Lunch in the Kitchen With Me!

Hey everyone! Hope your Sunday is ending on a good note! I originally planned to have this video posted this morning, but good ol’ Youtube was not cooperating—don’t you just love technology and all its’ glitches surprises? Eek! But, Tinypic came to the rescue and was on my side, so I’ll stop chatting and let you get to the video. [Recipe and pictures below]
Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

Seaside Pasta Dish w/Yellow Bell Pepper Sauce

Ingredients:

• 3 oz angel hair pasta, cooked and drained
• 3/4 c mix of prepared shrimp and tilapia, chopped to your liking(if frozen, previously thawed)
• 1/4 canned pineapple chunks, drained
• Parmesan cheese, if desired

For sauce:

• 1/4 c yellow bell pepper and onion,chopped and sautéed
• 1/4 c canned stewed tomatoes + 2 Tbsp liquid from tomatoes
• Preferred seasonings

Directions:

• Cook pasta according to box—strain and set aside in bowl.
• Sauté chopped bell pepper and onion until soft, about 3-4 minutes.
• Once done, put into food processor along with tomatoes, tomato liquid, and seasonings of your choice. Pulse for about 1 min, or until sauce consistency forms.
• Meanwhile, chop your mixture of fish however big or small you like it. (I left my shrimp whole and cubed the tilapia.)
• Spoon sauce mixture (yields about 1/2 C) over pasta, top with fish, shrimp, and pineapple and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese if you wish!!!

Homemade Semi-Gourmet Garlic Bread

Ingredients:

• 1 slice of sandwich bread, white or wheat
• 1/2 clove of garlic
• 1 Tbsp butter spread
• 2 Tbsp shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions:

• Preheat oven or toaster oven to 450 F.
• Mix garlic and butter spread together and spread evenly on bread.
• Top with a sprinkling of cheese and bake for 5-8 min—watch carefully, it browns fast!

Have a super start to your work or school week!

And keep an eye out for gorgeous fall leaves :-)

Dining True to My Roots—Italian Style!

 

Happy Thursday all! You may or may not know that I am almost a full-blood Italian. Both from my mom and dad’s side, so I am pumped full of all the traits of an Italian! (That could be good—great food heritage, or bad—very stubborn) What does your background consist of? But I find it quite funny that I am not a total pasta and pizza fanatic—I think I ate more than my share growing up and now just have it every once and awhile. Another thing I noticed is our family very seldom has an Italian based dinner, so tonight I decided I was going to bring some Italian flavor to the kitchen thanks to Brandi over at Bran Appetit and her tantalizing post of this recipe! Let’s just say it was great bon appétit! I got the original version here, but I subbed a bunch of ingredients to make this a little more on the healthy side. Turning recipes healthier is so easy to do and often won’t cost you any more either.

• I used whole wheat ziti pasta instead of the regular.
• Instead of 1 lb Italian turkey sausage, I used 2 C Boca crumbles and 3 apple harvest chicken sausages.
• Used organic diced tomatoes with less sodium.
• Low-fat ricotta instead of the full fat counterpart.
• Didn’t use the butter for the baking dish, just gave it a light spray with cooking spray.
• Brought the cheese from 3 1/2 C of a mozzarella/parmesan combo down to just 2 C of a shredded Italian blend and a sprinkle of sharp shredded cheddar on top. (Tip: Use sharp cheese to cut down on the amount/calories but still get big taste!)

I put together a little slideshow of how this whole meal went down—any questions, you know where to catch me!

 

And make sure to check out where my strawberry rhubarb bars showed up—but with a different twist!