Spinach Pasta Salad

I get these emails in my inbox from a site called PureWow and they have a newsletter called PureWow Recipes. Occasionally I see something that I really want to try but more often than not I don't have all the ingredients and I tag the email as a recipe email in hopes to try it in the future.

I was excited when I got this email because I have been feeling like I need a change in my lunch options lately and this came at the perfect time. I had almost all the items of the recipe and enough for me to attempt it with a few changes. To see the original recipe click here.

Spinach Pasta Salad

1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped (about 2 teaspoons)
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon (about 2 teaspoons)
1 teaspoon finely chopped black olives
1 teaspoon honey
salt and ground black pepper
thinly sliced onion (about 1 cup)
8 ounces small grape tomatoes, halved (about 1 3/4 cups)
1/2 cup pitted black olives, quartered lengthwise
4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
1 tablespoon dried oregano, divided (if I had fresh I definitely would've used that instead)
1/2 pound pasta (they recommend a curly pasta like gemelli but I used the leftover wheel pasta I had)
5 loosely packed cups baby spinach

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk olive oil with vinetar, garlic, lemon zest, finely chopped black olives, honey, 1/2 teaspoon salt and several grinds of black pepper. Add the onion, tomatoes, olives, feta and 1/2 tablespoon oregano and toss well. Let sit for about 20 minutes.

2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain well in a colander but do not rinse.

Transfer the warm pasta to the mixing bowl and season with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add the spinach, the remaining 1/2 tablespoon oregano and toss well. Season with additional salt and pepper. If desired. Serve immediately.

Lime and Cilantro Fish Tacos

I have been making a basic fish tacos recipe for some time now sort of creating it out of what we had in the cupboard (which is pretty much the premise of my blog being that almost all of my recipes I post are from things we have in the kitchen at the time of cooking). These have been a hit a multitude of times whenever I have some family come over and I am making them dinner. They are quick and easy and taste great!

I start out breading the fish (we use tilapia more often than not) with either traditional breadcrumbs or panko bread crumbs (one time I put some almonds in the food processor and coated the fish with that since my hubby's brother who is allergic to Gluten and they turned out good too - a little different but good). While I am breading the fish I put some oil in a pan and heat it up. Then lay the fish in the pan a few at a time to not overcrowd the pan.

While the fish is cooking I toast some corn tortillas in the toaster oven and cut up tomatoes and cabbage. Once the fish is cooked I place 4 tortillas on to a plate and begin putting it all together. It goes in the following order: fish, cilantro salad dressing from Trader Joe's, cabbage, tomato and lime juice. The cilantro dressing is the key to these fish tacos! It seriously makes them so it is worth it to get some of this if you don't already have it. We keep it on hand since fish tacos are a staple in our house.  

Lime and Cilantro Fish Tacos

tilapia
corn tortillas
chopped cabbage
chopped tomatoes
cilantro
lime juice
cilantro salad dressing from Trader Joe's

Tomato Cream Chicken

I subscribe to a site called Emeals which provides you with weekly menus to help you get through the week with little worry about the common, "What do I make for dinner?" question that we all ask ourselves pretty often. Some weeks are better than others with the menu choices but I have taken it and done my own thing with it. I start with what I have in my kitchen already first and then look at the options on the menu to see if any of those meals work for me. Then I pick out my favs from the rest of the menu and grocery shop for those. It has saved me a ton of time, money and headache going this route.

I used to DREAD when it came time for me to decide what to make for dinner but this has really opened my eyes to other recipes, helped me branch out from what they provided to make what suits our family and more. So anyways, one of the menu items was a Chicken and Tomato Cream recipe. I changed a few of the items in the recipe because I didn't have them and figured why go to the store to buy those couple things when I can substitute with what I have, better way to save more money.

So from the changes I made were first off, I didn't any onions (which I think would've made it taste even better but didn't want to have to go to the store), in place of the onions I decided to put some mushrooms in. I didn't have whipping cream so I used canned evaporated milk. I googled it and there were a few places that said that you could substitute the two so I did. Lastly, I didn't have any fresh basil so I used dried (obviously, the fresh basil would've made a better flavor but it's what I had so there it is).

Tomato Cream Chicken

2 T butter, divided
1.5 pounds boneless chicken breast, halved
1/2 c finely chopped onion (I used mushrooms instead for this meal)
14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, undrained
1/2 c whipping cream (I used evaporated milk)
1/2 c chopped fresh basil (I used dried basil and used about half the requested amount)
1 t salt
1/2 t pepper

Then I put it over a bed of whole wheat spaghetti with a side of steamed broccoli. My almost 2 year old liked it as did my husband and I. We both had two chicken breasts each (since they were halved). We used the Costco frozen chicken which are often HUGE so it was no problem slicing them in half and having a very full meal.

Hawaiian Rub Chicken

A while back my mother in law had brought us back a Hawaiian spice rub called Kaiulani Spices Hawaiian Spice Rub and Seasoning and we had been meaning to use it for some time but I think we just forgot. Well with it being summer and the grill being a great option during the summer we decided to try it out. I put the Hawaiian rub all over the chicken and then drizzled olive oil over the chicken and slightly rubbed it in. My hubby fired up the grill and grilled the chicken. In the meantime I made some brown rice and steamed some carrots and broccoli to go with the chicken. Once it was all done we sat down and were very much impressed with the taste that the rub gave the chicken. The ingredients listed on the bottle were green onions, lemon peel, garlic, ginger, brown sugar, Alaea sea salt and other spices.

We will definitely be making this again.

Minestrone Soup

I had some leftover chicken broth that I needed to use or put in the freezer so I decided to make life easier on me today and made a soup in the crock pot. I normally make this soup or a version of it on the stove but I thought I would utilize the crock pot so that dinner would be ready without me having to get in there ahead of time to prepare it.  

Minestrone Soup
Chicken Broth (I used all the broth that resulted from one rotisserie chicken carcass)
ground turkey (cooked prior to adding)
1 can corn
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 can beans (I use either kidney beans, black beans or pinto beans depending on what I have on hand)
diced onion
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp chopped garlic
orzo (I prefer orzo but I've also used rice and other types of pasta if that's all I have on hand)

Homemade Microwave Popcorn

I love popcorn! Almost every time I go to the movies I HAVE to have some. However, the at home microwave popcorn kind of grosses me out. The film that I get on the roof of my mouth when I am eating it annoys me. I had heard about making homemade popcorn with a technique of a paper bag, oil and kernels so I decided to try it. You take a brown paper bag, add 1/3 cup popcorn kernels, 1 Tablespoon oil and I sprinkle a little salt, then microwave for 2 minutes and 22 seconds (this is what works for my microwave). YES! It was just what I was looking for. So I bought some brown paper bags and would make it pretty often. The only downside is that the oil seeps through the bag pretty quickly and leaves a bit of a puddle in my microwave. So I would have to put a folded paper towel underneath to catch some of it. But it was worth it to have that non-filmy popcorn quickly popped in the microwave! LOVE IT!

Then I was doing some shopping at Target recently and stumbled upon this microwave popcorn popper container from Nordicware that you put the popcorn kernels in and pop in the microwave. Since we make tons of homemade popcorn at home I decided to give it a try and I am so glad I did. This thing is awesome! I don't even need oil. Just put 1/3 cup popcorn kernels in the container, put on the lid and put it in the microwave for about 2 1/2 minutes. I have had perfect popcorn ever since and no oil film at all. PLUS, there is such a small amount of unpopped kernels at the bottom in comparison to my brown paper bag popping or even the store bought microwave popcorn that I am sold on this thing! I would highly recommend checking this thing out, the added bonus is it's under $10 and you can use it over and over again.

Homemade Chicken Stock

Every time we go to Costco we usually pick up one of their rotisserie chickens since they are only $5 and can be so many meals for us. Once I have removed all the chicken from the carcass I will make chicken stock with it. I start by boiling water with the chicken carcass in the pot. I add a few seasonings, depending on my mood or plan for the chicken stock. Once it begins to boil I turn it down to a simmer and there it sits for about 4 hours.

If I plan to use it immediately or within a day or two I put it in a plastic container and put it in the fridge. If I am going to save it, I put it in a plastic bag and throw it in the freezer with the date it was created on it. This is by far my favorite way to use chicken broth for my recipes because it tastes SO much better, plus it was really inexpensive and I am all about that. YUM!

Chicken and Broccoli Casserole

With the chicken I had from the Costco rotisserie chicken I decided to try something new since more often than not I make my chicken tortilla soup with it (recipe for that to come soon). I had a bunch of broccoli and we always have cheese on hand so this recipe fit what was in the fridge. I decided to go pretty much with exactly what the recipe stated since it was my first time but I did read the comments a bit and modified it with those. For example, I did not use frozen broccoli. I ended up blanching it in the microwave for 3 minutes and then putting it in to the casserole. I also mixed everything together once I put the sauce on it to make sure that everything touched the sauce, not just the top, I felt this would insure that the noodles got a good amount of sauce on them. I also added a little garlic powder to the sauce to give it more flavor. Top it off with mexican cheese because that's all I had and popped it in the oven.

When it came out of the oven and we sprinkled some more cheese on the top till it melted. It turned out to be pretty good. We ate most of it with just a little bit leftover.

Here is the link to the original recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/silvers-savory-chicken-and-broccoli-casserole/

Whole Wheat Pancakes

T loves pancakes so I decided to find a recipe that would be more healthy than those store bought pancakes and I didn't have to look far. Weelicious is a blog site with great kid friendly recipes that I follow regularly. She offers suggestions on ways to make things quick and painless. You can read about her whole wheat pancakes recipe here.

I didn't make any modifications to it, other than I didn't have buttermilk. She does give you a tip on how to substitute buttermilk so I go with the 1 cup milk and 1 Tablespoon lemon juice option.

So now whenever T says that he wants pancakes I can go to my ready made whole wheat pancake mix in the cupboard and make up a batch for the morning, like I did this morning. Add to it a side of eggs and a little turkey bacon. Yum!

Random Chicken Soup

I call this Random Soup because I pretty much just grabbed some things that I have in my house and put them together. My kids are complete opposites when it comes to eating. T is super picky and will hardly touch anything I make but K is much more willing to try whatever I am eating. All the items I chose for this soup are things K likes so that helped lead the direction of what went in (besides the fact that I was grabbing things that I had in the kitchen).

I started with some frozen chicken stock that I had made a couple weeks ago from a Costco rotisserie chicken. Then I cut up some tomatoes and onions. I let them cook for a bit before I put in the black beans and corn. When I felt that the soup was simmering well enough and that it only had about 10 or so minutes left to cook I put in the uncooked bag of alphabet pasta. I followed the directions and let it cook for about 10 minutes. This made the soup turn pretty thick because the pasta noodles soaked up a lot of the chicken stock (so if you like your soup more soupy, you might want to cook your noodles by themselves ahead of time and then just put them in the mixture). I then shredded the drained chicken and let it simmer for a few more minutes until the chicken was warm.

It was pretty hot when I put it in the bowl so I separated some for K into a smaller bowl and let it cool in the freezer for a couple minutes. He devoured it and then wanted some of mine! So I was happy with the results. It wasn't the fanciest of soups (which most of my food isn't very fancy, it's just food that we like) but it was a pleaser for K and I.  T actually ate a handful of the black beans from the soup so I scored a few points there.

My measurements on this one are pretty vague because like I mentioned above it was made up of items I had in the house.  

Random Chicken Soup
1 container of chicken stock
1 tomato diced
1/2 medium onion diced
1 can black beans drained
1 can corn drained
1 bag (7oz) alphabet pasta uncooked
1 can peas drained
1 can cooked chicken breast drained and shredded
Dash of Parsley and Garlic Powder

Pasta Salad

When I lived in Orange County I would head down to Newport Beach all the time. There was a pizza/pasta place that we used to eat at when we were down there. My younger sister decided that she was going to recreate the pasta dish that we would always order for a family event quite a few years ago. Now that pasta dish is a staple in our family gatherings so it happened to fit perfectly for my son's 4th birthday party theme by changing the pasta noodles to the wheels (his birthday theme was a BMX bike party).

This pasta is so simple yet so yummie!  

Pasta Salad
1 box of pasta cooked
1 can of olives chopped
2 tomatoes chopped
1 onion chopped
pepperoncinis (depends on how much flavor you want)
a few splashes of pepperoncini juice
ranch dressing (I prefer Hidden Valley)
italian dressing (I prefer Wish Bone or Newman's)

Cook the pasta according to directions. Cool before preparing the rest of the dish. Add 1 can of chopped olives. Dice 2 medium size tomatoes. Chop 1 onion. 1 jar of sliced pepperoncinis and drop a few splashes of the juice in to the bowl. Mix it all together. Then add the ranch and italian dressing to your liking. Refrigerate overnight for best results. Just before serving add a little more ranch and italian dressing. Serve cold.

My First Food Blog

I started this blog to have a place to keep track of some of my meals. Sometimes it is a recipe that I really liked but altered a little and mostly I just want to have a place to jot down these things so I can come and read what I thought about it and if I did anything different, etc.