I'm not even sure this constitutes cooking it was so simple
Trader Joe's Peanut Sauce
Rotini pasta - 1/2 box
3 large carrots, cut in small medallions
3 celery stalks, coarsley chopped
1/4 cup of peanuts
1 cup of chunk pineapple
1. Cook pasta as on box
2. While pasta cooks, gently saute carrots and celery. Then add pineapple chunks and saute for a few minutes. Then add 1/4 cup of peanuts
3. Move vegetables into a pot (the one you made the pasta in probs), and add 3/4 of the jar of peanut sauce plus all of the vegetables. Let peanut sauce boil a little to cook of some of the pineapple juice. Remove from heat and add pasta. Wait a minute or two before serving so the sauce can thicken.
This meal was delicious and cheap, cheap, cheap. Few possible substitutions/additions
- add some lime juice at the end
- fresh pineapple may keep it from becoming as juicy and so be a little peanutier
- add some fresh ginger when sauteing the vegetables.
- add some chunks of red pepper to the saute
Showing posts with label pasta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pasta. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Lemony pasta with peas and asparagus
Ingredients
1/2 box of pasta (bow ties were nice tonight)
1 bunch of green asparagus
1/2 of a bag of frozen peas (probably 4 ounces)
canned pasta - 2 spoonfuls
half a lemon
EVOO
parmesan cheese
1. Put pasta to cook
2. Cut asparagus into 1/2 inch sizes. In a small pan, saute asparagus with EVOO
3. Drain pasta, reserving about 1/2 cup of pasta water
4. In a pan, cook the frozen peas with the pasta water. After a minute, add the asparagus and juice from the lemon. With a a fine zester, zest the half of a lemon over the peas.
5. Return pasta to pot and mix. Add pesto sauce to taste
6. Serve with generous amount of parmesan cheese
Friend and I made this today in a tiny kitchen with limited supplies (for example, i finely chopped lemon peel instead of zesting). I think if I did this again I'd use a different shape pasta, probably shells to capture the peas. I also think zesting the lemon would help sharpen the taste. Although fresh peas would be an obvious way to improve this, ultimately I think our "sauce" needed a little work. I think the correct order should be: add 1/2 cup of pasta water to peas in a pot. Wait for water to boil off some, then add 1/4 cup of cheese, mucho pesto, lemon juice, and twice as much lemon zest. Once that sauce thickens, then mix with pasta. Last note, I think some fresh basil mixed in at the end would help play up the taste of the pesto deliciously.
Regardless, for a quick dorm-room style meal, this was tasty and cheap!
1/2 box of pasta (bow ties were nice tonight)
1 bunch of green asparagus
1/2 of a bag of frozen peas (probably 4 ounces)
canned pasta - 2 spoonfuls
half a lemon
EVOO
parmesan cheese
1. Put pasta to cook
2. Cut asparagus into 1/2 inch sizes. In a small pan, saute asparagus with EVOO
3. Drain pasta, reserving about 1/2 cup of pasta water
4. In a pan, cook the frozen peas with the pasta water. After a minute, add the asparagus and juice from the lemon. With a a fine zester, zest the half of a lemon over the peas.
5. Return pasta to pot and mix. Add pesto sauce to taste
6. Serve with generous amount of parmesan cheese
Friend and I made this today in a tiny kitchen with limited supplies (for example, i finely chopped lemon peel instead of zesting). I think if I did this again I'd use a different shape pasta, probably shells to capture the peas. I also think zesting the lemon would help sharpen the taste. Although fresh peas would be an obvious way to improve this, ultimately I think our "sauce" needed a little work. I think the correct order should be: add 1/2 cup of pasta water to peas in a pot. Wait for water to boil off some, then add 1/4 cup of cheese, mucho pesto, lemon juice, and twice as much lemon zest. Once that sauce thickens, then mix with pasta. Last note, I think some fresh basil mixed in at the end would help play up the taste of the pesto deliciously.
Regardless, for a quick dorm-room style meal, this was tasty and cheap!
Monday, February 1, 2010
Chicken Mozzarella
I read what felt like a billion "easy chicken parmagian" recipes and finally made this version. It borrows from so many others, that I can't really cite a specific other recipe.
Ingredients
4 pieces of chicken (I took two .75 lb chicken breasts and cut them in half)
14 Ritz-like crackers (mine were the generic brand)
1/2 cup shredded Mozzarella
1/2 tbsp dried Italian Herb blend (its a grinder that has garlic, onion, parsley, black pepper, salt and maybe more)
1/2 tbsp dried Oregano
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup flour
Red Pasta sauce
Pasta of your choice
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Take a baking dish and line it with aluminum foil. This trick cut my cleaning time substantially
3. Prepare three small bowls. Bowl A should have just the flour. Bowl B should have the beaten egg. Bowl C gets a bit more complicated - put the crackers in there, but crush them with your hands until they are pretty fine mush. Add the herbs - to be honest, I just kept pouring the herbs until it looked about right (my grandma's method of cooking which always infuriated me, but I now understand). Therefore, the 1/2 tbsp measurements are guestimates - if you want to add more, I say go for it. Then add 1/4 cup of Mozzarella (you'll need the rest at the end)
4. Now take the chicken dip it both sides in the flour bowl, then both sides in the egg bowl, then both sides in the cracker bowl, and then place it on the foil. Repeat for each piece. Whatever remains from the cracker dish, just put on top of the chicken pieces.
5. Bake for 20 minutes
6. As soon as you put the chicken in the oven, start the water boiling for pasta. Cook as directed. I was able to time this almost exactly so that the pasta and chicken finished at the same time.
7. When the chicken has cooked for 20 minutes, take a generous spoonful of the pasta sauce and place it on each chicken piece. Use the remaining 1/4 cup of mozzarella and evenly distribute it amongst the chicken pieces. Put them back in the oven for about 4 minutes.
8. After draining the pasta, coat with your red pasta sauce.
Serve pasta in a bowl with a piece of chicken. A caprese salad completes the meal nicely.
Ingredients
4 pieces of chicken (I took two .75 lb chicken breasts and cut them in half)
14 Ritz-like crackers (mine were the generic brand)
1/2 cup shredded Mozzarella
1/2 tbsp dried Italian Herb blend (its a grinder that has garlic, onion, parsley, black pepper, salt and maybe more)
1/2 tbsp dried Oregano
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup flour
Red Pasta sauce
Pasta of your choice
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Take a baking dish and line it with aluminum foil. This trick cut my cleaning time substantially
3. Prepare three small bowls. Bowl A should have just the flour. Bowl B should have the beaten egg. Bowl C gets a bit more complicated - put the crackers in there, but crush them with your hands until they are pretty fine mush. Add the herbs - to be honest, I just kept pouring the herbs until it looked about right (my grandma's method of cooking which always infuriated me, but I now understand). Therefore, the 1/2 tbsp measurements are guestimates - if you want to add more, I say go for it. Then add 1/4 cup of Mozzarella (you'll need the rest at the end)
4. Now take the chicken dip it both sides in the flour bowl, then both sides in the egg bowl, then both sides in the cracker bowl, and then place it on the foil. Repeat for each piece. Whatever remains from the cracker dish, just put on top of the chicken pieces.
5. Bake for 20 minutes
6. As soon as you put the chicken in the oven, start the water boiling for pasta. Cook as directed. I was able to time this almost exactly so that the pasta and chicken finished at the same time.
7. When the chicken has cooked for 20 minutes, take a generous spoonful of the pasta sauce and place it on each chicken piece. Use the remaining 1/4 cup of mozzarella and evenly distribute it amongst the chicken pieces. Put them back in the oven for about 4 minutes.
8. After draining the pasta, coat with your red pasta sauce.
Serve pasta in a bowl with a piece of chicken. A caprese salad completes the meal nicely.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Uhoh Spaghettios!
Ingredients
8 oz Eden Vegetable Alphabet Pasta
2 Trader Joe's Sausage-less Sausage
2 Campbell's condensed tomato soup
boatloads of basil
half of a white onion chopped
3 cloves of garlic minced
EVOO
red pepper flakes
soymilk
I made the pasta. While the pasta drained, I put the EVOO and the onion in the pot to saute the onions. Then I added garlic and red pepper flakes. I was cautious but probably should have added more red pepper flakes. After that I added the tomato soup and basil. Now I basically did this recipe so I could try out my new immersion blender - but I'm not sure that the immersion blender did much! The original recipe suggests using soymilk at this point; I forgot and didn't add it until later. Instead, I added the sausage to the sauce in order to heat it a little, and then readded the pasta. At this point I realized there wasn't nearly enough sauce for all of the pasta, so I added soymilk. It was only a generous splash, but still I think it reduced the flavor down.
This much pasta means I'll be eating this for the week I fear.
It tastes good, but just not as deep of a flavor as I'd like.
Suggestions for next time:
If I had it to do again, I'd go with 4 oz of pasta and/or bigger more traditional pasta. The alphabet pasta grew a LOT
I'd also add a lot more basil. Now, to be clear, when I said a boatload I mean I chopped up probably 4 tbsp of basil. I think even more would awesome.
There was also some heat missing from this recipe. I would eager up the red pepper flakes or
maybe get spicy sausage.
The alphabet pasta would be great for soup, but it was so small that it made the consistency very mushy (squishy perhaps?).
This recipe is a modified version of this recipe
8 oz Eden Vegetable Alphabet Pasta
2 Trader Joe's Sausage-less Sausage
2 Campbell's condensed tomato soup
boatloads of basil
half of a white onion chopped
3 cloves of garlic minced
EVOO
red pepper flakes
soymilk
I made the pasta. While the pasta drained, I put the EVOO and the onion in the pot to saute the onions. Then I added garlic and red pepper flakes. I was cautious but probably should have added more red pepper flakes. After that I added the tomato soup and basil. Now I basically did this recipe so I could try out my new immersion blender - but I'm not sure that the immersion blender did much! The original recipe suggests using soymilk at this point; I forgot and didn't add it until later. Instead, I added the sausage to the sauce in order to heat it a little, and then readded the pasta. At this point I realized there wasn't nearly enough sauce for all of the pasta, so I added soymilk. It was only a generous splash, but still I think it reduced the flavor down.
This much pasta means I'll be eating this for the week I fear.
It tastes good, but just not as deep of a flavor as I'd like.
Suggestions for next time:
If I had it to do again, I'd go with 4 oz of pasta and/or bigger more traditional pasta. The alphabet pasta grew a LOT
I'd also add a lot more basil. Now, to be clear, when I said a boatload I mean I chopped up probably 4 tbsp of basil. I think even more would awesome.
There was also some heat missing from this recipe. I would eager up the red pepper flakes or
maybe get spicy sausage.
The alphabet pasta would be great for soup, but it was so small that it made the consistency very mushy (squishy perhaps?).
This recipe is a modified version of this recipe
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Mexican Pasta
This dinner was really an excuse to use up leftovers and yet, somehow, it turned out super delicious! The best part is all of my ingredients were purchased at Trader Joe's which meant this was an incredible cheap meal. Next time, I'll keep track of prices to calculate the cost. But I think it was maybe $15 total and it made 4-6 healthy servings.
Vegetable rotini pasta
half of the soy chorizo
1/4 cup (or so) of plain pasta sauce.
corn tomato-less salsa
fresh cilantro
Basically I made the pasta. While the pasta drained, I put my leftover chorizo in the pasta pot, added the jar of salsa, and some pasta sauce to cover. I added the pasta back and stirred. Then I added chopped cilantro to taste.
The chorizo made this pretty spicy. This recipe might be better if I had used only 1/4th of the chorizo. Definitely a complete meal. If you're not vegan, I bet some queso freco crumbled on top would be great, too.
Vegetable rotini pasta
half of the soy chorizo
1/4 cup (or so) of plain pasta sauce.
corn tomato-less salsa
fresh cilantro
Basically I made the pasta. While the pasta drained, I put my leftover chorizo in the pasta pot, added the jar of salsa, and some pasta sauce to cover. I added the pasta back and stirred. Then I added chopped cilantro to taste.
The chorizo made this pretty spicy. This recipe might be better if I had used only 1/4th of the chorizo. Definitely a complete meal. If you're not vegan, I bet some queso freco crumbled on top would be great, too.
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