Roasted Vegetable Minestrone

{Meatless Monday}

This was so delicious...but because it contains no less than 8 different vegetables, it didn't go over too well with most of my children.  Oh well...that's nothing new! ; )

This is another recipe from the Pioneer Woman.  I always love the recipes I make off of her site!

Here's what you need:

• 2 whole Zucchini, Halved, Cut Into Strips, Then Cubed
• 2 whole Summer Squash, Halved, Cut Into Strips, Then Cubed
• 8 ounces, weight White Mushrooms, Stems Removed And Quartered
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• Kosher Salt To Taste
• 2 Tablespoons (additional) Olive Oil
• 2 whole Carrots, Washed And Sliced (not Peeled)
• 1 whole Medium Onion, Diced
• 3 stalks Celery, Sliced (leaves Included)
• 8 cups Low Sodium Chicken Broth
• 2 cans Cannelini Beans, Rinsed
• 1 cup (heaping) Cut Green Beans, Fresh Or Frozen
• 1-½ cup Medium Or Small Pasta Shells, Uncooked
• 1 can (14.5) Diced Tomatoes With Juice
• Salt And Pepper, to taste
• ¼ teaspoons Turmeric (optional)
• Parmesan Cheese, Shaved

 Preheat oven to 500.

Mix cubed zucchini, squash, and mushrooms in a bowl with olive oil and a sprinkling of salt.  Pour onto cookie sheet and roast in the hot oven for 5 to 10 minutes, or until browned.  Remove from oven and set aside.

In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add carrots, onions, and celery and stir to cook for 3 minutes. Pour in broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for ten minutes.
Add cannelini beans and green beans.
 Cook on low for five minutes. Add pasta and cook for an additional five minutes. Add canned tomatoes, stir, and cook for an additional five minutes on low heat. Check for seasonings, adding salt, pepper, and turmeric.
Add roasted vegetables at the very end. Stir and allow to simmer and heat for a few minutes before serving.

Serve topped with parmesan cheese.

This made a TON, so I think you could cut down on the amounts and still have plenty to serve your family!

Italian Bread with Herb Dip Recipe

 Here's the recipe for the Italian Bread.  It really is a quick bread...takes about an hour from start to finish and we LOVE this bread!  I posted this recipe on a very early post, but I thought I would post it individually.

Italian Bread with Herbs

1 T. yeast
1 T. sugar
1 cup very warm water
2 T. oil
1 tsp. salt
2 1/2 cups flour (I always use half white/half wheat)

Mix yeast and sugar into water. Let sit for 5-10 minutes. Mix in oil, salt, and flour (one cup at a time) until soft dough forms. Knead lightly until smooth. Cover in bowl and let rise 20 minutes. Shape dough into round loaves (each batch makes 2 loaves...I always double or triple the recipe) and cut three small lines in the top of each loaf.




Cover with towel and let rise 20-25 minutes. Bake at 425 for 10-12 minutes.





Cut into thick slices and serve with this:





Here's how you make it!

Italian Herb Mix
2 tsp. crushed red pepper
2 tsp. ground black pepper
1 T. dried oregano
1 T. dried rosemary
1 T. dried basil
1 T. dried parsley
1 T. garlic powder
1 T. minced garlic
1 tsp. salt

Mix all ingredients together with the back of a spoon. The minced garlic helps it clump together a little. Put 1-2 tsp. of mix on small plate and drizzle with olive oil. Serve with warm bread....it is heavenly! My kids eat so much of this stuff...they all love it.

Pasta with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

{Meatless Monday}

This is a recipe from the Pioneer Woman.  It was delicious!

If you want to see all her beautiful photos...head on over to her site!  : )

Here's the recipe:

• 3 whole Red Bell Peppers
• 2 Tablespoons Pine Nuts (optional)
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• ½ whole Medium Onion, Finely Diced
• 2 cloves Garlic, Minced
• ½ cups Heavy Cream
• Flat Leaf Parsley, Finely Minced
• Fresh Parmesan, Shaved Or Grated
• ½ pounds (to 1 Pound) Pasta: Orecchiette, Penne, Fusilli, Etc.

Roast red peppers, and then place in a Ziploc bag to allow to sweat. Peel the charred skins from the peppers, then removed seeds. Set aside.
Lightly toast pine nuts in a skillet. Set aside.
Puree peppers with pine nuts. Set aside.

Cook pasta according to package directions.

In a skillet or pot over medium heat, drizzle in olive oil. Add diced onions and garlic and cook until soft. Pour in pepper puree and stir together. Add plenty of salt.
Pour in cream and stir to combine. Taste and add more salt, if necessary. Add cooked pasta, and then stir together.
Place pasta into a bowl, top with chopped parsley and plenty of shaved Parmesan.

 I served it with these corkscrew noodles...they were very good.  Serve with bread...this would work great!  We made Italian bread...I thought I had put the recipe on my blog, but apparently I haven't.  It is a very quick bread that turns out perfect every time...I'll post that recipe soon!
Enjoy!!

Mediterranean Macaroni and Cheese

{Meatless Monday}

This is definitely a keeper!!  It was absolutely delicious and very simple to throw together.  It was in the oven in under 15 minutes!

Here's what you need:
The original recipe called for just 8 oz pasta and baked in an 8 inch pan.  I essentially doubled most everything...so here is what I did:

16 ounces elbow macaroni (I used large elbow)
1/2 cup butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup flour (I used wheat, as always)
4 cups whole milk ( I used some half&half and some 1%)
4 oz feta cheese
1/2 cup pepper jack (the recipe called for 8 oz feta, but I used both kinds of cheese)
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes (it said drained, but I just poured in the whole can)
1 cup chopped olives (I used 1/2 black and 1/2 green...it was SO yummy)
1 tsp. dried oregano
Salt and Pepper


Preheat oven to 400.  Cook pasta 2 minutes less than instructions.  Drain and return to pot.

Combine in bowl: tomatoes, olives, and oregano.  Set aside.

While the pasta cooks,  melt butter in medium saucepan. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, 1-2 minutes.  Add flour and cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute.   Whisk in milk and bring to boil.  Reduce heat to medium and whisk until the sauce thickens, 3-5 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in the 1/2 the feta and all the pepper jack.  Stir in tomato mixture.  Pour over pasta (I did this in my huge bowl...it made a very full 9X13...Love leftovers!!).

Pour pasta into buttered 9X13 and top with 1/2 feta (I used about 2 ounces on top).  Bake until bubbly and lightly browned, 20-25 minutes. 

I never got a picture once it was cooked.  It was one of the craziest nights for our family schedule...I really needed a couple clones of myself to be everywhere I was supposed to be!!  We each ate whenever we could...I actually ate on the way to pick up some kids from choir practice.  It was too bad I couldn't sit down and enjoy it, because it was delicious!


If you wanted to make a smaller amount of pasta, just make a smaller batch of white sauce...that's pretty much what I doubled.

I really liked having all the tomato sauce in there...it was very creamy and flavorful.  My very favorite tomatoes EVER are the Western Family Petite Diced Garlic and Olive Oil.

They make everything taste better.  I use them in ALL my tomato recipes and I love their size and flavor!

Spinach and Feta Pasta

I got this recipe off of Our Best Bites.  They have so many yummy recipes...way too many to ever try all of them that look delicious!

Here's what you need:
8 oz. Penne pasta
1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes ( I used one small store-bought can with some of my home canned)
3 c. fresh spinach
1 onion, finely chopped
5-6 cloves of garlic, minced
2-3 fresh mushrooms, chopped
4 oz. crumbled feta cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste

Cook pasta and drain.  Meanwhile, heat a little oil in a skillet.  Add onions, garlic, and mushrooms and cook until tender.   Add spinach and cook until wilted.  Add tomatoes, heat through, and then add drained pasta and crumbled feta.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Heat through and serve; you can crumble a little feta on top if you want! 

I threw this together pretty quickly, so I only got a picture at then end:

I liked it...but my little kids did not.  I just LOVE feta cheese!!  Too bad for them, because we have a lot leftover, so they will be seeing it on their plates again! ; (  Our noodles were falling apart a little.  That might be that I had to leave my 12 year old in charge of deciding when they were done or it might be that they are out of our food storage.  Next time I use them, I'll have to make sure they are cooked right and see if they still break up.

Spaghetti Frittata

{Meatless Monday}

OK...so it's been a month since I've posted anything.  Sorry!  Honestly, I have been in a total cooking rut the last while and have not made anything new AT ALL...just old standbys that are already on the blog.

I had planned on making these tonight, but as I was looking at our schedule, I realized I didn't have enough time.  I quickly tried to think of what I had on hand.

I knew I had this:

And I knew I had lots of these (we have chickens!)

So I decided to throw together a frittata.  I think of a frittata as having more mix-ins, especially pasta.  I would never mix pasta into a quiche.  To me, the eggs are the MAIN part of a quiche, but in a frittata, the eggs are simply holding together the main parts...in this case, noodles and veggies.

I grabbed lots of vegetables from my fridge:
1 cup spinach
1/2 small zucchini, sliced and quartered
1/4 cup diced bell peppers
4 cherry tomatoes
3 mushrooms

I sauteed all the veggies....

(I didn't toss in the spinach until the end, after these were tender.)

Stirred in the leftover spaghetti noodles....

Then poured the egg mixture over the entire pan.   You shouldn't stir after pouring.  Just try to pour evenly over the noodles.
Egg mixture: 6 eggs, 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup cheese, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/8 tsp pepper. Beaten together.

Cook on stove top, covered, for about 8 minutes over medium heat.  Until eggs are set.  It will get a little dark on the bottom, but not too bad.  If you turn the heat lower to avoid that, just increase the cook time by 3-4 minutes.

Then put the skillet into the oven under the broiler. Broil for 2-4 minutes until it is browned on the top.  Then be very careful when you remove the skillet to remember, remember, remember(!!) that the handle is PIPING HOT!!

Lon and I have learned our lesson on this one.  The last time I made a frittata, I took it out of the oven, set it on the stovetop, got distracted for a second and came back and wrapped my hand around the large metal handle.  OW...it makes me shiver just to remember.  I screamed out, ran over to the sink, and JUST as I am turning on the cold water, I hear Lon scream out in pain!  He had come downstairs and saw the handle pointing out from the oven and tried to move it.  We were both plunging our hands in cold water and even though we were in pain, we were laughing hysterically.  So this time, he took one of our oven mittens and just put it onto the handle of the pan...so we wouldn't have a repeat! ; )

This was a super fast meal and I really liked how it turned out.  It would be good with any kind of cheese...even some cottage cheese thrown in there would help it be creamy.  I just used cheddar.  Oh, I almost forgot.  My favorite thing about this was that we ate it with our home canned salsa and it was divine!!

Smashed Potato Soup

{Meatless Monday}

I have had this recipe for a long time.  I think I printed it out at BH&G.  And today, I was organizing my cupboard and came across it and luckily had (almost) all the ingredients.  AND it was a crock pot recipe--which was a MUST because my oven element totally burnt out the other day!!  It was really weird...flames and sparks and everything--and then when it was all cooled off, I reached down and touched it and it fell apart.  Crazy.
Thankfully, my mom and dad's house down the street is empty right now and I have been able to bake a couple of things in their oven...but other than that there's been lots of boiling and saute-ing going on around here!

This soup wasn't as good as I had hoped.  It needs something more...the next time, I think I will add in some onions and some seasoning salt. It calls for green onions at the end, but I think some regular onion cooking with the potatoes would help.  It just needed more flavor.  So I definitely suggest adding those things to the ingredient list!

Here's what you need:

3 1/2 lbs potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/2 cup chopped yellow and/or red pepper
1 1/2 tsp minced garlic (could use more...or maybe fresh garlic)
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
4 1/2 cups chicken broth (I used my vegetarian broth...I think it is not as salty as regular broth,
                                          so I added about 1/2 tsp. salt)
1/2 cup whipping cream, or light cream ( I used milk with a little light sour cream mixed in)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese---ooooh, some pepper jack would be super yummy too!
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions

In crock pot:
Combine potatoes, sweet pepper, garlic, ONION, pepper, and seasoning salt (1/2 tsp?) .  Pour broth over all.
Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hrs OR on high for 4-5 hrs.
Mash potatoes slightly with a potato masher.  Stir in cream, cheese, and green onions.  If desired, garnish with more green onions and cheese.

 It is very colorful and pretty and it would be a lot more flavorful with the yummy additions I suggested.
Depending on how you like your soups, you can thicken this one a little with a small amount of flour whisked with water and then added for the last 20 minutes.