Pasta with Parmesan White Sauce and Summer Sausage

When I was visiting my family for my niece's birthday, naturally the dinner choices were either go out or I would need to cook. Since we had already been out twice during the visit, I decided to make dinner. My mom presented me with a package of summer sausage, and I remembered that the magazine I read on the plane had a recipe for Summer Sasuage Alfredo. I figured that if I made a simple white sauce it would probably be a little healthier so I made the following...

Pasta with Parmesan White Sauce and Summer Sausage

12 oz pasta

1 package summer sausage

3+1 sliced green onions, separated 

1/2 to 1 cup sweet peas

4 cocktail tomatoes or 2 Roma, cut into quarter sized pieces

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper

Parmesan cheese for garnish 

Parmesan White Sauce

2 tbsp Parmesan 

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp floor

1 cup milk

Dash of salt

Cook pasta and sweet peas according to their packages. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Slice the sausage into bitesize pieces. When the oil is hot, sauté the sausage in the skillet. 

Meanwhile, make the sauce by heating the butter in a small sauce pan. Add the flour and sauté for a minute or so. Slowly whisk in the milk as the sauce thickens. Reduce the heat to low. Add the salt and Parmesan cheese. Stir until cheese is melted. 

Add three green onions and tomatoes to the sausage and cook for 1-2 minutes. Stir in the pasta, peas, and sauce. Spoon into bowls. Top with more Parmesan, and the remaining green onion, salt, and pepper. 

Notes: when I make this again, I'd like to try swapping the peas with either green beans or broccoli and top it with some fresh parsley. 

Hummus and Egg (and Bacon!) Roll Up

"It's breakfast for dinner, Paul. It's your favorite." Okay, it's actually breakfast for breakfast. Lately I've been eating a lot of oatmeal, bagels, and waffles for breakfast, but when I do I get hungry again at 9:30. That's a little too early for me to be ready for my morning snack so I decided to go for lots of protein today. I ended up with this Hummus and Egg (and Bacon!) Roll Up. It's pretty good, but this one could have used a little pepper so I added it to the ingredients below. 

Hummus and Egg (and Bacon!) Roll Up

1 tortilla

1 boiled (or scrambled egg) 

1 piece of bacon (halved, if desired)

1-2 Tbsp hummus

1 oz cheddar cheese 

Chopped fresh parsley

Freshly ground pepper

Mmm protein! Spread hummus on the tortilla. Top with the egg, cheese, bacon, parsley, and pepper. Pop in a microwave and heat through (30-60 seconds depending if the egg started off warm or not). Roll up and enjoy some morning protein! 

Chipotle Potato Salad

I've always hated potato salad, and I even refused to try any until I learned that you could make it without mustard. Mustard=blah!! Ryan on the other hand loves mustard and potato salad, but he knew that he could never make one for me if he put mustard in it, so we decided to try making a chipotle potato salad anymore with ingredients we had around the house.

Chipotle Potato Salad

• 6-8 Yukon Gold potatoes, chopped small and boiled
• 1 leek, chopped
• 5 boiled eggs, chopped 
• 1-2 cups mayo (we just did what looked good, no measuring in this house)
• 1 t ground cumin
• 1 T minced garlic
• 1/2 can chipotles in adobo sauce, chopped
• 3 stalks celery, sliced
• 1 t salt
• 1/2 t pepper

Just mix everything together!! 

Green Beans and Pasta with Pistachio Pesto

This was my first attempt of making pesto, and I have to say, it was easy and tasty! I based it off of a recipe on Food Republic. Here is what I did.

Green Beans and Pasta with Pistachio Pesto

6 oz fresh green beans, trimmed and rinsed (a couple more ounces would also work)
8 oz pasta (I used Farfalle)
1/2 t sea salt, divided
3 T pistachios
3 T grated Parmesan
Leaves from a small bunch if fresh basil
4 T olive oil
1 clove garlic

Cook pasta as directed by package. Fill a medium saucepan with water and put on high heat on the stove. Meanwhile, grate half of the garlic clove into a blender or food processor. Add the salt to the water. When water boils, add green beans. Add the pistachios, Parmesan, basil, and olive oil to the blender. Blend. Add 1-2 T of green bean water to the blender and blend again. After about four or five minutes of cook time on green beans, drain. Mix the green beans, pasta, and pesto together. Top with more Parmesan and red pepper flakes if desired.

Tomato Soup

When there's snow on the ground, I crave soup and came up with this simple tomato soup. Since H doesn't like tomato soup, I only made two serving worth--one for today's lunch and one for tomorrow's lunch.

Tomato Soup

1 t olive oil
1 c chopped onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 14.5 oz can fire roasted tomatoes
1-2 T fresh chopped basil
1/4 c shredded white cheddar cheese
3/4 c milk
1-2 t chili garlic sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

In a medium sauce pan sauté onion in the oil for three minutes. Add garlic and sauté for an additional minute. Add tomatoes and basil. Heat to boiling. Add cheese and cook until melted. Purée in a mixer or food processor. I like my soup to be a little chunky so I only puréed 2/3 of the mixture. Return to sauce pan. Add milk and cook until heated through. Stir in salt, pepper and chili garlic sauce to taste. Serve and enjoy!

Creamy Potato Soup with BACON!!!

As the weather turns colder, it's time to look into soups. I've always wanted to make a really good potato soup, but I never knew where to start. I knew I wanted something creamy with chunks of potato in it. I searched the Internet, and found a recipe for Delicious Ham and Potato Soup. Ham didn't sound very good to me, but bacon did. :) So I altered the recipe to what sounded good to me. I've written the recipe a little different than normal because there are some things I would change about my soup tonight. For example, I felt it was too thick. I've added all changes into the recipe below. 

Creamy Potato Soup with BACON!!! 

2 large gold/white potatoes, diced (you could also use 4 to 6 small ones)
2 stalks celery
1/2 large white onion 
2 cups water (probably should have used a little more)
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1/2 t salt 
1/2 t pepper (wasn't enough for me so I put more in my bowl)
3-4 pieces of bacon
2 T butter
2 T olive oil (alternatively you could probably use bacon grease in place of some of the oil)
5 T flour
1-3/4 cups milk (I probably should have used 2 cups milk)
Cheese
Green onions, sliced (I didn't actually put these in, but I think they'd be really good in it)

Place the potatoes, celery, onion, water, and chicken bouillon cubes in a sauce pan. Boil for 15+ minutes, stirring occasionally (mine cooked for about 30 minutes because I didn't plan things out well, so that might be why I felt it could use more liquid--too much might have boiled off). Season with the salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, cook bacon. Crumble or dice. Either after the bacon is done or while the it is cooking, heat butter and olive oil in a small sauce pan. Whisk in flour. When mixture starts to boil, slowly add in milk. Bring to a boil. Pour into potato mixture.

You can either stir in the bacon (but I felt this made it a little soggy) or top to soup with it in each bowl. Also top with cheese and green onions, if desired.

Butternut Squash and Couscous Salad

When your [appreciative] vegan friends come into town, you're forced to make new recipes or go out for all meals. So cooking one meal out of six isn't bad, right? After asking my coworker for a recipe, we came up with an almost vegan dish: Couscous Salad with Butternut Squash and Cranberries. Technically the recipe isn't vegan since it has goat cheese in it, but vegan cheese could be substituted, so I thought it was a winner. I bought the recipe home to show H, who made the best horrified face I've ever seen! I realized quickly that the recipe was too sweet for the guy. After thinking about it, I decided to alter it a little to make it a little more savory sounding. Here's what I came up with:

Butternut Squash and Couscous Salad

1 medium (2 1/2 - 3 lb) butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 onion, diced
1/4 cup diced fresh tomatoes

1/4 cup diced sun-dried tomatoes

1 cup water

1 cup uncooked couscous

3 tablespoons white wine vinegar

2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon chili-infused olive oil

1 teaspoon chipotle tabasco hot sauce

Zest of one orange

1/2 teaspoon coriander

1 teaspoon Albanian-rubbed sage

1/2 teaspoon rosemary

1 teaspoon cumin

2-4 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 can garbanzo beans, drained

3 oz goat cheese (or vegan cheese)

Pre-heat oven to 425° F. Toss the squash and onion with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Spread them out on a baking sheet and roast, stirring occasionally, until the squash is tender and the onions are starting to crisp at the tips, about 30 minutes. 

Meanwhile, bring 1 teaspoon salt, the water, and 1 teaspoon olive oil to a boil in a small saucepan. Stir in the couscous and remove from heat. Cover and let sit for 5 minutes until the couscous has absorbed all the water. Fluff the couscous with a fork and set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together vinegar, olive oil, hot sauce, orange zest, spices, and 1 teaspoon of salt.

Combine squash, onions, couscous, garbanzo beans, and tomatoes in a large bowl. Pour the dressing over the salad and stir to combine. Gently fold the cheese into the salad. Add salt and pepper to taste. 

The original recipe says to serve the salad cold or at room temperature. Personally, I think this version is better served warm (so I heated mine up in the microwave for 20-30 seconds).