I have a delicious recipe for you tonight that you have to try, from one of the blogs I read. I’ll get to that in a bit.
First I have a couple random food pictures for you.
Here’s a picture of a buffalo chicken salad with freshly shredded sharp cheddar cheese that I had for lunch on Friday:
And just to prove to you that there’s actually spinach in that salad, here is a picture after it was stirred up:
Friday night we were both exhausted after a very busy day, so we caved and ordered pizza from Breadeaux. We got a thin-crust supreme and a hand-tossed Canadian bacon for Tyler.
I always doctor up my supreme pizza, and remove the mushrooms and black olives. Yes, I am 9 years old.
It doesn’t stop there. Then I add red pepper flakes, Italian seasoning, garlic bread sprinkle and parmesan cheese.
Saturday we made a brief stop at the farmer’s market, mostly to drop off jars, but of course I ended up with goodies. Apples, banana bread, more jam, and broccoli.
We had an incredibly busy Saturday morning, probably the busiest one we’ve ever had. That led to family nap-time around noon.
A good friend of ours (who is very generous!) gave us some corn from her uncle’s farm. I cooked it up and cut it, then froze it.
All that corn made two quart-size bags. That was enough for me, not fun shucking and cutting.
I saved a little bit of the corn to make the featured recipe, Summer Veggie Pasta Skillet from Iowa Girl Eats.
The pictures just looked so good, and I had plenty of produce on hand to make it. I did modify the recipe, so to see the original recipe, click on the link above.
Summer Veggie Pasta Skillet
- 4oz uncooked short pasta like cellentani, penne, or rotini
- 2 Tablespoons butter
- 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 jalapeno pepper, chopped with seeds removed
- 1/4 teaspoon red chili pepper flakes
- salt & pepper
- 1 cup broccoli florets
- 1 cut up green pepper
- 1 small zucchini, cut-up
- 1 cup halved grape or cherry tomatoes
- 1 T olive oil
- 1 cup corn kernels (fresh or frozen-then-thawed)
- 1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons half & half
- 2 Tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Cook pasta in boiling salted water until al dente. Drain and set aside.
- Steam broccoli, green pepper, and zucchini for 2 minutes in microwave, add tomatoes then toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. Place in grill basket and place on medium grill for 20 minutes.
- Heat butter and olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, onions, jalapeno, and red chili pepper flakes then sauté until onions are softened. Turn the heat up to medium-high then add the grilled veggies, along with the corn kernels. Season with salt and pepper then sauté for about 5 minutes.
- Add half & half and parmesan cheese to the skillet, then cook until thickened slightly, about 1 minute. Add in cooked pasta. Taste, adding more salt and pepper if necessary.
Here are some pictures from the preparation:
And the finished product and proud chef, greasy hair and all:
This is a better close-up:
I can’t even tell you how good it was. Hubby always talks about his “bold” flavors, this had bold flavors and so many layers of flavor. You have the taste and texture of those grilled veggies, combined with the buttery onion and jalapeno, and the creaminess of the parmesan sauce over the pasta.
If you don’t want to take the time to grill the veggies, check out the original recipe. She also used different veggies and added basil.
We needed some protein for the meal, so we grilled up some chicken breasts. I used a simple marinade, the juice of one lemon, 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of minced garlic.
I cut mine up and mixed it in with my pasta dish.
Believe it or not, we did have some left-overs, although not much. Just enough for me for lunch today.
And another shocker, we did NOT have pancakes this morning! *Gasp!
Kept it light and had vanilla Chobani with frozen blueberries and a crumbled up oat’s ‘n’ honey granola bar.
This morning Hubby and I took turns going to the gym. Got a nice total body weights workout in and a spin bike Tabata interval. Tabata intervals are easy to do, you just go all out for 20 seconds then slow or rest for 10 seconds, and repeat 8 times for a total of 4 minutes. I did two separate intervals, the first set I changed up the speed and the second I changed up the resistance.
After Tyler’s nap, we decided to make a short road trip to see my brother and his family. It’s always nice for Tyler to play with cousin Beau. They had a good time playing in the tunnel and then later at the park. Sorry Grandma and Grandpa… I didn’t bring my camera and my phone battery was dangerously low. Katy took some pictures, so she’ll have to share.
We made a quick stop at Culver’s on the way home, which is a place I always regret. It tastes good but I feel like crap after. You’d think I’d learn to get a salad, but no. I got the Butter Burger and cheese curds. At least I skipped the custard. Hubby got a Triple Butter Burger, really wish I had a picture of that monstrosity.
Since I didn’t take any pictures of the boys, here are the two pictures I took of Tyler this weekend- Cheez-Its while watching Backyardigans and the after-effect:
He was doing full bridges with his feet on the coffee table- his whole body straight as a board.
Oh how could I forget this one…
Someone is getting awfully good at throwing temper tantrums…
Hope you had a happy weekend!
Ok, you made my mouth water with all of these pictures. Maybe it’s time for me to eat dinner…haha
Amy
Chobani
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