Whole Wheat Broccoli Pasta with Parmesan

What a lovely, lovely family dinner we had!  My mama was in town, and my sweetie’s family all came over to share a meal and an evening.  I’m always a little bit anxious cooking for them because his mom is a master chef and cooks up a storm of masterpieces every time we go over (and assuredly many times in between!) and I, well, just never know exactly what I’m doing, and do not have a single real recipe under my belt.  So.....let’s do this.

I wanted to make a pasta dish, ‘cause it’s generally an easy, safe way to feed a lot of people, but wanted something a little different from the standard marinara variety.  I went for a veggie base, choosing broccoli as the main guest of honor, and the kind of whole wheat pasta shaped like bite sized tubes.  I thought whole wheat would be more hearty and fitting with the broccoli. 

I cooked the pasta fairly early, using a colander atop the pot to steam the bite sized broccoli pieces, and then put it into a large frying pan with some butter, on medium low heat.  The idea is to get the flavoring to somewhat crust onto the noodles a bit, though I’m still working on honing that craft....before the meal was served I rescued a small share of crispy-enough-to-embarrass-me pasta shards.  Having enough butter/oil in the pan is important, and a few good splashes of organic tamari (soy sauce) will help get some chewy flavor accents going.

I minced two cloves of garlic to toss it, as well as a good crackling of salt and sprinkling of nutritional yeast near the “end” (the end could have really been any time, but I was keeping it warm until serving time).  If it still seemed too dry I’d add another dose of olive oil.  No better way to live up to the reputation of whole wheat pasta than to make it too dry!  :)  

I put the broccoli in a pan on it’s own for a few minutes just to be sure it got coated in it’s own bit of oil flavoring before going into the soon-to-be overflowing pan.  The last touch was a handful of fresh chopped green onions, served with a spoonful of parmesan.

The rest of dinner included backyard deviled eggs (which I let my mama take care of ;), cheesy bread made on a pizza crust with Irish cheddar cheese, flaxseed and green onion, and a green salad with candied pecans and Mama’s Miracle Dressing (which she now informs she makes with Bragg’s since I turned her on to that some time ago....I’m urging her to go back!  ;)

It was so good and everyone ate very well with even a few leftovers (of the non-deviled egg, or cheesy bread, or salad variety that is :)

Whole Wheat Broccoli Pasta with Parmesan 

Approximate price: $5

Cheesy Tostadas with Green Pepper Stir Fry

Happy late Valentine's Day!  It hasn't been a big deal for me since I was a young girl with crushes on classmates (now I'm just a slightly older girl with crushes on other mates ;)  But it is a good excuse for hearts.

Cheesy tortillas + __________ is often a staple for any meal I make, either for myself or for Will and I.  He can choose if he wants to make a burrito or keep it separate, which, depending on the yummy factor of the cheese I use is sometimes the better option :)

I like this option because it can be super  simple, like pizza.  A few ingredients can go a long way.  I turn the oven on to 250 and grate cheese onto tortillas, tossing them on a baking sheet, and cooking ‘til they reach my preferred crispness.

This stir fry was mostly brown rice with green peppers and onions.  I usually mix rice with oil or butter, and a small amount of soy sauce and garlic.  Sometimes I have other random things lying around....leftover sauces from restaurants or whatnot.  I like to toss in ground flaxseed too, for a rustic look and heartier taste.  

Cheesy Tostadas with Green Pepper Stir Fry

Approximate price: $4

Pesto, Sunny Side Up

I love the things that are so easy to make it almost seems like a magic trick what comes out the other side of a few minutes and a few dollars.

We have eggs.  Have I mentioned that yet??  :)  And for me, working from home, an egg + _______ = the perfect lunch (even if the _______ is sometimes just a crackling of sea salt).

I still had a bit of chard pesto that I had thawed out from the freezer (easiest way to make something fancy as far as I’m concerned!  :)  Due to a confused moment of decision I ended up cooking some crumbled tofu (organic firm) in the small frying pan, with a little bit of Mama’s Miracle Dressing.  Towards the end of the cooking time (ten or fifteen minutes) I added in a spoonful of the pesto to get the gorgeous color without cooking any more freshness out of it, and set it aside to cook my sunny side up egg.

We had a few tomato slices left over from burgers with the folks the night before, which I put in the pan for a few minutes to soften them up and make them look more....deliberate than just setting them on the plate ;)  

When my egg was done (however soft you prefer your yolks to be) I nestled it into a bed of scrambled tofu and added a layer of pesto, a crackling of salt and a sprinkling of flaxseed, and snuggled the tomato slices on the side.

Yum, yum YUM!  :)

Pesto, Sunny Side Up

Approximate Price: $2

Garlic Egg Pizza

It was another “I want to make pizza, but don’t have anything to put on it” night, and it was the closest I’ve come to giving up!  But I didn’t!  Not with fresh backyard eggs in glorious abundance in our kitchen :)  

I got the oven preheated and cracked four eggs (and four gorgeous yolks) into a bowl with two cloves of garlic and mixed it lightly with a fork.  The only other thing I added was a spoonful or two of Mama’s Miracle Dressing to give it a little zingy goodness.

I put a little olive oil on the crust (which probably wasn’t necessary, but it didn’t feel right to leave it dry) and began pouring and spreading the eggs around it.  Four was too many, but I emptied the bowl anyway and clumsily watched it reach the edge of the crust and begin siphoning itself out onto the pan.  There was nothing to do but hurry up and get it in the 400 degree oven so hopefully it would harden up before the crust was entirely abandoned!  

Well, that didn’t work, due partially to the fact that the oven has a slightly raised center so it aided the egg slide rather than hindering it :)  I pulled it out after a few minutes and did my best to get at least some of the egg back where it belonged, also adding some green onion and shredded cheese.  I had sauteed up some onions and then successfully forgot to add them.  (They went with the carrots instead :)

By the time the pizza was cooked it was all I could do to scrape (some of it) off of the pan.  I swear egg is like a super glue adhesive....I haven’t even tried to clean the pan yet!  It can soak for another 24 hours...

So most of the crust didn’t come up, but what did come up was super yummy!  (I gave my sweetie the pieces that most resembled pizza, rather than a flat frittata ;)

Garlic Egg Pizza

Approximate price: $3

Broccoli Parmesan Pasta

It was definitely a pasta night.  It was pretty much the perfect day, and I couldn’t wait to make the perfect dinner to follow it up.  We had some beautiful organic broccoli, and colored veggie spiral pasta.  No sauce to speak of, but that’s no trouble at all...

I had gotten on a big afternoon song kick, remembering and playing some really old tunes, and by the time Will got home I was excited and just kept on playing, even managing a few he’d never heard before.  After almost two years with someone with whom your first dates consisted almost entirely of song swapping, that’s an impressive feat!  Dinner was cooked largely between songs with a guitar strung over my shoulder.  Fun :)

I put the pasta water on to boil, and sauteed half an onion in the large pan.  I chopped up a couple cups worth of broccoli and placed it in the colander on top of the pasta water.  (Probably not as clever as I think it is, but I get a small thrill from my resourcefulness ;)  After 7-10 minutes of steaming I transferred the broccoli into the pan with the onions.

I drained the pasta and added butter, garlic, olive oil, soy sauce, nutritional yeast (to help the liquids actually stick to the noodles), and flaxseed (for texture and color), spooning only what I needed to properly fill out the broccoli and onions.  (Sometimes I get overzealous and add too many noodles to not enough “good stuff,” which is always a bit of a shame.)

I like to cook noodles in a pan for a few minutes with their toppings, so they can soak up  more of the flavor, and if I’m patient enough they’ll get a bit of a flavor crust around the edges....me = total pasta junkie.

A little parmesan cheese and a side salad (I’ve grown to accept the “lazy salad” and can get away with organic salad mix and Mama’s Miracle Dressing with no one missing anything) and we had a rather delicious meal!  I commented to Will just how much like my mother I am when I exclaimed excitedly from the kitchen, “Oh this is gonna be goooooood...”   love, love, love my mama :)

Broccoli Parmesan Pasta

Approximate price: $3

Cabbage Wraps with Garlic Carrots

I got the idea for cabbage wraps from a coworker several years ago, and I’m a big fan because A) it doesn’t involve something bready and B) since the cabbage itself is spherical, the leaves naturally roll up nice and small on the edges, leaving the middle to bulge up with as much delicious stuff as you like!

I’ve made them raw for lunchtimes, with more fresh veggies and dressing, as well as steamed them up for dinner with something a little heartier inside.  The only tricky part is getting the leaves separated from the head without tearing them to bits.  The outermost layers tend to be the easiest, but I’ve found that severing them at the base and pulling carefully from there works pretty good.  And even if they rip you can make smaller wraps ;)

We had some leftover grits from Will’s mama, cooked with onion and bits of bacon.  I added a bit of garlic and butter, as refrigerating and reheating have a tendency to dry things out.

Easy, easy dinner!  I steamed the cabbage leaves for about 7 minutes.  There must be a sweet spot in there, where the leaves are no longer crunchy, but they still hold together and the hefty “spine” isn’t too tough.  I spooned the grits into the cabbage and rolled ‘em on up, garnishing with a few spoonfuls of pecan chipotle pesto I had saved from my breakfast bagel that morning.  (Our waitress was more than happy to bring me a tiny to go sauce container :)

The wraps were served with farm fresh carrots cooked up with olive oil, garlic and nutritional yeast.

cabbage wraps with garlic carrots

approximate price: $5

Yam and Broccoli Stir Fry Over Brown Rice

this started out as yams and a separate stir fry, but as often happens they were converged in a moment of decision.

i started out chopping up the two medium sized yams we had into 1/2 inch or so cubes and putting them into boiling water.  next, i put 1 cup of rice in a saucepan with 2 cups of water to bring to a boil (once boiling turn down to simmer with the lid on).  then, i proceeded on as i always seem to do, with a chopped yellow onion in a lightly buttered frying pan.  

our veggies for the night were red peppers and broccoli, so i chopped and put the peppers in soon after the onion.  to soften the broccoli up before putting it in the pan i used a colander atop the boiling yams to steam them for five minutes or so.  once the broccoli was added to the stir fry i minced two cloves of garlic to toss in as well (if too much of the surface area of the pan is bare the garlic can burn easily).

when the rice was soft enough i mixed in a few spoonfuls of mama’s miracle dressing, some sunflower seeds and some ground flaxseed.

i scooped the rice onto plates with a heap of stir fry drizzled with my pesto-less chard pesto (leftover from red pepper and chard pesto-less pasta with grilled eggplant) and sprinkled with flaxseed.

served with a side of kale chips.

yam and broccoli stir fry over brown rice 

approximate price: $6

***in general, i’m pretty sure that the sum of orange and green things mixed together become suddenly less appetizing than their parts.  the last dinner i really messed up (see HERE :)  involved orange and green and i had an “uh oh” moment thinking i had done it again.  it tasted plenty good, it just didn’t look so pretty....the flaxseed evened it out a bit though.