Stop the presses.

I have officially tired of tomato sauce. This is a true testament to my hard earned now semi-lack of pickiness! Or maybe I’ve just been eating too much pasta.

Anyway, that’s the reasoning behind attempting my very first sauce.  Note the lack of tomatoes!

Thanks to Minimalist Baker for inspiring this recipe.

Serves 2-3

You will need: a large skillet, baking sheet, whisk

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch asparagus
• 1 lemon
• olive oil
• 3-4 garlic cloves garlic, minced
• 10 ounces uncooked wheat pasta
• 2.5 cups skim milk
• 3-4 Tbsp whole wheat flour
• salt and pepper

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 400° F.

(Boil your water/cook your pasta while you are baking your asparagus!)

Rinse and trim asparagus. Place on baking sheet and toss with some olive oil. Add salt and pepper.

Cut a few thin slices of lemon and bake in the oven for about 25 minutes.

Remove sheet from oven and chop asparagus into thirds.

For the sauce…

Heat a large skillet on medium. Add 3 Tbsp olive oil and the garlic. Stir around for 1-2 minutes until the garlic turns a little brown.

Add 3 Tbsp flour and whisk for 30 seconds.

Whisk in milk 1/2 cup at a time.

Add some salt and pepper and continue to whisk.  Lower heat to medium-low and continue cooking to thicken, stirring occasionally.

Continue cooking for a few minutes until the sauce thickens.

Add the juice of half a lemon and stir.

*****

Mix the sauce with the asparagus and you’re good to go.

Feel free to serve with one of the lemon slices!

Thanks as always to Jenn @ Peas and Crayons for hosting What I Ate Wednesday!

Last week my friend told me she got a spiralizer.

Huh?

I didn’t know what she was talking about.

Apparently there’s this cool kitchen thingy that slices up stuff like zucchini and potatoes into noodles.

It looks like this:

(source)

You can buy one HERE for about $35.

They are really easy to use and easier to clean than a juicer. There are even blogs wholly dedicated to spiralized food like THIS one.

Before eating the noodles I wasn’t completely convinced that I would spend the extra money on one but after tasting this dish – I definitely want a spiralizer. It totally tricked me into thinking I was eating a cozy noodle-y dinner as opposed to what it really was: a bunch of vegetables with some protein.

These BLT Zoodles really do taste like something you’d eat in a restaurant.

Recipe modified from HERE, found by Mal. 🙂

Makes 2 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 2 strips of bacon
• 1 tsp garlic, minced
• pinch red pepper flakes
• 1 small bag of spinach, chopped
• 1 large zucchini, (spiralized)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400ºF degrees.

Pour tomatoes into a medium bowl. Toss in a bit of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake for 25 minutes and set aside for later.

10 minutes into baking the tomatoes, put a large skillet over medium heat and add in bacon. Cook the bacon for 3 minutes and then flip over them over. Cook for another 3-5 minutes.  Set aside on a paper towel.

Pour out 2/3  of the bacon grease from the skillet. In the skillet, toss in garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add in red pepper flakes and spinach and cook until the spinach is a little wilted.

Add the rest to the skillet: zucchini noodles, bacon, and tomatoes. Stir for 2-3 minutes.

YUM!

To make the zoodles –

Run through the spiralizer.

And cut with kitchen scissors:

Thanks as always to Jenn @ Peas and Crayons for hosting What I Ate Wednesday!

I was inspired to make my own quinoa tabbouleh a few weeks ago after my friend Vicki suggested it as an easy and healthy meal. We had just finished a delish Mediterranean meal at Mezè in Adams Morgan.

You know me – I’m always trying to use up some quinoa. 😉

Special thanks to Tuna for taking these pictures. I was stuck at work, and the sun was setting before I had time to capture the recipe photo shoot in the natural light myself. I think he’s found his calling, seeing how the photos turned out!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup uncooked quinoa
• 1 cucumber
• 1 green pepper
• 3 small tomatoes
• 1/3 onion
• 1/4 cup black olives
• 1/2 bunch fresh parsley
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• salt

Directions:

Cook quinoa. Cool off.

Chop up cucumber, green pepper, tomatoes, onion, and parsley.

Combine chopped ingredients in a big bowl with lemon juice, olive oil, and salt.  Stir in cooled quinoa.

Top with some more fresh parsley and serve.

A good meal add on: falafel 

Thanks as always to Jenn @ Peas and Crayons for hosting What I Ate Wednesday!

Making this recipe reminded me of making foil packets on the fire, while camping during the summers in my tween-years.

So easy, tweens can do it!

No – really.

My new (old-school) favorite way to cook meat: because you basically slap it on some foil and roll it up in a pop-tart-like sandwich and you’re good to go. Clean up involves crunching up the foil and throwing it in the trash.

Cooking For Dummies at it’s best.

Serves 2

You will need: aluminum foil

Ingredients: 

• 2 chicken breasts
• 2 small zucchini, sliced thin
• 2 plum tomatoes, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 3 green onions, chopped
• 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 tsp dried oregano
• dash of red pepper flakes
• salt and pepper
• 1/8 cup fresh basil, minced

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450°F.

Chop (and pat dry) the zucchini. Continue on choppin’ the bell pepper and green onions then toss in medium size bowl.

Cut up tomatoes and throw into a second bowl.

In a separate small bowl, combine garlic, oregano, red pepper flakes, oil, and a dash of pepper.

Pour half of the mixture into the first bowl of vegetables and and the second half to the tomatoes. Stir both bowls of veggies.

Cut 4 12 inch sheets of foil – keep 2 as a main base, lay two aside.

Plop half of the zucchini mixture in the middle of each of the 2 main foil squares.

Add 1 chicken breast on top of each zucchini mixture. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Add half the tomatoes on top of each chicken breast.

Place the two foil tops on the meat and roll edges of foil into packets.

Put on a rimmed baking sheet and cook for 29-30 minutes.

Open the packets carefully, sprinkle with basil and serve!

We are at 3 for 3 with winning recipes adapted from or inspired by The America’s Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook.

At this point, I’m just going to keep on going!

 Thanks as always to Jenn @ Peas and Crayons for hosting What I Ate Wednesday!

Maaaaybe we should start calling this blog “…Makes all the Recipes from America’s Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook,” because it is AWESOME and everything we’ve made so far from there is delicious.

For some reason I have really been craving Mexican food lately. Ok – I am always craving Mexican food. In college I would eat Chipotle multiple times a week. Those were the days.

I originally wanted to make this recipe because I had a bunch of frozen corn in the freezer and figured I could use it up with this. Of course I got all pumped up to eat it and then realized you need to use fresh, NON FROZEN corn. I don’t really know why, the directions just ominously decree it. I obeyed and bought some fresh corn – even husked it and everything!

Makes approximately 2 cups of salsa.  For a party size, double the batch. Eat with tortilla chips, on a burrito, atop a romaine salad – the list goes on!

You will need: paring knife, 12 inch nonstick skillet

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ tbsp olive oil
• 2 ears corn (slice off the kernels with a paring knife)
• 1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and chopped
• 1/2 jalapeño chile, stemmed, seeded, and chopped (if you want it extra spicy, add the whole thing)
• 1 green onion, sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 limes, juiced
• 2 tbsp fresh cilantro, minced
• Salt and pepper

Directions:

Heat 1/2 tbsp of olive oil in the skillet over medium-high heat for until warm.

Carefully add the corn and cook. Stir on and off until golden brown for about 6 to 8 minutes.

Dump the browned corn to a large bowl.

Stir in everything else.

Recommended but not necessary: cover and refrigerate for an hour or so – this will blend the flavors better!

Store in the fridge. Keeps for several days.

Thanks as always to Jenn @ Peas and Crayons for hosting What I Ate Wednesday!

I am all about quinoa right now. I can’t get over how easy it is to make and how versatile it is. It’s good as a side dish with chicken, alongside crackers as a snack, or plopped on a bunch of salad for lunch. That’s pretty much the order I ate this in. 😉 Tuna has decreed it into the usual rotation, so I’m excited to eat it lots this spring and summer!

Serves 2 (main) or 4 (side dish)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups water
• 1 cup uncooked quinoa
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 10 oz grape tomatoes, cut in half
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/8 cup basil leaves, chopped and for garnish
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Add water and quinoa to a medium/large pot.

Add in garlic, onion, tomatoes, salt, and red pepper flakes.

Heat the uncovered pot to a rolling boil.

Cover, reduce to simmer, and cook for 15 minutes.

Remove from burner and let cool for 5 minutes.

Toss in basil and olive oil to serve.

Thanks as always to Jenn @ Peas and Crayons for hosting What I Ate Wednesday!