Spinach and White Bean Pasta

I love quick pasta recipes.  Especially quick pasta recipes that are essentially: chop a couple things, open a couple cans, boil water.  How much easier can it get, right?  I wouldn’t have had time to make dinner yesterday, what with track practice after school and Tuesday night trivia at 8, if it wasn’t for this recipe.  Simply and tasty, perfect for a weeknight dinner when you’re crunched for time but don’t want to pick up take out or eat pre-prepared food.

Ingredients (serves 4):

8 oz pasta (I used penne, but only because it’s my fav and what I had on hand)

1 tbsp olive oil

1 clove garlic

1 cup mushrooms, sliced

1 (14.5 oz) can Italian diced tomatoes

1 (14.5 oz) can white beans (like Cannellini or Great Northern), drained and rinsed

1/4 cup white wine

5 cups spinach, chopped

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

 

Directions:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.

2. Saute garlic and mushrooms in olive oil over medium heat for 3-4 minutes.  Stir in tomatoes, beans, and white wine and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

3. Add spinach and continue to simmer until wilted, about 2 minutes.  Spoon bean and spinach mixture over pasta and top with Parmesan cheese to serve.

Sweet Potato Tagine

One of the reasons why I decided to write this little blog was because I am always shocked by the number of people my age who can’t (or more precisely don’t) cook.  In my mind, cooking is so easy, and since you have to eat, you might as well save yourself some money and make something really delicious yourself.  My friend Ali doesn’t really cook very much, and much like other people my age doesn’t really think she knows how to.  So now when she comes over for dinner, we’re cooking more together and I’m showing her the ropes.  This was our first collaboration dinner, a yummy Moroccan-style dish made vegetarian!  If you’re a big meat eater though, add diced chicken at the beginning, yum.  Serve over couscous or rice.

Ingredients (serves 6):

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped

1 (15.5 ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice

1 (14 ounce) can chicken broth or vegetable broth

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp cumin

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp cinnamon

dash cayenne pepper

 Directions:

1. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat, and cook onion, and garlic until onions become translucent.

2. Mix the sweet potatoes, chickpeas, carrots, tomatoes with juice, broth, sugar, and lemon juice into the skillet. Season with salt, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, and cayenne pepper. Bring the mixture to a boil, and continue cooking 30 minutes, until vegetables are tender.

Mediterranean Chicken Skillet

There are a few criteria that I always apply to a recipe to see if it’s really good and worth making (and putting up on this blog).  Does it sound delicious?  Is it relatively easy?  Is it full of normal ingredients I probably already have in my kitchen?  If the answer is yes for at least 2 of these questions, I’ll definitely save a recipe to try.  This recipe, however, fulfills all 3 criteria!  1. Not only is it delicious, but like anything else with simmering white wine, it fills the house with a fantastic aroma.  2. One skillet?  My favorite kind of recipe.  Thanks for facilitating my hatred of doing dishes!  3. The only thing I actually had to buy especially for this recipe were the olives.  Which, frankly, I often have in the fridge, I was just out of them this week.  Win.  Serve this chicken and veggie dish over rice or pasta (also something you probably have in the kitchen already).

Ingredients (serves 4):

2 tsp olive oil

2 tbsp white wine

2 chicken breasts, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 onion, diced

1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes

1/4 cup roasted red peppers, sliced

1/2 cup white wine

1/4 tsp thyme

1 tsp basil

1/2 c kalamata olives, halved

salt and pepper to taste

 

 Directions:

1. Heat the oil and 2 tbsp white wine in a large skillet over medium heat. Add chicken and saute until no longer pink.

2. Add garlic and onions and saute for 3 minutes. Add tomatoes and peppers and bring to a boil. Lower heat, add 1/2 cup white wine, thyme, and basil and simmer for 10 minutes.

3. Add olives to the skillet and cook for 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve.

 

Butter Chickpea Curry

I may or may not have just made this today, and as I finished eating it I got on my computer to put this recipe up.  Whatever, I’m ok with the fact that I’m a dork and don’t have a life.  This was a great go-to recipe for me tonight.  I don’t have a lot of food in my house right now and I really need to go to the store (not having a car is so inconvenient…).  This was really convenient given my lack of food though, 3 main ingredients that I basically ALWAYS have on hand, yeah I can do that.  I also feel like this is a great recipe for someone who’s never had curry before, it’s pretty mild and would definitely be a good introduction.

Ingredients (serves 4):

5-6 redskin potatoes, cubed

2 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

1 tsp garlic, minced

2 tsp curry powder

2 tsp garam masala

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp salt

1 (12 oz) can diced tomatoes

3/4 cup cream or milk

1 (12 ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained

Directions:

1. Boil potatoes in a saucepan until tender.  Drain and set aside.

2. Warm oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in onion and garlic, and cook until the onions are soft and translucent. Stir in curry powder, garam masala, ginger, cumin, and salt. Cook for 1 or 2 minutes, stirring. Pour in tomatoes, milk/cream, and chickpeas. Stir in potatoes. Simmer 10 minutes.

3. Serve over rice.

Italian Spinach and Chickpeas

I sort of made up this recipe a while back when I was making dinner for a vegetarian friend.  It’s vaguely based on a recipe for Italian Chicken and Chickpeas from allrecipes.com.  The original recipe is delicious (I made it about a year ago), but I realized it was so flavorful that it really didn’t even need the chicken!  So I decided to experiment by scrapping the chicken and adding LOTS more veggies.  The result is a great vegetarian dish that totally works as a main dish if you want, but would also be a great side dish to any Italian inspired main dish.  If you want the meat I’d recommend keeping everything about this dish the same (the added veggies really make it so much better) and cube a few breasts of chicken and saute them in olive oil with the rosemary before adding the rest of the ingredients.

Ingredients (Serves 6)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp dried rosemary

1 can tomato sauce

1 (15 oz) can Italian-style diced tomatoes

1 tsp Italian seasoining

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tsp sugar

1 bay leaf

1 cup mushrooms, sliced

2 cups zucchini, halved and sliced

1 (15 oz) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 (15 oz) bag frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

Directions:

1. Saute onions and garlic in oil until onions are translucent. Add the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, Italian seasoning, cayenne pepper, sugar, bay leaf, and red pepper flakes to the skillet; stir. Add mushrooms and zucchini and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer until zucchini are tender, 10 to 12 minutes.

2. Stir the garbanzo beans and spinach into the skillet; continue cooking until the beans are heated, 2 to 3 minutes more.

Spaghetti Squash with Tomatoes, Olives and Feta

The challenge: Spaghetti Squash.  Allegedly my mom made spaghetti squash once upon a time when I was a kid, but I don’t remember that at all.  So, as far as I’m concerned, I’d never had spaghetti squash before today.  Neither had Katie.  It sounded so intriguing though, so I wanted to see how it would turn out.  It was both harder, and easier than I expected it to be.  A word of warning, cutting a spaghetti squash is RIDICULOUSLY hard.  I have never had to work so hard to cut something while cooking, I was actually pretty concerned I would end up cutting my hand in attempting to cut the darn thing in half.  Luckily, I got the stupid squash cut and all of my fingers are intact.  So that was a success.  If you have trouble cutting yours, try putting it in the microwave for 3-8 minutes (depending on the size), that should help.  Wish I’d known that before I cut mine…but now I know for next time!

If you’ve never had spaghetti squash, it doesn’t really look like spaghetti.  At least I didn’t think it looked like spaghetti, Katie thought it did though.  It doesn’t really taste all that much like spaghetti either, but it is really delicious.  Decidedly a squash taste, but that’s not a bad thing.  It’s also way better for you than regular spaghetti, so that’s definitely a plus.  Vegan and very low carb.  I like Greek themed pasta, so that’s what I did with this, but you can really do anything you’d do with regular spaghetti.

Ingredients:

1 spaghetti squash

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 (14.5 oz) can Italian diced tomatoes

1/2 can black olives, sliced

2 tsp basil

3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a baking sheet.

2. Attempt to cut your spaghetti squash lengthwise…it’s going to take some work.

3. Once you get your squash cut, use a big spoon to scrap out the guts in the inside hollow.  It should look like this:       Guts:

4. Place spaghetti squash cut sides down on the prepared baking sheet, and bake 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a sharp knife can be inserted with only a little resistance. Remove squash from oven, and set aside to cool enough to be easily handled.

5. Meanwhile, heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Saute onion in oil until tender. Add garlic, and saute for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, olives, and basil.  Cook only until tomatoes are warm.

6. Use a large spoon to scoop the stringy pulp from the squash, and place in a medium bowl. Toss with the sauteed vegetables and feta. Serve warm.