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Top Secret Meals
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Hummus: Quick and Easy
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Can you have too many quick and easy pasta recipes?
The answer is no, you can not. And you know what else… this recipe has no meat. Just for you Kristin. I love simple recipes like this that take advantage of the produce that is in season.
You will need:
1 lb pasta
bag of baby spinach
grape tomatoes, halved
olive oil
garlic, fresh or in a jar
freshly grated Parmesan cheese
If your bottle of extra virgin olive oil has an illustration of a young man picking olives, feel free to make all the inappropriate jokes you want about him being extra virginal.
I bought this jar of minced garlic solely because I liked the illustration on this one too. Aww, the little farm where my garlic was grown and then hand minced by kindly farmers, using methods that have been passed down for generations. That is what makes me feel better about being too lazy to mince my own.
Step One:.
Cook your pasta of choice. Drain and set aside.
Step Two:
Pour some olive oil into your big skillet. Then dump in your spinach.
Regarding the baby spinach, if you have never cooked fresh spinach before you need to know you will need much MUCH more of this than you think you will possibly want. The next time I make this recipe I am going to double the amount of spinach. But we are a spinach loving family.
A little side story, when we were eating dinner I mentioned us being like Popeye, and my children were all, “Who is Popeye?” And then I was sad that a cultural icon like Popeye the Sailorman has died a small quiet death. Where is the Spinach council? Although, the whole Popeye and Brutus fighting over Olive Oil was weird. And who was the father of her baby? Oh and there was the whole Popeye smoking like chimney. But see, these are things you have to consider when serving this to your children and promising it will make them strong JUST LIKE POPEYE!
Anyway, back to the recipe.
After a few minutes the spinach will have reduced to this:
After a few more minutes, this:
See? You will be all, “What happened to all my spinach? How will I ever get those freakishly large forearms with only this small amount of spinach.”
Step Three:
Toss in your pint of halved grape tomatoes and some garlic. I used about 1/2 tsp of the minced from the jar. I’d probably use 4 little cloves of the fresh garlic. You can use more or less depending on your personal taste and vampire repelling needs.
(Didn’t these used to be called cherry tomatoes? Why do all the stores and recipes call them grape tomatoes now? Is there some PC reason why they aren’t cherry tomatoes anymore? Are cherries offensive? Or are they different tomatoes? We could call them baby tomatoes, but that sounds so violent. Vegetarians don’t like that. Maybe we should be calling them those tiny little tomatoes.)
Step Four:
Heat thoroughly. The tomatoes will get soft and start to leak their tomato juice. After about five minutes it will be done.
Step Five:
Dump your pasta into the skillet . And mix well.
Note: I am STILL cooking on a camp stove.
Step Six:
Serve pasta. Grate cheese over each individual plate.
Enjoy!
Now that Spring is here it means one thing in my family– baseball, baseball, and more baseball. Which in turn means I have less time to prepare dinner, often we arrive home at 8:30 at night and still have not eaten. I hate resorting to fast food, but sometimes I feel like I have no choice.
I have discovered that with a little advanced preparation I can have food ready that is quick to eat and to clean-up. At 9:00 at night who feels like eating a 3 course meal and then cleaning up after it? Not me.
My children love this. LOVE. There really isn’t much not to love about it as long as you like peanut butter. I have several different versions of this recipe, but this one is my children’s favorite and it is the simplest to prepare. A win-win situation of you ask me. Read the rest of this entry »
I have tons of people who email me asking for recipes that are gluten free, egg free, dairy free, etc or can be adapted for food allergies. Okay, so maybe a ton is an exaggeration, a handful of people. Okay, two. Whatever.
Do not fear all you non allergic people, I have a delicious fettucine recipe that will be up on Thursday. Even though I will be far away from home I will post it for you. Yes, just for you! You will love it. I promise.
I originally wrote about this recipe on my personal blog in the fall. I wanted to republish it so that people can see baking, and cooking, is not an exact science. It is perfectly fine to experiment. Add different ingredients. Leave some out, whether on purpose or because of motherhood induced Alzheimer’s. I also did away with the refined sugars in this version of the recipe, instead substituting pure maple syrup.
In spite of all the alterations to the original recipe, it is just as delicious. Some may even say more so.
Do you ever see those recipes in magazines that say they will be done and on your table in ten minutes or less. And you laugh because you know it will take longer than that just to chop up whatever it is that needs to be chopped, or to find the ingredients in your cabinets?
I won’t promise ten minutes. But this delicious recipe takes only as long as your pasta takes to boil. That I will promise.
I have a pet peeve.
Really, Chris? Just one?
Okay, I have more than one pet peeve. I have a whole trunk of them, but the big one is my disdain for junk food pretending to be “real” food.
The granola bars, breakfast bars, “fruit” snacks, “made from 100% fruit” juices, go-gurt, to name a few. Those tubes of yogurt make me want to gouge my eyeballs out. No really. Those and the single serving sized soups that you drink out of the can. Personally I think if you can not find time to use a spoon that you don’t deserve to eat. No soup for you!
I have no problems with eating or serving my children the occasional donut, candy, ice cream, or even Oreo. But the difference is I harbor no illusions that it is anyway good for us.
I read a great article by Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, in the New York Times recently where he wrote:
Once, food was all you could eat, but today there are lots of other edible foodlike substances in the supermarket. These novel products of food science often come in packages festooned with health claims, which brings me to a related rule of thumb: if you’re concerned about your health, you should probably avoid food products that make health claims. Why? Because a health claim on a food product is a good indication that it’s not really food, and food is what you want to eat.
But we are all busy. How do you fit the time in to make healthy foods a priority?
Last year I had undiagnosed food allergies and episodes of anaphylaxis that forced me to be a more vigilant label reader and in the process learn how to cook. If you had told me a year ago that I would enjoy cooking, I would have laughed at you. But now I do enjoy it.
Along the way I have discovered that making good foods also nourishes your soul. And that children already know this. They love pouring and mixing. They delight in handling fresh produce. It all seems magical to them that seemingly random ingredients come together to form food. Getting over the feeling that it is an awful chore that must be suffered through is difficult.
And so I am choosing to view the past year as a gift. Although now that I have learned my lessons I am so ready to pass the gift one. Any takers? No? I’ll throw in a couple of Epi-pens? No takers, huh?
Breakfast is always one of those meals that gets the short end of the stick. Lots of sugars and prepackaged, processed foods. Most of us don’t have the time to make healthy home cooked food in the mornings. Read the rest of this entry »
When my eldest son was about 4 years old I made meatloaf. Since it was something I rarely made, he did not remember ever seeing it. He was oddly excited when he saw me take it out of the oven.
“What is that?” he had asked.
“It’s a meat loaf!” I replied.
“Oh, I love that meatloaf.” he had said.
Dinner time came and I sliced a piece off the meatloaf for him and put it on his plate. He excitedly dove his fork into it. Put it into his mouth. And then spit it back out onto the table.
“That is a yucky cake! I do not like that cake!” he yelled.
Poor child, he thought we were having cake for dinner. I could only laugh. To this day whenever I make meatloaf I say, “Oh honey, remember this is not a cake.” Read the rest of this entry »
Happy Valentine’s Day.
My children have eaten sweethearts, chocolate, and cupcakes for breakfast. Apparently Valentine’s Day is the national holiday for putting yourself into a sugar coma.
I am not going to write about making cupcakes today. Instead I am going to share our family’s beloved chili recipe. Because let’s face it, nothing says I love you like a meal that requires beano. Flatulence: the gift that keeps on giving.
In the cold winter months there is nothing I like better than a warm hearty stew. Aside from a tropical vacation where cabana boys bring me fruity drinks with little umbrellas in them, that is.
Do you hear the heavenly angels singing? Read the rest of this entry »