Pots & Plots

DH and I have been doing Angel Food Ministries for a couple of months, which we’ve really liked. This month’s order had a package of Italian sausage, which is something I never buy, so I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with it. I finally decided that I’d do something with pasta because hey, pasta goes with all things Italian.

Ingredients:

• olive oil
• 4 links Italian sausage (about 1 pound)
• 2 roasted red peppers, diced
• 1 onion, diced
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 4 oz. fresh baby bella mushrooms
• 1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
• 1 cup chicken stock (if you make and freeze your sock in ice cube trays, this is 10 cubes’ worth)
• 16 oz. pasta of your choice
• fresh parmesan (optional)
• goat cheese (optional)

Directions:

1. Drizzle a little olive oil in a skillet.
2. Remove sausage from casing and brown in the skillet
3. Put cooked sausage into a colander (retaining a couple of tablespoons of grease) and rinse well. This cuts way down on the fat content.
4. To the remaining grease add onion and garlic and sautee until onion is transluscent.
5. Add all ingredients to your crock pot and stir well.
6. Cook on low for 6 hours.
7. Serve over the pasta of your choice and top with sprinkles of Parmesan or goat cheese.

At last!  I have been trying for SEVEN YEARS to duplicate the sauce my favorite Chinese place uses for their lo mien.  Finally, courtesy of The Crepes of Wrath , I have a base for a good lo mien sauce.  I adapted her original recipe for garlic noodles and wound up making this three days in a row!

Ingredients:

• 7 oz. whole wheat spaghetti noodles
• 2 tablespoons butter or olive oil based margarine (I used Smart Balance Light)
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions
• 2 tablespoons finely minced garlic (about 2 cloves)
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar Splenda
• 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1/2 cup sliced fresh baby bella mushrooms
• 1/2 medium zucchini thinly sliced
• 1 cup sliced leftover steak, chicken, pork, or shrimp (optional–this dish is great with just veggies)
• 1 handful of chopped cashews

Directions

1. Boil your noodles according to package directions.  Drain and set aside.
2. Meanwhile melt your butter or margarine  over medium high heat, and add zucchini, meat, and mushrooms.  Saute for 3-5 minutes or until zucchini begins to get slightly limp.
3. Meanwhile, mix the brown sugar Splenda, light soy sauce, and oyster sauce in a small bowl.
4. Add cashews, green onions and garlic to the skillet.  Sautee for about 1-2 minutes.
5. Add in your sauce and mix well.
6. Add noodles and mix thoroughly until well coated.
7. Serve immediately.

If you keep this vegetarian, it serves about 2.  If you add in meat, you can stretch it to feed 3.  Careful, these are REALLY addictive!

So earlier this week I made bruschetta with roasted red peppers, tomatoes, and goat cheese for a small dinner party I was hosting. It was such a hit, I made a second batch for hubby and myself last night (and to save myself some work, I used a can of drained, diced tomatoes–I still think the fresh are better, FYI). I had the last of the bread with the bruschetta for lunch today, but I still had about half a cup of the topping remaining. So I decided to do some creative tinkering in the kitchen to see what else I could come up with to do with it.

Naturally, I wound up making pasta–because, let’s face it, almost everything is good on pasta in some form or another.

Ingredients:

• 4 oz. dried pasta of your choice (I used cavitapi)
• 1/2 cup leftover bruschetta topping
• 1 whole medium zucchini, diced
• 1/2 cup baby portabella mushrooms
• 1 oz goat cheese
• 2 Tbsp light sour cream
• olive oil
• minced garlic

Instructions:

1. Drizzle olive oil in your skillet and heat over medium high.
2. Start your pasta water and salt.
3. Add garlic (your preference–I only used about a 1/2 tsp because there was loads of garlic in the bruschetta topping)
4. Add zucchini and mushrooms.
5. I also had some pre-grilled chicken (one of those rarely bought convenience foods that I don’t suggest–it’s never as good as when you make it yourself, but I bought it for my non-cooking spouse and then he didn’t like it–gotta use it SOMEWHERE) that I needed to use up that I tossed in, but this would be just as good without meat.
6. Dump your pasta in the boiling water.
7. Sautee veggies until zucchini softens.
8. Add bruschetta topping.
9. Turn down heat and add goat cheese and sour cream. Mix until cheese is melted.
10. Add drained pasta and stir well to coat.

It’s not really a pretty dish, but it was definitely tasty.