Vegetarian Greek Pasta

Since we bought the juicer we've made fresh pasta a handful of times. And each time we've made pasta, I've made pesto to go with it. Pesto is amazing but I figured it was time to try a something new.


Pasta
1 cup flour
1 egg*
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tbs water
*I've  found some vegan pasta dough recipies I just haven't tried them yet.

Mixed ingredients in a bowl and then kneaded dough. After, I let the dough rest for about an hour. Finally, I ran it through my Omega juicer right in to a pan of boiling water. The pasta only takes about 3 minutes to cook when it is fresh.

After the pasta was cooked, I drained it and tossed in the ingredients below.

Tossed with
1/2 cup crumbled feta
2 tbs diced black olives
1/4 sauteed red onion

Other than letting the dough rest, this is a quick meal to whip up. Cooking the pasta, and preparing the other ingredients took less than twenty minutes.

I really loved the feta/olive combination. And after a particularly bad experience with a red onion a few years ago, I can see myself wanting to use more red onions in the future after eating this dish.

The Carnivore also really liked this dish. I served his with a hand breaded (panko, salt, pepper) and pan friend chicken breast.

I will certainly make this dish again this winter when I'm craving olives. But, I could also see myself serving it cold this summer at a picnic.

Gnocchi with White Beans, Tomatoes, Spinach and Mozzarella

Lunch this week was almost a one skillet meal, except for the gnocchi, which we discovered while in Venice last summer. I've heard Gnocchi described as a potato pasta but it reminds me more of a dumpling due to its density.

After attempting my own pasta earlier this week I took the easy way out on the gnocchi and bought them off the shelf at, of all places, Target.

We'd had them once before a few months ago and discovered last week that Target had started carrying several new varieties: mushroom and pumpkin! Yum!

I found the inspiration for this dish here but changed it a bit to suit our tastes.

This dish was very easy and took about 20 minutes to cook. Of course I soaked and cooked the beans the night before but you could always use canned to make it quicker.

The most complicated step here was chopping the onion and garlic. Onions must be out to get me. Every single onion I've chopped in the last two weeks has attacked my eyes without mercy.

Step 1: Boil the gnocchi and then crisp in a pan. They cook in about 2-3 minutes and float when they are ready.

Step 2: Saute the garlic and onions in olive oil. Add the tomatoes. Simmer. Add salt, beans, and can wilt and mix in spinach or serve on the side.

Step 3: Add mozzarella. I also added in a decent amount of pesto both in the sauce and on the mozzarella since I had some left over from the pasta experiment earlier in the week. I love pesto! The basil was nice addition to the dish.

Step 4: Plate and serve! So easy!

I love meals that cook together in one pan. The Carnivore hasn't complained but he doesn't like one skillet meals as much as I do.

I found this dish very filling due to the beans which is good since I'm juicing breakfast and dinner this week.

Each time I've made it this week I've added the ingredients in a different order but I've found it very important to simmer the mix for a good 5-10 minutes since it uses canned tomatoes. And I've also learned to put the beans in as late as possible since they are already cooked to avoid them turning in to a mushy mess.

Somewhat Homemade FroYo

I have an ice cream addiction. Seriously, it's like a sickness. A sickness that I'm trying to break.

When I get stressed I don't crave comfort food, I crave sugar. A nothing makes me feel better faster than a sundae, milkshake, blizzard, or pint of Ben and Jerry's until the regret sets in for consuming that high calorie, fat loaded treat.

If I had a favorite ice cream it might not be so bad. But I haven't met an ice cream, frozen custard, or gelato that I didn't like. Especially if it contains chocolate. Not ever.

There have been times when prying the ice cream and spoon from my hands wouldn't be enough to stop me from eating the dessert. Seriously. Sometimes the cravings get real bad ya'll.

But, with this lifestyle change foods like this are something that I only want to have occasionaly and only if I make them.

Enter again another selling feature of our juicer. It will turn frozen fruit in to a sorbet. We've tried this twice with varying results since purchasing the machine.

Attempt #1: Frozen Banana and Strawberries

We simply ran a sliced frozen banana and about 1/2 a cup of strawberries through the juicer with the blank screen in.

The Carnivore found the banana slimy. I thought the texture reminded me of half melted ice cream, which I didn't mind. The strawberries were a bit tougher for me to deal with due to the ice like texture. The Carnivore preferred the strawberry texture. Overall, in a pinch a frozen banana might satisfy me but I was a little let down.

Attempt #2: Greek Yogurt, Strawberry, Banana, and Honey Mix

I wanted to improve the texture and consistency of the frozen treat. I tried this by mixing some Greek yogurt with the ingredients listed above. Then I froze the mixture in to "logs" using sandwich bags. Once frozen I cut the "logs" in to pieces that would fit in the juicer.


The Carnivore liked the result this produced but I'm still not entirely satisfied. I'm going to keep working on it. It was still a bit too crunchy for me. I would eat this again but I'm still looking for a replacement for the creamy texture of ice cream.

Homemade Pasta and Pesto

The Carnivore and I took a once-in-a-lifetime type of trip to Europe last summer. Over four weeks we went on a 7 day Mediterranean cruise and spent time in Paris, Nice, Rome, Venice, and most importantly London, where he proposed.

Best. Proposal. Ever.

Quick Recap: I'm obsessed with London, Tower of London, Crown Jewels, "Are you jealous of the diamonds?," and the I got my own sparkly, amazingly perfect engagement ring. And, back to the food...

Our time in Italy sort of made us pasta snobs. I've only had one really decent bowl of pasta since in a French inspired cafe in Memphis. Random. I've wanted  to learn to make my own pasta since.

Enter another incredible feature of the juicer we recently bought. It will extrude 2 sizes of spaghetti, linguine, and fettuccine. Huge selling point due to the cost of the juicer.

And, since the last week of the month is "leftover week" I didn't have any fancy dinner to make and freeze so I decide to tackle making my own pasta for part of our special Sunday meal. Our favorite Italian dish was a pesto dish so that's where I decided to start.

Making the pasta took some trial and error to get the dough consistency right but was way easier than I thought it would be. I can't wait to try adding different juices and seasonings!

egg well in the flour

The Pasta

Ingredients: 2 cups flour, 2 eggs, 2 tbs olive oil, 2 tsp salt, and 8 tbs water

balls of pasta!

The Process: maybe 20 minutes to make 2 balls of pasta (6 servings). Then I let the dough balls rest for about 45 minutes. Feeding the dough through the juicer was very easy but took some coordination to pull the noddles, cut them, and get them in the boiling water all in one fluid motion.

The Pesto

the basil smelled SO GOOD!

Ingredients: 2 cups of living basil leaves, 5 cloves of raw garlic, nearly 2 ounces of raw pine nuts, and 1/2 cup of olive oil

The Process: washed and dried the basil, peeled the garlic, and emptied the pine nuts in to the food processor. added olive oil. I did this while the dough was resting. took about 15 minutes.

  

The Results

makes me want to lick the screen

Butternut Squash, Carmelized Onion, and Spinach Lasagna

This post should really be called "The Four Hour Lasagna" because that's how long it took me to make it!

As always, I looked through a few recipes online and then did my own thing but I made the mistake of following the directions on one particular recipe too closely instead of doing what made sense to me. I normally love Cooking Light and often peruse their recipes for inspiration but some of the directions here could be simplified or changed to save time.

Overall, I'm happy with the dish. It is the first meatless dinner that I've sent The Carnivore to work with and I was worried he'd feel hungry or less than satisfied with an entirely meat free meal. However, he really loves the butternut squash and wants me to cook more squashes in the future! SUCCESS!

Yum!

He also thinks that this shouldn't be called a lasagna. I agree. If you take the first bite of this expecting a lasagna taste, you'll be disappointed as it has a completely different flavor profile.

It smells like Thanksgiving and tastes sweet and savory at the same time.



Step 1: Peel, dice, season and roast the butternut squash. Also, roast the garlic with some olive oil.

Lesson Learned: Next time roast the squash first and then scrape it from the gourd. It ends up mashed anyways and it would save time and frustration. Butternut squash is a "B" to cut raw. Yes, I just cursed a squash.


 Step 2: Sauteed onions and then caramelize them. Wilt the spinach.

Lesson Learned:  Cooking is love. The Carnivore had to save the pan from burning as I stumbled in to the living room and ran in to a crate I was still unpacking because the onion fumes had waged an all out war on my eyes. I was blinded.

Recreation of The Carnivore saving the day!

 Step 3: Get ready to make the fontina cheese sauce. I made my own sauce here using what I learned making my own mac and cheese last week.

Adding flavor to the milk: bay leaves and thyme

Fontina!

Lesson Learned: Cheese takes way too long to grate. I gave up after about 3 seconds and did a rough chop on it. It still melted in the sauce just fine.

 Step 4: Make the sauce. Stir a lot. And then stir some more.

That's right, my sauce was thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Step 5: Make the lasagna. I used 9 no boil noddles. All the ingredients above. And I snuck in some feta to help balance the sweetness of the squash and onions.

sneaking in the feta

Step 6: Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool a bit before serving.

look at those layers!

*I think the time vortex struck again while I was making this dish. It should have taken two hours tops, not four. If I make it again I'll prep all my ingredients first. I wasted a lot of time cutting and mashing between steps.

Quick Weekend Salad with Arancini Rice Balls

I somehow forgot to plan food for this weekend. Opps!

Since grocery shopping was happening this Sunday I had to come up with a few meals with what I had on hand in the house, which wasn't much.

Luckily, there were a few treasures in the freezer. Last week I bought a package of frozen arancini rice balls from Traders Joe's. It was an impulse purchase that I'm glad I made. I used the rice balls (rice, bread crumbs, basil, fontina) to make the side salad we'd had all week a bit heartier and that served as lunch on Saturday.

On Sunday before heading to the store I made the same salad again and served it with a cup of chili that I made a few weeks ago. Thank goodness for making chili in bulk!

I wish I had taken a picture of it but if you've seen one bowl of chili you've pretty much seen them all. Mine might be a little different because I started using beef stock for my chili base instead of tomato juice. I made chili a lot in the winter and changing the base was a way to switch things up so we didn't get bored.

And, we did try a few different juices this weekend.

Carrot Apple Ginger

The carrot and apple make this a sweet juice but the ginger makes it amazing. The more ginger the better!

Watermelon Kale Mint

I think this juice tastes like Spring. It tastes fresh without any of the individual ingredients overpowering the blend. I did juice the watermelon rind but cut off the outer skin because it wasn't organic. The Carnivore felt the rind taste was overpowering but I didn't notice it after the first sip. He claims I have weird taste buds.