Mini Lasagna Bites

Basically, follow one of my other lasagna recipes, except for the following:

• Use a cookie cutter round to punch out 4 cup-cake sized circles out of each strand of lasagna noodle
• Use these circles to layer the lasagna and bake each mini-lasagna in a cupcake pan

Enjoy :)

Cream of purple potato soup with bacon and chives

Alright.  As evidenced by this picture, there's a lot more going on than just the soup, but pretty much everything else was super easy and/or doesn't necessarily justify its own post.  Plus, a lot of it I've made before and you can find in other postings on my blog.

Actually, the same is really true of the soup.  I'm pretty sure I should have a cream of potato recipe on here somewhere.  The only difference here is subbing in regular potatoes for purple ones, add in some bacon (I used turkey bacon), and a couple tablespoons of chive cream cheese.

That is all. :)

Capellini with Fire Roasted Blush Sauce

This might be one of the favorite things I've made so far.  That or I was extremely hungry when I ate it.  Regardless, I'll definitely be making it again!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 box of capellini (angel hair pasta)
• About 1/3 C cream (I used heavy, but I'm sure light or even condensed milk would have been fine)
• 3 T margarine (or butter; I used some reduced fat smart balance or something like that)
• A few shakes of salt, pepper, red pepper flakes (not necessary but I had it on hand), onion and garlic powders
• 1/3 C parmesan cheese (I used kraft's 1/3rd less fat brand)
• 1 can of dice "fire roasted and garlic" tomatoes

Directions:

• Cook the pasta as directed, reserving the remaining liquid, and set each aside (toss the pasta with a bit of the remaining liquid and some olive oil so it doesn't stick)
• Put the diced tomatoes in a medium sized pot along with dashes of salt/pepper/sun-dried tomato flakes/onion/garlic to taste and cook on medium high heat until most of the liquid is gone
• Add the butter and cream; cook for another 2 minutes
• Add the parmesan cheese gradually while stirring
• Add the sauce to the pasta, toss, and serve!

More-Ethical Non-Chick-Fil-A Sandwich!

To make the chicken...

Ingredients:

• Chicken: A lil bit of boneless, skinless chicken (I prefer dark meat so I got thigh meat)
• Breading Dry: plain bread crumbs plus some salt, pepper, cayenne pepper (if you want it a bit hot), paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, and anything else you want "to taste".  Don't worry, when frying things you can't really go wrong
• Breading Dip: Splash of egg beaters and cream (many recipes call for buttermilk; I bought some but it came sour...didn't seem right to do that to a chicken)
• Frying Material: Some vegetable oil..like...1/3 C

Directions:

• Chicken: Put a piece big enough for the sized sandwich you want into a plastic ziplock bag (if you want to be more creative, put it in with some pickle juice for an hour or so), or otherwise between two sheets of plastic wrap.  Then take a mallet to it (or other such object, feel free to get creative), and pound it a bit until it's as thin as you'd like (I prefer more surface area between my chicken and its breading/fried area..think it tends to taste better)
• Mix the breading "dry" seasonings in a bowl
• Mix the breding "dip" (eggs and cream) in a separate bowl
• Take another ziplock bag (small one will do) and put the dry seasoning into it.  Then dip the chicken into the breading dip, then once well coated, put into the ziplock bag with the dry seasoning.  Shake until well coated.
• Take a frying pan and put the oil in, on medium heat
• Then put the chicken in. Fry on each side for about 2 minutes or until it reaches the "goldeness" that you prefer
• Put that jazz on a roll or some bread with your favorite fixings (I put some pickles and mayo) and you got yourself a"rainbow friendly" chicken sandwich!

Steak and Pasta

So, I normally don't eat/cook with red meat, but this was an exception.  I had a similar store-bought version back in the day that was amazing, so I decided as an end of break treat I'd make some of this.

Ingredients:

• Pasta of your choosing (I used fettucine, of the "veggie delight" brand variety)
• A slice or two of steak, cut into bite size pieces (I like to use meat cutting scissors)
• About 1/4 C diced yellow onion
• About 1 C milk (I used skim and a few splashes of light cream; condensed skim milk would work well, too)
• About 1/3 C parmesan cheese
• 2 T butter or margarine
• About 2 T sundried tomato pieces (sold in the spice aisle)
• Salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, and blackening seasoning to taste

Directions:

• Cook the pasta separately and set aside to drain
• Simmer the onions in the butter in a sauce pan for about 2 minutes
• Add the garlic for about 30 seconds
• Add the milk, cream, spices, parmesan cheese, and sundried tomato and allow to lightly boil for about 5-7 minutes or until desired consistency is just about reached
• Add in the steak and cook until your desired steak "doneness" 
• Combine all with pasta and enjoy!

Avocado Crab Cakes

This is very much an approximation but...

Ingredients:

• 1 small can of crab meat
• 2T vegetable oil
• Cooking spray
• About 1/3 C Plain breadcrumbs
• About 1/4 C mayo (I used Hellman's light)
• Half an avocado
• 1/4th C chopped yellow onion
• Seasonings: I used a little each of: salt, pepper, paprika, cajun seasoning, old bay, lemon juice, dill, and a bit of onion soup mix

Directions:

• Mix it all up (except for the oil and cooking spray)
• Make into small patties, then fry in the 2T vegetable oil, flipping after about 3 minutes OR place on aluminum foil sprayed with cooking spray and bake in a conventional or toaster oven for about 8-10 minutes, flipping halfway through
• That's kinda it; pretty easy!

I also happened to pair this with mashed blue potatoes.  Worked out well :)

Fettuccine with Zucchini and Cashew Pesto Sauce

I'm gonna keep this simple because otherwise I'll never actually post.

Basically, I've been on a huge veggie puree kick.  Most recently, I decided that I must be able to make some sort of sauce out of zucchini.  Not WITH zucchini, but OF zucchini...like as a base.

And so I did.  It is entirely vegan (not that I personally care as I am not vegan myself, but could be helpful to note) with the exception of the sprinkle of parmesan cheese I chose to put on top.

No cream. No cheese.  No butter...but still REALLY good, even good for you!

Ingredients:

• Handful of diced onion
• 1 small zucchini, diced (but sticks would work fine)
• Handful of Kale
• Small handful of basil
• Handful of cashews (I used unsalted)
• A few splashes of olive oil
• Package of vegetable fettuccine
• T pureed garlic
• Salt, pepper to taste

Directions:

• Make the pasta, reserving about 3/4C of the pasta water (I cooked my pasta with some garlic to add flavor)
• Sauce:
• Saute up the zucchini and onions with garlic, a splash of olive oil, salt, and pepper, for a good 10 minutes or so (zucchini should be very soft)
• Once done, add kale, basil, cashews, and sauted zucchini/onion to a food processor (mine is a super awesome, really easy to use and clean mini) and puree that jazz  
• Mix the pasta, reserved pasta water, and pureed sauce and eat!