Asian Noodle Salad (0 Star)

This salad, courtesy of Pioneer Woman, is chock full of colorful, crisp, sweet, and nutritious vegetables. The dressing is salty sweet spiked with lime, hot pepper, and cilantro. This is the kind of thing that Brandon and I love, but the boys don't consider edible.



Pioneer Woman's recipe makes a ton--she says it makes six servings, but the veggies alone filled my bowl to the twenty cup mark. Also, if you don't plan to eat this right away, my recommendation is to keep everything separate. Keep the salad in it's own bowl, dressing separate, and pasta separate, or the salad will wilt and the pasta will absorb the dressing and get mushy and gross. (Yes, I know this from experience.)

I used whole wheat pasta and I think this might also be good with quinoa in place of the pasta--I plan to try it next time.

Click here for the recipe.

Curried Chicken Pasta Salad (0 Star)

Here is another Pioneer Woman recipe that I made recently--as in this summer. So I may or may not remember what changes I made. I did make changes in order to lower the fat/calorie content. I'm sure it would taste much better the way Pioneer Woman makes it, but we are reducing around here and we don't live on a ranch and burn that many calories every day. Brandon and I enjoyed this and it was fairly easy to make.

I am posting the recipe here with the changes I think I remember making.

Curried Chicken Pasta Salad

3 pounds Chicken, Cooked And Diced/shredded
6 ounces, weight Dry Pasta, Cooked And Drained (I used whole wheat--you know me)
4 whole Ribs Celery, Thinly Sliced - Leaves Included (use Interior Ribs)
¾ cup Golden Raisins
¾ cup Slivered Almonds
½ cup Mayonnaise
½ cup Plain Lowfat Yogurt
1+ Tablespoons milk--add enough to make dressing pancake batter consistency
3 Tablespoons Curry Powder, More Or Less To Taste
1 Tablespoon Sugar, More Or Less To Taste
1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
2 cups red grapes, halved
Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Boil chicken to cook and remove chicken from the broth. Boil pasta in chicken broth.

Dice/shred chicken. Drain pasta.

Mix together mayonnaise, plain lowfat yogurt, milk, curry powder, sugar, salt, and pepper. Whisk together until well combined.

Combine chicken, drained pasta, sliced celery, raisins, almonds, and grapes in a large bowl. Pour curry dressing over the top. Fold together with a rubber spatula. Make sure it’s all combined, then add more of whatever it needs. Make sure the sweet/savory balance is right for you.

Chill for several hours.

Click here to see Pioneer Woman's recipe.

Barbeque Chicken Ranch Spaghetti (0 Star)

This recipe is from Picky Palate (found here) and Brandon and I loved it. I was very surprised that the boys didn't like it AT ALL. Actually, I guess I should have know that onions in the spaghetti noodles would not be well received. Oh, well--toast for them, superb meal for Brandon and I.

I followed the recipe exactly. For the barbecue chicken, I cooked 2 1/2 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breasts in barbecue sauce on low in the crock pot for about 6-8 hours. Then I shredded them and added a teaspoon of salt, two tablespoons of brown sugar and a dash of liquid smoke.

Red and White Pasta (3 Star)

Brandon helped me (he was trying to be nice for Valentine's Day--in between watching the Olympics) make this pasta, courtesy of Prudence Pennywise, for Valentine's Day dinner last night and it was so fantastic! Brandon and I were oohing and aahing and 3 of our boys really liked it, too. I made some bread-crumb-dredged chicken to go with ours, but it was great without it for lunch today. Our second-born only ate the chicken but we should have required him to have at least a bite of the pasta just to find out if he liked it. I guess we were so enraptured in eating our own that we forgot about him. We'll get him next time!



As for the salad, I (actually Brandon made the salad which was a nice Valentine's Day acquiescence on his part since he despises making salad) tossed together torn red leaf lettuce, spinach, diced green onion, sliced apple, bacon bits, dried cranberries, and grated Parmesan cheese. I often put sugared walnuts in this kind of salad, too. We used my current favorite salad dressing from Picky Palate, found here. (Scroll down to the end of the post for "Honey Dijon Dressing".) It is such an easy, delicious dressing.

Cajun Chicken Pasta (4 Star)

Another 4 star rating! Amazing! Although I must clarify by saying that the boys ate only the pasta and chicken, picking out all other foreign objects. Well, close enough, I guess. Brandon and I were happy to take care of their rejected items.

This pasta was divine. It was fantastic. Brandon said it's in his "top five". (What else is in his top five? I should know this.)

I made homemade pasta again. I guess I'm on a homemade pasta kick this week. This time I used this recipe from Allrecipes, making it whole wheat, so I'm copying the recipe below with my changes.

Grandma's Noodles II

Ingredients
1 egg, beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons milk
3/4 cup sifted whole wheat flour
2 Tablespoons vital wheat gluten flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder (optional)

Directions
1.Combine egg, salt, milk. Add flour. (For thicker noodles add baking powder to flour before mixing. [I didn't use baking powder.]) Separate into two balls. Wrap in plastic and rest for 20 minutes.
2.Roll out dough, cut into strips and spread to dry--dust with a little flour. Let dry for approximately 2 hours. (I didn't do the drying part because I didn't have time but I thought my pasta turned out great, anyway.)
3.Drop into boiling water--cook for about 8-10 minutes or until al dente.

I doubled the above pasta recipe to use in the Cajun Chicken Pasta recipe that I found on Pioneer Woman's site. Due to the fact that I wanted to make it right away and had most of the ingredients but not all, I did make some changes, but I'm sure it would have been even better if I had everything the recipe called for. I didn't have tomato so I omitted that, I didn't have a green pepper but I had two red so I used those, I didn't have cream so I used a can of evaporated milk and I used about a fourth a cup of flour mixed into the milk to thicken it all. I also didn't have fresh parsley so I used dried. I didn't have cajun spice so I used paprika, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder in a ratio of 1:1:1/4:1/4 respectively, and I went easy on it, since I did want my boys to eat it. But it definitely had a nice kick. I also used brined chicken again so I didn't add any salt except a little in the sauce.

This recipe cooks fast like a stir fry, so it is beneficial to have all ingredients out, chopped, and ready to go. Cooking it on high heat smoked up my whole kitchen and living room and I didn't burn anything; I guess it just caused my pan and the oil in it to smoke. It made me cough and I had to open up all my windows and turn on all my fans. While I was making this, I was thinking, "I'm never making this again," because it was so smoky and I was making a huge mess, but after eating it, I know I will make it again because it was so awesome.

Spinach Lasagna with Homemade Pasta (2 Star)

Lasagna used to be a popular meal around here, meaning a 75% approval rating. Now we are down to 50%. I don't know why because I think it gets better every time. But the two boys who still do like it, like it a lot and yesterday they ate TONS.

Lasagna is one of those meals in which it is possible to hide many things that my boys will not normally eat. This time I added some zucchini and spinach. Ha ha! It's great when they don't even know they are eating veggies.

I love homemade pasta and while it is some extra work, if I have the time it is worth it. This time I tried spinach noodles and don't you love this picture of the dough? It looks Shrek-ish.




I don't have any pasta making equipment (though I wouldn't mind if I did!) so I made these the old fashioned way with a rolling pin and pizza cutter.



While my second-born was averse to the lasagna as a whole he really liked the pasta. Maybe next time I will make a little extra and cut it into thin strips for a bowlful for him.



(By the way, that is not a hair in the lasagna, that is my scratched up dish! Waa.)

I found the pasta recipe here, but I am including it in this post with my alterations to make it whole wheat. The lasagna recipe is altered from the back of a Ronzoni lasagna pasta box.

Whole Wheat Spinach Lasagna Pasta

Yield: 12 noodles (serving size: 1 noodle)

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup vital wheat gluten flour
3 Tablespoons frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained, and squeezed dry, or fresh chopped spinach
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 Tablespoons milk

Preparation

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Place flour, spinach, and salt in a food processor; pulse 3 times or until blended. With processor on, slowly pour oil, milk, and eggs through food chute; process until dough forms a ball. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes). Or put dough into a bread maker or other machine with a dough hook and knead by machine. Dust dough lightly with flour; let stand 10 minutes.

Divide dough into 4 equal portions. Working with 1 portion at a time, pass the dough through smooth rollers of the pasta machine on the widest setting. Continue moving width gauge to narrower settings; pass dough through rollers once at each setting, dusting with flour, if needed. Repeat procedure with remaining dough. Or roll out with a rolling pin. Cut each pasta sheet into 3 (11 x 2-inch) strips. Hang pasta on a wooden drying rack for 10 minutes. Cook pasta in boiling water 4 minutes or until al dente; drain.

Spinach Lasagna

Ingredients

1-1 1/2 pounds ground beef or sausage
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
26 oz. jar favorite spaghetti sauce
1 can tomatoes or 15-20 oz fresh tomatoes, skins removed and seed slime squoze out (I used tomatoes from our garden that I had frozen.)
1-1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen shredded zucchini
2-3 teaspoons beef base
1 teaspoon hot red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons dried basil
2 teaspoons sugar
16 oz. ricotta cheese
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs
1/4 cup fresh parsley (optional--I didn't add this because I'm scared of fresh parsley but it might be good!)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 cups finely chopped fresh spinach
9-12 lasagna pasta sheets, cooked

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, brown meat and onion, adding garlic in at the end of browning. Drain off excess fat. Puree tomatoes and zucchini until smooth (this is a necessary step for us because texture is unwelcome by certain young ones, but you may only want to chop, grate, crush, whatever, to get your desired texture). Add tomatoes, zucchini, spaghetti sauce, beef base, red pepper flakes, oregano, basil, and sugar to the meat and onion. Season to taste and simmer for 20 minutes or until sauce has reached desired thickness.

While sauce is simmering, in a medium bowl stir together ricotta cheese, half of the mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, eggs, parsley, salt, and pepper. (I skipped the cheese filling this time because I didn't have any ricotta on hand, but it's better with it, of course!)

When sauce is thickened, spread 1 cup on the bottom of a 9 by 13 inch baking dish. Arrange 3-4 cooked pasta sheets lengthwise over the sauce; cover with 1 cup of sauce (or more if needed). Sprinkle 1 cup of the chopped spinach on top of sauce. Spread one-half of cheese filling over spinach. Repeat layers of pasta, sauce, spinach, and cheese filling. Top with layer of pasta and remaining sauce: sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and a little more Parmesan. Bake for 30 minutes uncovered or until bubbly. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Makes 12 servings.