Why-Isn't-It-Spring-Yet? Comfort Food

Grey. Cold. Blah. Winter had me craving some serious comfort food last week -- braised cabbage, macaroni and cheese, roast chicken, mashed potatoes, and meatloaf with brown gravy. And I fed those cravings. All of them. Took two meals, but they were satisfied.

I can't think of anything I'd rather pair with macaroni and cheese than braised red cabbage. They go together like peanut butter and jelly. I used the Vegetarian Slow Cooker's recipe for "Bavarian Braised Cabbage" and it was so good! And easy! The Husband was disappointed the recipe was meatless and did not eat any ... which was fine by me. I ate the whole pot in a day.

The beautiful macaroni and cheese was by Kraft. Yes. Hearty Four Cheese Kraft Homestyle Macaroni & Cheese Dinner mostly made as the bag directed ... I couldn't read the silver lettering on the bread crumb and cheese powder packets and ended up throwing bread crumbs in when I wanted cheese. This mistake turned out pretty okay as the breadcrumbs helped thicken the sauce. I did tart the macaroni and cheese up with a thick layer of shredded Cabot Seriously Sharp before I put it in the oven and, oh my, the cheesy goodness.

I know, I know. Homely! But comfort doesn't need to be pretty, it just needs to be comforting. And delicious. And it was. Enough so that there wasn't any leftovers. I used Coconut & Lime's easy recipe for "Peas & Carrots Meatloaf" and I recommend you give it a try! I would stress grating the carrots finely, as the recipe directs, because I grated mine quite coarsely and they didn't blend well with the other ingredients -- which might be why the meatloaf fell apart, come to think of it.

The gravy's just a basic beef-stock-and-herbs reduction and the potatoes are instant. Yes! Cooked with chicken broth instead of water and tarted up with lashings of heavy cream and melted butter, they're nothing to sneer at.

Cleaning Out the Cupboards: Lunch

I was up to my elbows in flour, baking for tomorrow's Geek the Library big cookie giveaway, when there was a rumbly in my tumbly and I realized it was hours past lunch time. Clearly, grue needed feeding and fast. Conveniently, I had a bunch of opened bottles, jars, and bags of stuff hanging around that all seemed like they could go together to make something fast and delicious.

I think I succeeded pretty well, although The Husband was less impressed (artichokes not being one of his favorite things).

Artichoke-Chicken Stuff

Ingredients
3 cups turkey broth
3 oz orzo and ditalini (any small pasta will do)
3 Tbsp julienned oil-packed dried tomatoes, well drained and chopped small
2 bottled water-packed roasted peppers, chopped small
6 bottled marinated artichoke hearts, well drained and chopped small
3 oz Tyson Grilled & Ready® Fully Cooked Frozen Grilled Chicken Breast Strips
2 handfuls baby spinach
Freshly ground pepper, as desired

Directions
Bring broth to boil. Add pasta, tomatoes, and chicken to pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 9 minutes or until orzo is desired tenderness. Remove from heat. (At this point, I fished out the bigger chicken strips and chop them into smaller pieces).

Add peppers, artichoke hearts, and spinach to pot. Stir. Cover. Let sit 10 minutes or until spinach is tender. Season as desired and eat.

Zucchini, Pasta, & Stuff

I'd planned on stuffed zucchini for Sunday dinner, but one of my zucchini developed a horrible squishy spot and could no longer fulfill its duties as a boat for holding delicious sausage, cheese, and mushrooms. So, instead, I made pasta sauce from all the stuffed zucchini ingredients and served them over whole grain penne!

Maybe not as awesome as stuffed zucchini, but still quite tasty and filling.

Very Vegetable Tomato Sauce

Ingredients
9.6 oz pkg Jimmy Dean pre-cooked turkey sausage crumbles
1 shallot, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 large carrot, diced small
2 small zucchini, diced small
1 cup sliced mushrooms, chopped
8 oz can low-sodium spaghetti sauce
14 oz can Muir Glen fire-roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
1 Tbsp salt-free Italian seasoning blend
2 cups whole grain elbow macaroni, cooked as you like
½ cup grated Parmesan

Directions
Saute shallot, garlic, mushrooms, and carrot in a little olive oil until fragrant and shallot is translucent. Add zucchini, sausage crumbles, seasoning blend, fire-roasted tomatoes and tomato sauce. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes or until sauce is thickened.

Stir in pasta and a quarter cup of Parmesan. Serve sprinkled with remaining Parmesan.

Serves 4.

Pasta & Tomatoes Two Ways

Also known as how-fast-can-supper-get-in-my-tummy?!

Thaw two fully-cooked chicken sausage, slice into coins, and set aside. Toss four cups cherry tomatoes with olive oil, four crushed garlic cloves, and salt-free Italian seasoning blend. Roast @ 400°F for about 30 min.

Slice two fully-cooked chicken sausage into thick coins. Add sausage to tomatoes and roast 15 min more. Toss with cooked egg noodles. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan and season with freshly ground black pepper, as desired.

Core, seed, and dice five large tomatoes. Heat a small splash of olive oil in a skillet until fragrant. Add diced tomatoes, minced red onion, pressed garlic, and salt-free Italian seasoning blend. Cook, stirring frequently, until tomatoes have broken down and onion is translucent. Add one cup cubed cooked chicken and cook, stirring, until chicken is heated through. Season with Parmesan and freshly ground black pepper. Toss with cooked pasta.

Another Cookery Catch-up, Or, "Food, We Ate Some"

It's not been all cupcakes and grilled cheese sandwiches here at Chez Savory Tart, you know. There have been proper meals at proper times. There have been vegetables and the counting of Weight Watchers Points+. Oh, yes. Not that anyone in their right mind should calculate out the Points+ values of grilled cheese sandwiches. Particularly not on a day where you've eaten two of those delicious darlings, plus some stray bacon that just happened to be loitering in the kitchen.

Anyway, proper meals:

Sliced mushrooms cooked with garlic and minced shallots in olive oil until tender and all liquid evaporated. Then splashed with a bit of red wine vinegar and cooked until vinegar evaporated. Tossed in some goat cheese crumbles, salt-free Italian seasoning, parsley, and black pepper. Stirred until cheese was thoroughly worked in. Served over whole grain pasta with garlicky green beans.

Caesar Salad -- chopped romaine hearts, grated Parmesan, garlicky croutons, black pepper, Newman's Own Creamy Caesar Dressing.

Cheesy Artichoke Chicken -- Freebird fully-cooked breaded chicken patties spread with a mixture of Newman's Own Creamy Caesar Dressing and diced artichoke hearts, topped with a slice of provolone, and reheated as directed.

Fish -- frozen tilapia fillets, brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with salt-free lemon pepper seasoning blend, and roasted with asparagus.

Asparagus -- trimmed asparagus stalks tossed with olive oil, salt-free lemon pepper seasoning blend, garlic cloves, and cherry tomatoes and roasted at 42°F about 15 minutes. Served with rice.

Alton Brown's scrambled eggs with sauteed halved cherry tomatoes, Heinz baked beans ("The British Bean"), and buttered toast. Just needed some mushrooms and orange marmalade to be The Perfect Sunday Breakfast.

Eating the Alphabet: C is for Chickpeas

I knew I wanted to use chickpeas in this month's Eating the Alphabet Challenge and so was pleased to find Oxmoor House's "Lemony Fusilli with Chickpeas, Raisins, and Spinach" posted on myrecipes.com. This was a warm pasta salad made from whole wheat pasta, lemon juice and zest, chickpeas, baby spinach, and golden raisins. With all that yellow and green, it seemed like an excellent recipe to welcome Spring!

I made this salad twice and the second time through I changed up the amounts of seasonings (the first iteration was a bit bland) and subbed fresh goat cheese crumbles for the shredded fontina as, while fontina is a tasty cheese, I thought this salad needed a tangy-sweet creaminess to balance the lemon. Also, I really like fresh goat cheese crumbles!

Pasta With Chickpeas, Spinach, and Golden Raisins

3 cups uncooked whole wheat rotini
2 lemons
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
½ teaspoon salt
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 (9-ounce) package fresh baby spinach
1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained
¾ cup golden raisins
¼ cup (1 ounce) goat cheese crumbles

Cook pasta as directed.

While pasta cooks, zest lemons and squeeze juice from lemons to measure 4 teaspoons zest and ¼ cup juice. Whisk zest, juice, olive oil, red pepper flakes, salt, and garlic together in a really big bowl. Add spinach, chickpeas, and raisins; toss well. (I think you could do this an hour or two ahead of time to really let the spinach, raisins, and chickpeas pick up as much flavor from the dressing as possible).

Drain pasta and return to hot pot. Immediately add the spinach mixture, stirring until spinach wilts. Taste for salt. Serve warm sprinkled with goat cheese crumbles. Serves 4.

Crazy Cooking Challenge: Spaghetti & Red Sauce

As soon as I saw that March's Crazy Cooking Challenge was for spaghetti and red sauce, I knew I was on the lookout for a Bolognese sauce, because we love a good Bolognese sauce. And by "good Bolognese sauce" I mean something that resembles the classic Bolognese sauce registered by the Accademia Italiana della Cucina, which is made with skirt steak, pancetta, carrot, celery, onion, tomato puree, milk, white or red wine, salt and pepper. Experience tells me it must be served with a splodge of ricotta and sprinkle of shredded fresh basil. Ideally, it should be served on a bed of tagliatelle, but I find that impossible to buy locally.

I found many promising recipes and actually went so far as to try a few, but even though I dallied with others, I knew "Spaghetti Bolognese" by Bobbi’s Kozy Kitchen was the recipe I would go with in the end. It had everything I wanted -- even the splodge of ricotta -- and dried mushrooms.

This was proper Bolognese.

Spaghetti Bolognese by Bobbi’s Kozy Kitchen (reproduced with permission)

2 ounces dried porcini mushrooms, wiped of grit
¼ pound pancetta or slab bacon, finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
2 carrots, finely chopped
5 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs rosemary
1½ pound ground pork [2 pounds lean ground beef]
1½ pound ground beef [1 pound ground pork]
2 cups milk [heavy cream]
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
2 cups dry red wine [Little Penguin Merlot]
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound spaghetti
Freshly grated Parmesan, for serving
1 handful fresh basil leaves
Fresh ricotta cheese

Reconstitute the mushrooms in boiling water for 20 minutes until tender, drain and coarsely chop.

Puree the mushrooms, pancetta, onion, celery stalks, carrots, garlic, together in a blender. [I used my food processor and whizzed it all 'round until it looked like pate].

In a heavy-bottomed pot add olive oil, bay leaves, herbs and cook gently until fragrant, then add vegetable puree and continue to cook for a further 5 to 10 minutes. [I wasn't sure whether to leave the herbs in or take them out, so opted to leave them in].

Raise the heat a bit and add the ground pork and beef; brown until the meat is no longer pink, breaking up the clumps with a wooden spoon [it is very important to break the meat into the tiniest clumps possible as, despite being full of meat, this sauce should be very smooth].

Add the milk and simmer until the liquid is evaporated, about 10 minutes. Carefully pour in the tomatoes and wine and season with salt and pepper. Bring the sauce to a boil, then lower the heat and cover. Slowly simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, stirring now and then, until the sauce is very thick. Taste again for salt and pepper. [Remove bay and rosemary].

When you are ready to serve, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until tender yet firm. Drain the pasta well and toss with the Bolognese sauce.

Serve with a good scoop of fresh ricotta cheese and garnish with some shredded basil, grated Parmigiano and a drizzle of olive oil.

Fabulous, just fabulous. A little labor intensive, yes, but well worth it. Lots of flavor, very meaty and rich, and it made the whole house smell delicious as it cooked. The recipe makes an enormous amount of sauce -- especially if, like me, you're "only" cooking for two -- but that's fine because that means there's plenty of sauce left for lasagna, English muffin pizzas, and freezing for later!

One Meat Sauce, Two Meals

Some celebrate Washington's Birthday with cherry pie, but I celebrated with a big pot of "Crockpot Spaghetti Sauce" from The Nourishing Gourmet. It's one of the many "spaghetti and red sauce" recipes I've pinned while searching for the perfect recipe for March's Crazy Cooking Challenge. Ah, Pinterest ... I know you could be so much more, but I'm content to treat you like a beautiful version of delicious and fill you with board after board of recipes.

Anyway, "Crockpot Spaghetti Sauce" is a good recipe -- simple and delicious, with rich tomato flavor and a perfect ratio of meat to sauce. It makes a lot of sauce for a two person household, but I put the extra to good use later in the week when I made a lasagna. (Yes, I made a lasagna in the middle of the week. No-boil noodles are the best thing ever, I tell you).

All the ingredients ...

became this Monday night ...

and this Wednesday night! Yum!

To make the lasagna, I mixed together an egg, leftover ricotta, shredded mozzarella and Parmesan, parsley, and black pepper. I layered the cheese mixture with leftover sauce and no-boil noodles until both were used up, then covered the lasagna with foil and baked it in a 375°F oven for an hour. Broiled it for a few minutes to make it brown and bubbly, then let it set for about 15 minutes -- plenty of time to make the garlic bread and do the cucumbers.

Fast Mac 'n' Cheese 'n' Greens, Yum!

There's been a can of condensed "cheddar" cheez soup lurking in my cupboards since Noah built the ark and I really wanted to be rid of it. I found a recipe on Campbell's Kitchen for "Fastest Homemade Mac and Cheese" and thought I would give it a try as it was only five ingredients (if you count water as an ingredient) and the pasta cooked in the sauce. One pan macaroni and cheese! Woo!

While not the best macaroni and cheese I've ever eaten, it still tastes significantly better than the boxed stuff and doesn't take much more time. I used 5 scant ounces of "Mexican" blend cheese (pepper jack, colby, and muenster) in this recipe, because that is what I had on hand but I expect most any cheese blend could be used in this recipe. Watch out, open bag of "Pizza" cheese blend, I'm coming for you next! Although ... that would necessitate purchasing another can of cheez soup. Hmm. Might well be worth it.

I ate this macaroni and cheese with mixed greens (Sylvia's, because it tastes good) and it was so very tasty -- the slightly spicy, cheesy, creamy pasta paired so well with the slight bitterness of the greens. Greens 'n' mac 'n' cheese is one of my favorite food combinations. While I had it first at a barbecue place and still associate the combination with barbecue, I am perfectly happy to eat the two on their own whenever I can. Which would be tomorrow, provided I can get my hands on another can of cheez soup.

(I took a "pretty" photo for you, but I usually mix everything into a messy heap of deliciousness before I eat it!)

Cookery Catch-Up or "Not Quite My Menu Plan"

I did cook this week -- just not anything from my menu plan! I know, I know. What is the point of drawing up a plan if I do not follow it? It makes me feel organized even if I am not?

Wednesday, I made pasta sauce from ground bison, mushrooms, garden tomatoes, red onion, garlic, garden parsley, and a jar of Stonewall Kitchen's Garden Vegetable Sauce. Served it over whole grain penne and called it good. And it was!

Friday, I marinaded and grilled a rather nice beef steak and served it with a packet of butter and herb noodles and garlicky sauteed chard. (To make the chard, I removed the stems, sliced the leaves into thick ribbons, and sauteed them in a hot pan with olive oil, butter, garlic, salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes until wilted).

I guess I used many of the ingredients I'd intended to use in my menu plan -- just not in the way I had planned!

Cute, Fast Pasta

I made "Taco Spaghetti" from Better Homes & Garden's Fast Fix Family Favorites for supper on Wednesday as such a a grey, dreary day positively cried out for the comfort of pasta. The spaghetti was quite easy to prepare and very flavorful. The Husband also pronounced it cute and asked if I was going to take a photo of it before we ate -- as he never says such things, I can only presume he was as smitten with it as I.



I made a few changes to BHG's print recipe to healthify the dish and/or make it easier for me to prepare:

• Whole grain linguine instead of "regular pasta"
• Lean ground turkey instead of beef
• Penzeys salt Free Arizona Dreaming instead of taco seasoning mix
• Low-sodium chicken broth instead of water
• Cabot's 50% reduced fat Pepper Jack instead of cheddar

The dish is pretty easy to prepare, anyway. Just cook broken (I snapped mine into thirds) noodles according to package directions, drain, and set aside. Meanwhile, cook the meat and a diced onion until the meat is nicely browned. Stir in broth and seasoning, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for about 2 minutes. Stir in pasta, corn, half the shredded cheese, salsa, and chilies.

At this point, you're supposed to transfer the spaghetti to a greased casserole and bake it at 350°F until everything is hot. And I did that this first time around, but I won't next time as it doesn't seem to do anything interesting and stirring everything around in the hot spaghetti pot will heat it through just as well.

I served the spaghetti topped with shredded cheese, bagged shredded lettuce, diced grape tomatoes, garlicky salsa, and sour cream. Again, it was delicious (and cute?!) and I expect to make it again soon.

Pasta Pronto

Friday, I made "Wild Mushroom Pasta Alfredo with Walnuts" from Southern Living's Slow-Cooker Quick Fixes. It was a very easy recipe and only took two hours in my slow cooker, but I don't think I'll be making it again as neither of us thought that much of it -- The Husband thought it had too much spinach in it and I thought it was just too salty.

To make "Wild Mushroom Pasta Alfredo with Walnuts," you just layer refrigerated mushroom agnolotti (they look like big oval ravioli) with Alfredo sauce, shredded Parmesan cheese, toasted walnuts, and cherry tomatoes in your slow cooker. Cook everything on High for about two hours, then stir in baby spinach and let sit until the spinach is wilted. Dead easy.

Since I couldn't find a commercially prepared low sodium Alfredo sauce,  I went with Bertolli's Garlic Alfredo with Aged Parmesan Cheese ... because it promised to be garlicky (and it was). I usually cook with light, low, sodium free or no salted added ingredients so it's possible "normal" people wouldn't find this dish overly salty.

(I toasted the walnuts by stirring them around in a hot pan for about three minutes -- they turned a beautiful golden color and smelled so good, more went in my mouth than in the slow cooker!)

Oh, The Delicious Burning

Monday, I made Taste of Home's "Black Bean Nacho Bake" from The Busy Family Cookbook for supper with salad. It really was a quick and easy weeknight recipe -- with only seven ingredients and minimal steps, it was on the table in under an hour. The Husband liked it enough to eat the leftovers for lunch, which is itself a great compliment. Mind you, he wimped out and ate the leftovers sans Fiery Topping of Tongue Death ...

The recipe calls for nacho "cheese" soup, but I couldn't find any at so I simply doctored a can of condensed "cheddar" soup with a tablespoon of Penzeys Bold Taco seasoning. I also added in a can of diced Muir Glen tomatoes with the black beans, because I thought the casserole might be a bit bland without them. Then I topped the dish with a layer of crushed unsalted tortilla chips and Cabot's Hot Habanero cheddar. What was I thinking?? Oh, I know what I was thinking. Cabot 50% reduced-fat cheddar I was thinking "this casserole sounds a bit bland. I should spice it up a bit."

And so created The Fiery Topping of Tongue Death.

You see, the Cabot people aren't joking when they call it "Hot Habanero." The wee bits of pepper were hot and the instant they touched our tongues, they fried our taste buds. We gasped and wheezed and wept our way through supper. Ohmygodtheburning! The delicious, delicious burning!

When I to make this casserole again, I'll use a can of Muir Glen's fire roasted diced tomatoes with green chilies (the fire roasted adobo-seasoned diced tomatoes would be better, but it doesn't look like those exist anymore) and Cabot's Chipotle cheddar for a less painful, but equally delicious, taste experience.

A "Sort of" Supper

Sort of made "Roasted Red Pepper Sauce Over Tortellini" from Better Homes and Gardens's Big Book of 30-Minute Meals for supper Monday night. I say "sort of" because I found that, when prepared as directed, the sauce tasted very "meh" and I ended up doctoring the heck out of it:

Creamy Red Pepper Sauce

12-ounce jar roasted red sweet peppers, drained
½ cup chopped onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tsp dried thyme, crushed
2 tsp minced fresh oregano
1 cup heavy cream
½ shredded Parmesan cheese
1 cup frozen green peas, thawed
1 cup leftover diced cooked chicken breast
Fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Run roasted peppers through food processor until mostly smooth. Set aside. Heat oil in saute pan and add onion and garlic. Cook until onion is tender. Add peppers, thyme, oregano, and pepper. Cook until fragrant. Add cream and cheese. Cook, stirring, until sauce is thickened. Add in chicken and peas. Stir until heated through. Pour sauce over prepared pasta and toss to coat.

Pretty okay in the end, I think, but definitely less healthy than the original! (What wouldn't cream and cheese make better?)

Not Following the Recipe

Tuesday, I had intended to make "Fresh Mushroom Fettuccine" from Betty Crocker's Cook It Quick! for supper. When I added the recipe to this week's menu plan, it was because I owned all the ingredients it asked for -- "Fettuccine? Mushrooms? Parmesan? Fresh rosemary and parsley? Got 'em all. Let's get cooking!" -- and not because I had actually read the recipe through.

Standing in my kitchen Tuesday evening, reading the recipe, it became obvious I could not make the dish for supper. The Husband was not going to go for a supper of hot noodles and raw mushrooms and I couldn't blame him. So I changed the recipe:

Creamy Mushroom Fettuccine

9 oz refrigerated fettuccine, cooked as directed
16 oz sliced brown (crimini/baby bella) mushrooms
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
¼ cup red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp butter
2 oz plain yoghurt-cream cheese spread
ground pepper, to taste
shredded Parmesan, to taste

In a large skillet, melt 1 Tbsp butter. Add the mushrooms, pepper, and garlic, and cook, stirring, until the mushrooms are golden brown and no liquid remains in the pan. Add parsley, rosemary, and vinegar and cook until no vinegar remains. Add remaining butter and yoghurt-cream cheese and stir until both have melted and thoroughly combined with the mushroom mixture. Add pasta. Toss to combine. Serve sprinkled with Parmesan and more black pepper, if desired.

I thought this came out well for a complete hack job and The Husband seemed to like it a lot. When I make this again, I might add a cup or so of halved cherry tomatoes.

Tasty Caesar Tortellini Salad

For lunch today I made Betty Crocker's "Caesar Tortellini" using refrigerated chicken-filled tortellini, chopped tomatoes from my garden, and a Dole "Ultimate Caesar Salad" kit.

While Betty Crocker's recipe made an easy and tasty lunch on a mind-meltingly hot day, I think I could do better with fresher ingredients.

Caesar Tortellini Salad

Ingredients
1 package (9 ounces) refrigerated tortellini
1 romaine heart, finely chopped
12 grape tomatoes, halved
8 strips crisp cooked bacon, crumbled
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
Your favorite Caesar salad dressing, as needed [Newman's Own Caesar Dressing]

Directions
Cook and drain tortellini as directed on package.

Toss tortellini, romaine, tomatoes, bacon, and a little dressing together. If too dry, add more dressing. Season with pepper to taste.

Rachel Ray Knows a Thing or Two

"Orzo with Feta & Tomatoes" from Rachel Ray using cherry and small fruit tomatoes, parsley, and basil from my garden. Served with boneless, skinless chicken thighs I had marinated in light Italian dressing all day and then grilled.

I didn't pick this recipe specifically because it was a Rachel Ray recipe, but because it used ingredients I already had on hand. In the end, I thought this recipe made a lovely side dish -- fast and easy and all the flavors worked really well together. I can see this become a regular part of my "tomato season" menu.

I can also see myself borrowing a couple of Rachel Ray's cookbooks from my library ...

Pantry Raid: Sausage, Orzo, Beans, and Such

Over the weekend, I had thawed some fully-cooked chicken sausages to grill with peppers and onions and serve on some toasted leftover sandwich rolls.  Well, I didn't get around to sandwiches before the rolls went off ... apparently, fresh bakery rolls won't keep for two weeks in the bread bin. Bad, non-magical bread bin, bad!

Poking around in my kitchen, I turned up an open box of orzo, canned whole tomatoes, garlic, and beans. Surely, I thought, I could combine these ingredients with the sausage, peppers, and onions to make something delicious?

Oh, I think I did!

Tasty Sausage & Orzo 

1/2 cup uncooked dried orzo
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 red or orange bell pepper, chopped
1/4 cup chopped red onion
4 links fully-cooked roasted chicken sausage links, sliced into rounds
2 garlic cloves, pressed
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can white (great northern) beans, rinsed & drained
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes (I chopped up a can of Muir Glen whole tomatoes)
2 tsp salt-free Italian herb blend
2 Tbsp parlsey flakes

Cook pasta as directed. Drain and set aside.

Heat oil in saute pan, add sausage, pepper, onion and garlic. Cook over medium-high heat until vegetables are crisp-tender and sausage is golden brown.

Add cooked pasta, beans, tomatoes, parsley, and seasoning; mix well. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until mixture is heated through. Serve with tossed salad for an easy, comforting supper.

Slow Cooker Mac 'n' Cheese

Friday, I had a craving for macaroni and cheese. While I had a box of Annie's organic macaroni and cheese on hand, I wanted a thicker, denser, more old-fashioned style mac 'n' cheese. However, I didn't think I could handle something as complicated as Cook's Illustrated's "Classic Macaroni and Cheese" without assistance. The Husband had given me a shiny new slow cooker a few weeks ago and I wondered if I could make mac 'n' cheese in it ... searching around on the Internet, I found a recipe for "Easy Crock Pot Macaroni and Cheese" on Recipezaar which seemed perfect for my needs. Unlike other slow cooker recipes I found, this recipe did not call for cheddar soup or Velveeta or require me to precook the pasta. It also cooked for a remarkably short amount of time -- two and a half hours on LOW.

Of course, I did make a few alterations to the recipe based on the ingredients I had at hand. I used wagon wheel pasta instead of elbow, dehydrated onion flakes instead of fresh,  evaporated milk for most of the whole milk, and doubled the amount of cheese by using a combination of Kerrygold's Red Leicester and Cabot's Seriously Sharp.

To save time, I shredded the cheeses in my food processor (and that was so much fun, I had a hard time not shredding all the cheese in our fridge).   I made the sauce as directed by the recipe, but rather then stir the cheeses and pasta into the pan -- making it too full/dangerous for me to lift -- I put the noodles in the slow cooker, topped it with cheese, poured the sauce over, and then stirred everything together until the cheese was melted.

I thought this slow cooker mac 'n' cheese was very delicious and exactly what I had been craving -- a dense, cheesy mass of tender-not-smooshy pasta.  The edges of the mac 'n' cheese had even browned a little as it would have had I made this in the oven.  With a salad, I could happily have made a meal of it.  Alas, The Husband was not so thrilled as he is not that keen on mac 'n' cheese to begin with and, when he does eat it, he prefers the gooier, runnier sauce you get with stove top mac 'n' cheese.  He was not wholly alienated by it, but it was good we also had barbecued chicken breasts and peas to go with it or I might have lost significant wife cred.

Cream Cheese 'sketti

The recipe for "Spaghetti a la Philly" showed up in my twitter feed a couple weeks ago and I thought "hmmm, don't I have a couple blocks of neufchatel cream cheese in the dairy drawer?" and then forgot about it.

Well, when I planned this week's menu I decided to be honest with myself and face up to just how hard Mondays are. I come home pretty darn tired and I don't want to cook anything complicated, but I also crave comforting homey foods that I can't really get through take out. So? 'sketti!

I made this recipe using two thawed bags of freezer sauce, a package of thawed ground bison, garlic, onion, parsley, neufchatel cheese, and whole grain spaghetti. Theoretically, it's fairly nutritious as I prepared it. But we ate two servings each, so it really isn't!

Would I make "Spaghetti a la Philly" again? Of course!