Tucson Tempeh Pasta

Life these days is pretty suburban: I drive a station wagon (seriously), iron the sheets for the master bedroom (they feel divine), and help organize events in the social committee for my homeowners' association.  Good gracious, just typing that stuff out makes me feel like I should be on Wisteria Lane.  Needless to say, the days could use some hard edges sometimes to keep it from going stale. 

Enter Thug Kitchen.  Have y'all been keeping up with this Tumblr?  I've been a huge fan for months, if only because a) I do have a bit of a potty mouth, b) it's so wonderful to find a website devoted to vegan food that isn't self-righteous, and c) the creators of it have an awesome sense of humor.  Oh, and the recipes are legit delicious.  I wanted to pass on one of their photos from the site, but just scrolled through every one of them and there's an F-bomb on it.  Take my word for it. 

Last Thursday, JP and I had Tucson Tempeh Pasta, the TK version of Hamburger Helper.  Full of veggies, protein-packed tempeh, and whole wheat pasta, you'll absolutely love this meal without feeling guilty about sodium levels, weird ingredients, and fat.  After one bite, I looked at my husband and said, 'I want this every week for the rest of the year.'  The man who always eats out for lunch took the leftovers with him to work.  There is no greater compliment.

Tucson Tempeh Pasta (from Thug Kitchen)

1 block tempeh (about 8 oz), crumbled

1 yellow onion, chopped

2 bell peppers, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp. olive oil

2 tsp. soy sauce

2 Tbsp. chili powder

2 tsp. dried thyme

1 tsp. dried basil (or oregano, if you have it)

1 1/2 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. liquid smoke (you can find it near the bbq sauce and it is heavenly)

14 oz. can of diced tomatoes, low sodium

1 lb. whole wheat pasta

Juice from 1 lemon

1 c. peas

Any leftover veggies you have to get rid of (I used green beans)

1. Prepare pasta, drain, and set aside. 

2. Heat oil over medium heat in a large skillet, and add tempeh, onion, peppers, and carrots. Cook until onions are softened and tempeh is golden. 

3. Add soy sauce, spices, and garlic; cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes.  Add liquid smoke and tomatoes; allow sauce to bubble.

4. Combine pasta, lemon juice, and additional veggies to the skillet.  Cook until everything is heated through and the pasta is coated in sauce.  Taste and adjust seasonings before serving!  JP thought it was a bit spicy and added some sour cream, which looked super-creamy and tasty.  

Pesto-Tomato Pasta

You guys are lucky that this meal stuck around long enough for me to photograph a "finished" photo!  This was one of those serendipitous meals that you throw together out of the scraps that you have around the kitchen and it turns out like you had followed a recipe from Martha Stewart.  Although, Martha would probably faint over her skillet if she saw me adding both packaged pesto AND canned stewed tomatoes to a recipe, rather than making everything from scratch.  Please don't tell on me to Martha (Grandma in NC, I'm lookin at you.).  

For this recipe, you'll need some type of pasta, preferably with ridges to hold all of this good sauce, one package of powdered creamy pesto, one can of stewed tomatoes, butter, and garlic.  That's it.

Start out by boiling your pasta, of course.  

Melt about 2 tbsp. of butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat.

Add a couple cloves of minced garlic, and let that sit nicely in the pan while it softens.  Keep the heat low here, because no one likes burned garlic.

After two or three minutes, add the creamy pesto sauce mix (which is the only kind of pesto I can use, because all other kinds have nuts, which Matt can't eat!)...

...and the can of tomatoes. 

Stir it all up, and raise the heat to medium high.  You can use your spoon to kind of smush up the larger pieces of tomato, or use diced tomatoes.  Let this simmer for a couple of minutes, while the pasta finishes cooking.  Drain the pasta, but try to keep some of the pasta water on the pasta.  What I did was pour the pasta through the colander, then threw the pasta straight back into the pan, without letting it drain at all.  The pasta water still has all of the good starch, which helps the sauce thicken a bit and stick to the pasta better.  Then just pour the sauce over the pasta, and serve!  

 

Matt and I had this for lunch on the porch last Sunday, garnished with fresh basil from my herb garden,  in phenomenal weather, and a bit of white wine, and it was just the perfect light lunch!

Let's take a moment, and just admire all of the colors in this photo.  I am just wild over the napkins that Mommi made us, and I love setting the table outside with all of the fun colors and patterns!

Healthy Baked Ziti

When I came across this recipe from The Pioneer Woman, I could not resist all of the cheesy, lasagna-y goodness coming out of my computer screen.  I had to make it.  The only problem was most of the recipe: Matt really doesn't eat sausage or ground beef anymore ("It's not healthy!"), I don't eat much cheese anymore, and I needed a sneaky way to get some leafy greens into the mix.  So, I used this recipe as a sort of jumping-off point, and made wanton changes willy-nilly.  That's how I roll.

The very very first thing to do is start boiling your pasta.  Only cook it for about half the amount of time it tells you to, because it will continue cooking when you bake it.

Then, sautee a couple handfuls of collard greens in olive oil until softened, then chopped it up in the food processor along with a couple cloves of garlic, until it is almost a paste.  Set that aside.  

I used ground chicken, instead of pork and ground beef.  Sautee that, along with some diced onion, until it's really browned.

Add one can of stewed whole tomatoes, the collard greens...

...and one jar of some kind of pasta sauce.  Season as you'd like with salt, pepper, basil, oregano, etc. Let that simmer over low heat while you do the rest of the prep work.  

Combine the pasta noodles with 1 small container of ricotta cheese and 1 egg.  Try to leave come sizable chunks of ricotta among the pasta, as this becomes the delightful little pockets of goodness in the baked ziti. 

Spread an 11 x 13 inch pan with the tomato and meat mixture, then the pasta, and then some mozzarella cheese (for the record, I used "Veggie Shreds", which is a dairy-free cheese substitute).  Repeat until you are out of layers.

Mmm, looks delish!

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes, until the cheese is bubbly and browned.

Yum!  Wow!!  Matt loved it, and I got to have it for leftovers for the next three days!  And I didn't even get tired of it!

Rustic Pasta

Remember when I told you there would be some vegan recipes on this blog following the cleanse I did?  Well, during that 3-day juicing, I read Alicia Silverstone's (yes, from Clueless) book, The Kind Diet, which is about sticking with a vegan and/or macrobiotic diet.  Half of it goes into why she's a vegan and the research behind sticking with a meatless and dairy-less diet, and the other half is full of recipes with lots of veggies, salads, and whole grains.

The first one that caught my eye was this rustic pasta dish.  It combines soy sauce and marinara sauce, caramelized onions and sauteed cabbage, and celery cooked so long it's softened to a consistency even I can't resist.  The flavors are perfectly complementary: salty soy with tangy tomato and sweetened onions.  Yum-my!

I used whole wheat rotini pasta, and 1/2 cup of marinara instead of 5-6 Tbsp.  Also, a whole head of cabbage wouldn't fit in the skillet, so I could only use half a head.  Trust me, it was enough!

This recipe made 5 servings, enough for two and a half meals for JP and I.  After we finished our bowlfuls, he looked at me and said, "Who was skeptical when you said vegan meal?  This guy.  And who's satisfied?  This guy!"  It must be good!

Pesto Pasta Salad

Oh, lovely, lovely carbs and vegetables.  Is there a better combination?
Remember back toward the beginning of this whole blog thing, I mentioned getting cravings for Katie Lee's pesto pasta salad?  You may not, and I won't hold it against you.  The thing is this: during the summer, I don't want to hang out over the stove all evening to make a meal; I want a recipe that will make several servings for leftovers the next day, and maybe dinner the following night.  And, it would be nice if it can be served either hot or cold, and moderately healthy.
I am happy to say that this salad is all of those things!  The homemade pesto includes spinach, for some extra nutrients, and you can use fresh or frozen veggies to add to the whole wheat pasta.  Top with some Parmesan cheese, and you're good to go for a couple days' worth of meals!

Baked Spinach and Pea Risotto

As much as I love the creamy comfort of risotto, it's a pain in the tuchus, and time-consuming, to stand in front of the stove and stir the rice for half an hour!  When I saw this recipe in April's Real Simple, I knew it would be on my to-do list.  I wasn't sure if baking it would be as effective as doing it stovetop, as stirring the rice constantly as it cooks helps rub the starch from the grains and create the creaminess that risotto is known for.  It's worth a shot, though!
The result is this: not as rich as when made via stove, but every bit as delicious, and quite a bit easier.  Definitely give this recipe a shot.  If you want to add some sausage or browned, ground beef to the rice and veggies, it can help satisfy your carnivore cravings. 

 

 

 

P.S. Our risotto isn't the same color as Real Simple's; we used an orangey vegetable broth, which affected the rice.  It's just as tasty, though!

Spaghetti with Lemon and Olive Oil

Pasta is the perfect meal for a weeknight: easy, lots of leftovers for lunch at work during the week, and endlessly versatile.  I love recipes that allow for a lot of servings, because I'm tired of pb&js for lunch.
This meal is great for spring.  Lots of lemon to refresh the palate for spring, Parmesan for creamy saltiness, and I've added some artichoke hearts for some unexpected flavor.  There isn't a lot involved with good recipes; just the perfect mingling of flavors.  Smitten Kitchen nailed it on the head yet again on this one!  To add the artichoke hearts, sautee some frozen hearts until heated through, or just throw them in from a can.  It's a great way to enjoy an extra serving or two of veggies while not taking away from the lightness of the dish. 

 

Mother in Law's Pasta Salad

 

My mom sent this pasta to John Paul and I after the engagement; it's called "Mother in Law's Tongue" because it's slightly barbed and twisted.  Hahahaha...what a sense of humor she has!  It's actually incredibly tasty, with a nice soft bite and cute colors.  We just boiled it up and tossed it with some black olives, caramelized onions, broccoli and Parmesan cheese.  It was a perfect, easy mid-week meal.
Lately, when I make pasta, I chant Strega Nona's pasta charm, from Tomie DePaola's Strega Nona.  It goes something like this:
Boil, boil, pasta pot,
Boil me some pasta, nice and hot. 
I'm hungry and it's time to sup,
So boil some pasta to fill me up.
Appropriate, no?

 

 

Spaghetti and Meatballs

 

 Sometimes the best recipes come out of leftovers in the fridge.  On Friday night, I realized that we'd had the zucchini for about 5 days, it wasn't getting any fresher, and figured it can't be too bad to throw it into some spaghetti sauce.  So I came up with my own little vegetable, meatball red sauce!  It's got enough veggies to not feel bad about splurging on the meatballs and some spinach-and-chive spaghetti.  It's really not hard either; a win-win for everyone!

Veggie Spaghetti Sauce w/ Turkey Meatballs
3 medium zucchini
1 large onion
Olive oil
1 bag frozen turkey meatballs
2 28-oz. cans marinara sauce
1 lb. prepared spaghetti
1. Quarter zucchini and slice thinly.  Half the onion and slice thinly.
2. Throw some olive oil into a pan and sautee onions, 10-15 minutes.
3. In the meantime, heat up marinara sauce and put meatballs into a Dutch oven, until meatballs are heat through.
4. After onions are golden brown, put into marinara sauce.  Throw zucchini into same pan as onions, and sautee until softened, about 5-10 minutes.  Once softened, add to sauce.  Mix together.
5. Serve some spaghetti into shallow bowls, then spoon sauce on top.  Tasty!

 

Baked Pasta with Winter Squash Puree

Mmmm...can you tell I love the squash and pasta combination?  First the Spaghetti (Squash) Pasta, now this.  This is a particularly great meal for the winter because it makes a lot of food, and reheats beautifully.

When butternut squash is pureed, it has a silky texture, and it's the perfect foil for subtly crunchy breadcrumbs and salty fusilli. There are also caramelized onions, which is my weakness. I couldn't find winter squash puree at my grocery store, so I made my own. Just peel a medium butternut squash, cube it, then steam it until it's soft, about 20 minutes. Put into a bowl and blend it with a hand blender, or toss it into a standard blender. Find the recipe at Everyday Food.

I served this as a meal in and of itself, but think it would be great with some green beans or asparagus and some hearty protein. You really can't serve it the wrong way!

 

Spagetti (Squash) Pasta

This meal came from laziness: John Paul and I couldn't be bothered to actually make something that required chopping, dicing, roasting, etc.  Sometimes preparing dinner is a hassle!  Spagetti pasta takes all of the effort out of cooking, and leaves you with just the tastiness.  There's some butter to add a rich, creamy flavor, the sweetness of the squash, and saltiness of the pasta, all combined in one bowl.  There were some words exchanged when it came time to decide who would take the leftovers to work.  A dish worth fighting for.  Isn't that all we want in our bellies?

Spagetti (Squash) Pasta
1 bag curly pasta
1 medium spagetti squash
1/2 c. grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tbsp. butter
Salt and pepper to taste
1. Boil water, then put pasta in.  I pour a lot of salt into my water to give the pasta its flavor.  Reserve 3/4 c. pasta water, then drain and set aside.
2. While the pasta is cooking, poke holes into the squash with a fork, then put on a plate.  Microwave in 5 minute increments until the skin gives when poked.  This should take about 15 minutes.  Remove from microwave (carefully; it will be super hot!), cut in half, and remove the seeds.  Scrape the meat away from the skin, and place into the bowl with the pasta.
3. Throw in cheese, butter and reserved water.  Mix around until everything is melted, then season to taste.

 

Mushroom and Spinach Lasagna

Since Summer has moved up to DC, I've realized that we have very similar cooking sensibilities.  I say I'm making homemade Twix bars, and she says, "Just keep stirring the sugar so it doesn't burn."  She's mastered biscuits and gravy, and reads the same cooking blogs that I subscribe to.  So when she said a couple weeks ago that she'd made Smitten Kitchen's Mushroom Lasagna, I wasn't too surprised; the recipe had been sitting on my table to make for a couple of days.  She's my kitchen twin!

Summer gave me a tip to making the pasta dish more delicious: add sauteed spinach to the mushrooms. Oh, it put the whole meal over the top rich and tasty! The bechamel is creamy and thick, and compliments the bitterness of the spinach perfectly. And I think I've made my feelings on carbs pretty clear. Combine everything, and I was a very happy girl!

 

Smitten Kitchen's recipe for Mushroom Lasagna is spot-on; all I did was wilt a bunch of spinach (about one bag) in with the mushrooms in the last few minutes of cooking the mushrooms. It's great!