Crystal's Pasta

One thing that has slowly changed since I've first gotten married and then mothered babes is my ability to cook. By no means am I a skilled chef. If you've ever been a guest or had me as a guest chances are you've eaten food I've made. I like feeding people.

It's one of those basic needs we all have. Food is the essence of life. I like contributing to others lives in simple ways. Needful ways.

A recipe I've fallen back on time and time again is this simple pasta dish shown above. It's simple and easy yet filling, hearty and packed with vitamins.

Step 1. go in the fridge/pantry/garden and collect a variety of veggies. Try and get a wide color spectrum. Chop them up into bit sized pieces.  (above I have 3 different color sweet peppers, canned black olives and tomatoes) You'll want about 2 cups of cut up veggies.

Step 2. Boil some water and cook up some pasta. Doesn't matter the kind really, we've used everything from spaghetti to ravoili and it always works out.

Step 3. Grab some pasta sauce or mash up some ripe tomatoes, you only want about a cup or two for a large pot of pasta. Warm it in the microwave or stovetop, don't cook it, just warm it up a bit. Toss in your diced up veggies and remove from heat. This will be really chunky.

Step 4. Drain the pasta and pour the sauce on top. Mix well and serve with a generous helping of Parmesean.

You can add salt and pepper or other spices if you like but I usually cook without it. Some ideas for veggies are:

artichoke hearts
roasted red peppers
raw peppers
raw tomatoes
fresh spinach
cucumber (yeah really)
eggplant
zucchini
various squashes
peas
carrots

You name it. This is a great way to use up the little bits of veggies you might have laying around and fast enough to make on a night when you forget what to make or have little time.

Enjoy!

Egg Bowls Recipe

I took a lot of photos of this but it's another of my almost-not-a-recipe recipes. And I'm probably going to babble a lot. I got inspired by The Pioneer Woman's cookbook where she made little breakfast dishes for everyone. This is a similar recipe but without a lot of the work. Here's the basics

Scramble 9 eggs with 1 cup heavy cream, salt and pepper. This makes 6 10 oz ramekins.

Chop up a bunch of stuff you want to eat. We have orange and yellow peppers, bacon, cheese and spinach.

Spoon in eggs about half way filled. Then have everyone make their own bowls their way.

Place on a baking sheet and put in the oven on 350 for half an hour. Just keep checking to make sure all the egg is cooked.

And the above now looks like this:

Or this

Enjoy.

Broccoli Cheddar Soup Recipe

Here's the first recipe from my soup-capade on Sunday. I have chili on the stove as we speak. The chickens will go in the oven soon and the rest of the soups will hopefully get made today. Though I've only two freezer containers left. We'll just have to see how it goes.

For your eating pleasure, I give to you...

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Ingredients

2 tbs butter
2 tbs finely chopped onion
2 tbs flour
2 cups beef stock or boulion
3 cups milk
1 cup heavy cream
3 cups Extra Sharp White and Yellow Cheddar Cheeses mixed
4 cups steamed broccoli pulsed to almost a meal consistency in a food processor

Directions

Melt butter in a large stock pot, add onion and cook slowly until limp. Stir in flour and cook for 3 minutues, stirring. Slowly add the stock, milk and cream alternating until all are combined. Heat to boiling stirring frequently. Stir in the cheese and broccoli. Keep stirring until the cheese is completely melted. Add salt and pepper to taste.

The longer this soup sits the thicker it gets until you end up with a soup that won't fall off a spoon.

Tuna Melts

Yes, this is another Tuna recipe in the same month but honestly, it was on sale really cheap and I stocked up a while back. I have to clean out the pantry before the canned tuna goes off...all twenty seven cans of it. Hey, I have a big family to feed. One can just doesn't cut it.

So, here's another almost-not-really a recipe since it's so darn simple but here you go anyway because I like to share. Enjoy.

Tuna Melts

Ingredients

3 cans of tuna
approx 1/4 cup Dukes Mayo
2 Tbs Dill
1 Tbs White pepper
1/2 Tbs Onion powder
1/2 Tbs Garlic powder
4 full English Muffins
8 slices of Asiago cheese (1 for each 1/2 English Muffin)


Directions

- Seperate each muffin and place outside down on a nonstick cookie sheet (so the nooks and crannies are facing up). Preheat oven to 350.

-Mix tuna, seasonings and mayo together. Taste as you go and adjust to your liking.

-Spoon and spread into a thick layer on each muffin half. Top with a slice of cheese. It's okay if it overlaps, it's yummy that way.

-Cook for 10 minutes then blast them with 1-2 min. of High under the broiler to brown the cheese a bit.

That's it! Next time I'll be making more of these since the 8 halves barely fed us all. They're super yummy and the kids loved them, Livi had two. Other than the cheese and muffins it's pretty much a pantry meal which is great. Keep the items on hand for when you're pressed for time but need something hearty. We served ours with carrot sticks and watermellon. Complete meal in about 20 minutes.

Tuna Casserole

Tomorrows post...today!

I had this on the calendar for our menu plan. I never bought, nor intended to buy, a box mix. That was fine until today when I set out to make it and also didn't have a recipe. Boxes are good for those. I relied on canned and dried food which makes this a pantry meal except for the butter and milk, unless you make your own. There are more than a couple of ingredients but not a lot of prep work and fairly simple directions. Here is my take on a Tuna Casserole. I tried to health it up a bit.

Ingredients

1lb eggless noodles
1/4- 1/2 cup dried onions
1 can salt free (sf) cream of something soup
1 can sf sweet peas
1 can sf jullien cut carrots
1.5 cups room temp milk
2 tbs butter plus more for topping
2 tbs whole wheat flour
2 tbs some kind of boullion
2 cans chunked tuna (you could also sub. chicken)
2 cups shredded white cheddar (using that Amish cheese again!)
pepper to taste
1 cup breadcrumbs
Nutritional Yeast

Directions

-Preheat oven to 375. Set a large pot with water to boil for the pasta, add boullion and onion to the water. When it boils, add the pasta.

-While the water is heating, get a medium sauce pan and melt the butter in it. Stir in the flour. Add the warmed milk. Wisk that together and cook for 10 minutes. Wisk in the cream of soup and tuna, add pepper to taste.

-Drain the pasta and onions just before al dente -or fully cooked- and pour into a 9x13 or larger casserole pan.

-Add the cream tuna sauce, peas and carrots to the pan and stir it all up really well.

-Sprinkle the top with the cheese and breadcrumbs. Add tiny pats of butter to the top.

-Bake for 35 min.

-Serve in a bowl with a nice sprinkling of nutritional yeast.

This filled my casserole pan and is quite hearty. This single dish will more than feed the seven of us (yep, even Max had a good bit). I hope to get more sustaining and use peas and carrots, milk and butter from our farm when we have it. Perhaps grind our own flour, fish the tuna and make the cheese. I already did well with the onions and breadcrumbs.

Baby steps and good food. That's what this is about.

Potato Zuke Bake

Quick, easy and yummy is how I like to cook. I'm not a great chef by any strech of the term. I'm a simple stay at home mom and I make simple at home food. I don't have time for bouillabaisse or reductions. Heck, I don't even know what those are! I also hate measuring. So, true to form, here is another almost recipe.

Potato Zuke Bake

Ingredients

4 medium russett potatoes
2 medium/large zucchinis*
Parmesean cheese
Romano cheese
Sharp White Cheddar cheese**
Salt/pepper to taste
1/2 stick of butter
Breadcrumbs

Instructions

-Chop up the potatoes and zucchini into 1/2" pieces (the smaller they are the quicker they cook but not too small or they'll just smoosh). Place in a large casserole dish all mixed up.

-Shred cheese over top evenly. I used about 1/2 cup total but you can use more if you like. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Top with 5 pats of butter, one in each corner and one in the middle. Sprinkle generously with breadcrumbs and add another 4-5 pats of butter on the top.

-Bake at 350 for 20 minutes. If your potatoes aren't cooking on the top, mix them up a bit so they're on the bottom and cook another 5-10 minutes.

*I used a quart sized freezer bag I had filled with chopped zucchini from late last year when it was uber on sale. Fresh is good but you can also use the zukes straight from the freezer without defrosting.

**I picked up some really great local Amish Made Sharp Cheddar Cheese over at the Bearss Farmers Market here in Tampa. It's well priced and made in Plant City. This is part of my desire to keep small local farms in business. Besides, they make a heck of a cheese.

My love/hate with Rice

Rice is a staple for a lot of cultures and diets. It's got some good stuff in it. I don't know what stuff it is, but it's good. While my grocery list has been evolving into a staples and supply list, I've changed from buying the white 5 minute boil a bag rice to brown loose rice. From my understanding, white rice is a poor substitute for its more colorful and varied bretheren; wild and brown rice. Plus those two hot shots of the grain world have a more varied and unique taste experience which I actually prefer.

Using the insanely simple ratio of 1:2 - that being one part rice to two parts water- I went about cooking my visually stimulating rice mixture that I concocted out of several different types of rice. I learned right away that I suck at cooking regular rice. The first time I burned the rice to the bottom of the pan and we had pizza instead. The rice side I made for last month's tilapia was not unlike oatmeal. At all. The egg fried rice I made last week was crunchy. Yeah, good stuff.

Last night I made rice stuffed peppers. Dinner is usually whatever time the kids look like they're about to gnaw off a limb between five or six. So, since starting the rice at four didn't work last time, yesterday's rice got cooked at two. An hour later I think I have some nice rice this time.

Now you may be thinking "Yeah, but isn't those fancy rices more money?" The answer is yes...and no. If you buy the prepackaged rices you will probably end up paying quite a tidy bit more. I found my rice in the bulk bins at Whole Foods. One pound of rice will last a good long while, remember it expands as it cooks. Also, if you mix the less expensive brown rices with the more flavorful fancy ones you get a good average price that isn't too far off the white rice prices. Remember, that additional packaging of the convinience rices costs money.

But for you economists out there lets take a look, if you were to buy your rice off Amazon for instance:

UB's Boil bag rice = 7.9 ounces x12 = roughly 90 ounces of rice or 5.6lbs. $34.78*/5.6 = $6.21 per lb
*price dosen't include shipping.

Lundberg fancy rice =16 ounces x6=96 ounces of rice or 6lbs. 15.91*/6=$2.65 per lb
*price includes free shipping

That's just a quick estimate. But you get the point. Eating healthier, harder to cook rice won't break the bank. Plus, I feel better about what my family is eating, the rice will last longer sealed in air tight jars than holey bags in a cardboard box and you can proportion how much you make, more or less. It's harder to throw in a handful of rice into a homemade chicken soup simmering on the stove if you have to crack open a specialy designed bag.

While I might not ever get down to Martha perfection on my rice making capabilities, I'm working my rice one meal at a time.

Vegetarian stuffed pepper halves

Popeye Pockets

Mmmmmm. A dinner Popeye would be proud of. Here's a little recipe for a night you need a quick meal. They're really scrumptious, full of vites and very hearty. And guess what? I got the kids to eat them. I think that's all the recommendation I need to give. It makes a ton. Potluck here I come.

Ingredients

2 packages crescent rolls

1 8oz package of cream cheese

1 4oz package of Feta

1tsp teeny diced garlic (or more if you prefer)

1 frozen box of spinach, thawed and drained throughly

1 can of sliced black olives

1 can of quartered non-marinated artichoke hearts

some chopped tomato

a bit of shredded parmesean

Mix the spinach, cream cheese and feta in a mixer till it's all well mushed together. Lay out the crescent rolls as they come in the little triangles. Spoon about 1 -2 Tbs of the spinach mix into the center of the fat end of the roll. Put a quarter of 'choke on top and a few slices of black olive and some totatoes, not too many because the more liquid the harder it'll be to cook the inside roll. Fold in the sides then roll it together to make a little round "pocket". Sprinkle the tops with the parmesean. Cook on 325 for about 15-20 min. or until you're satisfied with the brownness and the inside is done (best way is to cut one open to check). Enjoy!

Ravioli Factory

Today, I forced little laborers to crank out almost a hundred pumpkin/butternut squash raviolis (before you start yelling at me, I totally helped). We're expecting company on Saturday and I haven't seen my dear friend Chellie* since she moved up north and I want to make her visit to our house a nice memory on her crazy East Coast tour. And maybe if I distract her with yummy food she won't notice the dirty parts of the house we're probably going to miss.

Super easy and fun to make I got the recipe off some site but as is true to my nature had to change the darn thing because I could. I cooked up a BNS I had in the fridge, gutted it and pureed it with a can of pumpkin, tossed in nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice without really measuring and about a cup of grated Parmesan cheese. Wetted the edges of precut wonton wrappers with some whisked up egg and filled each with 1/2 tsp filling, folded in half and pressed shut.

The kids decided these were just the greatest thing to chef (it's a verb of cooking in case you were unawares) and could be filled with so many things, as the kids mused, like cheese, peas or orange juice. Just whatever your stuffed-pasta heart desires. 

There's a sage/butter sauce that goes with this and I'll toast up some pine nuts from the pantry to go along. Add a side salad and some yummy chocolate cherry brownie cookies and the bliss will be so overwhelming she might think I live in Martha's house. At least I can hope.

*Chellie is a funny zombie loving librarian musician that can be twittered @chelliemo