Creamy Bowtie Pasta with Peas and Arugula

I love the convenience of one-dish meals.  There's so much less to clean up afterwards!  This is a favorite option of mine.  We love pasta at our house, but we usually have a salad or vegetable side dish with it.  This pasta is great because the salad is right on top!  I love to add TONS of crispy arugula on my pasta because the flavor is great and I eat less overall pasta.  If your little ones don't like the taste of arugula, you can easily leave it out.  My girls do, so I just tear the leaves into small pieces for them.  

Ingredients

16 oz farfalle pasta

16 oz frozen peas

2 C heavy cream

1 1/2 C Imagine No-Chicken Broth (or vegetable broth)

1 C freshly grated Parmesan cheese

salt and pepper, to taste

3 Tbsp toasted pine nuts

5 oz baby arugula

Directions

1. In a large pot, cook the pasta according to package directions.  Add the frozen peas 1 minute before the end of cooking.  Drain and set aside.
2. Meanwhile, combine the cream and broth in a large skillet.  Over medium-high heat, bring to a simmer and cook until thickened, stirring often.  This may take 15-20 minutes.  Stir in Parmesan until melted. 
3. Add the pasta and peas into the skillet and toss to combine.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  To serve, place the hot pasta on a plate or bowl, top with pine nuts and arugula.  

Adapted from Martha Stewart

Weekly Menu

Happy Monday!  I have to tell you, I have recently begun enjoying homemade smoothies.  It is my new favorite thing!  My girls and I love making a new recipe each time.  We pack it full of greens and fruit.  I am so excited to enjoy them all summer long!  We have a lovely selection of produce from the farm for the week.  We gathered some spinach, romaine, kale, broccoli, sugar snap peas, beets, and strawberries.  With that assortment, we will be enjoying the following:

• Broccoli Cheddar Quiche
• using the broccoli

• Creamy Bowtie Pasta with Peas and Arugula with a Stacked Beet Goat Cheese and Arugula Salad
• using the beets

• Red Robin Chicken Tender Salad
• using the romaine

• We will be using the spinach and beet greens in smoothies, enjoying the sugar snap peas for snack.  I will be having the Massaged Kale Salad for lunch and strawberries for dessert.

Bread Machine Pizza Dough

Pizza is a hands-down favorite meal at my house.  What's not to love about it?  A complete and balanced meal on a disc of perfectly cooked crust!  I have to admit, I was using ready-made, store-bought pizza dough for years (GASP!) because I was too nervous to try and make my own.  It was a total crutch for me.  But for the past several months, I have been slowly perfecting the easiest bread-machine pizza dough ever!  Let the machine do all the work!  All you have to do is form it and par bake it.  That's it!  I really don't know how it could be any easier.  And best of all...it tastes great!  It's got a nice crispiness on the outside, and a soft, fluffy center.  It is a nice thin crust (but not too thin) that really holds it shape when cut into pieces and loaded with toppings.  I mean, what's worse than picking up a beautiful piece of pizza and having the crust collapse and all the toppings fall off before it even gets to your mouth?   That won't happen with this recipe!  I hope you try it and make pizza even more often at your house!  :)

Ingredients (makes enough for 2 medium pizzas)

3 1/4 C flour

2 tsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp cornmeal

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1 1/3 C water

1 1/2 tsp yeast

Directions

1. Place all the ingredients into your bread machine and set it on it's pizza dough setting.  Mine takes about 45 minutes from start to finish.  When it's done, it will look something like this:

3. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.  Dump it out onto a lightly floured surface.  Gently shape it into a ball and cut it in half.  (To save the second half for the next day, I simply wrap it in saran wrap and keep it in the fridge overnight.  Allow it to come back to room temperature the next day before forming).

4. Work the dough and form it into the desired shape.  Dust your pizza stone with corn meal and place the crust on top.  Lightly brush with a thin coating of olive oil.  

5. Par-bake it for about 10 mintes.  Remove from the oven and assemble with desired toppings.  Turn oven up to 475-500 degrees.  Bake pizza until cheese is melted and golden.  Enjoy! 

Weekly Menu

Happy Monday!  Boy, we had a cold and cloudy weekend here in Southern California, well by cold I mean 60 degrees.  Hey, that's cold for those of us born and raised here!  :)  But this week should be getting bright and sunny and back into the 80's .  I am so ready for that kind of weather!  We have a great menu planned with our selection of produce this week.  We have some kale, TONS of spinach, beets, carrots, cilantro, sugar snap peas, baby sweet Maui onions (for cooking and planting), blood oranges, and strawberries.  We will be making the following this week:

• Sweet Potato Kale Pizza with Rosemary and Red Onions and a side of Baked Beet Chips
• using the kale and beets

• Egg Salad Sandwiches with Baked Sweet Potato Waffle Fries and Roasted Carrots
• using the carrots

• Spinach Enchiladas with Cilantro Cream Sauce and Mexican Layered Dip
• using the spinach, cilantro, and baby sweet Maui onions

• We will be playing around with smoothie recipes using the remaining spinach and kale, snacking on the blood oranges (my new favorite!) and sugar snap peas, and having the strawberries for dessert.  

Chinese Chicken Salad

I love having a big entree salad for dinner, it just feels so clean and healthy.  I try to have a salad dinner several times a month and this salad was a wonderful addition to my line-up.  It has so many textures with the lettuce, cabbage, won ton skins, sugar snap peas, almonds, and chicken.  The dressing was light and the oranges added an extra burst of flavor in every bite.  This will be on permanent rotation in my house from now on.  I hope you try it too!

Ingredients (makes 4 entree salads)

For the salad:

1 large head romaine, chopped into bite sized pieces

1/2 head of cabbage, thinly sliced

1/2 pound sugar snap peas, sliced into 1 inch pieces

1/2 C cilantro, finely chopped

4 -5 C cooked chicken or Gardien Chick'n Scallopini, cut or torn into pieces

1/2 C scallions, thinly sliced

1/2 C sliced almonds

crispy fried won ton skins

toasted sesame seeds

8 mandarin oranges, peeled and separated

For the dressing

1/4 C soy sauce

1/4 C lemon juice

2 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp white vinegar

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1 Tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp toasted sesame oil

3 Tbsp peanut oil

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, combine all the ingredients for the dressing.  Whisk thoroughly and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the chicken and scallions.  Pour 1/3 C dressing in with the chicken and scallions.  Toss to combine.
3. In a large bowl, combine the lettuce, cabbage, sugar snap peas, and cilantro.  Add dressing (whisking continuously to prevent separation).  Toss to evenly coat.  Add the chicken mixture and toss.  
4. Serve on individual plates and top with almonds, sesame seeds, won ton skins, and orange slices.    Enjoy!

Massaged Kale Salad

I am obsessed with this salad.  As far as I am concerned, it is the perfect lunch!  You can prepare all the elements in advance and throw it together in an instant.  Since my lunches are spent preparing food for my daughters, I need something fast for myself.  Once "massaged" with the olive oil and red wine vinegar, the kale won't wilt and can be stored for days just waiting to be thrown into a bowl.  An added benefit is the use of nutritional yeast flakes.  I'll admit, I was hesitant when I first tried them, but I promise you they are amazing!  They are a great source of protein and B-complex vitamins.  They have a delicious cheesy-nutty flavor that works perfectly on this salad.  This salad is a real keeper and I will be enjoying it over and over!  I hope you will too!   :)

Ingredients

1 bunch kale, stems removed and torn into bite sized pieces

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp red wine vinegar

3-4 Tbsp pine nuts

nutritional yeast flakes, to taste

lemon juice, to taste

Directions

1. Toast the pine nuts in a small pan over medium heat until fragrant.  Set aside to cool.  Crush with a potato masher or meat tenderizer until crumbled.
2. Place the kale leaves in a large bowl.  Add the olive oil and red wine vinegar.  Rub the kale leaves in your hands for about 2 minutes until evenly coated and softened.  The kale can be saved for a few days in the fridge at this point.
3. When ready to serve, place kale into a bowl and top with pine nuts and nutritional yeast flakes to your taste.  I probably use about 1 1/2 Tbsp of both for a single serving.  Add a dash of fresh lemon juice and toss to combine.  Enjoy!

Inspired by Eat Drink Better

Weekly Menu

Happy Monday!  We had a lovely weekend with beautiful weather.  I hope your weekend was fun as well!  Our trip to the farm was great and we picked up some delicious produce for the week.  We selected some carrots, romaine, mandarin oranges, cauliflower, sugar snap peas, cabbage, and strawberries.  We will also be utilizing green onion, cilantro, and kale from our own garden.  With this selection, we will be enjoying the following meals this week:

• Our Orange Dinner of Grilled Cheese, Tomato Soup, and Roasted Carrots
• using the carrots

• Chinese Chicken Salad
• using the romaine, cabbage, sugar snap peas, mandarin oranges, green onion, and cilantro

• 7-Layer Burrito with Mexican Roasted Cauliflower
• using the romaine and the cauliflower

• I will have Massaged Kale Salad for lunch and the strawberries for dessert.