Fancy Beefaroni

Have I ever said I love pasta? Or can you just tell? Well I do. So again the other night, pasta was on the menu. I jazzed it up this time with some of my defrosted vodka sauce. I cooked up some ground beef (about 8 oz.) and combined it with some whole wheat elbows and the vodka sauce and voila. Delicious! I can't say enough about making a big batch of homemade sauce and freezing it. You'll thank yourself.

BBQ Indonesian Chicken

I saw the marinade recipe at the blog Dinners for a Year and Beyond and since I knew we'd be BBQing chicken tonight I thought it would be perfect for us tonight. I used 5 drumstick and 4 chicken thighs skin on, bone in and we loved it. I left the chicken in the marinade for 6.5 hours and it seemed to be a good amount of time. I did make a few small changes to the original marinade to give it a more BBQ sauce flavor so here are my edits.

Marinade:

Combine the following ingredients in a bowls and whisk them together. Pour over the chicken into a large resealable plastic bag and marinate for 6 hours to overnight.

1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup barbecue sauce
2 tablespoons honey
1 tsp powdered ginger
2 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 teaspoons cumin
2 TSBP lime juice

Grill the legs for 20-30 minutes and the thighs for 45 minutes turning occasionally until the juices run clear and chicken is no longer pink. At the end brush on a small amount of BBQ sauce onto both sides of the chicken.

I'm at it again... pesto

I love pesto. Have I said this already? I also have basil plants that are growing fast with all this rain so today I made 2 batches of sundried tomato pesto. One for dinner this week and one for the freezer. Make this, you won't be sorry.

Cold Spinach and Artichoke dip

My sister moved into her new house this weekend so my husband and I made the (long) drive up to visit her and I brought some yummy cold spinach and artichoke dip. It was perfect for hanging out on the deck of her new home.

1 can quartered artichoke hearts, drained
1 package of frozen spinach, thawed (10 oz)
1 packet of Knorr vegetable soup mix
1 cup mayonnaise
1 container of light sour cream

I know it's easy but sometimes we forget that delicious doesn't always have to be hard!

Pepperoni and Cheese Calzones

I am now into making my own whole wheat pizza dough so I used some that I had thawed for our calzones tonight. I split a ball into thirds and stuffed them with a blend of ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan cheese. I layered pepperoni in them and baked them at 400 for 15 minutes. Perfect!

Baked Rotini Ziti with Turkey Sausage

Can you tell I love pasta? As much as I tell myself I shouldn't eat it this much, I can't help it. At least I eat the whole wheat kind and always pair it with a salad so I don't over eat. Anyway, I made this on Sunday for dinner while we were waiting for our new refrigerator to arrive. I had to cook up the sausages and I'd been wanted baked ziti for a while anyway. It was delicious, cheesy and made 6 meals!

10 oz. whole wheat rotini (I used Heartland brand)
3 links of turkey sausage
1 egg
1 cup part skim ricotta
6 oz. 2% mozzarella cheese divided
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
3-4 cups of homemade pasta sauce or your favorite jarred sauce

Cook the pasta to al dente. Cut the sausages into bite-sized pieces and brown until thoroughly cooked. In a separate bowl, mix together the egg, ricotta, 4 oz. of mozzarella, and parmesan cheese. Mix the sauce and pasta in with the sausage in the pan. Then mix in the cheeses until well blended. Pour into a 9x12 pyrex pan or other large baking pan and top with the remaining mozzarella cheese. Cook at 350 for 25 minutes.

Pasta with Sundried Tomato Pesto and Peas

I used the sundried tomato pesto I made over the weekend to have a quick and easy late night meal. I cooked some chicken in a pan, added the pesto and frozen peas and presto, dinner!

Review: Green Pan

I bought a Green Pan this weekend at Target on recommendation from my friend Robyn. The large one was $34.99 so I figured I'd try it. I always knew the non-stick stuff (mostly teflon) on pans was toxic but I just couldn't give up my non-stick. Stainless steel for me always turned into a mess so sadly, I stuck with my toxic, teflon pans. Well, now that there is an affordable version, I figured why not. Well, I loved it. I cooked my quinoa in it on Sunday night and it was easy to clean, cooked my food beautifully and performed just as my other pans.

I would highly recommend these if you're looking to become not just more healthy but also more environmentally friendly. Next week I'm going to go buy the small, omelet size pan. The only negative is that it didn't come with a lid and my other lids didn't fit. So I will need to find something but for now, I'm happy with what I've got. Thanks Robyn!