Mung Bean Pasta noodles with Mediterranean artichoke, olive and tomato sauce

Now you can use any pasta you want. We are
trying to eat healthier so I found these fettuccine noodles made from Mung beans and water. Simple and they taste great. They make a wonderful pasta replacement. Here is a link to where they can be purchased. It is a Raw Food web site but you can (and we did) cook the pasta. They soak them for a few days to soften them without cooking them to keep the raw food state of the pasta.
http://www.therawfoodworld.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=100148_100540

Ok, so here is the sauce I made to go over the Mung bean noodles.

Mediterranean Pasta with Artichokes, olives, and Tomatoes
Prep: 15 min
Total time: 25 min
Serves 4

Salt and Pepper
12 ounces spaghetti (I used two packages of the mung bean fettuccine and it was 14 ounces all together)
2-4 Tbl. good olive oil
1/2 med onion (I used a whole one) sliced in slivers
2 garlic cloves minced
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 can artichoke hearts (not marinated) rinsed, drained,  and quartered
1/3 cup pitted Kalamata olives, quartered
1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
1/2 Cup fresh basil leaves, torn into small pieces

In large pot start water boiling and add salt. You will cook the pasta according to directions (for the mung bean pasta, I cooked it for about 6 minutes till I liked the bite it had.  Regular pasta follow directions) when done,RESERVE 1 CUP PASTA WATER FOR THE SAUCE IF NEEDED,  rinse in cool water and set aside to drain.
Now, in a large skillet, heat 1-2 Tbl. olive oil and add onions. Cook for about 3 minutes and then add the garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for a few more minutes and then add the wine. Cook till the wine is mostly evaporated.
Stir in the artichokes and cook for 3 minutes. Add the olives and half the tomatoes. Cook till the tomatoes start to break down. At this point at the cooled drained pasta and the remaining tomatoes, cheese, basil and 2 Tbl. olive oil. Toss to coat the pasta. Add as much reserved pasta water as need to bring the sauce together. You may or may not need it. Stir and toss to coat and heat through.  Serve with additional Parmesan cheese to taste.

Cowboy Spaghetti

This is a take on Rachel Rays cowboy spaghetti. It is pretty wonderful. You can serve it like traditional spaghetti or layer it with cheese and make it a baked spaghetti (which is how I like to do it.)

Cowboy Spaghetti: Serves a ton of Sasquatches. You can easily half it.

2 lbs. spaghetti noodles
2 Tbl. olive oil
1 lb. apple wood smoked bacon (is there any other kind?)
2 med. onions chopped
2 lbs. good ground beef (you know I grind my own. )
1 head (yes a head) of garlic chopped (we love us some garlic)
salt and pepper
4-6 tsp. hot sauce (this is just a personal taste thing. I like lots. You can always add more to your plate of spaghetti to amp it up.)
2 Tbl. Worcestershire sauce
1 (12oz.) beer
2 (14 oz.) cans crushed or chopped fire roasted tomatoes (I think the fire roasted is important. It imparts a great flavor)
1 (14 oz.) can tomato sauce
16 oz. sharp cheddar cheese

(Use a cast iron skillet if you have one. I just believe there is nothing better than the flavor a cast iron skillet gives food, particularly meat.)
Heat skillet up and add the 2 Tbl. olive oil. Cut the 1 lb. of bacon up into bite size pieces and fry in hot pan with olive oil. When brown remove bacon with a slotted spoon and place in a bowl. Drain off some of the bacon fat so that you have a nice standing coating of grease left in the pan. Place hamburger meat in pan and spread out and let it sear before stirring. Add onions and continue to stir around the meat and onions till the meat and onions are almost cooked. Add the garlic and stir this around for 2 minutes. Then season with salt and pepper to taste and add the hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Stir and pour in the beer and stir this good. Let this cook for 1 minute and then add the cans of tomatoes. Stir to combine. If it seems too soupy let it cook down a bit. It should resemble this pic when its about right. Add back in the bacon and stir. You can turn off heat at this point and get the spaghetti noodles cooked. If you aren't baking it then you will want the noodles to be close to done when the sauce is. If you are baking it then you can just turn off the burner and get your noodles cooked. Drain spaghetti and pour meat sauce and toss. If your baking it then layer half a  9x13 pan with the spaghetti/meat sauce and top with 8 ounces of sharp cheddar cheese and then another layer of spaghetti/meat sauce to fill the pan and top with another 8 ounces of sharp cheddar. Bake at 350 degrees till hot and bubbly and cheese is melted on top. Because everything is usually hot when I put it together it never has to bake more than about 15 minutes. If you are not baking it then just serve it up with cheese on top of the individual servings. You can garnish with green onions if you are so inclined. ENJOY!

Chicken Ranch Tacos

sorry borrowed pic. I will post one of mine next time I make these. This is how they look. Wonderful.

I can't believe I haven't posted this recipe yet. It is as easy as any recipe I have ever done. It is so good that my Sasquatches go NUTS every time I make it. I have found numerous versions for them (this is from Do you smell that.) This is the simplest and I can't scream this enough "DELICIOUS"!!!!!
Here is how you make them.

Chicken Ranch Tacos:
 (I think I triple this recipe.)
3 Cups chicken tenders (cleaned if you want. I have to remove that membrane that is in a tender but you don't have to.) Cut into small bite size pieces.

1 pkg. dry taco seasoning mix

1/2 Cup  bottled ranch dressing

taco shells ( I buy the heat and serve. Like I said I keep this easy peasy.)

TOPPINGS
shredded lettuce
cut up tomatoes
shredded cheese
extra ranch dressing for serving

Heat skillet up and add a small amount of oil. Fry the chicken till almost done and then sprinkle with the taco mix and continue to cook till chicken done and well coated with taco seasoning. Add ranch dressing and continue to cook a couple more minutes till mixed and hot.  Serve.
 Heat taco shells in oven according to package.
Serve chicken in shells and serve with toppings.
Enjoy, cause I know you will.

Chocolate Lasagna

This is delicious. I don't know for sure where I stumbled across the recipe. I have had it for a while and had been meaning to try it. So for my sons birthday I gave it a shot. It was too wonderful.
 I don't know why they call it chocolate lasagna. There are no noodles (not even chocolate ones) in it. Maybe because its layered. I dunno. Here's how you do it.

9x13 dish
1 pkg. of regular (not double stuff) oreos
6 Tbl. melted butter
1 (8oz) pkg. cream cheese, soft
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tbl. milk
1 (16 oz.) cool whip
2 lg boxes (5.9 oz.) INSTANT chocolate pudding mix
3 1/2 Cups cold milk
package mini chocolate chip morsels

1. Crush oreos in food processor till crumbs (no large chunks), remove to a bowl

2. Add the 6 Tbl. melted butter to the oreos and mix with a fork till combined. Press into pan. and place in fridge while you get the next layer made.

3. Mix cream cheese in bowl with electric mixer till fluffy. Add 2 Tbl. milk and the sugar and mix to combine. Fold in 1 1/2 cups cool whip. Spread over oreo layer and return to the fridge while you make the next layer.

4. In a bowl combine both boxes of instant chocolate pudding and 3 1/2 cups of milk. Mix with mixer on low speed for 2 minutes or till thickened. Spread over cream cheese mixture. Place in fridge for about 5 minutes.

5. Top with enough of the left over cool whip to have a good layer and then sprinkle as many of the mini chocolate chips on top as you like.  Cover with saran wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours (we found over night was the best)

cut and serve. It was very good.

Abuelo's Papas con Chile recipe

Not my recipe but I couldn't resist posting. I actually found this on Abuelo's Facebook page.
Abuelo’s Papas con Chile™
3 lbs. red potatoes
3 oz cream cheese – cut into 2" squares
½ cup heavy cream
10 oz Velveeta – cut into 2 " squares
½ TBS salt
¾ tsp granulated garlic
¼ cup sour cream
½ cup diced red bell peppers
½ cup diced green bell peppers
2 cans chopped green chiles
½ cup chopped green onion tops
2 TBS of finely chopped jalapeño – seeds removed

1.Wash and scrub potatoes until clean
2.Place potatoes in a pot covered with water and boil until soft.
3.Drain potatoes
4.Add the rest of ingredients and mash. Be sure all ingredients are incorporated.

Enchilada Casserole

Now I'm not a big casserole person. Not because I don't like them. Casseroles just aren't something I'm super drawn to. I think in my younger years I made a lot of casseroles and as I learned to cook, I just moved on past them. Well they have been back on my mind of late. Now that I'm back in school full time (I have been for the past year.) I think something easy for the Sasquatches is a good thing. So I have a renewed interest in casseroles. I saw this on  Pinterest. Don't ask me how cause I'm not a member. The joys of surfing the endless lanes of the internet I guess. Anyway, after some work I did find the recipe. Now I'm sorry I can't remember the blog. It was "Cook you butt off" or "Get off your butt and cook" I'm sorry I don't remember exactly. But I did give this a try. I thought it was good (better the second day.) My Sasquatches (all of them) loved it. Big hit. Going into the rotation as it was pretty easy to make.

So here it is and any changes I made or will make.

Enchilada Casserole
 (I doubled the recipe and it made two 9x13 size pans. Well actually mine were oval but around that size.)

 This will make one pan full.
1 lb. lean ground beef
1 med/large onion, chopped
2 Cups Salsa (you decide on the heat. We used medium.)
1/4 Cup reduced fat Italian dressing (trust me, would I lie to you)
3-4 Tbl. taco seasoning mix. (I started out using two but thought it needed more.)
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 (15oz.) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1small can corn nuggets, drained (I think I just bought a regular size can and used it all. It is all good.)
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup minced cilantro
8-8inch round (or so) flour tortillas, you want two layers of tortillas. I put whole ones on and then tore up some to fill in where needed. I also am going to try corn next time.

2-4 Cups mexi cheese blend ( the original recipe called for 2 Cups, but we love us some cheese.)

Serve with: tortilla chips, shredded lettuce and tomatoes.  I also put out a jar of mild jalapenos to add if wanted. They added a great kick.
preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Fry beef and onions in pan. Drain off any fat (my meat was pretty lean even though it was 85/15) I had just a small amount of juice. So I didn't drain the beef and onions. I just left it.)
Stir in salsa, Italian dressing, taco seasoning, cumin, drained beans and corn. Stir and simmer to let some of the juice evaporate. About 10 minutes or so. I didn't want to lose all the sauciness just cook it down some. Then add the sour cream and cilantro. Stir to combine and remove from heat.
In your baking pan spoon a thin layer of meat mixture on the bottom and then a little cheese. Lay a layer of tortillas and then meat and cheese and repeat. You will have two layers of tortillas and end with a meat then cheese layer.
You can cover it or not depending on if you want your cheese to brown. Bake till bubbly and heated through ( 15-25 minutes.)

NOTE: next time I am going to try and add a can of chopped green chilli's and see how that is. The opportunities are endless with this.

Chicken with Eggplant and Fontina Cheese

In our attempt to eat better (my husband and I are both PRE-diabetic.) I have been searching for regular recipes that meet the standards for what we can have. We love Italian food. Heck we love all food. So watching our carbs is a little work. I started watching the daily morning talk show "The Chew". I know I'm very cruel to myself. If you don't know what this is it is a talk show with notable chefs as the hosts. They cook and laugh and cook. Did I tell you they cook? Uh yeah. Anyways.....one of my favorite Italian chefs is Lidia Bastianich. I didn't see the show she was on but they had this recipe of hers listed in their recipe files. It sounded so good. So I decided to give it a try and to serve it with a salad and spaghetti squash. The meal was a smash and this chicken is fantastic. I only changed a few things. I will write the recipe as she specifies and note if I did something different. They weren't huge changes. I just can't tell you how delish this was. Reminiscent of chicken Parmesan but not exactly the same. It is pure love on your plate.          

Chicken with Eggplant and Fontina Cheese: Serves 6 (I made more and doubled the sauce.)

1 med. eggplant  
6 (6oz.) boneless/skinless chicken breasts cut in half  on the bias as below. Then pound lightly to even thickness.

  Salt and Pepper
6 Slices of Prosciutto di Parma. *De Parma is the best. It is from Italy. You can get domestic but it is saltier. Both will work. Cut in half.
6 Tbl. olive oil. (I used much more.)
4 Tbl. butter (I used more.)
flour (this is just to lightly dredge the chicken and the slices of eggplant in. More of a dusting.)
6 peeled garlic cloves ( I used more than double the amount and I minced mine.)
1/2 Cup white wine (we used a Pinot Grigio because that was what we were drinking. Santa Margarita is our fave.)
1 Cup chicken stock
1/2 Cup canned good Italian tomatoes. San Marzano is the best. We just used the crushed all purpose tomato.
12 large fresh basil leaves ( we used more as I put two leaves on each breast piece.) Then I chopped the rest and sprinkled it all over the chicken when it was out of the oven.
6 oz. shredded Fontina cheese
1/2 Cup grated Grana Padano. Without a cheese lesson here. You can just use Parmesan cheese. Parm is a type of Padano. You can research it if your curious.

(I DOUBLED ALL THE INGREDIENTS FOR THE SAUCE. I WAS GLAD I DID)
Trim the ends off the eggplant and peel one inch strips of peel off ever inch all the way around. Slice into about 1inch pieces. Lay out and salt both sides and set aside.
Season pounded chicken breast with salt and pepper on both sides. Lay a piece of prosciutto on the stickiest side of the chicken and kinda mash in with your fingers to get the prosciutto to adhere to the chicken. The prosciutto is so thin it will stick pretty easily.
Heat a large pan with 2-3 Tbl. of olive oil in the fry pan and add 2 TBL. of butter. When this melted and blended take chicken and lightly dredge in flour and tap off loose flour. Fry in prosciutto side down first till light brown and slightly crispy (2-3 minutes) and turn and cook other side till lightly brown. Remove and drain on paper towels and then place prosciutto side up in an oven proof pan. I used glass cake pans. You may need to use more than one so you don't over fill the pans. Continue this step till all the chicken is fried. Sprinkle just a bit of Parmesan cheese on the chicken.
Now take the eggplant and in the same skillet fry it. You want to pat the eggplant dry as the salt will cause it to sweat some. Dredge lightly in flour and fry till golden in pan. Drain and place on piece on each piece of chicken. Then lightly sprinkle with just a bit of parm cheese (this is just to help the layers hold together. After you have completed this place one or two fresh, stemmed basil leaves on top of each piece of eggplant that is now on top of each piece of chicken (we are building a tower.)
Now to the sauce.
In the same skilled you cooked the chicken and eggplant add the minced garlic (if you need more olive oil or butter add a little. You don't need much. My pan had gotten kinda dark from the flour and I had to clean it out a little so not to have burnt flour. I didn't wash it as there was flavor in there but I did wipe out the too dark flour. Ok, so we now have a good pan with 2-3 Tbl. olive oil and 2 Tbl. butter approximately. Add the  minced garlic and cook till light brown (dont BURN the garlic as it will become bitter.) Add the the wine and bring to a boil and cook till the wine is almost evaporated. Add in the chicken stock and drop in 2 Tbl. butter and the chopped or pureed or however you like them tomatoes. Boil till slightly reduced and thickened. Add a little salt and pepper.  When the sauce is done take a spoon and spoon a little over the top of each tower. Then spoon the sauce around the chicken. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese and shredded fontina cheese. Bake at 350 till cheese melted and sauce bubbling. I think it cooked about 20-30 minutes.When you remove it from the oven sprinkle with remaining basil leaves that have been chopped or torn into small pieces.
You wont be sorry kids. It is pretty amazing. I served it with spaghetti squash that had olive oil and salt and pepper. I did add a dollop of butter to it when I reheated it in the microwave.
Enjoy!