Summer Pasta Salad

This is super easy and quick, and perfect for the summer evening when you are tired, hot and don’t really want to cook. (That happens to me a lot in the summer!) Here’s a tip: Keep chicken cooked and diced in 1 cup increments in your freezer. I usually buy a couple of cooked rotisserie chickens when I go to Costco, take it all off of the carcasses and chop it up. I then freeze it in small quantities to just dump into meals like this. I get about 6 cups of chicken from one large rotisserie chicken (the chickens from King Soopers or Safeway are smaller and you won’t get as much meat. You could also roast your own whole chicken, or even a large quantity of chicken breasts and do the same thing.

Here’s the recipe (you can use the same veggies or add whatever you have–bell peppers, onions, jicama, peas, etc):

• 4 cups cooked elbow macaroni, or any other shaped pasta (this is about 1/3 pound of pasta)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2-3 tsp rice vinegar
• 1/4 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 2 small tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 large cucumber, diced
• 1 cup cooked chicken, diced

Mix everything together and you have a quick, easy meal. This can be served warm or cold…your choice!

Spaghetti with Gorgonzola and Vegetables

Like most veggie pasta dishes, the amount and type of veggies don’t matter too much. You can substitute with whatever you have on hand, or whatever is in season. We’ve had a lot of leeks lately, so I’ve been using them in most of our recipes lately. You can always substitute another type of onion. We had some gorgonzola cheese in the refrigerator that needed to be used, so I threw it in our spaghetti tonight. I thought it was pretty good!

• 1 small leek, thinly sliced (about 1/3–1/2 cup)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup broccoli, chopped into small florets
• 1 medium zucchini, thinly sliced
• 1 medium tomato, diced
• 1/3 cup chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons half and half
• 1/3 cup gorgonzola cheese
• 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
• freshly ground pepper
• parmesean cheese, freshly shredded
• 8 ounces spaghetti, cooked according to package directions

 

Over medium heat, saute leeks with olive oil for 2-3 minutes. Add garlic, broccoli and zucchini and saute for 1-2 more minutes. Add chicken broth and tomato, salt and pepper, and simmer covered for 5-10 minutes or until veggies are tender. Uncover and stir in half and half and gorgonzola cheese. Toss with pasta and serve topped with parmesean.

Baked Pasta with Zucchini and Sausage

I love zucchini and Chris loves sausage…hence the combination! You could substitute regular sausage for the hot kind, but you’ll definitely loose some flavor. I always use Boulder sausage (there aren’t any added nitrates or preservatives).

• 1 zucchini, thinly sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small onion (I used one large leek)
• 1/2 pound hot italian sausage
• 1/2 pound whole wheat pasta (ziti, fusilli, etc), cooked according to package directions
• 1/3 cup feta cheese
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 1/4 cup fresh mozarella, grated

Remove sausage from casings and brown. Drain on paper towel.

In the same pan, saute onion 2-3 minutes (if you need a little more oil, just add 1-2 tsp olive oil to the pan). Add garlic and zucchini and saute 3-4 more minutes. Remove from heat and stir together zucchini mixture, salt, sausage, feta cheese, chicken broth, and pasta. Pour mixture into greased 8×8 baking dish and top with grated mozarella cheese. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until bubbly.

Chicken Cacciatore

This sauce has really nice flavor, and because the chicken is simmered in the crock pot for awhile it is nice and tender. An easy meal to put together, and one that would freeze nicely. Just put the cooked chicken and tomato sauce into a freezer safe container, and freeze. When you are ready to cook it, place the frozen chicken and sauce in your crock-pot and let simmer for several hours.

from OurBestBites.com

• 1 lb. chicken breasts, trimmed of fat and cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1/4 c. white flour
• 1 tsp. Kosher salt
• 1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 c. olive oil
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• 5-6 cloves garlic, peeled and either crushed or halved
• 1 6-oz. can tomato paste
• 1 c. white wine
• 1 1/2 c. chicken broth
• 1/4 tsp. thyme
• 1/4 tsp. marjoram (I don’t usually have marjoram, so I substituted an equal amount of oregano.)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 c. sliced mushrooms (We don’t like mushrooms, so I omitted these and added about 1 cup of diced eggplant…yum! It was a good addition.)
• 1 bell pepper, chopped

Heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat. When oil is hot, add onions and garlic and stir frequently until onions are tender and garlic is fragrant. Remove with a slotted spoon (this is why you need to keep the onion and garlic pieces big), shake off excess oil (you don’t have to go crazy here, a little olive oil never killed anyone!), and transfer to your blender. Increase heat to medium-high.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, 1 tsp. salt, and 1 tsp. black pepper. Add chicken pieces, and stir to coat pieces with flour. Dump the chicken into the hot pan and stir quickly to prevent pieces from sticking together. Saute until chicken is golden. Remove chicken with slotted spoon and drain on a paper towel.

While chicken is draining, add wine, chicken broth, tomato paste, thyme, and marjoram, and salt to the onions and garlic in the blender. Blend until smooth. Place chicken and bay leaf in your slow cooker and then pour the sauce over the chicken. Place lid on slow cooker and cook on high for 3.5-4 hours. When you have about 1/2 hour to go, add the extra vegetables and cook until they are tender. Remove bay leaf and serve over pasta.
Serves 6-8.

Vegetable and Cheese Stuffed Pasta Shells

So I am on this low-calorie diet for the month of January (it’s going well…I’m losing weight!!), but I am starting to run out of appetizing options for dinner. I can only eat so much baked chicken and fish. So, I decided to attempt a lower calorie version of stuffed shells…I think you can almost call it healthy! I thought it was rather good, the kids liked it, and Chris only moaned for a minute about the lack of CHEESE! He is in no need of losing weight and would love to see some high calorie meals on our table again! Here’s the recipe:

• 1 cup cottage cheese
• 2 eggs
• 2 ounces fresh mozarella, shredded
• 4 ounces fresh parmesean, shredded
• 1/4 cup frozen spinach, drained and chopped
• 1/2 cup pureed carrots (steam carrots until they are super soft and then puree them in the food processor)
• 1/2 cup pureed squash (Any kind of squash will do. You can steam it or bake it until it is very soft and then blend it up in the food processor. Extra spureed squash freezes really well.)
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 20 jumbo pasta shells, cooked according to package directions
• 2 cups tomato sauce (I like to make my own with this recipe)

 

In a food processor, puree the cottage cheese until smooth. In a large mixing bowl, combine the cottage cheese and the next 9 ingredients (through salt).

Cook the pasta according to the package directions and the stuff with the cheese and veggie mixture. Place in a baking dish coated with cooking spray, top with tomato sauce, and bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.