Spaghettini with Oil & Garlic

This week in the Pacific Northwest has been crazy! 6-8 inches of snow, with a 1/2 inch of ice on top of that, trees falling all over the place, no power...hopefully mother nature will give us a break soon. I was unable to get to work for a couple days so I was stuck in my house. There is a store that is a 5 minute walk away so I was able to go there when I needed something, but three straight days without going more than 1/2 mile away from my house is boring! The first couple of days I was able to cook, but on the third day when the power went out I was unable to do anything but snuggle up to the fireplace and read a book. So, since I was able to cook a bit more this week, I have a good stock pile of recipes just waiting for their debut. :)

This pasta dish is super easy. The night I made this I was not really feeling up to making a huge dish, but I was craving pasta. When my husband and I first started eating right and losing weight a couple years ago, pasta with garlic and oil was one of our main go-to recipes. It's not only low in calories, but you can put so much flavor in. After years of making this simple dish, I wanted to find a recipe that gave my original a bit of a twist. Now, when you look at the recipe and see that it asks for 10 cloves of garlic don't get scared. I know some people are a little skeptical about garlic, but because you slice the cloves the garlic isn't very strong. Then again, I love garlic. I put garlic in everything I can! So if you love it as much as I do, go for it. If you aren't that much into garlic, then you are more than welcome to tone it down on the garlic. 

In the end, this pasta has become one of my favorites. It's light, but flavorful. Pasta is always welcome in my kitchen! :)

Spaghettini with Oil and Garlic

Cooking Light Complete Cookbook

Ingredients:

6 quarts water

2 3/4 teaspoons salt, divided

1 pound uncooked spaghettini

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

10 garlic cloves, sliced

1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 cup (4 ounces) grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Direction:

1. Bring 6 quarts water and 2 teaspoons salt to a boil in a large stockpot. Stir in pasta; return to a boil, stirring frequently. Cook 6 minutes or until pasta is almost al dente, stirring occasionally. Drain pasta in a colander over a bowl, reserving 1 cup cooking liquid.
2. While pasta cooks, heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, and cook 2 minutes or until fragrant and beginning to turn golden, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in 3/4 teaspoon salt, reserved 1 cup cooking liquid; parsley; and pepper. 
3. Add pasta to pan, and stir to coat. Return pan to medium heat; cook 1 minute or until pasta is al dente, tossing to coat. Sprinkle with cheese. 

Makes 8 servings (1 cup pasta and 2 tablespoons cheese)

Nutrition: Calories 303; Fat 8g; Protein 12.7g; Carb 44.4g; Fiber 1.6g; Cholesterol 10mg

Banana Nut Pancakes

Up here in the Pacific Northwest we are getting some great snow fall. When we get 2 inches on the roads, everything shuts down. Now they are predicting a storm that will drop 5-8 inches over night and freaking everyone out. I know it's sad! Thankfully though I have had the last few days off and haven't had to deal with those crazy drivers on the road who act like they have never seen the snow before. It has been nice being able to sit in my warm house and cook whenever I want. Today, I sat around and finished things up while the crock pot did the cooking. That recipe will be posted soon. :)

See all that snow, a total of 6 inches! :) I decided to keep the car buried and walk to the store. It was kind of nice walking around in the snow. Reminds me of college. Winters were always snow crazy over at WSU. 

I made these pancakes for the last day my soldier was home. For the entire three weeks he was home we talked about making pancakes, but for some reason we never got around to it. I'm sure if I hadn't worked 4 to 5 days out of the week, we would have had pancakes multiple times. This recipe came up at the right time because I happened to have an over ripe banana on my hands, and besides we love anything banana. I also added 2/3 cups oatmeal, because I had so much (and we just love oatmeal). These are great topped with honey, maple syrup...pretty much anything!

One tip I have while you make these is to set your oven to it's "warm" setting (or just below 200º), then while you have the last set of pancakes on the skillet you can put the first batch in the oven to keep them warm. I do these with eggs and bacon when I make a big breakfast! :)

Happy Flipping!

So I made my husband his favorite cookies before he left and the cheapest carton of oatmeal I could find was this gigantic thing in this picture. Since I have so much, and we love oatmeal, I decided to put a little bit in the pancakes. Yum!

Banana Nut Pancakes

skinnytaste.com

Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1 large banana, very ripe, mashed

1 cup 1% milk (I used non-fat)

3 large egg whites

2 tsp oil

1 tsp vanilla

2 tbsp chopped walnuts (optional)

olive oil or butter flavor cooking spray

2/3 cup old fashioned (or rolled) oatmeal (optional)

Directions:

1. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Combine milk, egg whites, oil, vanilla and mashed bananas in a bowl and mix until smooth. Combine wet ingredients with dry and mix well with a spoon until there are no more dry spots. Don't over-mix.
2. Heat a large skillet on medium heat. Spray cooking spray to light coast and pour 1/4 cup pancake batter. When the pancake starts to bubble and the edges begin to set, flip the pancakes. Repeat with remainder of batter.

Makes 3 cups batter, about 12 pancakes

With Nuts--Nutrition: (2 pancakes) Calories 145.7; Fat 4.0g; Protein 6.3g; Carb 22.1g; Fiber 3.1g

Without Nuts--Nutrition: (2 pancakes) Calories 129.1; Fat

Orange-Ginger Glazed Cornish Game Hens

Before my husband left for overseas I wanted to make him a nice fancy dinner, specifically something I have never done before. I really wanted to do a bird; roast a chicken or cornish games hens. Well, we found this recipe for cornish games hens and I went for it. Man, did those little birds cause a challenge. I was very happy with the outcome, and I would gladly do these again, but of course with a few changes. I am really bad at carefully reading a recipe apparently, because I completely missed the part about skinning the hens! I'm sure the little "burnt" spots wouldn't have been there if I actually have. Oh well, it was delicious and I know how to make it even better next time. 

I have slowly been able to get the pictures back up. I have been working non-stop and my down time consists of watching tv series and eating ice cream. The first week is always the hardest, and I'm getting through it one day at a time. I have been waiting oh so impatiently for news if I will be able to follow my husband overseas. Cooking and working are pretty much all I did during training, and I did not mind that. My schedule is a little off this week, but I promise I will get back into my old routine and recipes will be coming at a fast rate! 

Hope the weekend is good to everyone!

Pay no attention to the box of rice in this picture. I meant to make a little rice pilaf, but it didn't work out the way I wanted, so I nixed it. 

I probable should have picked out hens that were somewhat the same size, but the packaging said they were the same weight. Nothing was ruined, so I am sure it wasn't a big deal.

This is where I would have skinned the birds if I had remembered too. Opps :) 

I added a little bit of left over onions I had from earlier, you don't have too.

Orange-Ginger Glaze Cornish Hens w/ Oven Roasted Green Beans

Cooking Light Complete Cookbook

Ingredients:

3/4 cup fresh orange juice (about 3 oranges)

2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce

1 tablespoon water

2 teaspoons cornstarch

2 (1.5 pound) Cornish hens, skinned and halved

Cooking spray

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 475º
2. Combine first 4 ingredients in a small saucepan; bring to a boil. Combine water and cornstarch in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add to juice mixture in pan, stirring with a whisk. Cook 2 minutes or until thick and glossy, stirring constantly.
3. Place hen halves, meaty sides up, on a foil-lined jelly-roll pan coasted with cooking spray; sprinkle hen halves with salt and ground ginger. Spoon juice mixture over hen halves. Insert a meat thermometer into meaty part of the thigh; make sure not to touch bone. Bake at 475º for 25 minutes or until thermometer registers 165º.

Makes 4 servings (1 servings = 1 hen half)

Nutrition: (Games Hens, 1 half) Calories 188; Fat 3.8g; Protein 22.5g; Carb 15.6g; Fiber 0.3g; Cholesterol 99mg; Sodium 487mg

Oven Roasted Green Beans

Cooking Light Complete Cookbook

Ingredients:

1 pound green beans, trimmed

2 teaspoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

Cooking Spray

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 475º
2. Combine beans and next 3 ingredients in a large bowl, tossing well to coat. Arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet coasted with cooking spray. Bake at 475º for 10 minutes or until tender, turning once. 
3. Remove pan from oven; add lemon juice to beans, and toss.

Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition: (3/4 cups) Calories 56; Fat 2.5g; Protein 2.1g; Carb  8.4g; Fiber 3.9g; Cholesterol 0mg; Sodium 302mg

Gingerbread Biscotti

The past three weeks I had a great holiday vacation with my husband. That is why I haven't posted anything new in a while. Also, if you haven't noticed already, my older posts have lost their pictures and now just have large black squares in their place. Well, that is completely my fault. We got new phones over the holidays and I had no idea my blog was synched up to my email, and therefore was synched with my phone. To save space on my phone I deleted the 200+ pictures from my phone, because I had no idea why they were there in the first place. Well, as you can see those picture were from here and were removed. I can't believe I did that and I feel lame! It will take me a while to repost the pictures, but I am determined to get them all back up. Now that my husband is stationed overseas I have a lot of time on my hands, and need to keep busy. I will try to catch up as much as possible with my recipes.

This one I did a few weeks ago, but never got around to posting. Looking back at the pictures I will have to make biscotti again, because it was so nice to have a little something with my coffee in the morning.

I made mine a little too think near the middle so it took a bit longer for them in the oven. They were still crazy delicious, but to save time I would flatten them out a little.

At this point you can leave them like this, or you can dip them in chocolate as I did! I had some dark chocolate bakers squares in my cupboard so I just had to do it. I think it makes a big difference, but it's not necessary.

Gingerbread Biscotti
allrecipes.com


Ingredients:
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1/4 cup molasses
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 tablespoon ground ginger
3/4 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375º. Grease a cookie sheet.
2. In a large bowl, mix together oil, sugar, eggs and molasses. In another bowl, combine flours, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg; mix into egg mixture to form a stiff dough.
3. Divide dough in half, and shape each half into a roll the length of the cookie. Place rolls onto cookie sheet, and pat down to flatten the dough to 1/2 inch thickness. Taper the sides to create the sloping "biscotti" shape.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove from oven, and set aside to cool.
5. When cool enough to touch, cut into 1/2 inch thick diagonal slices. Place sliced biscotti on cookie sheet, and bake an additional 5-7 minutes on each side, or until toasted and crispy.

Makes approximately 48 cookies. 

Nutrition: (per cookie without chocolate) Calories 70; Fat 2g; Carbs 12.1g; Protein 1.4g; Cholesterol 13mg 

Whole Wheat Penne with Broccoli and Sausage

For the next three weeks, posts will be a bit staggered. My husband came home after seven months training for the military, and I will be revisiting recipes more than getting new ones. He looked through some older posts and wants to try some. :)

This pasta I made a few weeks ago and has been sitting in my drafts folders. I kept meaning to put it up but things like fudge got in the way. I really liked this pasta. It was simple, quick, and great flavor. My favorite part was the lemon. Even with such little amount of citrus, you could definitely taste the difference. I couldn't get any nutritional information on this dish, but I can tell you it is pretty healthy. Choose a whole grain or whole wheat pasta, and go for the lean meat. The cheese of course is optional, but you deserve to splurge once in a while!

Hope your holidays are going great and I wish you Happy Holiday Cooking! :)

Whole Wheat Penne with Broccoli and Sausage

cooking for le$$ Pasta

Ingredients:

6 ounces uncooked whole wheat penne pasta

1 head broccoli, cut into bite-size florets

8 ounces mild Italian sausage, casings removed (turkey is optional)

1 medium onion, quartered and sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Direction:

1. Cook pasta according to package directions, adding broccoli during last 5 to 6 minutes of cooking. Drain well; cover and keep warm.
2. Meanwhile, heat large skillet over medium heat. Crumble sausage into skillet. Add onion; cook until sausage is brown, stirring to break up meat. Drain fat.
3. Add garlic; cook and stir 1 minute. Add sausage mixture, lemon peel, salt and pepper to pasta; toss until blended. Sprinkle with cheese. 

No nutritional information available.

Double Chocolate Fudge

Oh man this has to be one of the best desserts I have made! For Christmas I like giving homemade presents, mostly food, and I wanted to test out my ability to make fudge before I just gave them to people. Well, I was presently surprised at how delicious these little cubes of heaven were. They are soft, creamy, not too rich, and are just perfect! The recipe is simple and very easy to follow. You will get a lot out of it as well. There was so much that I had to take some into work to give away. There was no way I was going to keep 2.5 pounds of chocolate fudge sitting on my counter begging for me to eat it! My coworkers loved it. That is when I knew this would be my Christmas gift. I even had a coworker take some to her husband and he asked her to get the recipe from me. :) I love spreading the word on delicious goodies!

I hope everyone isn't too busy with decorating and family to take a few minutes out of your day to make this for the ones you love!

Double Chocolate Fudge
MomsWhoThink Fudge Recipes


Ingredients:
2 cups (12oz bag) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 (11.5 oz) bag milk chocolate chips
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
2 tablespoons heavy cream
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions:

1. In saucepan, over low-heat, melt semi-sweet chocolate chips with 2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk, 1 tablespoon cream and 1 teaspoon vanilla.
2. Remove from heat; stir in 1/2 cup walnuts (if desired). Spread evenly into foil-lined 9-inch square pan.
3. In another saucepan, over low heat, melt milk chocolate chips with remaining sweetened condensed milk, 1 tablespoon cream, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Remove from heat; stir in remaining walnuts (if desired).
4. Spread over fudge in pan. Chill 2 hours or until firm. Turn fudge onto cutting board; peel off foil and cut into squares. Store loosely covered at room temperature. 

Makes about 2.5 pounds
Nutritional info not available. 

My first Thanksgiving as the Cook

I realized a few weeks ago that I have never unmasked myself to this blog, and I thought now would be a great time. Well here I am with my fist thanksgiving turkey! :) I know this is a little late to post about Thanksgiving but I completely forgot there were even pictures of my turkey in my camera till I went to post a new recipe the other day. This being my first turkey, I thought it would be fun to share!

Here is my first turkey all prepped and ready to roast. A couple weeks before Thanksgiving I was reading on how to prep, roast, carve...pretty much everything you do to prepare your turkey for dinner. I watched several videos on how to prep and season, but there was one that I found more to my liking. I know that many people like to put their stuffing in the bird and cook them that way, but I don't find that very sanitary. Plus, I don't really like stuffing too much. So, instead of stuffing it that way, I liked the idea of putting a bunch of herbs inside and underneath. Before stuffing it I seasoned the outside with pepper, salt and a little olive oil, and shoved a couple sage leaves underneath the skin. Along with handfuls of rosemary, thyme, and sage I also added a handful of chopped of onions inside to add to the flavor, and let me tell you, that bird had flavor! You could definitely taste the herbs. This is how I will do my turkey every year!

Here is the finished product! I did put it back in the oven for a little bit, but forgot to take a picture of the deliciousness.

Here a few other things I contributed too. I found a great recipe for these parmesan knots from Pillsbury. The best thing was that I didn't have to use yeast (which I am still a little afraid of). All I had to to was buy the "Golden Layers" tube and roll it into strings and tie them into knots. So easy, and really delicious. I was surprised how good they were with hardly any effort.

Below is my pumpkin cheesecake. My mom said she wanted the traditional pumpkin pie. I agreed, then mentioned cheesecake, she instantly changed her mind. So, I offered Pumpkin Cheesecake...we had a winner. Of course, I wasn't listening for the timer while it was baking so it sat in the oven for a little bit longer than asked and the top got a little brown. No problem when you pile on the whipped cream. I was able to take off the top layer and it was beautiful again. One of the many mistakes I can learn from this year. :)

I also made cranberry sauce (which I will post the recipe for later) and helped with the mashed potatoes. My mom's mashed potatoes are the best and I am determined to make them the same way. All in all, I think this holiday dinner went great, and I can't wait to make many more!

My husband is still across the country, so this year it was just me and my mom. Having just got married, I wanted to learn how to cook thanksgiving dinner so my mom gave me a few pointers on how she usually did things. It was a great learning experience, especially since next year we will be in a completely different country and won't be able to spend the holidays with family. I wanted to do things for myself this year, so next year I can make the holidays fantastic; even though we will be away from our loved ones. I am very confident that dinner will be even better next year. We can even start our own traditions with the holidays, which I look forward too! :)

Happy Holidays!