Ken's Pistachio Pasta

My husband loves to cook.  I'm always surprised at how creative he is in the kitchen.  He can open the pantry or fridge and come up with an amazing dish no matter what is in there.  

A few weeks ago I entered a contest that I needed to use pistachio's in the recipe.  Ken made a recipe too.  I was very impressed.  He literally went to the grocery store and thought this up off the top of his head.  I really wish I could be as quick in the kitchen as he is.  One of the categories was "kid friendly."  He actually made this with the kids in mind.      

Ingredients
1 lb tricolor rotini
.5 cup shelled pistachios
3 beer brawts
1 (16 oz) jar garden vegetable pasta sauce
.5 onion, diced

Directions

1. Cook rotini according to package directions
2. Crush pistachios and set aside
3. Heat pan over med-high
4. Remove casing from sausages and crumble the meat.  Cook until meat is done 
5. Drain the sausage fat from pan, add in onion and saute until translucent
6. Pour in pasta sauce and heat 
7. When pasta is done, drain, put into a bowl and sprinkle 1/4 of the crushed pistachios on top
8. Top pasta with sauce mixture and then top with remaining pistachios 

The kids really liked the pasta.  I love getting them to describe food to me.  The words that they gave me were "creamy", "a pleasant saltiness", "rich" and various other words you don't expect from a kid.  I am totally raising a clan of foodies and I love it.  

Sometimes I look at my relationship with my kids and think about how the relationship with my parents has changed over the last almost 30 years.  I can honestly say I never had a bad relationship with my parents.  As a teenager I thought we actually had a good relationship.  I wasn't a perfect kid but, I still loved my parents {98% of the time}  

As I grew older and had kids I started to appreciate my parents alot more.  Being an adult and raising kids is HARD!  You never realize how easy your parents make it look until you have kids of your own and have to do it all.  My parents helped me out alot when Kaylee and Mo were younger.  I will never be able to even begin to repay them for everything they've done for me.  {But that is another story, for another time}

I really hope that my girls' and I have just as good of a relationship over the next 70 years as I have had with my parents.  

How has YOUR relationship with your parents changed over the years?

Something It's Not

January 23rd, 1/23, 123.  Don't you wish everything in life could be as easy as 1,2,3?  I know I do.  But, you know what's easy?  Saying "happy birthday."  It's my mommy's birthday!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!  She's the one who taught me how to cook.  She showed me nothing is hard and she's one of my biggest supporters.

Winter has finally settled in down here.  Mornings and evenings are in the 30's and the afternoons are only getting up to the low 60's (if we're lucky.)  I can honestly say I did NOT move to Florida for this weather!  It beats the winters in Virginia any day though.

Winters aren't easy for me.  I'm not a winter person.  My body wants to shut down.  Honestly I think in my previous life I was a bear.  I really wish I could start hibernating. Okay, enough about how cold I am.

I find that altering a recipe to taste like something else isn't easy.  But, I managed to make a pizza that has the same great flavors as lasagna.  Yes, LASAGNA!  I'd love to say that this recipe was born from pure creativity and that fact that I'm that awesome but honestly, it wasn't.  It was born from lack of time.

Lasagna Pizza

Ingredients
1 recipe of pizza dough
2 oz fat free ricotta
2 onions, sliced thin
16 oz mushrooms, sliced
.5 - 1 cup tomato puree
7 oz vegan sausage (I use Light Life Gimmie Lean Sausage)
16 oz fat free mozzarella cheese
3 cups spinach (optional)

Directions

1. Saute the mushrooms and onions separately
2. Roll out pizza dough and spread a thin layer of ricotta
3. Spread half the sauce on top of ricotta layer, cover with mushrooms and onions and the sausage, half the mozzarella, the other half of the sauce, put the spinach on now (if you're using it)  and the rest of the mozzarella.
4. Bake in a 450 degree oven for 25 minutes until the crust is brown and the cheese is melted.

Kooking With Kaylee: Vegetable Pasta Toss

As I said a few weeks ago, I'm doing a new part of my blog called:

Yesterday Kaylee decided that she wanted to make dinner tonite.  I told her she could as long as she blogged about it.  So, here she is.

Hi! I'm Kaylee.  I'll be 10 next Saturday!!  I love cooking, reading and eating.  My favorite things to cook vary from cakes to pastas to salad.  I like to cook because I always watched mom cook.  It was fascinating to watch so I started asking to help.  I also like the fact that it's science.  I love science.  You measure and mix things, and see the reaction.  My favorite things to eat are pumpkin cheesecake and Japchae.

I was flipping through a cookbook yesterday and found this recipe.  I checked with mom to make sure that she could have everything.  When she told me that we could make some changes and it would be okay, I was excited.  I asked if I could make it sometime and she told me I could cook tonite.

This recipe interested me because it seemed like something interesting to try and simple to cook.  I knew that I could do everything.  I also though the flavors would go well together.

While I was in school mom did all the chopping for me.  When I got home we got everything out of the fridge.  I heated the pan.  Then I sauteed the mushrooms and onions and added some pepper (because everything tastes better with pepper.)  We added all the other vegetables and warmed them up.  Once they were heated we added the pasta and dressing and stirred it all up together.

I liked that it had different shades of green.  It actually looked like something you'd buy for decoration.  It tasted magnificent!  All the flavors blended really well.  You could taste a bit of the mushrooms, a bit of the spinach and the dressing in every bite.

So get in the kitchen and make this tonite!

Vegetable Pasta Toss
adapted from Cooking Rocks! Rachael Ray 30-Minute Meals for Kids
Calories: 152
Fat: 3.8 grams {I personally believe this is wrong}
Protein: 10.5 grams
Serves 6

16 oz (2 packages) Shirataki Noodles (found near the tofu in the produce section of the grocery store) {you can substitute 8 oz of regular noodles}
16 oz white mushrooms, chopped
1 medium onion, diced
1 T minced garlic
1 can (14 oz) artichoke hearts, in water, drained
1 box frozen spinach, thawed and drained
16 oz frozen broccoli, thawed and drained
1 package Hidden Valley Garden Green Onion Dip Mix
.5 cup fat free mayo
.5 cup skim milk
.25 cup fat free sour cream

Directions

1. Cook pasta according to package
2. Whisk together the dip mix, mayo, skim milk and sour cream.  Place in the fridge until ready to use. 
3. Spray large skillet and heat over medium-high heat.Cook mushrooms until they are soft and a little brown.
4. Add artichokes and heat through.
5. Add spinach, broccoli and garlic and garlic and heat through.
6. In a large bowl add veggie mixture with pasta and toss with dressing.

{This dish can be served warm or cold}

I hope you enjoyed the dish Kaylee picked out to make for you.  She's really excited about this post so leave a comment to let her know how you liked it.  

Healthy Snack/Dessert For The Kids

Today was one of those days that had 40 bajillion things go wrong.  Actually it was only 3 but they were really annoying. I made myself some angel food cupcakes for Mantha's birthday (since I can't eat her cake.)  I expected a couple dozen cupcakes to come from the mix. NOPE!  It made 50!  REALLY??  I don't need 50 cupcakes for myself.  Then I ate one after dinner and the sugar content is too high and made me fuzzy.  I had mushroom stroganoff planned for dinner.  I decided I would make spaetzle to go under it.  I have made it before and it's worked just fine.  I made it tonite and instead of being noodles it was a gooey, yucky mush.  To top it all off the stroganoff was sub-par, and that killed me. 

BUT, today wasn't all bad.  I took the kids to the park.  We walked since Ken had the car at work.  2 miles round trip.  I was amazed that Sunny made it the whole way.  I found this recipe for Coconut Energy Bites on Sprout's website.  I altered the recipe a bit.  They kids loved them.  I took them to the park with us as a snack.  My one suggestion is that you make sure to keep them cold.  They start to get very soft when they warm up.   

Coconut Energy Bites

(adapted from  Sprout Online)

Makes 16

Nutrition: 106 calories, 4.8 grams of fat, 5.6 grams of sugar

1 1/4 cup plain oatmeal (I used quick cooking)
1/2 cup reduced fat peanut butter
1/2 cup light maple syrup (you can also use honey)
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Directions

1. In a food processor, grind oatmeal until fine
2. In separate bowl mix together peanut butter and syrup
3. Mix in oatmeal and coconut
4.  Using a spoon or small cookie scoop, scoop and roll into balls using your hands

Housework is Exercise

Today's the last day of school!  The girls are excited about summer break.  I'm excited because I don't have to get kids out the door at 7:15 in the morning and pick them up at the bus stop in the afternoons.  I'm also excited because we're leaving for Tampa on Saturday.  We are going on a mini-vacation, and it's also Kay's "birthday party."  We're spending 3 nights in a hotel, going to the aquarium and hopefully going to the beach.  They are calling for rain the whole time we're there so hopefully it will just be the typical Florida 10 minute rain storm that passes and makes way for a bright sunny day.  

Today I spent the day cleaning.  Our afternoon swim got rained out but, while the girls were in school I did the majority of the cleaning so we could leave for the weekend.  

I managed to burn 400 calories washing dishes and about 110 folding laundry!  Who knew that doing housework could be such a good workout?  

Dinner tonite was really simple.  Broiled Mahi filets, corn and orzo with garlic.  

I broiled the fish for about 7 minutes.  I glazed a couple for Mr. Amazing and myself.  The glaze was a real easy combination of chili-garlic paste (1 heaping tablespoon) and soy sauce (2 teaspoons, just to thin it out).  Just spoon the mixture onto the fish.  The pasta recipe I actually got from the back of the box and I altered it a bit.

Publix Orzo Pilaf  

4 cloves garlic sliced (the recipe actually calls for 1 T garlic butter but, I substituted pan spray and garlic)
8 ounces Orzo (approx 1 2/3 cups or 1/2 the box)
2 cups water
1/2 tsp steak seasoning blend (I used Tony's Creole seasoning, it gave it a nice kick)
2 springs fresh parsley (I used 1 teaspoon dried)
1/2 tsp salt
sprinkle pepper

1. Coat medium saucepan with pan spray
2. Add garlic and sautee for a minute or 2
3. Stir in orzo and cook for 3 minutes and stir frequently until it's slightly browned (I added a bit more pan spray when the pasta started to stick)
4. Add water and steak seasoning.  Cover, and bring to a boil.  Turn down the heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Remove the pan from the heat and add the salt, pepper and parsley.  Cover it and let it sit for about 4 minutes

Doesn't dinner look yummy?  I have decided to give up on intricate dinners.  I'm sticking with simple meals.  After a year of menus and trying new things I have figured out that my family enjoys simple meals like this rather than casseroles or fancy, time consuming meals.  They wouldn't have enjoyed it as much if I had made orzo tossed with mahi and corn even though it would have basically been the same thing.

As I told you before I'm doing a blog challenge.  I've weaved most of the other questions in with my normal blog post but today's I just couldn't find a link.  

The question is:  Do you need to look before you leap?  I'm that person that leaps and then looks while she's falling.  I question my decision while I'm in the middle of it or after it's already been made.  Sometimes it works out, other times it fails miserably.  

Do you look before you leap?  What kind of meals does your family enjoy most?