Curried Rice and Snap Peas

photo by sara tady ©

I'm not a big fan of leftovers.  Who wants to eat the same thing 2 nights in a row?  A few weeks ago a made this delicious Beef and Broccoli.  I saved half the rice and peas for a round two recipe the next night.  This had a completely different spin that brought us over to India in a matter of a few minutes.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of basmati rice

a handful of snap peas

1 tbsp of Curry powder

1/2 tbsp of Cumin

2 scallions chopped

Directions:

1. Heat up the rice and snap peas in a sauce pan, or skillet, whatever you have. If rice is dry, add a tablespoon of water.

2. Combine curry, cumin and scallions.  Mix well.

3. Serve with traditional Indian bread, naan.  I get mine in the freezer section at Trader Joe's.

Portobello Mushrooms with Red Wine Reduction

We got these beauties in our produce mix this week.  I make mushrooms this way as salad toppings, a side, mixed in pasta or a delicious topping to a steak or chicken.  They are SO flavorful! I absolutely love these. Cooking with wine can be intimidating at first, but trust me, it's nothing!  Open up a bottle of red wine, pour yourself a glass and get ready to eat in 10 minutes.  You will feel like a gourmet chef after this!

photo by sara tady ©

Ingredients:
Portobello or Crimini Mushrooms (wiped clean with a damp paper towel-do not run under water!)
Red wine
Butter
Salt and Pepper

Instructions:
1) Melt about about 1 tbsp of butter in a non-stick pan.  Medium heat.
2) Drop sliced, unseasoned portobellos or whole crimini mushroom caps in pan to saute 3 minutes.  Do not touch or mix around.
3) Flip over, salt and pepper. 2 minutes
4) Pour about 1/4-1/2 cup of red wine into pan.  Let reduce for 1-2 minutes until wine reduces or becomes absorbed.

photo by sara tady ©

Veggie Pot Pie

photo by sara tady ©

I made a vegetable soup a few weeks ago and froze about half.  This is sooo easy and will bring you back to your childhood.  All you have to do is heat up the soup, make a simple roux, and bake the flaky topping.  Virtually no prep and dinner will be on the table, or in my case, breakfast bar, in less than 30 minutes.  So simple and you'll feel like a pro!

Ingredients:

leftover soup- already cooked

5 tbsp of flour

4 tbsp of butter

1 1/2 cans of chicken stock

1 sheet of puff pastry

1/2 cup of cream or milk

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 400.  

2) Unfold the puff pastry sheet. Trace the top of your serving dish with a knife, cutting through. (Save the excess!!!) Pop into the oven for 13 minutes or so.

3) In a non-stick skillet, make the roux using the above measurements.  

4) Mix in the leftover soup and the 1/2 cup of cream or milk.

5) Pour into serving dish and top with the flaky puff pastry. 

Bonus Dessert:
Cinnamon-Sugar Twists

photo by sara tady ©

Directions:

Cut the leftover pastry dough into 1 inch strips.  Brush with some melted butter, sprinkle on cinnamon, sugar and twist.  Place on a greased baking sheet and bake for 7-10 minutes.  You can bake these at the same time as your pot-pie topping!

Pesto Pasta

photo by sara tady ©

Remember the almond arugula pesto I made?  Here's what I did with it :)

salted some boiling water, cooked some pasta, drained, stirred in the pesto, served with roasted red peppers.  done!  tomatoes would have been key here, I just didn't have any!  enjoy!

Roasted Broccoli Side Dish

photo by sara tady ©

Forget what you know about broccoli.  Especially if what you know is steamed broccoli.  Eeek. 

Roasting broccoli is SO simple, takes 7-8 minutes, and it tastes 100% better!  The good news is you probably have all the ingredients on hand. This is not your mother's broccoli :)

Ingredients:
1 head of broccoli
1 clove of garlic- chopped/grated
extra virgin olive oil (evoo)
red pepper flake
sesame seeds (optional)
salt/pepper

Directions:
1) pre heat oven to 400 degrees
2) cut the heads of broccoli loose from the stalk (trim from the stalk, not the head.  This keeps the florets in tact)
3) throw the broccoli on a baking sheet, add the garlic, salt, pepper, sprinkle on some red pepper flake, drizzle some evoo and use your hands to mix together.
4) pop it into the oven for about 7 minutes. Sprinkle on the sesame seed for the last minute or so.

Enjoy!

Almond Arugula Pesto

photo by sara tady ©

Who doesn't love pesto?  Pesto is usually something I keep on hand in the fridge for quick additions to pasta, sandwiches and I even add a spoonful to my eggs.  I had a beautiful bunch of arugula from our vegetable box and a bag of almonds.  I figured I'd try a spin on the typical basil pesto.  It was delish!  Feel free to substitute basil for the arugula and pine nuts for the almonds if you'd like to make your own traditional pesto.

Ingredients:

1 bunch of arugula

a couple handfuls of toasted almonds (1/3 cup)-toast for a couple minutes in a pan on the stove

1 garlic clove- chopped (2 cloves if you're a garlic lover)

extra virgin olive oil (evoo)

1/4 cup parmesan/ romano cheese

salt/pepper

Directions:

1) In a blender/food processor, drop in arugula, almonds, chopped garlic, parmesan cheese, pepper

2) drizzle in some evoo, put the top on and pulse.  Drizzle in more evoo until the consistency is "sauce-like".  Blend until smooth.

3) taste for saltiness, add salt if necessary.

Vegetable Soup

photo by sara tady ©

Brrrr!  The Blizzard of 2011 left me stranded inside today so I whipped up a big pot of soup with the vegetables I had on hand.  Here's what I used, but please, there are no limits on what you could come up with.

Ingredients:

1 Box of Chicken stock (I use Organic and Free Range)

2 potatoes, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 half yellow onion, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 large, peeled rutabaga (this came in my box of produce)

8 large leaves of Kale, roughly chopped

1 cup of whole wheat Rotini pasta

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Directions:

1) chop all vegetables in roughly the same size- this is key for even cook times :)

2) coat the bottom of a large pot with a thin layer of olive oil, low-med heat

3) drop all vegetables into the pot and simmer, add a liberal amt of salt and pepper - 8-10 minutes

4) add the chicken stock to the pot, turn heat to med, put the lid on, let simmer for another 10 mins

5) in a separate pot, bring water to a boil, salt and drop in pasta- 8 minutes

6) after the noodles are cooked, strain, and drop into the soup

7) salt/ pepper to taste- feel free to drop in other dried herbs you have on your spice rack (think parsley, oregano, thyme, etc)

Pasta with Broccoli, Green Beans and Spinach

sara tady ©

We've all been there.  We went a little crazy at the farmer's market or the produce aisle.  Now we have vegetables that are withering away faster than we can eat them.  Here's my solution:  saute them together with a few special touches, and you've got a heart-healthy pasta dish that can be made a million different ways.

Ingredients:
Fresh green beans
Broccoli
Spinach
Rotini or Cavatappi pasta (a thicker noodle works best vs. a spaghetti type noodle)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Parmasean or Ramano Cheese (that kind you keep in your refrigerator :) )
1 garlic clove

Directions:
step 1: bring water to a boil, add a liberal amount of salt, drop in pasta noodles
step 2: chop ends off of green beans
step 3: chop broccoli into bit sized pieces, eliminating stems
step 4: roughly run your knife through the spinach leaves
step 5: in a saute pan, drizzle some extra virgin olive oil around the pan- just enough to coat the bottom, low-medium heat
step 6: grate in about half a clove of garlic (don't own a grater? you can simply chop it)
step 7: drop spinach leaves into saute pan, let leaves wilt.  Salt and pepper. Keep heat low-medium as to not burn garlic
step 8: When pasta has about 5 minutes to go, drop broccoli and green beans in the same pot of boiling water for the remainder
step 9: strain pasta, broccoli and green beans
step 10: drop pasta, broccoli and green beans into the pan with the spinach, oil, and garlic. Mix.
step 11: mix in some parmasean/ramano cheese and serve!

Penne Pasta, Spinach, Tomato and Basil

photo by sara tady ©

We've been using Irv and Shelly's Fresh Picks for produce for about a year.  We love it, but sometimes it's hard to use all the great fruits and vegetables before they go bad.  I created this tasty pasta dish in an attempt to not let any fresh veggies go to waste.  It's sort of a cross between creamed spinach with pasta thrown in the mix.  It was incredibly hearty, but not too heavy and very basic.  This is the perfect method to throw in any other veggies you have on hand.  I think mushrooms would be great in here- too bad my huz doesn't like them!!  I think you'll be pretty impressed with yourself when you pull off this dish!  

Hope you enjoy :)

Ingredients:

2-3 cups fresh spinach

1/2 box of Penne Pasta 

1-2 cloves of garlic chopped

1/2 cup Half and Half (you could use milk if you prefer...)

1 tbsp of flour

1 tbsp of butter

Chopped cherry tomatoes- 2 handfuls or so (or whatever other tomatoes you have on hand)

Olive oil

Salt and Pepper

Directions:

step 1:fill a pot with water for the pasta.  Bring to boil.  Add a liberal amt of salt to the boiling water, drop in pasta.  Set a timer for the pasta cook time.  Over cooked pasta is the pits!

step 2: finely chop garlic

step 3: in a large non stick skillet, drizzle olive oil into pan (roughly 2 tbsps or so), LOW-MED heat

step 4: drop chopped garlic in to pan, make sure the oil isn't too hot.  We are looking for a small "sizzle factor" here. Saute 2 minutes or so.

step 5: drop in spinach and tomatoes.  Cook until spinach is wilted.  4-5 minutes or so.

step 6: drop in butter, then sprinkle flour on top of spinach, stir together, cook for 2 minutes or so. It's important the flour cooks here. It should look a bit like a paste at this point.

step 7: add the half and half- stir, stir, stir!  Get all clumps out. Let sauce come together and thicken- 2 minutes.  Here's where you'll need to adjust thickness on your own.  If it seems too thick, add some more half and half.  If it seems really runny, add a little sprinkle of flour.  The key is you want the flour to actually have the opportunity to cook.

step 8: salt and pepper your sauce

step 9: drop your drained pasta noodles into the pan and mix together.  Serve!