Whatever's Left In The Fridge Pasta

On an April night this week, as temperatures started to dip again and snow was in the overnight forecast, all I could think about was a comforting warm plate of pasta for dinner. After sticking to salad all last week, it was time for some carbs. I decided to throw some of the basics that I had in my fridge together for a tasty meal.

Ingredients

Wheat Angel Hair Pasta

Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage

Grape Tomatoes

Parmesan Cheese

Arugula

Garlic

Shallots

Red Pepper Flakes (for a kick!)

While bringing water to a boil for the pasta, remove the sausage from their casings and add to a heated frying pan. As the sausage cooks, break the links apart and add coarsely chopped shallots and minced garlic to the pan. Saute the ingredients with a bit of olive oil until the sausage is cooked through.

At the same time, add your pasta to the boiling water and cook according to instructions on the box (mine took about 8 minutes). When the pasta is just about done, add a few handfuls of halved grape tomatoes and arugula to your frying pan with the sausage.

I heated the tomatoes and arugula for only a minute or two because I wanted them to still have an element of crunch when I bit into them with each bite. Fact: I hate stewed tomatoes or any tomato that's been cooked down to a totally soft or mushy consistency.

Toss the sausage, tomatoes and arugula with the pasta and pour in some extra olive oil so the pasta isn't completely dry. Season with red pepper flakes and pepper and top with some freshly grated Parmesan cheese (next time, I will be buying the already grated cheese...).

And enjoy!

I recommend trying this with chicken instead of sausage, too...or whatever else is left in your fridge!

Pasta with Butternut Squash Sauce, Sausage & Spinach

It was Mardi Gras yesterday. A day to essentially eat guilt-free before giving something up for the next 40 days. As a result, I decided to make one of my favorite new dinner recipes - Cavatappi pasta with pureed butternut squash sauce, sauteed spinach and seared chicken sausage.

Ingredients:

Sage 
Garlic
1 Shallot
1 tbsp Butter
Cavatappi Pasta
1 Butternut Squash
Grated Parmesan Cheese
3 Handfuls of Spinach
1 Package of Chicken Sausage 

Boiling squash in action!

To start, peel the skin off the squash, cube it and throw it in a pot of boiling water to cook and soften. Once it is cooked through, use a food processor to puree the squash until it is a smooth and creamy consistency. If you don't have a food processor (like I didn't up until this past Christmas) simply mash the squash thoroughly - you will thin it out later on in the recipe.

At the same time, cook the chicken sausage in a pan with garlic for 7-9 minutes. Break the sausage apart and cut it up into large chunks as it cooks. As the sausage starts to brown, add a tsp of butter and the finely chopped shallots.

There are a lot of moving parts to this recipe and you want to be boiling the pasta in the same water that you used to boil the squash as the sausage, shallots and garlic cook. Save a cup of the water before draining the pasta as you will need it to thin the squash into a sauce.

Add the squash, spinach and sage to the sausage mixture in the pan. Stir thoroughly and sprinkle some grated parmesan cheese into the sauce. Also add the cup of pasta water that you saved as that will thin the squash into a creamy sauce. Once the sauce is heated through, pour it over the drained pasta and mix everything together.

This is a delicious meal for a cold night and is guaranteed to give you lots of leftovers for lunch and dinner during the week - or at least it did for me. Bon appetit!

Baked and Breaded Apricot Chicken Recipe

It's cold out. It's going to snow. You're only going to the grocery store once this week to avoid having to shovel your car out more than once. Sound familiar? Or has that become only my life during this Boston winter? Time to start planning a menu for this week and this delicious recipe should definitely be on it. 

What You Need: 

6-8 Boneless Chicken Breasts (not pictured because you all know what chicken looks like)

1 10 oz Jar of Apricot Preserves

1 cup Bread Crumbs

1/4 cup Lemon Juice

2 tsp Soy Sauce

1/4 cup Margarine

1/2 tsp Salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Prepare the chicken by trimming the fat and rinsing it under cold water.

3. In a shallow dish, combine the apricot preserves, lemon juice, soy sauce and salt and thoroughly stir the ingredients together.

4. Dip each chicken breast into the preserve mixture making sure to fully coat each piece. This is what you will use to bind the breadcrumbs to the chicken.

5. After each piece is coated in the preserves, roll the chicken in a bowl of breadcrumbs so the chicken is covered. Set aside any extra preserves mixture.

6. Arrange the chicken in a pyrex dish  (greased) and drizzle the melted margarine along the top to help the chicken crisp up as it cooks. Bake uncovered in the over for 50-60 minutes (or until tender). Heat the remaining preserves and serve with the chicken. 

Remove from the oven once the chicken is thoroughly cooked and enjoy for dinner. It's easy to cut the recipe in half but I recommend keeping the sauce part the same if you like extra sauce. The dish goes great with rice and a vegetable since there's enough of the preserves to use as sauce for your sides!

Bacon, Brussels Sprouts & Angel Hair Pasta Recipe

Brussels sprouts are one of the most underrated vegetables out there. They're delicious when seasoned and roasted on their own but throw in bacon and angel hair wheat pasta and what's not to love?! I decided to combine these three ingredients to make an easy dinner this week.

Ingredients

Brussels Sprouts

Bacon or Pancetta

Wheat Angel Hair Pasta

Minced Garlic

Olive Oil

Shredded Parmesan Cheese

1. Coarsely chop 4-5 strips of bacon. I cut the pieces to be about the size of a quarter since the bacon will shrink up and I didn't want it to get lost in the pasta. Similarly, rinse the brussels sprouts and chop them or throw them in a food processor so they are a shredded texture.

2. Heat oil in a saute pan and add the bacon pieces to cook. Flip the chunks after several minutes and allow the bacon to start to crisp up. As the bacon cooks, bring water with a pinch of salt to a boil.

3. Add the angel hair pasta to the boiling water and cook according to directions on the box. At the same time, drain the grease from the bacon and then add the shredded brussels sprouts, minced garlic and salt & pepper to the pan. Saute for several minutes to allow the brussels sprouts to soften a bit and heat through.

4. Add the brussels sprouts and bacon mixture to the drained pasta. Drizzle a couple of tablespoons of olive oil into the pot and stir. Mix in a generous amount of shredded parmesan cheese and let it melt into the pasta slightly.

5. Serve to someone who's hungry :)

Portobello With Caramelized Onions & Goat Cheese

A turkey burger with sweet potato fries has pretty much become a staple when I'm planning my meals out. I'm always looking for something new to add to my repertoire, though, and I felt inspired after watching an episode of The Chew at the gym where they made a "portobello blue cheese sandwich." I thought I'd make my own version and I liked this recipe because it didn't involve exact measurements of ingredients. I also left out the bun since that's always the first thing to get cut from my budget and diet.

What You Need: 

1 Portobello Mushroom

1 Small Onion

Balsamic Vinegar

Olive Oil

Goat Cheese

Sugar

Salt and Pepper

What You Do:

1. Scrape the gills out of the under side of the portobello mushroom cap. The gills are the dark brown, wispy "stuff" for lack of a better word seen below. I made sure that the stem was trimmed down but did not remove it - it cooked down just fine for me. 

2. Drizzle about a tablespoon of olive oil and a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar in the mushroom and spread it around. I made a few shallow cuts into the mushroom to help it marinate and absorb the oil and vinegar more easily. Then, season it with salt and pepper.

3. Cook on medium heat uncovered for 2-3 minutes. Flip and cook the other side for another 1-2 minutes.

4. Add the caramelized onions and goat cheese to the underside of the mushroom and cover. Add a splash of water so that the immediate steam helps melt the cheese quickly.

5. Uncover and serve.

I didn't have any arugula when I made this but I would recommend topping with some greens and serving with a side of roasted brussels sprouts. You could also use a toasted bun to make it a real burger wannabe!

*For the caramelized onions, saute thinly sliced onions in a pan with oil over medium-high heat. As they soften and become translucent in color, add a pinch of sugar so that they caramelize nicely.

Do you have any alternatives to standard burgers? Please share!

Quick and Easy Scallop Appetizer

Last week, I made a quick & easy appetizer to share with friends. I wanted something simple but elegant since it was to kick off New Year's Eve so I decided to take a page - or in this case recipe - straight out of my mom's (cook)book. The result was a delicious scallop appetizer served on a baguette and seasoned with dill.

What you need: 

1/2 lb. Fresh Scallops

5 oz. Shredded Swiss Cheese

Mayonnaise
1 Baguette
Pepper

Dill

What you do:

1. Rinse the scallops and coarsely chop them up into small pieces.

2. In a bowl, mix the scallops with a large spoonful of mayo, the shredded swiss cheese and a pinch of dill. It should be tuna consistency when you're done mixing.

3. Cut the baguette into thin slices (about 1/2 an inch thick) and evenly spread the slices out on a cookie sheet.

4. Spoon a good size scoop of the mixture onto each baguette slice laid out on the cookie sheet.












5. Bake for about 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

6. Once 15 minutes is up, garnish each with a sprinkle of shredded swiss and dill and pop under the broiler for another minute to crisp up the top of each.

My boyfriend couldn't even keep his hands off long enough for me to take a picture! Hope you enjoy and let me know how yours come out!

Sweet & Salty: Peanut Butter Pretzel Treats

Every year, my family and I deliver an assortment of cookies to friends and neighbors on Christmas Eve. It has become a tradition and something that both the givers (my family) and the recipients always look forward to. Admittedly, I'm more of a cook than a baker so my contribution will be these delicious, sweet and salty peanut butter & pretzel treats that don't involve any baking. Since I can't deliver the actual treats to you, I thought I'd do the next best thing & deliver the recipe!

You will need:

Pretzels
1 Cup Peanut Butter

3/4 Cup Confectioners Sugar

3/4 Cup Light Brown Sugar

2 Tbsp Butter

1 Bag of Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips (for the sake of Christmas I decided to use some white chocolate chips with red & white food coloring as well)

To start, melt the butter in the microwave and then mix it with the cup of peanut butter in a large mixing bowl. Next, combine the peanut butter with the confectioners sugar & brown sugar. Stir the ingredients together until the consistency is dry enough to roll the mixture into little balls. You may have to add a little extra of each sugar.

Portion out about a tsp of the peanut butter mixture onto individual pretzels and make a sandwich using a second pretzel. Stick them in the freezer for about 30 minutes so they can harden up and be easily dipped in the melted chocolate.

Next, melt the chocolate chips in the microwave, heating them in 20 second intervals. Stir them frequently to make sure that it doesn't burn. After a total of 45-60 seconds the chocolate should be nice and smooth. Dip each sandwich in the chocolate so half is covered. As a warning, I found that the white chocolate wasn't as easy to dip in once I added the food coloring. Although just as delicious, the semi-sweet chocolate came out a bit smoother looking once dipped.

Place each onto wax paper so they don't stick to the tray and let the chocolate harden in the fridge. Store in the fridge until they're ready to be served or gifted!

Recipe: Chicken Fajitas & Guacamole

Whenever I can't decide what to make for dinner, my go to is always Mexican food. For me, it's simple and difficult to screw up. One of my favorites is chicken fajitas. I've made it with a few different types of seasoning so below is just the one that I remembered to take pictures of.

What you will need for the fajitas (keep in mind I'm cooking for one): 

1 tbsp of olive oil

1/2 of an onion

1/2 of an orange pepper and 1/2 of a yellow pepper (I prefer these over red and green peppers)

2 chicken breast tenderloins

1/3 of a package of Ortega fajita or taco seasoning

2 iceberg lettuce leaves

First, rinse the onion & peppers and slice into thin strips. Rinse the chicken too, and trim any fatty bits. I tend to thoroughly pick apart chicken since it's not very appealing raw.

Next, saute the onion & peppers in a skillet with a tbsp of olive oil. These will take longer to cook than the thin chicken so make sure to cook them for a few minutes before adding in the chicken. Cook the chicken for about 4 minutes on each side and pull apart once it's cooked through. The onions should be translucent & the chicken no longer pink!

Add in about 1/3 of the seasoning packet along with some warm water. Stir everything together so the veggies and chicken are coated in seasoning. Heat through.

While the chicken and veggies are cooking for the last minute, wash two lettuce leaves to use as the "shell." And since I love avocados...guacamole is an absolute must. Cut an avocado in half and scoop it into the bowl sans the pit. Add in a tbsp of sour cream and a tbsp or two of salsa and mix together.

Scoop the chicken, onions and ppers into the lettuce shells, top with guacamole and cheese and enjoy! Let me know what you think!

All American Meal: Sweet Potato Fries & A Burger

So what I've gathered from looking at which posts are read most often, is that everyone (and by everyone I mean the small fraction of the population who's reading this) enjoys food as much as I do. I guess that just means I'll have to keep trying new recipes and that those tips to make time fly at the gym are going to really start coming in handy...

To cater to your needs and have something to write about I decided to try my hand at making healthy, baked sweet potato fries. I swear I didn't do it to satisfy my own cravings. And since you can't have just sweet potato fries for dinner, I made a turkey burger to go with them.

For the fries, you will need: 1 sweet potato (per person), olive oil, salt & pepper and an oven preheated to 450 degrees.

Step 1: Use potato peeler to remove all of the skin from the sweet potato. Once the sweet potato has been peeled, cut off each end. Chop up the remainder into thick, fry-sized chunks.  

Step 2: Throw your cut fries into a plastic bag to season. Coat the sweet potato chunks with olive oil and add in sea salt and pepper. I kept it simple for my first go at these but you can play around with different spices. I'm thinking that brown sugar might be interesting to throw in the mix to give the fries a sweet & salty taste next time. 

Step 3: Spread the fries out on a baking sheet and make sure to arrange them in a single layer. Next, throw them in the preheated oven to bake.

 

Step 4: Bake for 10 minutes, flip the fries and bake for another 15 minutes. I've read that corn starch will help the fries crisp up a bit more but I didn't find it necessary.

I used ground turkey for the burger and seasoned it with minced garlic, Worcestershire sauce, salt & pepper. Form the ground turkey into burger patties and grill for about 5 minutes on each side. Turn the heat down to low and add on a slice of swiss cheese to heat until melted. Finally, top with a slice or two of avocado and serve with the french fries!

I was able to use leftover sweet potato in this the next night but first things first, bon appetit! Of course I've made myself hungry just writing this now... Comment and let me know if you try them with different seasoning!

How To Make The Perfect, Healthy Fall Meal

Last night I walked into my apartment after work and was immediately met with a delicious aroma wafting from the kitchen. After taking a look at the deliciousness that my roommate was cooking up and knowing that I had to go to the grocery store that evening I decided then and there that I was going to do my best to make the exact same thing for dinner. Yes, I totally copied her.

The best part about this dish? It involves only a few cheap ingredients and little cleanup. Music to my ears. I'm not big on measurements and usually just go off of how hungry I am (usually hungry) but here's what you need:

Kale Greens
Butternut Squash
Potato Gnocchi
Parmesan
Garlic & Crushed Red Pepper Flakes (to taste)

First, peel the butternut squash and chop it up into bite sized chunks. Make sure you have a good knife and peeler for this! Throw it in a saute pan with some olive oil and garlic and brown the squash.

*Be careful working with the squash! I quickly noticed that my fingertips were starting to peel (didn't hurt) and learned here about the sap that they excrete as a self defense mechanism that was causing my crazy reaction. Maybe I'm too sensitive? / Has this happened to you?

Next, add about a cup of water and the kale greens to the pan and let them cook and wilt down. Add as much (or as little) of the greens as you want and some crushed red pepper flakes to taste! Once the kale is cooked down, add the package of gnocchi.

Heat the mixture of squash, kale and gnocchi through and let the remaining water soak into the gnocchi or eventually evaporate. I didn't really keep track of time during this part - just keep an eye on the water level and the gnocchi consistency. You don't want a runny-watery mixture or uncooked gnocchi!

Just keep stirring...just keep stirring...just keep stirring. Add some freshly grated parmesan cheese in as you go so it will melt down and make everything nice and gooey. 

For the finishing touch, scoop everything into an oven safe dish, sprinkle some extra Parmesan on top and put it under the broiler for 5 minutes to let the top crisp up a bit. If you're not too cheap to own/buy a good, cast iron saute pan, I'm jealous....And you can just throw the whole thing under the broiler without using another dish you'll have to wash (sucks to not have a dishwasher).

This dish fills you up, leaves you with leftovers, and did I mention it was easy? Thanks to my roommate for much needed kitchen inspiration!
 

Check out my recipe featured at Weekend Potluck and share with your friends!

Dinner (For One) Is Served

Following a recipe is easy. Cooking for one is hard. I say this even after taking finding the time and energy to cook a meal after work out of the equation. Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough, but how often do you readily find recipes for one?

As a result, I frequently find myself cooking enough food to feed a small family...and then eating the same thing for a week straight (or eating too much in one night). Do you have this problem, too?

I've found that I have the most success making something healthy and making more appropriate portions when I experiment. I tend to buy a lot of the same ingredients each week and try to switch things up a bit or use different seasonings. Salad, chicken, ground turkey, eggs and all sorts of vegetables tend to be staples in my diet. Not sure why brussels sprouts got such a bad rap growing up since they're one of my favorites now and vegetables are the easiest to cook to me.

Lately, I've been making a mixture of quinoa, corn, onion, chickpeas, brussels sprouts and parmesan cheese seasoned with some garlic salt, pepper and tarragon topped with a poached egg. This would be a perfect filling for stuffed pepper's like my friend Lacey's (minus the bulky brussels sprouts) but recently I've been making a meal out of this combination of ingredients.

Dinner is served

I'm not one for measuring out ingredients when I'm experimenting so you can use as much or as little of each or substitute ingredients as needed. I just boil and simmer the quinoa for about 20 minutes; roast the brussels sprouts in the oven at 400 degrees; then mix these ingredients together with the vegetables and seasoning on the stove as I poach the egg. Voile!

When all else fails, you can always pull a Sandra Bullock from "Two Weeks Notice" and order takeout for one! I'm certainly guilty of it once in awhile...

Bon appetit!