Posts Tagged ‘noodles’

BBQ’s are an excuse to make pasta salad. I make a ton so I can have leftovers to eat at work the rest of the week. You can easily double this recipe and add any other different soft cheeses or veggies.

Pasta Salad

Ingrediants

1 box mutli-colored pasta

1 red pepper chopped into bite size pieces

1 green pepper chopped into bite size pieces

half a pound of muenster cheese cut into cubes

half a pound of cheddar cut into cubes

Italian dressing to taste

ranch dressing to taste

Directions

Cook pasta according to the directions on the box. Drain while running cold water over the pasta.

Add the veggies and cheese. Mix well. Add the Italian dressing first, usually about a cup or so. To make it tangier add more. Add enough ranch dressing to make the pasta creamy. Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.

I serve my chicken parmesan with my homemade sauce and spaghetti noodles. This is a simple dish, easy to make on a weeknight.

Chicken Parmesan

Ingredients

* 1 egg
* 4 boneless chicken breasts
* one jar of your favorite marinara sauce
* one cup seasoned breadcrumbs
* 4 slices mozzerella

Directions

1. Spray a 9×13″ baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Place breadcrumbs in a bowl
3. Scramble egg in another bowl
4. Dip each chicken in the egg then breadcrumb mixture
5. Place chicken on the baking dish or tray
6. Bake uncovered at 350 for 30 minutes.
7. Put slices of cheese on top and bake an additional 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

I love shrimp! This came out well. The recipe calls for orzo but I couldn’t find any. I used couscous instead.

Lemon Pepper Shrimp Scampi

Ingredients

• 1 cup uncooked orzo
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided
• 7 teaspoons unsalted butter, divided
• 1 1/2 pounds peeled and deveined jumbo shrimp
• 2 teaspoons bottled minced garlic
• juice from 2 lemons
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Preparation

1. Cook orzo according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain. Place orzo in a medium bowl. Stir in parsley and 1/4 teaspoon salt; cover and keep warm.

2. While orzo cooks, melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle shrimp with remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add half of shrimp to pan; sauté 2 minutes or until almost done. Transfer shrimp to a plate. Melt 1 teaspoon butter in pan. Add remaining shrimp to pan; sauté 2 minutes or until almost done. Transfer to plate.

3. Melt remaining 1 tablespoon butter in pan. Add garlic to pan; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Stir in shrimp, juice, and pepper; cook 1 minute or until shrimp are done.

Use fresh parsley and lemons in this dish or else the flavors will not be as strong and vibrant. You can omit the shrimp and just have the noodles if you prefer.

Lemon Parsley Pasta with Shrimp

1/2 pound of peeled and deveined shrimp

box angel hair pasta
1/4 bunch or 1 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
2 lemons zested
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp butter
6 Tbsp parmesan cheese
to taste salt and fresh black pepper

Cook the shrimp in about two tablespoons of butter and a few pinches of garlic powder. Set aside.

In a large pot, begin boiling water for the pasta (refer to instructions on the box). While the water is heating, finely chop the parsley and garlic. Zest two lemons making sure not to get any of the white, flavorless pith Place the parsley, garlic and lemon zest in a bowl.

Once the pasta water begins to boil, add the pasta and cook according to the directions on the box (approximately 10 minutes). While the pasta cooks, heat the 3 Tbsp of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add the parsley/garlic/lemon zest mix, salt and pepper. Stir while cooking just until the minced garlic has softened (approximately 3 minutes).
Drain the pasta and add it back into the pot (do not return it to a hot burner). Add 1 Tbsp of butter to the pasta to keep it from drying out. Add the mix to the pasta and stir it in well.

Add in the shrimp and cheese. Mix well and serve.

It was meat shopping time last month. Of course I picked up about 5 pounds of ground beef to make tasty meatballs with. Once cooked, I freeze them in batches. To reheat, I just set the oven to whatever temperature the garlic bread I’m making with the meatballs should be. Throw the meatballs in while the oven is preheating. Once it’s time to put the bread in the meatballs will be ready. This recipe is very easy to adapt to how many pounds of meat you have. Just add more eggs and breadcrumbs.

Meatballs

INGREDIENTS:
4 eggs
2 cups dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
4 pounds lean ground beef

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a large bowl, beat eggs. Add the next five ingredients. Add beef; mix well. Shape into 1-in. balls, about 12 dozen. Place in single layers in ungreased 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pans.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 10-15 minutes or until no longer pink, turning often; drain. Cool.
Place about 30 meatballs each into freezer containers. May be frozen for up to 3 months.
Yield: 5 batches (about 30 meatballs per batch)

My girlfriend and I found a wonderful deal for shrimp. 4.99 a pound for raw jumbo shrimp, already peeled, deveined, and tailless. These shrimp were beautiful so we bought a case and split them. I had several recipes but the first I wanted to try was an Alfredo sauce I came across. Be sure not to over cook your shrimp, cook them when they start to curl and turn pink. Overcooking will make them tough. They will continue to cook in the pan even when you turn it off and when you pour the hot sauce on it. This made tons of leftovers and I only used half of one bag of shrimp.

Start the water to boil for the noodles first, then begin the shrimp. While the shrimp is cooking make the sauce. It should be done at about the same time. I used a mix of thick spaghetti and fettuccine noodles since I had just enough left over in each box to make this dish. Any noodle will do.

Garlic Alfredo Shrimp

1 pound of shrimp, any size, peeled, deveined, and tailless

1-2 tablespoons of butter for shrimp

garlic powder per your taste

1/2 cup butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
16 ounces heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
3/4 cup mozzarella cheese

In a pan, melt 1-2 tablespoons of butter. Add the shrimp and liberally sprinkle garlic powder on them. Stir occasionally until cooked. Set aside.

In a small sauce pan, melt butter. Add garlic and let simmer until garlic is soft,
about 2 minutes. Add heavy cream, and pepper, simmer for 8-10 minutes. Add
Parmesan cheese and let simmer for 5-8 minutes longer. When sauce is
thickened add mozzarella cheese and stir until melted. Serve.
Yield: 2 1/2 cups sauce

This is MUCH better than the boxed version. It is also quick and easy to make. While the macaroni is cooking you make the cheese sauce. I added a bit of cayenne to mine for an extra kick. I used sharp cheddar cheese, but you can use whatever you have on hand.

Home Made Macaroni and Cheese

12-16 ounces uncooked elbow macaroni
½ stick butter
¼ cup all purpose flour
3 cups milk
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
2 cups shredded cheddar (Monterey jack or Colby is fine too)
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
Sweet paprika (optional)

Cook macaroni in boiling salted water according to package directions. Drain
and keep warm.

Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add flour
and mix with a wire whisk until smooth. Add milk, whisking as you pour it in
to smoothly incorporate it into flour mixture. Heat until mixture thickens, stirring frequently. (For those of you who don’t cook a lot, what you have at this point is a basic white sauce. If you added celery, you could turn it into cream of celery soup, or mushrooms to make cream of mushroom soup.)

Add mustard, garlic powder, salt, and pepper to white sauce. Let simmer over
medium heat, stirring frequently. Gradually add Cheddar and ½ cup Parmesan. The sauce is done when cheeses are well combined, smooth, and melted.

Add macaroni to sauce and stir until well mixed with sauce. Sprinkle with a
little more Parmesan and a bit of paprika for color, if using.

Daylight savings time is here and my little one has decided to wake up between 5 and 6 am still, but dosn’t go to bed until 8pm. Sheesh! We have to completely rearrange our way of doing things after work now. Juggling Eli time, cooking a good meal, making lunches for work, cleaning up afterward, exercise time, watching a show with the hubby, then jumping in the shower and into bed is proving interesting.  However, it means more time with Eli during the week which is a good thing. I’m glad I had this on the menu earlier in the week. I served these noodles with pork chops and peas. Took about 15 minutes to cook this dinner. Easy! You can substitute any herbs you like. I ended up just reading the recipe and adding things by eye, not measuring. It came out tasty.

Parmesan Herb Noodles
1 1/2 cups wide egg noodles, uncooked
2 Tbs. shredded Parmesan cheese
1 tsp. butter
1 tsp. olive oil
2 tsp. minced fresh basil OR 1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. minced fresh thyme OR 1/8 tsp. dried thyme
1 garlic clove pressed
1/4 tsp. salt
-Cook noodles according to directions, drain.
-Add remaining ingredients and toss to coat.

Fast, tasty, and feeds a crowd. I have made this several times for game night and everyone is satisfied. If making for a smaller crowd, you will have plenty of leftovers.

Sausage Rigatoni

Ingredients:

1 Pound of Italian sausage

2 cups Italian cheese mix (or mozzarella and Parmesan) shredded

1 box rigatoni

1 bottle of your preferred pasta sauce or homemade sauce.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400

Cook the rigatoni per the box directions

Warm up sauce on stove. While that is heating up, cook the sausage in a fry pan.

Drain rigatoni. Spread a few spoonfuls of sauce into baking pan to keep rigatoni from sticking. Add the cooked rigatoni, then the cooked sausage. Pour in the sauce and spread evenly over everything. Finally, top with cheese. Try to cover edge to edge with the cheese. Place in oven for about 5 minutes, or until cheese has melted.

I’m a reader of the Once a Month Mom blog. I love reading the recipes and stories daily. I was asked to do a guest post on her blog since she is about to have a baby and is taking a little break. My post is about Hanukkah and my favorite dishes, potato latkes and cinnamon kugel. Click the link below to read the special post.

Guest Post Once a Month Mom