I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving…in order to balance all what we ate during the holidays I am making a pasta dish with veggies…this recipe is very simple and yet savory with lots of different veggies which makes the pasta pretty appetizing for the eyes as well.

Ingredients:

2 ~3 carrots, shredded
2 zucchini, shredded
1/3 cup frozen peas
Artichoke
2~3 garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoon butter
Sal and pepper to taste
Bow tie pasta

Method:

Cook the pasta as you desire, add the pea as the pasta are about to be ready, so they will be cooked at the same time.

In the meantime, sautee the garlic in the butter, once the garlic start to brown, add the shredded carrot and zucchini, and the artichoke hearts. Add salt and pepper to taste, continue cooking without over cooking it.

Strain the pasta with the green peas and add to the veggie mixture.

Serve hot by topping it with your favorite cheese.

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This pasta is very easy and simple to make. The fun part is on the assembly of the dish. Prepare the pasta sauce (I made chicken meatballs with tomato sauce, the chicken meatballs were from Costco), the pasta (of course), and the baby spinach (wash and spin dry, again from Costco). I love rotelle or fusilli pasta due to its shape.

Ingredients:

1 can of Trader’s Joe Marinara Sauce (or any of your preference)
2 garlic clove, minced
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 lb of chicken meatballs (or any of your preference)
Salt and pepper to taste

1 lb Rotelle or Fusilli pasta

Baby spinach

Pine nuts

Parmesan cheese

Method:

Sautee the onion and garlic with the olive oil. Add the tomato sauce and the chicken meatballs. Let it boil and add salt and pepper to taste.

In the meantime cook the pasta, wash and spin dry the spinach.

Once all the ingredients are ready do the following: place the pasta on the plate, follow by a layer of spinach, then the meatball sauce, the pine nuts and Parmesan cheese if you like. Mix gently and enjoy.

I really like spinach in my pasta, but dislike when is over cooked, therefore when you add to the hot meatballs sauce on top of the spinach you will have it right.

By the way, I am sending this pasta dish to “5 Star Makeover April’10 Past, it is my first entry to a challenge 

Did you know that there are various type of meatballs? The recipes of the meatballs are made depending on the cultural background. Most of the cultures have their version of meatballs and the ingredients used can be from ground meats, fish and even vegetarian. Moreover the meatballs have different names in different countries.

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This is a very easy and simple recipe for weekday dinner. I like to bake the drumstick before placing on the grill, it is faster and cooks evenly. Not to mention that I don’t have to keep “babysitting” the chicken on the grill afraid that it will turn into a charcoal…while the chicken is in the oven I can prepare the side dish. The reason that I use drumstick is because the skin of the chicken gets roasted and taste so good crispy…I know, I know it is not healthy, but once in a while…

Ingredients:

Chicken
3~4 garlic cloves finely minced
1 teaspoon oregano
¼ cup fresh basil finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon cooking wine
8 chicken drumsticks

Orzo 
1 cup orzo pasta
2~3 garlic cloves chopped finely
1 ½ tablespoon butter
2 cups string green beans boiled and cut
Salt and pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese
Pine nuts to garnish

Method:

Chicken
Mix all the ingredients together with the chicken and let it sit for approximately ½ hour. Place the chicken drumstick in the oven for approximately 20 minutes at 350F. In the meantime prepare the orzo pasta.

Orzo Pasta
Cook the orzo pasta as indicated by the instruction of the package, drain and set aside. In a small pan heat the butter, add the garlic and the string beans, sautee for a few minutes until the beans are soft. Add the orzo pasta, salt and pepper to taste, mix gently and remove from the heat.

Once the chicken has been in the oven for approximately 20 minutes, remove carefully and set them on the BBQ grill enough to give the drumstick a roasted color…golden color. Remove and serve with the orzo pasta topped with grated parmesan cheese and pine nuts.

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Well, you must be asking where did the leftover ham come from? I must admit that ham was leftover from Easter dinner, after having so much ham, we just could not see ham anymore, I still had one more chunk left, so I froze it. Now after a while I just thought of reviving the piece of ham that was stored in the freezer…to make the story short, I decided to use the ham to make this simple and easy fried rice, and of course the rice was leftover as well. If you do not have ham, you can always substitute for chicken, sausage or if you prefer, no meat at all :-).

Ingredients:

2 eggs, lightly scrambled
½ bunch of green onion finely chopped
½ large onion chopped
2 cups of frozen vegetables
3/4 to 1 cup ham, chopped
3 cups cooked rice
2 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Sautee the green onion and onion in 1 tablespoon olive oil, once lightly browned add the ham. Stir fry for a couple of minutes and reserve.

Add the remaining olive oil in the pan and stir in the rice, make sure that is well mixed and loose, add the cooked frozen vegetables, egg and ham.

Stir gently until well mixed.

Serve hot.

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I don’t know why I came up with this name…maybe because I used half ground beef and half ground pork…not very creative I must say…
Like many recipes of meatballs that I’ve seen, ground beef and ground pork are mixed together, so I thought why not for a pasta sauce? Well, turn out to be yummie, so here it is…and the amazing thing is that I made breakfast with the leftover, yes…breakfast…can you believe? Stay tune!

Ingredients:

1/3 lb ground lean beef
1/3 lb ground pork
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
1 small onion chopped
½ teaspoon thyme
½ teaspoon oregano
1 can Trader Joes tomato sauce
1 pinch ground allspice
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

In a pan sautee the garlic and the onion with olive oil, add the ground meats. Let it brown.

Add the tomato sauce, thyme, oregano, allspice, salt and pepper.

Cook for approximately 20 minutes in low heat.

Serve over pasta.

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Other day I was browsing a local Korean grocery store and bought a package of Korean glass noodles, so I decided to make it with the ingredients that I had handy in my fridge.
Since I am very familiar with the Chinese glass noodles which usually are thinner, I just thought that I could adapt it and cook these one in a similar way.
You can substitute the Chinese sausage to any other kind of meat or even omit the meat.
When I served it to my husband he had a funny comment “whatever it is…is good”…so here is how I made the noodles.

Ingredients:

Glass noodles
Chinese chicken/pork sausage
1 onion sliced
2 carrots grated
½ bunch of bok choi
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
Sal and pepper to taste
½ tablespoon sesame oil

Method:

In a small pan boil water and add the glass noodles, cook until the noodles are soft.

Drain the water and set aside.

In the meantime, sautee the onion with 1 tablespoon olive oil, until slightly brown, add the sausage.

Remove from the pan, in the same pan add the remaining olive oil and sautee the bok choi and the grated carrot. Once it is cooked, add the sausage mix and the glass noodles, add soy sauce, salt and pepper. Once it is all well mixed add the sesame oil.

Serve warm.

Did you know that glass noodles are transparent noodles made from mung bean, yam, sweet potato or yuca starch? Usually are sold dry and need to be boiled in water in order to eat..

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This is a very simple side dish with lots and lots of green…spinach!

Ingredients:

1 bunch spinach
1½ cups long grain rice
2 tablespoons onion finely chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese grated

Method:

Wash the spinach and boil in approximately 4 cups of water. Let it cook for 2 minutes. Drain the spinach and save the water from the spinach. Chop the spinach and set aside.

In a small pot add the olive oil and the onion, let the onion brown. Add the rice already washed and drained.

Saute the rice so it is covered with the olive oil. Add the chopped spinach and 2 ½ cups of the spinach liquid, salt and pepper. Bring the heat to high, once it starts to boil, lower the heat and let it simmer for approximately 20 minutes or until the liquid has been absorbed by the rice.

Top with parmesan cheese and serve hot.

Did you know that spinach is a rich source of iron and calcium? Moreover, spinach contains more iron than meat and other vegetables. But the iron in spinach is poorly absorbed by the body unless eaten with vitamin C, which is not the case of the iron found in meat. Nevertheless, spinach still has a large nutritional value, it is a rich source of vitamins A, C, E, K, magnesium, and several antioxidants. In addition spinach is an excellent source of manganese, folate, vitamin B12, B6, calcium, potassium, fiber, copper, protein, phosphorous, zinc, omega-3 fatty acids, niacin, and selenium. That explains why Popeye the Sailor Man loved spinach!

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I love fusilli, maybe because of its shape, “traps” better and more sauce. I am sorry if you do not have Trader Joe’s nearby…because some of the ingredients is from Trader Joe’s, but you can always substitute.

Ingredients:

1 lb of lean ground beef
2 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 large onion chopped
1 can of Hunts tomatoes paste (6 oz)
½ teaspoon sugar
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon pasta seasoning blend (Trader Joe’s)

1 lb fusilli pasta (Trader Joe’s)

Parmesan cheese
Dry parsley

Method:

In a pan, heat the oil and add the garlic and onion, let it brown. Add the ground beef and cook until done.
Add the tomato paste and 12 oz of water (use the can to measure), salt, pepper, seasoning blend and sugar. Simmer until the liquid is evaporated. Longer you simmer more flavorful the sauce will be, so don’t rush.

In the meantime, cook the fusilli as instructed in the package. I added some rock salt just before adding the pasta. I learned that it should keep the water “hotter”.

Serve the sauce on the fusilli and garnish with grated parmesan and dry parsley.

Did you know that fusilli in Italian means “little spindles”? And it is known as well as “twisted spaghetti”?

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