Italian Style Pasta Salad

 This is a basic recipe, easy to make and a favorite. These days I prefer this to macaroni salad with mayonnaise. Add some pepperoni and/or chopped salami for more protein. You can also use sliced cheese sticks instead of the mozzarella balls.

1 box rotini (I use Barilla's protein plus)
1 package small, fresh mozzarella balls dried off.

1 or two cans small black olives, drained.

1 package of 3 bell peppers, diced small.

1 package grape tomatoes diced small.

Zesty Italian dressing.

Cook the pasta, drain and rinse under cool water.

Add rest of ingredients and toss.

The Best Ever Meat Sauce

 This recipe comes from Belle of the Kitchen and it is so very good. The flavor is deliciously rich.

1.5 lbs ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 cloves minced garlic (1 tsp)
3 15 oz cans diced tomatoes
1 6 oz can tomato paste
2 tsp brown sugar
1.5 tsp oregano
1 tsp salt
.5 tsp basil
.5 tsp thyme
bay leaf
2 cups beef broth

Brown ground beef, onion, and pepper

Add garlic, cook one minute

Add the rest of the ingredients

Bring to a boil, turn down and simmer uncovered 1.5-2 hours

Emergency Dinner 4: Tuna Alfredo Pasta

 

Tuna casserole morphed into tuna pasta

• 12 oz. egg noodles or pasta (I bought fettuccini because it's easier to store since it comes in a box)
• 1 large can tuna
• 1 jar alfredo sauce
• 1 can LeSeur peas

Cook pasta according to directions

Heat sauce, tuna, and peas

Toss with cooked pasta

Can add basil or oregano as desired

Emergency Dinner 1: Pasta and Veggies

 

When I asked the Lord what He would have me do at this time in my life, His answer was to learn about and practice emergency preparedness food storage. My classroom is Inklings Institute on Instagram.

Task number one is to compile a food plan and the resources for two weeks of meals. Thanks to Covid-19, all of this makes sense. If we are exposed we have to quarantine for two weeks. When the reality of Covid first hit, I got myself to the warehouse store and bought food to get me through two weeks. We would have been eating oatmeal, peanut butter and jelly, bagels, and chicken and rice with frozen veggies for two weeks. Certainly not the worst thing in the world, but now I can plan out a bit of variety.

The problem with food storage is that you have to use it even if there is not an emergency, or you will have wasted food and money. This is another reason for planning for meals that you are willing to eat!

Inklings Institute advises us to come up with seven dinners, lunches, and breakfasts and then double it to have two weeks of meals planned and ready to make. I am formulating an organizational plan for storing these items and a plan to use and rotate them so that the food does not go to waste.

Dinner #1 Amounts are for one dinner, based on what my husband and I will eat, with the possibility of leftovers for lunch

Pasta and Veggies

• 0.5 - 0.75 pounds pasta
• 1 jar marinara sauce
• 1 pound bag of frozen peppers and onions
• 1 pound bag of frozen broccoli
• 1 can beans (chickpeas, kidney, cannellini, or black)

Another option is instead of having beans, add 1 pound of cooked ground beef from the freezer, but this would have a shorter shelf life.

Oven Roasted Sausage and Peppers

 This recipe comes from wellplated.com and is absolutely delicious and easy.

General oven roasting directions:

• heat oven to 400 degrees (unless otherwise stated)
• line sheet pan with aluminum foil or parchment paper (foil is easier if you want to capture the juices)
• mix ingredients in a large bowl with the liquids and seasonings
• spread on baking sheet

Ingredients:

• 12 oz. package pre-cooked Italian chicken or turkey sausage, sliced
• 3 bell peppers, various colors, sliced
• 1 onion, sliced
• 3 T extra virgin olive oil
• 2 t red wine vinegar
• 2 garlic cloves, minced (2 t)
• .5 t kosher salt
• .5 t basil
• .5 t oregano
• .25 t ground black pepper
• .25 t red pepper flakes

Roast for about 35 minutes, stirring halfway

Aunt Edna's Italian Sauce and Meatballs

1 lb Italian sausage
1 large onion, chopped
2 large cloves garlic
2 big (28 oz) cans tomato puree
2 cans tomato paste
1 t Italian seasoning
1 bay leaf
parsley, salt, and pepper

Meatballs:

2 lbs ground beef
2 eggs
5 slices hard bread (preferably Italian)
1 T grated parmesan cheese
1 clove garlic minced
1 onion grated fine
4 T tomato sauce

mix all together with hands (remove rings!) and form into balls
drop in sauce about 1 1/2 hours before sauce is done

Pour 2 T olive oil in pan and add sausage
cover pan so sausage will steam
let steam and brown about 10 minutes
remove sausage, add onion and garlic, brown
add tomato puree, paste and 4 cans of water for every can of paste
add seasonings
turn heat up until mixture comes to a boil, then lower heat, add sausage, simmer about 2 1/2 hours
add meatballs, simmer another 1 1/2 hours

Tracey's Meat Sauce

For 1/2 pound pasta

1 pound ground beef
1/2 C chopped onion
1/2 C chopped green pepper (optional)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 6 oz can tomato paste
1 t sugar
1 t oregano
1 t basil
1/2 t thyme
1 bay leaf
1/2 t salt
1/4 t pepper

1/2 lb pasta cooked

brown meat, onion, pepper, garlic
add rest of ingredients, simmer, covered 30 minutes
uncover, simmet 15 minutes or until desired consistency
serve with pasta

Marinara Sauce

cook until soft:

1 C chopped onion
2 large cloves garlic, minced
2 T cooking oil

Add:

28 oz can diced tomatoes
1/2 6 oz can tomato paste
1 t sugar
1 t oregano
1/4 t salt
dash of pepper

simmer uncovered 30 minutes

25 Year Tomato Sauce

Why didn't I snap a picture?! I am calling it 25 year because I've been married for almost 25 years and therefore cooking for almost 25 years and it has taken me until this day to make a sauce that's good enough for me to think THIS IS IT! I will still make meat sauce from time to time, and my aunt's pasta sauce with meatballs is to die for, but it takes all day, so this is now my go-to sauce, now I can stop buying jarred sauce!

To give credit where credit is due, I started with Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce, which I have made a couple of times and was really, really good. But when I went to make it a third time, I decided to add some stuff. I live in the northeast, surrounded by people with Italian heritage, and people around here, whether of Italian heritage or not, HAVE THEIR OPINIONS ABOUT TOMATO SAUCE. So I am not claiming that this will be everyone's favorite, but it is MY favorite, and my family loved it. (Can't wait to try it on my extended family to see what they think.)

I love the taste of tomato paste. I think it deepens the flavor of the tomatoes and makes the taste less sharp. I didn't have an onion, so I used onion powder, next time I may use an onion; I don't think that is a deal breaker on the sauce. Lastly, I did not have anymore San Marzano tomatoes, which are $4/can around here! I used organic canned tomatoes and tomato paste from my local warehouse store and it was still delicious.

So here it is (this made more than enough for a pound of pasta).

1 (28 oz) can tomatoes
1 (14 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
7 Tbs butter  Yes, that is right, you may be able to cut back a bit, but the butter makes this amazing.
 2 - 3 tsp Italian seasoning
@ 1 tsp salt
@ 1 tsp sugar
@ 1 tsp onion powder or chopped onion or a whole onion removed, whatever floats your boat

Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil on medium heat, then turn down to a simmer for about one hour, partially covering pot to cut down on splatters. Stir frequently, breaking up the large tomatoes with a spoon as you stir. You can always blend the tomatoes before putting them in the pot if you don't want to have to break them up while stirring, just make sure stir anyway. I included the diced tomatoes because I like the little bit of substance they contribute to the sauce.

Since I am trying to lose weight, I bought a vegetable spiral cutter and had my sauce over spiral cut zucchini. Yum! I really didn't miss the pasta because the sauce was so good. And no mozzarella cheese like the rest of my family had.

By the way, I lost nine pounds in my first week and yes, a lot of that is water, but I have edema so losing water is a very good thing! It's still nine pounds that I am no longer carrying around!

Macaroni Salad

At Christmas?!!! The crazy part of this is, Christmas Eve day is going to be MUGGY with a high of 65-70! Where do we live?! The reality is that my sister is having us over to celebrate her daughter in-law's and granddaughter's birthdays, determined that their birthdays will not be neglected just because of where they fall on the calendar. So, she has asked me to make macaroni salad. My mother in-law makes a delicious macaroni salad, and she taught me how to make it, and I have made it many, many times. However, it is a recipe that is a little of this, more of this, a lot of this, and taste it until it tastes right to you. So, for me at least, it was hit or miss, so I went searching on the internet for a recipe close to my MIL's. This is it, with a couple of tweaks:

Hellman's Macaroni Salad (this is doubled):

1 pound elbow macaroni, cooked until al dente, rinsed in cold water, and drained

lots of carrots (maybe 6), chopped fine* (use your electric chopper and make it easy on yourself)
lots of celery (maybe 6 stalks), chopped fine*
a small onion (optional), chopped fine*
or whatever veggies you want

2 C mayo
1/4 C apple cider vinegar
2 T dijon mustard
1 1/2 t salt
2 t sugar
ground pepper to taste

mix dressing ingredients, allow to blend

mix pasta and veggies, add dressing to desired consistency (you can really halve the dressing, especially if you are using it right away)

*by chopping the veggies fine, kids cannot avoid them when eating the salad, although mine do their best

Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce

I really liked this sauce made from a recipe on DamnDelicious.net. It was really good, although I am not a large enough fan of italian sausage to eat it regularly, so I intend to use this recipe as a base from which I can adapt to different tastes. Next time I intend to use two pounds of ground beef, omit the sausage, and add thyme.

Brown 2 pounds ground meat (beef, sausage, pork, turkey, chicken) in 2 T olive oil (optional) with a minced onion.
Add two minced garlic cloves, cook for about a minute.
Drain meat and add to slow cooker.
Add 3 (14.5 oz) cans chopped tomatoes, 2 (15 oz) cans tomato sauce, 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp basil, 3 bay leaves, and salt and pepper to taste.
Stir together and cook on low 10-12 hours.

I did not add any salt and pepper and it was still delicious!

Vegetable Pasta Sauce

This recipe originated from the Rival Crock Pot Cook Book, but I didn't care for the result as the vegetables were too mushy from all of that cooking. So I adapted it for the stove, which I had been meaning to do for a long time, and good things come to those who wait, right? I think so, because this was delicious in our (mine and my husband's) opinions! I made a couple of more changes, but this is a very versatile recipe. Put in what you want, but I really liked what I put in, AND, I think the peppers are what gave this sauce its divine flavor, so keep that in mind.

2  14 1/2 oz cans diced tomatoes, undrained
1  14 1/2 oz can whole tomatoes, undrained
2 14 1/2 oz cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 yellow pepper, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 6 oz can tomato paste
4 green onions, sliced
2 T dried Italian seasoning
1 t dried parsley
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 t salt
1/4 t black pepper
splash of olive oil
1 yellow squash, cut into 1/4 inch slices
1 green squash (zucchini), cut into 1/4 inch slices

Combine and simmer all ingredients in a pot for an hour, covered, BUT, don't add the squash until the last 20 minutes. Stir occasionally, breaking up the whole tomatoes as you do.

Good, Good Goulash

I got this recipe from the cookbook One Bite Won't Kill You. (One of the best things I got from this book was the answer to the question What's for dinner?  The answer?  Yuck, I hate it.  I've used this answer several times. Needless to say my kids hate that answer.

1 pound lean ground beef
1 small onion, chopped
1 small green pepper, chopped (does your grocery store EVER have a small green pepper???)
8 oz elbow macaroni, cooked & drained
2 cans condensed tomato soup (you know, Campbells)
salt & pepper to taste

saute beef, onion, & green pepper in large skillet over medium heat abt 10 minutes
stir in other ingredients, mix & heat

ALL DONE!

Now, the disclaimer:  the tomato soup makes a kind of sweet sauce, much like the tomato sauce in a can of Spaghettios.  This is supposed to be kid friendly. To be honest, my two younger kids didn't eat it, but my oldest kid loved it, and the adults are okay with it.

My Most Popular Recipe

By popular, I mean the most requested by my kids and my sister (which I take as a particularly wonderful compliment because she is a much better cook than I), and which recipe I have given out more than others. And it is so ridiculously easy. Not particularly healthy though.

I was surprised to find that I did not already put it on the blog. I guess I didn't bother because I already know this one so well that I don't need to write it down. I make it so often that I stockpile lasagna noodles when they are on sale.

So here it is:

The Easiest Lasagna Recipe Using Regular Lasagna Noodles Ever. No, really.

Once again the ingredients are important, so pay attention to my notes, please. Thank you.

Abt 8 regular lasagna noodles (not the no cook kind, although you are not going to cook them ahead of time)
Abt 16 oz ricotta cheese. Now let's talk a minute about the cheese. I have lived just about all of my life on the east coast in a heavy Italian populated area. So we do not put cottage cheese in our Italian cooking instead of ricotta. Is it just as good? I have no idea, because I have never tried it. It may be easier to spread than ricotta, but I'm sticking with the ricotta.  And by the way, around here it is pronounced rig-GOT, not rick-cot-a. But if you do not live in a heavily Italian populated area, (or in the northeast) and you asked for rig-got, they probably would have no idea what you are talking about. And no one laughs at you if you say rick-cot-a instead. They just think that you do not have an ounce of Italian in you. I'll have you know that I am 1/500 Italian. I don't think that counts.

And while we are talking about Italian pronunciations, do you know that there are still pizza places around here that spell it APIZZA? It is pronounced a-beets, not peetsa. But really it is just the old timers that call it a-beets; peetsa has become the norm. But when I was a kid I didn't understand why there was an A in front of the word pizza.

Ingredients?  Oh yea,

lasagna noodles (see above)
ricotta cheese (see above)
12 oz. (or thereabouts) of mozzarella cheese, shredded
abt 1/4 C parmesan cheese
32 ounce tomato/pasta sauce.  Here is the thing. You do not want a thick, sweet sauce like Ragu or Prego. I buy Sclafani, but that may not be available nationwide. My sister used Francesco Rinaldi marinara and it was very good too.

Lastly, and optional, 1 pound ground beef

The great thing about this recipe is that you can easily adapt it to your liking, and measurements do not have to be exact. The sauce is really the most important choice you are going to make.

So here is what you do:

Brown ground beef if you are using it, then add sauce and 3/4 C of water and heat. (If you are not using ground beef, you can pour the sauce right from the jar into the lasagna pan without heating it first and don't add water)

Layer ingredients in a 9x13 baking pan as such:

@ 1/3 sauce

@ 4 lasagna noodles - uncooked (or as many as will make a nice layer in your pan. Snap off some of the noodle to make it fit.)

@ 1/2 of ricotta cheese

@ 1/2 of shredded mozzarella

@ 1/8 C parmesian cheese (I do not measure, just give it a good shake all over)

@ 1/2 of remaining sauce

another 4 noodles

rest of ricotta cheese

rest of mozzarella cheese

1/8 C (or good shake all over) parmesian cheese

rest of sauce

Yes, the noodles will slip around on you as you try to spread the ricotta. It will get messy. No one cares. Just do the best you can, but don't worry, it will still taste great.

Cover pan

Bake @ 375 for about an hour (edges should be bubbly)

Let sit for about 10-15 minutes

EAT!

This is a very saucy version (hence why it is important to choose a good sauce), so serve some bread with it to help eat up the sauce.

It seems like a lot of work because I go on and on, but it is really easy, as lasagnas go, and everyone loves it. It will be whipping up two for my brood. It was my soon-to-be 14 year old's birthday dinner request.

Maybe I will take pictures and add them later. Maybe.

No Leftover Baked Ziti

The original recipe came from the Food Network but this is how I made it:

One pound ziti, cooked al dente

1 1/2 jars Testa's Marinara Sauce (this is made locally, so you will have to use 4 C of a really, really good marinara sauce)

1/4 C freshly grated pecorino romano cheese

1/2 C freshly grated parmesan cheese, divided

1 pound fresh mozzarella cheese

cut half of the mozzarella into small cubes and mix with 1/4 C parmesan and the rest of the ingredients

pour into a slightly oiled baking pan

slice rest of mozzarella into thin slices and lay over top of ziti

shake remainder of parmesan on top of all

bake uncovered in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until slightly browned

* The key to this recipe is the quality of the ingredients. Yes, this would be yummy with regular cheeses and some other jarred sauce, but sometimes you want something really special. This is it.

Making Up For Last Week's Creamy Goodness

(photo courtesy of Iron Chef Vegan)

Every Monday is pasta night at our house. I've always wanted to assign every weekday a theme for dinner but well, just haven't. At least not yet. But Monday is a guaranteed pasta night, which makes Monday something for my kids to look forward to instead of dread for obvious reasons.

I've been wanting to make this sauce for awhile, but since it takes time to cook and I've been working, I haven't had the chance. Today, however, we are snowed in (WHEN will Spring get here anyway?), and therefore an opportunity has arisen. Horray.

This recipe comes from and older edition of The American Heart Association Cookbook.

Lentil Spaghetti (Pasta) Sauce
(by the way, I always double the recipe and freeze the leftovers)

1 onion, chopped
1 garlic glove, minced
1 T olive oil
1 1/2 C dried lentils, washed
dried hot red pepper to taste
pepper
4 C beef broth
1/4 t basil
1/4 t oregano
1 16 oz can tomatoes
1 6 oz can tomato paste
1 T vinegar

Saute onion and garlic in oil for 5 minutes
Add lentils, peppers, broth
Cover & simmer 30 minutes
Add remaining ingredients, simmer uncovered 1 hour
Stir occasionally

Sometimes I omit the oregano and add chili powder and serve over rice.

My husband and I love this. My kids won't eat it out of principle. But they will eat the pasta. They take care of their own toppings.

By the way, the above picture is not of this particular recipe, but it looks just like it.

Dinner Anyone?

(photo courtesy of Sandra @ www.fullbellies.blogspot.com)

Last week I made two meals. TWO. It was one of those weeks.
But one of the reasons I only made two is because we had lots of leftovers.
One that I made was this yummy goodness from Sandra.

Virginia's Baked Spaghetti

I should write some kind of review, I suppose. It was creamy, cheesy, hardy, warm, and delicious. How's that? Sandra warns that this recipe makes a lot, and she is right. It took three dinners for us to finish it. This is being archived under potlucks and missionary dinners. The only thing I would do differently is break up the spaghetti into small pieces before cooking (or cut it up after cooking). You could also use a different pasta, but it might not fit in the dish if you are cooking a full recipe because other pastas are bulkier.

Check out Sandra's cooking blog, Full Bellies, Happy Kids for more delicious recipes. Let me know if you try anything else.