…Posts Tagged ‘whole wheat spaghetti’…

Bacon Pea Pasta

I’m not going to lie to you – this is a boring recipe, but darn good. I’m finally paying attention to the bag of frozen, organic peas I’ve had in my freezer since… a VERY long time ago. I’m actually not a big fan of peas (they’re too sweet for me) but if you pair them with bacon, they really balance out the saltiness of it.

This pasta takes all of 15 minutes to make so it’s definitely a weeknight meal

Ingredients:

3 strips of center cut bacon
1 cup frozen peas
2 servings of whole wheat spaghetti
2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

Cook pasta according to the directions on the box. You can use any kind of pasta!

Also cook peas according to package. Usually you just throw them in boiling water for 4 minutes. Heat a pan on medium heat and add bacon that’s been cut up in bite-sized pieces. Add peas.

Heat until everything is fully cooked and heated through. Add pasta.

Sprinkle cheese on top.

Devour.

Yum.

Cold Peanut Noodles

I know I’ve been MIA for quite a while but you’ll have to excuse me, I don’t have air conditioning so I try to keep my stove and oven usage to a minimum. Lately, I’ve been eating a LOT of salads, sandwiches, and yogurt. But I’ve been on a huge sesame noodle kick lately so I thought I would make something similar using peanut butter. Besides boiling the pasta, I didn’t generate a lot of heat so it worked out.

I ended up using whole wheat spaghetti which I wouldn’t necessarily recommend. If you have soba or udon noodles, I think it would be much tastier

Ingredients:
3 servings of whole wheat pasta (cook per instructions)

1 bunch of scallions, diced

1/2 large cucumber, sliced as thin as possible

3 Tablespoons smooth peanut butter (I’m sure you can use chunky, too)

2 Tablespoons low sodium soy sauce

1 Tablespoon sesame oil

2 teaspoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon hot chili sauce

Directions:

In a medium sized bowl, add cooked spaghetti, 3/4 of the scallion and cucumbers.

In a food processor, combine the peanut butter, soy sauce, sesame oil, brown sugar, and chili sauce. I added some water to it because I wanted it runnier. Also, I recommend adjusting the measurements of the sauce to your liking. If you want it to be sweeter, add another teaspoon (which I did) or if you want it more savory, add more soy sauce.

Toss together and top with the rest of the scallions.

It’s a great summer time meal with tons of protein Enjoy!

Don’t worry, I have another sugar-filled post coming your way soon!

First Time Artichokes

My friend Erin and I have an informal cooking club where we cook together with the intent of learning new things. For example, Erin taught me how to make mussels and while I can’t say I feel 100% comfortable touching live sea creatures, at least I learned!

This time, we made artichokes for the first time ever! Neither one of us had ever made it but we both certainly love eating it. I found a relatively easy Giada recipe online so we basically followed that to a T. The only adjustment I made to the Baked Artichokes with Gorgonzola recipe was to not put in thyme so I don’t feel right posting the recipe on the blog. But definitely just print it out and use my pictures to guide you

The first challenge was picking out the artichoke.

I wasn’t really sure what I was looking for, so I just picked the greenest one at Whole Foods. Looked about right…

Then we cut an inch off the top of the artichoke and trimmed back the sharp leaves with kitchen shears.

Then boil…

This recipe is easy but it’s a bit time-consuming, I have to say. It took about an hour and a half, maybe? It’s not a lot of hands-on time, just cooking time.

How cute does this look?

Here’s Erin modeling the arty…

After we  boiled it, we took out the choke with small spoons. This part was a little bit challenging but you just have to dig right in and basically take out the whole middle. Most of it will probably come out right away but then we scraped the inside to get rid of the fibrous parts. Also, this is where you’re going to put in the cheese so the bigger the vessel, the more cheese you’ll get!

Then we made the gorgonzola filling. The cheese I got was pretty strong. Maybe next time I’ll use feta or something…

Put the filling in the artichoke…

Um…and rewind! Here’s me with the trimmed artichokes. I can’t get over how pretty they are!

Top with bread crumbs and parsley…

Bake…and voila!

Eating artichokes are so fun and it’s a great meal to have with people because it forces you to eat slowly and enjoy the process. Also, you never really have a full mouth so it’s not rude

We also made some whole wheat spaghetti on the side. We just chopped up a couple cloves of garlic, sauteed it in olive oil, threw in some diced tomatoes, and then seasoned with red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper.

So quick and easy!

For dessert, Erin made spicy chocolate cookies flavored with black pepper, cayenne pepper, and…cinnamon? Top it with some homemade whipped cream and berries and you have a fun summertime dessert.

When I make homemade whipped cream (which is more often than you think), I just use one of those little cartons of heavy cream and beat that in the mixer. Once it starts to firm up a little bit, I add two tablespoons of sugar. It’s not too sweet but just enough that it still tastes good. It’s cheaper than getting store-bought whipped cream and possibly healthier since it doesn’t have preservatives in it.

Anyway, I encourage you to make artichokes, even if you’ve never tried it. It seems daunting but it’s actually quite easy. And the artichokes themselves weren’t as expensive as I thought they would be. They were $2.50 per piece at Whole Foods. Or is that expensive? Unclear…