someone you love this weekend

Pasta with Spinach and Diced tomatoes

I think this needs a better name….This is one of those meals that you can throw together in 10 minutes and it tastes like you’ve been slaving away in the kitchen.  My mom makes a version of this, but it includes feta cheese and I never have any feta in my refrigerator so I can up with a yummy modification to her recipe.

Pasta with Spinach and Diced Tomatoes

• 1 box of pasta (any kind, I used angel hair)
• 1 16oz can of diced tomatoes
• 1 box of frozen spinach or fresh if you have it.
• 1.5 cups of milk
• ¼ cup parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp herbs de Provence
• Salt & pepper

Cook Pasta per directions on the box.  My sister uses a timer to make sure that the pasta doesn’t get overcooked, I’ve never seen someone do this! But do it if you need to.

In a saucepan on medium heat combine, milk, diced tomatoes, and spinach.  Cook until warm.  Add herbs de Provence, s&p to taste and once those are mixed through add parmesan cheese.

Pour sauce over pasta and top with more parmesan cheese, if you like lots of cheese like me!

 

 enjoy

How to cook a spaghetti squash

I don’t recall the first time I had spaghetti sqsash, I believe my mom made it quite a bit growing up.  And the way she cooked it was so easy.  We were at a friend’s house recently and they were making it for dinner and our friend Todd was manning the oven and checking on the spaghetti squash every 20 minutes.  I was surprised by this method of cooking it because it can be done in a much shorter time span.  I explained to him how I did it and he had no idea that it could be such an easy dinner to make.  So here is a how to, we’ll at least one way it can be done.

Cut spaghetti squash in half

Scoop out the loose seeds and flesh on the inside of the squash.  This is just like when you’re cleaning out a pumpkin, less slimy, but same principal.

Turn upside down in a pyrex dish or in some corning wear. Make sure whatever dish you use can be put in the microwave.  Put the squash in the dish and then fill with water. The squash I used was smaller than normal so I was able to fit both halves in the dish. Normally I can only fit one half in at a time.

Fill dish with about a 1/4” – 1/2" of water and then cover with cling wrap.

Put in the microwave and cook for 10 minutes.  Depending on the size of your squash this time may vary, but if you’re only cooking 1/2 of a larger squash that should be fine.

Once its finished cooking, pull your dish out of the microwave but be very careful, the dish and the steam under that cling wrap is going to be quite hot.

Take squash out of the water and let sit to cool for a few minutes.  The next step is to scrape out the ‘spaghetti’ with a fork and you don’t want the squash too hot or you would be able to handle it.

Put ‘spaghetti’ into a dish and serve!  I like mine with pasta sauce or just some olive oil and s&p. 

Also, just an FYI, my husband is never convinced he wants spaghetti squash, but as soon as he starts eating it he gobbles it right down.  So if the people in your life are hesitant at least make sure they try it because it’s not as scary as it seems.

A simple Wednesday night – in pictures

Ben sitting on the sofa enjoying a book on tape…he made a fire but didn’t turn on the lights!

Simple dinner. Pasta w/ diced tomatoes, spinach, and feta

Doggy love:)

Lasagna Roll Ups



Last week one of the girls on a local blogging board that I frequent mentioned making lasagna roll ups…the ones she made had spinach in them and I was interested to try.  But then I starting thinking about how much I needed to make some homemade pasta sauce and that starts with the grease leftover from making meatballs, and before I knew it I wanted lasagna.  In the roll up form. 

And how do you curb a craving like that besides just  eating it?!

the nice thing about roll ups is that your meal is portion controled for you, I get 1 roll.  If I have a whole pan of lasanga in front of me I want the corner piece, and if i'm going to eat lasagna why not just have a big piece.....see where my problem is.

Lasagna Roll Ups

1 box of lasagna noodles

1 med. size container of Ricotta Cheese

1 large egg

Pasta sauce – I used homemade you can use whatever you have in the house. I suggest having a large jar available

1 bag of shredded mozzarella cheese

Parmasean cheese

Meatballs – chopped into small bits (use my meatloaf recipe to make meatballs, recipe to come soon)

Cook box of lasagna as directed on box.  I prefer to leave it a bit al dente though since I will get cooked in the oven. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix ricotta cheese and 1 large egg together.  At this point while my noodles are cooking I line everything I need to make the roll ups out on the counter.

Once noodles are cooked strain and run under cold water. I pull the noodles apart and hang them over the edge of the colander in order to keep them from sticking together.  Line several noodles up next to each other on a cutting board. This is where you start the layering process.

Take a heaping tablespoon of ricotta cheese mixture and spread it out on each noodle.  Next top with chopped up meatballs.  You can go as heavy or light as you want when layering here.  I love ricotta so I am always a bit heavy handed with it…but it’s up to you, they’re going to be yummy no matter what.    Next top each noodle with the mozzarella and parmesan cheese and a little bit of sauce. Not too much sauce here, you don’t want the noodles drenched in sauce, and in the end we’ll put more sauce on top of them so don’t worry about them getting dry.

In a baking dish (like a 9x11 pyrex) spoon a couple tablespoons of sauce and spread it out making sure to cover the bottom of the entire dish.

Start laying your lasagna rolls into dish.  Keep them tight together if possible in order to ensure they stay nicely rolled up.

Continue process until all noodles are filled, rolled, and placed in baking dish.  Top rolls with sauce, and a little bit of mozzarella and parmesan cheese.   Cook in oven uncovered for 20-30 minutes.  Everything is already cooked so really you’re just waiting for all the sauce/cheese to melt together and for the cheese on the top of the dish to get a little brown

Let cool for about 5 minutes before you serve. And enjoy!

Weekly Menu - 10/14/2012

This week I don’t have a lot of new items on the menu.  This past weekend my sister-in-law had a going away party for her nephew because he is leaving for boot camp next week….and there was sooo much food leftover and they sent us home with 2 full Tupperware’s full of things like pulled pork and brisket. Um can you say yummy! So between that and the mean I made last night for dinner I think we’re good for a while!

Yesterday I spent the day in the kitchen and it was amazing.  One thing I love to do is make homemade pasta sauce and jar or freeze it.  1^st it tastes delicious, its much healthier than anything you would find in the store, its way more economical to make your own than buy jars, and last but not least it makes the house smell amazing!  And when you make sauce the first step is to use grease leftover from your meatballs to sauté the garlic so that meant I had to make meatballs….and once you’ve gone to the extent of doing both of those things why not make lasagna?  Last week I had a friend mention that she made lasagna roll up’s and I hadn’t done it for quite some time so the day turned into a day of cooking:)

I hope everyone else has lots of yummy food on their menu this week too!

Sunday – lasagna roll ups, meatballs, and a side salad

Monday – leftovers

Tuesday – Dinner at the farm, I’m making chicken pot pie!

Wednesday – pork cutlets, with sweet potatoes and a salad

Thursday – leftovers – Ben is out of town

Friday – out for sushi

Saturday – out of the house at a birthday party!

Things enjoyed this weekend

Halloween trail mix- recipe found here

Dogs finding pockets of sun

 

Homemade pasta sauce – recipe to come soon

weekend snacking - sauce & garlic bread...lots of butter:) and halloween trail mix

Semplicita angel hair & artichokes

I love pasta. My mouth waters at the thought of pasta, but sometimes I do have to change it up.  I am ½ Italian ½ German, but my husband says I’m all Italian.  It’s in my blood, every holiday growing up it was pasta, lasagna, sausages, red sauce…..I could go on and on.  In an effort to eat from our pantry this week I took inspiration from another recipe (made it a little lighter) and came up with this goodness.

By leaving the extra cheese and milk out I felt much better about eating pasta carbs for dinner, and this dish is just as yummy. trust me!

Semplicita Angel Hair

• 3 tbsp of butter (I used Earth Balance to make it a bit healthier…don’t tell my husbandJ)
• 1 tbsp chopped Garlic
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped small
• 1 cup low sodium chicken broth (I used homemade broth) or vegetable broth
• 1 tbsp flour
• Salt & pepper
• ¼ tsp. cayenne pepper
• Artichokes
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1 lb. of angel hair pasta

In a small sauce pan drop 3 tablespoons of butter over medium heat.  Add 1 medium yellow onion chopped small and saute until translucent. 

At this point add the garlic and shake of salt and pepper.  In a small cup mix 1 tablespoon on flour with chicken broth. this will help the broth thicken once its on the stove and by adding the flour to the broth before its warm you won't get any weird clumps in your sauce.  stir broth into onion mix and leave on stove over low-medium heat while you work on the artichokes.

I used a can of artichokes from Trader Joes in my dish.  they're not marinated in anything, just water so they're not adding any extra flavors to the dish that you don't want. 

chop up into pieces and saute in another pan with a drizzle of olive oil.  I left mine on the stove top for maybe 5 minutes. I wanted them to soften, but not fall apart, and you're going to add them to the other sauce mix so they'll cook a bit more in there too.

Once your artichokes are cooked, and the sauce is thickening add artichokes to the onion/chicken broth sauce.  This is when I added the cayenne pepper and the parmesan cheese.

Leave dish on stove to simmer for a little while, while you cook your noodles.

Pasta Noodles - you know how to cook these right?  OK good.

Once pasta is cooked through, make yourself a plate!  add the sauce/artichokes over the pasta, top with parsley and additional parmesan and enjoy!

OPTIONAL: Top with extra parmesan cheese and crushed red pepper

And of course what is a pasta dinner without a side salad?  My grandfather always said, every dinner should include a little bit of green!

Ben loved this dish, and it just is a huge reminder to me that I need to use what we have before I buy more crap!!

Weekly Menu

I must get back into planning meals for my family.  I have been beyond terrible lately, and while nobody is eating poorly we’re eating the same food over and over again and then also as leftovers.  So I’m going to make a conscious effort to get a plan in place and keep it. 

At one point I was so good about meal planning that I would spend an entire day making freezer meals and storing them for days when I didn’t feel like actually cooking, or days that I worked or went to the gym late and my husband was at home trying to figure out what we should be eating.  I think since the weather is getting colder and I won’t be outside as much I’ll have more time to make freezer meals.

Hopefully as I get back into this routine I’ll be able to start sharing recipes and pictures with you too!

Sunday – steak, roasted potatoes, asparagus

Monday – semplicita angel hair & artichokes w/a side salad

Tuesday – Dinner at the farm (my IL’s house, family dinner)

Wednesday – pork tenderloin, with either sweet potato mash or sweet potato fries

Thursday – leftovers

Friday – meatloaf, roasted butternut squash, and a side salad

Saturday – not sure yet.

That’s it!  Week one we’re using only food that we have in the house.  I have so much beef we need to eat and why not eat from our supplies.  I am terrible about having a craving for something and buying more food for the house when we already have plenty to eat.  So this week out of all the meals above I had everything in the house except for the asparagus, score!!