Tomato & Broccoli Pasta

If you haven’t figured it out yet, I eat pasta all the time. I always like changing up the way I make my pasta to add variety to what I eat every week, and usually use whatever is currently in my pantry. Last week, I made this pasta, and it was so delicious I had to share it with you! Keep in mind that I made it as a dinner for two, with no leftovers.

Ingredients:

½ box cooked pasta of your choice

1 head of broccoli

1 Roma tomato, diced

1 garlic clove

¼ cup shredded Parmesan cheese

¼ cup milk

¼ teaspoon oregano

½ teaspoon basil

olive oil

Directions:

1. Cook your pasta according to package instructions and set aside with a small amount of olive oil mixed in.
2. After cutting broccoli into smaller pieces, boil broccoli until no longer hard.
3. In a medium saucepan, add minced garlic clove to olive oil on medium high heat. Once garlic is fragrant, add milk and spices, reduce heat to medium and stir.
4. Working quickly, add your shredded Parmesan cheese and stir rapidly to create a smooth sauce. If you don’t consistently stir, you’ll have a clumpy sauce.
5. Once all cheese is melted and blended smoothly, reduce heat to low. Add your diced tomato and stir in.
6. Add your broccoli and stir until coated with sauce and then toss with pasta.
7. Top with shredded Parmesan cheese and serve!
   

 

Bows and Arrows,

Lynda

 

 

Mother’s Day Recipe: Potato Candy

First of all, Happy Mother’s Day to all the mom’s out there! I feel like it’s graduation central in Raleigh right now, but we should all be taking the time to celebrate all the mother’s in the world. Patience Brewster sparked an idea to share a recipe that was passed down by the mother’s in my family, so be sure to check out their site. They have unique gifting options for any time of year!

In honor of Mother’s Day, I’m posting a recipe that was shared with me by my mom that was passed down in our partly Irish family. I remember always helping her make these around the holidays when I was younger, and it has been something that I’ve made on my own since then. I did alter the recipe a bit to make it easier and quicker to create, but I love making these and sharing them with people, because no one ever knows what they are, but they love them when they give them a try.

If you’ve checked out my recipe posts in the past, you’ll know I’m not a huge fan of going by exact measurements, and I’ll say that this is definitely one of those recipes where measurements may change each time you make it. You can make as little or as many of these as you would like, but the ingredient proportions may change each time just based on the temperature you’re making them during.

Because I made these on a whim, I just made a small portion.

Ingredients:

 ½ tablespoon instant mashed potato mix

2 ½ teaspoons tap water

Powdered sugar

Peanut butter

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, add your ½ tablespoon instant mashed potato mix along with ½ teaspoon tap water. Mix together until it forms a ball as opposed to flakes.
2. Begin adding in small amounts of powdered sugar along with water ¼ a teaspoon at a time and continue mixing. The mixture will most likely get more liquidy before it becomes dough-like.
3. Once your mixture is dough-like, you should be able to form a ball in your hand.
4. Using parchment paper, place your dough and sprinkle with powdered sugar so it doesn’t stick to your rolling pin when rolling out.
5. Roll out to a thin layer (adding powdered sugar when needed to prevent sticking) and spread a very thin layer of peanut butter on the entire surface. *This process needs to happen quickly to prevent your dough from drying out. It dries out fast.
6. Once your peanut butter is spread on your rolled out dough, begin rolling into a tight log.
7. Slice log into pieces, and store in fridge until ready to serve.

My small proportion created 10 pieces of candy. I usually make bigger batches, but with this recipe, it’s really a guessing game when it comes to the amount of ingredients you add.

Have you had potato candy before? If so, what did you think? If not, would you give it a try?

Thanks for stopping by and again, Happy Mother’s Day!

Lynda

 

What I Ate Wednesday, 4/29/15

I hope everyone had a happy hump day! It’s that time to share with you what I ate today, so here goes!

Breakfast:

I slept in today since I didn’t have to work, and by the time I woke up, I didn’t really have much time to make breakfast before I left the house. I did however make myself a cappuccino using my Nespresso machine. I haven’t used it in a while, and I forgot how awesome it was!

Lunch: 

Since I didn’t have breakfast, I ate lunch a little early, which was leftovers from a few nights ago. I had Mongolian beef with white rice and water.

Snack:

For my snack this afternoon, I ate some snickerdoodle cookies, which I’ll share more about tomorrow!

Dinner:

I made bacon-wrapped filet mignon for dinner. My sides were steamed broccoli and wilted spinach and garlic rice. I devoured the majority of it before remembering to photograph it.

After Dinner Snack:

My snack after dinner was a cup of coffee and a bag of Skinny Girl popcorn while I watched TV.

I hope everyone has a great rest of the week!

Bows and Arrows,

Lynda

What I Ate Wednesday, 4/15/15

Happy Wednesday! It was gross outside all day today, and it was tax day (and I owed money, unfortunately), so it wasn’t the most wonderful day that ever was, but that’s ok, because there’s always tomorrow! Instead of me going on about how poor I am now thanks to tax season, I’ll just go ahead and let you guys know what I ate today.

Breakfast: 

I was off today so I got to sleep in. I slept in a bit later than I wanted to, so I had a late breakfast, which consisted of 2 small waffles topped with light butter, powdered sugar, and strawberries. I also drank a cup of coffee with non-fat creamer…and then had another cup.

Lunch:

Since I was home today for lunch, I decided to eat some leftovers from the fridge. I had a small Italian-style burger (recipe to come soon!) topped with my bruschetta blend and shredded provolone and mozzarella cheese (I skipped the bread). I also had a small corn on the cob as well as some garlicky green beans and a bottle of water.

Snack:

In between lunch and dinner, I snacked on some cheese Pringles and drank another cup of coffee.

Dinner:

Michael picked dinner up for us from Piola, a pizza restaurant nearby. I love their San Daniele pizza, which is topped with prosciutto. I ate half of my personal sized pizza, and had water with my dinner.

After Dinner Snack:

As I’m writing this, I’m drinking a hot English breakfast black tea. I may or may not snack on more Pringles before bed…but I’m not sure yet.

I hope everyone had a great Wednesday. Have a great rest of your work week…I’m off to work 5 days in a row now (tomorrow is like a Monday for me).

Bows and Arrows,

Lynda

What I Ate Wednesday, 2/25

Well, it’s snowing outside. Again. And this time we are expecting 5-8 inches. Which is actually a lot for central North Carolina. I had the pleasure of driving in it tonight, but now that I’m home, safe and sound, I’ll tell you what I ate today instead of ranting about how I want it to be spring already.

Breakfast

I made a fast breakfast this morning. I had a plain bagel with butter and cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top, and a coffee with cream. Of course I was halfway finished with my bagel when I remembered to photograph it.

Lunch

Man, I really do fail at eating lunch on days I start my workday at 1pm. For some reason, I neglect to think about eating until it’s time for me to get in the car and begin my commute. So lunch today was Chocolatey Cats Cookies dipped in Speculoo’s Cookie and Cocoa Swirl from Trader Joe’s and, wait for it…pretzels! So exciting right? Oh, and I also drank some H2O as well.

Snack

I actually had 2 of these. One of my co-workers made them and they were delicious. Chocolatey peanut butter graham crackery goodness!

Dinner

I picked up Panera Bread for dinner. Tortellini Alfredo with slightly sweetened tea, and more water.  It looks kinda gross in this picture but that’s because I used my iPhone and took it in my office at work, which offers zero natural light.  I swear it’s good though!

Snack

When I got home from work, right before I wrote this post, I ate my dinner roll from Panera that came with my lunch.  And of course I had to share a small bite of it with Gabi. 🙂

Now it’s time to get in my pj’s, cuddle up with my fur baby and watch the snow out my window as I fall asleep.

Bows and Arrows,

Lynda

Quick & Easy Broccoli Alfredo

Alfredo is a simple recipe you probably already know how to make. And if you don’t, well, here’s my recipe! This is the perfect recipe to make for dinner after a busy day at work.  And since it’s Valentine’s week, why not make this simple recipe for a loved one! 🙂

Ingredients:

1 lb fettuccine

1 head of broccoli

1 clove of garlic, minced

¼ cup butter or margarine

1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

1 + 1/2 cup heavy cream

2 tbsp parsley

1 tsp olive oil

Directions:

1. In a large pot, bring water to boil. Add fettuccine and cook according to package.
2. In a small pot, bring water to boil. Add broccoli florets and continue to boil for 3 minutes. Remove from heat.
3. In a small saucepan, add olive oil and garlic over high heat.
4. Once garlic becomes fragrant, pour in heavy cream and butter. Reduce heat to medium.
5. Continue stirring until butter if fully melted. Once butter is melted, add Parmesan cheese and continue to stir. Keep over medium heat until sauce begins to thicken.
6. Add parsley and broccoli to sauce, stir, and remove from heat.
7. Top fettuccine pasta with sauce and enjoy.

Time to make: 20 minutes

Servings: 4

Have a great week everyone!

Lynda

No-Bake Oatmeal Bites

Last week at work, we had an event where we served these bite size “no bake energy bites,” which I had never heard of before. I tasted one, and was immediately hooked. I decided to come up with my own recipe with the items in my pantry, and they were so good, they were consumed before the night was over!

Here’s my recipe:

½ cup old fashion oats

¼ cup mini chocolate chips

¼ cup coconut flakes

¼ cup peanut butter

¼ cup almond meal

2 tbsp honey

¼ tsp vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix together. (You may need to use your hands.) Place bowl in the fridge for 15 minutes to let mixture harden a bit, and then form into balls. Keep stored in the fridge until ready to eat.

This seems to be the recipe that I may have originally tasted, if you want to check that out.

Try them out, and let me know what you think!

Bows and Arrows,

Lynda

What’s in my Pantry: Granola

One thing I really love to always have on hand is granola. It doesn’t matter what kind, I just find that it’s so useful and an easy go-to when you need a snack. If you get the right kind, it can also be really healthy, and help kick those hunger pains that appear mid-day. My personal favorite is the Vanilla Almond Granola by Creative Snacks Co..

Ways to utilize granola:

• Eat it alone, especially the chunky kind
• Top off your yogurt
• As a cereal
• Mixed into oatmeal for some crunch
• Mixed into salads
• Added to a trail mix
• Added to muffins
• Make granola bars
• make granola balls with oats
• Added to smoothies
• Sprinkled onto ice cream
• On top of cupcakes
• Added into breakfast pastry recipes

 

Health Benefits of Granola:

• Aids in digestion
• Lightweight, but filling, which aids in weight loss
• Promotes healthy cholesterol
• Boosts energy
• Provides many nutrients, vitamins, and minerals, such as Vitamin-C and Iron
• Reduces blood pressure
• & more!

 

Do you have granola in your pantry? If so, what kind?

–>Lynda

Parmesan Orzo with Mushrooms & Spinach

Last week, I decided that I wanted to come up with a dinner dish that didn’t include any meat. Typically, it’s easiest for me to include chicken or beef in my dinner entrée’s, but I wanted something to make that could easily transition into a lighter lunch option for the next day. So I came up with this, and it was exactly what I was hoping!

Ingredients:

1 lb orzo pasta

8 oz Cremini mushrooms, sliced

1 cup of baby spinach

2 garlic cloves, minced

¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp dried thyme

Directions:

1. Cook orzo pasta according to instructions on box. Drain and set aside.
2. In a large skillet, heat olive oil on high heat. Once oil is heated, reduce heat to medium heat and add all of your mushrooms. Stir constantly to prevent any of the mushrooms from drying out.
3. Once the mushrooms start to change color (about 3-4 minutes), add your garlic cloves. Continue to stir around.
4. Once garlic starts to produce a stronger aroma (after about 2 minutes on heat), add in your cup of baby spinach, and reduce to medium-low heat. Once mushroom, garlic, and spinach are well integrated, add your thyme.
5. After the spinach has wilted, add your entire pot of orzo to the skillet as well as your Parmesan cheese and stir together.
6. Serve with topped Parmesan cheese.

Time to make: 20 minutes

Do you have a go-to dinner option that doesn’t include meat? If so, let me know in the comments because I’m looking for more options and I’m always open to ideas and suggestions!

Thanks for reading,

Lynda

Maryland Style Crab Cakes

It wouldn’t be a trip to Maryland without having something crab related! One night during my trip last week, my dad made crab cakes for us to have for dinner, and they were so incredibly easy to make (and delicious), I thought I’d share them with you!

Ingredients:

 2 slices of bread (your choice)

2 tbsp mayonnaise

2 tsp Old Bay seasoning

2 tsp parsley flakes

½ tsp yellow mustard

1 egg, beaten

1 lb crabmeat

 

Directions:

1. Break up the 2 slices of bread into small pieces into a mixing bowl.
2. Add your mayonnaise, Old Bay, parsley flakes, and mustard into mixing bowl with bread.
3. In a separate bowl, add your egg and whisk it until the yolk and whites are mixed together.
4. In your mixing bowl with all your other ingredients, add your 1 lb of crabmeat and beaten egg.
5. Fold the egg and crabmeat, and mixture of other ingredients together.
6. Using your hands, form patties with the mixture.
7. If you’re using a George Foreman grill, spray or butter your grill and then place down the patties and cook for 3 minutes, flipping, and then cooking for an additional 3 minutes. You can also cook these in a skillet over medium heat, also cooking for 3 minutes, flipping, and cooking for an additional 3 minutes.
8. Remove from heat, and enjoy! These can be eaten on buns as sandwiches, or alone with side options.

Let me know if you try out this recipe, and thanks for reading!  And thanks to my dad for sharing this recipe! 🙂

Bows and Arrows,

Lynda