Easy Spaghetti and Meatsauce

This is my answer to a mid-week meal when you just don’t feel like cooking (and after this week’s spanakopita trial, I think this is exactly what I need!)

MEAT SAUCE
1.5 lb ground beef (I like grass-fed)
1/4 onion, diced
2 tsp olive oil
1 jar marinara sauce
pinch of oregano
pinch of basil

PASTA
1 box whole wheat spaghetti noodles
1 tsp olive oil
1-dash cinnamon

Topping
Grated Parmesan cheese

Put pasta on to boil with 1 tsp olive oil and a dash of cinnamon (I find this stops whole wheat pasta from tasting like cardboard). Meanwhile put 2 tsp of olive oil in large saute pan and heat. Add onion and cook over medium heat until tender. Add ground beef and let cook through, about 10 minutes. Drain off juices then add jar of marinara sauce, oregano and basil. Let heat through (about 10 minutes), stirring occasionally.
Drain pasta.
Serve sauce over pasta and top with Parmesan cheese.

Spanakopita

I don’t usually do something this involved…but for some reason this didn’t seem involved to me until about 10:30 p.m. on Sunday night when I was elbow deep into spinach and feta cheese. Here it is … the recipe I used to make these cute little spinach pies. I think they are cute and little and yummy, but it sure was a lot of work for just eight little pies.

Next time I will try something more along the lines of this.

Green Curry Chicken

This recipe comes from the South Beach Diet 30-Minute Meals Cookbook. Curries can often be spicy, but this one has coconut milk in it so it’s mild enough for my kids—a 2- and 4-year-old—to eat!

Beef Rendang

Since the birth of my children, I rarely take the opportunity to cook for the sheer pleasure of cooking. But there are times…. usually on a weekend, or on a Friday when I’m not working …that I take time out to try a recipe I’ve never tried before, or just one that looks like fun.
This is a recipe that just looked like fun to me. It’s for an Indonesian dish called Beef Rendang. I’ve ordered it in restaurants before and it always has three peppers by it—as a warning of how spicy it is. I took this recipe from Cooking Light and adapted it to take out some spice so my kids would be able to eat it.

1/2 cup shallots
1/2 cup ginger, diced
5 minced garlic cloves
1 Tbs chili garlic sauce
1 and 1/2 tsp ground tumeric
1 and 1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
6 whole cloves
1 serrano or long green pepper (NO SEEDS)
1 (14oz) can light coconut milk
1 grated lime rind
Juice of one lime
2 tsp sugar
2 lemongrass stalks, smashed
2 pounds boneless chuck roast, trimmed and cut into 1-inch cubes

Place first nine ingredients through peppers into a food processor. Add 1/4 cup coconut milk and process until smooth. Spoon mixture into bowl then clean out food processor bowl.

Place 1/4 cup coconut milk in food processor with coconut flakes. Process until a smooth paste is formed.

Heat a large saucepa over medium-high heat. Add shallot mixture; cook 2 minutes stirring constantly. Stir in remaining coconut milk, lime rhind and next four ingredients; bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 1 and 1/2 hours or untl beef is tender.

Discard lemongrass. Stir in coconut paste, simmer for 10 minutes more. Sever over rice.

In case you’re not up for a challenge this week, I’ve found a crock pot version that should make your life easier!

Brown Rice

I believe most families fall into one of two camps: Rice or Potatoes. My Dad grew up with Irish-German parents so he was automatically in the Potato camp. It’s not so clear why my Mom was in a Rice camp family. She was born of an English father and a mother who could trace her roots no further than Texas. Whatever the reason, rice was the side of choice in my mother’s childhood home. My mother did all the cooking in my childhood home and she really didn’t know what to do with a potato, so my sister and I are decidedly in the Rice camp. All this means is that we eat a lot of rice—much to our poor husbands’ chagrin (they both come from Potato camp families).
I’ve always cooked my rice on the stovetop—wouldn’t know how to microwave it if I had to—but if you prefer minute rice, I see nothing wrong with making your life easy. About two years ago, I switched from white rice to brown, simply because it’s healthier. I use long-grain brown rice that I buy by the 5- or 10-pound bag from the grocery store.

1 cup rice
2 cups water
*(Optional: 1 Tbs butter or olive oil, chopped scallions, chopped tomatoes)

Put water and rice in a sauce pan, bring to a boil. Cover with lid and turn heat to low. Let simmer for 20 minutes. Serve

*If you are using oil, onions and tomatoes, saute onions in oil before adding water and rice. Bring rice to a boil, add tomatoes and stir. Cover rice with lid and turn heat to low. Let simmer for 20 minutes. Serve.

Seared Salmon with Zucchini

I adapted this from the South Beach Diet 30-Minute Recipes cookbook. This is such a great book to have in your kitchen, even if you’re not on a diet!

4 Salmon filets
3 medium-size zucchini, cut into thin rounds
2 cloves garlic
1/2 onion, diced
1Tbs olive oil
Salt and pepper

Heat olive oil in large saute pan on medium heat then add onion and saute until onion is tender, about two minutes. Add zucchini rounds, salt and pepper and saute until tender and slightly brown (DO NOT COVER PAN). Remove zucchini to a serving plate and cover. Pepper salmon filets then turn up heat to medium high and add filets. Cook for five minute then flip filets and cook five minutes more. Place filets atop zucchini and serve.

Spanish Chicken

I love using my crock pot—it just makes me happy to know that someone is cooking dinner for me while I’m at work. I found this recipe for Spanish Chicken off the crock pot website.

Greek Meatballs

I adapted this recipe from a South Beach Diet cookbook (30-Minute Meals) These tangy meatballs have quickly become a family favorite. I like to mix them up and roll them the night before. That way, all I have to do when I walk in the door is pop them in the oven. By the time I’m done preparing the side dishes, the meatballs are ready to go—dinner in a snap!

1 lb ground beef
1/2 small yellow onion, minced
1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1 egg
1 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil
1 Tbs dried oregano
1 Tbs red wine vinegar
1 tsp salt

Combine ingredients then. Using a Tablespoon, shape mixture into 40 meat balls. Place in refrigerator until you’re ready to cook them (up to one day) or place in a single layer in a Pyrex baking dish and bake until cooked through, 15-18 minutes.
Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees

Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells

I got recently pulled the recipe for Basic Marinara Sauce out of Cooking Light magazine and I love it! Once you make it, you can freeze it in one-cup increments and use it for all sorts of things like these Spinach and Ricotta Stuffed Shells

Tuesday, May 12

Packed the kids and the stroller and walked down to Shannon’s house, yay! 🙂