Sauteed Veggies With Noodles

Like My Dill Garnish? :P

Here is another one of my Mom's uber yummy vegetarian dinner recipes. I loooove to make this dish! It's very easy to make, so good, and healthy too.

You'll Need-

• 1 small Zucchini, sliced.
  
• 1 can of quartered Artichoke Hearts, drained and chopped.
• 1 carton of fresh Cremini or baby Portabella Mushrooms, sliced.
• 1/4 of an Onion
• Around 2 cups of a pasta of your choice, I used Rotini.
• Water
• Salt
• Pepper
  
• Parmesan Cheese
• 1 tablespoon Butter
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Around 1 tablespoon Red Wine Vinegar
• Parsley flakes (optional)

1. Start by chopping your zucchini, onion, and mushrooms on a cutting board, then put them into a pan and saute them with about 2 tablespoons of Olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper.
2. Now that your mushys, onion, and zucchini's are sauteing, start boiling two cups of pasta, I used Rotini this time, but I have been known to use all sorts of noodles, including spaghetti.
3. While your pasta is boiling open the can of artichoke hearts and drain the excess juice from the can, set them aside.
   
4. Add about a tablespoon of red wine vinegar to the veggies, saute a little longer, and then add the artichoke hearts to the mix.
5. Add the tablespoon of butter to the veggies.
6. While the pasta is boiling add several spoons full of the pasta water to the sauteing vegetables to keep them nice and moist and create a little bit of sauce.
7. Add grated Parmesan cheese to the mix now.
   

Once your pasta is aldente drain and add pasta to veggies, mix together and serve. You can add some more Parmesan when you serve. Also try making this dish with red bell pepper, fresh asparagus, or black olives, which are my personal favorite to add. Enjoy!

Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta Salad

This salad is so good it should be called yummy salad x 2. It's a variation of a salad my Mom used to make, I just added a few different ingredients and subtracted some ingredients I don't care for. I invite you to do the same, add and subtract to create your own yummy-ful masterpiece!

Ingredients:

• 1 bag Rotini pasta
• 1/2 a bottle to a whole bottle of Kraft Sun-Dried Tomato Vinaigrette (depending on how much you like salad dressing ).
• 1 can black Olives, left whole or chopped.
• 1 small plastic carton of Cherry Tomatoes, left whole or chopped in half.
  
• 1/2 an Onion diced.
• 1 Cucumber diced.
• Salt
• Pepper

How to prepare:

1. Fill a large pot with water, salt the water. Bring the water to a boil and add pasta. Cook the pasta until Al Dente. Put a large Colander in the sink and dump pasta into it to drain the water. Run cold water over the pasta while it is still in the Colander. Make sure to drain all the water from the pasta then pour it into a large mixing bowl. Salt and pepper it to your liking and toss it to mix.
   
2. Wash all the vegetables and dice them. Drain the black Olives and chop them. Add vegetables and Olives to the pasta, toss together well.
3. Add the Sun-Dried Tomato dressing to the mixture and toss well again. Taste a noodle to make sure you put the right amount of salad dressing on. Start off putting very little in, after all you can always add more, but you can't take it back out!
4. Enjoy your salad, make sure to keep it refrigerated and it should stay good for about a week.
   

Banana Bread Muffins

These muffins are really perfect for any morning, but they would make an especially great breakfast for Christmas morning!

This recipe calls for:
-1 and 1/2 cups flour
-1/2 cup of sugar
-2 eggs
-1 and 1/2 cup of mashed ripe bananas
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1/4 cup oil
-1/4 cup water
-1 and 1/2 cups Post Banana Nut Crunch cereal

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Mix Flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a good sized bowl. Mash your bananas on a plate, I found cutting the bananas into slices and then using a large fork to mash works best. Add mashed bananas, eggs, oil and water to mixture. Stir until moistened, then stir in cereal. Pour into a greased muffin pan, or pans depending on the size. Bake 55 to 65 minutes, or until you can stick a toothpick in the centers and it comes out clean.

You can make a batch now and freeze them and on Christmas Eve take them out of the freezer to thaw and in the morning warm them in the oven or microwave, or make them fresh Christmas Eve. Either way they're sure to be a hit!

Amazing Vegetarian Lasagna

This is the most amazing lasagna I have ever had in my life, in fact I had never really even liked lasagna till I tried this recipe. It's so good I made it for dinner last Valentine's Day for my boyfriend, who absolutely loved it. Just looking at the picture of it makes me hungry, and trust me the picture does not do it justice. This recipe is from a Martha Stewart magazine but tweaked by my Mom. Herbivores and carnivores can both agree that this veggie lasagna is simply delicious!




The recipe calls for:

-1 large jar of marinara sauce (28 oz or larger) or pasta sauce of your choice
-1 lb no boil lasagna noodles (it's important to use the no boil kind, otherwise it doesn't taste as good).
-8 oz. button mushrooms finely chopped
-1 clove garlic, minced
-1 and a half cups zucchini, diced small
-1/2 cup red or green pepper ( I use red), diced small
-1 cup chopped onion
-3/4 cup grated Parmesan
-4 cups roughly chopped fresh spinach leaves
-5 cups grated mozzarella
-1 and 1/4 cups Ricotta
-1 tsp salt
-1/4 tsp pepper
-2 tbsp olive oil

How to make the sauce-
Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large pot; add the onion, garlic, salt and pepper. Cook for one minute stirring frequently. Then add the mushrooms, zucchini and bell pepper. Cook, stirring until just tender ( about 5 minutes ). Add the jar of marinara and simmer one minute. Add the chopped spinach and simmer for one minute. Remove from heat.

Assembly-
Spray a 9x12 pan, or casserole dish. Place a thin layer of sauce in the bottom of the pan and spread around. Top with a layer of no boil noodles. Next spread 1/3 of the Ricotta, then about 1 and a half cups sauce, then sprinkle 1 cup of mozzarella and 3 tbsp Parmesan. Repeat this process two more times. Finish off with a layer of noodles, the remaining sauce, remaining Parmesan and mozzarella cheeses.

Baking-
Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 20 more minutes. Let rest for 10 minutes before cutting.

Bestest Spinach Artichoke dip ever...

After eating my friend Kim's Spinach Artichoke dip at a party a couple of years back I was in love and had to have the recipe! It's great party food, and simple to make. So here it is thanks to Ms. Kim!

You'll need-

1 16 ounce tub of lite sour cream
1 16 ounce tub of whipped cream cheese
1 block frozen spinach (usually 10 ounces)
1 can artichoke hearts
1 packet dehydrated vegetable soup mix
1 tsp. lemon juice (optional)
Shredded Colby Jack cheese or Cheddar

Rinse spinach until no longer frozen. Drain artichokes and chop in small pieces. Mix all ingredients but the cheese together in a large oven-safe bowl. Sprinkle top with shredded cheese and bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until cheese on top is melted.

Or, you can put the mixture in a bread bowl and bake at 425 degrees until the bread is crusty and the dip is warm.

Crispy Halloween treats!

This is a recipe and how-to for Halloween tortilla crisps. They are very inexpensive, fun, and easy to make, not to mention very yummy! This recipe calls for:

-10 six inch flour tortillas
-1/4 cup melted butter
-1/2 cup sugar
-1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
-a cookie sheet ( I used more than one)
-cookie cutters in Halloween shapes, or a template traced onto wax paper, cut out the pattern and use kitchen scissors to cut out the shapes from the tortillas.

- Heat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter, put into bowl with basting brush. Mix cinnamon and sugar together, put into a bowl.

Using cookie cutters, or a template begin cutting your shapes out of the tortilla's, depending on the size of your cookie cutter you should be able to get several out of one tortilla. You can use the scraps too, they won't be as pretty but they'll taste as good!











After shapes are cut out, brush melted butter onto both sides, then sprinkle one side with cinnamon sugar mixture. I recommend doing this on a cooling rack over a plate, it's less messy and you can reuse the cinnamon sugar that falls onto the plate.


Place shapes onto cookie sheet(s) and bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool for about 15 minutes. Give them away as a Halloween treat to family and friends, or keep them for yourself to enjoy!

Spanish Coffee Cake

Here is a quick recipe for Spanish Coffee Cake, I've been baking it since I was in grade school. It's the perfect breakfast for cool fall mornings, and it is simple to make. This recipe is from my great aunt. You will need the below ingredients and an 8 x12 pan, plus the usual measuring cups, spoons and cooking utensils.

-2 and a half cups sifted flour
-1 cup brown sugar
-3/4 cup white sugar
-1 tsp. cinnamon
-1 tsp. salt
-1 tsp. nutmeg
-3/4 cup vegetable oil
Mix all these ingredients throughly, then remove 3/4 of a cup for the topping, set aside.
With the remaining ingredients add:
-1 tsp. baking soda
-1 tsp. baking powder
-1 egg
-1 cup sour milk ( mix1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice with milk to sour it.) ((I don't recommend using the milk that has been sitting in the back of your fridge for a month! ))
Mix all ingredients together, beat for several minutes. Pour into pan, sprinkle topping that has been set aside on top and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.