Food Storage Friday: Raspberry and Spinach Pasta Salad

I created this recipe with my extremely limiting dietary restrictions in mind using things I happened to have in my fridge and pantry. So if you aren't married to a vegetarian and you aren't breast-feeding an infant with moderately severe reflux, feel free to add some grilled chicken strips, mandarin oranges, feta cheese and/or chopped kiwi fruits. I actually can have kiwi, I'm just out.  You can serve it as a side (I had mine with grilled fish) or eat it as a light meal. Whatever floats your boat.

Raspberry and Spinach Pasta Salad
Food Storage Ingredients:
3 Tablespoons toasted almonds
2 cups cooked pasta
2 teaspoons of olive oil
1/4 cup raspberry vinaigrette dressing (I used Private Selections from Smith's because it doesn't use soybean oil.)

Fresh Ingredients:
handful of fresh raspberries, torn in half
1 Bartlett pear, chopped
1 large handful of baby spinach

1. Coat cooked pasta with olive oil. 2. Toss all ingredients together.

I love this because a) I'm allowed to eat it, b) it's healthy, c) it's delicious and satisfying and d) it's super quick and easy to make. We have a winner! If I were in a situation where I was using only my food storage I could use reconstituted dried raspberries and canned pears and probably just forgo the spinach. The fresh is better, but I could make do without.

Food Storage Friday and Vegetarian Link-Up

 My husband has recently decided to be a vegetarian. And I sort of follow suit because I don't want to bother making two or three meals every night. Right now I find that if I go two or three days without eating meat I start feeling weak and nauseated (more so than usual). I also found that when I don't eat meat I don't gain weight, which I need to be doing right now. I don't need a lot of meat to fix the problem, a turkey sandwich will usually do the trick, but I have to have meat. Perhaps I will give it a more concerted effort when I am not trying to grow a person in my belly. For now I cook vegetarian meals at home and when we go out to eat, or sometimes when I'm at work I eat meat. (The kids don't really like to eat meat anyway, except for the occasional chicken nugget.) So I'm eating some meat, but not very much.
 So why go vegetarian? Here are a few bonuses about the lifestyle:

• It dramatically lowers your cholesterol and calorie intake.
• Cutting out the meat significantly reduces your grocery bill.
• Vegetarian protein sources are cheaper to store and last significantly longer in your food storage than canned or dried meat.
• Meat is unfortunately "fortified" with steroids, antibiotics and growth hormones. None of which I recommend taking without a prescription.
• It forces you to pay attention to think about what you are eating. While you are looking at the ingredients, it's more likely that you may be thinking 'Is this good for me?'
• Vegetarians live longer and don't get sick as often.
• Going vegetarian leaves a smaller carbon footprint.

 Here's the my vegetarian experiment of the week:

Crock Pot Pepper Pasta
Food Storage Ingredients:
2 cans (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
1/8 cup olive oil
2 cans (6 oz) tomato paste
2 Tablespoons jarred, pre-chopped garlic
1 Tablespoon dried basil
1 Tablespoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/2 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
1 lb pasta, prepared according to directions

Fresh Ingredients:
3 bell peppers, chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
6 Tablespoons shredded Parmesean

1. Mix everything except pasta and cheese together in crock pot. Cook on low for 7 hours or high for 3 hours. 2. When sauce is almost done prepare pasta. 3. Season sauce to taste. Serve with Parmesean.

This stuff made my house smell wonderful. I served it over whole wheat pasta with green apples and french bread (in the interest of providing something I could guarantee my kids would eat.) I thought the sauce was a little thinner than I liked, so next time I may drain one of the cans of tomatoes. My husband loved it the way it was and used his french bread to soak it up.

Now I am well aware that giving up meat is a huge life-style change. I obviously can not say that I have managed to do it. But if you can reduce the amount of meat that you're eating, think of the benefits. You will save money and improve your health, (which also saves you money). It has taken a little work and experimentation, but I have found myself trying and loving many foods that I never would have thought of trying before. Vegetarian cooking has also given me a boost of confidence in my culinary skills. Where my husband works they go out to eat/order in pretty frequently, and usually he's more interested in my leftovers than what is available at local restaurants. Haha!  So this week I am inviting anyone out there to share their favorite vegetarian recipes. And if it includes rice, pasta, oats, potatoes, wheat or beans, all the better!

Food Storage Friday: Chicken and Easy Fresh Pesto

Last Saturday when I got my fresh herb pack from Bountiful Baskets, I knew that I needed to make some fresh pesto, and as I was eating it I thought 'Why haven't I blogged about this before?' It's so easy and delicious. Enjoy.

Chicken, Pasta and Pesto
Food Storage Ingredients:
10 oz pasta, prepared al dente
1/2 cup olive oil
2 Tablespoons almonds, toasted
1/2 cup Italian dressing

Fresh Ingredients:
2 lbs of chicken
2 loosely packed cups fresh basil
2 cloves fresh garlic
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
dash of lemon juice
additional Parmesan for garnish (optional)

1. Marinate chicken overnight in Italian dressing. Or to make life easier follow these instructions. 2. Cook chicken as desired. Grill it, bake it, whatever pleases you. My favorite is to throw it in my medium-sized crock pot frozen and cook on low for 8-10 hours. 3. When you are almost ready to eat, puree almonds, cheese, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and basil in a food processor to desired coarseness. 4. Spread over chicken and pasta.

Notes: The recipe that I originally based my pesto on called for salt. I feel like the cheese makes it salty enough, but if you like it saltier, by all means. Pesto traditionally calls for pine nuts or sometimes walnuts. I use almonds for two reasons. a) I do not like pine nuts or walnuts. b)Almonds are significantly less than pine nuts or walnuts. Once when I was a girl my grandpa took me up in the mountains to hunt for pine nuts. I decided that it was way too much work for something that just didn't taste that great. (The last time I was at Costco, a 3 lb bag of pine nuts was about $28. I'll stick with almonds, thank you.) I also keep a jar of pesto in my pantry, just in case. Since this is a meal my family is familiar with, we could get by on a meal of jarred pesto and pasta, but the fresh is much better.
 If you happen to have a large quantity of fresh basil (whether from your garden or your Bountiful Basket), you can make this and freeze it. Just leave out the oil and cheese and add those when you are ready to serve. Usually I make my pesto as I have spelled out above. This time I added a touch of fresh oregano, thyme and rosemary because I had them. Very delicious.

Food Storage Friday: Italian Chicken and Peppers

Spaghetti noodles are one of those food storage items that if you play your coupons right you can get for free, and even if you don't coupon, you can still get them for very cheap. Unfortunately my husband does not like spaghetti. I generally make it once a year and that's only if I am willing to make or purchase meatballs. (Heather doesn't like meatballs.) Recently when I was at the grocery store they were offering samples of this recipe. I thought, hey this is great and my kids liked it too. And I incorporated  those green bell peppers that came in last weeks Bountiful Basket. Food storage victory.

Italian Chicken and Peppers
Food Storage Ingredients:
1 package of spaghetti
1 jar (24 oz) pasta sauce
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 can (4 oz) mushrooms (optional)

Fresh Ingredients:
2 lbs chicken tenders
2 green bell peppers (medium)
2 medium yellow onions, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
shredded Parmesan (optional)

1. Cut green peppers into 2 inch strips. (I chopped mine more finely to increase the likelihood of my kids eating them. This plan actually backfired. This time they refused the sauce all together.) 2. Heat  fresh vegetables and chicken tenders in olive oil in a large pot over medium heat, until chicken is thoroughly cooked. 3. Stir in sauce and cook until bubbling. Add mushrooms if desired 4. Serve over cooked spaghetti.

Notes: My husband and I really liked this. Hooray I found a way to get my family to eat spaghetti! Although my kids ate the samples in the store, when I made it at home they opted for plain noodles with a little cheese sprinkled on top. Whatever. :S I used whole wheat pasta (13.25 oz) and Classico Spicy Tomato and Basil Sauce with happy results. The original recipe called for 16 oz of plain spaghetti noodles. I liked it with the whole wheat noodles better. When I was digging through my freezer for chicken I found 2 lbs that were marinated in an Italian Herb dressing. Wow, that smelled amazing while it was cooking.

Food Storage Friday: Red Pepper Pesto Pasta

My husband originally made this when we had numerous red peppers from one Bountiful Basket and it became a favorite for Meatless Mondays. He can't remember where he found the recipe and we tend to wing it every time. It's fairly simple and delicious.

Red Pepper Pesto Pasta
Food Storage Ingredients:
1-2 Tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 cup sliced almonds
Italian spices to taste (rosemary, sweet basil, Italian parsley)
1 7oz can of mushrooms, drained
salt and pepper to taste
8 oz of pasta, cooked according to directions

Fresh Ingredients:
2 red bell peppers
1 clove garlic
freshly grated Parmesan

1. Broil red peppers until blistered on a pan covered in foil. (Similar to peppers for chile relleno) When thoroughly blistered, remove from oven and wrap in foil from pan. Allow to sweat for 10-15 minutes. 2. Toast almonds in oven. (In the same pan if you wish.) 3. Remove peels, seeds and stems from peppers and put remaining pepper pieces in a small blender. 4. Add olive oil, almonds, garlic and spices and puree. 5. Top each plate of pasta with half of canned mushrooms, red pepper pesto and freshly grated Parmesan.

I served it with some toasted Rosemary sourdough bread from Costco.

Food Storage Friday: Chicken Alfredo

There are two ways of doing this. And I have tried both. I store Classico Alfredo sauce in a jar, canned mushrooms, add cooked chicken and serve over cooked pasta. Most often I put slightly more effort into it. Not as much effort as say a traditional chicken alfredo recipe, because that just takes too long to make on a regular basis.

Chicken Alfredo
Food Storage Ingredients:
1 teaspoon of dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon of dried rosemary (optional)
16 oz dried pasta (I usually use bow-tie or penne)
1 cup evaporated milk
1 4 oz can mushrooms
1 Tablespoon dried minced onions
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
2 Tablespoons chopped sundried tomatoes (optional)


Fresh Ingredients:
1-2 cups cooked and seasoned chicken
1 Tablespoon of butter
1 teaspoon lemon juice
4 oz neufchatel (low-fat cream cheese)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. 2. Simmer evaporated milk and neufchatel. After cheese softens whisk into milk until smooth. 3. Whisk in Parmesan. 4. Stir in remaining ingredients. Serve over pasta.

We made roasted eggplant and baked zucchini with caramelized tomatoes and mozzarella to go on the side. The roasted eggplant was AMAZING. The next time we get eggplant in our Bountiful Basket I'll have to write a post about it with pictures. Wow, I wish I had one right now. It's so good.

Notes: So for this batch of Alfredo sauce I sauteed 3/4 cup of fresh mushrooms in a dash of olive oil with some garlic. It was delicious, but most often I just use the canned variety. I also added in some fresh rosemary and a tiny bit of parsley because I had it from our Italian pack. I have used canned chicken in this recipe before. It's still pretty good, but not as good as fresh grilled and it doesn't reheat as well. I found a version of this recipe in a book that I once read on a very slow night shift years ago. I can't remember the name of it, something about tips for raising a family without losing your sanity. I've tried finding the book, but since I can't remember the author or actual title. I did photocopy a couple recipes that I combined into this one. Both of the them called for a cube of butter, 8 oz cream cheese, heavy cream and a great deal more salt. So although this is not my healthiest of recipes, it's delicious and significantly more healthy than what I started with.

Chicken Soup

So I'm at home with my sick kids and what makes this even more thrilling is that I have no voice. I feel like I'm screaming to barely be audible. And frankly right now I just want a nap, but I'm waiting for the munchkins to fall asleep. So while I wait I'll blog about what I made for lunch. I found this recipe on the foodnetwork, but I modified it to make it easier and a little healthier. (Does anyone out there actually make their own chicken stock? Who has that kind of time? Does it really make that much of a difference?) I feel like this recipe really hits the spot when you're sick. (And when you and your family are sick, do you really want to spend your whole day in front of the stove? I didn't think so.) The combo of chicken broth, garlic and cilantro does wonders.

Easy Chicken Soup

1 medium onion
3 garlic cloves
2 medium carrots
2 celery ribs
2 T fresh cilantro
2 T olive oil
1/2 tsp dry thyme
2 qts chicken stock/broth
1 1/2 cups cooked chopped chicken
8 oz dry whole wheat noodles

1. Throw first 5 ingredients in food chopper.
2. Sauté in olive oil in a soup pot for about 5 minutes. Add chicken stock. Bring to a boil.
3. Add remaining ingredients and cook until noodles are tender.

Book Review: Deceptively Delicious

My husband is allergic to almost all raw vegetables and many cooked veggies too. My kids just generally won't eat them. This makes getting my family to eat well-balanced meals a challenge, too say the least. I thought Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfield, might be able to give me some pointers on getting my family to eat better, and it does. She has lots of great ideas. I haven't tried all of her recipes, but there are some good ones, as well as different tips on getting your family to eat better.
The recipe that I go back to the most is Macaroni and Cheese (with Cauliflower). My spin on it is below. The cauliflower isn't totally hidden, but I like the taste and my kids don't mind either. We have a winner! She suggests using pureed butternut squash as an alternative to cauliflower, but I don't know if I could pull that off. As it stands, this recipe is lowfat (as compared to regular mac & cheese), high in fiber, calcium and vitamin C and folic acid. It's pretty quick and easy to make (if you have the puree ready) and reheats well. I've made this for my brothers-in-law (who are very anti-vegetables and pretty picky eaters) and they eat it without complaint.

Macaroni and Cheese (with Cauliflower)
1 1/2 c macaroni
Nonstick cooking spray
1 T olive oil
2 T flour
3/4 c skim milk
3/4 c cauliflower puree (see below)
1 c shredded reduced fat Cheddar cheese
3/4 shredded reduced fat Mozarella cheese
4 oz Neufchatel
1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper
1/2 t Tabasco sauce

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain.
2. While cooking pasta coat medium sized saucepan with cooking spray and heat on medium. Add oil, then flour and cook stirring constantly until mixture is a thick paste, but not browned.
3. Add milk and Neufchatel. Mix until smooth. Add remaining sauce ingredients and mix until melted and smooth. Add pasta.

Cauliflower Puree
This takes a little bit of time beforehand, but I think it is well worth it.
Cut out core of one head of cauliflower and discard. Cut head into quarters. Steam for 8-10 minutes. Blend one quarter at a time with a few tablespoons of water until you have a smooth texture. Freeze in small tupperware containers until ready to use.

Other favorite recipes from this book include: french toast, carrot cake muffins and burgers 1.