Mandatory Meatless Monday

We finally did it!!  Meatless Monday!!! We all went meatless this past Monday and we did not miss it at all and we did not go hungry.  I got creative at dinner time and came up with a new pasta dish which can be served warm with crusty bread or cold as a side dish.

Rainbow Penne

12oz whole wheat cooked penne
6oz baby spinach
2tbl Olive oil
1tsp minced garlic
1 C. cherry tomato's sliced in half
1 C. sliced black olives

Dressing

1/2 C white balsamic dressing
1/2 C olive oil
1/3 C Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp yellow mustard
1 tsp oregano
Dash of Salt and pepper

1. Cook penne according to package directions set aside.
2. Saute spinach in the olive oil over medium high heat for about 3 minutes until wilted, add garlic and saute for 1 minute more. Remove from heat.
3. Slice tomato's and drain & rinse black olives.
4. Whisk the dressing ingredients together.
5. Add the spinach, tomato and olives to the pasta blend well.  Pour the dressing over the pasta and vegi mixture.  Serve warm with crusty bread or chill for 2 hrs and serve as a pasta salad side.

kid tested - this dish gets a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10, my 6 year old loved it but seemed to eat around the spinach go figure the good stuff!

Kale is it the new beef?

I bought a very large bunch of Kale Saturday at the farmers market and I had no idea what to do with it.  what did I do.... I googled it of course and I found this article, interesting stuff  http://www.organicauthority.com/health/reasons-kale-is-the-new-beef-nutritious-sustainable.html

I also found some recipes that use Kale and it inspired me to create this

2 c. roughly chopped Kale
6 oz package of baby spinach
2 tbsp Olive oil
2 cloves of garlic minced
1/2 a sweet onion diced
1.5 c. shredded mozzarella cheese blend (I used a pizza blend)
1/4 c. Parmesan cheese
1 package Pillsbury dinner rolls or other store bought dough

Preheat oven to 375 or according to the dough package directions.

1. In a large skillet saute the onion in the olive oil until translucent.  Add the kale and spinach saute for 3-5 minutes.  Add the garlic and saute for 2 more minutes.
2. Fold cheese into the above mixture.
3. Roll out the dinner roll dough into a large rectangle (any bread dough works for this just that the Pillsbury is easy).  Spoon the kale spinach mixture across the long end of the bread dough and then roll over twice place seem side down on a greased cookie sheet and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
4.  Cook according to dough package directions (I cooked mine at 375 for 15 minutes)

kid tested - NO

The best APP out there...

well one of the best App's out there...

I downloaded the All Recipes App to my iphone so much fun. It allows you to choose the ingredient, the length of time to prepare and the dish type, then you hit the spinner and it brings up a ton of recipes with your criteria fun stuff!

New name, New recipe

Well it has been a while yet again since I have added to this space.  I am trying to update this I swear.............
Why a new name???well I didn't like my original blog name, boring and unoriginal and I wanted something fun and silly.
New recipe - this is a product of thawed out chicken and an attempt to use anything I had on hand.  My goal these days is to spend as little time as possible at the grocery store.  I am trying to use everything on hand before hitting up the store.  As a result of my quest to minimize my trips to the grocery store, I have started hitting up local farmers markets (Storr's has a good one), my eggs are delivered (McV Farm) and my milk and beef are now delivered to my door each week by local farmers.  AND I am using what is in the fridge and pantry before it goes bad!

 Creamy Chicken

1-1 1/4 lbs of boneless chicken cut into 1" Pieces
2 tbsp olive oil
1 can cream mushroom soup
1/2 c. milk
1 16 oz package frozen broccoli flowers (cooked)
1 box Rotini pasta
5oz - 1/2 contianer of savory garlic Philadelphia cooking cream
Salt and Pepper

1.Saute chicken in olive oil until no longer pink season as desired with Salt and Pepper.  While the chicken is cooking steam the brocoli and cook the pasta until desired tenderness.
2. Once chicken is cooked add cream mushroom soup, cooking cream, milk and brocoli to the pan and combime heat until mixture is bubbly. 
3. Remove chicken mixture and combine with cooked pasta.

Yummmy!

Kid tested - 6 yr old gobbled it up before we were even sitting at the table and asked for seconds....