Baked Ziti with Bacon & Summer Veggies

Adapted from Cooking Light

Chef’s Notes: After much care and talking to my zucchini plants, we FINALLY got a squatty zucchini! I would have used one of our tomatoes, but the BIRDS KEEP EATING THEM; not that I’m angry about it or anything.

Plan of Attack:

1. Cook Pasta

2. Saute Veggies

3. Combine

4. Bake

Ingredients for 2-3:

2.5 oz uncooked ziti

2 slices bacon

1 yellow squash, chopped

1 zucchini, chopped

1 large tomato, chopped

2 garlic clove, minced

½ yellow onion, chopped

2 oz shredded mozzarella, divided (about ½ C)

1 Tbsp fresh basil, chopped

½ tsp dried oregano

½ tsp Italian Seasoning

1/8 C part-skim ricotta cheese

1 medium egg

¼ + 1/8 tsp salt

1/8 tsp red pepper flakes

Cooking spray

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees, cook pasta according to package directions and spray a baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat; fry bacon until crisp. Remove from pan, chop & set aside
3. Add squash, zucchini & onion; sauté about 10 minutes. While veggies cook in a small bowl whisk together ricotta cheese, egg, ¼ tsp salt & red pepper flakes; set aside
4. Add garlic & tomatoes; sauté about 5 minutes
5. Remove skillet from heat and stir in ¼ C shredded mozzarella, bacon, salt to taste, basil, oregano & Italian Seasoning
6. Then stir in ricotta mixture & pasta into the veggies. Spoon into prepared baking dish, sprinkle with rest of shredded mozzarella cheese and bake for 15 minutes
7. Enjoy!

Food for Fridays!

the SupperSmiths, forging one meal at a time

Monterey Pasta Salad

Don't miss the Mega Graduation Recap ----->

Adapted from Cooking Light

Chef’s Notes: For years I was forbidden to make pasta salad. Obviously it was a staple in SmithCale’s home growing up, and after 2 decades he was a little burnt out. So I waited over 4 years before I made one. He welcomes my pasta salad.

Plan of Attack:

1. Boil pasta

2. Mix & Chill

Ingredients for 2:

½ C acini di pepe pasta, cooked according to package directions

¾ C golden cherry tomatoes, halved

¼ C red onion, chopped

1/8 C pickled peperoncinis, chopped

1 Tbsp squeezy parsley

1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

½ Tbsp olive oil

¼ tsp dried oregano

Pinch of salt

1 oz shredded Monterey Jack cheese

1.5 oz salami, chopped

½ C pinto beans (or white beans), rinsed and drained

1 garlic clove, minced

Instructions:

1. Boil pasta according to package directions
2. In a bowl combine all ingredients
3. Cover & Chill for at least 4 hours or overnight
4. Enjoy!

I was really thrilled to have a new magazine waiting for me when we got home Sunday. I needed some fresh inspiration!

So we made the Toasted Chickpea & Apricot Salad. The only thing I changed was we used spinach instead of arugula.

Another last bit of excitement, we had our first cherry tomato from the garden last night!

Food for Life,

the SupperSmiths, forging one meal at a time

Tuesday: Basil Pesto Sausage Puttanesca

Although there's no purple in today's meal, the addition we did buy from Fresh was a Basil Pesto Sausage.

Holy cow. Delicious. And there were at least 15 other varieties that we HAVE to try now.

I subbed the fresh sausage and wilted in a few handfuls of fresh spinach from my previous pasta alla puttanesca recipe and voila!

Tomorrow: purple cauliflower. Get excited!

Food for Convenience,

the SupperSmiths, forging one meal at a time

Tuesday- Pasta alla Puttanesca

Chef’s Notes: Don’t you love being a woman? At random times your mid-section decides to spontaneous explode with bloat. What do you do on those days? Eat carbs! I struggled through 3 miles today sprinkled with irritable outbursts at SmithCale (complete with apologies).

Back to the food, we first heard Spaghetti alla Puttanesca on Biatchin’ Kitchen. She described it as, “spaghetti as a ho would make it.” At first we just thought she was being funny, but then Wikipedia explained she was right! Today we got in touch with our inner hoes, and it was delicious.

Plan of Attack:

1. Cook sausage/onions/mushrooms/sauce

2. Boil pasta

3. Toss

Ingredients for 2:

4 oz spaghetti or linguine, cooked according to package directions

1 tsp olive oil

½ onion, thinly sliced

2 garlic cloves, minced

½ package of your favorite mushrooms

2 sausage links, sliced diagonally (remember how Nolan saved the day last week?)

1 C Puttanesca sauce (found on your pasta sauce aisle)

4-5 fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced

Romano cheese, shredded

Instructions:

1. Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat
2. Add onion; sauté 4-5 minutes until lightly browned and softened
3. Add garlic; sauté 1 minute
4. Add mushrooms; sauté 3-4 minutes until softened
5. Add sausage; sauté 3-4 minutes
6. Add sauce and cooked noodles, warm through
7. Top with basil leaves and Romano cheese
8. Enjoy!

If you noticed SmithCale's tankard he got while we were in Houston at an upscale antique store. The bottom was a seller for him. They just don't make things like they used to; so little violence in our drink-wear anymore.

Food for soothing the savage bloat,

the SupperSmiths, forging one meal at a time

Wednesday- Asparacetta Pasta

Stayed tuned until the bottom to meet my new running companion, and learn about one I have recently banned!

Chef’s Notes: What do you get when you combine Asparagus/Pancetta/Pasta. I think you know :) Our run got rained out yesterday so we did our quick 3 miles today and thus I moved our carbier to tonight to replenish our glycogen stores. So I read my sports nutrition textbooks from college? I paid am paying good money for them, may as well use them to our advantage!

Plan of Attack:

1. Reconstitute mushrooms

2. Bake Pancetta

3. Boil noodles & asparagus

Ingredients for 2:

4 oz pasta of choice cooked according to package directions

4 slices pancetta

½ bundle of asparagus, trimmed and cut into ½” pieces (the rest will be made into this on Friday)

1 oz dried oyster mushrooms (or 4 oz fresh)

2 garlic cloves, minced

Pecorino Romano, grated

Dressing-

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 ½ Tbsp red wine vinegar

1 tsp lemon juice

Salt & pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees
2. Reconstitute mushrooms according to package
3. Boil according to package directions adding asparagus to the pot during the last 3 ½ minutes. Drain; and add to skillet
4. Bake pancetta for 6 minutes. Carefully diced and add to pasta mixture
5. In a small bowl combine dressing ingredients: olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, salt & pepper
6. Add dressing, mushrooms and garlic to the pasta and toss to coat
7. Enjoy!

I have been bugging SmithCale about this watch for literally weeks. I had been using a free running app on my iPhone, but it soon became painfully obvious it was really off. Case in point, on our first 5K it said I only ran 2.98 miles...

SmithCale found that it was on MAJOR sale on Amazon, so we jumped on it! Lemme tell you, it's amazing!

So what if it gives me cancer? What in our society WON'T give me cancer.

Also, I've been keeping something secret: I'm a recovering gum addict.

I'm now on day #6 of being gum-free.

Why give up gum? Well I was chewing like 3 packs a week. I know, crazy. But, also while reading my nifty textbooks it said that if you're suffering from the feeling of "rapid transit" while running (Yes, you assume correctly what that means), that it may because of the sweetner Sorbitol used in sugarless gum.

Since I stopped cold turkey last week, I haven't had that feeling anymore while running. That's including our long run (4.5 mi.) on Sunday which has usually been my most "rapid" feeling runs. As an added bonus it has also cut my snack cravings until they barely exist.

Just something to chew on.

Food for Life,

the SupperSmiths, forging one meal at a time

Tuesday- Tilapia Bundles

Adapted from Clean Eating

Chef’s Notes: I’ve been avidly trying to keep our fish consumption to once a week, but you can only make tilapia filets in so many ways. This recipe intrigued me; at first I just thought it looked beautiful. Then I realized that they were filled with cheesy tilapia. Hmm… some of you know my personal struggle with wanting only marinara/tomatoes in my pasta. I’ve never been a huge alfredo fan, but I thought I’d put on my big girl cheese pants and give it a curdle! Also, the recipe had a green onion portion that was too hard and didn’t really work, so I’ll save you the frustration. The flavor is light and the cheese will delight!

Plan of Attack:

1. Boil lasagna noodles

2. Prep carrot/ Cook tilapia

3. Melt cheese sauce

Ingredients for 4:

8 oz lasagna noodles (we opted for regular over whole wheat, have to say, twas a good choice)

Cooking spray

1 carrot, shredded

1 tsp olive oil

12 oz tilapia filets

4 oz light cream cheese

½ C 1% milk

1 Tbsp fresh thyme (or 1 tsp dried)

½ tsp salt

2 oz Gruyere cheese, shredded

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8x8 baking dish with cooking spray; set aside
2. In a large pot boil enough water to cooking the noodles according to package directions; drain and set aside
3. Heat a skillet to medium heat. Add olive oil and heat about a minute
4. Add tilapia filets and cooking about 1 ½ minutes on each side, then break fish into pieces using your spatula. Continue cooking until fish is cooked through; remove from heat
5. Heat a medium pot on medium heat and add cream cheese, milk and salt. Whisk until fully melted. Then add ½ of the shredded cheese and whisk until smooth again. SET ASIDE ½ C of the cheese mixture (for the top of the dish), then pour the rest of the mixture into the tilapia and mix in the shredded carrot.
6. Assemble the bundles by laying the lasagna noodles on a cutting board a few at a time and placing about 2 Tbsps of the mixture at one end and rolling. Place in the prepared 8x8 dish and repeat until all are stuffed and rolled. (I really had the jam the last few in, but they did fit!)
7. Top the bundles with the reserved cheese mixture and shredded cheese
8. Bake for 25 minutes
9. Enjoy!

Food for the Brain,

the SupperSmiths, forging one meal at a time

Had to share this gooberific picture of me. SmithCale was playing with the setting on our camera and found a smile detector. Obviously you have to roar smile REALLY big to get it to work.

Wednesday- Sausage, Tomato & Arugula Fettuccine

Adapted from Cooking Light

Personal Note: Since I always know what I eat for dinner, I had started to notice a frightening pattern: Not enough pasta! Allow to share another aspect of my growth. There was a time, not too long ago, where Italian food only equaled one thing, pasta smothered in marinara. I still do thoroughly enjoy marinara, but SmithCale is quite stoked I have branched out into the world of non-marinara-smothered pasta!

Plan of Attack:

1. Boil Pasta

2. Cook sausage and tomatoes

3. Toss together with arugula

Ingredients for 2:

4 oz spinach fettuccine, cooked according to package directions (or any fettuccine or pasta you desire)

½ Tbsp olive oil

2 oz Italian ground sausage

1 clove garlic, minced

1 pint cherry/grape tomatoes

Salt and pepper to taste

2 handfuls baby arugula leaves

Sprinkling of grated romano cheese

Instructions:

1. Cook pasta, reserve 1/3 C of cooking water then strain; set aside
2. Heat olive oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Crumble sausage (not too small) and add to pan and brown for 3 minutes
3. Add garlic; sauté 30 seconds
4. Add tomatoes, salt and pepper; cover and cook 3 minutes shaking the pan occasionally
5. Lightly mash the tomatoes with your spatula, and cover and cook a final 3 minutes
6. Remove pan from heat, add reserved pasta liquid, add in pasta and arugula. Stir until arugula wilts
7. Sprinkle with romano cheese
8. Enjoy!

Meatless Monday: Spinach & Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta

Personal Note: I bet you’re wondering, where’s the pasta? I think a lot of people have some sort of pasta dish at least once a week. And technically we do too, it’s just more Asian inspired, I blame SmithCale (he’s a fabulous scapegoat). It wasn’t too long in my history where I would never have thought of having a noodle without bathing it in marinara sauce, which is still a long-time friend of mine (I miss you, friend, I’ll see you Friday). I have evolved a bit and instead of sauce, I’m ok with a sun-dried tomato.

Plan of Attack:

1. Re-hydrate sun-dried tomatoes

2. Cook pasta

3. Toast pine nuts

4. Combine together

Ingredients for 2:

½ C veggie broth

6 dehydrated sun-dried tomatoes (NOT packed in olive oil)

½ + ¼ C whole wheat penne, cooked to the package directions

1 Tbsp pine nuts

½ Tbsp olive oil

1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1 clove garlic, minced

1 bunch fresh spinach, rinsed and torn into bite-sized pieces

1/8 C grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions:

1. In a small saucepan bring the broth to a boil. Remove from heat and add the sun-dried tomatoes and allow reabsorbing for 15 minutes. After the tomatoes have softened, remove the tomatoes while saving the broth. Roughly chop; set aside.
2. Heat a nonstick skillet to medium-high heat, add pine nuts and lightly toast for 2-3 minutes, remove from pan and set aside
3. In the same toasting skillet, heat olive oil. Add garlic and crushed red pepper flakes; sauté 1 minute
4. Mix in the spinach and cook until almost wilted, about 2-3 minutes. Pour in the broth used for the tomatoes along with the chopped sun-dried tomatoes and continue cooking for 2 minutes
5. Either in the same skillet or in a bowl, mix spinach mixture with pasta. Top with toasted pine nuts and parmesan cheese. (I forgot the pine nuts, and didn’t notice until after we had eaten… I was sad)
6. Enjoy!

Nutritional Info:

319 calories

7.5g total fat

51.7g carbohydrates

12.8g protein

6.1g fiber

0mg cholesterol

Monday: Toasted Ravioli

Adapted from Recipe submitted to AllRecipes.com by chefspecialty

Personal Note: Anyone have a bored four year old or lazy, insubordinate teenager? Great, put them to work making this recipe. There’s no cutting, dicing, slicing or flambéing. Just use bought ravioli, two bowls and an oven; sounds like the perfect blend for a restful evening. So grab your snuggie and call it an early night!

Plan of Attack:

1. Bread ravioli

2. Cook

Ingredients for 2:

2 egg whites

1 tsp water

¾ C whole wheat bread crumbs

½ tsp dried oregano

½ tsp dried basil

1 Tbsp grated Parmesan

1 package (9 oz) cheese raviolis, thawed if frozen

Cooking spray

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. In a small bowl beat together egg whites and water.
3. In another small bowl mix together bread crumbs, oregano, basil and Parmesan cheese.
4. Dip each ravioli into the egg whites then transfer and to the bread crumb mixture and pat crumbs onto the ravioli until well covered.
5. Place onto well sprayed cookie sheet and until all are properly coated
6. Before placing in oven spray the tops of the ravioli with cooking spray
7. Bake for 15 minutes
8. Enjoy!

Friday: Cold Sesame Noodles with Chicken & Cucumbers

Recipe adapted from Cooking Light, Sept. 2009

Personal Note: I have to give credit where credit is due. My friend Kate Hansen (we call her California Kate around our house so that SmithCale will know which Kate I’m talking about) had this recipe on her blog a while back, and then it reappeared; so I thought that if it was good enough to mention twice, I should try it! We ate, we loved and now we share! This is a great, easy way to sail into the weekend especially if you had leftover chicken like I did.

Plan of Attack:

1. Cook noodles

2. Combine dressing ingredients

3. Add other ingredients

4. Toss and Eat

Ingredients for 2:

4 oz uncooked thai rice noodles (this is a Smith family favorite, feel free to use any asian noodle of your choice. i.e. udon noodles, egg noodles, etc. But, no pastas, this isn’t Italian.)

1/8 C rice vinegar

1 Tbsp dark sesame oil

1 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce

½ Tbsp honey

1 tsp chile paste with garlic (found in the ethnic section, or you can use sambal oelek (if you happen to know what that is…))

1 tsp fresh ginger, finely chopped

1 C shredded skinless, boneless rotisserie chicken

½ medium cucumber (or more to taste), halved lengthwise and sliced

3 Tbsp chopped green onions

1 ½ Tbsp chopped dry-roasted peanuts

Instructions:

1. Cook noodles according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain and rinse under cold water; drain some more. (Nobody likes a wet noodle)
2. Combine rice vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, honey, chile paste with garlic, and ginger in a large bowl; stir together with whisk.
3. Add noodles, chicken and cucumbers; toss gently to coat
4. Top with green onions and peanuts.
5. Enjoy!

Nutritional Info, per 1 Cup Noodle mixture, 1 Tbsp onions and 1 1/2 peanuts:

302 calories

9.2 g total fat (1.4 g saturated)

40 mg cholesterol

32.6 g carbohydrates

3.1 g fiber

21.5 g protein

Question: Can someone tell me what sambal oelek is?