Easy Pasta Primavera

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Now on to the recipe I made tonight for dinner. I used to love this dish at Olive Garden years ago, but they took it off the menu. So I made my own version using convenient bottled Alfredo sauce. I know, I know. It's cheating but......

Does it get any easier than this?

Easy Pasta Primavera

1 bag of Wacky Mac tri-color pasta (or what ever brand you have)
1 bottle Alfredo sauce (I used Bertolli. It was delicious.)
Olive oil

Slice and add as much as you want of:
zucchini
mushrooms
red pepper
green pepper

Add:
broccoli
grilled chicken (had chicken that was cooked in the crock pot with Mesquite Lime marinade)

Cook pasta per directions on bag. While pasta cooks, saute sliced veggies in olive oil in a skillet until tender. Throw broccoli into the boiling pasta water with 5 minutes left to cook.

Drain pasta and put it back into the pot. Add Alfredo sauce, sauteed veggies and chicken. Combine well and serve!

Garlic Chicken Pasta

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I found this recipe at a great blog called, They Call Me Lucy. Check out her site for a really good picture of this dish. Mine just doesn't do it justice.

I guarantee that this pasta will be sure to please everyone at your table. It is delicious and so full of flavor. Next time, I think that I will add some frozen petite peas for some added dimension.

Garlic Chicken Farfalle

16 oz. Farfalle pasta
1 c. heavy whipping cream
3-4 chicken breasts (boneless, skinless)
2 to 3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 Tbsp. pepper*
1/2 c. butter
1 lb. bacon, crumpled**
1/2 c. shredded Parmesan cheese
1 (12 oz) Lawry’s mesquite marinade with lime juice

Put chicken in crock pot with a bottle of marinade on low for 6 hours. Pull marinated chicken out of the juices, allow to cool a little bit, and shred. Set this aside and pour some of the juices on top of shredded chicken for added flavor.
About a half-hour before serving, boil the pasta. In a small saucepan, melt butter, add garlic, whipping cream, pepper, parmesan cheese, and crumpled bacon. Whisk together on low heat for 3-4 minutes until cheese is melted. In a large bowl, pour over cooked, drained pasta, add chicken and stir through. Sprinkle a little bit more shredded parmesan cheese on top.

Shrimp Monterey

I tried a new recipe this week. This is another recipe from a patient and it was delicious! I love talking food with certain patients. It is interesting how food is like an international language. We all eat it, we all talk about it and we all love it!

When I lived in Italy I thought it was cute how all the ladies would ask, "What did you eat today?"

They wouldn't ask how my weekend was or ask what I was doing that day, like we do here, but they always asked, "What are you eating today?"

They also had a cute saying that goes like this: You never really know someone until you have eaten a peck of salt together.

I took that to mean that when you eat lots of meals together, you really get to know each other.

I think a peck is about 14 pounds! That's a lot of salt!

I guess I didn't really know my husband all that well before we got married. We celebrated our engagement by going on our second date and only saw each other 19 days during our 6 month engagement. We were on opposite sides of the country.

Our "dates" were on the phone and some of those conversations lasted 7+ hours. Almost 10 years later we are still going strong and eating lots of salt together!

Food brings us all together! And doing this blog about food has introduced me to all of you and I am so happy to know so many talented and truly amazing people.

Here's to food!


Shrimp Monterey

2 garlic cloves, minced
2-3 tablespoons of butter
2 lbs. uncooked shrimp*
1/2 white wine or chicken broth
2 c. (8 oz.) shredded Monterey Jack cheese
2 tablespoons minced parsley

Saute garlic and butter in skillet for one minute. Add shrimp and cook for 4-5 minutes. Transfer shrimp to 11x7x2 in pan and keep warm. Add wine or chicken broth to skillet and boil. Cook and stir for 5 minutes until sauce is reduced. Pour over shrimp and top with cheese and parsley. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.

Serve over pasta or over grilled chicken breast for a delicious dinner.

*You can used frozen, cooked shrimp. Thaw shrimp in water and then pat dry. Put in the garlic butter and only cook for 2 minutes. Proceed as above.

My husband loved this one. He felt like it was something he would get if we went out to eat. It was a real treat.

Spinach Stuffed Shells

It's hard to cook for your family and dinner guests when you are on a diet. That is why these stuffed shells are a great dinner option that can feed a crowd. This is a basic stuffed shells recipe that, if you use part-skim ricotta, lean ground turkey and low-fat mozzarella, can also be a non-cheat meal to get excited about. You can use your favorite sauce from a jar, or use the crushed tomatoes and seasonings as I did. I also added some zucchini left over from the pizza to the sauce. YUM!

Spinach Stuffed Shells

12 oz. Jumbo Shells
1/2 onion, chopped
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 lb lean ground turkey, cooked and drained
32 oz. crushed tomatoes
1 TBSP basil
salt and pepper

2 cups part-skim ricotta cheese
2 cups (divided) reduced fat mozzarella cheese, finely shredded
1 egg
10 oz. package frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1/4 cup Parmesan

In a large pot, boil water and cook noodles according to package directions.

In a deep frying pan, pour oil and add onions. Saute until soft and and then add garlic. Saute until garlic is softened. Add the browned turkey, crushed tomatoes, basil and salt and pepper to taste with the onions and garlic. Add additional seasonings to sauce according to taste. Cover and simmer on low.

In a separate bowl, combine cheeses (reserve 1 cup of mozzarella for topping), egg and spinach.

When your shells are cooked and cooled, fill with about 1 TBSP of cheese mixture. Place shells in a 9x13 dish with a thin layer of sauce on the bottom. Cover the shells with the remaining sauce and cheese. Cover with foil and bake in 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes. Remove foil and cook for 5 minutes more.

If you like lots of sauce, prepare extra or use some from a jar to pour over the shells when serving. I didn't think it needed extra sauce but my husband thought that the recipe have used a little more flavor. (He also had a head cold, so I'm going to go with the theory that his olfactory senses were off, thus giving the illusion of tastelessness.) Right?


As you can see, I plated this with a small green salad and some ummmm....half eaten bread. I was hungry and I forgot that I hadn't taken the picture yet! It just smelled so good and again, took me back to Italy. We would buy these bagels in Bari that were cut in half and dried out in the oven so they were like the texture of a crouton. Very hard and crunchy. Well, my Italian friend, Antonella Raimondo, told me that the best way to eat them is to warm it in the oven and then take it out and drizzle olive oil and sprinkle salt on top. I was so young and naive back then because I thought that sounded disgusting. Imagine! Well, I tried it (to get the full Italian experience) and quickly became a fan. Here, I used my Arnold's sandwich thin and dried it out in the oven and drizzled a tsp of olive oil on top and sprinkled a little bit of salt. Just as I remembered. Simple, but so good.

This does feed a crowd. There are about 33-35 shells. 3 prepared shells= about 6.5 WW points.

Mexican Casserole and Naughty Cornbread

I am posting this to tell you how I store my ground beef. Maybe you do this too. I usually buy the cheapest family pack of ground beef available. That is usually the 73% lean ground beef. (I only use this for browned ground beef recipes like spaghetti sauce, tacos, sloppy joes and casseroles like this one. For meatballs and meatloaf I get a leaner ground beef.) I get a couple of big dutch ovens and cook up the whole family pack at once. I also like to add dried onions to give it some good flavor. When the beef is nice and browned, I transfer it into a colander with a plastic container under it to catch the fat. After the fat has been drained, I remove the plastic container and run very hot water over the beef in the colander. This will help drain even more of the fat off. When the beef cools, I measure out about 2 cups and put it in a small freezer storage bag. I place all of the bags of beef in my freezer. Now I have a lean, meal size portion ready when I quickly need ground beef for a week night meal. Ready for some recipes?

Mexican Casserole (makes two 9x9 to eat one and freeze one for later)

1 box of pasta, cooked according to package and drained ( I used wagon wheels)
15 oz can of tomato sauce
1 can tomato soup
3/4 can of water (soup can)
1 cup frozen sweet corn
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups browned ground beef
2 packs of taco seasoning or to taste
1 cup colby jack or whatever cheese you have on hand

Basically......mix it all together (except cheese), put it in the casserole dish, top with cheese and bake at 350 degrees, uncovered for 30 minutes or until bubbly. You can top it with sliced olives. sour cream, shredded lettuce or just eat it as is. My kids really liked this. Especially JD.

To use frozen casserole: Put into fridge the night before to thaw. Bake at 350 degrees, covered with foil for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for 15 minutes longer.

Naughty Corn Bread

1 box of yellow cake mix
2 boxes Jiffy cornbread mix
eggs, oil and milk according to box mixes

Preheat oven according to directions on the cake mix box.

In a bowl combine all three box mixes. Add eggs, milk and oil according to each box mix. (Replace the water called for on the cornbread box mix with milk). Mix all the ingredients according to the cake mix directions.

This makes A LOT of cornbread, so I just make 2 batches of muffins and freeze what I don't use. They are really easy to defrost in the microwave for a quick meal.

Just bake these according to the cake mix directions. (About 20 minutes for the muffins and 30 minutes for 9x13 pan). Know your oven and make sure not to over cook these. Cooked just right, these are so moist!